Am I on the right track?

[bailey42]

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Hi everyone

Right now I am a high school sophomore and although it is quite early, I was wondering if I could get some advice about my academics/ECs, and whether I am on the right track for getting into a good college/medical school later in life. I am very interested in B.S./M.D. programs, so any advice regarding those is also greatly appreciated. I have heard they are very competitive though, and I do not know where I stand when compared to other students applying for combined programs as well. Here is my high school resume:

Career G.P.A - 4.26
Courses this year:
Anatomy and Physiology Honors
Spanish 4 Honors
Algebra 2 Honors
English Honors
Consumer Science
Chemistry Honors
US History non-honors (my school does not offer an honors level history)

E.Cs:
2 years of high school basketball (6 years total)
2 years of high school lacrosse (7 years total)
Spanish Club
Best Buddies member
Environmental Club

Community Service/Volunteering:
3 years volunteering at the local soup kitchen
24 hours at the local hospital
20+ hours at random, one-time events locally
I am currently trying to work out my schedule so I can get a volunteering position at a hospital this winter

Work Experience:
2 years at a clothing shop in my town...I'm not sure if this is relevant though...

I really appreciate any feedback so I can make changes to what I do now to improve my chances of getting into a good program when I apply to college (and hopefully get accepted into a B.S/M.D. program 🙂)

 

[Terpskins99]

Everything looks good so far.

Just kick butt on the SAT's, and you should be golden.

 

[xnfs93hy]

If I are doing fine now and do fine these next few years then you will be set for college. Do not worry about medical school. I am a junior and if there is one thing I have learned from being on these forums, it is that it doesn't matter where you go to undergrad. It is great that you are in honors classes.

You mention BS/MD, I would probably have to say no but again, I'm just going by what people have posted. If you are worried about getting into a good college, don't be, you are doing fine, I wish I cared enough freshman year so that I could've had honors last year.

Good luck.

 

[xnfs93hy]

I would beef up your community service hours bigtime. You mention soup kitchen three years, that makes no sense, we need hours.

 

[Docere]

I have to agree with jefgreen. Do more community work. Definitely need to volunteer at a hospital, but if possible, find a shadowing opportunity. Everything else seems to be top-notch.

As for B.S./M.D. programs, this list might help. That's not a very complete list (my program's not on there), but it's a great place to start.

B.S./M.D. programs are tough to get into, but you seem to have a great start. Make sure you keep it up when it comes time to apply. The tricky thing is, you have to convince everyone that you are set on becoming a doctor. Don't apply if you're going to have second-thoughts. They're really good at weeding out the ones who don't seem to have a good reason or motivation (other than fame and money) for going into med school. Over the next year or so, really think about how you're going to respond to the questions, "Why do you want to be a doctor?" and "What made you want to be a doctor in the first place?" and "What about you would make you a suitable doctor?" etc etc.

But always keep in mind that even if you don't get in a B.S./M.D. program, you'll still be able to get into med school 🙂

EDIT: Found this nifty website you might want to check out: http://bioe.eng.utoledo.edu/undergraduate/programs/bsmd_compare.html

Just to make sure you know there's a difference between Bacc/MD and B.S./M.D.

 

[xnfs93hy]

I have to agree with jefgreen. Do more community work. Definitely need to volunteer at a hospital, but if possible, find a shadowing opportunity. Everything else seems to be top-notch.

As for B.S./M.D. programs, this list might help. That's not a very complete list (my program's not on there), but it's a great place to start.

B.S./M.D. programs are tough to get into, but you seem to have a great start. Make sure you keep it up when it comes time to apply. The tricky thing is, you have to convince everyone that you are set on becoming a doctor. Don't apply if you're going to have second-thoughts. They're really good at weeding out the ones who don't seem to have a good reason or motivation (other than fame and money) for going into med school. Over the next year or so, really think about how you're going to respond to the questions, "Why do you want to be a doctor?" and "What made you want to be a doctor in the first place?" and "What about you would make you a suitable doctor?" etc etc.

