What to do NOW to get in to medical school

[Mitch556]

I can't find another thread on this...

I am wondering what I can do now to help increase my chances of getting into medical school later.

Volunteering - Should I at only medical orientated places? How many hours is typical of an application

I am just not sure what to do i've seen people getting their EMT and others doing research for their university.. any help would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks,
Mitch

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[BeardedRunner]

My personal suggestions:

Shadow a doctor who is also a faculty member at your university's medical school. If you can't find one like that, just shadow a doctor who seems well respected in the local community.

Do research for a P.I. who publishes a lot of papers and is also well respected etc.

If you can, go on a medical mission trip to a 3rd world country (just for a week or two) - more info about this at fimrc.org.

Aside from shadowing, volunteer at a local hospital.

Have a leadership role in some of your school's clubs.

I would not suggest becoming an EMT.

There have been many posts on this before btw.

 

[Aladdin]

Going off of what BeardedRunner said, here are my opinions from what I have gathered from my experience (applying to med school 3 times) in the last few years:

-Shadowing is great; it gets you exposure to clinical medicine that is difficult to get any other way (except SOME volunteering). Don't do too much with one type of doc bc it's going to be pretty repetitive and adcom members have told me it is a very "passive" activity; you may get lucky and work with a really cool and engaging doc that lets you do a good amount, but that is somewhat unlikely. I would recommend moving among a few fields to show that you have seen what they do and still actually like it. Don't spend more than 20hrs or so with any doc.

-If you are interested in research (or going to a very research oriented school), this is a necessity. I did VERY little (practically none) bc I have absolutely no interest in any sort of research in the future. Adcoms will be able to tell if you were really interested in it, or just doing it to put on your app.

-IMO, going to a 3rd world country is as close to a guarantee to getting in as anything else after GPA and MCAT. Whether or not you agree with the underlying reason for going on the trip, doing something abroad shows you are interested in helping the "human race." Plus, the trips I have been on have been incredible and very eye-opening. Check out Global Medical Training (gmtonline.org). I did a trip with them and have quite a few friends that have done trips with them. THey are great and very accomodating.

-In terms of volunteering, do something you will enjoy, whether it is at the YMCA, Soup Kitchen, Homeless shelter, hospital, clinic, etc. I think adcoms would rather see you VERY involved with 1-3 volunteering opportunities than slightly involved in 10. I found my niche at a free clinic in my hometown and in the oncology unit of a hospital. Bottom line: doesn't have to be medically related if you have other medical experience (trip abroad and shadowing).

-Leadership roles are definitely important, but probably lower on the list of things to have. I would get the above before leadership. I had a few leadership positions, but I don't think they helped me TOO much (definitely didn't hurt).

-I agree with the EMT thing. IMO, good volunteering and significant clinical experience (research, volunteering, shadowing) will be more beneficial than an EMT. Obviously, some people disagree.

Sorry for the novel. Hope this helps....

 

[Greonis]

I disagree with the importance that you have placed on medical mission trips. While there is no doubt that such a trip is beneficial to the country's communities, I think it helps to take a deeper look at the net effect of any trips taken abroad. Consider, for example, that the vast majority of these trips will cost a lot of money, require a lot of time (in the context of a busy student), and leave behind a substantial carbon footprint. Moreover, consider the responsibilities that you're going to have on such a trip. They are once again indisputably helpful, but they are unlikely to have any long-term benefits for the communities if you are not able to put in, say, several months of work, which is very difficult for students in school who may have to juggle work and other responsibilities. And, while this is a personal opinion, I am not a fan of those who go abroad to exploit lax standards just so they can get more "exposure" to medical procedures. Do those abroad not deserve the same standards as those in the US? Not to mention, shadowing can properly fill this role should one find the right doctor without even having to get on a plane.

I think one looking to demonstrate their generosity to others would be far better off staying in the US and donating their time to local needy individuals (and believe me, there are many to be found). It will cost a fraction of the money, be easily integrated into one's existing schedule, have a smaller carbon footprint, and be just as helpful in the long run. The money used to travel could be saved for other purposes, not the least of which could be as a donation to international organizations - whose members dedicate their lives to international aid and spend long periods of time abroad - that will be able to put it to good use. A fundraiser dedicated to such a donation could be an excellent project that, in my opinion, would look just as good on one's application as any medical mission trip.

To summarize, if you want to go abroad and have the resources, then that is perfectly okay. The communities abroad will benefit (albeit to a small extent) and you will have something interesting to put down on your application, since you will have exposed yourself to a new place/culture and possess many interesting stories to share. Be honest with yourself, however, and realize that such a trip may ultimately be little more than "medical tourism" depending on how you go about doing it (the costs, time invested, etc...) And, even if adcoms express interest in it during an interview, do not expect it to be a golden ticket into medical school. Adcoms are likely to be aware of medical mission trips' intricacies, and that not everyone has the ability/opportunity to go abroad, since some may only be able to find relevant experiences close to where they live.

 

[ChemEngMD]

Going off of what BeardedRunner said, here are my opinions from what I have gathered from my experience (applying to med school 3 times) in the last few years:

-Shadowing is great; it gets you exposure to clinical medicine that is difficult to get any other way (except SOME volunteering). Don't do too much with one type of doc bc it's going to be pretty repetitive and adcom members have told me it is a very "passive" activity; you may get lucky and work with a really cool and engaging doc that lets you do a good amount, but that is somewhat unlikely. I would recommend moving among a few fields to show that you have seen what they do and still actually like it. Don't spend more than 20hrs or so with any doc.

