confused, i need a little help

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>i am starting my 3rd year of school next fall. but i recently decided that medicine is what i really would like to purse a career in, only problem, i've been studying political science/international relations for the past 2 years now, and completly hate it.</p>

<p>I have don't only one science course, geology, which doesn't count towards pre-med. my college doesn't have pre-med major, only biology or chemistry. </p>

<p>1) i'll probably change a major in biology since i am more better in that and minor in chem</p>

<p>since i am going to start my thrid year, i know it's pretty much required that you take the MCAT fall semester of junior year, which, i have no science course done to even have the change to get a good score on it.
I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO !!!!</p>

<p>next, currently i have a 3.1 GPA, which, pretty much sucks for this kind of work if i am not mistaken, since med-school you need to have at least a 3.6 to get in.... AHHHHH</p>

<p>i know i don't want to study politics, i want to study medicine, and get into med school.</p>

<p>is it too late for me? what should i do? </p>

<p>thank you in advance!!</p>

2

<p>Moving your thread to the PreMed Topics forum because your questions are more about Premed than transferring.</p>

3

<p>Hi Hi</p>

<p>Don’t stress.</p>

<p>So the MCAT junior year thing is if you want to apply in the the summer after which would be in a year and a half for you, summer before senior year. Thats not going to be possible for you. </p>

<p>So lets talk about classes first. </p>

<p>You don’t have to be a bio major to go to medschool. If you’re almost done with your current major or already done then don’t worry about switching majors. If you still have a long way to go for your current major then switching majors may be worth it. But you should know you don’t have to be a science major to go into medschool. Only 50% (i think) of medstudents were science majors.</p>

<p>Do you have two english courses by any chance because of your previous major? If you do thats two classes out of the way.</p>

<p>So what you need to take is
2 semesters general chemistry
2 semesters organic chemistry
2 semesters physics
2 semesters math (calc I and II i think)
2+ semesters biology (2 required but upper level classes strongly recommended).</p>

<p>In these classes you will want a B+/A- (leaning towards 3.7ish) average. </p>

<p>You should be able to get these classes done in two years and apply summer after your senior year. You’ll basically be a year late. </p>

<p>Can you take any of these classes this coming semester? If not you will have to wait till junior year to start. </p>

<p>Your GPA is low for a premed but you have 2.5 years to bring it up and I think it will be fine as long as you do strong from now on. Just explain to admissions committee that you decided on premed halfway through and why.</p>

<p>You can take the MCAT spring semester senior year in April or May and be in time to submit your app early.</p>

<p>You will also need to start doing the typical premed extracurriculars. Hopefully you are already involved in something on campus, like a student group and should definitely stay involved in that. But you need to get some clinical experience from shadowing and/or volunteering. You can’t apply to medschool without clinical experience. </p>

<p>Also there is no such thing as a premed major at any school. You can be a premed but you have to major in an actual subject/department. </p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

4

<p>typical premed extracurriculars ?
and no, i didn’t know you needed clinical experiance… would voulnterring at a local hostpital be okay ?</p>

<p>i did pol-sci because the parents asked, but i don’t enjoy it as much as i think i would enjoy med.</p>

<p>i only did geo for a science req. & yes, 2 semesters of english… the first 2 years are General-Education classes we have to get out of the way.
so, i have about 2 course of my current major courses out of the way, but, if i change majors now, to say, sociology or biology ? do you think i would be okay.</p>

<p>someone told me that since i have a 3.1 gpa right now, and i’m almost a junior that it’s impossible to even think about changing to start thinking about med school.</p>

<p>i really don’t know what to do.</p>

5

<p>Volunteering at a local hospital is perfect. Admission committees want to see that you have explored your interest in medicine and that you’re not naive/immature about what the medical field is really like.</p>

<p>Typical premed ec’s: research, volunteering at hospital, shadowing a doctor, being involved in student group, TAing, nonmedical volunteering, basically anything plus something that shows clinical experience</p>

<p>Your GPA is pretty bad but you have 2.5 years to bring it up and you can definitely think about med school. At 1.5 years of school a typical full time student would have 45 credits with 75 credits left. So if you have a 3.1 at 45 credits, you can bring that up to a 3.5 or so, if you get an A/A- average and I am counting that you get more A-'s than A’s in my calculation to be less idealistic. Also, admissions committees will take into account your upward trend and forgive though not ignore your freshman year. </p>

<p>Sociology or biology is fine. Though switching to a biology major might help you get those premed classes out of the way. Whereas if you did a sociology major you will have to do the premed classes in addition to your sociology classes. A typical biology major requires that you take 2 semester calculus, 2 semester gen chem, 2 semester orgo, 2 semesters bio, and 2 semesters physics. So you would have to fufill your premed reqs to fufill your bio major reqs.</p>

