Need Some Help!

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
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<p>So basically, I am a sophomore in college, and I have wanted to go to medical school. However, I'm not so sure about my chances. My GPA (both regular and science) is 3.6 (the work here and competition is pretty rough. That part isn't so bad, but I'm sure my GPA should be higher to increase my chances. </p>

<p>However, the main problem is my resume. I really don't have anything on here. Hardly any volunteering, no research or publications, no shadowing, and not much leadership or any honors/awards. I've been trying to do something about this, but it doesn't really seem to be working. I keep applying to all these volunteering programs at the hospital, but I don't get accepted into any of them. I've been e-mailing many professors about working as a research assistant in their laboratory, but that hasn't worked either. Either all the positions are filled or my skills (like lack of research experience) don't meet their requirements. Also, I can't really seem to find a doctor to shadow. I asked a few, but they said they don't really do stuff like that. And as far as clubs, I'm busy spending a lot of time studying and doing work for classes, so I don't have much time to put into clubs (usually you have to put in a lot of time into clubs in order to get the leadership positions).</p>

<p>So basically, my question is how can I improve my resume? How can I get these volunteering, research, and shadowing positions? I know that I need to get volunteering/shadowing/other clinical experience, but if I keep getting rejected from the programs when I apply, what am I supposed to do? Same with research and shadowing. Is there a way I can get accepted to some programs for volunteering or research positions so that I can improve my resume? I only have 1 year left, so I need to do something fast.</p>

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<p>bump (10 char)</p>

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<p>Welll…it’s not too late to “get cooking”. Contact your family’s doctors and line up some shadowing opps over the summer. Find out if you can volunteer at your hospital. </p>

<p>Ask your science profs if you can assist in their labs/research…send emails if you must, and then follow up with a live visit to their offices. My son sent emails asking when the best time to meet and then my son met with profs to find some research opps.</p>

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<p>It seems that things are very different now but when I applied to medical school in 1996 I had a GPA of about 3.6 but no experience in volunteering, shadowing, medicine related research or membership in any clubs or organizations and still managed to get accepted at a U.S. medical school. </p>

<p>I did get a 31 on the MCAT which I had to fly from an East Asian country to Guam to take. I did have a full time job as a Foreign Service Officer and was stationed at a U.S. embassy in Asia at the time so the medical school that accepted me might not have held me to the same standards as their other applicants. For example they let me fulfill the Organic Chemistry requirement by taking the lecture portion of it through a correspondence course with a university extension in the United States and allowed me to substitute a lab course in Astrophysics that I took as an undergraduate for the lab portion of Organic Chemistry. However, not having any hands on experience with organic chemicals but being very good at calculating the orbits of asteroids and photographing them with the telescope at the University of Maryland College Park Observatory seems to have neither hurt me nor helped me in medical school as far as I could tell.</p>

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<p>I’m guessing that such would fall under the category of excellent and rare non-medical ECs (or softs).</p>