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I posted this in the general pre-med forum before I even noticed this one existed. Anyways, I figure this is a more applicable forum to my situation.
I'm am currently in my P2 year of pharmacy school and have decided that I really want to do medicine but I'm not really sure where to start/what to do. I have a high GPA in pharmacy school ~3.9 and currently work as a pharmacy intern at a local hospital. My question is what do I need to do in order to get into med school? I have been reading around these forums for the last few weeks and this is what I have gathered:
-Shadowing: I have none. I have read that it is best to shadow all types (primary care, surgery, internal med, etc) I guess around a couple hundred hours is average, no?
-Clinical experience: I am a little hazy on this. People say they have X amount hours of clinical experience, but what exactly does this entail. I have volunteered at a free clinic working with med students to work patients up and present to the attending. Is this "clinical experience" or volunteering? I've worked up anti-coag stuff at work for patients as well. I'm just a little confused what constitutes clinical experience and how much/how varied it should be. If I finished my PharmD, my 4th year would be nothing but clinical experience (probably around 40-60 hours a week). Do I need to do more than this?
-Research: I once again have none, but if I did something pharmacy/drug related would that be okay or should it be more directly related to medicine?
Obviously I know I need to take the MCAT and get LORs although I'm not sure who those should be from since I have read they should come from pre-med professors which I don't really have. Should they be from physicians I shadow or something from my pharmacy director at work?
Like I said I'm in my P2 year, so should I finish out my PharmD and get the rotation experience of 4th (and also pay ~$20,000 ) or try to transfer after my third year. I'm just not sure I'll be able to build up strong enough of an application by next summer to be able to transfer (I want to go to the college of medicine at the medical university I am currently at)
One last thing. Would I have a better chance of getting into school since I have "proven" that I can handle course load of graduate school? (Really, really not trying to sound cocky) I've seen people post here that it makes no difference, but that makes no sense to me since pharmacy school is way more info/work than undergrad.
tl;dr - In pharmacy, want to be MD now, what to do?
I'm am currently in my P2 year of pharmacy school and have decided that I really want to do medicine but I'm not really sure where to start/what to do. I have a high GPA in pharmacy school ~3.9 and currently work as a pharmacy intern at a local hospital. My question is what do I need to do in order to get into med school? I have been reading around these forums for the last few weeks and this is what I have gathered:
-Shadowing: I have none. I have read that it is best to shadow all types (primary care, surgery, internal med, etc) I guess around a couple hundred hours is average, no?
-Clinical experience: I am a little hazy on this. People say they have X amount hours of clinical experience, but what exactly does this entail. I have volunteered at a free clinic working with med students to work patients up and present to the attending. Is this "clinical experience" or volunteering? I've worked up anti-coag stuff at work for patients as well. I'm just a little confused what constitutes clinical experience and how much/how varied it should be. If I finished my PharmD, my 4th year would be nothing but clinical experience (probably around 40-60 hours a week). Do I need to do more than this?
-Research: I once again have none, but if I did something pharmacy/drug related would that be okay or should it be more directly related to medicine?
Obviously I know I need to take the MCAT and get LORs although I'm not sure who those should be from since I have read they should come from pre-med professors which I don't really have. Should they be from physicians I shadow or something from my pharmacy director at work?
Like I said I'm in my P2 year, so should I finish out my PharmD and get the rotation experience of 4th (and also pay ~$20,000 ) or try to transfer after my third year. I'm just not sure I'll be able to build up strong enough of an application by next summer to be able to transfer (I want to go to the college of medicine at the medical university I am currently at)
One last thing. Would I have a better chance of getting into school since I have "proven" that I can handle course load of graduate school? (Really, really not trying to sound cocky) I've seen people post here that it makes no difference, but that makes no sense to me since pharmacy school is way more info/work than undergrad.
tl;dr - In pharmacy, want to be MD now, what to do?