Pre-med advice and opinions!

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Before I ask my questions. Here's the lowdown on my pre-med career:
Summers 2008/2009 - Volunteering in the Art Therapy Department at Childrens Hospital LA
Summer 2010 - Volunteering at Cedars Sinai Medical Center
Summer 2011- I graduated High school and took summer courses (Counseling and Cultural Anthropology) at my community college
Fall & Winter 2011/2012 - Studying religion abroad in Israel, no college credit, just for personal experience and growth
Spring 2012 - classes at community college (English Composition, Introductory Psychology, Philosophy and Pre-Calculus)
Summer 2012 - classes at cc (Jazz in America and Introductory Chemistry with lab)
Fall 2012 - volunteering at Cedars Sinai Medical Center and classes at cc (Calculus I and General Chemistry I, & another Counseling class)
Winter 2013 - burnt out, took semester off to be with friends and went to England, also continued volunteering
Present/Spring 2013 - still volunteering, classes at CC (Calculus II, Public Speaking, World Civilizations II and Self Defense), and job on campus as a Mathematics Tutor </p>

<p>With all this I have a 4.0 GPA. I am also in a "research program" but I am not doing any research whatsoever instead I have to attend day long workshops and meeting with counselors constantly. I want to go to medical school. But I feel like I'm not doing my best to get there. I don't think my volunteering is any good for the medical career, I just do clerical work at the front desk directing visitors and giving them necessary badges. And the program I'm in may not be any good either. What I am trying to say is what should I do to boost my chances of getting to medical school? Should I look into other volunteer programs? Should I opt out of the program that's not getting me anywhere? Should I speed things up at cc? Any suggestions? Anything I should do differently? </p>

<p>My plan is to take physics in the summer and English Literature, General Biology I and General Chemistry II in the Fall. I don't think, unless I really push myself and have no life, I can transfer to university, hopefully UCLA, for Fall 2014. I won't be done with all my major and pre-med classes until the end of FAll 2014 giving me Winter, Spring and Summer 2015 completely free to take extra classes, volunteer, research, or take MCAT courses. Any suggestions for my long term plan? Anything you think i should do differently?</p>

<p>I am not able to find anyone that can help me out with this. I would really appreciate your opinions. :)</p>

2

<p>If you don’t plan on doing additional course work at a 4 year college, your application will undoubtedly less competitive at many medical schools.</p>

<p>You can mitigate that by justifying your 4.0 GPA from cc with a good MCAT score (>32). Even then, be careful in school selection and avoid schools that either flat out don’t accept pre-requisites from CC or look down upon them.</p>

<p>Good luck!</p>

3

<p>While you can find out which schools won’t accept CC classes, you won’t be able to find out which schools “look down” on them.</p>

4

<p>Quite a few schools that say they accept CC course work, include a cautionary note indicating that coursework from CC may not be competitive. I don’t understand their logic, but they do say that. I read it.</p>

5

<p>^I stand corrected</p>