<p>baa4school. LOL, you think too highly of me. I am just a parent who has a child who is applying this cycle. So, please read what I posted with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>kristin, on the other hand, is really someone who has actually been through this process personally.</p>
<p>oh my. very specific questions, though, i could see myself having a bit of fun answering these questions 
and if theres no word limit good, because i don’t know when to stop, i could talk for days on ends.
though, having to answer all four, eh, not really into that.</p>
<p>and if i keep my head up and purse med-school like i want and not law school like my parents want, i’d wish i can be lucky to have an interview invite as fast as you did !!</p>
<p>sorry mcat2, you have a lot of knowledge about what to do, and what not, i thought you probably went throught this process already.</p>
<p>Here’s a quick cheat sheet for you, baa:</p>
<p>parents with kids in medical school or applying now: curmudgeon, mcat2, miamidap, eadad, somemom</p>
<p>parents with kids applying in the future: mom2colleges, GA2012MOM</p>
<p>future med students (no longer premeds, as we’ve all been accepted!) that applied this year: kristin5792, lollybo, myopinion</p>
<p>current and former med students (whose advice should be treated like gold): bludevilmike, bigredmed, shades_children, norcalguy, mmmcdowe, ginny(something), icarus, apumic</p>
<p>premeds: colleges0007, engineerhead, viggyram, chemfreak, (you), many of the people who start posts asking about prereqs, majors, and undergraduate universities</p>
<p>
The political science department did train you well in the past two years after all 
This could be an asset during interview. Two years ago, there was one kid from DS’s school who was a political science major (and a distinguished dancer) and got into multiple top-20 medical schools, including U Penn.</p>
<p>
Thanks for the compliment. If it is not because of my child, I would not come to this site to learn this. You can say about 99 percents of what I have learned were from CC, mostly from those who are either a medical school student now (one of them, BRM, is in residency), or a premed student, or their parents. I would take this opportunity to thank them. Oh, btw, even if I do learn what to do and what not, it does not mean this info can be conveyed to my child. Isn’t there a child-rearing book called “I will not learn from you”?</p>
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</p>
<p>The AAMC changed it’s definition from specific groups to one based on demographics. I don’t think it changes in reality too much, but it does leave the door open to some Asian groups, SE Asia perhaps??</p>
<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/54266/urm/[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/54266/urm/</a></p>
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<p>Asians are way overrepresented in Med. School applicants pool and more so in most selective programs (like bs/md combined programs, very top Med. Schools, MD/PhD programs). However, this is based on personal observation (anecdotal data), not statistics. As an example, I heard fronm one parent, that his S. is in one of the US top MD/PhD program and he is the ONLY caucasian there, the rest are asians (including Indians). His MCAT was over 40.</p>
<p>oh my, thats shocking to hear MiamiDAP, the only caucasian. </p>
<p>hopefully i can be able to get an MCAT score above 40, i would be happy,
though a student at my college say that he had 1000+ hospital service hours, 800 some voulenteer hours, & an MCAT score of 39R and still wasn’t accepted into med school. thats what i fear, i don’t know what i would do if i DIDN’T get accepted.</p>
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<p>I know what you posted is just an anecdotal example. But I also heard something similar (but not as extreme) about PhD programs (not MD/PhD). Also, in recent years, maybe some east Europeans started to attend these PhD programs. This is also an anecdotal example only.</p>
<p>Suppose that we compare the MD-only programs and the MD/PhD programs. If we find that the ethnic group of most of those attending the MD/PhD programs is indeed like what you said, an interesting question to ask is: Why do we have such a phenomenon? That is, why is MD/PhD more attractive to these students?</p>
<p>I personally heard of two Asians who are in MD/PhD programs: one is in University of Washington, and the other in University of Texas, Houston. The former was from California state. So I guess University of Washington will accept OOS MD/PhD applicants – but generally not OOS MD-only applicants.</p>
<p>In one year, YSM published the match results of their medical school students. Maybe I am over-sensitive here but I noticed that the only two students who decided by themselves to opt out of any residency program appear to be not native born. (They are not Asian though.) I guess they decided to pursue an academic medicine career, instead of becoming a practicing doctor.</p>
<p>It’s probably not the 39R (and not a 40+) which caused him not to be accepted. It could have been anything–a low GPA, a couple of bad grades (worse than C) in core classes, an unbalanced MCAT (15P, 9V, 15B), lackluster volunteering (even if he had a ton of it), a poorly written personal statement, a harsh interviewer.</p>
<p>40+ is extremely rare, but might as well shoot for it! I hope you realize that the MCAT is nothing like the ACT, SAT, GRE, LSAT, GMAT, etc. </p>
<p>I have close to 1000 hours of medically related extra curriculars, about 800 volunteering, and an MCAT of 30S. I got into medical school two weeks ago and am still waiting on decisions from three other schools.</p>
<p>“though a student at my college say that he had 1000+ hospital service hours, 800 some voulenteer hours, & an MCAT score of 39R and still wasn’t accepted into med school”</p>
<p>39R will get you accepted to very many (if not all) Medical Schools. You are missing the real reason for not getting accepted. Vast majority of applicants who get accepted to several Med. Schools have MCAT score way below 39R and way lower number of hours of volunteering / services than this applicant.</p>
<p>Several potential reasons:
<p>According to a list of admitted students from AAMC,recently posted by kristin, there may be only about 400 students each year who may have a stats better than 3.8/39.</p>
<p>i don’t know the real answer, he only discussed it in a class we both had together last semester since i told him i was interested in changing to science related rather than political science major. and that’s when he said, “don’t” because i didn’t get accepted (he just graduated by the way)
i never asked what his GPA was, or what he got on each section of the MCAT.
but, he didn’t apply very late, i assume, and he mentioned he applied to Case Med, Harvard (for fun) and two others located in NY.
