<p>I am a Canadian twelfth grade high school student considering going to med school someday. Within 300 high school graduating students, how many on average would are capable of handling and having success in medical school. For example, if I was only in the top 15 students of highest marks at my school am I likely not smart enough? We don't do GPAs here, so what percent average is indicator that you're smart enough? Is 93% working at my full potential too low for me to consider med school without major struggling? I'd appreciate any advice or information.</p>
<p>I don't think that someone's high school average is necessarily a good indicator of someone's performance in medical school or the type of doctor they would turn out to be. There's no number that would qualify someone as "smart enough", although good marks in school do matter in admissions, it is not everything. The same goes with the statistics out of a graduating class of 300. It's impossible to determine how many are "capable" of medical school because not everyone out of the class will want to be a doctor, and there are many various definitons of the word "smart". You need a lot more than intelligence to succeed.</p>
<p>There are too many factors that go into even applying to medical school to really say that only the top X students are capable of handling med school. </p>
<p>For some, motivation in HS is non-existant, they are planning to go to the state school nearby and getting a 24 is enough for admissions there. Others are able to get the best grades in the class without trying, and certainly seem capable of making it to medical school, but when they get that first test they fail (or their first B in a class) in college it causes them to turn tail and change their major to business. There are certainly plenty of people who are capable students who have no desire to enter medicine. Further their are also plenty of people who are smart enough to go to medical school but lack the associated personality to really make it a truly viable option. </p>
<p>There are also people who start off pre-med but find a new passion and something they prefer even more than medicine.</p>
<p>There are just too many factors that go into it all. And even if you could quantify them all in hs students, actual med school admissions are extremely ****ed up in my opinion - I know too many people who applied and were rejected that were more than capable and would have been great doctors. </p>
<p>If it helps, of my graduating class (of '01) of 434, I currently only know of 2 people who are in medical school: Myself and one pretty good friend of mine. We were both top 10%, involved, in multiple AP classes over jr and sr years (both english exams, US history, I took US Govt', she took Calc AB). But there were certainly people who were ranked higher than I was in HS that could have done well in med school. And even class rank is a poor predictor. My valedictorian ended up getting way into cocaine and ran up huge gambling debts and disappeared for about 10 months after stealing about a total of $12000 from his roommates over the course of a school year - not even his parents knew where he was. Things happen.</p>
<p>Thank you both for the info.</p>
<p>Bigredmed-- when you said ''lack the associated personality to really make it a truly viable option'' what kind of personality were you talking about/?</p>