Advice and tips

[pianoman007]

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Hey everyone, I'm a new member at SDN and I'm a freshman in college this year. I am a pre-med at a state school (~20,000 students), majoring in bio. I want to go to med school, hopefully in an md-phd program that is NIH funded. Does anyone here, either in the application process or currently in a program, have any tips as to how I should go about preparing for the application process?

I know it seems early to decide to want to do an md/phd program, but I've been in a couple of research projects and have thought a lot about the time requirement, commitment and life choices this path would lead me on if I took it.

thanks for any and all help.

 

[Neuronix]

Keep your GPA as close to 4.0 as possible
Do research frequently
When it comes time, score very high on the MCAT
Get some amount of clinical experience (~100 hours)

All other things are secondary.

 

[achamess]

keep your gpa as close to 4.0 as possible
do research frequently
when it comes time, score very high on the mcat
get some amount of clinical experience (~100 hours)

all other things are secondary.

qft

 

[Drexon]

QED =)
I second the motion.
I'm not sure if you have joined a research lab but once you do work hard in it.
Become independent and have your own project. Or if you're part of someone else's project try your hardest and do your part to your very best. Do meaning full research that will have an impact in the lab and in the scientific community.

I've seen some undergrads in labs where their scientific voices aren't addressed and they're given responsibility of assisting other scientific personal IE grad students or postdocs. Post doccs/ grads say do this western for me and the undergrads do it for them without asking why etc or questioning the purpose behind it. This is not meaningful research.

Also try and get some publications under your belt. At least 1 if you can.
1st or co-author or 2nd author. This would reflect that you've done some serious contributions towards the project and you've done something meaningful. Being mid-author means you've contributed a lot less etc.
Good luck in your endeavors and best of luck!

 

[bd4727]

Figure out if you want a career as an R01 funded researcher, or a career as as clinician paid by a hospital. If you want the later, don't waste your time with MD/PhD, IMO.

 

[Neuronix]

I'm a 7th year and I still can't figure that out

Just kidding, bd is right. If you think you want a majority clinical career, do not do MD/PhD. MD/PhD is intended to produce 80% researchers. Is that you? Regardless, the general advice I gave will get you into a top MD program as well, you may need to be a little more well rounded. Take on leadership roles and do interesting things that aren't just resume padding.

 

[QofQuimica]

Don't forget to also do a few mission trips to save babies in Africa and win gold medals in the winter Olympics in three different sports while you're at it. 😉

OK, so seriously, any of these suggestions (with the exception of mine!) would help your app, OP. But obviously that's a lot to take on at once. What I suggest is that you add ECs one at a time. First, start by making sure your grades are as close to straight As as possible. You're done with one semester now, right? How did that go?

If you're already acing all of your classes, you should next start looking for a lab to join either during spring semester or for this summer. Getting significant research experience is essential for someone who wants to do MD/PhD, but you shouldn't do research at the expense of tanking your GPA. It's very easy to take a year or two off during or after college to do research if you need more lab experience, but it's very hard to pull a low GPA up once you've started getting a lot of Bs or worse. So keeping your GPA up is your first priority, then research experience.

Once you've reached some kind of balance with your grades and research, then you can see about doing a little shadowing or hospital volunteering. You don't have to go crazy; just spend a couple hours per week in a medical setting where you're around physicians and patients. If you do that for one year, you should have plenty of clinical experience.

When it comes time to take the MCAT (generally spring of junior year for someone who is going to apply to med school straight out of college), make sure you prepare for it properly. Ideally you will want to shoot for a 35+ score if possible. But you can worry more about all of this a little later; for now, focus on doing well in your med school prereqs, which will in turn improve your knowledge base for the MCAT.

As for a publication, it would be great if you could get one, but don't worry if you can't. Publishing a paper would be a bonus for your app, not a requirement. The other things we've mentioned (grades, research experience, MCAT score, and clinical experience) are the most important and required components of your app.

Best of luck. 🙂