Hi there! I am a junior in high school who is hoping to do Pre-Med in college. I love being prepared so any advice on how I should handle Pre-Med/study for MCAT/make myself appealing to medical schools would be really helpful! Thanks!
There have been other threads on CC that you should be able to search through. Just off the top of my head some issues that have come up:
- If you go on to medical school, that means 8 years of university. The last four of these (the medical school) are very expensive. You should look for an affordable school for undergrad and avoid debt for undergrad if you possibly can.
- A LOT of universities in the US have very good premed programs.
- Premed is not a major. You can major in pretty much anything and take the required premed classes and then apply to medical school.
- You will need to get a strong GPA as an undergrad in order to be accepted to medical school. As such, some (including I) feel that you should attend a university where your high school GPA and SAT (or ACT) scores at least puts you in the top 1/2 of the class, and top 1/4 might be better.
- There is a difference of opinion regarding whether it is a good idea to go to a very highly selective university (such as Ivy League or equivalent) for undergrad / premed. One argument is that the top schools have a higher percentage of their undergrads who succeed in getting into medical schools. A counter argument is that someone who barely gets into Harvard might end up in the bottom 1/2 of the class there and not get into medical school, whereas the same student if they went to their in-state flagship might be in the top 1/4 of their class and get into medical school. The point is that at Harvard or another highly selective school you will be competing with other very strong students.
- Where ever you go for undergrad, the premed program will be very demanding. For example, if you do get into Harvard, but instead go to your in-state flagship, expect the premed classes at your in-state flagship to be very tough.
- At least half of the students who start off in premed programs change their mind and end up doing something else. As such, it is best to go to a university that provides other options.
- Somewhere around about half of the people who continue as premed and apply to medical schools get accepted somewhere, the other half don't. As such, having a plan B is a good idea.
- There are a lot of other medical careers other than "doctor". You might want to know what they are.
- Before you do any of this, if you are seriously considering medicine, even while in high school you should look into volunteering opportunities that are medically related.
What I would do now in HS is
- Try to take either AP Bio or AP chem senior year (assuming you have taken Bio, Chem and Physics)
- Volunteer in a medical setting to see if you like it
Check out studentdoctor dot net for advice as well