<p>The purpose of this thread is to establish a general timetable of requirements in order to be ready to apply to medical schools.</p>
<p>How to start the process since Freshman year if you want to plan for MD/PHD.</p>
<p>Please post the aspects that you need to do in every year of the undergraduate major in pursuing or planning for MD studies.</p>
<p>Fill the blanks:</p>
<p>First year: You need to know and be aware of the requirements: 1 year bio
1 year chem, 1 year ochem, 1 year physics, 1 year calc, 1 year English</p>
<p>Second year:</p>
<p>Third Year:</p>
<p>Fourth year:</p>
<p>Each post can read "Things you need to do" (Then add the thing that need to be done for each year):</p>
<p>First year:</p>
<p>Second year:</p>
<p>Third Year:</p>
<p>Fourth year:</p>
<p>This timetable will need to assume you want to begin med school right after graduation, many people recommend taking time off between undergrad & med school, so you can always bump the requirements to later dates.</p>
<p>My daughter did not have a good option to apply and attend right out of school as her ECs resulted in an MCAT date of no sooner than August; she decided not to apply late in the cycle, but to take a year off. Her strong upper div science senior year with 8 As as well as her gap year research job contributed both to her resolve to be a doctor and her appeal to med schools.</p>
<p>In all 4 years the student should be pursuing a greater understanding of medicine- shadowing doctors, volunteering in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities. These should not be done to check a box, but to actually help your student determine what medicine is really like in real life and why he/she wants to pursue medicine. It is an expensive and time consuming process, the applicant needs to show the admissions people that he understands what he is getting himself into, but more importantly, he should be learning for himself what it is all about and confirming why he wants to be a doctor.</p>
<p>Research:</p>
<p>Many schools like to see some research experience, that can be bench or clinical. My DD honestly had no interest in research through undergrad, but sought a clinical research job in her year off and has enjoyed the experience. It is very popular to seek summer research in undergrad or to even find a school year opportunity to work on research.</p>
<p>Please, assume the student will start after graduation:</p>
<p>First year:
-You need to know and be aware of the requirements: 1 year bio, 1 year chem, 1 year ochem, 1 year physics, 1 year calc, 1 year English
-Volunteer in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.
-Get involve in research experience, that can be bench or clinical.
-Continue with your favorites ECs.
-Develop networking you will need letter of recommendations.</p>
<p>Second year:
-Volunteer in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.
-Get involve in research experience, that can be bench or clinical.
-Continue with your favorites ECs.
-Develop networking you will need letter of recommendations.</p>
<p>Third Year:
-Volunteering in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.
-Get involve in research experience, that can be bench or clinical.
-Continue with your favorites ECs.
-Develop networking you will need letter of recommendations.</p>
<p>Fourth year:
-Volunteering in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.
-Get involve in research experience, that can be bench or clinical.
-Continue with your favorites ECs.
-Develop networking you will need letter of recommendations.</p>
<p>ECs:</p>
<p>It’s all about you, the student, pursuing YOUR ECs, not a cookie cutter list, but YOUR interests- music, sports, theatre, politics, whatever, it just needs to show you are interested in life and actively involved in life and an interesting person.</p>
<p>Yes, there are people who get into medical school with lousy ECs and great numbers, but how much better for your application and for your life experience to be active and interesting and involved in your school/hobbies/passions/interests.</p>
<p>It does not really matter what you do, it matter that you DO something</p>
<p>LORs:</p>
<p>Strong LORs (letters of rec) are a must. How do you get them? By getting to know your profs, office hours, class participation, research, etc. Target profs to get to know and pursue them. Great LORS can make up for less than stellar numbers, a bit.</p>
<p>The bigger the school, the harder this is to do. My DD at a small LAC was as close to profs her first term there as my Berkeley DD was winter of her senior year. When the prof is grading 1200+ people in Ochem it is more difficult to connect.</p>
<p>This is another reason why DD and several of her friends took a gap year, they needed that senior year to further connect with profs. DD had what seemed to be a great rapport with several profs and it was still like pulling teeth to get those LORs actually written, typed, submitted to Interfolio etc.</p>
<p>Thanks somemom for sharing your valuable knowledge and experience. This will help future students greatly!</p>
<p>First year:
-You need to know and be aware of the requirements: 1 year bio, 1 year chem, 1 year ochem, 1 year physics, 1 year calc, 1 year English
-Volunteer in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.</p>
<p>Second year:
-Volunteer in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.
-Plan to make time to study for and take the MCAT such that you have your results no later than June at the end of year 2.</p>
<p>Third Year:
-Volunteering in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.
-Spend spring term requesting and gathering LORs- Interfolio is a great option, or your school may collect them- so you have them in hand (at the service) by June
-Fall term, begin thinking about your PS (personal stmt)
-Spring term, begin writing the PS, have it read and edited by others
-Spring term, read SDN sample secondaries and begin outlining your answers for potential secondaries.<br>
-Mid-May apply in TX
-June 1 apply AMCAS
-July begin secondaries, turn them around in a few days each and be ever so grateful if you spent time in the spring coming up with ideas for answers;)</p>
<p>Fourth year:
-Volunteering in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.</p>
<p>Also check up on specific med schoools you might possibly be interested in for additional prereqs, mandatory or suggested. For example our state schools would like some biochem or anatomy/physiology. The research pathway (HST?) vs. New Pathway at Harvard wants 4 semesters of calc through def eq vs. 2 semesters of calc for new pathways.</p>
<p>Some will use your APs some will not. So be mindful of class requirements, not just the ones stated above.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Another tip:
Some research programs have very early applications deadlines for the next summer, so be mindful of that as well. Son’s at harvard had 12/1 deadline for the coming June and a november deadline for the one at yale the following summer.</p>
<p>Kat
this is for research done during undergrad not deadlines for med school.
