<p>Hi all. I have a few questions concerning how feasible it is for me to pursue medical school at this point in my college career. </p>
<p>Here's my story: I attend a top 20 national university and as of right now am pursuing a double major in Philosophy and Mathematics (subject to change). My freshman year I took Organic Chemistry and hated the workload despite doing quite well in the class, which discouraged me from further pursuing medicine. I finished my freshman year with a 3.7 GPA.</p>
<p>The first semester of my sophomore year (Fall 2010) I did not live up to my previous academic performance. </p>
<p>To deal with emotional issues I started drinking and using drugs at an alarmingly frequent rate. I started playing a lot of gigs with my band and convinced myself that my destiny was to make it as a musician.</p>
<p>My GPA dropped to a 3.6. </p>
<p>Over the holidays I suffered a psychotic breakdown and was hospitalized for 11 days. I am now taking the semester off from school to recover from the paralyzing depression I faced after returning to school. Now I am considering med school again because of my reluctance to go to grad school or go into an entry level job after graduating. Additionally, I only need to take biology to satisfy the pre-med prerequisites. My main concerns are as follows: </p>
<p>-Is taking time off from school going to negatively affect my chances of getting into med school?</p>
<p>-My ECs are weak: in addition to playing in my band, I am a member of nationally recognized a cappella group, in a fraternity, and have one semester of volunteer experience. Can this be made up for in two years time? Or less, considering people generally apply to med school before graduating?</p>
<p>-Is it worth it in my case to take my time and maybe spend another semester or two in undergrad, seeing as this would give me more time to catch up with ECs?</p>
<p>-Should I drop my double major/consider changing majors? I know research is important but I don't think I'm qualified to do much considering my major.</p>
<p>Right now I have a lot of options and I'm really overwhelmed. Any help would be awesome.</p>
<p>Your majors aren’t a problem. </p>
<p>Your lack of medical volunteering and medical shadowing will be a serious issue. Community and medical volunteering is not something that can be made up in a semester or two. You will need at least 2 full years of high quality volunteering before you can even consider applying.</p>
<p>Medical schools look for students who have demonstrated a passion for and dedication to medicine. Neither of which you seem to have. You appear to be considering medicine as a fallback position, an alternative to (for lack of better term) “growing up and getting a real job” --which will not get you seriously considered for med school admission, even if you have stellar grades.</p>
<p>Your time away from college will have to be explained. This leaves you in a very difficult position as to whether or not you will disclose your psychiatric history. Disclosure will negative impact your chances for admission. Failing to disclose will leave schools with a big mystery that’s unanswered and will negatively impact your chances for admission.</p>
<p>I think that unless you can clearly articulate why you want to be a doctor (and the reasons you’ve listed just aren’t good enough…), you should find some other career path. One that offers you a better chance at succeeding and one that will allow you to follow your interests and passions.</p>
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<p>This would be my major concern if I were in your shoes. </p>
<p>The path to getting into med school is rough. It’s hard. The classes are challenging. It takes a lot of time. It requires a ton of work almost constantly. Time management is crucial. It can be physically and mentally exhausting. It doesn’t leave tons of time for other things that many college kids consider to be fun. </p>
<p>But it also has its rewards. Studying hard and succeeding is really gratifying. Finding a way to give back to your community in a meaningful way makes you feel…just good about yourself, I believe. I personally find the subject matter of medicine to be absolutely fascinating, and is probably what initially drew me to the field in the first place. I’ve found mentors through the relationships I created while shadowing. I could continue, but hopefully you get the point by now. </p>
<p>I believe I sacrificed a lot and I worked my butt off throughout all of undergrad to get to the point where I am now–which is going to medical school next year. If there’s one thing it takes, it’s dedication and perseverance. I can’t quite wrap my head around why you’ve come back to thinking about medicine when after your first year you thought it would just be too much work. I haven’t found that the workload lessens as you progress through college–quite the contrary, really–but you become more adept at dealing with it and making your crazy busy schedule work for you.</p>
<p>If the main reason you’re thinking about med school is because you don’t have many prereqs left to finish and you don’t want to go to grad school (I’m also missing the part about how med school’s easier than grad school in any way) or get a job yet, I’d seriously reconsider if I were you. There are so many wonderful careers out there, and while medicine may be one of them, it’s certainly not the only one. </p>
<p>I think you should keep exploring. Keep your options open. Figure out what you like and what really works for you. Focus on getting your health back to where you’d like it to be, and maybe even mend whatever relationships may have been strained as a result of this tumultuous semester. In no way does it seem like your future is ruined or your potential has been irreparably damaged. “All” you have to do is figure out your next step, which may or may not be medicine, but it’s probably too soon to tell at this point.</p>
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<p>These are not good reasons. Medical school is not a process of elimination sort of thing.</p>
<p>A few remarks:</p>
<p>Medical problems will count against me in getting into med school? For real? This seems a little strange to me.</p>
<p>As far as my motives for considering medical school, I guess I should have been a little more clear. I’m a pretty intellectual cat. I’m on an almost full academic scholarship to my university (Vanderbilt). I was a few points shy of perfect on the SAT. And, as mentioned, I’ve maintained a 3.6 GPA at what I’m told is one of the most difficult schools in the country while hardly working. And I haven’t been taking the easiest courses, either. </p>
<p>What I mean is that medical school looks to be an opportunity for me to really use my intellectual gifts outside of being a professor (I’m reluctant to do this because I’m really not a huge fan of institutions, e.g., the American university system). All I really want out of life is to live up to what I’m told is my potential to do great things. Is this foolish? Might I be better off as a mathematician, philosopher, or scientist?</p>
<p>I don’t really know what you mean by “institutions,” since it seems to me that medical school and residency will still be in major institutions. “Great things” are also hard to find when you’re dealing with a single patient at a time. And medicine is much more about habits, procedures, and knowledge than about genuinely intellectual explorations.</p>
<p>Here’s the bottom line. If you want to deal with sick people, a health-based vocation like medicine is a good place to start. Medicine does involve more thinking than most of the rest of the vocations, which is one good place to start.</p>
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^^^^^ ???
