Help with my future plans. Ultimate goal, USC or UF. Is this a good idea?

[Christina85]

This might be long but I wanted to say what my plans are and please tell me if this is a good idea or bad idea and what additional things I should do to help myself get accepted into med school. Thank you!

I have applied to the Surgical Technologies course and doing a "what if", lets say I make this school. I will be doing school for one year and I will have an A.A. and soon an A.S. in Chemical Technology focusing either on Biomedical or Biotechnology. I only have a few classes left for this, so first question: If i want to get my Chemisty Bachelors and get into med school, would a Biomedical or Biotechnology A.S. be better?

Also, after this, I would like to be working at a hospital while finishing my Bachelors (hopefully at UF or USC) and was hoping that would give me insight to if I really want to go to med school and become a plastic surgeon or oncologist.

So my other questions are, Do you think the Surgical Technologies course will help me at all? I think having the experience is good for myself but not sure if it will be good for the schools? Isn't working from the bottom to the top a good thing to do?

Also, If I want to go to UF (Florida) or USC (SoCal) is there additional things I should be doing? I do things like Habitat for Humanities but i'm sure this will not influence anyone to why I would be a good student. Oh one last thing, I am in the military and have been for 6 years and am getting out. Will this help me at all? Thank you for the help!

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[Slowpoke]

Hello! This is quite an intriguing post.

To boot, an A.S. in Biomedical or Biotechnology, I want to say would be equal. It is true that any major along with the required pre-reqs will get you into medical school, so it should be true with an A.S. degree as well. Pick the one you like more!

I think you're on your way to some great ECs, that military experience is superb, and humanitarian work such as Habitat for Humanities is a great way to portray your altruism, however, as you stated such activities are not going to directly show that you are a good student (your grades/mcat will do that for you), but it will indirectly show that you can juggle multiple things and still succeed.

 

[PremedIowa]

I agree with Slowpoke. Your Associate's degree type will not make a difference in the long run. What will matter is what type of work experience you get after that degree and how well you do at the university. Study as much as you can.

I do want to ask though. Why Florida or USC? They seem like awfully different schools besides the fact that both have excellent sports teams. O well, I have seen far worse ways to decide between schools.

Whatever you do, concentrate on getting good grades.

 

[michigator04]

The biggest thing you can do to improve your chances at this point (I am assuming you are coming from a C.C. based on your associates) is to knock the MCAT and your two years at a major university out of the park. Those are your chances to show a med school that you are a strong student. For the schools you mentioned, the average GPA/MCATs are 3.8/32 for UF and 3.7/35 for USC.

 

[RevivedPreMed]

For UF I'd make sure you have the best GPA possible. I have been told by adcoms there (my mentor has served on the committee in the past) that grades are more important to them than MCAT and grade trends are heavily noticed. Obviously get a good MCAT score but they have accepted someone with an MCAT of 19 so obviously grades and ECs are top priority. UF is always huge on volunteering and research. Luckily if you finish your bachelors at UF there are tons of opportunities for both.

I don't know anything about USC except that they suck at sports...

Go Gators obviously.