Hey everyone I just have a few questions and could use some advice on how to improve my chances of getting into med school in the future.
Academics
I just finished my freshman year of college in May with a 4.0 GPA and completed 2 semesters of general biology and 2 semesters of general chemistry courses (I am a bio major and minoring in both chem and religion). In the fall I will be completing organic chemistry 1, anatomy and physiology 1, cell biology, and an independent study looking at the relationship between medicine and religion (in which I will be writing a 30 page paper). In the spring I will be taking organic chem 2, anatomy and physiology 2, genetics, and another religion course that involves 4 hours of volunteering in the community each week.
Volunteering/Shadowing
As of now, I only have 20 hours of volunteering at a local hospital in the emergency department but should have 80-100 hours total by the end of the summer. I also applied to 3 additional hospitals and should hear back from them soon to gain more volunteer experience this summer. I have no shadowing hours yet but am working on finding a doctor to shadow this summer to start getting hours and to learn more about specific specialties.
Research
I completed a 20 page research paper on religion during the spring and spent 40-50 hours on it. This research meant a lot to me and I was able to explore a religious institution and learn about diversity, the challenges facing minority groups, and develop a new passion for understanding those from a different background than myself. I will be publishing this paper and attending research conferences as part of my independent study in the fall. QUESTION: does this qualify as research for med school applications? I know it isn’t the typical lab research but it is something that I am passionate about and learned a lot from.
Other
I am also part of a leadership group on campus and am in the process of starting up a non-profit organization with a friend in which we raise money to purchase backpacks filled with school supplies for children in need in our community.
I apologize for such a long post but would appreciate any feedback you may have. Am I on the right track for being a successful applicant to med school? How can I improve my chances and make my application stand out?
Thanks again!
One comment: "organic chemistry 1, anatomy and physiology 1, cell biology, " - this look too much for one semester. It looks like a huge jump from combo of Bio / Gen. Chem. However, you know better your own ability. The outsiders cannot assess if it ok or not for YOU specifically. As a rule, my D. had only 2 hard classes in semester with the balance of easy classes. You want to continue with your 4.0, do not overload.
I would say no. Mostly because this doesn’t sound like it’s equivalent to the extracurricular research experiences that most med students have. This sounds like a typical final assignment in a humanities course, and the fact that it was completed in 40-50 hours of work says to me that it was of much smaller scope than the types of extracurricular projects people think of in the biomedical sciences.
The other part that does concern me with humanities research is that the process is too different. For example the skills learned in non biomedical biology research (e.g. animal behavior, plant biology, insect biology, etc) or chemistry or even physics/engineering is still highly transferable in terms of the way experiments are designed, data is analyzed and presented. I don’t think of religious studies research as operating within the same paradigms based on my experiences with classical studies, but if you can explain to me (or more importantly, a physician on a med school ad com) why I’m wrong then maybe it is equivalent.
None of this is to say it wouldn’t contribute to your application and be a positive, just that it wouldn’t be considered the same thing as doing scientific research.
If you are strictly interested in Med schools(as opposed to MD/PHD), Clinical experiences is an more important EC than scientific research, Non-scientific research does not count much in Med schools applications.