No EC's!

[txgirlpremed]

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I don't have any EC's, but I don't plan on applying to med school for another 2 years. This will be my 3rd undergrad year. Also, I haven't done any research or shadowing. I want primary focus to be my gpa and then studying for the MCAT's. Is it possible that I can be accepted with a good MCAT score and gpa without a lot of EC's?

Or

Am I going to seem as if I was a slacker, for not having EC'S or research or shadowing, for my first few years in college? I've been reading the posts on here and I am definitely behind. I don't know if I will be able to catch up with applicants who will be applying at the same time as I do.

I was in the Army for 4 years, as a chemical specialist. Now, I'm currently in the Reserves for 2 more years and going to school full-time. I only earned 60 credit hrs on Active duty, in 3 1/2 years! Is that going to make me look worse?

 

[ES2]

Two years is a lot of time to rack up them EC's

 

[pyrrion89]

Sorry to say but you'll need EC's unless you get a 4.0/43. Maybe even then you won't.

Imagine, during the interviews (if you make it that far), when they ask you why you want to be a physician: Can you give any answer based on experience? Not without EC's. You can rack up on EC's... shouldn't look bad. I mean, look at all the kids who take post-bacc classes and switch careers into medicine. They rack up the EC's after undergrad and do just fine getting into med school.

 

[Jewels86]

You really need to get yourself some EC's ~ badly!!! Imagine this...you make it into med school, breeze through MS1 and MS2. You assess your first patient and they throw up all over you, the floor, themselves, name it. It's in their hair, on their face, in your lap, you can recognize what came up. Their nurse is insanely busy and it's you and that patient. THAT is why you need EC's.

Patients are not all happy little people laying in their beds watching TV, only using their call light when they're about to die, waiting to tell you their three ailments they had since they've been 2 and they'll do everything you say because, "You are the doctor."

This is what they really do: "why is it so cold in here?" "I've felt like crap since I was two, you figure this out, YOU'RE the doctor!!" "Tell that nurse to bring me a turkey sandwich or I'll hit this call light for three hours straight!!" "Where's my dilaudid, Phenergan and Ativan? No, morphine doesn't work...read my chart. ONLY dilaudid!!! What's wrong with you people???!!!" Where's that blanket?? I don't care that I have a fever of 103... "No, I will not stop smoking even though you prescribed me oxygen. Give me more oxygen!!" Or, how about the patient's family that chases the doctor down the hall, "Hey doc, her back, stomach, foot still hurts?! What are you doing about this?" "NPO after midnight. Can I have a sprite then? My cigs? I'm hungry...I haven't eaten all day. I'm leaving."

You really need some EC's!! It's not like House.