Any MDs entering law school this fall? Forum

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MD/JD2B

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by MD/JD2B » Thu May 06, 2010 3:56 pm

Sure, lots of skepticism; I guess I'm the only one who has any interests in medical IP, disability law, and bioehtics. I want to be able to appear before the court as an attorney and have the medical expertise to understand the other side of the coin, be it science in IP or the medical quality of life. The MD/JDs I've spoken to (the ones who have put a little thought into the matter) are enjoying fluorishing enriching careers. The ones who did it just for the heck of it are back to practicing medicine full-time. I guess its not for everyone. Too may MDS I know complain about the law and how its limits them, their pocketbooks, and their independence; they do nothing more write a check to some lobbying group with a thumb up the AMA's ass. At my young age (47), I know what I want...3 short years is a small price to pay.

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lostjake

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by lostjake » Thu May 06, 2010 4:07 pm

84Sunbird2000 wrote:I mean, you'd only have to go back for one year of school to get the pre-med req's. And even then, given what most schools have for GenEd req's (i.e. bio/physics/math classes you've already taken), you wouldn't have a terrible course load.

Basically, the splitters on TLS would have little to no shot, which is the half DF is talking about. Then, there is the massive in-state bias (even for private schools) that limits ones options in the way law schools (UNC excepted) rarely do. Med School is also more holistic in its applications (interviews), which is why students with 29 MCATs often get in while 35s sometimes do not.
False.

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84Sunbird2000

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by 84Sunbird2000 » Thu May 06, 2010 5:50 pm

lostjake wrote:
84Sunbird2000 wrote:I mean, you'd only have to go back for one year of school to get the pre-med req's. And even then, given what most schools have for GenEd req's (i.e. bio/physics/math classes you've already taken), you wouldn't have a terrible course load.

Basically, the splitters on TLS would have little to no shot, which is the half DF is talking about. Then, there is the massive in-state bias (even for private schools) that limits ones options in the way law schools (UNC excepted) rarely do. Med School is also more holistic in its applications (interviews), which is why students with 29 MCATs often get in while 35s sometimes do not.
False.
Explain.

Edit: Which Part?

1 Year Freshman Chem with Labs (8 Credits) -
1 Year Organic Chem with Labs (8 Credits) - I can't imagine getting a pre-req waived would be hard for this if one hadn't taken 1 semester of Chem for GenEd Req's.
1 Year Bio w/labs (8)
1 Year Physics w/labs (8)
1 Year English (6)
Semester of Calc, Semester of Stats (6)

44 Credits Total

At minimum, you'll have 3 credits of English, and 8 credits of some aspect of Physics/Bio/Chem taken care of. There's a good chance the other semester of English and one of Stats/Calc would have been taken care of as well. So, you'd have between 26 and 33 credits outstanding if you didn't graduate with a science degree. That's not a burdensome load for one year of college. It might not be a cakewalk, but it's not as if you'd have to cram 42 credit hours together in a year.
Last edited by 84Sunbird2000 on Thu May 06, 2010 6:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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UFMatt

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by UFMatt » Thu May 06, 2010 6:04 pm

Having gone through a premed major myself, I will say that it isn't something you can half-ass. You're competing with gunners who are doped up on ritalin, so you have to really enjoy the material (similar to law school I suppose, in that respect). That being said, the IQs of attorneys and physicians are, on average, indistinguishable. This pissing contest of whether law students could have been medical students is silly. It's a different career path.

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by DrPlacebo » Thu May 06, 2010 6:33 pm

Quit medical school during second year, if that counts. I have three purposes in going into law: I'm planning to work in mental disability law, which seems like something that most lawyers don't want to touch with a ten-foot pole; I'm also planning to get involved in health policy; and if at all possible I'm going to try to work on the legal side of reforming medical education. And to make sure I don't forget, I'm continuing to work with the American Medical Student Association even though I left med school three years ago. (In fact, I'm going to hold national office in AMSA through most of my 1L year.)

Yes, I realize there's no money in it, but the point is to try and make a real difference. At some point I realized that there were some health problems that a physician couldn't do anything about, but an attorney could.

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MD/JD2B

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by MD/JD2B » Thu May 06, 2010 8:19 pm

Back to my original posting...ARE there any MDs (besides the one who applied somewhere) entering this fall? so far, lots of opinions but a purrrty low yield.

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er doctor

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by er doctor » Wed May 12, 2010 9:42 pm

Not entering this year but applying this fall.

ER doctor 10 years out of residency looking for a career change....thinking of health policy or malpractice defense.

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MURPH

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by MURPH » Thu May 13, 2010 5:16 am

I have been an RN for the last twelve years. I am going to law school in the fall. I let all the MDs know that I am making a list.

