Do teachers know anything about Med School?

[I'm No Superman]

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So, a pretty good friend of mine decided to drop what is essentially a pre-college bio course that he really wanted to take next year because a teacher told him that he should take an art class because Med schools like diversity. I basically told this teacher that adcoms don't give a **** about high school. She replies by saying that they look at everything, and high school is very important to adcoms...🙄.

It just seems weird to me that this teacher, who is in charge of the "medical" classes that we have, is giving advice to kids, despite being wrong. I mean, I'm nowhere near an expert on stuff like this, but every doctor I've talked to, and everyone on this forum seems to believe otherwise. I have yet to come across a thread that said, "I can't get into med school because of a lack of art classes in high school." I hate when people give out information on a topic they know little or nothing about.

I'm just saying that it would be nice to have someone at our school who knows a thing or two about the admissions process. Sorry about the "flame" post, but I honestly believe that I would have gone into college next year totally unprepared if I didn't find SDN.

 

[AntiHouseMD]

In med school, knowing how to paint is important. I can't see how you would survive without that skill. 🙄

But seriously, don't listen to teachers for that kind of stuff. Most of the time, they can't really know what adcoms are looking for. Medical schools only look at undergrad, that's it.

Tell your friend that he/she should drop the art class and take that college bio class. It would actually be more impressive to colleges that he take a tougher bio class than an art class. He/She should be more focused on undergrad admissions rather than med school. Hopefully he/she can still change it.

 

[smq123]

It just seems weird to me that this teacher, who is in charge of the "medical" classes that we have, is giving advice to kids, despite being wrong. I mean, I'm nowhere near an expert on stuff like this, but every doctor I've talked to, and everyone on this forum seems to believe otherwise. I have yet to come across a thread that said, "I can't get into med school because of a lack of art classes in high school." I hate when people give out information on a topic they know little or nothing about.

I'm just saying that it would be nice to have someone at our school who knows a thing or two about the admissions process. Sorry about the "flame" post, but I honestly believe that I would have gone into college next year totally unprepared if I didn't find SDN.

If you think that that's bad, wait until you get to college. Most pre-medical advisors at the COLLEGE level don't know anything about medical school, either. I've heard of some who didn't even know about the combined MD/PhD degree!

That being said, if your friend *wants* to take the art class in high school, it's not going to really affect his future one way or the other. It's not like pre-bio is going to help him out when he gets to college, either.

 

[cbrons]

Art class 🙄 they still have money to teach this garbage to high school students? Waste of time. Bio would be better for him to prepare.

smq is correct. If I had listened to my so-called "pre-med" adviser in college, I would not have gotten accepted to medical school. Some of you high schoolers are in for a real treat when you go off to college and see your clueless pre-med adviser for the first time. Just be sure you triple check if any and all advice they give you is accurate.

 

[fahimaz7]

Yea.. They do look at everything. Everything from day 1 of college. If there's a place to list high school classes, grades, etc on the application I missed it.

Why would any ADCOM care what you did when you were 17 and in high school? OMG.. Tell me about that crappy pot that you made in your art class in 10th grade. I don't care about your performance in biochemistry in college, I just want to know how your drama teacher rated your performance in Grease, the high school years.

 

[eablackwell]

I am a high school teacher at a medical prep school, well, until next Tuesday. 😉

My advice is to take the information that is given with a grain of salt. I'd say 99.9% of the faculty here know nothing about the med school admissions process, although honestly, most don't pretend to know. You'll always have that one person that thinks they know everything. I'm sure you've encountered people like this before. For instance, at my school the admins were insistent that physics was not required at all to enter medical school.

Research is your best friend, and as someone who just completed the application process I can tell you med school admins know/care NOTHING for high school electives. The only time this may come up is in the activities section that you fill out, and it is not advisable to put in high school activities anyway unless you were a 13 yr old Olympic athlete or cured some form of cancer. 😉

You do, however, list AP style and dual-enrollment classes.

Hope that helped.

 

[Sergeant D]

If you think that that's bad, wait until you get to college. Most pre-medical advisors at the COLLEGE level don't know anything about medical school, either

OP, it's sad how true this is. I'll give you an example. During the first year of my undergrad program, a premed advisor told me, with respect to research experience, that I "shouldn't stick with one research experience, but that I should dabble around and get a variety of experiences." Good thing a Dean from Mayo came down and set the record straight. Adcoms are concerned much more about the depth of your experiences than the breadth. You can train a monkey to use a pipette, right? Had I decided to run around like a research ***** instead of sticking with one lab, I never would have become a functioning, independent researcher. Uggghhhhh I hate advisors almost as much as I hate mustard.

 

[D elegans]

OP, it's sad how true this is. I'll give you an example. During the first year of my undergrad program, a premed advisor told me, with respect to research experience, that I "shouldn't stick with one research experience, but that I should dabble around and get a variety of experiences." Good thing a Dean from Mayo came down and set the record straight. Adcoms are concerned much more about the depth of your experiences than the breadth. You can train a monkey to use a pipette, right? Had I decided to run around like a research ***** instead of sticking with one lab, I never would have become a functioning, independent researcher. Uggghhhhh I hate advisors almost as much as I hate mustard.

