<p>I am 15 years old and going into junior year. I've pretty much decided that I would like to pursue a career in medicine, however, I'm a little ignorant when it comes to all the different options. Could someone please explain exactly what the combined programs offer that is different from the regular path. (sorry if that's a stupid question). How selective are the combined programs and do you think I have a chance of getting into one with the following extra curriculurs:</p>
<p>weighted GPA of 4.4 (I'm in the top 2 % of my class)
JV on badminton team (hoping to make varsity this year)
Peer Leader (volunteer club)
Annual participant of American Cancer Society's Relay For Life
Spanish Club
Geometry tutor my freshman year
Piano player</p>
<p>I would really like anyone's opinion on which program is better. if i do choose to do the combined program what would the schedule be like? Would i be able to take classes like psychology, sociology, english? Also is it easier to get into a combined program or go through the MCATs and the stress??</p>
<p>Another thing, does it look better to colleges if you have volunteer work in a hospital or an actual job related to medicine?? My mom can get my a job next summer as a secretary in the local hospital, but do you think it would look better if i volunteered??</p>
<p>Thanks so much and sorry if these are really silly questions.</p>
<p>if you do an accelerated program, you won't usually get to take classes for fun, it will mostly be undergrad pre-med track stuff, and later on med stuff. Like they say on that other forum, you miss out on the experience of college. BUT if you still want to do it, which is perfectly cool, here are programs you can look at </p>
<p>(and getting in will depend a lot on your SAT as well)
-Rutgers BS/MD
-Penn State BS/MD
-Ohio NEUCOM
-U of Miami
-U of South Florida / U of Central Florida (they have a cooperative program with each other)
- U of Florida has a program where you can apply to the accelerated program in your sophomore year of college</p>
<p>and then some of the crazy hard ones:
Brown PLME
Northwestern HPME</p>
<p>They are all really competitive, but if you've got a high enough SAT score, i'm pretty sure you can get into some of the lesser-known ones like Rutgers or Penn State or NEUCOM. As for Brown and Northwestern......i'd say your chances look bleak......but you never know. I, incidentally applied to 5 programs and was rejected from every one (1510 on old SAT, 4.2 GPA, over 30 credit hours worth of AP/IB, and decent ECS.)</p>
<p>Oh, also, with a lot of BS/MD programs, they still make you take MCAT (something they usually don't like to tell you until after you accept their offer of admission.) Usually they want you to get higher than a 30, and they let you go on to med-school, but yeah, just understand that you may have to take the MCAT no matter what. </p>
<p>And....as far as job vs volunteering.....Honestly, i don't think it matters whether its a job or a volunteership. I think it depends more on what you do while working. I realllly don't suggest doing clerical work at a hospital in hopes of impressing med-schools or even 4 year institutions. Its better to do something that involves patient contact, such as talking to patients, playing games, helping nurses feed them, anything that involves interaction with patients.</p>
<p>Hope this helps!</p>