And my son is also one that was advised to take a gap year as well, by his preceptor for his senior thesis. (Advisor)Did not want med school stuff interfering with his time spent on senior thesis.</p>
<p>-What are SDN sample secondaries?</p>
<p>AMCAS: The American Medical College Application Service, abbreviated AMCAS, is a service run by the Association of American Medical Colleges through which prospective medical students can apply to various medical schools in the United States.
-When the student applies to AMCAS to what medical colleges is the student applying? Does the service includes all medical schools or the one selected by AMCAS?</p>
<p>Secondaries:</p>
<p>If you go on the “student doctor network” (SDN) forums you can find threads sorted by school. People will post the prompts. So, right now the prompts given in 2009 are at the beginning of those school specific threads. Many (most?) schools do not seem to change the prompts dramatically, or even at all, from year to year. You can look at the prompts the summer before you apply and even if you do not actually write the precise answer (though some people do) you can at least come up with topics for each, determine how the various prompts overlap etc. </p>
<p>A student might have 30+ secondaries to complete and some have 10+ short answers required.</p>
<p>SDN forums are also a bit over the top and intimidating to a newcomer. I learned a great deal there doing research on my DDs behalf (parents almost never post there, so it is mostly just reading and learning). Like CC is it a self selected high achieving group overall.</p>
<p>Remember the Texas publics use TMDSAS. (They also require two years of bio.) </p>
<p>Other additional course sometimes required by med schools are biochemistry, statistics taught by math dapartment, psychology, “humanities”.</p>
<p>Updated Timetable:
First year:
-You need to know and be aware of the requirements: 1 year bio, 1 year chem, 1 year ochem, 1 year physics, 1 year calc, 1 year English (Other additional courses may be required by different schools)
-Volunteer in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.
-Get involve in research experience, that can be bench or clinical.
-Continue with your favorites ECs.
-Develop networking you will need letter of recommendations.</p>
<p>Second year:
-Volunteer in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.
-Get involve in research experience, that can be bench or clinical.
-Continue with your favorites ECs.
-Develop networking you will need letter of recommendations.
-Plan to make time to study for and take the MCAT such that you have your results no later than June at the end of year 2.</p>
<p>Third Year:
-Volunteering in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.
-Get involve in research experience, that can be bench or clinical.
-Continue with your favorites ECs.</p>
<p>SPRING:
–Letter of Recommendations - Develop networking you will need LOR:-Spend spring term requesting and gathering “Letter of recommendations” - so you have them in hand by June.
– Personal Statements (PS) - Begin writing the PS, have it read and edited by others.
-Go to “student doctor network” (SDN) forums to be familiar with school’s prompts.
–Read SDN sample secondaries (school prompts) and begin outlining your answers for potential secondaries. </p>
<p>MAY:
-Apply in TX.</p>
<p>JUNE:
Apply AMCAS.</p>
<p>JULY:
-Begin secondaries, turn them around in a few days each and be ever so grateful if you spent time in the spring coming up with ideas for answers</p>
<p>Fourth year:
-Volunteering in a hospital, medically related internships or interactive opportunities.
-Get involve in research experience, that can be bench or clinical.
-Continue with your favorites ECs.</p>
<p>Today: Find bluedevilmike’s timetable he has posted here and incorporate it into this one. ;)</p>
<p>Thanks and welcome Curmudgeon!</p>
<p>What is the TMDSAS?
“The Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service (TMDSAS) is the centralized application processing service for applicants to the first-year entering classes at all state supported public medical, dental and veterinary schools in the state of Texas. TMDSAS simplifies the application process for both the applicants and the participating schools. They provide one standardized application, relieving students of the need to complete a separate application for each of the participating schools. TMDSAS serves only as an information clearinghouse and does not influence the schools’ review of the application or their selection of applicants to interview and accept.” <a href=“Pre-Professional Advising | Student Affairs”>Pre-Professional Advising | Student Affairs;
<p>Nice info also in thread by bluedevilmike: “Timing Alert”</p>
<p>What to do a year before attending:
He provided this example for 2008…I’m updating it changing the year…
If you want to enter medical school in the fall of 2012:</p>
<p>1.) You should have a quick list of your extracurricular activities put together by November 2010.
2.) You should have a first draft of your essay put together during Christmas 2010.
3.) You should have a rough list of schools by March 2011.
4.) You should ask for letters of recommendation before April 2011, and ask them to send in their letters by June 1 2011.
5.) You should be finalizing your essay.
6.) E-mail an older student to get as many secondary essay topics as possible.
7.) During May 2011, you should open up an AMCAS account. This will be quite easy if you’ve already taken the MCAT, which I hope you have.
8.) Ideally you’d have an MCAT score by June 2011 – not a test, a score. July is probably okay as well, but it would make me uncomfortable.
9.) On June 8 – NOT JUNE 1st – you should send in your primary application. This includes a list of schools, a list of EC’s, your grades, a TRANSCRIPT REQUEST, and your essay.
10.) On June 15, many schools with “Open” secondaries (non-screening) will open up their secondaries. You should look carefully through the website of every school you applied to to see if the application is open yet.
11.) You should take no more than two weeks to fill out any secondary. Otherwise they accumulate. Rumors – which I find credible – also say that schools use secondaries as an indication of your interest.
12.) Schools will start to send you secondaries, as well. The two-week rule stands.
13.) If there’s ever a point where you find you have nothing to do, start writing secondary essays ahead of time!</p>
<p>14.) You should be completely done with all primaries and secondaries by the time school starts.</p>
<p>Sorry for being a noob, but what’s a secondary?</p>
<p>Read somemom post #13. It seems are essays for school’s prompts.</p>