-If you are interested in research (or going to a very research oriented school), this is a necessity. I did VERY little (practically none) bc I have absolutely no interest in any sort of research in the future. Adcoms will be able to tell if you were really interested in it, or just doing it to put on your app.

-IMO, going to a 3rd world country is as close to a guarantee to getting in as anything else after GPA and MCAT. Whether or not you agree with the underlying reason for going on the trip, doing something abroad shows you are interested in helping the "human race." Plus, the trips I have been on have been incredible and very eye-opening. Check out Global Medical Training (gmtonline.org). I did a trip with them and have quite a few friends that have done trips with them. THey are great and very accomodating.

-In terms of volunteering, do something you will enjoy, whether it is at the YMCA, Soup Kitchen, Homeless shelter, hospital, clinic, etc. I think adcoms would rather see you VERY involved with 1-3 volunteering opportunities than slightly involved in 10. I found my niche at a free clinic in my hometown and in the oncology unit of a hospital. Bottom line: doesn't have to be medically related if you have other medical experience (trip abroad and shadowing).

-Leadership roles are definitely important, but probably lower on the list of things to have. I would get the above before leadership. I had a few leadership positions, but I don't think they helped me TOO much (definitely didn't hurt).

-I agree with the EMT thing. IMO, good volunteering and significant clinical experience (research, volunteering, shadowing) will be more beneficial than an EMT. Obviously, some people disagree.

Sorry for the novel. Hope this helps....

I agree with almost everything here. The only thing is that I have heard many reports from people who said the foreign country thing really isn't that impressive/important because adcoms would rather see you helping out locally in your own city before running away to some foreign country. Just what I've heard people put on here in the past

 

[LizzyM]

I agree with almost everything here. The only thing is that I have heard many reports from people who said the foreign country thing really isn't that impressive/important because adcoms would rather see you helping out locally in your own city before running away to some foreign country. Just what I've heard people put on here in the past

I concur. If you can go abroad for a year or more (e.g. Peace Corps), then fine -- otherwise it is far better to help at home.

 

[Mitch556]

Great, thanks a lot. Does anyone have any more threads like this bookmarked?

 

[SnYpaJY]

How do you bookmark a thread?

 

[karayraisu]

I've been abroad twice so far in college with medical mission trips. Once was about three weeks to Central America, another was about a week to Asia. Personally, I went in the beginning due to interest in international development (ID) work, and not thinking about med school at all. In both trips, I served as the team's language interpreter (Spanish and Chinese). To me, I feel like going on these trips really open your eyes to medical needs abroad and in a broader sense kind of takes you a little bit further from all the more mundane working-in-a-hospital, shadowing type of EC that you do here. Currently, due to the relationships that I was able to establish when I was abroad, I'm working now with a community clinic in Nicaragua, streamlining their patient processing system and augmenting the quality of their patient care delivery. I wouldn't have ever thought about doing this if it wasn't for the trip last summer.

I would definitely suggest going on a trip if you can, but I would say be extremely wary of trips that are more like "tourism" trips (just like there are tour operators that offer "service trips" to Africa and South America to high school students so they can pad their college resume). A sure sign of these kinds of trips is to look for how long you'll actually be working - if the schedule says you work for 3 days but play for 3 days, there's something wrong with the trip (in both of my trips, we didn't get to do tourism at all till the last day or so!)

Also, if you go, make sure that you can actually contribute to the brigade's mission in some way. Due to the medical nature, you probably won't be allowed to do the actual medical work, but even serving as an interpreter or staff who takes down patient vitals before doctor examination would provide for a better experience and you'll be able to talk about the trip more fully when you are back.

As for the EMT thing, I do agree on that it's not necessarily the best job. A lot of premeds here do EMT to pad their resume, and I actually think half the time it turns out to be detrimental. Being an EMT is only useful if you actually take shifts after your training (IMO, it's useless to get trained and then do nothing with your EMT certificate), but working regular EMT shifts mean staying up at odd hours quite frequently throughout the term, affecting academic and involvement in other extracurriculars. I mean, if that's what you really want to do, then definitely go for it, but otherwise I think there's many other activities that are equally rewarding that you can pursue in the time that you would have spent with EMT.

 

[tima]

Saved for later use.

Thanks.

 

[mic2377]

I also wanted to add my own comments regarding the EMT thing. Just getting the certification is, well, relatively useless. The classroom experience is perhaps 50% of the actual learning you need to be a functional EMT. It requires a very significant experience component were it is necessary to ride the ambulance ALOT. You won't get to run calls or make clinical decisions until it is too late for your purposes. Don't let me discourage you, but it is quite the time commitment. I love it more than anything! The sad thing is that driving "lights/sirens" doesn't even raise my pulse anymore. About the only thing that does that is a code or a bad ped call.

For volunteer, just do what you like. I used to play classical piano, and ended up doing a volunteer teaching gig where I worked with disadvantaged urban kids. I really like kids, and I enjoyed every minute of my time. I got to do some piano playing myself, and some of the kids actually continued with music even after I moved from the area.

Just get started with it NOW. Lots of volunteer activities have long lead times, and for them to be significant, start looking/hunting now.