Acceptance into Med School?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I am a rising high school junior, and am aspiring to be a doctor. I am not the brightest crayon in the box and don't make the best grades in school, but I have the passion and drive to be a doctor. My current practice SAT score(SAT Prep) ranges in between 1750-1860. I have taken 3 AP courses, and gotten 4's. Next year, I am planning on taking 6 IB courses and 1 AP course. I make mostly B's and A's. </p>

<p>My GPA is a 4.8/5.5 scale, and I am in the top 12% of my class. I live in Texas, and I have been looking into pre med schools in the DFW area. My main concern is getting into med school after my undergrad studies. Based on my scores, what are my chances of getting into a good pre med program in Texas? I was interested in the BA/MD program, so how likely am I to get into that program or even a traditional med school? </p>

<p>Thank you!</p>

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<p>Check out the stickies at the top of the page! They’ll answer most of those questions. But the condensed version is:</p>

<p>1) You can’t predict med school from HS
2) HS is way too early to be worried about med school
3) The name of your school for undergrad is considerably less important than what you do there, probably to the degree that in the grand scheme of things, it’s practically meaningless. See bluedevilmike’s 10 step guide for more thoughts.
4) Think carefully about combined programs–see the separate forum for those!</p>

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<p>Baylor is cheap and good quality. My cousin just graduated as class president this year.</p>

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<p>Thanks for your reply!
My main concern is that what if I cannot get into med school after Pre Med. What would my options be at that time?</p>

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<p>Like most people, you can get a career in something unrelated to your major.</p>

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<p>Yes, I have been thinking about Baylor as one of my options. Thanks! What is the acceptance rate into Med school after doing Undergraduate course from Baylor?</p>

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<p>^^You may see some numbers about that on Baylor’s website; however, the general recommendation is to ignore any data the a college posts itself. Treat it like marketing progaganda.</p>

<p>The reason any percentages are suspect is that there is no one consistent way of calculating this. </p>

<p>Look at it this way: 100 freshmen start out as pre meds. Over the next 4 years, 75 drop out of the pre-med path and never apply to med school. The 25 remaining applicants apply to the health professions committee for a letter of recommendation. Twenty are given letters and five are refused because the committee views them as weak candidates. Those twenty apply to med schools, but only 12 of those apply to MD schools, 5 apply to DO schools and 3 apply to DPT or OD or DPM programs. Of the 12 that apply to MD schools, 9 get accepted. Of the 5 that applied to DO schools, 4 get accepted. Of those who applied to other health profession schools, all 3 get accepted.</p>

<p>So what is actually the acceptance percentage? 9 of 12? (MD only) 13 of 17? (MD +DO) 16 of 20? (All health professions). 9 of 25? (MDs out of everyone who requests LOR) 9 of 100? (MDs out of all freshmen premeds) </p>

<p>There are dozens of other ways to manipulate the numbers too.</p>

<p>BTW, the 75% drop out rate between freshman year and med school application is approx. the national average for pre med drop out.</p>

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<p>Thank you so much for the information. I never realized that the percentages are so skewed. As of now, I am planning on getting into pre med and seeing where it takes me. Appreciate all of the advice!</p>

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<p>Good luck!</p>

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<p>BTW most schools do not have a Pre med major- you just take prerequisite courses for medical school. And Way out West really hit it in the nail about stats manipulation- don’t accept a quoted acceptance rate at face value unless you know what the real numerator and denominator are.</p>

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<p>@WayOutWestMom Thanks a lot for the help and information.</p>

<p>@PsychoDad10 Yes I understand that.I have come to the realization that a lot of the stats are manipulated. Thank you for the help!</p>

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<p>So what do you guys think the likelihood of me getting into pre-med and then med school would be based on my characteristics?</p>

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<p>RE: pre med–anyone can be a pre med. It’s not a major, it’s an intention. You don’t need to be accepted into a “pre med program”.</p>

<p>RE: med school—impossible to guess until you have a college GPA and a MCAT score.</p>

