Hi everybody,
I'm a rising sophomore bioengineering major at a decently well known large state school. I have always wanted to go into scientific research of some sort, and was pretty much set on getting a PhD since high school. Last semester, I started out in a computational biology lab that I find interesting and will likely continue to work in through my college career (along with possible research internships/summer programs in related fields/other fields of interest later on).
However, for reasons that I don't want to explain here, it has recently occurred to me that I might be very interested in medicine and translational research/becoming a physician-scientist. As such, I am strongly considering getting an MD/PhD to further this goal.
I have some questions regarding this, however.
1. Due to pure laziness, I had a poor start to my college career with a 3.4 GPA first semester but was able to get a 3.9 GPA second semester. What is a good GPA to be competitive for MD/PhD programs? I would say that my second semester GPA is more representative of my true ability due to its higher course rigor.
2. How exactly do I get started on the medical side of things? Eg. What should I do to get into clinical experience, shadowing, etc.?
3. Is starting on this track sophomore year too late?
4. I often see people listing hours spent in research, etc. on chance me threads. I have realized that I actually don't really track how much time I spend working on my research projects, but am more focused on results/getting things done. Is this bad for applications? Should I start counting hours?
5. How important are miscellaneous extracurriculars/leadership positions? I haven't really joined many clubs— do I need to?
Thank you in advance!
I'm a rising sophomore bioengineering major at a decently well known large state school. I have always wanted to go into scientific research of some sort, and was pretty much set on getting a PhD since high school. Last semester, I started out in a computational biology lab that I find interesting and will likely continue to work in through my college career (along with possible research internships/summer programs in related fields/other fields of interest later on).
However, for reasons that I don't want to explain here, it has recently occurred to me that I might be very interested in medicine and translational research/becoming a physician-scientist. As such, I am strongly considering getting an MD/PhD to further this goal.
I have some questions regarding this, however.
1. Due to pure laziness, I had a poor start to my college career with a 3.4 GPA first semester but was able to get a 3.9 GPA second semester. What is a good GPA to be competitive for MD/PhD programs? I would say that my second semester GPA is more representative of my true ability due to its higher course rigor.
2. How exactly do I get started on the medical side of things? Eg. What should I do to get into clinical experience, shadowing, etc.?
3. Is starting on this track sophomore year too late?
4. I often see people listing hours spent in research, etc. on chance me threads. I have realized that I actually don't really track how much time I spend working on my research projects, but am more focused on results/getting things done. Is this bad for applications? Should I start counting hours?
5. How important are miscellaneous extracurriculars/leadership positions? I haven't really joined many clubs— do I need to?
Thank you in advance!