<p>I am in incoming senior and am thinking of going into medicine. I plan to apply to a few 7 year medical programs, but also regular undergraduate.</p>
<p>I want to go to a 7 year program because it secures a spot for me in medical school but I also want to go through the regular path of becoming a doctor through undergraduate because I feel I might find something I like more, although I am extremely interested in it.</p>
<p>My weighted GPA is 4.6 and I have a 2230 super score for SAT and 34 for the ACT. I have a number of extracurricular activities and my two dream 7 year programs are at Northwestern and Brown (HPME and PLME). My top schools for regular admission are Stanford, Johns Hopkins, Berkeley and Colombia.</p>
<p>My question is, should I go to regular undergraduate or the 7 year program? If I go undergraduate, what should I major in to best prepare me for medical school?</p>
<p>7 year programs are for those who can’t imagine doing any other career besides medicine and have the medical-related exposure to prove that to the programs to which they are applying. If you have any doubts at all, then go to a 4 year school. Your grades and test scores suggest that you aren’t going to be a borderline applicant 4 years from now if and when you apply.</p>
<p>Do a search here for ‘pre-med’ threads - there is a lot of advice out there already. Bottom line, only 60% of med students majored in a science. You can study anything you want as long as you take the pre-reqs required for admission and necessary to prep for the MCAT.</p>
<p>Thanks for your advice, I will take it into consideration. I have shadowed 3 doctors and have volunteered at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Hospital in CA and the Veteran’s Hospital in RI. I have also done a summer program at Brown University for medicine so I think I’m 95% sure I want to go into medicine.</p>
<p>One last question, if I am sure I want to go into medicine, is it better to opt for the 7 year program (which makes sense) or go through regular undergraduate and then apply to a medical school that could be better than the medical schools at say Northwestern, Brown and WashU?</p>
<p>I would say go for the seven year program. Either choice will yield the same outcome, but this route will save you a year and will probably be cheaper.</p>
<p>Yeah that’s what I was thinking. Thanks for your advice. Do you know any good 7 year programs? I know a few from a website but not sure of their merit, it doesn’t have that information on the websites. For example:</p>
<ol>
<li>Brown</li>
<li>Northwestern</li>
<li>WashU</li>
<li>Penn State</li>
<li>U of Miami</li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ol>
<p>If you’re interested in BS/MD programs, post in the specific forum here:
Multiple Degree Programs - College Confidential Forums</p>
<p>I’d also like to point out that Brown PLME is an 8-year program, not 7.</p>