Im a fake doctor (dentist). The biggest piece of advice you could get is to make sure you do it because you cant see yourself doing anything else. You have to absolutely love it or you will be miserable. You will basically be spending your late 20's and early 30's in the hospital...your social life will take a major hit. Its a long, difficult road, but it can be incredibly rewarding.
Yo, I start UT-Houston in August so I'm a lot closer to you in terms of where you are in your medical career than the others in case that helps any, right now focus on keeping your grades up (you do NOT need a 4.0 or anything ridiculous, just good grades) and like someone else said medical experience is almost as important as grades, you need some kind of shadowing or volunteer experience in the medical field. Your MCAT is the most important thing in your life in a couple of years, when that time comes in your junior year take it very seriously. You can get all C's your junior year and still make it to med school. You can NOT get all A's that year and a 21 on your MCAT and make it. I say this because I taught an MCAT course in verbal and you can tell who took it seriously and who didn't and it showed on their scores. If you have any questions I can answer I would love to answer them, q.a.allen@ gmail dot com
Tell her to know first aid inside out and do uworld questions as much as possible. But she probably already knows about that.
I just started studying this week. I am questioning what I spent the last 1.5 years learning because most of the the stuff I am reviewing seems brand new to me.
i wish they had some for dental schools. that would be awesome to go to school in the carribean. Too bad all the abroad stuff is not accredited.
Nothing but respect for you guys. Couldn't imagine spending the amount of time that the pre-med kids do in the library, with four years of med school and then a residency to look forward to. Out of curiosity (and without going into specifics), how prevalent is cheating among pre-med and med school students? Compared to say business program/MBA kids.
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Here is the formula for getting into MedSchool. Its what most of the admission committee's use here in Texas. Getting a score of 67-68 will at least guarantee you interviews. All the personal statement/essays/ etc. don't matter unless you meet the above mentioned. They take your cumulative GPA and multiply it x 10 (i.e. 3.5 = 35 points) Add on your MCAT score (i.e. 30 on MCAT = 30 points) Add on a special Z score This Z-score is where you get points for a number of things, but its very hard to meet the criteria. The three criteria I am aware of are: If you are a minority, and by minority I mean (Black, Hispanic, Native American) that is it. If you are asian, indian, middle eastern etc. that does not count. If you work in research and are the first, second, or third author on a paper then you get points added to your Z score for that If you are a Division I NCAA athlete, you get points added to your Z-score for that. Source: From a source who has inside info from admissions committee. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask.
I would avoid out of the country schools like the plague. I don't have the statistics in front of me, but from my memory, the matching rate for residencies in the United States in 2008: The residency matching rate for U.S. citizens who completed Allopathic Medical School (M.D) in the United States was a hair under 98% The residency matching rate for U.S. citizens who completed Osteopathic Medical School (D.O.) in the United States was somewhere between 75-85% The residency matching rate for U.S. citizens who completed Allopathic Medical School (M.D.) off shore outside the United States was somewhere between 35-45%
There are a few factors for that. First, they don't teach us everything in med school. Second, information is always being changed and/or updated. The main thing when you study is to understand concepts and not solely memorize the material. Just took the USMLE a few days ago, it really tests your ability to conceptualize rather than memorize.
You are saying that just being in a minority gets you points for getting into medical school? How does being black or Hispanic give you a better chance at being a good Doctor? Why wouldn't Asians count? Are they not a minority?
The number of hispanic and black doctors are very very very very limited. There are a ton of asian and indian doctors. The reason admissions committee's do this is simple. Imagine you are a black male, who lives in a black community and has primarily dealt with other african american's your entire life. Are you going to feel comfortable going to some white doctor? That is the reason why.
Thanks trustme, I'm gonna ask her about uworld, the others she has told me about. Good luck with your grades! I'm surprised they don't have in English as Odontology is the one they excel at. Some of the people coming here do it because they're not the best of students and they expect to coast on the coast. With that said, I wouldn't dare compare our best schools and hospitals (even less, we're light years away) to the very good and best in North America.
