Questions about pre-med

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hi I am a junior in highschool in New Zealand and I'm planning to apply to U.S colleges/universities.
I want to do medicine but I don't know how the whole system works.
Please answer my questions!</p>

<p>What is pre-med ?(apart from the fact that it's a course before you get into med school).. like, what is involved in the course?</p>

<p>and how many years does pre-med go on for?
and when are you supposed to start pre-med -- I suppose the first year of college?</p>

<p>I am applying to Johns Hopkins, Duke, Northwestern, and some other various colleges and I know that JHU is known for it's medical school..but I'm not quite sure about Duke and Northwestern.</p>

<p>Does Duke and Northwestern have good medical schools?</p>

<p>And (last question), what if there's no pre-med programme in a school? What am I to major in?.. Biology?</p>

<p>Thanks,
Jane</p>

2

<p>Harvard, Duke, and Johns Hopkins (along with Washington U. and UPenn) arguably have the best medical schools in the United States. Northwestern has a very good medical school (top-25) but it is not of the same caliber as the previous five. </p>

<p>However, you should worry about the quality of the medical school when you are applying in four years as a graduating senior. Though it is true that Duke accepts a larger pool of undergraduate Duke students (12) per class than the next highest undergraduate schools represented (Stanford, with 8 students, and Princeton, with 6), this is really not as important as choosing a school that matches your academic needs and personality.</p>

<p>Pre-med in the United States in not a major at the top private schools you are mentioning. It is rather a group of courses (roughly 2 semesters of general chem, 2 of bio, and 2 of organic chem, 2 English courses, and one calc, biochem and physics class, some of which can be replaced by AP or IB credit) that complement your own choice of major, which can range from biology or psychology to English or even music. Most students are able to complete these requirements within their 4 years as an undergrad, however some take additional summer classes, etc. to fulfill theirs.</p>

3

<p>That said, schools like Duke and Hopkins do offer the benefits of a world-class hospital and medical school on campus at which to do research, which can be valuable in applying to medical school.</p>

4

<p>incollege88, since Hopkins, Duke, Harvard, Wash. U, and U. Penn are some of the best med schools in the U.S., then wouldn't that actually limit undergraduates in regards to the number of opportunities they would have to do research and gain clinical experience? Wouldn't participating in top-notch research be difficult for a freshmen or sophomore undergrad since they would be competing for openings that are usually taken by upperclassmen, med students or grad students? I have read previous posts on the CC boards which say that it is better to attend LAC's and other small but academically rigorous colleges than attend these big-name schools if research or clinical experience is what a person is interested in.</p>

5

<p>Incollege88,</p>

<p>"Though it is true that Duke accepts a larger pool of undergraduate Duke students (12) per class than the next highest undergraduate schools represented (Stanford, with 8 students, and Princeton, with 6), "</p>

<p>Umm when you said 12 students per class (in duke), does that mean 12 students go onto medical school from the whole of the senior year of the undergraduate school?</p>

<p>I am also considering U of Penn. If applying for U Penn, is it better to apply to SEAS than the college? (for medicine)</p>

<p>"that complement your own choice of major, which can range from biology or psychology to English or even music. "</p>

<p>When applying to med schools, do they not really care about which undergraduate major you take? So if I want to, I could take music or history (as an example), which do not compliment medicine in anyway?</p>

<p>Thanks - there's so much about med school that i didnt kno of..</p>

6

<p>"Umm when you said 12 students per class (in duke), does that mean 12 students go onto medical school from the whole of the senior year of the undergraduate school?"</p>

<p>I think he meant that 12 graduates from Duke went to Duke's medical school - I'm sure many other Duke grads went to other med schools.</p>

<p>"When applying to med schools, do they not really care about which undergraduate major you take? "</p>

<p>They really don't care. You do have to take certain undergrad classes (generally one year each of Inorganic Chem, Organic Chem, Biology, Physics, all with labs, and sometimes math and/or english) If you do those, it doesn't matter what your major is. Rumor has it that music majors have the highest acceptance rate into medical school. But if you love Biology, don't be afraid to study that either.</p>

7

<p>This is off-topic, but I would throw out there that I while I'm not sure that music majors have the highest acceptance rate into medical school, I would not be surprised if it was true. Furthermore, I think I know why it might be true also. The fact is, music is one of those majors that is notorious for giving out high grades. Now obviously in order to even seriously consider being a music major, you have to have skill in music, but if you do have that skill, then as long as you do the work, you are going to get pretty decent grades in your music classes. Maybe not all A's, but you're going to get pretty good grades. People rarely if ever flunk music classes, and practically nobody will flunk out of the music major.</p>

<p>Contrast that with biology classes, especially those that are populated with lots of premeds (i.e. classes on biochemistry, molecular biology, etc.) and where professors are not only not afraid of giving out lots of bad grades, often times they seem to enjoy doing it. These classes are almost always graded on forced curves where a given X% of the class must get a bad grade (i.e. a C or less). And since the grading is based on a forced curve, your grade isn't really based on what you know, but rather on what you know relative to what everybody else knows. So you can know a lot and still get a very bad grade because everybody else knew more than you did. Happened to a guy I know - got an 86% on an exam, but that was a D, almost an F, because the average score of the exam was a 95%. </p>

<p>The reality is that med-school adcoms want to see high grades, and they don't care how you get them, as long as you get them. If you can't present strong grades, they're not going to care why you don't have those strong grades, they're just going to reject you without a second look. So if for you, getting high grades means taking classes where grading is easy and where everybody gets a high grade, well, if that's what it takes, then that's what it takes. It's a perennial myth that doing a bio major helps you to get into med-school. The bio major might help you while you're going through med-school, but getting into med-school is a whole 'nother story. Not only does the bio major not really help you get in, it actually probably hurts you, because of the harsh grading. </p>

<p>The fact is, one of the hardest, if not the hardest hurdles in becoming a doctor is simply getting into med-school in the first place. In the US, about half of all med-school applicants get rejected from every single US med-school they apply to. That's right, every single one. And that figure obviously doesn't count those people who would like to go to med-school, but know they won't get in, and so they don't even bother to apply. If you are absolutely sure you want to be a doctor, then you gotta do what you gotta do to get into med-school, and if that means taking really easy classes in order to get the high grades that the med-school adcoms demand, then so be it. I don't like the obsession on high grades that the adcoms foist, but if that's what they want, then that's what you will have to give them. After all, if you can't get into med-school, then your medical career is basically over before it ever really started.</p>

8

<p>Thank you everyone for your advices!</p>

9

<p>sakky, how do you know so much about the application process of the medical schools? Are you one of them? Please respond, I would really like to know where you get your information from...I would liek to think you are right though.</p>