I know where/if you will get into med school is never a sure thing, but...

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>In this topic I want to learn things that will give you the best shot and put you in a safe position. I'm in high school by the way.</p>

<p>Here's a few that I've heard:</p>

<ol>
<li>GPA over 3.7. I've actually read that 3.5 and above is general consensus for a good GPA, but again I'm talking about being in a safe position.</li>
<li>MCAT 35+. Again I'm pretty sure this is somewhat higher than the average of accepted students.</li>
<li>Hospital volunteering (but how many hours is it good to have?)</li>
<li>Clinical experience (again, how many hours is it good to have?)</li>
<li>Research (I actually have no clue about this, I haven't read about it).</li>
<li>Applying as early as you can. I've heard that most schools have rolling admissions so you are more likely to get in if you apply early. Once you get closer to the application deadline more and more seats will be taken and the quest for a spot gets tighter. Is this correct?</li>
<li>Name of undergrad institution. But does this really matter? As long as you go to a decent university and maintain a high GPA and do the other stuff, where you go to do your undergrad doesn't play that much of a role, right? The name may have a role, like if you go to Harvard or Ivy League, but ultimately doesn't the importance of this not even compare to that of high grades/scores?</li>
<li>Extra curriculars. Again, these can never come above grades/scores, but are they important?</li>
</ol>

2

<p>What grade of high school? If you are this keen about medical school, have you looked into BS/MD?</p>

3

<p>You can start be reading this report done by the AAMC (American Association of Medical Colleges). It’s the results of survey of admission directors at US med school about what factors influence a candidates chance of admission to medical school.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/261106/data/aibvol11_no6.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/261106/data/aibvol11_no6.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Different factors have different weights at different points during the admission process.</p>

<p>Med school admission is never a sure thing for anyone–even for applicants with ‘killer’ stats. Every year 4.0/40 applicants get denied admission to every single school they apply to. Numbers are important, but there’s more to admissions than just numbers.</p>

<p>P.S. the average matriculant’s GPA is now north of 3.6…</p>

4

<p>testtaker101</p>

<p>you have most of right: grades, MCAT, shadowing, community service, research. But, you are in HIGH SCHOOL.</p>

<p>The large majority of kids interested in medicine do not end up applying to medical school. There are many hurdles, and fierce commitment and a willingness to make medicine your first priority will be tested over and over (like in organic chemistry, and the 14+ years of training between college, med school, residency and fellowship). You will watch your friends from college, now in investment banking and computer startups, make fortunes, buy mansions and take nice vacations while you eat peanut butter, rack up student loans, and work 18 hours a day with no time to see your family and kids. For MANY, MANY years. </p>

<p>I suggest you pick a college you love, where you will do well. The prestige matters surprisingly little to med school committees. See how those first few chemistry/organic/statistics/calculus/physics classes go. Then decide if it is your thing.</p>

<p>In high school, try to take the most challenging/AP bio, chem, physics, statistics and calculus you can to get ready. Try to do summer science research. Try to work in a hospital. (See how tired the interns are?) Learn Spanish. Volunteer. </p>

<p>Medicine is a wonderful profession, but not without great personal cost.</p>

<p>Options like doctor of: physical therapy, audiology, psychology, podiatry, dentistry, optometry - or nursing (NPs practice medicine) or physician asssistant are becoming much more popular, and some of these fields are as selective if not more so than medicine. Patients rarely know which “doctor” is which.</p>

5

<p>Whilst I understand that you are curious, and I sure was when I was in high school, the reality is that it is way too early for you to think about med school admissions. First worry about getting into an undergraduate school. After you know where you are going, then start thinking about all of this stuff. As mentioned before what you can do now is to take challenging AP Science classes and volunteer in a hospital/shadow doctors to get an understanding of the medical profession. Also, consider the BS/MD programs. These are 7-8 year programs where as long as you meet a certain GPA/MCAT and other miscellaneous requirements, that school will automatically guarantee you admission into their medical school. This is a great option and you don’t have to worry about the competitiveness of medical school admissions. However, BS/MD programs are EXTREMLEY hard to get into; some say they are tougher than ivy league admissions. Nevertheless, its worth a shot.</p>

6

<p>

</p>

<p>For many students at many colleges, it is likely that a 35+ MCAT is more challenging than a 3.7 GPA.</p>

<p>As a high schooler, take many challenging AP classes in high school to tough yourself up in order to get ready for the competition in the prereq classes later, and also read as much as you can (e.g., do not take a short cut by relying on Cliffnotes even if you think the reading assignment take too much time.)</p>

7

<p>In order to support what was claimed in the first paragraph in post #6 above, I include the link that was recently posted by ace550 on another thread:</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/2012factstable24.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/2012factstable24.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

8

<p>It seems like you’re asking if there are some “magical numbers” that somewhat provide confidence that you’ll be accepted to at least one US MD med school. </p>

<p>IMO, the answer is…It depends.</p>

<p>if you’re in the NE or Calif, and you want to go to med school in one of those two areas, then it can take very high stats to get accepted if you don’t have a hook. </p>

<p>If you live in areas of the country where having a 29+ MCAT and a 3.6+ GPA will likely get you accepted to your own instate public, then those stats might be “good enough” if that’s your goal. But if your goal is a “name” SOM, then higher stats are likely needed without some hook (amazing research, etc). </p>

