Need advice on getting into medical school as a Computer Science graduate

100Babies

I am just looking for some thoughts on my situation and my interests in medicine. Sorry for a bit long post.

I have a BS in Computer Science from Texas with 3.8/4.0 GPA. I have always been interested in Medicine since high school from taking many health science courses. I am very interested in becoming a GP or work in ER. However, I didn't pursue it because it was something my parents didn't approve of mostly due to how expensive it is to get into medical school and they didn't believe in my capacity of getting such degree.

I have been working in IT for 3 years now in multiple countries, now in Ireland. Though I have been become quite an experienced system programmer handling many critical back end systems. I just don't feel like I can do this job for the rest of my life. I am fine with the long hours, late night calls, and the pressure that comes with handling critical systems, but I just don't have that "passion" for the job per say like others would put it. They can't really pay me enough to do this job for the rest of my life to be honest.

I just turned 24 and I saved around 70,000 EURO from working and investing from these past 3 years in corporate IT. And I feel like I really want to give this life goal a shot or at least I would die knowing that I tried. I am pretty frugal, so money is not really something I seek, as I can hardly spend most of what I earn here doing IT.

Do you guys have any recommendation for a person like me?

I really want to do some volunteer work to be sure that if this is something I really passionate about, not just some quarter life crisis thought. Any ideas how would I get involve into such activity especially with my programming background?

If I decide to pursue medicine, will I be eligible to apply for medical school in Ireland having a Computer Science degree? I did not take any chemistry or biology in college since it was not required for my degree, though I did study organic chemistry and some biology on my own spare time back in college. What would be a realistic pathway for me?

Would my 70k savings be somewhat realistic for a medical degree here in Ireland? I am not sure if I can get a student loan since I will be doing this on my own without my parents approval. So I definitely cannot get a cosigner of any sort.

I am hoping to volunteer for a year or so, and use that time to study for any exams that I might need to take. So I will likely be starting my medical school at around 25-26, hopefully not too late.

Thanks for reading my wall of text and dropping by lol. Cheers!

GalwayGrrrrrl

Some medical schools offer a year of pre-med for students that didn't study the correct science subjects at age 16-18. NUI Galway offers this (and probably others too). It would increase your fee total by one year but would give you a solid background before the degree starts. Medical school starts in September so you should be applying now to start in September 2017. Lots of universities have open days this time of year so maybe visit a few and talk to current students.
I can't help much on the volunteer thing - you would need Garda clearance before going near patients. University hospital run a volunteer scheme but it's more like showing visitors where the wards are (not helping the doctors iykwim.) you should probably look for a few days or weeks shadowing a doctor to get a more realistic idea of what's involved. Good luck with it all.

100Babies

Thank you for information. I will certainly check those out!

sneakysnake007

Look up graduate entry to medicine through sitting the GAMSAT exam ðŸ˜႒

Ayuntamiento

If you get into medical school here there is basically zero chance that you will get an internship position in Ireland after graduation. Foreign graduates are expected to go back to the country they came from. This will probably be your biggest challenge as it's extremely competitive to get back to the USA for residency as a graduate of a foreign university. Essentially you're taking the gamble that you might come out of this degree and be unable to practice anywhere.

Ayuntamiento

Regarding your academic background, I never studied biology in school prior to starting medicine. It wasn't a problem at all and I didn't do pre-Med so I was really thrown in at the deep end.
Biology is a very simple subject so if you have any ability you'll pick it up easily.
Chemistry is an absolute pre-requisite for getting into medical school in Ireland as an undergrad so I'm not sure how that will work out for you.