Going from Math to Medicine

[LakeFog]

I am finishing my junior year in college, and I have come to the decision that I want to do to medical school, preferably a research oriented one. I will be graduating with a BA in mathematical and physical sciences with a concentration in math. I also am minoring in French. My GPA right now is 3.74.

The only prereqs I will have completed are a year of English, a year of physics (3 semesters actually), and a year(++) of calculus. I am thinking about going to a formal postbac in Boston or Baltimore. (Are these worth it? I think I'd like to have better advising than I would get just taking the classes independently.)

I have two years of volunteering at a hospital from high school. I worked on their Oncology floor - feeding and bringing water to patients, organizing records, and working in transportation and discharge.

I won't have any medical research, just two months research in fractal analysis. I really have no idea what kind of research med schools are looking for. And where does one find a med research program?

I am going to try to get some shadowing in over next summer as well.

What other things do I need to be doing? I want to be really prepared when I am applying to med schools. Also, how much shadowing/volunteering/etc. is a good amount?

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[Isoprop]

Your post-bacc choice is a personal one. Check the Post-bacc forums for reviews of different programs. With your GPA, you could probably get into a competitive one.

Research is research. Getting your hands on clinical research is easy if your school has a med school. Otherwise, bench research would be fine and equally valuable, especially if you have an interest in academic medicine.

Here's how an adcom member answers the "how much volunteering is enough" question:

Unfortunately, there is a tendency to see shadowing and volunteering as "check-offs" on the application and to try therefore to determine what one needs to do to get the credit needed. From an adcom perspective, I don't pay a lot of attention to the number of hours one has been doing these things but want to understand what the person learned from the experience, how it shaped their understanding of medicine and how and why they chose what they did in terms of "volunteering."

(full post here: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=5030873&postcount=26)

Check the requirements at various postbaccs you are interested in. You'll probably need LORs, so keep that in mind also.