Looking for help developing a roadmap to a medical school-friendly degree

[indigoshuffle]

I'm not sure if this works, but I would like @MSK9 to weigh in.

I would avoid doing anything online unless you are specifically targeting Caribbean medical schools. Most states except for Florida and couple others will not allow conferment of an MD medical license if your education is done online.

I think you're making a huge category error, indigoshuffle.

It's true that states, as a general rule I'd describe as strong, are unlikely to issue a medical license if medical school education was done online (except, obviously, for times like now that on-campus medical schools have to make emergency accommodations).

However, doing large parts of undergraduate education prerequisite to medical school online is common.

There is a tier of 'core' undergraduate prerequisite courses for med school that it's nonstandard, and probably still not universally accepted by medical schools, but not unheard of to take online with either home-lab, computer-based, or short-residency provisions for labs. These are the traditional one year each of biology (sometimes substitutable with zoology or A&P), general chemistry, organic chemistry, and physics. Expect it to vary from one medical school to the next whether undergraduate prerequisites in these 'cores' are accepted online.

I completely agree with you that I'm overreaching. Many people do online stuff at the pre-requisite level.  But the rules vary from school to school and to have a solid chance of being admitted, it is my OPINION that the best way is the traditional way, meaning "ass in seat". If the OP can't, then he can't. If that's the case, doing prereqs online is better than nothing, for sure.

It is true that many people, some of whom are friends of mine, have done a portion of their prerequisites online. However, each and every one of them told me they were asked this when they were brought in for an interview by the medical school. So either the online prereqs are a red flag, or the med school admissions people already know and they want to see if you'll lie. I suspect the latter is more likely. 

In my opinion, doing all of your classes in person, keeps an applicant's choices open. If OP wanted to become a nurse practitioner, then online would never be a problem or even a question. So I guess this brings up another question; does the OP want the title of MD/DO or are they genuinely interested in helping others as a practitioner?

Will you have ego issues being called a Nurse Practitioner or a Physician Assistant as opposed to “doctor “?
Does he want to do surgery? If so go to medical school, but if not, I would highly recommend that OP consider the amount of debt he will rack up. 

If you are "dying" to have the MD title, be prepared to pay for it with money (that you most likely don't have yet) and time. If you are willing to deal with the time, money, disappointments, setbacks that will surely await you on that path, then take the path that will open up the most doors for you in terms of sending out your application---which means avoiding doing things online.  

Keep in mind, this recommendation is coming from someone who is attending WGU. I have nothing against online classes, but medical school admission boards are extremely conservative and they think online prerequisites are easier. If it comes down to 2 applicants with the same GPA, MCAT, volunteer time, etc, they will start to dig deeper into stupid shit, like if you did anything online. It's dumb and unfair, but that's how it is for now.