Very true. My one wish in college is that I had been on SDN; it serves as a much better pre-med advisor.

 

[waspahh33]

My immediate thought when I saw this thread was, "high school teachers??? My premed advisor didn't even know anything about med school". Haha. I can't stress enough how much sdn was my premed advisor.

 

[Wile]

Yup, it's frustrating. My pre-med adviser told me I didn't need to take general biology..wtf!?!

 

[willen101383]

This is hilarious considering my prime concern in highschool was A.how to get beer B. Hooking up with girls C. How much air I could get when I hit jumps with my mtb. Medical school wasnt even something id ever thought about.

Good for you guys showing early initiative...but dont forget about the high school memory making you guys will look so fondly upon when you are in your late 20s.

 

[Winged Scapula]

Agree with the above regarding the lack of expertise amongst most so-called academic advisors. My HS guidance counselor talked me out of medical school, in part, because it was for "rich kids" because loans weren't available after undergrad. Never mind that my HS had on average maybe 1 kid who went to medical school (it was an agricultural town). SDN wasn't around then.

My college advisor knew more, but again, I went to a university where not many people went to medical school, so his advice wasn't all that great either.

Do your own research and thank goodness for the existence of SDN!

 

[Swiss Medical]

Agree with the above regarding the lack of expertise amongst most so-called academic advisors. My HS guidance counselor talked me out of medical school, in part, because it was for "rich kids" because loans weren't available after undergrad. Never mind that my HS had on average maybe 1 kid who went to medical school (it was an agricultural town). SDN wasn't around then.

My college advisor knew more, but again, I went to a university where not many people went to medical school, so his advice wasn't all that great either.

Do your own research and thank goodness for the existence of SDN!

Das what I'm saying....I told my physics teacher in HS that i was going to be a biology major for "premed" and she told me that medical schools DO NOT LIKE SCIRNCE majors. Can you believe her...🙄

 

[Journey2become]

Very true. My one wish in college is that I had been on SDN; it serves as a much better pre-med advisor.

So true! Although there are some crazy ideas on SDN you can still get the input of several people that have gone through the actually process!

 

[Volunteer93]

Most teachers don't know anything. However there is a couple here that teaches science and I've had both. One was training to be a vet at Cornell the other was a 3rd year med student who decided to drop out and pursue being a teacher (very sharp dude). There is also a few other teachers who have some medical field experience. Only teachers I will listen to in terms of what to do...anyways they know about 1000x more than all the other chem and bio teachers in my highschool...

 

[Swiss Medical]

Most teachers don't know anything. However there is a couple here that teaches science and I've had both. One was training to be a vet at Cornell the other was a 3rd year med student who decided to drop out and pursue being a teacher (very sharp dude). There is also a few other teachers who have some medical field experience. Only teachers I will listen to in terms of what to do...anyways they know about 1000x more than all the other chem and bio teachers in my highschool...

But couldn't she still continue her med school and teach medical students...People are sooo dummb

 

[I'm No Superman]

I (adcom) just want to know how your drama teacher rated your performance in Grease, the high school years.

For the record, my portrayal of Danny Zuko was awe-inspiring to say the least, and after my rendition of 'Summer Nights', there was not a dry eye in the house.

 

[icaruswalks]

My high school 10th grade chemistry teacher told me I would never do anything science/medicine related because I had botched my stoichiometry exam. Shows how much they know. 😀

I had a lot of great teachers in HS, a retired lawyer who went on to teach, a lot of smart people. I also had my share of useless, uninspiring teachers.

 

[waspahh33]

This is hilarious considering my prime concern in highschool was A.how to get beer B. Hooking up with girls C. How much air I could get when I hit jumps with my mtb. Medical school wasnt even something id ever thought about.

Good for you guys showing early initiative...but dont forget about the high school memory making you guys will look so fondly upon when you are in your late 20s.

In that order? Haha. I believe mine were: girls, girls, girls, beer

 

[I'm No Superman]

Art class 🙄 they still have money to teach this garbage to high school students?

California doesn't.

 

[Whatyousay]

So true! Although there are some crazy ideas on SDN you can still get the input of several people that have gone through the actually process!

Like the idea that 40/4.0 is standard for medical school applicants?

 

[D elegans]

Like the idea that 40/4.0 is standard for medical school applicants?

Yup. The standard "43S/5.4/Vaccinated Uganda against HIV/LOR from Hippocrates, am I competitive?" threads.

 

[45408]

They're never going to look at your high school courses, unless you took college coursework in high school. That's the only time.

 

[Journey2become]

Like the idea that 40/4.0 is standard for medical school applicants?

Yep, and volunteer 2000 hours, be president of at least two college groups (preferably one being pre-medical society!), Shadow 50 doctors, read every new medical journal article, have at least 20 research papers as the primary author AND have saved 10 people's lives. Then you still have to apply early and act professional at the interview...ok, those last two are true...