<p>Hey everyone. I'm brand new on this site but it seemed like a good resource for college information. Hope it is!
Anyway, I'm a junior at a very small school (about 300 kids k-12) and I absolutely have my heart set on a medical career. Surgery specifically. I have about a 3.9 gpa right now, I'm taking every weighted class my school offers, I'm very involved (community events, ffa, stuco, etc.), and I got a 27 on my ACT. But, I'm terrified that this just might not cut it.
I'm also completely lost when it comes to choosing a school. I certainly do not want to make the wrong choice and end up ruining my chances of getting into med school.
Does anyone have any advice for an aspiring pre-med student?
Thanks very much, anything you can tell me is appriciated!</p>
<p>Any school that offers chem, bio, and physics courses, has a hospital nearby, and has some research going on will be sufficient for getting into med school. The rest is largely dependent on you.</p>
<p>Also interesting is the fact that many of the HSers who post here want to be surgeons while the national trend for med students is to shy away from grueling surgery residencies (cardiology instead of CT surgery, neurology instead of neurosurgery, and the number of graduates entering gen surgery has been declining for a while).</p>
<p>I suggest you get some experience working/volunteering in a medical environment. You may discover that its not for you, and you'll have made all these decisions based on a career goal that excited you in principal but not in fact.</p>
<p>You can probably volunteer at your local hospital, shadow your personal physician, help out a free clinic, get a job in a lab, etc...It will also give you a chance to meet some physicians and talk to them about what why the selected their specialty and where the trends are in their area of specialization. (Example: Radiology has changed radically in the past 10 years with outsourcing. Geriatrics is booming, etc...)</p>
<p>Thankyou both so much. Your suggestions are very helpful. Oh, and M's Mom, I have interned in the local ER and I loved it. Guess I should have mentioned that. Lol.</p>