Any advise would help.

[Ramma]

Sorry If I posted in the complete wrong place. Or reposted.

I've been browsing for a day or so now trying to find a post about a similar situation to mine with no luck.

I am technically still a Junior in high school at the moment, but I am enrolled in Early College High School(ECHS) through my school district. Through ECHS I attend full time college at the local community college until I would normally graduate from high school ('09, So two free years). I have been on and off about trying to make it to medical school, primarily due to how much work it seems to be, my past grades, and simply not having a damn clue what to do to get there. My high school GPA is only a 2.6 or so at the moment, and rising with the Early College program grades, and my Early College GPA is only an overall 3.14. I have only been taking the minimum 12 credits the last two terms (15 first term) this year to just get required courses out of the way, and have almost all next year to experiment.

So, finally after all that boring stuff. I was just wondered if anyone might have some suggestions for me? Are there any classes I should try taking? Anything that may help me see if I would be interested in a medical career? That is, other than House, and Scrubs. Any advice would be great! Thanks

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[Whaty]

The best way to find out if you might like medicine is to fallow around a doc or to volunteer at a hospital. Granted if you fallow around a doc you will only get the perspective of their field. So I would volunteer in several areas of the hospital or shadow several types of docs to get a good idea. Good luck!

 

[Neuronix]

Take whatever classes you're interested in and talk to the pre-med advisor when you get to college about what you need to take for medical school.

One thing: KEEP YOUR GPA IN COLLEGE CLASSES AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE! I can't stress this enough. If you can't get As in all your college classes or close to it, don't take the classes. If this is too much work for you, drop some of the classes. When you get to college, this still applies. Take a light load and get that 4.0. A 3.14 is a bad way to start. That GPA number from all your college courses will follow you to your medical school applications, and that single number has a huge impact on your application.

 

[Ramma]

Take whatever classes you're interested in and talk to the pre-med advisor when you get to college about what you need to take for medical school.

One thing: KEEP YOUR GPA IN COLLEGE CLASSES AS HIGH AS POSSIBLE! I can't stress this enough. If you can't get As in all your college classes or close to it, don't take the classes. If this is too much work for you, drop some of the classes. When you get to college, this still applies. Take a light load and get that 4.0. A 3.14 is a bad way to start. That GPA number from all your college courses will follow you to your medical school applications, and that single number has a huge impact on your application.

Thanks for replying.

I'm a little confused about what GPA actually follows me through from where I am to college. So far at the community college I have only taken one college level class, all others have been classes to get certain things like reading, math, and writing up to the college level. The thing that confuses me is weather all classes taken, college level or not, will affect my GPA from here out, or only the college ones? I did some math to find that if the college classes are all that transfer, then I'm able to have a 3.75 for just those specifically if I do well in my current classes.

 

[Ramma]

The best way to find out if you might like medicine is to fallow around a doc or to volunteer at a hospital. Granted if you fallow around a doc you will only get the perspective of their field. So I would volunteer in several areas of the hospital or shadow several types of docs to get a good idea. Good luck!

Thanks for your reply,
I've been trying to find a way to do this actually... I live but 5 minutes from a very large hospital in Oregon. Only problem is I have no idea who to contact regarding volunteer work at the hospital or shadowing/interviewing of a doctor. Is there a particular person, such as the Human Resources manager, I should contact?

 

[mudphudwannabe]

I'm a little confused about what GPA actually follows me through from where I am to college. So far at the community college I have only taken one college level class, all others have been classes to get certain things like reading, math, and writing up to the college level. The thing that confuses me is weather all classes taken, college level or not, will affect my GPA from here out, or only the college ones? I did some math to find that if the college classes are all that transfer, then I'm able to have a 3.75 for just those specifically if I do well in my current classes.

I think this will probably depend on where you end up going for college. You should probably assume that the GPA will follow you, to be on the safe side. Also, med schools will want transcripts from all colleges you attended, and I think you will have to figure in those grades on AMCAS (the standardized application for medical school), especially if you are completing any of the pre-med requirements. So even if your grades don't follow you to your future college, they might still figure into your admission to med school.

 

[Ramma]

Thanks for your response mudphudwannabe.

 

[Brunette1981]

I agree whether your grades transfer will probably depend on where you go for college and how this program is structured exactly (your HS guidance counselor would know better about this than any of us). If you are absolutely financially constrained to finish college in less time (and therefore use these 2 years of grades), I would try to raise your GPA and to take easier classes in order to do so since your GPA at 3.14 or less is quite low for admission to medical school.

If I were you and you really want to be med school bound, I would try to not transfer the credits and retake all the premed requisities in a 4 year college once you graduate HS. Likely you would not need to report them on your med school application because it would be then considered HS classes. Then try to get the best GPA you can, at minimum try for a 3.5 but the higher the better (above 3.7 would be best).

