EC and Residency Questions

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hiya,</p>

<p>First off, I've just decided pretty recently that I would like to become an Anesthesiologist. As a result I don't have too many of the required courses completed (just a semester of Bio with Lab actually) or EC's pertaining medicine. I'm currently a Philosophy major at a California Community College and will transfer in Fall 2012. I've completed a Transfer Admission Guarantee with UCSD (if you keep a 3.5+ GPA and have your GE's done you're in) so I'm fairly confident I will be going there to finish up my major and the required classes for med school. I'm looking to do 3 years there as I need to do pretty much all pre-med reqs and finish up my major. </p>

<p>My questions are:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I haven't been interested in medicine my whole life, is ~2-3 years of research and volunteering at school/hospital enough time to show dedication and interest to med admission committees?</p></li>
<li><p>Knowing now that I want to go into an anesthesiology residency, is there anything I can do (EC-wise or elsewhere) that makes me more appealing to potential residencies? Or is that all decided by USMLE step 1?</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Thanks!</p>

2

<p>1) yes, but you will need to put in a significant amount of hours in the next 3 years</p>

<p>2) There’s nothing you can do as an undergrad to improve your chances of getting an anesthesiology residency. If I understand the process correctly, your LORs from your med school clinical preceptors, evaluations/grades during your specialty subrotations (anethesiology in your case) and your USMLE scores are the big items that determine what specialty programs you may end up in.</p>

<p>(BTW, it’s way too early to even be thinking about a specialty. People can and do change their minds–esp. once they get hands on exposure/experience in different areas. Just concentrate on getting into med school first.)</p>

3

<p>WOWMom is right</p>

<p>There is basically nothing you can do as an undergrad to help your chances of getting into ANY residency. The vast majority of students change their minds about specialty during med school anyway.</p>

4

<p>Thanks to both of you, I like to get ahead of myself.</p>