–> thats why i got scared as to weather it was too late for me to change and actually pursue what i always wanted to do, or keep doing what my parents want to see me do. and since my GPA currently is a 3.28 that it would almost be impossible if i got anything lower than a 30 on the MCAT to get accepted into med school.</p>
<p>He only applies to 4?!?!!? Maybe thats why. Most people apply to at least 15 and even 20’s not a bad idea. I’d think 25 is pushing it, maybe.</p>
<p>^ I know how you might feel when you heard such a story. I guess this may be one reason why DS tried to tune out any “noise” about premeds due to its potential unpleasant effect on his day-to-day life. (He may have tuned himself out too much though.)</p>
<p>Early in his application, when he heard a student with a similar stats and ECs got into a single in-state medical school in the previous application cycle, he almost wanted to apply to his in-state medical schools. We and one of his friends who applied to almost 30 schools last year talked him out of this idea.</p>
<p>It is sometimes good to keep some distance from those gunners for your sanity. Well…some other premeds may consider DS as a gunner as well, who knows! But if he is one, I could imagine he would be one who likes to talk about almost everything except premed stuff with his friends, premed or not. While he was in high school, he also despised those who constantly talked about the school work, grades, and college applications.</p>
<p>
Good catch! I have missed this.
I think DS is very daring in his application strategy, but he still dares not apply to 4 only. I think his number of schools on his AMCAS primary is 20-23. Then, he pruned them down to about 15 or 16 (the ones he actually completed.) Hmm…does this mean he got 13 or 14 invites (As he said he had not heard from two schools only.) It seems hard to believe. He might have completed even fewer schools.</p>
<p>baa, I can see how that would make you apprehensive! Just realize that his experience is not typical, and it is not necessarily indicative of what you would experience. If you want to go into medicine for all the “right reasons” (whatever those may be for you), and you can sit down with an advisor to hammer out an academic plan, and you can get a jump on clinical and non-clinical experiences, then you should be just fine giving it a shot. </p>
<p>For every 40/4.0 who got rejected, I guarantee you I can name at least two 30/3.8s who were accepted–all of my friends who have gotten in so far this year have been in the 30-33/3.7-3.9 range. Hopefully you won’t let that one guy’s experience keep you down!</p>
<p>mcat2</p>
<p>I don’t think 15 or 16 is bad or risky number at all. If the schools are carefully considered and matched accordign to stats and personality then there’s still a good chance of getting lots of invites and a few acceptances. </p>
<p>But applying to 4 schools and 2 of them being extremely competitive (Harvard, Case Western) is incredibly risky. I have to wonder if those other 2 were Mount Sinai and Columbia or something.</p>
<p>It’s amazing how poorly advised some pre-med students are. My husband’s niece, who went to a good LAC, was not told that only applying to 4 med schools was a bad idea (I found out after the fact). The odd thing is that her mom is a RN at a hospital and it seemed to never occur to my SIL to ask any doctors (especially the younger ones) for some advice.</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>well, now i know 4 is bad !!! </p>
<p>for me, if i want to do something, i do it. so i really don’t know why i am so apprehensive to jump on the “pre-med train”. </p>
<p>i think the most i could raise my GPA to is a 3.5, and thats gonna be with a TON of work and tutors, which i don’t mind at all.
my advisor did say that i could stay an extra year if i wanted to. and i feel a bit more comfortable doing that.
i know the MCAT is NOT like the ACT or SAT. it’s no joke. </p>
<p>i just feel that i need to kick my butt a bit and step it up if i have even the slighest change of doing this.
not only that, when i told my parents i would rather want to study about medicine than law my dad pretty much laughed in my face and said i can’t do it.
i want to prove him wrong now almost and give a 1000% of my effort into geting into med-school. but then i feel that i am doing it for the wrong reason than. more revenge rather than for the love of the field. even though i would love to be able to help someone and see that i could put a smile on someones face who is in a bit of diffuculty at the time.</p>
<p>baa,
Guy apparently was not serious at all. I do not know about Harbard, there is no problem getting into Case with 39. Do not listen to people like that and most serious people would not share their MCAT score with random people around them anyway. </p>
<p>In regard to raising GPA and ton of work, no matter what you do and your specific goal, pre-med track is TON of work, so join the club if you still wish to pursue it. Again, do not listen to anybody, listen to yourself and do what it takes and do not think that it is easy (or easier) for others. It is not! Help is available, and a lot of it is already covered by your tuition. There are prof’s office hours, Supplemental Instructors (my D. is one of them, they are helpful, she was told by her prof. boss). These people are getting paid out of your tuition, use them. Get together with other students who know material well, study with them, some of them love explaning to others, so it is benefitting both sides. Best wishes.</p>
<p>You can be a premed with any major, you just need the classes above.</p>
<p>Your med school app with have two GPAs, science & overall. Your science is math, bio, physics, and chem classes. If you take the pre-reqs over the next few years, that GPA ought to be quite high, yes? You have learned your life lessons and are ready to commit to your marks, so pursue those classes and aim for as many As as you can get.</p>
<p>I would say not to take the MCAT until you finish those classes (spring of your year of graduation?) There is no sense applying before you have successfully completed those. Imagine if you have a 3.3 overall but a 3.8 science GPA, I think schools would take a look at that, especially when they can see the science courses were the trend.</p>
<p>If you are really ready for this it will be important to figure out the timing, which classes might be required in which order by your school, etc. Work out a schedule and apply yourself diligently.</p>
<p>If you are successful, as you hope and plan to be, then you have a solid chance at med school.</p>
<p>I would get the degree in whatever subject you can complete soonest whilst still taking the per-med science pre-requisite courseload.</p>