Physiotherapy as a pre-med degree

[kdoan]

paging dr. is a great website, thanks for that Season!
future doctor, i am just about to start my 2nd year of physiotherapy in march 2010, unless i choose to switch over to medical science. I did think long and hard about the fact that continuing the physiotherapy degree would reduce the amount of time before i have a chance to get into medical school, however, in the back of my mind, i feel that i would be better off doing medical science as that is where more of my interests in science lie. However, if in the inevitable case where i fail to get into grad med, I'm not sure what approach to take then? I am not entirely sure that i would enjoy working in laboratories doing research as i would much prefer to be working with people and their different personalities, which makes medicine much more appealing to me.

[n33b]

Quote: Originally Posted by kdoan

future doctor, i am just about to start my 2nd year of physiotherapy in march 2010, unless i choose to switch over to medical science. I did think long and hard about the fact that continuing the physiotherapy degree would reduce the amount of time before i have a chance to get into medical school, however, in the back of my mind, i feel that i would be better off doing medical science as that is where more of my interests in science lie.

How would continuing physiotherapy reduce the amount of time before you get a chance at med (I'm assuming a grad-entry chance)? Isn't physiotherapy 4 years? So you have 3 years left, and it takes 3 years to do medical science...

Personally, I probably would rather stick with physio. If you're feeling deficient in knowledge for the GAMSAT, you can always do a few courses in the summer or whatever. The level of content goes only as far as first-year uni for bio and chem, and yr 12-level physics. I would choose this because if I was to miss out on med, I would still have a professional degree to fall back on. I can't say I know much about med sci prospects, but I just imagine that career prospects would be better for a professional degree, and it seems more enjoyable than working in a lab... it's just a matter of opinion of course. You should also ask yourself whether your GPA would be higher in physio or med sci, as a higher GPA will open more doors for you when applying to grad-entry med (I would aim for 5.5+).