Hi!
I’m only in the seventh grade but I am planning on taking a BS MD Program after high school. I am trying to become a medical doctor.
•Are there good summer programs focusing on these subjects for seventh graders?
Thanks!!
A 7th grader should be playing games and watching TV. Not on College confidential
As a physician, I completely understand the interest in medicine at a young age. However, for now, it is far too early to do any summer programs specifically related to medicine. Instead, spend your summers having FUN. If your idea of fun happens to be academic, then you should be able to find many programs that are age appropriate and with kids who might be like you. Off the top of my head, William and Mary, Duke TIP, and Johns Hopkins all have summer offerings for this age group, some geared toward "gifted"kids. There are lots of non-science subjects for academic students , such as writing, robotics, etc. There is absolutely no need nor would it even make sense to do something specifically related to medicine at this age. There is plenty of time for that later. If there are other activities you enjoy, besides academic interests, definitely do those! Medicine is a long and at times quite laborious career path. One thing that helps you get through the hard years is having a completely non-academic hobby to blow off steam and rekindle your spirit. In fact, one of the most common medical school interview questions I got was what do you to relax and center yourself? They wanted to know that we had non-academic hobbies and interests, not because of looking for anything “well rounded” at all, but so we would have some grounding to support healthy mental status in the years to come. You would not believe how many physician-hopefuls could not answer this question. When I think of the happiest and most well-adjusted doctors I know, all have something outside of medicine we love. I like to run and sew and bake. My husband loves tennis. A few others run seriously (marathons), another does photography. None of us did this “to get in”–it is not needed to get in–but having hobbies like this is essential to being a balanced and happy human in the incredibly stressful physician world, especially as it relates to getting through med school and residency(my husband and I agree that undergrad is a breeze in comparison, and we went to a challenging undergrad program for sure!).
Thanks!