Need advice: Applying to medical school

I'm a first year medical student,

first and foremost, do well on your mcat. people tell you they look at the whole package, but they look most at your numbers. Period. Active in the community is good, but not as good as active in the health care field. Get a job at the hosptial, x-ray tech or phelbotomy is good.

Dont worry about applying now, and answering essay topics. Work on getting a good mcat. If you score say...31-34 and have an average gpa: I'm assuming yo u mean 3.65+ and you dont come across as a sociopath you are in for sure.

Also one other piece of general advice is a little too late for you. General sciences you take in undergrad are so important. Physiology is nothing but chemistry + physics. If you did well in these courses you will have a better grasp of this concepts.

Also, relax and blow off your senior year cause you will burn out. That being said, if you take as many biomedical related courses, you will have a much better time in med school.

 

I'm a 4th year, agree with the above advice. There is definitely much more of an emphasis on numbers than they want you to believe. Applying to in state schools is certainly your best bet as many schools have caps on the numbers of out-of-staters they can take.

Also, think long and hard about whether going to Med School is really what you want before you commit to it. I'm at the end of the road and will be happy being a doctor, but there is no way I'd do it again. You spend your early twenties doing nothing but studying and accumulating debt. If you can see yourself doing anything other than medicine, do it.

 

ROck your MCAT and you will have no problem. It is first and foremost a numbers game. If you odn't have the numbers it won't matter how much research or community service you have done.

 

My cousin didn't have the grades/numbers to get into an American medical school, so he went to a Caribbean medical school. I think in Antigua. It is pretty cool, because you spend the first two years in Antigua, and then the next two years is in Miami.

Alot of people give up on their medical dream when they don't get into an American school, but there are options available to people who don't necessarily have the best grades.

Many of the prominent Caribbean medical schools are now recognized by the USA nowadays. (like St. George's and Ross)

My cousin told me that 95% of the students at his Caribbean medical schools are from America. For some reason they tend to be mostly South Asians from America.

If you are interested in holistic medicine( mind/body medicine) but still want to practice as an medical doctor, osteopathic school is another option.

 

Whatever you do, don't weenie out and go to law school. We don't take too kindly to your kind here

Actually, one of my best friends in law school wanted to go to med school but couldn't hack one of the required courses. So he got a degree in physical anthropology and now he's going to be an IP attorney. Instead of four years of med school plus residency, you'd be out in three and making 150K your first year out, assuming your law school grades are high enough.

 

I am premedicine, but my organic grades are sucking the life out of me. I will most likely finish this year (2nd) with a 3.83 c*m. I have my midterm tomorrow morning at 7am. Any suggestions on the MCAT preparations?

 

dont worry about mcats until jr year. do well in orgo, supposedly that is one of the marker classes for success, how much I buy into that I dont know.

one tip, buy a mcat book and study your basic sciences off of it. So, biochem cell bio etc use it to suppliment your studies, makes it easier.

 

oh also I forgot...

why arent you guys on student doctor network asking this?

hope you guys know about it...

save your ass come interview time.

 

I finished med school a few yrs back and I'm currently an anesthesiology resident.

Yeah, I have to disagree on the whole take as many biomedical classes as you can approach. Sure you want to cover the bare minimum requirements... org chem, physics, calculus, etc.

However, other than that, there is a big emphasis on being well-rounded. In fact I think med schools prefer non-science majors over hardcore science majors. So in my opinion, loading up on easy non-science classes and bumping up your gpa is a good idea. One I should have taken.

Without a doubt, GPA is the single most important factor however.
Then comes the MCAT and extracurricular stuff.

With the application stuff, I say apply to 15-20 schools, unless you have crazy good grades or there are only a few particular schools you want to go to.
Print neatly, or submit things typed/ printed out. After your interview, always write a thank you card within a week to whoever interviewed you.
Call the med school admissions office after everything is submitted to ask about the status of your application ie) express your interest in the program.

 

yeah http://www.studentdoctor.net is the way to go. Lots of good info, but yeah, just prepare well for the MCAT and apply early! If you have your stuff in by early August, you should be cool. Don't wait for the deadlines.

