Everything on Med. School - Please help!

College Search & Selection
1

<p>Hey guys, so I'm an incoming Junior in High school, and at the beginning of my Sophomore year I decided that I'd really like to become a doctor. My Freshman GPA was horrible with a measly 1.6 cumulative, but I pulled it together Sophomore year and got a 3.8 -- My main question is; how does the medical school system work? Everything about it. I'm really confused because I'm unsure where I should be looking. My questions are:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Is there a specific "way" to get to medical school? (for example: you apply to an undergraduate college first, get all your "generals" out of the way, take the required ones you need, then after 4 years apply for medical school -- OR -- do you just straight away apply for medical school right out of high school?)</p></li>
<li><p>What would be the chances of me getting into somewhere like Johns Hopkins or UPenn? Like I said above, my Freshman GPA was 1.6, Sophomore was 3.8, and my Junior and Senior years won't be anything below 3.7 (I'm also stocking up on a ton of AP's; got 3 this year, hoping to take 3-5 Senior year). </p></li>
<li><p>I read somewhere that you shouldn't tell people about your speciality if you WANT to specialize because some people will assume your in it for the money. Is this true? I, personally, wish to become a dermatologist and money was the last thing I was thinking about. </p></li>
<li><p>If the answer to question 1 comes about being that you do need to go to an undergrad. college first, what would be some good ones to look at (I'm already planning on majoring in Biology as that is my favorite subject in school right now)? I took a year old SAT test and scored around 1700-1800, but my math score is really holding me back. I know that it'll be over 2000 when I take it again next year as I'm reviewing all the curiculum that I'm unfamiliar with. </p></li>
</ol>

<p>(Also, I'm sorry if this is the wrong forum to post in, I didn't know where to find the forum sections.)</p>

2

<p>Start with a little background reading on the web at:
[HowStuffWorks</a> “How Becoming a Doctor Works”](<a href=“How Becoming a Doctor Works | HowStuffWorks”>How Becoming a Doctor Works | HowStuffWorks)
[Doctor[/url</a>]
[url=&lt;a href=“http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/education-careers/becoming-physician.page]Requirements”&gt;http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/education-careers/becoming-physician.page]Requirements</a> for Becoming a Physician](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/k12/help06.htm]Doctor[/url”>http://www.bls.gov/k12/help06.htm)</p>

<p>Here’s the forum you want:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/9848-general-premed-advice.html?highlight=pre+med[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/pre-med-topics/9848-general-premed-advice.html?highlight=pre+med&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

3

<p>Thanks for those links!</p>

4

<p>Your high school grades don’t count for med school.</p>

<p>You go to undergrad, take the pre-med pre-reqs, get the highest GPA overall, take the MCAT, and apply to med school.</p>

5

<p>

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<p>True for grades in high school (including AP) courses and AP scores, but grades in dual enrollment or college courses taken while in high school will count.</p>

6

<p>A do a search on CC for premed, pre-med, med school, etc…Look for the generic threads, not the ones related to specific schools (at least in the titles).</p>

<p>Not mentioned above, but worth reading is the following:</p>

<p>[Amherst</a> College Guide for Premedical Students](<a href=“http://www3.amherst.edu/~sageorge/guide2.html]Amherst”>Amherst College Guide for Premedical Students)</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/data/facts/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Note the importance of your state of residence for in-state medical school(s). If you are lucky enough to be from a state that admits few or no out of state residents, you are in much better shape than if you are from, say, California.</p>