Advice on future

[uagirl11]

Hi there,

I will be a freshman at the University of Alabama next fall. I know this is super early to start planning this, but I am a planner! I was wondering if someone would mind outlining the basics of what I need to do in order to get into medical school following my undergraduate degree. I will be majoring in biology and I understand there are certain pre-requisite classes that medical schools would to see you take. I also understand that I will need volunteer and shadow hours as well.

I guess my questions are: what should my goal GPA be in order to be a competitive applicant, and same for MCAT? And also, what year do I begin to study for the MCAT/take it? I know that I will have a pre-med advisor once I get to school and can go over these things with him or her, but like I said earlier I plan way too much!

I am doing Honors College at Alabama and I am also on the Forensics Council (Speech/Debate team). I'm hoping both of these will help me be a competitive applicant...?

Thanks for any information, I appreciate it!

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[babolat91]

1) It's still early, and the most important aspects of college are to explore who you are, develop your interpersonal skills, and make friends/have fun. Never forget that.
2) You want to aim as high as you can for GPA and MCAT. By sheer numbers, someone with a 3.7 cumulative GPA, similar science GPA and 510 MCAT would be considered a good applicant. Those were my undergrad stats, though I also had a 4.0 in a masters when I applied and will complete my masters before i matriculate. But still, that's a respectable baseline goal.
3) You will begin preparing for the MCAT in the winter or spring of your junior year and will take the MCAT the spring or summer of your junior year. Take it as soon as you are ready but no sooner so that you can apply early and have your application verified on day 1(July 1st) with all grades, scores, letters complete (this is very important).
4) Volunteer work, leadership, research, clinical experience, philanthropy, athletics, hobbies. Try for a baseline of 100 hours of philanthropy/service, 100 hours of research, 100 hours of clinical experience, 100 hours of leadership experience and then focus on one thing in particular that matters to you the most. Also, be sure to gain some experience working with underserved communitied. Make all of these an important part of your college experience and you will have great ECs. I made my college experience more about, well, "the experience" than the grades and I am extremely grateful for having done that. As I said before, college is first and foremost about growing into yourself. Developing your ECs can be a big part of that.
5) Establish good relationships with as many professors, faculty, people as possible so you can have strong LORs. This is extremely important. You will want lots of different people supporting your case for medical school. Some doctors you work with, professors, an employer or person that ran a charity you were heavily involved in, etc.
6) Get to know your premed committee and advisor. Be an active participant in the determination of your curriculum and be educated about what classes you are signing up for beforehand so that you don't get "that professor" and avoid other issues with scheduling / not getting all pre-reqs.
7) Consider a gap year (or two, or three...). Would you want to scribe for a year? Get a masters degree? Work? Volunteer? Do research? There are lots of ways you can better yourself as a person and applicant with a gap year. Having taken 2 years, I would recommend the gap experience. Just do what is best for you.

Good luck, and more importantly, have fun. The next 4 years will be some of the best!

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[SOMBound13]

I guess my questions are: what should my goal GPA be in order to be a competitive applicant, and same for MCAT? And also, what year do I begin to study for the MCAT/take it? I know that I will have a pre-med advisor once I get to school and can go over these things with him or her, but like I said earlier I plan way too much!

I am very familiar with the premed process at Bama.

1) You should aim for all A's, but if you end up with a 3.7+ GPA, then that is fine.

2) Do not stick with Bio as your major unless you love all the bio classes and will do well with those. If you're stronger in another subject, then choose another major or do New College and design your own major including the premed prereqs.

3) Your goal should be to get an MCAT that is at least a 512, but a 509 will possibly do.

4) I never studied for the MCAT. I know, bad. But, if I had, I would have started junior year. I tested in April of my jr year.

5) At all schools, including Bama, there are a gazillion premeds. Rarely does a school dedicate a strong premed advisor to freshman, because it's a waste. 75% of the frosh premeds never apply to med school, so they save their best advisors for upperclassmen (after the majority of weeding). So, don't expect much as a frosh.

6) Join AED. On the UA premed forum, there is a link for current students and info about joining Alpha Epsilon Delta...the premed association. Join that. Good info, guest speakers, shadowing opps, etc.

7) Go to the premed advising website and get your email address added to the ListServ so you'll get important info.

Do you have any AP credits? If so, were you a strong student in the science AP classes?