will i make it to Med School?

[gopunk]

Originally posted by: vegetation

Originally posted by: gopunk

Originally posted by: DaWhim
stop being a fool. you do NOT need to be in pre-med major to get accepted to medical school. even philosophy major can get into medical school

yea but that'd be kind of dumb, with the requirements that medical schools have, you might as well pick up a biology or chemistry major along the way.

Nothing dumb about it, and in fact it's the smart way of going about it. First off, an alternative non-biological science major exposes you to different career choices. You may not at all even want to attend medical school after spending so much time in your major that has nothing to do with being a physician. Next, medical school admission boards carefully analyze your GPA based upon major and draw cut-offs from there. Biological science majors have the toughest standards, like a 3.8 minimum overall GPA. Social sciences, physical sciences, and engineering follows; an engineering student with a 3.2 has a good shot at attending med school while a biological science major of the same gpa can forget any hope of ever attending. So there is good value in choosing the major of your liking and not just because it must be related to the health sciences.

i don't think you understood the meaning of my post... have a look at the requirements for UW medical school (my undergraduate university):

http://www.washington.edu/medicine/education/admissions.html

The premedical course requirements should be completed by the time of application and must be completed before matriculation. These requirements are a total of 32 semester credit hours or 48 quarter credit hours of undergraduate science courses divided into:

Biology -- 8 semester/12 quarter credit hours.

Chemistry -- 12 semester/18 quarter credit hours, which can be satisfied by taking any combination of inorganic, organic, biochemistry or molecular biology courses.

Physics -- 4 semester/6 quarter credit hours.

Other (open) science subjects -- 8 semester/12 quarter credit hours, which can be met by taking other courses in any of the above broad categories.

Although a biochemistry course is not absolutely required for admission to the medical school, it is very strongly recommended for entering students. The biochemistry course for the first-year medical students focuses on molecular mechanisms central to human health and disease and it is taught with the presumption that participants have already mastered the fundamentals of biochemistry, including molecular genetics, structure and activity of proteins, and metabolism. A comprehensive undergraduate biochemistry course is the most expedient way to gain this knowledge.

what i was saying is that if you're going to apply for med school, you'll need enough prerequisite hard sciences courses that you might as well major in one. just looking at the cell/mol bio b.s. reqs for UW, it's just like 4 extra courses from the med school requirements.

and if you like philosophy, go for that as well... you can double major or double degree.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: WinstonSmith
As has been said, med school does not care about your high school.

Med schools will be looking for good grades, good MCAT scores, interviews, recommendations from faculty, and any volunteer experience you may have.

One thing I disagree with here is that major makes no difference. Not true. If a med school has a choice between a philosophy student and a biology major, they will take the bio major every time (assuming everything else is equal)

In other words, dont worry about ACT scores or whatever. Just get into a decent program at college and do well.

I thought it would be the other way around since there are a billion biology (and chemistry, etc.) majors applying to med school. I have a friend that was a philosophy major and went to med school and he said it was not frowned down upon.

 

[Hayabusa Rider]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: WinstonSmith
As has been said, med school does not care about your high school.

Med schools will be looking for good grades, good MCAT scores, interviews, recommendations from faculty, and any volunteer experience you may have.

One thing I disagree with here is that major makes no difference. Not true. If a med school has a choice between a philosophy student and a biology major, they will take the bio major every time (assuming everything else is equal)

In other words, dont worry about ACT scores or whatever. Just get into a decent program at college and do well.

I thought it would be the other way around since there are a billion biology (and chemistry, etc.) majors applying to med school. I have a friend that was a philosophy major and went to med school and he said it was not frowned down upon.

Yeah, I need to clarify that.

Many schools will take the bio major, but others will interview someone with a different degree first. However once in med school, the bio student has the advantage for obvious reasons.

 

[vegetation]

The problem is that picking a major that has little to do with med school will give the student a hard time if he/she does get in. Biological majors will probably perform better on their MCATs and have a stronger grasp of the med school coursework.

That's way too much of a generalization. All med school applicants must take a series of "pre-med" classwork, and the MCAT is purely derived from those classes. Besides, the MCAT, like all other standardized tests, is mostly a measure of your test-taking skills rather than pure knowledge.

