<p>So I'm going to be sophomore this coming school year but I still have a lot of general questions about medical school I just want to understand. First, what DO people mean when they say "Premed"? I went to that section of the forum here but .. do they mean just undergrads who are studying to take MCATs and applying to medical school? Are those people called Premeds?</p>
<p>And secondly, is there anything I can do in high school (either during the school year or in the summer) that will make colleges more interested in me? Like if I volunteered at a hospital for 5 days a week for 2 months in the summer for 2-3 years, would colleges be more interested in accepting me since I have a strong interest in medicine? Thank you so much in advance!!</p>
<p>You're right about the pre-med part. It's an advising category for undergraduates. Those college students are taking the required pre-med courses (1 year with lab of Biology, Gen Chem, Organic Chem, Physics plus usually calc, stats and a year of english - some medical schools will have a few other requirements in addition to those, more math or biochem or genetics or certain number of social science hours, etc.)</p>
<p>You do need to actually declare a major b/c pre-med is not a major (except at a few rare schools...and even if you go to those, it's a bad idea to major in pre-med). Major can be anything.</p>
<p>MCAT is taken generally after you've taken all the pre-med science courses, though some people can get by without taking college physics b/c the physics on the MCAT is very basic and if you had rigorous enough preparation in HS, then the review provided by a commercial test prep course or book could be sufficient. Most people take it in the spring of junior year, though I recommend that people take it whenever they can score the highest possible.</p>
<p>In general colleges will accept you solely b/c you are interested in medicine. GPA and test scores are important, but admission decisions are based on other stuff you've done too. So your volunteering will benefit you but not because of your interest in medicine. The volunteering is just one piece of the application picture along with your essays, the sports you play, the clubs and organizations you're involved with, the leadership experience you've had, and so on.</p>
<p>In general, you don't need to prove interest in medicine until you start applying to medical school. Part of this is that the attrition rate for pre-meds is high, most people never even take the MCAT, about half of those people actually apply and less than half of those people get accepted (National matriculation rate was about 44% for those entering in 2006). So while in college doing significant medically related volunteer work is important.</p>
<p>I think you meant in general colleges will not accept you solely b/c you are interested in medicine?</p>
<p>Yeah, I keep leaving "NOT" out of things when I've been posting lately...unsure why that is...</p>
<p>Maybe I should become "bizarro" BRM and just start sabotaging everyone's chances at medical school...just for S's & G's</p>
<p>Thank you for clearing this up, Bigredmed!!</p>