early graduation questions

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tweeklulz

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Hi, I'm currently finishing up my first year of college, needing only 29 hours more before graduation with a BS in Chemistry. I've applied this school year for pharmacy schools (getting 99 percentile in PCAT) but was rejected from all three I applied to (UT, UH, A&M). Because I've run out of Prepharmacy courses to take, I decided to finish up a bachelor's degree in chemistry, pre medical track. So I will be applying to both pharmacy and medical schools this fall/spring.

Question is, would finishing my undergrad two years early affect my admittance to medical schools? I believe it did for the pharmacy schools since I had the GPA (3.5+), the PCAT score, and the pharmacy experience (10 months+ CPhT). I did research for about two months before senior year in high school, and I'm also planning to do more research this summer and coming fall semester. The MCAT shouldn't be too hard.

so basically asking, what's the chance I'll get into a med school? preferably in texas.

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I think u should spend more time thinking about where you want to be in the future. Pharm or medicine?? Even though the undergrad classes are the same, the line of work is TOTALLY different!
Have you spent time shadowing enough doctors and getting clinical experience. I don't know much about texas med schools, but I know med schools want to see that you are interested in medicine and they Want you to know what you are getting yourself into
 
If you want to be a pharmacist then apply to pharmacy school.

If you want to be a doctor apply to medical school.

Remember that these are totally different careers. Maybe with a little more shadowing/research your choice will become more clear.

You will get a Bachelors degree in 2 years? That seems a bit odd. It also seems odd you didn't get into Pharm school with such a high score. It makes me think that there must be some other major "red flag" in your application.

I graduated in 3 years, and was accepted to multiple medical schools. However I do feel that it was looked down upon by certain schools.
 
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It is much more difficult to get accepted to med school than Pharm school. You struck out at Pharm school this year - so I would not be too optimistic about med school at this point.

Getting accepted to med school is not just about numbers. You obviously have some weaknesses. You need to identify your weaknesses and fix them. Perhaps you are immature. I have no idea. But the Pharm schools that rejected you were sending you a message that you need to decipher.

You probably should start by figuring out what you really want to do with your life instead of throwing darts at a dartboard and seeing what you hit. I am in the process of becoming a physician. I cannot imagine ever applying to pharm school. So where is your passion?
 
You will not have enough activities on your application to stand out to medical schools if you apply after one year in school. Period. If you want to apply to medical schools, consider taking on a second degree and staying in college for another year or two, or get out in the real world and do some work. Or go get a master's degree. Go get some clinical experience, make sure you can vocalize why you want to be a doctor... if you can't do that, no medical school will accept you.
 
Hi. Yes I know they're different, but I don't care. I like keeping my options open. Another option occurred to me also: I could just finish up a PhD in chemistry. Then apply to med school or pharmacy school. Or go to pharmacy school then go to med school. I don't care.

So back to my question. Do med schools care if applicants graduate two years early? (I know some posts answered this already, but please elaborate.)
 
I believe most med schools would think you're

A. Too young

B. You did all this pharmacy stuff. They're going to ask you why aren't you applying to pharmacy? What will be your response. Neither pharm nor med schools want to hear that they're your backup plan.

Basically, anything you do you will have to justify. You are nowhere near ready to apply for med school because you don't have enough experience in the medical field. I'm talking 100+ hours of volunteering, you'll need some current research (high school doesn't count), and shadowing and other community service. You need to demonstrate through your activities that you are passionate about medicine.

Applying to grad schools is expensive. Choose the career you want and THEN apply. It's just not smart to randomly choose like that. The schools won't like it and you will not end up with an acceptance.
 
Med schools won't discriminate against you due to your age, but they will screen you out if your application doesn't reek of maturity. You demonstrate maturity by taking on responsibility and making good life choices. Besides the above, other desirable activities to have on your application are leadership and teaching. Even better, a history of service to your community, meaning nonmedical volunteerism. Even better than that is moving up into a leadership role within such an organization.

A typical med school applicant has 1.5 years of clinical exprience, 60-80 hours of physician shadowing split among a few specialties, a year of research (two if you aim for UTSW or Baylor), in addition to hobbies, sports, artistic endeavors, and other life experiences (like travel) that make one look well-rounded and interesting.

Strategize on how to get that all in besides getting your GPAs into a more competitive range (ideally 3.65+), and you'll be in good shape for a med school acceptance.
 
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