Can someone who is experience please give me medical school advice?

[Josiah Bennett]

This may shed light onto many other students with the same questions; I just have three big questions.

Current GPA: 3.57
Current credit hours: 84
Current medical hours: 1000+ in as a pharmacy technician.
Current MCAT score: N/A

Now I am very interested and serious about applying to Medical school. I will take into account every post and I am thankful for any advice.

1) What is the best place to get an undergrad degree; A university or a cheaper college local?
2) What is the best form of experience I can get and earn money possibly; specific hospital jobs?
3) What is the best undergrad degree to fallback on for a job out of college should I not get accepted to Med school; I am on track for Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry, Psychology, and Statistics?

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[Kahreek]

Pre-allo??? ?

 

[Ost3oclast]

Pre-allo??? ?

This.

Post in pre-allo OP. Med students post over there frequently to answer questions like this

 

[Smurfette]

Agree. Moving to appropriate forum.

 

[Goro]

Whatever school has a rigorous curriculum that can prepare you for medical school. If the school is a feeder to a medical school, all the better.


1) What is the best place to get an undergrad degree; A university or a cheaper college local?

Lab tech or phlebotomy
2) What is the best form of experience I can get and earn money possibly; specific hospital jobs?

Biochem or Chem > Bio > Stats >>>>Psych
3) What is the best undergrad degree to fallback on for a job out of college should I not get accepted to Med school; I am on track for Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry, Psychology, and Statistics?

 

[Beargryllz]

Spend as little money as you have to. A large number of my college credit hours came from a community college for this reason.

I will give a shout out to phlebotomy because you really don't need any experience or special training to get hired and you will see incredible things happen. A lot of my classmates were scribes and office assistants. I bet I saw more cool things than they did.

All the degrees you mention are fallback options but none of them are particularly great if you're really talking about abandoning the idea of medicine entirely and making a career for yourself. If you mean to say "which of these will lead to a career?" then they all involve staying in school for postgraduate education. If you mean to say "which of these can I subsist on while I reapply next cycle?" then I would say don't worry about it too much. There isn't a huge demand for bachelor's degree holding students in psychology, chemistry, biology, etc. You're looking at entry level BS that you just have to tolerate for a little while. I graduated with a B.S. in biology and sold internet packages for Verizon straight out of college.

Having said all that, I'm guessing biochem probably has the best career prospects but only if you really like biochem and plan on pursuing it. Pick something that you like and can excel at, because that is what will stand out when it comes time to apply for medical school.

 

[Spirit of the Student Doc]

Lab tech or phlebotomy
2) What is the best form of experience I can get and earn money possibly; specific hospital jobs?

I visited a D.O. school that made it very clear to me they don't view lab tech as clinical experience due to the perceived lack of "smelling" the patients or in their words I had no actual patient contact. I was told I better have something else to put on my application (little did they know I'm 2 1/2 years out from applying). They weren't rude or anything.... just how they felt on the matter.

For me specifically I explained my specific lab tech job further and was told it would be considered clinical experience, but I'm not your typical lab tech either.

Just figured it was important to share.

 

[TREDWISE]

Biochem or Chem > Bio > Stats >>>>Psych
3) What is the best undergrad degree to fallback on for a job out of college should I not get accepted to Med school; I am on track for Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry, Psychology, and Statistics?

??? The market for a Chem BS sucks. Really all of these (except for maybe biochem or possibly stats) suck for getting a job without something else.

 

[tea guzzling traveler]

1. I'd say universities are generally more respected, but on that one I'm not sure. As long as they aren't community colleges.
2. Clinical researcher, EMT, CNA, ER tech are all pretty good jobs, most of which come with a fair amount of exposure to either research or patients. ( CNA might be problematic if you are viewed as nursing)
3. I agree with @Beargryllz on this one, don't be so quick to abandon the med path. However, if you really can't get in over multiple cycles, then I would say math, econ, and comp sci all seem to be landing my friends jobs.

 

[DokterMom]

Sounds like you're still in the very early stages of your career path, so you need to play two angles:

1. What's the best path to get you into medical school?
2. What's the best path if either you or the medical schools decide you won't go?

For your undergraduate degree, these paths diverge somewhat. If you go on to medical school, the school where you get your undergraduate degree matters very little. An excellent GPA from Well-Regarded University is somewhat better than an excellent GPA from Mediocre College, but many students from Mediocre College go on to become medical students and doctors. Not at Harvard (much), but at State Medical School - which is absolutely fine and will get you where you want to go.

If you don't go to medical school, having a degree from Well-Regarded University will help you get your foot onto the career ladder more easily than a degree from Mediocre College, and that benefit will probably last for the first 10 years of your work life -- after which nobody will care anymore.

Either way, you can do the first two years at Community College (with no loss of prestige), and then transfer, thereby saving money. Just be sure you NAIL those CC classes so your GPA can get you into Well-Regarded University and you won't sink when you get there.

Your degree program -- As many have already pointed out, a bachelor's degree (only) in the pure sciences isn't the most marketable degree. Of the ones you mentioned, I'd suggest that Stats probably has the most viable/lucrative career prospects -- assuming you like 'practical math'. Or plan to continue through a master's program.

And definitely spend some serious time shadowing some doctors now, so you can see if that's truly how you want to spend the rest of your life. You don't want to put all of your eggs in one basket, then find out much further down the line that you chose the wrong basket.

 

[Goro]

OP was asking about earning $ and getting experience, not for polishing an app for med school.

I visited a D.O. school that made it very clear to me they don't view lab tech as clinical experience due to the perceived lack of "smelling" the patients or in their words I had no actual patient contact. I was told I better have something else to put on my application (little did they know I'm 2 1/2 years out from applying). They weren't rude or anything.... just how they felt on the matter.

For me specifically I explained my specific lab tech job further and was told it would be considered clinical experience, but I'm not your typical lab tech either.

Just figured it was important to share.

 

[Doctor Dream]

This may shed light onto many other students with the same questions; I just have three big questions.

Current GPA: 3.57
Current credit hours: 84
Current medical hours: 1000+ in as a pharmacy technician.
Current MCAT score: N/A

Now I am very interested and serious about applying to Medical school. I will take into account every post and I am thankful for any advice.

1) What is the best place to get an undergrad degree; A university or a cheaper college local?
2) What is the best form of experience I can get and earn money possibly; specific hospital jobs?
3) What is the best undergrad degree to fallback on for a job out of college should I not get accepted to Med school; I am on track for Chemistry, Biology, Biochemistry, Psychology, and Statistics?

I work as a hospital pharmacy technician and I wouldn't count what I do as clinical experience hours (assuming that's what you mean by medical hours). Don't get me wrong, it's a great experience, but I have virtually no patient contact, so I don't count it as clinical. Even when I work out-patient pharmacy, I guess I'm around patients but I still don't count that as clinical. Nothing that I'm doing around the patients has made me interested in medicine specifically, I just talk to them a little about their prescription.

If you're serious about med school, look for clinical hours elsewhere.