<p>so this actually doesn't refer to me, but a friend of mine (I know, cliche). It's been bugging me though, so I thought I'd venture some opinions. He's applying to medical school this year (in June), great MCAT, good GPA, years of research experience, parents are doctors. Only, he's never actually worked in a clinical setting himself (volunteer, shadowing, nothing actually) and seems to still harbor these somewhat unrealistic viewpoints of how medicine works and what life is actually like as a resident/student/etc. It's more or less the comments like "how sweet will our paycheck be once we're out of residency" that bother me. He's trying to find some clinical volunteer work to do this summer, but I kinda feel like this should have been done before applying for medical school...not so you have something to talk about in interviews. I'll admit I had inaccurate views of medicine before coming to college and before I worked in more clinical settings, talked with doctors, etc., and I personally think without those experiences I'd be rather uninformed to apply to medical school. I just didn't understand what it was like. I've made some side comments about this when talking to him, but nothing substantial. Don't get wrong, I think he'd be a good doctor, but I don't think he's really thought about it other than "what else would I do with a science degree?" and "my parents want me to be a doctor". I just kind of feel like he's going in blind.</p>
<p>Anyway, as an applicant myself and a friend of this person, it bothers me that I don't feel as though he's really considered medicine and alternatives to medicine more thoroughly. As a more general question...how will medical schools look at this? A good candidate with good scores, but no real clinical experience outside their parents and doing basic science research at a medical school.</p>