<p>I'm a pre-med at JHU with a 3.85 GPA, never having received a grade worse than an A-, and I've completed all of the pre-med requirements. I'm a rising junior and so far I've conducted three semesters of research (two in molecular biology and one in organic chemistry). Next year I plan to do research on gene regulation at the medical school. I plan on taking an MCAT course this (fall) semester and eventually taking the real exam next summer.</p>
<p>1) I have a ton of volunteering / community service; however, none of it is directly medically related. Also, none of my research is medically related, although the results will undoubtedly be useful for medicine. How important is it for one's research / volunteering to be directly medically related?</p>
<p>2) I believe that I am capable of doing research or practicing medicine. My strongpoint is math / physical science so I believe that perhaps I am wasting these abilities going into medicine. However, recently what has been more important to me in a career, apart from solving complex problems, is excitement. I know some medical careers (i.e. radiology, dermatology for the most part) are relatively boring and others are less so. I want to interact with people and really feel excited to go to work in the morning. I just don't think I could get this going into research. I'm probably more interested in physics, than say physiology, but I'm attempting to be pragmatic in my career choice. Is this a naive reason to go into medicine?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>1) If you’re enjoying your volunteering and your research, then there’s no problem. It’s more important that you can speak about the experiences and how they’re going to make you a better physician…but just because you’re speaking in that direction, doesn’t mean it has to be medically related. The excitement you have for these activities will come across in essays and interviews.</p>
<p>2) I think it’s very appropriate for you feel a need to find a career that fits both your interests and skill sets. Whether medicine is a close enough to your ideal, only you’re really going to be able to determine that. What I would caution you about though is, that need to be “excited” to go to work in the morning. I believe there’s a big difference between enjoying your job and beign excited about it. Given the odd hours - early mornings, overnight call - that begins even in the third year of medical school, can make it difficult to have a mood that you’d describe as “excited”. I mean, I start 2 weeks on Labor and Delivery pretty soon, and it’s hard for me to be looking forward to 5am mornings and being on-call every third night (working 30 hours straight), and it’s just for 2 weeks. So I think you need to look at whether you want a job that’s adrenaline inducing (ie trauma surgeon) or one that you enjoy doing so much, even when you’re tired and sleep deprived.</p>
<p>I do think medicine absolutely fits well with your desire to interact with people. It’s probably the most social career which requires a professional degree - for the majority of physicians, their day is spent talking with people with very little time spent doing work alone. It’s nearly the complete reversal of a research career. </p>
<p>I do think you need to take some time to really examine your career motives and what fits your skill sets, your interests, and the things that make you happy.</p>
<p>“I want to interact with people and really feel excited to go to work in the morning. I just don’t think I could get this going into research. Is this a naive reason to go into medicine?”</p>
<p>Absolutely not a naive reason…In fact, it’s a pretty good reason.</p>
<p>You mentioned that none of your experiences are medical related. And that’s fine…with a great GPA and research you shouldn’t have a problem with medical school admission. I’m not advocating medical activities for the sake of admission, but I would like to suggest that maybe you should try volunteering at your local hospital, or something similar, to get a feel for a clinical setting, and reaffirm to yourself that you want to go into medicine.</p>
<p>I think that “feeling excited to go to work in the morning” is a very good reason to chose a career, BUT it might be good to experience a real clinical setting to make sure that the dream job in your head is consistant with reality. That said, your idea of what it means to be a doctor might be totally in line with reality…so use your best judgment.</p>
<p>I only mention this because you sound like me a couple years ago. I did some volunteering in the ER, shadowed an orthopedic surgeon…people can be great sometimes, other times they can be..well..not-so-great. But to me, the great moments more than make up for the bad. So, my experience really made me more motivated to go to become a doctor.</p>
<p>Good Luck!</p>