How you did in HS has no bearing on your potential medical school performance, or even if you'll get into med school. The study methods employed in HS (your teachers force you to do homework every night to learn the material) are far different from the self-motivated, self-directed studying necessary for medical school success. The major difference is that it's all on you to do well now, the instructors merely lay out the material.
Although, I have to say that the high school environment is a good prep for sitting in class all day (not to mention dealing with the absolutely asinine level of drama and gossip flying around).
From my experience, there is *some* correlation between performance in high school and getting into med school. At my high school, out of a total of 350+ students, the top twenty ranked in the class were more successful academically---including at least six who went to med school. If we were to extrapolate that number onto the rest of the class, I doubt that 6/20 = 30% of the rest of class also went into med school.
So out of the AP/honors students at my school, there were far fewer
proportionally who were successful in college/went to med school/attending grad school as far as I know. While I can't say that good grades in high school causes people to go to med school, I think there is a certain correlation.
At my med school, there is also a higher proportion of students who did the honors/AP track in high school than the 'I goofed off and got a 2.0' types (and the only person I knew who said that also quickly pointed out he pulled his stuff together later on).
The people I knew in
college who were successful med school candidates were also typically the hard worker in high school. There were plenty of exceptions, but not enough for me to say is there is *no* correlation. I knew people who did goof off in high school and did well in college and into med school but they were outnumbered by the people who did well in high school and then did well in college. What I'm trying to say is that there isn't that many magical overnight change from lousy high school student to brilliant college student to med student. Exceptions do occur but, from my experience, I don't think they occur as regularly as people on the forum seems to believe.
This thread, like many SDN threads, is posted by people who may have done better in college than in high school (just like threads asking about what people's SAT vs. MCAT score is would be tilted toward people with high MCAT scores whereas in reality people who are poor test takers for SAT may not become brilliant test takers for the MCAT).
I guess what I'm trying to say is that high school is where successful study habits and academic foundation is laid for many people, and while it's nice to think college is a 'fresh start', my observation has been that college for many is not where people find their way and change their study habits---those things were formed long before people ever go to college.
As for med school, I'd say that most people at my school study hard and there aren't that many who say, "this is the first time I studied my ass off". There are a few people who say that, but the general sentiment at my school seems to be that med school is a continuation of hard work, not the beginning of it.
Disclaimer: All this is from my personal experience so it may not apply at all to any other area of the country.