<p>I forgot to add but you may have to take summer classes to get everything done in two years. You can do this either at the school you are at now or the local state school, whichever is more convenient and cheaper.</p>

<p>I strongly suggest you get in touch with your schools premed advising office asap. They can help you plan out your schedule and give you a better idea of where you stand GPA wise to be competitive. At my school a person with a GPA of 3.2-3.4 still has a 67% chance of being accepted.</p>

6

<p>

I have a recollection you are from a premed “power house” somewhere in the heart land of US, so I believe what you posted could be true for your particular school.</p>

<p>But, does this number include URM’s numbers or not? Are there very few URMs applying from your school so that their numbers will not skew the overall numbers much? (This could be true – Many URMs likely need generous financial aides in order to go to a private school, and most schools can not afford to give out too many of these big awards. Also, if you are really at a school I think you are at, your school gives out many merit-based scholarship than most other comparable schools, in recent years, and is not so afraid of being “politically incorrect.” Well…even the affiliated medical school may be a little bit like that – when it puts so much emphasis of the result of that single test.)</p>

<p>I think every school should do what Cornell College does when they publish their “grid” of the admission rate vs GPA/MCAT – they explicitly say they exclude URMs in the calculation of their numbers in order for the numbers to be useful for typical students who do not have such a hook.</p>

7

<p>Hmm thats a good question. I don’t think URM’s skew the data but I’ve never asked. I haven’t met that many premed URM’s either. </p>

<p>OP, are you a URM btw? That would help make up for a low GPA. But I do think OP has a good chance if (s)he can bring that GPA up to a 3.5+ regardless of where (s)he goes to school but premed advising office can give way better statistics than anyone here can without knowing your school specifically.</p>

8

<p>Even if you can’t dive right in to the core science classes this spring, it would still be a great idea to get a jump on your extracurriculars. </p>

<p>I’d start with shadowing–figure out if you really want to go into medicine before you commit to a few semesters of challenging science (which they will be! Don’t be fooled into thinking this will be an easy route). There are a few ways to get involved with shadowing, and I think the three most popular are 1) your personal doctor 2) family friends who are doctors 3) sending cold emails to friendly faces from your local hospital’s website. I went with option 3 and spent 2 afternoons a week (with 2 different doctors) shadowing starting January of my sophomore year (still do it). Loved it.</p>

<p>Next, volunteering. If you can volunteer in a hospital, great. It’ll increase your exposure to patients, doctors, and a medical environment. If that doesn’t work out (sometimes it’s tough to get in with hospitals), don’t fret–just do something else. Boys and Girls Club, a local after school program, senior center, a free clinic, somewhere on campus–it doesn’t really matter; the point is, you want to be able to demonstrate to admissions committees that you are a compassionate, caring person who would take good care of people. Might get some bonus points if it’s medically related, but if not, no worries. Consistent work–a few hours a week for many months–is what you’re aiming for here. </p>

<p>Another one to try: research. Since you’re not a big science guy right now, you probably won’t care much about what the topic is. My advice for getting involved with research would be to figure out if your school has an undergraduate research office. If they do, talk to them and visit their website–they probably list openings for labs looking for techs or assistants, and that can be a great “in.” If you don’t have such an office, your next best bets are your school’s medical school or your science departments–since you seem to like biology, a biology professor would be a good person to ask. If they don’t have any published openings, or don’t think they can support another researcher, ask if you can volunteer your time to help out a few days a week. I don’t think this counts for volunteering–but it would count toward research!</p>

<p>Getting your feet wet with shadowing, volunteering, and research should keep you plenty busy this spring. Good luck!</p>

<p>PS: ChemFreak, I agree with mcat2–kiddos from your school likely have a much higher chance of being accepted than people from many other schools…which is great news for you!</p>

9

<p>URM= under rep minority ? yes, i’m asian.</p>

<p>so far, i’ve gotten A’s, A-'s, B’s (no B-'s) & 2 C’s ( reason being i took a lvl 400 course my second semster since i am in honors)</p>

<p>i plan to transfer over to Case Western if changing to biology is a good choice and maybe minor in sociology or something else, and YES, i plan to take summer classes until i graduate. </p>

<p>i think i could raise my GPA, i graduated from high school with a 3.38 GPA. and was a exchange student my senior year to asia.</p>

<p>i plan to join “med related” clubs, and start volunteering at Cleveland Clinic possible. or a local hospital.</p>

<p>i just want to know if its smart, or at all possible to change. if i am doing the right thing. </p>

<p>and if would it be okay to take the MCAT after graduation ? i would still have to wait about a year or so to start med-school, right ?</p>

