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Going to Post-Secondary for the first time: Alberta, Canada
Rainfall
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I'm sitting around without a job(thanks, prior employer, for firing my without a cause,) hunting for jobs, and I had the thought that maybe, just maybe, I should look into going to school and having a degree and what have you.
So let's set the table:
1. I don't have my high school diploma. I was homeschooled and my parents fucked my stuff up, so I don't have that.
2. I'm 28, so I don't know if I need to get my diploma, or what.
3. I'm interested in pursuing a medical degree. Specifically, plastic surgery. Since I'm trans, I've been doing a lot of study on what's available and what services there are for trans folks out and about, and honestly there's a huge lack of support for people like me. So filling that gap could be really good, and looking around at demographics, it doesn't appear to be a flooded field.
4. So that's going to take an insane amount of work, I know. I probably don't know how insane yet.
5. I need student funding. I ain't got a pile of savings.
So any advice and thoughts would be great!
So let's set the table:
1. I don't have my high school diploma. I was homeschooled and my parents fucked my stuff up, so I don't have that.
2. I'm 28, so I don't know if I need to get my diploma, or what.
3. I'm interested in pursuing a medical degree. Specifically, plastic surgery. Since I'm trans, I've been doing a lot of study on what's available and what services there are for trans folks out and about, and honestly there's a huge lack of support for people like me. So filling that gap could be really good, and looking around at demographics, it doesn't appear to be a flooded field.
4. So that's going to take an insane amount of work, I know. I probably don't know how insane yet.
5. I need student funding. I ain't got a pile of savings.
So any advice and thoughts would be great!
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as a US, college professor and pre-med advisor. Not sure how Canadian schools work, so this is based on USA with the idea of trying to limit your time in school
most likely you will need a diploma/equivalency to get into a college.
Most US schools will require an SAT/equivalent, but there is push to not need it anymore.
once in you will need to think about your program. for med, you definitely want a bio degree, not so much since that is the only way in, but its the fastest way to get the prerequisite courses you need to apply to med schools. Don't forget to take social sciences like psych or sociol, it is heavily recommended. Be aware there are sort of two different lists for med school pre-reqs. Those you need for entry to the school and those you will want for taking the MCATs. some overlap, some don't.
In the meantime you need to be getting clinical/shadowing experience. Med schools want to see that you are in the trenches and actually know what doctoring is. its about quality time not just hours though.
your story will make you stand out so that is a good thing.
try your best obviously. Your age will be a benefit. prioritize and focus. Do what you need to succeed and not slack off. While GPA is important, you really want to kill your MCATs, that is the ultimate decider.
That being said, have you considered public health? that seems like a completely viable option to help trans people with support. You can do health outreach, support advocate etc. it is basically the non-medical support role of the med field.
the only thing I am iffy on is if you will require your GED/high school diploma for getting into post secondary. But you will need to have a post secondary degree, as well you will have to write and pass the MCAT exam. After that you will apply for one of the two schools above, and hopefully get an interview and after the interview hopefully accepted to the medical program (took my wife 3 tries to get an interview)
Then you go through med school which depending on where you go is either a 4 year or 3 year program (UofC is a 3 year all year round program, UofA is 4 with breaks)
lots of lectures, exams, labs, electives and studying.. oooooh the studying. For UofC the 3rd year is your clerkship year where you will be onsite at various hospitals, clinics, medical sites going through rotations of all the major fields, from surgery, to pediatrics, psychiatry, family medicine, internal medicine etc etc etc.
Near the end of your med school run you will do something called CARMS (I forget what the acronym stands for) that is where you figure out what programs you are interested in and in what cities you would be willing to work out of and then you fly or drive or whatever to those sites and interview with the program directors. after all that you rank you choices, then the programs rank their choices, hopefully you match to your first pic, or second pic.. some folks don't end up matching at all (had a friend who applied for all the surgery programs and didn't get picked she ended up switching to family medicine)
once you get picked to a program then you go through that residency program, depending on what field you got into the residency could be like 2 years (Family Medicine) or 5 years like Psychiatry. I dont know how long the surgery residency is but I know it isnt short, and I know getting OR time in Alberta is ROUGH, there is more surgeons than there is Operating rooms atm, and some students are worried about jobs after they are done.. I believe plastics is a sub-specialty so that will be another couple years on top of the residency program. It is also a very very competitive field, limited number of slots every year. I can only use psych as an example, when my wife got into the psych residency program in Calgary she was one of 7 people who got into it, out of who knows how many hundreds of candidates applying for the slot, her sub-speciality fellowship program had 3 slots in it. So be prepared to bust your ass being the best damn med student/clerk/resident you can be.
You are still young but its a long road ahead of you if that is the path that you want to pursue, know what you are getting into and be prepared to have a life filled with studying and exams and bullshit for the good part of over a decade.
oh as for post secondary, while I do recommend a degree in the sciences especially if you are looking at medicine, it isnt always what will get you in medschool (but it will help) my wife once again.. her post secondary is a bachelor and masters in english lit. She also was an older student, got accepted into medschool when she was in her mid 30s, is now 41 and finishing up her last year as a 6th year resident in youth and adolescent psychiatry, will be done done in September 2018.
Oh ,almost forgot at the end of your residency program you write the Royal Exam (which is written in Ottawa) it sucks and you will hate your life leading up to writing it, and you will hate writing it too, then you will get really really drunk with the folks in your residency program once its done.