Nontraditional medical students

Sandeep Jauhar, MD, PhD, writes in The New England Journal of Medicine about nontraditional medical students who enter medicine at a later age and without the traditional pre-med background. Medical schools now routinely admit students in their 30s or 40s who already have families or are well into another career before turning toward medicine, he notes. He adds that in general, these students have been welcomed into the profession because they bring maturity, diversity, broader perspectives, and "life experience."