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lostjake

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by lostjake » Thu May 13, 2010 5:31 pm

84Sunbird2000 wrote:
lostjake wrote:
84Sunbird2000 wrote:I mean, you'd only have to go back for one year of school to get the pre-med req's. And even then, given what most schools have for GenEd req's (i.e. bio/physics/math classes you've already taken), you wouldn't have a terrible course load.

Basically, the splitters on TLS would have little to no shot, which is the half DF is talking about. Then, there is the massive in-state bias (even for private schools) that limits ones options in the way law schools (UNC excepted) rarely do. Med School is also more holistic in its applications (interviews), which is why students with 29 MCATs often get in while 35s sometimes do not.
False.
Explain.

Edit: Which Part?

1 Year Freshman Chem with Labs (8 Credits) -
1 Year Organic Chem with Labs (8 Credits) - I can't imagine getting a pre-req waived would be hard for this if one hadn't taken 1 semester of Chem for GenEd Req's.
1 Year Bio w/labs (8)
1 Year Physics w/labs (8)
1 Year English (6)
Semester of Calc, Semester of Stats (6)

44 Credits Total

At minimum, you'll have 3 credits of English, and 8 credits of some aspect of Physics/Bio/Chem taken care of. There's a good chance the other semester of English and one of Stats/Calc would have been taken care of as well. So, you'd have between 26 and 33 credits outstanding if you didn't graduate with a science degree. That's not a burdensome load for one year of college. It might not be a cakewalk, but it's not as if you'd have to cram 42 credit hours together in a year.
You have to take a general chem before organic = 2 years. Usually you have to take calculus before you take a calc based physics class. Any science major will tell you that taking that many labs in a year will lead to a really really crappy GPA.

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by 09042014 » Fri May 14, 2010 11:52 am

lostjake wrote:
84Sunbird2000 wrote:
lostjake wrote:
84Sunbird2000 wrote:I mean, you'd only have to go back for one year of school to get the pre-med req's. And even then, given what most schools have for GenEd req's (i.e. bio/physics/math classes you've already taken), you wouldn't have a terrible course load.

Basically, the splitters on TLS would have little to no shot, which is the half DF is talking about. Then, there is the massive in-state bias (even for private schools) that limits ones options in the way law schools (UNC excepted) rarely do. Med School is also more holistic in its applications (interviews), which is why students with 29 MCATs often get in while 35s sometimes do not.
False.
Explain.

Edit: Which Part?

1 Year Freshman Chem with Labs (8 Credits) -
1 Year Organic Chem with Labs (8 Credits) - I can't imagine getting a pre-req waived would be hard for this if one hadn't taken 1 semester of Chem for GenEd Req's.
1 Year Bio w/labs (8)
1 Year Physics w/labs (8)
1 Year English (6)
Semester of Calc, Semester of Stats (6)

44 Credits Total

At minimum, you'll have 3 credits of English, and 8 credits of some aspect of Physics/Bio/Chem taken care of. There's a good chance the other semester of English and one of Stats/Calc would have been taken care of as well. So, you'd have between 26 and 33 credits outstanding if you didn't graduate with a science degree. That's not a burdensome load for one year of college. It might not be a cakewalk, but it's not as if you'd have to cram 42 credit hours together in a year.
You have to take a general chem before organic = 2 years. Usually you have to take calculus before you take a calc based physics class. Any science major will tell you that taking that many labs in a year will lead to a really really crappy GPA.
Two years of classes harder than the hardest class most liberal arts majors take. And med schools are brutal about grades in these classes.

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SwollenMonkey

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by SwollenMonkey » Fri May 14, 2010 1:57 pm

General Tso wrote:
Desert Fox wrote:Are you kidding me, if half of tls could get med school they wouldn't be going to law school.
Sorry but this is stupid. I would wager that at least 90% of TLS posters, and law applicants in general, never even tried to take any biology or other prereq's required to apply to medical school.

Moreover, in a given year between 42 and 48% of MD applicants are accepted to at least one school. The same figure for JD applicants hovers around 55%. So yeah, it's a little harder to get into med school. You will need to take tougher UG classes and study hard for the MCAT. But that doesn't mean that "half the law applicants" on this board couldn't get into med school, nor is there any indication that half of the people on TLS even WANT to go to med school.

I got respect for MD's and MD students, but let's not stretch things too far.
I was interested in medicine and dentistry before law school. I should have stuck it out, lol. I took some prereqs, but life happened and a change of plans followed.

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by DrPlacebo » Fri May 14, 2010 7:39 pm

Desert Fox wrote: Two years of classes harder than the hardest class most liberal arts majors take. And med schools are brutal about grades in these classes.