<p>If you’d be happy at a mid-tier private, then from what I’ve seen on SDN acceptance threads, I’m guessing that a MCAT 31+ and 3.8+ GPA may be expected.</p>

<p>Of course, much also depends on applying widely, but smartly. Applying to only reach SOMs can mean no acceptances even with great stats. Applying to a bunch of OOS publics can mean no acceptances since many don’t accept many OOS students. </p>

<p>The above is just my opinion, others will certainly think differently. :)</p>

9

<p>Oh yeah, that reminds me, what are the chances of getting into a state med school if you live in that state? Your chances are a lot higher than out of state students, but does anyone know the stats?</p>

10

<p>It highly depends on the state you are in.</p>

<p>You could find you answer indirectly from this link (roughly only, as you can only calculate the number of in-state applicants, and the number of in-state matriculants from this table. You do not know the yield of each med school.) This link was posted by ace550 on another thread recently.</p>

<p><a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/2012factstable1.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/321442/data/2012factstable1.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Also, you do not know whether you would be one of those who are highly sought after by a med school because of its mission. So the percentage listed in the table could be misleading to a certain extent. What you really want to know is that, for those applicants with the similar profile (only a part of it is your stats) as yours, what is the admission rate. But this answer is more elusive.</p>

11

<p>If you have access to the MSAR (Medical School Admissions Requirements–which should be available through a local college or public library–you can easily look that up. (Or you can purchase 1 year access for about $20.) USNWR also has this information if you purchase access to its college and graduate school database. (Also about $20 for 1 year access.)</p>

<p>Also there is a JAMA article about the this. “Medical Schools in the United States 2011-2012” (2012, Dec 5;308(21);2457-63) You can request this article from your local public library via ILL for little or no cost.</p>

<p><a href=“http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1475157#qundefined[/url]”>http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1475157#qundefined&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Some states have a very strong in-state bias (where essentially no OOS students are accepted); some have state schools where up to half of the students are OOS. Some states have both types–public with and without a strong instate bias.</p>

<p>But even at public med schools with very strong in-state biases and low state populations, the acceptance rates still hover around 30-35% [of in-state applicants] at best.</p>

12

<p>*Oh yeah, that reminds me, what are the chances of getting into a state med school if you live in that state? Your chances are a lot higher than out of state students, but does anyone know the stats?
*</p>

<p>there are 50 states…they’re all different. It depends on where you’re a resident. It’s hard to get accepted to an MD school in Calif, but I don’t think it’s very hard to get accepted to an instate MD school in Mississippi.</p>

13

<p>

</p>

<p>Can’t emphasize this enough, using UDub as an example:</p>

<p>Looking at the chart you see a large proportion of applicants being OOS. While the matriculating numbers show a preference for IS (particularly given the unbalance in applicants), there are still close to 50% coming from OOS.</p>

<p>This is misleading as UDub has an agreement with WY, AK, MT & ID, and many of those OOS applicants and matriculants are from these states.</p>

<p>In addition, of the truly OOS applicants, UDub’s mission ONLY supports applicants who are either underserved (educationally or economically) or who have a desire AND a history of working with underserved populations.</p>

14

<p>Re: <a href=“https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/2012factstable24.pdf[/url]”>https://www.aamc.org/download/321508/data/2012factstable24.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>There was a student who got admitted to medical school with a 1.47-1.99 GPA and a 24-26 MCAT?</p>

15

<p>I’m more shocked by the people with 5-14 MCATs getting in</p>

16

<p>RE: low GPA and med school admission.</p>

<p>An med school adcomm suggested that most of the students with the low GPAs getting accepted are non-trads who had a terrible undergrad experience, who got a job, got some time & distance from those grades, got real life experience under their belt and grew up. They then did a graduate post-bacc, killed the coursework and were accepted to med school. But those bad undergrad grades never do go away.</p>

17

<p>^ Are the grades obtained from a reputed post-bacc program considered as a part of UG grades? I have never figured this out because I had the impression that the post-bacc program grades count a lot (as much as UG science prereq grades), but the grades from other graduate program (e.g., master degree) count very little, relatively speaking, in med school admission.</p>

18

<p>Nope. UG grades are UG grades. Post-bacc grads are not computed in Cumulative or BCMP. But of course if you have done a post-bacc at a reputable program they probably have tried and true ways or connects to get your app past the GPA filter.</p>

19

<p>The other GPA anomaly we could have here are students who flunked out (maybe "withdrew failing " after a crisis?) , grew up and aced the last couple years of college plus had something special to add (like a post-bacc, exceptional experience). </p>

<p>Haven 't done the math but a complete tank freshman year could yield some ugly UG numbers. </p>

<p>Admittedly, this would be as rare as hen’s-teeth." Exceptional" circumstance doesn’t quite convey the rarity.</p>

20

<p>Nope. UG grades are UG grades. Post-bacc grads are not computed in Cumulative or BCMP. But of course if you have done a post-bacc at a reputable program they probably have tried and true ways or connects to get your app past the GPA filter.</p>

<p>I wonder how they do get those low grades past the GPA filter?? </p>

<p>I also wonder if some low stats students later became military medics, and then did post bac or whatever and got in with connections/recommendation (maybe to the Uniform Services SOM)?</p>