I went to a Magnet School for middle school and got four high school credits in my seventh and eighth grade year. It allowed me to start ahead of the game in high school, which gave me the opportunity to graduate a year early, which I took. Personal circumstances prevented me from participating in extracurriculars and I really just wanted to get out of that house. So, I did. However, because I was taking all AP’s my “senior” year, I can graduate in three years from college too if I’m taking all eighteen hour semesters because I got 4’s and 5’s on my AP Exams and was able to fulfill a lot of my general education requirements. Would it make me look a certain way to medical school committees if I did that to save money? Would it come off a certain way that would inhibit me from being accepted?
Other Information:
3.74 GPA Overall
3.89 Science GPA
Part-time Job through school
Volunteer at Medical Center
In Process of getting EMT certification
Member of Pre-medical Society
Member of Biology Honors Society
Major in Cell/Molecular Biology
Taking Spanish Courses (in efforts to become fluent)
Thanks for reading!
First of all, I’m confused–are you in college or still in high school?
Are those your college stats and ECs?
The biggest difficulty faced by accelerated graduates is that you haven’t had the time to develop the appropriate pre-med ECs.
Young college grads also have the onus of demonstrating to adcomms that they are emotionally and socially mature enough to handle medical school and deal with patients. The default assumption will be that you aren’t.
Looking at what you’ve posted–and assuming you’re in college-- your stats are fine, but you’re deficient in the EC dept. No research. No community service. No physician shadowing. No TA/tutor/teaching/coaching experiences. You appear to have some clinical exposure–but I can’t tell from what you’ve posted how in-depth it is or how patient-centered.
An EMT certificate is meaningless unless you actually use it by working or volunteering as a EMT for a significant length of time. (And BTW, most EMT-B jobs don’t involve patient contact. You just do patient transport --i.e. driving the bus or pushing gurneys.)
So, if you’re thinking of applying to med school anytime in the near future—your application–even if you do earn an outstanding MCAT score-- is a entirely non-competitive. You’re looking at an auto-rejection. But not due to your age, but to the paucity of your ECs.
I’m in college (about to start my second semester), for clarification purposes.
These are my college stats and EC’s so far.
I’m volunteering as patient-escort/transport at a medical center in my university town. I’m also a part of a Child Advocacy Club and two pre-med track societies. I’m going to be physician shadowing in La Romana, Dominican Republic next summer as a part of the Gap Medic Shadowing Program. I’m wanting to get Departmental Honors in Biology, which would include my doing a research project and am trying to find other research opportunities. I would need more than just my research project and thesis, correct?
I wouldn’t classify my clinical exposure as in-depth either. I’m in the process for applying for a certification program for EMT right now to hopefully get some more (it’s 2,000$ and I’m still working to save the money). Are you saying that this would be a waste of my time and money because of limited patient exposure? Do you have any recommendations for what I could be doing instead? What other EC’s should I be pursuing? I’m still a freshman, so I have time to change my EC’s, but when I commit to something, I usually like to stay with it.
Thanks for all your help!
I would say there’s nothing wrong with finishing college in 3 years but you should take 4 years between high school and college. This would mean you apply for medical school after graduating and spend a year working vs. applying at the end of your 2nd year and - based on what you’ve posted here - having very lackluster ECs.
I would advise against your only physician shadowing being international. Medicine is not practiced the same in every country.
Pre med clubs are, IMO, a big waste of time–unless they provide you with clinical volunteering or other special opportunities. Also it’s one of those things adcomms are entirely unimpressed by.
Shadowing outside of US is also fairly meaningless in terms of pre-med activities. It’s a nice supplement if you already have plenty of US shadowing, but it’s not a substitute for shadowing US physicians. (Overseas medical volunteering/shadowing is called “voluntoursim” and has fallen into disfavor with adcomms since there are a number of problematic ethical issues inherent in the activity.)
A research thesis is fine for research. So would any kind of year long or longer volunteering or paid employment in a research lab or as part of clinical research project (e.g. public health).
You need to be doing hands-on community service–particularly with those who are less fortunate than yourself. Adcomms prefer to see long term involvement with a one or two community service projects/activities rather than lots of short-involvement with lots of activities.
Having an EMT is fine if you actually use it and it’s something you want to do. Simply having the certification is meaningless. In many areas there is huge oversupply of EMT-Bs and finding a volunteer position or paid employment with a EMT-B is often difficult. Also be aware that the scope of practice of EMT-B varies by state and that certification is not transferrable between states. (BTW, nearly every community college in the US offers EMT-B classes so you can probably find your coursework for much less than $2000.) But being an EMT exposes you to only one facet of medicine. You’ll need additional clinical experiences to supplement it. (For the record, one of my Ds was an EMT-I and loved her volunteering gig with Mtn Search & Rescue. But she’s a passionate rock climber and it was her way of giving back to her community.)
For clinical experiences, think outside the box–beside hospitals, consider hospices, nursing homes, rehab hospitals, group homes for the physically or mentally disabled, summer camps for disabled or autistic children, public out-patient clinics (like free county medical clinics, Planned Parenthood or Healthcare for the Homeless), cancer centers, out patient surgical centers or dialysis centers.
The most important thing you can do is find your passion and follow it. Your activities should tell a story about you & your interests. You need to get away from the checklist mentality.