How to go from early college high school to medical school?

[602521]

Hi! I'm an early college high school student and was hoping to get some advice about the path to medical school.

First a quick explanation of early college high schools. I am a high school student, but I have the opportunity to take courses at a local community college (Lee College in Baytown, TX, if it matters). Early college high schools differ from dual credit in that I get 60+ college hours. The whole point of the program is to complete the first two years of university while in high school. Right now I am a sophomore, and I will have nearly 40 college hours by the end of this semester. I know a high school student posting on this forum may seem naive, but part of applying to an early college high school is determining from a young age the field of study that interests you the most. I mean, who would to waste a free associate's degree? I know this is the path I want to take.

Now on to the specific dilemma. I'm really attracted to the prospect of entering Texas A&M's biomedical sciences program as a junior immediately following high school graduation. In order to do this, I have to complete their Common Body of Knowledge requirements while in high school through my community college. Basically, this means I'm taking my med school requirements at Lee College. (English, Bio, Chem, Orgo, Physics). Biochemistry and higher lever biology would be at Texas A&M. This is the part I've been uncertain about for two reasons.

1. I'm taking my med school requirements at a community college. I've tried my best to accommodate this, though. I got into the honors program and am taking an honors English/Humanities course called The Human Condition next year. I also have an honors contract with the biology professor I have this semester which includes a year long research project that will likely get me honors credit. I plan on doing similar honors contracts for chemistry and physics in the next two years. I figure that if I have honors credit for English, Bio, Chem, and Physics (which will also make me graduate with honors from Lee College), it won't be a huge deal to admissions committees. I'm not sure.

2. Assuming all goes well at Lee College, I'm at Texas A&M for two years. That's one year to build a med school application and take the MCAT. A lot can go wrong.

So this is the alternative that some of my teachers have pointed out. I'm quite a strong student. I'm #1 in my class, 5.4 high school GPA, 5's on AP tests, 300+ volunteer hours, leadership roles, etc. I have a good shot at a private university, like Rice, where I could start fresh after high school (they wouldn't accept Lee College credits). I wouldn't have to worry about my med school application going in the trash because one of my transcripts in from a community college, an I would have 3 years to shadow, volunteer, and do research at a 4-year university before I apply. Rice,d in particular, would put next to the Texas Medical Center. But at the same time, all this hard work I'm with the Lee College Honors Program will be for nothing. doing

What do you guys think?

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[cabinbuilder]

I think you need to live a little bit, travel, have fun, and not apply to med school until you are 25. As a side note, no one is going to give a crap about the community college aspect of your classes. Doubly so since it was in high school. GO PLAY and LIVE first before you subject yourself to 10 years of more study.

 

[Being]

Some random thoughts:

1) In my experience as an EMT, many patients really don't like and don't trust young doctors. A lot of your patients will be older people, and if you go straight from high school -> college -> med school you may be younger than their grandchildren when you start residency. On a similar note, I don't know if this is true, but the allied health people might resent your age as well - I don't imagine nurses enjoy answering to somebody younger than their own kids.

2) Do everything you can to keep an open mind about other areas of interest. The problem with smart, driven, long-term-goal-oriented people like yourself is that they usually get what they want. This is dangerous because you get so wrapped up in working hard towards a goal that you don't really think about what happens once you've "made it". It's easy to be blinded by the promise of prestige and a high salary, overlook all the negative aspects of the job and tell yourself that this is what you want to do. You don't want to go down this path, be 300k in debt and saying "I wish I had tried X, I always liked X."

Statistically, it's really not actually that difficult to get into med school. 60% of people who apply get accepted somewhere. If you work hard and do everything right, I'm sure you are capable of becoming a doctor. The question in your mind should not be "how do I get in?" but "is this really what I want to spend my life doing?" (this is why AdComs like to see clinical experience and shadowing - they want to see that you have a good idea of what the job of a doc is like, you think you would enjoy doing that job and you've tested your theory as best you can)

3) I wish you'd major in philosophy or music education or something. You're so young and you've seen so little of what life has to offer. A non-traditional major makes you a bit unique, will give you more time to volunteer and get clinical experience to make sure this is what you want to do, and probably result in a higher GPA to boot.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Congrats on your accomplishments. I think the thing to keep in mind here is that those aren't your only two options. There are tons of other possibilities for how you could go about this.

My advice is to keep an open mind at all points in the process. For example, you could combine a bit of 1 and 2 and the advice of the above posters to live a little while you're young and relatively free of responsibilities like a career, kids, and a mortgage, etc (see further down). Trust me, being a fully functioning "grown-up" is way over rated. (I say this as a 31 year old with a solid career in healthcare, a mortgage, and two mutts). My biggest regrets in life involve not taking full advantage of things like study abroad or summer research programs or traveling with friends.

