Welp, I've decided on five. I'm sure people will disagree, but this is what I'm going with. I appreciate the input!
Medical School Admissions:
5 things I wish I had known when I was in your shoes
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Understand (don't just memorize) the concepts in your high school science courses
Make sure that you take the time to truly understand the concepts being tested in high school chemistry, biology and physics (if you take it). These same concepts will be taught in introductory college science courses, and having a strong foundation in them now will give you a huge advantage over the rest of the class in college. Actually, believe it or not, the majority of concepts tested on the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) are covered in your high school courses, so pay attention! You'll thank yourself later.
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High school grades and SAT scores will not directly affect your chances of getting into medical school
While your high school grades and SAT scores will, in large part, determine where you get accepted into college, medical schools will not ask for, nor be provided, your high school grades or SAT scores. The only exceptions to this rule are 1) if you took an AP course during high school that you got college credit for and 2) a tiny number of medical schools (maybe 3 or 4 out of well over 100) will request your SAT scores.
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Don't break rules, and if you do, certainly don't get caught
Whether you know it or not, as a future medical school applicant, your behavior during college will be held to a higher standard. Every year, the medical school aspirations of several unsuspecting premeds are tarnished by some random minor violation they forgot they had several years back. The classic example might be the underage drinking violation. Many college dormitories have no-drinking policies. It's almost tradition for students not to take these policies seriously and drink in their dorms anyway, because seriously, it's college, right? Well, every year a few unlucky premed freshmen get made examples of by getting written up for underage drinking in their dorm rooms. It's usually not until around junior year of college that they realize they will be required to report this on medical school applications. You don't have to be perfect in college, but be aware and be smart.
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Volunteer during college
If you think "extracurricular" activities are important for gaining admission to an undergraduate university, just wait until you apply to medical school. Some medical schools won't even consider applicants who had no volunteer experience as an undergraduate college student. Ideally, you should begin volunteering in high school, because it's the right thing to do. However, realize that medical schools don't give you an opportunity to tell them about the extracurricular activities (including volunteering) that you were part of during high school, only those during or after college.
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Don't take a course-load that there is a chance you can't carry
You will find many pre-meds taking large course loads (a lot of classes per semester) in hopes of showing medical schools that they can "handle large volumes of information thrown at them at once." You will also find many of these very same pre-meds burnt out, stuck with poor grades or no longer interested in medicine after their first year or so of college. Don't fall into this trap! Only take as many courses as you are confident you can do well in while still having a social life in college. Remember two things: 1) some of the most important lessons the college years have to teach you come far outside of the classroom, but you need to have some free time to learn them in and 2) 4 A's in 4 classes will always beat 4 A's and a 1 B in 5 classes.