Questions about medical school

[Eare]

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Hello, I'm a high school senior and I have this interest in becoming a doctor.

Q: What kind of GPA would I need to get in Medical school?

Q: What would increase my odds of getting into Medical school?

Q: When the best time to start studying for the MCAT?

Q: Should a double major?

Q: How much should I work doing college and Med school?

Thanks for your time.

 

[315033]

Hello, I'm a high school senior and I have this interest in becoming a doctor.

Q: What kind of GPA would I need to get in Medical school?

Q: What would increase my odds of getting into Medical school?

Q: When the best time to start studying for the MCAT?

Q: Should a double major?

Q: How much should I work doing college and Med school?

Thanks for your time.

A high gpa, study hard, sooner the better, yes double major looks better, as much as you can

 

[anesthesiadoc]

A high gpa, study hard, sooner the better, yes double major looks better, as much as you can

Higher is better for GPA. I'd disagree with some of the other stuff. You don't need a double major. You're better off finding a major you're passionate about and doing well in it. (This does NOT have to be a science major, provided you take care of the premed requirements on the side). Stay balanced, get involved with school and find an ongoing community service commitment (it can be something fun and social, like habitat for humanity, etc). Experience in hospitals/shadowing can be hard to find, but if you have a family friend in medicine who can give you the opportunity to see what it's like, develop relationships in medicine, that can help and demonstrate insight and committment to the field.

Don't worry about the MCAT during freshman year. (You'll have enough on your plate getting acclimated to college life and developing good time management strategies, etc). Working hard in your premed courses will be a good start for MCAT preparation. Formal prep for the test can be looked into during sophomore and junior year.

You should prepare to study hard and distinguish yourself academically to give yourself a good shot at getting in. Remember, it's a marathon, not a sprint (I can't believe it's been 13 years since I started premed, and in a few short months will be an attending.), so pace yourself emotionally, strive for balance, and hang in there if this is what you really want.

Best of luck!
Chris

 

[DrYoda]

For work in college, I think it's best to start off with low hours so you can assess how much work you can reasonably handle without jepordizing your grades.

Most med students don't work since school takes up the vast majority of their time and energy.


I agree with anesthesiadoc's take on the double major question.

 

[Spooner13]

Depending on how much time you have, I think it's a good idea to go ahead and start to do some volunteering. It doesn't have to be a ton. Just do a few hours a week. If you start volunteering when you are a freshman, this will add up to a lot of hours by the time you apply to med school.

Find something that you actually enjoy. If you like kids, do some volunteer work at a local children's hospital. or go to a nursing home and just sit with patients. Maybe work with hospice.

This can be useful for several reasons: 1. it will beef up you application in the future, and you will be very glad that you started volunteering early in your college career. 2. This will give you some great things to talk about in your med school interviews, especially if it is something you are passionate about. 3. it can help you decide if you really want to do this.

also, try to throw some shadowing in the mix. Again, this doesn't have to be a ton. You could make it a goal to shadow a physician once every month or once every two months.

Having said all this, I think it is very important not to try to do too much early in your college career. Do not spread yourself thin! Find a work load that you can handle. You don't have to do everything all the time.

By the way, keep track of all of your own volunteer work, shadowing experiences, clubs/extracurricular activities, etc. from the beginning of college. When you begin to apply for med school, you will be entering all of this information from your own personal records. It is up to you to keep track of it all. As you go through college, just write down the activities you are involved in, the amount of hours, and a brief description of what the experience involved. This is exactly what you will be entering into you med school application. It's also a good idea to keep in mind what you learned from these activities (what did you get out of volunteering at the children's hospital, and how has it better prepared you for entering the field of medicine?).

 

[psipsina]

GPA: my schools premed committee wouldn't let you apply if you had <3.3
MCAT: start studying as soon as you've taken all the premed reqs and take it while they are fresh

Otherwise: be INTERESTING. Do something that you're passionate about. Doesn't matter if its volunteering in inner city schools teaching kids to yodel or being the ping pong champion of your state. This is what you need to stand out from the other thousands of super smart kids with all the right numbers. Definitely volunteer. Definitely get clinical experience. Definitely do research (try to get a paper/poster out of it). Try to have a leadership position in something.

 

[VneZonyDostupa]

Hello, I'm a high school senior and I have this interest in becoming a doctor.

Q: What kind of GPA would I need to get in Medical school?

It depends on the medical school. Check the MSAR for each school's average admitted GPA. Usually, 3.5 is a good starting point. Anything above that only helps.

Q: What would increase my odds of getting into Medical school?

Almost anything can help, as long as it shows committment and responsibility. Everything from athletics to part-time jobs can be beneficial. I have classmates you worked as EMTs part-time, which definitely helped them get in. I also have some who traveled abroad and used the experience to explore another culture, which helps in some respects, too. As long as you can explain why the experience or activity was important to you, it should be fine.

