What else should I be doing right now?

[ckl81]

These boards have been very helpful so far, so I'm coming back for some more advice. I've already decided that I'm probably going to apply in the summer of 2010 for matriculation in 2011, while working in the interim.

To prepare for that, I've been volunteering weekly since February/March at MGH (doing patient transport in the ED) as well as an at-risk homeless prevention center. I've got my pre-req courses schedule mapped out over the next year, and I've started to review physics and chemistry on my own for the MCAT, which I want to take after I complete my pre-reqs. I've also been thinking about what I would focus on in my essay, especially why I believe medicine is a good fit for me. I've talked to a few non-trads who also came from finance about their transition, and have done some shadowing, although not much.

Is there anything else that I'm missing here? I feel like I'm going down the right path to give me a good shot at getting into med school, but I thought I'd check with the board to see if there's something else I should be doing right now as well...thanks!

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[Law2Doc]

These boards have been very helpful so far, so I'm coming back for some more advice. I've already decided that I'm probably going to apply in the summer of 2010 for matriculation in 2011, while working in the interim.

To prepare for that, I've been volunteering weekly since February/March at MGH (doing patient transport in the ED) as well as an at-risk homeless prevention center. I've got my pre-req courses schedule mapped out over the next year, and I've started to review physics and chemistry on my own for the MCAT, which I want to take after I complete my pre-reqs. I've also been thinking about what I would focus on in my essay, especially why I believe medicine is a good fit for me. I've talked to a few non-trads who also came from finance about their transition, and have done some shadowing, although not much.

Is there anything else that I'm missing here? I feel like I'm going down the right path to give me a good shot at getting into med school, but I thought I'd check with the board to see if there's something else I should be doing right now as well...thanks!

Sounds like a decent game plan, just get the grades and score on top of those ECs. If you totally want to cross the t and dot the i, you might want to look into whether there are any research projects you can jump onto at your school or hospital, so that you can have some research experience too. And a couple of schools like to see non-health volunteerism, so popping by a Soup Kitchen or Habitat for Humanity or becoming a Big Brother never hurts. But yeah, you seem to be doing all the right stuff.

 

[ckl81]

Sounds like a decent game plan, just get the grades and score on top of those ECs. If you totally want to cross the t and dot the i, you might want to look into whether there are any research projects you can jump onto at your school or hospital, so that you can have some research experience too. And a couple of schools like to see non-health volunteerism, so popping by a Soup Kitchen or Habitat for Humanity or becoming a Big Brother never hurts. But yeah, you seem to be doing all the right stuff.

Thanks Law2Doc, it's great to hear your perspective. I'll try and look into some clinical research; I'm not the biggest fan of lab work, and I really enjoy the in-person interaction, so I think it'll be a better fit. I'll see if I can squeeze in some time for Big Brother as well, I just want to make sure I don't spread myself too thin.

 

[nontrdgsbuiucmd]

Sounds like you're in pretty good shape with the ECs, only things that come to mind are that you start thinking about who you'll request a letter of reference from, and review the premed courses on your map.. many schools have different pre-requisite requirements (check their web pages or the MSAR on this), some schools look very favorably upon applicants who have taken advanced bio courses; cell & molecular, genetics, anatomy & physiology, biochemistry come to mind. If you can squeeze any of those in, it'll most likely help with the MCAT and look good to some schools.

You'd mentioned self-study on physics/chem for the MCAT? May want to purchase some mcat prep materials if you've not done so yet, MCAT material is far shallower than what is covered in physics/chem classes, but quite broad. I've had luck with examkrackers material, there are other publishers that other people recommend too.