What does it take?

[superbaz]

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So Im a college freshman this year, my aspirations are hopefully to go to med school MD route but Ive never met someone who's done it before nor do I have like a general idea of how I need to perform in undergrad to have a shot at going to med school. Does anyone on here have a general idea of what it takes to get into med school with like EC's GPA MCAT LoR etc.

 

[Pikabuu]

If you can narrow your question into some specifics, you'll find almost everything answered on here at some point. High GPA/MCAT, good LoRs, etc are all important, as you might expect. Just read a lot and you will get a good idea of the admissions process.

 

[Averagemanboy]

im not in med school yet, although I would say generally try to attain at least a 3.6 GPA, the higher the better. Start getting to know Professors early, like going to office hours and stuff to get good letters of rec. Try to find a research position early, sometimes it takes a while and you might have to start washing dishes but eventually you will be doing more important things. Also stay active with hobbies and clubs you like. You will also need to get clinical experience at some point, I didn't start until sophomore year. I would say 250 hours minimum, the more you have and the more variety you have the better. Also important to eventually get some leadership experience, and that can be in one of the things listed above or elsewhere. Volunteering outside of the clinical setting every once in awhile in something you like doing will also really help your cause. Don't worry about the MCAT for now. Most pre-meds don't do all the things I've listed here but if you can do most of them I would say you are well on your way

 

[WedgeDawg]

Here's my own personal tl;dr list of the basic requirements

• Prerequisites: biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, physics, psychology, english/humanities, calculus - these are the major ones, but certain schools have different requirements
• GPA: the median MD school matriculant has a cGPA of 3.7 and sGPA of 3.6. However, if you have a 3.5+, you are likely still going to be a competitive applicant barring other application deficiencies
• MCAT: the median MCAT for MD school matriculants is 31 on the old scale (510+ on the new scale); however, you should try to score as high as possible to maximize your options
• Clinical experience: this is the "active" part of working with patients where your primary role is to assist in patient care in some way or another. Many people to fulfill this requirement scribe, volunteer in an ED, work in hospice, etc. This doesn't have to be volunteering, but you have to be working with patients. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this, many of which are listed on other threads. I don't like setting hour-based standards, but most successful applicants have over 100 hours of clinical experience, and the majority have far more than that
• MD clinical exposure: this is the "passive" part of working with patients where your primary role is observation and reflection. Far and away the most common way of fulfilling this requirement is via shadowing. Most successful applicants have 40+ hours of shadowing
• Volunteering: you need to show that you have some degree of altruism; this volunteering doesn't necessarily have to be clinical
• Research: research is becoming more and more important for medical school applicants; most matriculants to MD schools have some sort of research experience. This ranges from a summer or semester working in a lab to a longitudinal experience over several years.
• Letters of Rec: most schools at the minimum require one non-science letter and two science letters, and highly recommend using the committee letter option if it is available at your undergrad

 

[AnnaSunH]

Here's my own personal tl;dr list of the basic requirements

• Prerequisites: biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, psychology, english/humanities, calculus - these are the major ones, but certain schools have different requirements
• GPA: the median MD school matriculant has a cGPA of 3.7 and sGPA of 3.6. However, if you have a 3.5+, you are likely still going to be a competitive applicant barring other application deficiencies
• MCAT: the median MCAT for MD school matriculants is 31 on the old scale (510+ on the new scale); however, you should try to score as high as possible to maximize your options
• Clinical experience: this is the "active" part of working with patients where your primary role is to assist in patient care in some way or another. Many people to fulfill this requirement scribe, volunteer in an ED, work in hospice, etc. This doesn't have to be volunteering, but you have to be working with patients. There are a variety of ways to accomplish this, many of which are listed on other threads. I don't like setting hour-based standards, but most successful applicants have over 100 hours of clinical experience, and the majority have far more than that
• MD clinical exposure: this is the "passive" part of working with patients where your primary role is observation and reflection. Far and away the most common way of fulfilling this requirement is via shadowing. Most successful applicants have 40+ hours of shadowing
• Volunteering: you need to show that you have some degree of altruism; this volunteering doesn't necessarily have to be clinical
• Research: research is becoming more and more important for medical school applicants; most matriculants to MD schools have some sort of research experience. This ranges from a summer or semester working in a lab to a longitudinal experience over several years.
• Letters of Rec: most schools at the minimum require one non-science letter and two science letters, and highly recommend using the committee letter option if it is available at your undergrad

This is very solid advice. When it comes to shadowing, diversity is good, especially some in primary care (such as family practice or internal medicine) because a lot of schools are trying to recruit future PCPs. When you're applying to schools, you can submit individual letters of rec or a committee letter from the pre-health professions committee at your school. A lot of schools actually prefer a committee letter, so I recommend befriending the person in charge of this committee. At my my school, the head of the committee (and the person who actually writes the committee letter) was the director of pre-health programs. I would also add to above list: hobbies. What do you do for fun? For example, playing a club sport shows you can work with others and you're disciplined. Not saying you have to go join a team, it just serves as an example. Schools want to know you can balance responsibilities with having a life.

 

[md-2020]

Prerequisites: biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, psychology, english/humanities, calculus - these are the major ones, but certain schools have different requirements

Only edit I'd make here is that perhaps by the time OP is applying, we might want to add in biochem and take out calc. Psych and english/writing are also very negotiable/"soft" requirements.

 

[WedgeDawg]

Only edit I'd make here is that perhaps by the time OP is applying, we might want to add in biochem and take out calc. Psych and english/writing are also very negotiable/"soft" requirements.

Totally forgot about biochem - added it in!

 

[Goro]

Learn how to use the search function. Really.

So Im a college freshman this year, my aspirations are hopefully to go to med school MD route but Ive never met someone who's done it before nor do I have like a general idea of how I need to perform in undergrad to have a shot at going to med school. Does anyone on here have a general idea of what it takes to get into med school with like EC's GPA MCAT LoR etc.

 

[The Knife & Gun Club]

Also don't get a red flag. These include Institutional Action (cheating or other disciplinary charge) or an arrest record (Misdemeanor or felony)