But always keep in mind that even if you don't get in a B.S./M.D. program, you'll still be able to get into med school 🙂

EDIT: Found this nifty website you might want to check out: http://bioe.eng.utoledo.edu/undergraduate/programs/bsmd_compare.html

Just to make sure you know there's a difference between Bacc/MD and B.S./M.D.

I have known about these programs before I joined SDN. Let me emphasize that you better be POSITIVE that getting an M.D and becoming a doctor is what you want. I don't want to do a seven year deal because I want to be able to major in what I want, and besides, I don't have the grades for a BS/MD program anyway. However, it does save time and money going through a seven year program so definitely do it if you know this is really what you want and if you can get accepted into one. No idea what a Bacc/MD is so I will have to check out that link.


If in four years this is still what I want to do then I will go for it. Regardless of money, I'm not positive this is what I want (I'm pretty sure though) and we be able to make a much better career decision after being in undergrad a couple of years.

 

[xnfs93hy]

Everything looks good so far.

Just kick butt on the SAT's, and you should be golden.

I apologize for all the quotes, I just want to emphasize what everyone is saying here. Another reason is test scores. I do not know what the average is but I imagine it is high. I will be taking them this spring and I think the best I could possible pull is a 2100 which is fantastic but that is too much pressure for me. I plan on just going to a state school so a 1400-1800 ish score will be good enough for me. I cannot see myself scoring over a 700 on each part, there is just no way, I'm not THAT smart.

In short though, make sure you score around a 2000 b.c these programs are very competitive as we have mentioned already and it is not the end of the world (and may turn out to be better) if you do not get accepted into one because with you grades you will get into some great top 50 UG's so don't worry about, just keep trucking.

 

[bailey42]

First off, thanks for all the feedback everyone.

Secondly, even though I am very young, I am 110% sure I want to be a physician. I can't picture myself ever going into a different profession. With that said, I am certainly going to apply for B.S/M.D. programs although I may not get in. I'll definitely take your advice and aim high on the SATs...and I will also get involved in more volunteering, especially in hospitals. I am currently applying for a volunteer position at a hospital near where I live.
😀

 

[xnfs93hy]

First off, thanks for all the feedback everyone.

Secondly, even though I am very young, I am 110% sure I want to be a physician. I can't picture myself ever going into a different profession. With that said, I am certainly going to apply for B.S/M.D. programs although I may not get in. I'll definitely take your advice and aim high on the SATs...and I will also get involved in more volunteering, especially in hospitals. I am currently applying for a volunteer position at a hospital near where I live.
😀

Thats perfect. If you can get involved in another other form of volunteer work that would be good too. I hold a volunteer position at a medical center, have (I guess you can say "observed) research being done at a research clinic across the street from the medical center at a research facility and I am involved with teaching sunday school and doing volunteer work at my church. I don't do any of that church youth group crap or the environmental club at school. I am looking into doing volunteer work (maybe on a saturday) with special needs kids, or some form of tutoring. I only do the hospital on friday nights and whenever I can put in free time after school. I have no sports or clubs though but I am involved in better things outside of school which I actually enjoy. Some colleges like to see you get involved WITH your school but I hate my school to death and they don't offer anything that appeals to me so why waste my time.

 

[xnfs93hy]

Thats perfect. If you can get involved in another other form of volunteer work that would be good too. I hold a volunteer position at a medical center, have (I guess you can say "observed) research being done at a research clinic across the street from the medical center at a research facility and I am involved with teaching sunday school and doing volunteer work at my church. I don't do any of that church youth group crap or the environmental club at school. I am looking into doing volunteer work (maybe on a saturday) with special needs kids, or some form of tutoring. I only do the hospital on friday nights and whenever I can put in free time after school. I have no sports or clubs though but I am involved in better things outside of school which I actually enjoy. Some colleges like to see you get involved WITH your school but I hate my school to death and they don't offer anything that appeals to me so why waste my time.

I will also be applying for a caddying job next summer, taking college classes and will soon be applying for a job at my local GameStop when it opens 😀, I'm excited lol.

 

[ButImLETired]

First off, thanks for all the feedback everyone.