<p>thanks for advice and replies… i really need it. and it helps !!</p>

10

<p>Asian is not URM. They are ORMs. They fare the same as the white does.</p>

<p>Just a joke here: You should give your parents an applaud here: At least they are not like those Asian parents who insist their offspring should major in engineering or business (something vocational and could more easily get a job right after college) and being a premed at the same time.</p>

11

<p>oh, then i guess not. sorry.</p>

12

<p>No no, not mcat after graduation but in April. You want to have your app recs and mcat in by Jun 1. It takes a month for scores to come back so, mcat in mid april means score mid may and you have two weeks to finalize a school list before you submit app.</p>

13

<p>This is a totally sincere question: does Asian count as a URM for med school purposes?</p>

<p>I took the MCAT in May 2010. I will start medical school in July 2011. So if you graduate in May 2013 and then take the MCAT, you’re looking at medical school in July/August 2014.</p>

<p>Good call on clubs and volunteering! Premed societies are usually a good way to get started, but don’t do much in ways of improving your resume. Use it as a resource for other ways to get involved that would be pertinent to medical school.</p>

14

<p>thanks for that tip about clubs kristin !</p>

<p>and thank you chemfreak for your tip… someone told me that i should take MCAT after i graduate.
i probably will graduate 2014, so take it spring semester (april) of 2014 and i will start med-school 2015.
because i know, that theres no way possible for me to take it end of junior year, thats 3 semesters away, counting this one upcoming semster. but there again, i am one semster behind everything, since i am one credit behind, but i plan to take science over summer break to catch up.</p>

<p>& i am definetly looking into Volunteering at Cleveland Clinc, which not only will be good for me to get hands on expeiance, but it may look a bit good as well.</p>

15

<p>

This is a very sane suggestion. And BDM suggested an optimal time line like what you suggested. However, both DS and kristin could not follow this guideline in the end.</p>

<p>For DS, it may be OK. DS would not give too much thoughts to his list of schools anyway. During the application cycle, sometimes I wonder he really knew exactly the list of schools he applied to, when at one time (like 3 minutes before he submitted his AMCAS), over the phone, I heard from him: “Why is this school here? It must be put in yesterday when my friends came over and “he” helped me put this school in.” Geez…he even did not know he put in that school!</p>

16

<p>Haha re your son, mcat2. Yes, you’re right–that timeline’s a great thing to shoot for, but can be challenging to execute thanks to premed committees and people writing recommendation letters.</p>

<p>Shoot for getting everything done as early you possibly can get it done well. For me, that meant MCAT in May, AMCAS first week of July, and all secondaries (except 1!) done by mid-September. Hasn’t come back to bite me yet…</p>

17

<p>what are all secondaries ?</p>

18

<p>^ Secondaries are like part 2 of your medical school application. It is often in the form of one or more essays. Duke’s secondary is quite “evil” – countless essays.</p>

<p>When you submit your medical school application to AMCAS, you submit your primary application, on which you need to write some essays in addition to filling out misc. information (courses taken, MCAT test date, etc.) After the medical school receives your primary application, it may evaluate your primary application and then invite you to pay them $ and submit your secondary application. Some schools allow every applicant to submit his/her secondaries without evaluating their primary application first.</p>

<p>The cost for submitting the secondaries could add up very quickly.</p>

19

<p>ahhh, okay so if you’re asked to write a secondary then you’re in pretty good shape.</p>

<p>pretty much, its just elaborating a bit more from your AMCAS essay, right?</p>

<p>so, mcat2, i assume you are in the medical profession. how did you do it? was it hard? did you know right from the start you wanted to? was there any problems? did you have to take the MCAT more than once (as i heard taking it a second time can look bad sometimes)?</p>

20

<p>Re: the Duke secondary. Allow me to indulge a little bit.</p>

<p>There are 4 questions with no character or word limits (rare). </p>

<p>1) What is the most significant moral or ethical dilemma that you have faced in your life (excluding instances of academic dishonesty involving another person)? Describe how you dealt with and potentially resolved it, including beliefs, resources, individuals, etc. How did this dilemma and its resolution change your life and what, if any, impact will this have on your future as a health care provider?</p>

<p>2) What has been your most humbling experience and how will that experience affect your interactions with your peers and patients?</p>

<p>3) What is the toughest feedback that you ever received? How did you handle it and what did you learn from it? </p>

<p>4) What is the single most compelling aspect of your application to medical school and why?</p>

<p>I agonized over the Duke secondary for weeks, and submitted it the Friday before it was due (Monday, close of business). I ended up writing the bulk of my secondary’s content over about…2 (very full!) nights. Not joking, I wrote ten pages to answer those 4 questions–a whopping 5,489 words.</p>

<p>Monday morning (barely one business day after I submitted it), there was an interview invite waiting for me. Headed there next week!</p>