 

[Pokey007]

Originally posted by: gopunk
it's impossible to tell for sure since you're just a h.s. senior... i mean you have like 4 years for everything to go wrong

but seriously a lot of people go into college thinking they're going to do this or that and then completely change their minds.

Seriously Dude. Go to college. Maybe you won't even want to be a doctor in 4 years?

 

[vegetation]

Originally posted by: WinstonSmith
As has been said, med school does not care about your high school.

Med schools will be looking for good grades, good MCAT scores, interviews, recommendations from faculty, and any volunteer experience you may have.

One thing I disagree with here is that major makes no difference. Not true. If a med school has a choice between a philosophy student and a biology major, they will take the bio major every time (assuming everything else is equal)

Just don't forget that equal footing means different things here. A 3.7 bio major is not on equal footing against a 3.2 engineering major; the engineering major excels in gpa points simply because his major is a less competitive one for med school entry. You're competing against different pools of majors when you apply. With a bio major, you better be a near-genius if you want to get in because it's by far the most competitive medical school entry major. You're fighting against tons of students who can score 4.0s at ease. A poor gpa in a bio major will not even get your application looked at!

 

[Noirish]

Get your ass into colllege first.
Then get your grades in college high enough for medical school.

 

[Mday]

there's no way to tell given the information. in fact, there is no real way of telling how you will do on your mcats if you havent taken them. for now, dont worry about the mcats. worry about them your sophomore and junior year of college. your performance in high school does not affect your medical school acceptance.

 

[cressida]

Originally posted by: orangel
Get your ass into colllege first.
Then get your grades in college high enough for medical school.

My friend wasn't the top student in his class but graduated top 10%. He went off to college, did undergrad for 2 years in Biochemistry (took a lot of AP test and clep test). The school he studied at had a MCAT exemption if he had a 1300+ on the SAT and kept his undergrad degree 3.7+ he didn't have to take the MCAT.

So just get yourself in college first then see how things work out. It's a lot of devotion and you miss out on a part of your life.

 

[kermalou]

i just love how GPAs can now go above 4.00

 

[RabidMongoose]

Originally posted by: phatj

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: phatj
you are only a high school senior... med schools are not gonna care about what you did in high school. You'll have a really good chance of getting into a med school if you are not a white male. Remember to apply to lots of me schools when you are a junior. But your high school sh*t does not matter. Just study to get a high MCAT and high GPA, get involved too.

Stop playing the white male card. If anything that might actually help since med schools are becoming more and more female. It's also difficult for some minorities to even get in med school since so many of them are applying yet they don't want a grossly over-represented minority (Indians, Chinese, etc.).

Underrepresented Minorities

According to the Association of American Medical Colleges definition, underrepresented minorities are black/African-Americans, American Indians, Mexican Americans, and mainland Puerto Ricans.

So if you are not caucasian you have a better chance. Check out the profiles at mdapplicant.com. Hispanics, African Americans, and South Asians seem to have an edge in the application process. Example (one of several): Hispanic with 3.7 GPA and a 37 MCAT accepted by Harvard. Caucasian with 3.96 GPA and 41 MCAT rejected. Similar extracurriculars. There are lots of cases like this, and it is heavily debated on forums like studentdoctor. URM's definitely have a significant advantage, there is no question about it.

Asians and Indians (from India) aren't URM...yet they usually don't complain here about being Asian/Indian in acceptance policies, which is kind of strange since this forum has a very large group of Asians/Indians.

 

[SilentZero]

As already stated, if you work hard enough in college and keep your GPA 3.9 and above, you have a great shot. Although you might change your mind. I know when I grad from HS I went into Pharmacy, and after 2 years decided it wasn't my thing. If you stay interested and devoted, theres no reason why you wouldn't make it. Just keep focused on your goal!

 

[jst0ney]

Just to reiterate what the general responses have been. It is way to early to tell. I have three roommates in med school and I'm in dent school and I don't know of one who was asked about anything they did from high school in their interview. Study hard and take hard classes in College. Volunteer alot and talk to alot of physicians to figure out weather this is what you want to do or not. It is a tough road and requires alot of sacrifice. If you are in it for the money and want to have a typical family life then being a physician is NOT for you. It is not a very glamerous profession. Try reading The House of God if you want to take a step back and see some perspective on the subject. PM if you have anymore ?'s

 

As a gauge of how smart/dumb the kids in your high school are, I graduated probably 75th or so in my high school out of 610 (they didn't do rankings since the school was so large) with a GPA of 3.81 and an ACT of 35 and an SAT of 1370.