Of course, there are always the core "GPA, MCAT, and extracurriculars" as the holy trinity of important things on your application.

Q: When the best time to start studying for the MCAT?

It depends. You need to find a personal balance between starting soon enough to give yourself time, and not starting so soon that you burn out before the exam. I started in August of the year I took the MCAT, and the actual exam was in April. I would commit maybe an hour or two per day to studying from the ExamKrackers books series, and started taking one practice exam per week in February.

Q: Should a double major?

Only if you can maintain a 3.5+ GPA. If you double major, but your GPA is under that mark, it won't really impress anybody. It will just look like you tend to take on more than you can chew.

Q: How much should I work doing college and Med school?

Thanks for your time.

Curing college, as much as you can handle without hurting your grades. In medical school, you shouldn't work at all. Your job during medical school is to study. Period.

 

[Eare]

Thanks everybody, I really have a good understanding now.

 

[Law2Doc]

...If you double major, but your GPA is under that mark, it won't really impress anybody. It will just look like you tend to take on more than you can chew....

Even if you have a high GPA, a double major won't impress anybody, except perhaps your parents. There is NO advantage to a double major, only disadvantages if your main goal is med school. Majors don't matter. The person who majors in some easy non-sci major and just takes the prereqs tends to do as well in admissions as the Pchem/psych double major, even with equivalent GPAs. It's something that undergrads seem to want to matter but to adcoms they couldn't care less.

 

[Eare]

I don't wanna major in Bio Pre Med, and I don't get into medical school.

What could I do with a Biology(Pre med) Degree anyway?

 

[VneZonyDostupa]

Even if you have a high GPA, a double major won't impress anybody, except perhaps your parents. There is NO advantage to a double major, only disadvantages if your main goal is med school. Majors don't matter. The person who majors in some easy non-sci major and just takes the prereqs tends to do as well in admissions as the Pchem/psych double major, even with equivalent GPAs. It's something that undergrads seem to want to matter but to adcoms they couldn't care less.

I can agree with for the most part. The only times I've heard an adcom specifically remark on a student's double major were a few occassions where the two majors were fairly different and diffucult (Poli Sci and Bio, English and Bio). Other than that, I'm sure they don't count for much.

 

[Law2Doc]

I can agree with for the most part. The only times I've heard an adcom specifically remark on a student's double major were a few occassions where the two majors were fairly different and diffucult (Poli Sci and Bio, English and Bio). Other than that, I'm sure they don't count for much.

Well the only times I've ever heard adcoms comment about majors are if it's something really unusual, like dance, and the person still has A's in the prereqs.

 

[Ischemic]

I don't wanna major in Bio Pre Med, and I don't get into medical school.

What could I do with a Biology(Pre med) Degree anyway?

There is no such thing as a premed degree. There are premed prereqs which include 1 year of bio, gen chem, ochem, physics, english and math. If you do the bare minimum of bio to satisfy your med school prereqs that's not even considered a minor much less a degree. If you MAJORED in biology and got a degree in it you can do research or teach or do research, get your MBA and work for a pharma company. Choose your major wisely and in conjunction with what you can see yourself doing if med school doesn't pan out.

 

[mmmcdowe]

There is no such thing as a premed degree. There are premed prereqs which include 1 year of bio, gen chem, ochem, physics, english and math. If you do the bare minimum of bio to satisfy your med school prereqs that's not even considered a minor much less a degree. If you MAJORED in biology and got a degree in it you can do research or teach or do research, get your MBA and work for a pharma company. Choose your major wisely and in conjunction with what you can see yourself doing if med school doesn't pan out.

A few schools still hold out a premedical sciences degree, but it is utterly useless and should not be pursued. It in no way will better prepare you for medical school.

 

[Ischemic]

A few schools still hold out a premedical sciences degree, but it is utterly useless and should not be pursued. It in no way will better prepare you for medical school.

Seriously? Some schools give out a premed degree? Wow, I wonder what poor fools got conned into getting that.

 

[mmmcdowe]

Seriously? Some schools give out a premed degree? Wow, I wonder what poor fools got conned into getting that.

I've only met a single interviewee with a premedical science degree. Even rarer than nursing as far as my experience goes.

 

[Electronegative]

Hello, I'm a high school senior and I have this interest in becoming a doctor.

Q: What kind of GPA would I need to get in Medical school?

Q: What would increase my odds of getting into Medical school?

Q: When the best time to start studying for the MCAT?

Q: Should a double major?

Q: How much should I work doing college and Med school?

Thanks for your time.

mdapplicants website should answer all your questions.