Any Advice or Guidance??

[Green22]

Hi everyone, I am currently in the first semester in my sophomore year in undergrad. I attend a community college and plan to transfer to a 4yr after sophomore year. I was wondering if anyone had any advice or guidance on what I need to do to maximize my chances of getting into MD school. I plan to get a bachelors degree in biology. My current overall gpa is 3.87 (I have made all A's except for one B in Calculus I). I am waiting to take organic chem, biochem, and upper level biology courses at the 4yr institution. I also have volunteered for a week as a counselor at a camp for kids with JRA (150 or so volunteer hours). I also work a part time job and have been since I started college back in freshman year.

Overall, I am looking for any advice at all on things I need to do to maximize my chances of getting into med school (preferablyMD but I am not ruling out DO). Whether it be about grades, MCAT, extracurriculars, shadowing, volunteer work, or anything I should look into doing to boost chances.


Thank you all very much for taking the time to read this post!

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[Goro]

Read this book:
Med School Rx: Getting In, Getting Through, and Getting On with Doctoring
by Walter Hartwig
ISBN-13: 978-1607140627
ISBN-10: 1607140624

Shill alert: Dr Hartwig is a professional colleague.

 

[Green22]

Thank you very much for the recommendation. I will check it out!

 

[Traitor Kaepernick]

Hi everyone, I am currently in the first semester in my sophomore year in undergrad. I attend a community college and plan to transfer to a 4yr after sophomore year. I was wondering if anyone had any advice or guidance on what I need to do to maximize my chances of getting into MD school. I plan to get a bachelors degree in biology. My current overall gpa is 3.87 (I have made all A's except for one B in Calculus I). I am waiting to take organic chem, biochem, and upper level biology courses at the 4yr institution. I also have volunteered for a week as a counselor at a camp for kids with JRA (150 or so volunteer hours). I also work a part time job and have been since I started college back in freshman year.

Overall, I am looking for any advice at all on things I need to do to maximize my chances of getting into med school (preferablyMD but I am not ruling out DO). Whether it be about grades, MCAT, extracurriculars, shadowing, volunteer work, or anything I should look into doing to boost chances.


Thank you all very much for taking the time to read this post!

First, keep doing what you are doing academically.

If you can do that, you just need to do well on the MCAT and you're in.

One suggestion, while not directly studying for the MCAT while taking premed courses, get some review books and look over the review books with your course work. This will make MCAT prep easier and it will pay off. It will also be good practice for medical school where I suggest to use First Aid to help create a blue print, but not use is a resource.

 

[Green22]

Just based on the info I gave, what advice would you have for me from you? I value anyone's opinion who has been through the whole experience.

 

[Traitor Kaepernick]

Just based on the info I gave, what advice would you have for me from you? I value anyone's opinion who has been through the whole experience.

Do some shadowing too.

 

[Green22]

Do some shadowing too.

Do you think the fact that I went to a community college for two years will hurt me?

 

[Green22]

Read this book:
Med School Rx: Getting In, Getting Through, and Getting On with Doctoring
by Walter Hartwig
ISBN-13: 978-1607140627
ISBN-10: 1607140624

Shill alert: Dr Hartwig is a professional colleague.

What would your personal advice to me be based on your own experiences?

 

[AttemptingScholar]

Do you think the fact that I went to a community college for two years will hurt me?

No, only people who go to a 4yr but over the summer take prereqs at a CC really get hurt. As long as you can maintain GPA, you're fine.

I'm not certain about your volunteering hours though...it really only comes out to 150 hours if you don't sleep. For weeklong requirements, I usually assume an 8-hour workday and calculate hours from there.

 

[Green22]

No, only people who go to a 4yr but over the summer take prereqs at a CC really get hurt. As long as you can maintain GPA, you're fine.

I'm not certain about your volunteering hours though...it really only comes out to 150 hours if you don't sleep. For weeklong requirements, I usually assume an 8-hour workday and calculate hours from there.

Then it would be 56 volunteering hours by that standard. How many hours do you recommend shooting for overall?

 

[AttemptingScholar]

Then it would be 56 volunteering hours by that standard. How many hours do you recommend shooting for overall?

It really depends on your application and interests. You don't want to be too cookie-cutter!

You would benefit from having volunteering, clinical experience, and research. Research, if you choose to do it (some don't and just do a lot of other stuff), is fine with only a semester's worth unless you really like it. Volunteering and clinical together often come out to potentially hundreds of hours of the three years before an average application. If you have other extracurriculars (like work, for example!) it might be less.

Volunteering often benefits underserved populations. Clinical experience can also be volunteering (or it could be paid). At least some of it should be shadowing (which, while not paid, is not volunteering. It doesn't help anyone but you). In one of my school clubs, we give free blood pressure readings to communities that are underserved in medicine and often are non-English speaking. At this point, a long (say one or two year) commitment is probably going to be easier to talk about then short bursts of lots of hours. Do what works best with your schedule and opportunities for experience.

 

[Traitor Kaepernick]

Do you think the fact that I went to a community college for two years will hurt me?

Not even a little bit. I went to a community college for the first two years of my BS and then for my premed classes. I left undergrad with less than 10 grand debt. I'll take that any day over some of my classmates who entered medical school with $120,000 of student loan debt.