How did you learn about Med School?

[mellowmarshall]

The short version is at the end...

I'm curious, because I am a 3rd year in college and just made the decision to go to med school: how has everyone educated themselves about the process, which schools they want to go to, etc? After joining this site I learned a lot of things but I still feel like I'm behind the curve.

Books I'm currently reading:
Princeton Review's "Medical School Companion" which is only somewhat helpful, and I am going to get MSAR tomorrow and start on that.

I still need a good MCAT review/practice book.

But I am mostly curious about the basics. I didn't even know what matriculation was until I read it here and looked it up on dictionary.com. I don't know anything about the various med schools (how they rank, difficulty in getting in, costs, etc). I don't know much about the AMCAS. I don't know any of the deadlines. AHHHHHH!!!!


Essentially I'm wondering what information I can find here, and what outside research I need to do, and what books I need to buy.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[mellowmarshall]

bump cuz i'm demanding!

 

[leahmaria]

I would get the "medical school admissions requirements" (MSAR) put out by AAMC...it has a listing for every medical school in the us and canada and the first part of the books has details about the process of applying and all of that.

you could also talk to the pre-med advisor at your school

 

[AngryBaby]

Boy, where to start? Well I'll keep this rather general. The MSAR is a great place to start. This website has got a bunch of useful info and links on it. Generally you apply for 1 year before admission; that is, those of us applying now are hoping to be admitted for class beginning in 2007. Princeton Review, Kaplan, and Exam Krackers are the most popular MCAT review courses though their effectiveness varies with different students and they have slightly different approaches.

You need to do all you science pre-reqs if you haven't already and that'll be on the website above. You really want a GPA no lower than 3.5 and a science GPA no lower than 3.4 to be competitve at some of the mid-to-low tier MD programs. There's obviously a ton more info than that but this should get you started. Good luck