<p>My wife is a Wake Forest Medical School graduate…she said the most challenging thing about medical school is the sheer volume of information to learn which required hours and hours of study.</p>
<p>I’m curious if anyone here has any information on the weight of experience on an application. Due to life circumstances my initial scores in college were less than impressive. Since being introduced to EMS however my grades thereafter have all been As. EMT-B, Fire, as well as A&PI&II taken in a summer session have all been As. I took up officer positions within both academies, joined a local fire department, and now work at a hospital in both the ER and psychiatric ward. I will be starting paramedic this Fall and hope to pursue a Bachelors in pre-med while working as a paramedic. Is it true that a distinct and obvious change in one’s grades paired with experience and high MCAT scores could give me a shot at getting into medical school?</p>
<p>To chris 3014: 4th year med student here. Med schools will certainly take into account academic achievement after undergrad. While it’s great that you’re in EMS/Fire (a + to admissions committees), your grades on those exams won’t even be glanced at. Do well in in future college coursework and the MCAT and you have a strong shot at med school.</p>
<p>I know that this is a really old thread…but I have some questions for bigredmed, and anyone who is currently in medical school or past med school.</p>
<p>What scores did you guys get on your SAT and MCAT?</p>
<p>Never took the SAT. My MCAT put me somewhere above the level needed to teach MCAT prep for Kaplan - my ACT and MCAT scores were the same number. That level of success did not translate to the USMLE for me, and my scores for all three steps were right at the median value (scores for step 1 one matter a lot, for step 2 much less, and for step 3 not so much as long as you pass…let me just say you don’t want a pediatrician - which is what I am - managing vaginal bleeding in post-menopausal females)</p>
<p>addendum to the above:
Despite my entirely average USMLE scores, I have plenty of evidence that I’m good at taking care of patients and love taking care of the sickest children in the hospital - those that require being in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. I’m interviewing for fellowship training positions for Peds Critical Care at the moment and all the programs I’m considering are top 15 in the country. For all the people that consider pediatrics easy, I promise you, none of them want to be in my position when an extremely ill child rolls through. Once you get out into actual real clinical medicine test scores don’t necessarily mean a whole lot. The high board scores needed to match into competitive specialties are not because those specialties require more knowledge, just that the specialties have their pick of well qualified applicants.</p>
<p>All of this sounds so tiring and …boring! Where on earth do you get the motivation to continue?! Is it EVER interesting or fun???</p>
<p>*get educated in a country where the medschool is free or half the cost (do research)
*then take the exams here and pass
*it’s great if you do not plan to get married or have kids, if you’re female, otherwise, more money will be spent on freezing eggs
*consider the work life balance and the trade-off
*consider the cost of paying for med-school if you don’t have the free-ride option, and its effects on investments later on, like a car or house, or travel
*consider the cost when you decide to not practice in the end to raise a family instead
*know that if you marry someone that will eventually go to med school that will not pay for their med school, that the responsibility may be transferred to you
*if short lifespan runs in your family, consider what other jobs may be finished much faster. there are other jobs that help people.
*if it’s about money, there are other jobs that make a lot of money in a short amount of time </p>
<p>in short, I recommend that people who can afford to go to med school without a loan, with excellent physical health should go. and those on the opposite spectrum shouldn’t unless they get into a better situation. i’m not saying it isn’t doable, but to just know these details upfront before being immersed halfway through med school. and i’m sure there are some people who just go to med school because they like taking tests.</p>
<p>if you do the research you will see that less than half (40-45%) of the graduates from foreign MD programs get a residency spot while ~95% of american MD graduates do. I would never ever ever recommend someone go to a foreign medical school if they can get into ANY american MD or even DO (they have an 85-90% residency match rate) school.</p>
<p>Do you need to take physics and calculus in college in order to get into med school ? Or is stats okay ?</p>
<p>Yeah, you have to take physics and at least calculus 1… Often people take stats too, apparently it’s more helpful than calc 2 from what I’ve seen from people on this forum</p>