High School (10th Grade) to Med School?

[StarkMed]

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Hi!

I'm currently in 10th grade and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what to do during my summers or even during the school year that will give me an advantage or provide learning experience for when applying to medical school.

Also, I am taking AP Biology right now, so any advice on how to excel in that class would be great as well.

(I am reading a lot that high school grades don't matter for med school...is that true?)

Thanks so much! 🙂

 

[Missorleans]

Shadow doctors, volunteer in a hospital, probably both things you've already thought of. If you live near a university, search online and see if they have any summer research opportunities for high school students, some do. It will be easier to get a research position in college if you already have some experience. My state has a program to introduce high school students from rural areas to medical careers. Might even have one for high school students in general, just do a google search.
High school grades don't matter for med school, but they matter for college scholarships. If you can get a ton of scholarships for undergrad then you'll have less debt going into med school.

 

[GlowInTheDark]

For summers? Be a kid and enjoy life.

Getting into college is priority #1.

 

[AquiVoy13]

Nothing you do in high school will go on your medical school application (unless you conduct some very impressive and productive research... unlikely).

I'd say focus on getting good grades and test scores to get into a college that will provide you with plenty of opportunities (research, shadowing, volunteering). Joining a lab now may make it easier to join a lab of your choice in college, as you will have some experience. Like someone above me mentioned, receiving a good scholarship would be helpful in terms of not accumulating debt, and not having to worry as much about choosing activities based on whether they are paid or not.

So yeah... during the school year? Just focus on getting good grades. During the summer? You could try to join a lab and gain some experience, although this is in no way necessary.

 

[Funke]

Volunteer! It might not go on your med school app because you did it in high school, but it's a good thing to do for you and your community. Volunteer for the hospital or a free clinic or anything like that. It will get your foot in the door for better volunteer work in college or even a job.

 

[thefritz]

Nothing you do in high school will go on your medical school application (unless you conduct some very impressive and productive research... unlikely).

Direct influence of high school performance on med school? No, but I applied for a post-bacc (after college) that required a high school transcript and SAT scores for admission (even if you were 10+ years out of high school). It always pays to do well, but in general you're correct. High school is one of the last times in life where you can totally screw up and make up for it later without it following you. Remember that this is a hierarchical game. For the most part, med schools don't care about your high school performance, residencies don't care about your college performance, and employers don't care about your med school performance. It's only the most recent step that really matters (i.e., what have you done recently?)

 

[MedWonk]

Hi!

I'm currently in 10th grade and I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what to do during my summers or even during the school year that will give me an advantage or provide learning experience for when applying to medical school.

Also, I am taking AP Biology right now, so any advice on how to excel in that class would be great as well.

(I am reading a lot that high school grades don't matter for med school...is that true?)

Thanks so much! 🙂

I would focus on just doing well in high school and getting into undergrad. Like someone else said, unless the research is significant, then it probably won't add much to your med schoool app in the future. One step at a time.
You could volunteer at a clinic or hospital to gain some experience. It'll also look nice on your undergrad apps. You could also see if you could shadow a physician to see if you even like the profession. For the most part, though, I would enjoy the relative lack of responsibility that non-adults gets to enjoy. Hell, I would recommend this for undergrads as well.

 

[frosted_flake]

Enjoy high school while you're there. I didn't take my first semester of college seriously but I am still doing fine.
Growing up happens too quickly anyways, don't try to rush it.

 

[papi89]

1) Get in a good college
2) See #1

Seriously, getting grades at a good college is like 1000x more important than any random EC you do in HS. Even when I was applying to college I got the feeling that they didn't care that much about most of the stuff I had done, save for the 1 or 2 "main things." Get good grades in HS, take a lot of APs, do clubs / sports / etc... standard formula.

 

[Blizzard18]

Yeah, what you do in high school makes zero difference. They don't even go back and look at that stuff. Honestly, at your age all you should know is "I am interested in becoming a doctor" then do your best to shadow someone soon as possible. And if you are sure about it after freshman year or college and you've made A's in biology and chemistry then buckle down and tackle undergrad etc etc. but until you've proven yourself in freshman chem and bio and sophomore organic (which should be easy for a true future doctor) then you can seriously look into going to med school. Right now there is just no way of knowing. It's too early. I like the early motivation though. Keep it up.

 

[Arayh]

Yeah, what you do in high school makes zero difference. They don't even go back and look at that stuff. Honestly, at your age all you should know is "I am interested in becoming a doctor" then do your best to shadow someone soon as possible. And if you are sure about it after freshman year or college and you've made A's in biology and chemistry then buckle down and tackle undergrad etc etc. but until you've proven yourself in freshman chem and bio and sophomore organic (which should be easy for a true future doctor) then you can seriously look into going to med school. Right now there is just no way of knowing. It's too early. I like the early motivation though. Keep it up.

I'm not sure about this correlation of sophomore organic chem with a "true future doctor." Many of my friends in medical school and doctors I've worked with, didn't do too well in organic chemistry, and has found it to be basically useless (maybe a tiny bit of use in some classes...), but that didn't stop any of us.

 

[STLbamf]

Dude just be a teenager, nothing you do now is really going to matter when it comes to applying to med schools. The BEST things to do are to just do well in school and try to get as many scholarships as possible, take course like AP Bio Chem and Physics to get you ahead of the game come college time, and JUST HAVE FUN AND RELAX! You have years before the premed stressathon. I know you're eager, but really enjoy yourself because nothing you do now really matters at all

 

[starkidbee]

The general rule of thumb is that anything you do in HS doesn't count toward med school; that being said, I volunteered at my local university hospital for 3+ years in HS, and am almost positive that is what helped me get an interview there this application cycle. My interviewers were eager to hear about my experiences working in the hospital, and it gave me a great connection with them and with the school in general. I was able to talk about my experience in my personal statement, as well, since it was a driving factor in me deciding to continue to pursue medicine. So, does HS matter? Maybe not for most, but I think if you gain a long-term EC that you can talk about, it's worth it. (HS grades, though, med school doesn't care - just do well and get into a great undergrad where you can then focus on maintaining a high c/sGPA.)

 

[bopper]

Also volunteering now will help you determine if medicine is right for you.
Do well in HS so you can have your pick of colleges...you might want to consider applying to a college that you are apt to get merit scholarship money so you can use any saved money for Med school.

 

[chondroblast]

High school grades don't matter. College is what counts (med schools don't even look at high school grades) Just work really hard to prepare yourself for college. I was a terrible student in high school.

 

[moisne]

Do volunteering. If you continue that in college - you can put it on you AMCAS application.

They don't even glance at HS grades. I'm pretty sure there isn't even a spot on the application for you HS grades

 

[StarDOc14]

They will care about nothing more than that you graduated HS (which you obviously had to do to go to college). In college you could do some shadowing to make sure thats what you want to do or get trained in some low level medical profession (CNA or phlebotomy, etc) so you have "clinical experience"... otherwise relax.

Enjoy your life while you have one. Be a kid. You could take one day of organic chemistry (or another dreaded pre-med class) and decide you don't want to be a doctor after all 😛

Worry about getting into med school after you start college.

 

[Hillo]

I would observe physicians to make sure you truly want to go on the pre-med path.

Yea, I disagree with the post above... it's never too early to figure out what you want with your life.
And hours aren't important... the experiences and insights you gain are.

Honestly, you should enjoy life all the time!
It's not like the path is guaranteed to be pain and suffering unless you truly don't find the journey exciting.