I disagree, you don’t need 2 full years of medical volunteering to even consider applying. That would be ridiculous. You need around 100-200 hours of volunteer work in a healthcare setting (nursing home, hospital, blood drives, etc). And yes you can usually do this volunteer work in a year. Also, you will need about 100-200 hours of shadowing. Now thats considered the average, obvs. if you want to stand out, you should do more. You will also need to start doing research in an academic area that interest you. Med. Schools like to see that. </p>
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<p>^^^ Those are stupid reasons to be a doctor. It will take 7+ years of your life after college to become a doctor. You need better reasons than that.</p>
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<p>I have no idea whether the original statement is true or not. (There might be some legal difficulties with it, although that wouldn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t happen.)</p>
<p>But just because it’s medical school doesn’t, in and of itself, mean that they shouldn’t be allowed to pay attention to medical conditions. Imagine that you’d lost a leg in a fire and wanted to become a firefighter. Sure, it’d be particularly sad that a fire was the reason you can’t become a firefighter, but it wouldn’t make it any less of a consideration.</p>
<p>Again, to emphasize, I have no idea whether WOWM is correct on this point. She might well be wrong. But let’s not overstate the idea that medical school should ignore all medical conditions.</p>
<p>“And medicine is much more about habits, procedures, and knowledge than about genuinely intellectual explorations.”</p>
<p>Hm. Perhaps this is not for me. I was, however, thinking more along the research side of things. Does this change anything?</p>
<p>Medicine really isn’t a place for those who want to live the “life of the mind”. It’s more for doers than thinkers. Which isn’t to say that medicine isn’t intellectually challenging–it is, but in a way that’s wholly unlike more cerebral pursuits like philosophy or mathematics.</p>
<p>And if you not “huge fan of institutions”–where exactly do you think you’ll practice medicine?</p>
<p>If your interest is in research, a PhD in the sciences is much more appropriate for a “thinker.” If you don’t want academia, there’s always industry.</p>
<p>Then why not get a phD?</p>
<p>I personally don’t think med school is a great idea. As has been noted, it’s full of tedium and memorization (like orgo) and not very intellectual. You really don’t have a good story of why you want to go to med school. And I do think your mental illness will hurt you when it comes to med school.</p>
<p>“And medicine is much more about habits, procedures, and knowledge than about genuinely intellectual explorations.”</p>
<p>Hm. Perhaps this is not for me. I was, however, thinking more along the research side of things. Does this change anything?</p>
<p>If you want to do medical research–then you can go the PhD route. An MD isn’t a requirement. An MD/PhD isn’t a requirement.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the insightful replies. Now I am pretty certain I don’t want to go to medical school. I’m going for a PhD in philosophy, math, or physics. Here I go.</p>
<p>I couldn’t imagine this person doing what I had to do as an intern in Internal Medicine; 36 hour shifts, Q3.</p>
<p>Also, things may have changed since I applied to medical school in the mid 1990s but I never did any medical volunteering, never did any physician shadowing and did no medicine related research and still got accepted to medical school.</p>
<p>Wow, nice job on maintaining a 3.6 even after all this:</p>
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<p>I go to Vanderbilt too, and I only have a 3.7 gpa there. I party only once every two weeks I don’t have time to party every weekend. In order to keep my 3.7 I am forced to study 5 hours a day outside of class, and on the weekends around 6 hours a day. If I am not studying I am doing research, or other health related ECs. My social life sucks. Even though you partied hard, you were still able to keep a 3.6, which is good. Maybe its because I am just dumber than you. I only made a 2160 on my sats, which is no where near a perfect score.</p>