<p>Anyone know how I can get certified to be an EMT at Cornell?</p>
<p>I heard there is a course that you have to take on campus. How hard is the course in comparison to a 3 or 4 credit class? Does the course count towards your GPA?</p>
<p>Also is EMTing around Cornell interesting? How does it look on med school apps?</p>
<p>The EMT class is very fun, you learn a lot and you do end up as a NYS EMT-B at the end of the class - in fact, the NYS exam to certify you doubles as the class final exam.</p>
<p>Some things to keep in mind:
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<li><p>There is a steep course fee not covered by financial aid. It is around $900 to take the course for the year.</p></li>
<li><p>The class itself meets once per week for almost 4 hours for lecture, and then again once per week for another 3 hours or so for lab. There are only two time slots for lab and only one for lecture - it’s hard to fit it in to your schedule, so make sure you have room for it for both semesters.</p></li>
<li><p>It looks good on medical school apps, especially if you join the Cornell EMT squad after the program.</p></li>
<li><p>The course itself is fairly easy. If you think about it, EMT classes are typically taught at community colleges, etc, and this is an Ivy League school - so our level of comprehension is clearly far above what is required to master this type of stuff. That being said, that is only for the knowledge component - i.e. tests are easy. Skills, on the other hand, are much harder. You really need to pay attention in lab to remember the exact steps to remove someone from a car accident, splint a leg, help someone who is having a heart attack, etc. By the end of the course, when you start preparing for practical exams, you have to start really drilling this stuff because there are quite a few steps that must be taken in order in each scenario, and missing one is failure.</p></li>
<li><p>It’s really, really fun. You get close to most of the people because you spend so much time together in lab. Most of the time, we practice on each other rather than a dummy, and there’s no better way of breaking the ice and getting to know someone as pulling them from a simulated car, applying a neck brace, and strapping them to a backboard.</p></li>
<li><p>I highly recommend the courses.</p></li>
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<p>To clarify this, you should plan on using your EMT license. Just the license itself is worthless to med school adcoms.</p>