You're doing fine, but don't think about med school yet. You might change your mind after you take those intro chem classes.

 

[SSibalNom]

if all fails, you can always get in in the Dominican Republic, a lot of good dr's have come from those schools

 

[ManSnake]

ACT of 22? Way too low, you need 33 or above if you want to get into a decent undergrad program.

 

[StageLeft]

Listen to biffbacon in his first post. Most of the people going into science in my university first year wanted med school simply because they couldn't think of anything better, and it represented the pinacle of success to them. Most never even tried after first year woke them up to reality.

Both of my parents are MDs and if anything in the world convinced me that such a life was not for me, it was that. Only become a physician if you really truly want to help people (and not just telling yourself that to pass an interview). The time and energy and stress will dwarf the income you'll make. No amount of money can make up for that unless you really love the job. Don't even think about having any real money until you're 30, and then you'll probably have nice loans to pay off anyway. Unless you get into the right field you'll be working tons of hours/week, and the cool down time from watching somebody die after fighting to keep them alive for 4 hours is a lot longer than it takes me to cool down after a piece of code fails to compile.

 

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Listen to biffbacon in his first post. Most of the people going into science in my university first year wanted med school simply because they couldn't think of anything better, and it represented the pinacle of success to them. Most never even tried after first year woke them up to reality.

Both of my parents are MDs and if anything in the world convinced me that such a life was not for me, it was that. Only become a physician if you really truly want to help people (and not just telling yourself that to pass an interview). The time and energy and stress will dwarf the income you'll make. No amount of money can make up for that unless you really love the job. Don't even think about having any real money until you're 30, and then you'll probably have nice loans to pay off anyway. Unless you get into the right field you'll be working tons of hours/week, and the cool down time from watching somebody die after fighting to keep them alive for 4 hours is a lot longer than it takes me to cool down after a piece of code fails to compile.

Good post.

 

[Danman]

Originally posted by: mugsywwiii

Originally posted by: Riprorin

Originally posted by: Schadenfroh
its the end of my senior year in HS, i really want to go into Med School and i will enter Pre-Med this summer, but i dont know if i can do it. here is my accomplishments, do you think i got what it takes to get thru premed and eventually make decent on the MCAT?

ME
Will graduate in May 2004 with highest honors
GPA 4.22
Rank in class 7 out of 137
ACT score 22


my ACT score worries me, but money should not be a big problem for me. are there many doctors with this low of ACT score?

Med school is about $30K/yr plus you have living expenses. Are you independently wealthy or something?

What's wrong with your parents helping pay for your education?

Schadenfroh - your ACT score is pretty low compared to your GPA, how difficult is your high school? 7th out of 137 says something though, either you're reasonably intelligent, or the rest of your class is pretty dumb. Don't worry about whether you'll get into med school right now. You might realize when you start taking some classes in college that you don't even WANT to be a doctor anymore. You'll have plenty of time to change your major, something like 40% of people do.

That's bullshit. I had a difficult time on the SAT and ACT and I was ranked 12 out of 450+ graduating seniors. I finally got 1100 on the SAT and I got a 21 on the ACT, I'm just gonna not a great standardized test taker. That doesn't mean I'm dumb nor does it mean he's dumb.

 

[Mani]

Originally posted by: ScottyB
What's with all these people with ultra high GPAs and average to low ACT scores?

High schools give out good grades to any idiot and their brother these days.

 

[Semidevil]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
Don't lock yourself in to being a doctor. That's foolish. Be thankful you're not Asian and being forced to be a doctah. You can explore options.

or a lawyer...or an engineer for that matter....w/ a full scholarship...

 

[stormbv]

Please don't be one of those doctors that thinks he's God...please?

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: Semidevil

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
Don't lock yourself in to being a doctor. That's foolish. Be thankful you're not Asian and being forced to be a doctah. You can explore options.

or a lawyer...or an engineer for that matter....w/ a full scholarship...

Nah. Indians are the engineers. Lawyers.. I think those are all whites like Elfenix.