About to start college and a bit confused

[NYSP2010]

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I just graduated high school, and I'm going to UC Berkeley next year. I plan to major in Molecular&Cellular Biology, Immunology emphasis (I know this is a GPA killer, but I know doctors that did MCB at Berkeley and still went to good med schools and are successful now. I believe I can work hard and keep up my GPA...and I still have all of freshman year or more if I decide to change my major anyway. It's just, MCB is what would enthrall me the most and it's the classes I would love/be much more interested in.)

I think I'm digressing...anyways, to get back on point. I want to do Medical Scientist Training Program after my undergrad. But, as I've been looking around this and other forums, and trying to figure out requirements, I feel somewhat confused. I know that I have to take Chem/Physics/Bio/OChem/Math...but what else is there to an ideal application? Like, should I plan on non-medical extracurriculars in order to round out my application? Or should I focus on science extracurriculars? How much shadowing should I do and how good does it look on an application anyway? (I've seen mixed answers about this.) What exactly is clinical experience and does it make an application stronger? What other extracurriculars should I look into?

Finally, I suppose, how do you get a feel for how difficult it will be to get into a specific school? Obviously, I know getting into any MSTP will be hard what with some class sizes being under 20...but other than that, how difficult? I'd preferably like to stay in-state (CA) for MSTP, so I'm thinking of applying to UCs and Stanford, but how realistic is that?

Sorry for the long and many questions, I really don't know much and I'm trying to figure out more 🙁

 

[schrizto]

Do you plan on a research career? That's what those who aspire to an MSTP or MD/PhD program plan to do. I'm not stating that fact as an insult but I've found that many people in hs or early in college who say they want to do MSTP/MD-PhD say so as a result of idealism (especially since you didn't specifically mention research in the original post makes me suspect this).

 

[allie1361]

I just graduated high school, and I'm going to UC Berkeley next year. I plan to major in Molecular&Cellular Biology, Immunology emphasis (I know this is a GPA killer, but I know doctors that did MCB at Berkeley and still went to good med schools and are successful now. I believe I can work hard and keep up my GPA...and I still have all of freshman year or more if I decide to change my major anyway. It's just, MCB is what would enthrall me the most and it's the classes I would love/be much more interested in.)

I think I'm digressing...anyways, to get back on point. I want to do Medical Scientist Training Program after my undergrad. But, as I've been looking around this and other forums, and trying to figure out requirements, I feel somewhat confused. I know that I have to take Chem/Physics/Bio/OChem/Math...but what else is there to an ideal application? Like, should I plan on non-medical extracurriculars in order to round out my application? Or should I focus on science extracurriculars? How much shadowing should I do and how good does it look on an application anyway? (I've seen mixed answers about this.) What exactly is clinical experience and does it make an application stronger? What other extracurriculars should I look into?

Finally, I suppose, how do you get a feel for how difficult it will be to get into a specific school? Obviously, I know getting into any MSTP will be hard what with some class sizes being under 20...but other than that, how difficult? I'd preferably like to stay in-state (CA) for MSTP, so I'm thinking of applying to UCs and Stanford, but how realistic is that?

Sorry for the long and many questions, I really don't know much and I'm trying to figure out more 🙁

As far as major goes, do whatever YOU will enjoy...be it MCB, biochem, art, english, music...whatever. All you need to make sure of is that you have the required med school classes done (bio, physics, gen chem, orgo, genetics, etc, etc.)

Non-medical extracurriculars are important. Med schools want to see that you are normal and have some resemblance of a life outside of school. So if you are a tennis fanatic, keep at it; if you love photography, don't give it up; always find time for the things you enjoy, whether or not they are "medically" relevant. Now I'm not saying you have to go pick up a hobby or something if you don't have one, but don't give up anything you like doing.

Shadowing is important because it gives you exposure to the clinical side of medicine. It's supposed to give you an idea of what it's like to be a doctor. There is no hard and fast rule to shadowing. Some people are going to say "you need at least 50 hours of shadowing with 5 different doctors" and that's a load of crap. How much shadowing you do depends on how much YOU want to learn and how meaningful your experiences were. It also depends on the rest of your application. I know a couple people who've gotten in without any shadowing, but that's because they had OTHER great things (clinical exposure) that made up for the lack of that.

Clinical exposure = working with patients: from simply greeting them at the front entrance of the hospital and showing them where they need to go to helping patients with basic activities of daily living to shadowing doctors. There are many ways to get this. I got the majority of mine working as a CNA in a nursing home. Others get it by becoming EMTs, volunteering at a hospital/nursing home/hospice/etc, becoming phlebotomists, and a number of other ways. You have MANY ways to get this, so you can pick what will be the most beneficial for you.

Extracurriculars: join clubs like interest clubs, sports teams, or volunteer organizations. I joined Pre-Med AMSA, habitat for humanity and a bunch of honors societies. You can get leadership bonus points for becoming pres/vp/sec/treasurer/etc of one of them, but this is NOT a necessity. Regularly attending meetings and volunteering will do just as well.