 

I am a current student training at a hospital-based program to become an X-ray tech. I went to junior college for one year (I slacked pretty bad....~3.15GPA). Once I graduate from X-ray Tech school in a year and a few months, I want to continue my education, and I've been kind of considering med. school.

The debt scares me, but the schooling and medical field in general excite me.

Right now, I'm leaning more towards going through with a bachelor's in Radiologic Technology, then going to school for 2 more years to become a Radiologists' assistant. That's a new job that requires a masters. It's like a physician's assistant to a physician, but to a radiologist.

Anyways, my question is this: When is it too late for me to change my mind and commit to medical school without having to start over in my degree? Did I screw myself over by going to a community college (and by slacking at college nonetheless)? My GPA at X-ray school is borderline 4.0 so far, and I know that I could have been near 4.0 at community college, also. I'm ready to go back and not slack anymore. Even if I continue on to get a Bachelor's in Radiologic Technology, I could still apply to Med. School, should my mind sway that way, right?

 

We've got upper 20's and even some 30's students in my class so it never is too late. But if you can make up your mind asap, that'll help in getting in somewhere.

MCAT is on electronic format now so really helps that you can take it every month or so now and not wait till april or august. I agree with the poster who said make sure exactly this is what you want to do. Know what med school entails, that is spending the majority of your youth studying incessantly, and then spending another 4-8 years after that working for minimum wage while you're on your 28th hour on call. It's not a pretty lifestyle, at least at the beginning, and the grandeur of being a doctor really isn't that great. Also for texas schools, they kinda messed up this year with the rolling admissions thing and then match. Basically some schools had filled up their class prior to match but continued interviewing applicants. For those applying to texas schools in the near future, get your applications and everything in ASAP because the later you apply, the less spots you'll be competing for.

Have fun in college, LOTS of fun because it's all down hill from there once you start. Good luck to all those applying. Back to studying...

 

I'm a first year, and after anatomy and histology I've had more time. I have a test every month, and I can slack for 2 weeks, but have to go hardcore ~8 hours a day studying for the next two, 12-14 hours that last week sometimes. I am doing above average and school...your results my vary. When I say study I mean productive hours, not hours that I spent "in the act of trying to study"

Second year, gets harder and more intensive, plus boards are pretty scary...dont know first hand but, I hear lots of stories.

I heard a good analogy.

first year: you are in a long tunnel, and you slowly make your way toward the light that is the summer.

second year: you are in a long tunnel that is a bit harder to find your way cause theres more crap in your way. You see a light at the end of the tunnel, but its really a train coming at you called USMLE.

 

To Eddie:

don't be afraid of debt. Make sure that you WANT to be a doctor. If a school lets you in that means you can make it. If that is the case you WILL have the earning potential to pay off that debt. Let what you want to do in your life dictate what you do.

The only concern I have about age, is really nothing but attachments. I could not imagine studying and being in med school with kids.

I have a serious relationship and I feel that I have to make sacrifices in both worlds, could not imagine being married with children.

 

Forget med school and become a vet. Dogs don't whine about their boils.

 

While the carribean is an option for people unable to get in to US accredited med schools, keep in mind that the curriculum is at least THREE times as HARD (since there's not enough residencies to support all US grads, foreign grads, AND carribean grads, people need to get weeded out)... and even after you make it through the tougher curriculum, residency programs discriminate BIG TIME against anybody from a carribean program (unless you're applying to something non-competitive like internal medicine, pediatrics, ER, or Family practice).

Basically, forget about getting any surgical subspecialty such as plastics, orthopedics, ENT, urology (that's me) or other competitive/lucrative fields like derm, radiation oncology, and radiology.

 

While boards are tough, you soon forget about it when you're waking up at 4:30 in the morning to prepare for rounds, while a resident b****es at you to get them some coffee or finish all their busy paperwork (so you can get that ever-important good eval)... it made sitting in a library in front of a book/computer seem like a paradise vacation.