Guidance for required for prep for college

I am looking for smart guidance for my son who is fresher in HS.
Any tips and tricks and things he should do to get into best medicine school admission in pre graduation and what are the things he should start …need guidance
All parents and students welcome to post thier exp and suggestions please

In another post you mentioned your son is in 10th grade. Do you have two sons interested in medicine?

It is not necessary to do premed as an undergrad, and looking for that specific program will limit choices. Medical students come from all sort of backgrounds: he can major in anything, including music or literature or anthropology or whatever, and still go to med school, as long as prerequisites are covered (which can be done during college or between college and med school, and there are programs for that).

Whether your son is in 9th or 10th grade, a desire to be a doctor is sometimes an immature career goal, and many change their minds. It is probably too early to start planning on a bachelor’s/premed program. Also, there are many ways to be involved in medicine, including new physician assistant programs, nursing and reseach.

I don’t know you or your son but generally speaking it is good to let a kid this age develop as a person, explore interests naturally, and volunteer usefully during high school and future goals can sometimes become clear in high school, sometimes not. Of course, if strong interests do develop, it is wonderful to find ways to support them, but not solely for reasons of admission, and not for admission to specific kinds of programs either- yet.

I understand you are a concerned and caring parent and your philosophy may be different. You may get responses more suited to what you are asking :slight_smile:

Are you from outside the US? It’s a bit premature to think about medical school because that occurs after undergrad.

For now, I would check finances to figure out how to pay for eight years of undergrad and medical school. You don’t need to develop a detailed budget now but it’s a good idea to get a general sense how much this may cost you. It’s never too early for this step.

As for your son, seek out opportunities that fit his interests. There’s not much in way of summer programs for rising sophomores but check out the Summer Programs threads to see if there are any good ideas there. Encourage your son to do well school. The best thing I would say is develop a strong work ethic and good study habits but also know when to pull back. Don’t be afraid to ask for help, be it a classmate, teacher or tutor. Learn to talk to the teacher - so many kids don’t do this (I didn’t either) but it really is a key step.

And don’t forget non-academics. Make friends. Try new things. Make sure he gets enough sleep

Medical school in the US is very expensive, and there are almost no scholarships. You son should look for inexpensive places to do his undergrad work.

Medical school admission is numbers-based. He will need a good GPA and a good score on the MCAT admission test. So, he should look for places where he will get good grades.

All of this means that his own home-state public university will probably be just fine. He doesn’t need to go to a famous college or university, just a decent one.

do you have list of medical schools pre-med ?
Expensive is fine but looking for only pre-med schools

Yes two kids one in current 9th and another in 10th …so worried and little panic too :frowning:

In the US, there is no such thing as a “pre-med” school. Any student from any college is free to apply to medical school - from any major, too, as long as they’ve taken certain biology and chemistry classes.

The other thing that strikes me about your post is the comment about “best medical school admission.” That’s not how it works here. Medical schools teach a regulated / prescribed / common set of things. There is not the hierarchy the wY there is in, say, law or business school. The doctor from Harvard Med is the same as the doctor from Average State U Med. he doesn’t get paid a penny more and the diseases don’t care.

Your child should take the most advanced classes (Honors, then AP) that the can take and do well in.
They should find extra curricular activities that they love and work toward getting leadership positions in them.
They should volunteer at the hospital to make sure they like medicine.
Maybe they should look for research opportunities when they are juniors.

OP - you have a lot of great advice here, but I think you are going to need to read up on how med school admissions work and obtain a lot more information.
You can start here, from the assoc of med colleges:
https://www.aamc.org/students/download/180052/data/guidebook_preview.pdf

Also, do your kid(s) want to be doctors? Have they shadowed a doctor or done any health related volunteer work (on their own initiative)? Med school in the US in incredibly competitive and one really needs their own drive to get through.

This excerpt is from the NY Times:
http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/the-changing-face-of-medical-school-admissions/?_r=0

I find it strange that both sons want to go to medical school (and while they are in early high school). This seems like it might be more of a parental ambition. The suggestion for them to volunteer in a hospital is a good one. They can also do EMT certification. Be assured there are other secure ways to make a living. And that they can major in anything as an undergrad and still go to medical, law or business school, if those are the kinds of professions they ultimately want- when they are older. There are indeed a few schools with premed undergrad programs but it is not necessary to attend those in order to become a doctor.

compmom-- quick question…

I have one quick question for you may be you can answer.
My son wants to Algerbra-2 during summer course and gain the school credit so during fall he wants to take pre-cal during 10th grade.

Do you think doing Algebra-2 in summer online will that affect his chances in collge process ?? pl advice?

You are getting good advice on this thread but I don’t get the impression you are listening to it. First of all, your kids are quite young and it’s likely that they will change their minds (if medical school is even their idea to begin with). After all, a large fraction of students already in college end up changing their minds. There is no standard preparation for medical school. They should take the most challenging science and math classes available at their high school. They should try to volunteer in a medical setting to learn more about what the medical profession is like, and to figure out if this is really what they want to do. They should also learn about other career opportunities–often kids say they want to be a doctor because their knowledge of possible careers is very limited.

Secondly, have you looked at how much it is going to cost to pay for both college and medical school for two students? Many families will look for a low cost college or large college scholarships to make it affordable.

I answered your PM. Where is the algebra 2 class, an online high school, community college, university? Wherever he takes it, make sure your high school takes it for credit. Of course, if he takes it in the summer and then does well in precalc in 10th grade, then the algebra 2 class is fine. Why do you think it would affect his chances?

However…what is the hurry? He can take algebra 2 in 10th, precalc in 11th and calculus in 12th right? Or maybe there is something I don’t know… Has he taken geometry?

There are probably better ways to spend the summer :slight_smile: Unless he really enjoys math.

“Any tips and tricks and things he should do to get into best medicine school admission in pre graduation and what are the things he should start …need guidance”

  • you are in the wrong forum, you can read much more about pre-med in grad. school forum
  • you do not need to aim at the best medical school. Any American Medical School is good enough. It may be helpful though to be in one of the best if the goal is very selective medical specialty. But HS freshman will have no intelligent way of saying which specialty he wants to pursue.
  • Few things to consider.

    The name of the college is not important for the medical school adcoms. College GPA and MCAT score are of primary importance. The other requirements while at college include medical research internship/job, volunteering, shadowing of physicians… While these are important to have at college, it is a good idea to start looking for all of these while in HS and participate in as many as possible. Since college GPA is of the greatest importance, also might as well aim at the highest GPA in HS. Another advice is to aim at attending the college as cheaply as possible to save family resources for the medical school.
    Seeing the discussion above about summers, I would like to mention that summers in HS and college should be spent for R&R and catching up with friends. They do not have free summers in medical school, enjoy them while they last! Consider volunteering, shadowing and definitely jobs, but academics should be taken care of during school year.
    That is all I know as a parent of the first year resident. My D. did not attend the best medical school, she simply attended the medical school of her HS dreams. This was enough for her to be able to match to her first choice residency in the very selective specialty.
    Best wishes on this very hard road!