 

[Brunette1981]

As far as volunteering, many hospitals have a volunteer office that coordinates that - mention you are pre-med so you get a more clinical placement and less candy-striper. It's unlikely to be human resources since you won't be paid.

You could also contact an individual physician you know or someone you know knows so shadow more informally if you just want to get a feel for if it's the thing for you.

Most of this stuff is probably more geared to the pre-med forum.

 

[Neuronix]

I know when I was an undergrad and used to volunteer they wouldn't let any volunteer under the age of 18 anywhere near a patient. The overambitious/forced into by their parents "volunteens" used to get all kinds of ridiculous scut jobs.

For this reason you may want to hold off on clinical experience unless you happen to know physicians you can shadow. Like you could call your family doc and say "Hey, would you mind if I follow you around for half a day once and awhile?"

 

[Ramma]

Wow, thanks for the responses!

I'm actually having my dad ask an infectious disease specialist today about some opportunities for volunteer or shadowing work at the near by hospital. (My dad recently had surgery on his wrist, so I have some chance to meet with doctors if they have time that is.) Although I am only 17 at the moment, so I may not push to hard to get a volunteer position right now.

I think I will talk to an adviser at my college this week about what I should do to improve my GPA, and how going to a 4 year college works related to grades. Because I honestly have no clue how everything works right now with the program I'm in.

Thanks again! It really helped to get some input.

 

[HumidBeing]

I also attended the local CC while still a high school student, though they were all college level. My understanding is that a transcript must be sent to AAMCAS from every post-secondary institution one attends. It is possible that different colleges report those developmental classes differently. The ones I've seen people from mine receive have been listed only as either "P" or "NC", which is an incomplete that doesn't affect the student's GPA. Check with your CC to find out how grades are reported. They may use different forms for the local school district and your final CC college level transcript.

So, if the courses show up on your transcript that the CC would send them, I think they are likely to be included in the final calculation. If they do, there are two things that could help offset the potential harm those college prep courses might do to a GPA calculation. First, the grades are broken down by year on the AAMCAS report. All of the courses taken before the fall term of your official freshman year go into a category of "Courses taken while in high school". The second factor is that by the time you've taken enough courses to receive your bachelor's degree, you will have taken a greater total number of courses to help bring that GPA up. You would have more years available than most students to show a strong upward grade trend.

 

[Ramma]

I also attended the local CC while still a high school student, though they were all college level. My understanding is that a transcript must be sent to AAMCAS from every post-secondary institution one attends. It is possible that different colleges report those developmental classes differently. The ones I've seen people from mine receive have been listed only as either "P" or "NC", which is an incomplete that doesn't affect the student's GPA. Check with your CC to find out how grades are reported. They may use different forms for the local school district and your final CC college level transcript.

So, if the courses show up on your transcript that the CC would send them, I think they are likely to be included in the final calculation. If they do, there are two things that could help offset the potential harm those college prep courses might do to a GPA calculation. First, the grades are broken down by year on the AAMCAS report. All of the courses taken before the fall term of your official freshman year go into a category of "Courses taken while in high school". The second factor is that by the time you've taken enough courses to receive your bachelor's degree, you will have taken a greater total number of courses to help bring that GPA up. You would have more years available than most students to show a strong upward grade trend.

Thanks for the info. Really good to know they'll still be listed as courses taken while in high school. The directors of the program I am in really don't explain anything that is happening well, or guide students as to what classes will aid in the future, so it's quite a confusing situation for me at the moment. Thanks again.

 

[MedRower]

I also attended the local CC while still a high school student, though they were all college level. My understanding is that a transcript must be sent to AAMCAS from every post-secondary institution one attends. It is possible that different colleges report those developmental classes differently. The ones I've seen people from mine receive have been listed only as either "P" or "NC", which is an incomplete that doesn't affect the student's GPA. Check with your CC to find out how grades are reported. They may use different forms for the local school district and your final CC college level transcript.

So, if the courses show up on your transcript that the CC would send them, I think they are likely to be included in the final calculation. If they do, there are two things that could help offset the potential harm those college prep courses might do to a GPA calculation. First, the grades are broken down by year on the AAMCAS report. All of the courses taken before the fall term of your official freshman year go into a category of "Courses taken while in high school". The second factor is that by the time you've taken enough courses to receive your bachelor's degree, you will have taken a greater total number of courses to help bring that GPA up. You would have more years available than most students to show a strong upward grade trend.

As I also took CC classes in high school, and have my processed AMCAS in front of me, I'll confirm this (and mine were graded, like yours).