<p>ZFanatic:
Yes, math majors can go to medical school. Is it a tough program? At most schools, yes it is. But something being difficult shouldn’t deter you from doing it if you really enjoy it. After all, medical school is no walk in the park…If you pick a major that you love, not what you think will be easy or what everybody else is doing, you will fare much better in the long run. </p>
<p>Very few high school activities should be included on the medical school application, because it kind of calls into question the richness of your college experiences. Of course if you achieved something monumental in high school (i.e. started your own charity, etc.) that could be included, but most things are better left off the med school application. The admissions committees could care less that you were your high school yearbook editor. Your research experience would be worth including if you get some kind of publication or if you stay on with the same lab for some period during college. As far as the shadowing goes, you could include your high school experience with the shadowing experiences you did in college if you’d like to.</p>
<p>How rigorous is med school socially? Is there still time in a week to do things a young person should enjoy doing - hanging out with friends, sports, etc.?</p>
<p>Or is it pretty much studying every single day?</p>
<p>Hey Int,
This was my schedule for first year of medical school (BTW, second year was a whole lot busier): </p>
<p>Week days:
5:30 am Rise and Shine
5:45 Gym
6:30 Pre-read for class, review for the day’s anatomy lab
7:30 Get ready for school/ go to school
8:30-12:00 Class
12-1:00 Lunch
1:00-2:00 Class
2:00-5:00 Anatomy lab
5:00-7:00 Study
7:00 Dinner
7:45-9:00 Study
9:00-10:00 Free time (watch Tivo’d shows, call family and friends)</p>
<p>Weekends:
Wake up sometime before 10:00 am and go to the gym
Study until 9:00 pm
Go out and do something social</p>
<p>As you can see, school related stuff takes up most of the time, but you can still squeeze in social activities. I personally found that I was satisfied with far tamer activities than in college and high school because I knew that I had to get up and study the next day. While this was my schedule, many more people studied less and did other things. It really depends on how you want to structure your life. But either way, I find that if you don’t plan on having specially designated social time, it may be difficult to have a social life because you couldf always be studying.</p>
<p>9AM: got my fat ass out of bed
9-10: breakfast, shower, put on clothes (not usually in that order)
10-12: lab
12-1: lunch
1-5: afternoon nap, afternoon class if there is one
5-6:dinner
6-9: listen to the recording of the morning lectures I missed
9-2 AM: some mix of TV, wasting time, chatting with my gf (not insinuating anything by juxtaposing it with “wasting time”), and reviewing the lectures</p>
<p>Fridays and half of Saturday I don’t study at all. I usually hang out with my girlfriend.</p>
<p>Usually, I’ll go through the lectures a second time that weekend and twice more (third and fourth passes) right before the test.</p>
<p>Most people don’t get trashed on Fridays and sleep through Saturdays like they did in college but most people do have time for the gym or tv or whatever each day and usually some kind of fun activity on the weekends.</p>
<p>And, yes, I’m below average in work ethic (but not test scores hehe) and, yes, test weeks are quite painful for me. There’s also some EC’s that I’m involved in but time commitment for those are negligible (maybe 2 hours/week). I’m doing a fellowship in my M2 year that’s going to demand 5-6 hours/week so I’m going to start going to class and improving my efficiency.</p>
<p>I notice most pre-meds do research, since most of us are science majors - if someone doesn’t do research, does that look bad? I mean I have other meaningful EC’s, just haven’t gotten involved in research yet.</p>
<p>Just going to say that i’ve read this entire thread and it is one of the most helpful discussions/advice i’ve read so far. Thanks so much PrincessND, bdm, ncg, and everyone else for providing such helpful information!!</p>
<p>Can you shed some light on what is a decent MCAT score say for top, middle, and bottom tier med schools. Same for GPA. Also, which year should one take the first and last MCAT.</p>
<p>I know this has been discussed in older posts, but I am asking this of those who have taken the MCAT recently. How did your Kaplan and AAMC test scores compare to actual MCAT scores? Were they in the ballpark?</p>
<p>Many kids seem to report being within their "range’ of practice scores, but on the low end- hoping for 32/33, got 29; hoping for 36/37, got 33/34.</p>
<p>twinmom: I don’t dare either. It may make my blood presure higher by doing so :-)</p>
<p>somemom: Thanks for filling in the asnwer for the question Gtr raised. Actually, I think you know more about this as your child is one year ahead of my child.</p>
<p>At one time, I heard from my child that a balanced 33 may be good enough for some public medical schools (if applying widely), except for the top public ones. (if you are in-state.) I agree with somemom that the top ones (but not the extremely top ones) need 35.</p>
<p>When should one take MCAT? With no gap year, the earliest is at the end of the summer between sophomore and junior, and the latest is in April of the junior year, I think.</p>
<p>You should take the MCAT soon enough that in the year you apply you can be fully submitted no later than the end of June</p>
<p>So, IF you take in in May and get a June score, then submit the app, the transcripts, the LORs and ONE state school on June 1, then when you get your score, you should be about verified, you can add all the other schools, knowing where to aim :D</p>
<p>DD got a 29, she was disappointed, but she has an LD, does not get extra time, and was in her practice range of 28-33 so she elected not to retake it as that is an average score.</p>
<p>She knows she cannot expect a top school, she would be thrilled with our state school, which is (darn it) highly ranked. To offset the mediocre MCAT, she has solid GPA 3.6+ at Berkeley, all the requisite activities, I believe good LORS (assuming every one gets them in!!) and US national team sports experience & all american to make her a little more interesting.</p>
<p>We will let you know next year whether she wished she had retaken it, but she prepped and she was in her range, her range was just average though.</p>
<p>Reading SDN for schools in which you are interested can help you prep for next year’s timing, as it is we still missed the mark on some stuff.</p>
<p>DD did elect to only apply to one DO (TX) school, but her TX app is soooo slow in being verified, it hurts my head!</p>