True, but there's a lot more consideration for softs as well. I'm a splitter, and was a splitter for med school too (41 MCAT, 3.37 GPA), and got into a top-25 med school. I actually think med schools are more splitter-friendly than most law schools.

Then again, there are a few aspects of med school applications that make the whole process very different. First, there are no third-tier and fourth-tier med schools; the rankings are based almost entirely on research dollars. In fact, the only real differences between medical schools are teaching style, and size and patient demographics of affiliated hospitals. This means the "tier 4" equivalent medical schools are almost as hard to get into as the top 25. Second, because med school applicants tend to apply to a lot more schools, getting an interview is really a crapshoot, and after that the interview pretty much decides who gets in and who doesn't. Even though I got into a top-25 med school, it was the only school I got into, and off the wait list at that, out of 34 applications. (The number of schools I applied to is apparently only slightly above the average applicant, and even then fewer than half are accepted anywhere.)

Anyway, most people think I'm crazy for walking away from medicine for public interest law, especially after paying sticker price for two years at a private med school. But anyone who actually knows me knows different.

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by MD/JD2B » Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:44 pm

I actually found another MD starting this August. I dont feel alone anymore.

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electricfeel

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by electricfeel » Tue Jul 27, 2010 12:53 pm

MD/JD2B wrote:I actually found another MD starting this August. I dont feel alone anymore.
MD/JD2B, you got into Stanford with a 160 LSAT???!

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nematoad

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by nematoad » Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:19 pm

Desert Fox wrote:
84Sunbird2000 wrote:I mean, you'd only have to go back for one year of school to get the pre-med req's. And even then, given what most schools have for GenEd req's (i.e. bio/physics/math classes you've already taken), you wouldn't have a terrible course load.

Basically, the splitters on TLS would have little to no shot, which is the half DF is talking about. Then, there is the massive in-state bias (even for private schools) that limits ones options in the way law schools (UNC excepted) rarely do. Med School is also more holistic in its applications (interviews), which is why students with 29 MCATs often get in while 35s sometimes do not.
Those pre-med req's are actually difficult classes. They do a lot of weeding out.

There is no cooley of med schools.
it's called the caribbean

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by txhorn » Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:53 pm

lostjake wrote:
84Sunbird2000 wrote:
lostjake wrote:
84Sunbird2000 wrote:I mean, you'd only have to go back for one year of school to get the pre-med req's. And even then, given what most schools have for GenEd req's (i.e. bio/physics/math classes you've already taken), you wouldn't have a terrible course load.

Basically, the splitters on TLS would have little to no shot, which is the half DF is talking about. Then, there is the massive in-state bias (even for private schools) that limits ones options in the way law schools (UNC excepted) rarely do. Med School is also more holistic in its applications (interviews), which is why students with 29 MCATs often get in while 35s sometimes do not.
False.
Explain.

Edit: Which Part?

1 Year Freshman Chem with Labs (8 Credits) -
1 Year Organic Chem with Labs (8 Credits) - I can't imagine getting a pre-req waived would be hard for this if one hadn't taken 1 semester of Chem for GenEd Req's.
1 Year Bio w/labs (8)
1 Year Physics w/labs (8)
1 Year English (6)
Semester of Calc, Semester of Stats (6)

44 Credits Total

At minimum, you'll have 3 credits of English, and 8 credits of some aspect of Physics/Bio/Chem taken care of. There's a good chance the other semester of English and one of Stats/Calc would have been taken care of as well. So, you'd have between 26 and 33 credits outstanding if you didn't graduate with a science degree. That's not a burdensome load for one year of college. It might not be a cakewalk, but it's not as if you'd have to cram 42 credit hours together in a year.
You have to take a general chem before organic = 2 years. Usually you have to take calculus before you take a calc based physics class. Any science major will tell you that taking that many labs in a year will lead to a really really crappy GPA.
+1 as someone that did try and take 3 science labs in a semester :D

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by txhorn » Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:57 pm

DrPlacebo wrote:
Desert Fox wrote: Two years of classes harder than the hardest class most liberal arts majors take. And med schools are brutal about grades in these classes.

True, but there's a lot more consideration for softs as well. I'm a splitter, and was a splitter for med school too (41 MCAT, 3.37 GPA), and got into a top-25 med school. I actually think med schools are more splitter-friendly than most law schools.

