<li><p>I am about to graduate high school and for the first half of the summer i will be volunteering with red cross and the second half i have an internship at a local hospital. I was wondering if i need to start a resume in a format like my high school resume, one like a journal of all of my EC’s so that i will be able to talk about them, or both? or what? I just need to know how to have all of my stuff in order and ready when i need it for med school applying.</p></li>
<li><p>For EC’s, should i get recommendation letters as i go and just save them at home? can someone please explain the “open” or “closed” files at colleges for med school… i dont think that my university does that…</p></li>
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<p>Sorry if my questions are kind of confusing… but see my general problem?</p>
<p>You should get your recommendation letters as soon as possible, and then immediately send them to any medical school you could see yourself applying to in 3-4 years.</p>
<p>1.) Obviously you need to remember what you've done for application time. A journal's not a bad idea.</p>
<p>2.) LORs depend heavily on what undergraduate school you've attended. In any case you probably won't want any from this summer.</p>
<p>3.) An open/closed file interview is something you'll encounter when you're applying to medical school. The strategy is different, and we'll talk about it then.</p>
<p>My intitial question was... do i get the letters written after completing something worth a LOR of do i wait til application time to try and recontact all these people and have them try to remember about me?</p>
<p>well i am doing a huge summer volunteer program with red cross this summer and have a month and a half internship set up half radiology and half surgery at a local hospital this summer as well.. do you think that those things arent worth a LOR? plus i know one of the doctors very well from previous shadowing in high school and they know me good enough to write one... im not trying to prove you wrong im just trying to tell you why i think that they might have a good LOR to write.. what do you think?</p>
<p>Medical schools aren't really interested in letters you've accumulated from volunteering and shadowing. If you do your undergraduate work at Duke, for example, they want three from professors and one from your boss while you did research.</p>
<p>I would disagree with that. Obviously, most if not all of your letters will be from professors or research supervisors but it's not unusual to have a rec from a doctor you've shadowed or a volunteer director. That said, med schools aren't interested in stuff you did in HS. The summer b/w HS and college is pushing it, not to mention a 1 1/2 month internship isn't very substantial as far as internships go.</p>
<p>As Jacob eloquently stated twice on this thread and once in a PM to me, I'm a "douche." First of all, the mere fact that you had to stoop that low (granted, you were pretty low to begin with, considering the nature of your post) to call me names is pathetic. Might I remind you that I'm not the dimwit who was confused by an obvious jest. Not only were you befuddled, you needed BDM to encourage you to use common sense. THEN, you still were unsure, in which BDM kindly explained to you in small words you can process that I was making fun. Therefore, your sad attempts at an insult failed, Jacob. Please increase your intelligence and vocabulary before considering becoming a doctor - and certainly before you call me names.</p>