Right now I'm a grad student in public health while working full-time and if I didn't have a mortgage and the dogs I'd be applying for a Fulbright and opps to do my masters project abroad. Working a job in healthcare like I do is very rewarding, but limiting in other ways. Because my unit is a 24/7 operation and staffing is always tight, it's hard to take time away to travel or even get time off to see family. Generally the most I could reasonably take off in the summer is two weeks, but hard to come by because my coworkers need their time off accommodated as well. So before you lock yourself into that life, I agree that it's important to live a bit and explore lots of options (nobody I'm friends with is doing what they thought they'd do in high school, or even early college, and most are happier for it). Even if you don't change your mind, you'll at least feel more confident going in knowing you did your due diligence.

I'm not sure I'd go so far as to put an age on when you should apply. Everybody differs in maturity and life experience and all of that, regardless of numerical age. I did my graduate field experience surrounded by a bunch of young pre-meds and some carried themselves with more maturity and had more insight into people at 19 and 20 than some of my 30-40 year old colleagues seem to. Others I felt would need a bit more time to get there. While patients and allied health folks might be biased against young people, how you carry yourself (polite, professional, team oriented, confident and willing to learn without being cocky, compassionate, etc) is probably going to matter more in the long run. At least that's how I feel working with the residents at a teaching hospital.

So keep an open mind and be open to change. If an awesome opportunity comes up that doesn't quite fit with your plan, still keep it on the table, you never know where that might take you. I've gone off track a bit since deciding to apply, but I'm better for it and am fairly certain my application will be as well. Do try to have some interests, activities, hobbies or whatever outside of science and medicine. Your sanity will thank you and you'll be able to relate a bit better with some patients as well.

You can mix things up a bit here and do the early high school program, maybe finish at A&M in 2 years, save some dough, or tack on another minor in something else cool that interests you like music or art or whatever. Maybe not. Since you saved money taking the classes during high school you could extend by a semester or two if you wanted, have more time for research, study abroad, etc. You don't have to apply just one year after being at A&M. You can graduate from college, take a gap year, do a Fulbright, travel, deliver pizzas, do research, volunteer, etc and apply during your gap year as instead. Trust me, there is nothing like flipping burgers and getting yelled at by customers to make you appreciate the opportunity to work hard and do something more with yourself. I don't know anybody who has regretted a gap year and quite a few who regret not taking one.

Lastly, while I'm not an adcomm, I agree with Cabinbulider that most places probably aren't going to care that you took community college classes for your pre-reqs in high school in a special honors program provided you do well in your advanced classes (including hard science) at the 4 year and perform well on the MCAT. When you do that while still a high school student, you're going beyond what is expected of you at that level.

I did a dual credit program where I got 6 AP credits and 22 college credits while still in high school. I'm very grateful I did that. I didn't wind up saving money in the end due to the fact that I wound up getting two bachelor's degrees (a third later, but that's a whole different issue that I wouldn't recommend). But I did save myself some sanity. I'm from a very small, rural community with pretty limited course options for high school and was generally quite bored in school a lot of the time. I would have gone completely stir-crazy had I not been able to take intro to psych, physics 1 & 2, and calc 1 & 2 at the community college for a bit of a challenge. In hindsight, I probably would have benefited from taking auto mechanics at the high school, but that's because I feel like repair shops are always trying to screw me over because I'm female and blonde....

So to recap all of that lengthy novel: keep an open mind, continually re-evaluate your path, be open to random detours, take the opportunity to explore new things, and have a good bit of fun on your journey because it will be over before you know it.

 

[Darth Doc]

What do you guys think?

Basically the same as the above posters. You have a good plan, except that you're too focused on medical school. Take a deep breath. Have some fun. Take a semester as an exchange student abroad. Run a marathon in another country. Take a year off to work at a beach resort. Whatever. Just find something you've always wanted to do and add that to your college plan. Don't rush through college too quickly.

 

[rain4venus]

Hmm... Is there any reason you couldn't do the A&M program but take 3 years to finish your Bachelors instead of doing it in 2? Maybe spend a year abroad, definitely do lots of volunteering including clinical work and shadowing so you know if you actually want to go into medicine?

There's also no reason you have to apply your junior year. Obviously (almost) no one on this forum matriculated right after college, or else they wouldn't be in the nontrad forum in the first place (of course, your existence proves there are types of nontrads other than career switchers and those who take gap years/decades, but that's the majority) So even if you took just one gap year, you'd have 3 years to get your app together, plus you wouldn't have to schedule your interviews (which are usually mid week) around your senior year schedule, and you'd still just be applying at the same age as most other traditional applicants.

I do agree with everyone else - don't try to grow up too fast! Enjoy these years! You can do that while still staying on the med-school track, if that's what you eventually decide to do. Just don't restrict yourself to only one option when you've experienced so little.