Have been out of college for 7 years now, about to hit 30, and making a good living, but am thinking of going back to my original “gut instinct” career path which is medical research/genetic engineering/etc. Most medical career paths I read about seem to involve very long stays in medical school and the necessary followup. My question is can a good portion of this be done by taking evening/weekend classes or do you have to always be a full time medical student. Second related question is do I even need a medical degree and followup residency/fellowship or is there some other shorter path to start working on my passion such as cancer research, AIDS research, brain research, etc. (ideally working on cures for the major diseases that we face). I have always tested in the top 2-5% of SAT,ACT,GMAT, etc. so I feel I have the aptitude to really contribute to the medical field now that I’m grown up and have an excellent work ethic and know what I want in life.