And as far as your MSTP questions go, I don't know much about that stuff. But I do agree that you'll need a lot of research to get into a good one. I'm pretty sure they want people who have a significant interest in research. Getting into that isn't hard. My school had a program called Undergrad Researchers that listed all profs looking for lab assistants. You could look into something like that at your school. Or get in nice with one of your profs who teaches a class you really like and see if they'll let you in their lab.

Hope that helps some!

 

[URHere]

If you are serious about the MSTP route, you should probably check out the Physician Scientist forum - there are plenty of us, and I like to think that we give pretty good advice.

That being said, if you want to land an MSTP spot, research should be your first concern. To be competitive, you will also need everything that an MD-only applicant needs (solid GPA, clinical experience, solid MCAT). As a freshman, it is a little too early to fixate on most of those things. Do well in your classes, find your way into a lab, and find some extracurricular that you enjoy. Then, in a few years, come out and stress over SDN.

 

[NYSP2010]

Sorry that I forgot to mention it, but yes, I definitely want a research career. I guess I forgot to mention research during undergrad in my original post because I already assumed and knew it is a must, and I definitely want to find a lab and research a lot.

As far as non-medical extracurriculars go...I already know that I really want to participate in Rotoract, since I was in Interact for all of my high school life and I really enjoyed it and I've heard great things about Rotoract. Other than this though, would church count? I've been part of my local church community for the last 5-6 years, and I plan on continuing going to Mass at Berkeley...so would volunteering or bible studies or whatever with church count?

Thanks for all the great advice! I agree that it may be a little early to fixate on these things...but one of my hugest regrets from high school is not really planning at all, just doing whatever and guessing/assuming that it would be good, without researching the pros and cons first. I ended up reaching the end of high school realizing that what I did doesn't look that stellar on an application, and that I could've done a lot more. I really believe that my high GPA is what saved me and got me into Berkeley, because my extracurriculars weren't that outstanding. So for college, I want to know what I'm doing and do more.

 

[austinap]

I just graduated high school, and I'm going to UC Berkeley next year. I plan to major in Molecular&Cellular Biology, Immunology emphasis (I know this is a GPA killer, but I know doctors that did MCB at Berkeley and still went to good med schools and are successful now. I believe I can work hard and keep up my GPA...and I still have all of freshman year or more if I decide to change my major anyway. It's just, MCB is what would enthrall me the most and it's the classes I would love/be much more interested in.)

I think I'm digressing...anyways, to get back on point. I want to do Medical Scientist Training Program after my undergrad. But, as I've been looking around this and other forums, and trying to figure out requirements, I feel somewhat confused. I know that I have to take Chem/Physics/Bio/OChem/Math...but what else is there to an ideal application? Like, should I plan on non-medical extracurriculars in order to round out my application? Or should I focus on science extracurriculars? How much shadowing should I do and how good does it look on an application anyway? (I've seen mixed answers about this.) What exactly is clinical experience and does it make an application stronger? What other extracurriculars should I look into?

Finally, I suppose, how do you get a feel for how difficult it will be to get into a specific school? Obviously, I know getting into any MSTP will be hard what with some class sizes being under 20...but other than that, how difficult? I'd preferably like to stay in-state (CA) for MSTP, so I'm thinking of applying to UCs and Stanford, but how realistic is that?

Sorry for the long and many questions, I really don't know much and I'm trying to figure out more 🙁

I didn't read the other replies, so some of this may be redundant. Anyhow, here goes. First off, you're going to need to learn some efficient study habits fast. I've taught premeds at Berkeley for a while, and the biggest thing I've noticed is that the majority of freshmen at Berkeley have terribly ineffective / inefficient study habits. This is something you need to remedy to survive here.

Before you completely commit to the MSTP route, you're going to want to see how much you actually like research. For a lot of people, it sounds nice on paper, but they can't stand research. In any case, there's no way you'll land an MSTP slot without significant research experience. Get involved in this early. There are plenty of research opportunities at Cal, but they're competitive and you need to ask around for them. Typically, sometime after your freshman or sophomore year you should be looking for a position. Labs here don't like to hire an undergrad that is only going to be around for a year. Often, they like someone that is going to be around for 2-3 years, and is willing to dedicate a considerable amount of time to research. For example, my advisor typically requires undergrads to commit to 20 hrs/wk. Start talking to people early to learn what your options are. Talking to your GSIs can be a good start--we usually know who is doing what research, and can point you in the right direction. Many of the undergrads in our lab joined because they took a class that one of us was a GSI for.

You really don't get to choose where you go for an MD/PhD. There are so few slots and so many competitive applicants, that you could have a 4.0 from Cal, a 40+ MCAT, and published research, and still not get your pick. Of course, with stats like that you'll almost certainly land something, but even something in CA isn't a sure thing. Get used to that idea early.