Secondly, even though I am very young, I am 110% sure I want to be a physician. I can't picture myself ever going into a different profession. With that said, I am certainly going to apply for B.S/M.D. programs although I may not get in. I'll definitely take your advice and aim high on the SATs...and I will also get involved in more volunteering, especially in hospitals. I am currently applying for a volunteer position at a hospital near where I live.
😀

What you also might want to think about is what you'd give up by going into a shortened BS/MD. One of the cool things about the way the MD works in the US is that you get to major in anything you want, take whatever classes you want, and still take the pre-reqs and be premed. I can't emphasize enough how much I loved being in college and getting a varied, liberal arts education. It also, in my opinion, makes you a more well-rounded person (not to imply that people in BS/MD's aren't as well-rounded, but I do think that they have to put in more "individual" effort to do different/fun things than if they had just gone to college for 4 years). Also, you might not want to leave school so early to start med school. College really IS fun, and 4 years, as it is, felt too short.

Another thing to think about is location/cost. What if you do amazingly in college and want to consider other med schools? What if your S.O. is going somewhere else and you're bound to your program? What if you just want a change of scenery after college and want to look into different curricula, different cities? And in terms of costs, will they offer BS/MD people the same scholarship opportunities and financial aid that they offer regular students they are trying to "woo"? With you, they'll know you're going there and will have no motivation to try to get you to come. My alma mater had a BS/MD, and when I was in high school I applied. I didn't get it, but after 4 years in UG, I realized it was for the best. I got to major in something that I loved and do EC's I loved and didn't have to follow any particular timelines or arbitrary GPA requirements. I had lots and lots of fun. But I wouldn't want to go to med school back there because I have realized how great it would be to explore something new, go somewhere fun and different while I still have no ties.

So yeah, think about it REALLY hard! You not only have to be committed to medicine to go into something like that, but also to the specific school and to the specific program, and that's a lot of commitments.

 

[Terpskins99]

The single most overrated extracurricular experience is "hospital volunteer work". I don't mean to start a flame war here, but hospital volunteer work looks great... if you plan to be a nurse. It isn't going to really impress an admissions committee made up of doctors.

An infinitely stronger extracurricular experience to have under your belt is research. Benchside (i.e. wetlabs) or clinical research, it doesn't matter. Get as much research experience as you can while still you have the time to do so.

 

[bailey42]

An infinitely stronger extracurricular experience to have under your belt is research. Benchside (i.e. wetlabs) or clinical research, it doesn't matter. Get as much research experience as you can while still you have the time to do so.

I completely agree. The only problem is, (and I posted an earlier thread about this very subject) is that I can find very few research opportunities for high school students. I found maybe one or two summer research internships offered to high schoolers that I may apply to...but the commutes would be over an hour away since they are located in Boston (and I don't have my own car yet 😳 ). I am going to look into it more, but securing a position may be difficult.

 

[Terpskins99]

I completely agree. The only problem is, (and I posted an earlier thread about this very subject) is that I can find very few research opportunities for high school students. I found maybe one or two summer research internships offered to high schoolers that I may apply to...but the commutes would be over an hour away since they are located in Boston (and I don't have my own car yet 😳 ). I am going to look into it more, but securing a position may be difficult.

It isn't easy for a lot of high schoolers due to distance. You might have to be creative. Try getting in contact with a doctor practicing at a nearby university hospital. Almost all doctors at such institutions are actively involved in some kind of research. Let them know you're interested and that you'd like to help out in some capacity. It doesn't have to be a formal internship (though that would certainly be nice).

 

[Docere]

It isn't easy for a lot of high schoolers due to distance. You might have to be creative. Try getting in contact with a doctor practicing at a nearby university hospital. Almost all doctors at such institutions are actively involved in some kind of research. Let them know you're interested and that you'd like to help out in some capacity. It doesn't have to be a formal internship (though that would certainly be nice).

Actually, a lot of research programs offer stipends that pay for your travel/living expenses/misc.

I posted a link of all high school research programs in this thread. Granted, as a high school student, you won't be allowed to do much. But you'll get a very good introduction to basic lab techniques that will make lab in college a lot easier and that will impress your PI in college if you do research then.