<p>High school GPA is not always a good predictor of success in college.</p>

<p>But the good news is that you live in TX which has many in-state med schools that heavily favors state residents.</p>

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<p>And Balsun remember that you can major in anything and go to med school. I majored in French and have been a Cardiologist for 13 years.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the quick replies. @PsychoDad10, how difficult was it for you to become a cardiologist after majoring in French? I mean, did you take pre med courses also? And how would you describe the rigor in med school? I was under the impression that you have to take pre-med in order to get into med school.</p>

<p>@WayOutWestMom, thanks for all of the information and help. It’s extremely stressful to decide at such an early age about what you want to with your life, and I have been extremely stressed out about choosing what I want to do. You have been extremely helpful. Appreciate everything!</p>

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<p>No matter what you major in (and you can major in ANYTHING - music, French, etc), you have to take the premed prereqs as well. </p>

<p>I don’t know what you mean by “take premed”…there isn’t a premed major at 99% of schools. Everyone takes premed prereqs…a year of bio, a year of chem, a year of ochem, a year of physics, calc and/or stats, and now a few more req’ts.</p>

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<p>Balsun- I worked just as hard as everyone else. I knew I wanted to be a Cardiologist when I was 3 years old- yes, I’m serious. I read at an early age and saw pictures of the heart in a book, and that was it. I truly hated science, and still do, unless it pertained to the heart. In fact, I hated most of medical school because I had tunnel vision.</p>

<p>As long as you are very (and I mean very) dedicated to doing the best, you should do just fine. Of course, I had to take the same prerequisites as everyone else. You need to have a general understanding that there really is no premed major at most schools. You major in whatever you want. My son will be majoring in Classics and wants to go to medical school.</p>

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<p>Balsun-- you really, really don’t have to decide you whole future right this minute. The reality is that most people have more than one career during their lifetimes. (I’m on my third. Each career was the right one at the time.) </p>

<p>Also there are more careers out in the world than you have probably heard of. Most high schools do a poor job of career education. Keep an open mind when you get to college. You may find some thing that stirs your passions and takes you in new, unexpected directions career-wise.</p>

<p>I would suggest that for now you concentrate on doing well this year. Your junior year will be the last set of grades you’'ll have to show to colleges when you apply and adcomms will look carefully at them.</p>

<p>If you think you may want a medical career, consider doing some volunteer work at a hospital, group or nursing home. This will help give you a more realistic look at what a doctor actually does. (HINT: it’s not at all like it’s portrayed on TV.)</p>

<p>~~~
Pre med is a intention, not a major. </p>

<p>You take a set of specific courses that medical schools require for admission–which are fairly minimal. 2 semesters of biology w/lab; 2 semesters of gen chem w/lab; 2 semesters of OChem w/Lab; 1 semester of biochem; 2 semesters of college math (calculus 1 and statistics are required or recommended by most schools); 2 semesters of physics w/labs; 2 semesters of English or writing intensive humanities; 1 semester of sociology; 1 semester of psychology.</p>

<p>While in college you need to engage in variety of ECs–like medical volunteering; science research; physician shadowing; community service; leadership roles in activities that are meaningful to you.</p>

<p>When you’ve completed all of these thing, then you take the MCAT—and apply. (Assuming your GPA and MCAT scores are in range for medical school.)</p>

<p>While 1/2 to 2/3 of the students in medical school apply directly from undergrad, the rest graduate and work/volunteer and enter medical school later, often after other careers. (In my older d’s medical school class, there are people from wide variety of prior careers, including a long haul truck driver, a PhD in neuroscience, a couple of engineers, a paramedic, a high school teacher, a MBA-holding non-profit administrator.)</p>

<p>My older daughter was a career changer. She started med school at 26; my younger daughter is taking an planned 2 year break before starting med school.</p>

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<p>OP,
I would drop the BA/MD, get into ANY UG that you personally like and work hard on getting college GPA very close to 4.0.</p>

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<p>It would be extremely hard for somebody who truly hates science to get to be an MD. Most pre-meds are passionate about science</p>