Then again, there are a few aspects of med school applications that make the whole process very different. First, there are no third-tier and fourth-tier med schools; the rankings are based almost entirely on research dollars. In fact, the only real differences between medical schools are teaching style, and size and patient demographics of affiliated hospitals. This means the "tier 4" equivalent medical schools are almost as hard to get into as the top 25. Second, because med school applicants tend to apply to a lot more schools, getting an interview is really a crapshoot, and after that the interview pretty much decides who gets in and who doesn't. Even though I got into a top-25 med school, it was the only school I got into, and off the wait list at that, out of 34 applications. (The number of schools I applied to is apparently only slightly above the average applicant, and even then fewer than half are accepted anywhere.)

Anyway, most people think I'm crazy for walking away from medicine for public interest law, especially after paying sticker price for two years at a private med school. But anyone who actually knows me knows different.
Is clinical or research experience the most important factor even if you have the numbers for med schools?

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MD/JD2B

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by MD/JD2B » Tue Jul 27, 2010 1:58 pm

MD/JD2B, you got into Stanford with a 160 LSAT???![/quote]


No if you read my info, you'll see I didn't even apply there.

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by thisamericanlife » Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:02 pm

MD/JD2B wrote:MD/JD2B, you got into Stanford with a 160 LSAT???!

No if you read my info, you'll see I didn't even apply there.
Actually your profile says you are attending Stanford and UC Hastings.

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Great Satchmo

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by Great Satchmo » Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:04 pm

thisamericanlife wrote:
MD/JD2B wrote:MD/JD2B, you got into Stanford with a 160 LSAT???!

No if you read my info, you'll see I didn't even apply there.
Actually your profile says you are currently attending Stanford and will attend UC Hastings.
Pretty sure that was his/her UG or Med School.

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by JOThompson » Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:09 pm

MD/JD2B wrote:I have a lot of respect for PhDs; personally I don't have theimagination or the perseverance it takes. good luck to you.

I'm going to law school because there are enough pionts in medicine which interesect with the law..I'm pretty good at finding my own niche.
I've heard from a couple doctors I know that JD/MDs are very highly desirable. I don't have the fortitude for that, but I do applaud you.

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MD/JD2B

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by MD/JD2B » Tue Jul 27, 2010 2:53 pm

Undergraduate at Stanford, Medical School there, faculty there..enough is enough and besides I'm sure I had as much of a chance of getting in as a monkey's ass (unless they consider medical track record and publications). I'm happy as a pig in shit to be going to Hastings!!

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by electricfeel » Tue Jul 27, 2010 3:44 pm

MD/JD2B wrote:Undergraduate at Stanford, Medical School there, faculty there..enough is enough and besides I'm sure I had as much of a chance of getting in as a monkey's ass (unless they consider medical track record and publications). I'm happy as a pig in shit to be going to Hastings!!
I'll trade you your Stanford MD for my T20 acceptances. I'm not saying its a fair deal :)

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by MD/JD2B » Tue Jul 27, 2010 4:40 pm

After you've been a successful lawyer, you may not want that Stanford MD!!!

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Re: Any MDs entering law school this fall?

Post by DrPlacebo » Tue Jul 27, 2010 7:26 pm

txhorn wrote:
DrPlacebo wrote:
Desert Fox wrote: Two years of classes harder than the hardest class most liberal arts majors take. And med schools are brutal about grades in these classes.

True, but there's a lot more consideration for softs as well. I'm a splitter, and was a splitter for med school too (41 MCAT, 3.37 GPA), and got into a top-25 med school. I actually think med schools are more splitter-friendly than most law schools.

Then again, there are a few aspects of med school applications that make the whole process very different. First, there are no third-tier and fourth-tier med schools; the rankings are based almost entirely on research dollars. In fact, the only real differences between medical schools are teaching style, and size and patient demographics of affiliated hospitals. This means the "tier 4" equivalent medical schools are almost as hard to get into as the top 25. Second, because med school applicants tend to apply to a lot more schools, getting an interview is really a crapshoot, and after that the interview pretty much decides who gets in and who doesn't. Even though I got into a top-25 med school, it was the only school I got into, and off the wait list at that, out of 34 applications. (The number of schools I applied to is apparently only slightly above the average applicant, and even then fewer than half are accepted anywhere.)

Anyway, most people think I'm crazy for walking away from medicine for public interest law, especially after paying sticker price for two years at a private med school. But anyone who actually knows me knows different.
Is clinical or research experience the most important factor even if you have the numbers for med schools?
The short answer is: yes. The process is rather different though - it's 3 stages of weeding out, and numbers only get you through the first. The primary application contains numbers, PS, and resume. If that's good enough then they send you a secondary application to fill out, which is mostly essays. If they like the secondary application, then they invite you for an interview. Best to think of them as three separate hurdles. I think they way they see it is: numbers are a prerequisite, but don't get you in by themselves.

Seriously? What are you waiting for?

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