Medical Education US

I am 35 years old, a mother of two with a 28 month toddler and a 8 month baby. I have a bachelor's degree in computer science, and 3 more classes to take to finish my master's in Software Engineering. For the last 2 years, I have contemplated about getting into the medical field, but my husband really wanted to start a family, and I agreed to do that, and put my thoughts away. Now that I think I'm really done with kids, those itching thoughts are back. I want to know if it's realistic of me to think that with 2 little ones, 2 house payments, a full time job, that I happen to be great at, is it realistic for me to back to school, apply to medical school, go through all the training and residency? Would I be sacrificing my children's upbringing because of the commitments that come with the medical field? Even with everything aligning correctly, should I go ahead and finish my master's in Software Engineering? Or should I just start taking the pre-med classes at a 4 year institution, or, at a community college?

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

Ogula13,

Only you know if going to medical school now is right for you. However, you are correct to ask about how much of a sacrifice is involved. There are huge sacrifices involved with going back to medical school, especially if you have a very young family and other large financial obligations. I'm not sure why you have two house payments, but taking on the debts of more schooling and medical school is not going to help with those. I can only speak about my experience and I have to say that raising kids is a huge challenge, without the demands of medical school and residency. Medical school and residency are huge challenges, without the demands of a young family. I know there are some residency programs that are more family friendly than others, but I'm less sure about medical schools.

Just to point out some of the obvious facts - you'll likely need at least 2 years to complete your pre-med coursework. You'll have another 4 years of medical school followed by a minimum of 3 years of residency. You'd be looking at being 44 and starting a career as a physician with a lot of debt and two kids ready to become teenagers. That's a lot so make sure you know this is what you want.

I think it'll be important to discuss this with people who know you well and you trust to see if they think this is the right thing for you.

You also may want to do a search for "non-traditional" medical students as you'll be likely to find some support and recommendations. A quick search turned up the website: Old Pre Meds and their forum. It looks like a good organization.