If you are in high school - don't worry about medical school yet. Actually, forget about it. Focus on a) getting into college and b) making the most of your time in HS. College is important, but so is enjoying your life, finding your passions, and picking the right path for you. My siblings and I have all decided on different experiences and classes in HS, from APs to dual-enrollment to regular HS + interesting electives. It all worked for us and there is no one specific track you need to be on to get into college (even a "good" college), let alone med school at this point (remember? forget about that for now). As far as making the most of your time, that just means exploring your interests, to me - try out clubs, sports, band/orchestra, electives you're interested in like art or accounting, etc.
As for college:
-There is nothing wrong with taking the basics at a CC and then transferring to a 4-year to save money or get used to college.
-Major in something you are genuinely interested in, but also think about job opportunities - whether you'd want a job in that field, whether you'd want to go on to grad school, whether you'd want a job not in that field but that is looking for someone with a college degree, whether you would be willing to move where the jobs are, etc.
-Explore your interests, again. Take interesting electives, double-major or do a minor, join clubs, do intramurals, do research, etc. Be open to finding your passions.
-Volunteer. This is good for the soul, and will look good on any type of application whether it is for med school, grad school, or a job.
-You don't have to be president of a club, but pursue leadership when and where you can; again it just looks good for applications and will help you grow as a person. This could be something as simple as doing something where you are in charge of a bunch of kids, like a tutoring group or scouting.
-Part-time job is a +/- for me, if you can pull it off or need it, I think it helped me manage my time better and I liked having the spending money. There was also a point where it got in the way of school though, and my friends had similar situations and some of them quit their jobs. School comes first if you can afford that.
-Study abroad. If you can at all afford it, just do it. Some schools have programs where they finance it through your tuition, so basically all you pay for is the flight.
-Consider taking some type of class or extracurricular where you do an independent project that you plan and execute yourself (it could be research but could also be a different type of project for the arts like a playwriting class or something like that). It will give you something tangible to be proud of when you graduate.
-Go to office hours, if at the least just to get to know your professors.
-If you are still interested in medicine at this point, take your pre-reqs as you go along, and supplement that with things like shadowing and clinical volunteering. Take your school's pre-med class if they have one or do whatever else you need to get on track for the committee letter (you can always drop off later; my school required taking this 1-credit class over multiple semesters to get the letter).
-Consider shadowing in other healthcare professions at this point, too, especially if you don't have a lot of exposure to the medical field. You never know if you might find something that is a better fit for you than being a physician.
-Don't be afraid to change your mind about medicine.
-Don't be afraid to change your major... but my caveat about this after seeing some friends in some train wreck situations, is also, make sure you are able to graduate in a reasonable amount of time if only for financial reasons (an extra semester or two is fine; three extra years as a full-time student is a bit much).
-If you get towards the end of your sophomore year and are still pretty serious about medicine, think about adding some research if you haven't yet, make sure you are cultivating relationships with some professors who can write you letters (same for grad school). Now is also the time to add more shadowing or clinical volunteering if needed (or non-clinical volunteering if you don't have that), make sure you have all your pre-reqs, etc.
-Don't be afraid to take a gap year.
-Have a backup plan for if you don't get into med school (see above about making sure you'd be OK with the job prospects for your major) OR if you decide you want to do something else.
-Night classes are the bomb.
In general, my advice is - cultivate a life outside of medicine. You will need that when you get to med school to keep your sanity. You will also need that to make sure that you have explored your options and know that medicine is what you want to do. I don't want to discourage people from applying, but rather know a lot of people who have been pressured into going pre-med, or originally thought they wanted to be a doctor but found something else that they enjoyed more, so I just want others to know what they are getting into and that there ARE other options out there in life. Also, you don't have to major in science or even love science to love medicine; you have to love the clinical application of science that is medicine and be able to tolerate enough science to get to the point where you can learn that. I see that topic come up a lot, and so I just want to say don't panic... if you're interested in medicine but hate your botany-heavy bio class YOU ARE NOT ALONE, I'm not too interested in plants either.
