A few questions

[Chrism611]

Hey guys Im new to these forums. I am interested in a career in health care preferably Emergency Medicine or Pediatrics.


I am a Sophomore in High School make high B's and A's. Is this good enough? Do I need to start shooting for straight A's?


Does anyone know if I have a better shot at getting into Med School at USA or UAB in Alabama?

I work at the hospital during the summer in a Volunteer program in Same day Surgery.

What other things can I do to help prepare myself?
I took the PSAT and am looking to take the ACT soon.


Thanks for your answers in advance

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[DrYoda]

I am a Sophomore in High School make high B's and A's. Is this good enough? Do I need to start shooting for straight A's?

High school grades don't matter for med school unless you are applying to a combined BS/MD progam. They matter for college though so do as good as you can, it'll help you get scholarship money and an acceptance to the college you want.

Does anyone know if I have a better shot at getting into Med School at USA or UAB in Alabama?

USA.

What other things can I do to help prepare myself?
I took the PSAT and am looking to take the ACT soon.

Gaining exposure to the medical field field is really the only thing you can do at this point. Your college performance is the major factor in getting accepted.

 

[Chrism611]

Thanks for your reply. I'm going to start looking more into USA's Band and see if I can get some kind of scholarship with them.

What type of things can I do to get more familiar with the Medical Field?
Do you mean like shadowing and stuff like that?

 

[DrYoda]

What type of things can I do to get more familiar with the Medical Field?
Do you mean like shadowing and stuff like that?

Yeah, shadowing and volunteering/working in a medical setting.

 

[Zoom-Zoom]

Thanks for your reply. I'm going to start looking more into USA's Band and see if I can get some kind of scholarship with them.

What type of things can I do to get more familiar with the Medical Field?
Do you mean like shadowing and stuff like that?

I wouldn't worry too much about that stuff yet, just focus on doing well in your classes so you can do well when you apply to college. After that, it'll all work out. I found AP science classes helped a lot as prep for the pre-med requirements in undergrad, so try to familiarize yourself with sciences so you'll have a leg up later on.

 

[Everglide]

Your main focus should be getting into your "first choice" college, it will give you a lot of opportunities in terms of getting into med school. AP science classes will help you for the basic science classes in college, take some if you can.

If you're looking for more exposure to medicine, call up some physicians in your area and see if they would take you for shadowing.

 

[coffeebythelake]

before you decide you want to be a pediatrician or an EM doctor, I think you should actually get into college first. then whether you want to actually go into med school.

Most med students don't know what they want to go into until their 3rd year. Don't dellude yourself into idealing any particular field, because medicine isn't glamorous and what what you see on TV isn't real.

 

[krispy]

It's good to get the best grades you can while you're in high school, like someone else said--this helps you get into the college of your choice.

It is awesome that you are so focused and motivated...just don't burn out before you get to college-value the free time you have now (hopefully you have some free time), before you are required to volunteer at a clinic, get in some good research, or study endlessly for an organic test...it is good to shadow local doctors or volunteer at your local hospital/nursing home in high school (volunteering also will help you get into the college of your choice, so there are quite a few benefits with doing something like this-which, the volunteering you're doing now will look great).

One semester I took a Certified Nursing Assistant class at our local community college, which really helped familiarize me with the basics of nursing/medicine (i.e. how to take someone's blood pressure, what a "good" BP is, how many breaths per a healthy person should have, etc). I suggest doing something of this nature while you're in HS. (Also, if you take a CNA class, you can get your CNA license)

Good luck to you...and keep getting good grades!

 

[Chrism611]

In the last post you mentioned something about CNA.
I googled this and found a local Community College has this program.

I can't find a lot of information on this so I was wondering if you were familiar with some of the basic requirements?

Does age play a factor in this?