Setting up tours as a pre-med?

[u2ecila]

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Hi,
I want to tour several med schools now before I apply next year. How do I go about setting these up? I called University of MD, and they did not have any pre-med tours available. Do you think I could just wonder around on a weekday?

Thanks for any advice!

🙂
ecila

 

[Tezzie]

I don't understand why you need to tour the med schools NOW. Are you prepared for your application? Have you taken the MCATs yet ?

During the interview process (*IF* you are invited for an interview) you will get to see the schools. Right now is somewhat to early. Don't waste your time or money. Instead of starting to tour do something more valuable with your time.

If you still want to tour the schools after all i said ... well email the schools. Some do, some don't. Most won't.

 

[personal jesus]

tezzie you really are a prick.

 

[loomis]

hi
i know some schools do give tours during the "offseason" such a harvard med. mayo also has a very extensive public tour (that interviewees also take). you should call the school's public relations office or check their website.

a better option would be to see if you can get in contact with med students at whatever school you are interested in. i'm sure some of the students would be happy to chat about their school and maybe even give you a informal show around the facilities. hope this helps and good luck to you!

 

[Cantal]

If I had an unlimited money supply and had the luxury of visiting every medical school before I applied, I definitely would take it. In fact, I would have loved to spend this past summer after my MCATs seeing each school, because tours give you a really good impression of how you will like the place.

You can get the same effect when you visit for interviews, but obviously by then its too late to decide whether or not you will apply to the school. I think you should try to tour as many places as will let you in for a day, and indicate that you are interested in applying to their school but want to find out a bit more by going on a tour and meeting some students. I think a lot of med schools might even let you sit in on classes, because I know my undergrad's med school definitely does this.

Email, call, do whatever. Of course when you call, they're going to say "uhm... hmm.. I don't think I've heard of anything like this before..." That's because pre-med touring is probably pretty rare. Explain what you want from the tour, what you'd like to see, and what you hope to gain out of it. I think a lot would accomodate you 🙂

-Cantal

 

[MeowMix]

I agree with Cantal. If you look at the interview feedback site, it's amazing to see how many people wish they had visited the campus BEFORE they applied so they would have known not to apply. A short visit is a lot less bother and cost than a primary, secondary, travel and interview to a place you really don't like.

 

[Tezzie]

I had a classmate of mine in highschool that decided to visit about 20-25 schools before applying. She ended up coming back saying how many she loved and all. Well she ended up not getting into most of them. So it was wasted money all along.

Say the OP wants to apply to 12 schools. Say he visits 12 and thinks that 6 are not for him. He ends up applying to 6. Thats a HUGE gamble. The more you apply the better your chances are.

Having said that other posters are not taking into account some other things. MCAT/GPA cutoffs. I believe a person should wait until they are ABSOLUTELY sure that their GPA/MCAT is above the cut off lines. What if you don't do well on the MCAT? Or on the other hand what if u get a 45 on the MCAT? Then you may want to apply to schools that you may have thought were out of reach in the first place.

I have visited 22 schools. I liked most of them and i could see myself in being in 20 of them. Quite honestly though had i visited a school and fell in love with it and then finding out that i was rejected post secondary it would really hurt me. Sometimes ignorance is bliss ...

The 1-2k that you are going to spend going to more interviews/ applying to more schools is going to be a drop in the bucket considering how much med school tuition is.

 

[musiclink213]

i know a friend of mine is going to tour at a vet school with a group of interviewees. they said if she goes up when they give the tour to the interviews, than she can tag along and join on the tour, even though she hasn't applied yet.

 

[efex101]

I have to agree with Tezzie. Unless of course you mean touring schools that are within driving distance and they are your state schools. Then by all means either ask if there is a tour or just go on your own and look around. Because thousands of pre-meds (at least at my school) each year do not end up going to medical school for whatever reason is it kind of a waste of time to go look at schools *until* you have your MCAT score in hand, your GPA in hand, you have volunteered, and have good EC's to back your intentions about wanting to become a physician. Regardless, do what you think is best for you and just e-mail the schools. I think most are way to busy to want to give unlimited number of tours to pre-meds just my honest opinion....