Serious Question: What does it take to get into a good med. school?

I still have over a year until I take my SATs, and I'm looking to be some kind of doctor. I have to study premedical 1st, then I go to med school right?

What are the usual requirements to get into a good college?

Do I have to have a certain GPA?
Do I have to score above a 2000 on the SATs?
Do I have to take a bunch of AP courses in school, or at least college-prep, which is honors?
Do I have to volunteer and do some kind of community service at a local hospital, etc?

I have no clue, what I'm supposed to do. I've tried the internet, but all the sites, I've found are hopeless.

How did everyone else do it? I do want to able to buy myself a Ferrari, when I grow up

 

Define a good college. Are we talking Harvard/Yale good, or ...

 

Most people I knew in college who were applying to med school had very high GPA's (3.7 and higher) and were always studying for the MCAT. Also, remember pre-med isn't the only route to med school. Biology, microbiology, bio-engineering etc. can all work too.

 

There is really no such thing as Pre-Med being a major. Pick a science you are good at and another subject that is fun and take all the classes you can find in those subjects. My two were biochemistry and philosophy. Doing this will help get the easy A's. Fill in the rest with the prereqs.

 

What matters most is what you do in college. Going to a "good" school helps. Doing well on the MCAT is a plus. Volunteer work is a plus. Good letters of recomendation is helpful. I would not recommend the usual pre-med tact, however. There are certain core courses you need for med school, but most of these can be taken as electives with other majors. I talk with a lot of kids in our area who are considering going into med school and I counsel them all to go for a buisness degree and pick up the pre-med requirements as electives. Despite what we all would like to think, medicine is a buisness and the buisness degree is very helpful. Also, if one decides not to go into buisness, you still have a something to fall back on. Also, get involved in something different. It is very helpful to be able to put some intersting activity you are involved in on your resume to help you stand out from everyone else. When I was in training, we had a med student who was previously a space shuttle pilot. He had flown more missions than any other pilot and got bored. I think every specialty he rotated on offered him a spot. It didn't hurt that he was a good student. I know this is an extreme example, but I think you get the point. Best of luck. Let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Steve

 

cornell, harvard, etc

 

There isn't a simple path to medical school. You can start by going to the best college you can get into and afford. (*note: afford is important - med school isn't cheap, so don't break the bank on undergraduate*) From there you'll have to take a number of requirements.

Note: You don't need to have a specific major to get into med school. Do what you enjoy as an undergrad.

The requirements you'll need to take are 1 year of biology with lab, 1 year of inorganic chemistry with lab, 1 year of organic chemistry with lab, 1 year of physics with lab, 1 year of English, and 1 year of math (note: some schools would like this year to be calculus, others prefer statistics, and still others don't care).

You'll need to do well in college. And by doing well we mean a GPA of over 3.3. The higher, the better. Truly, to get into one of the better medical schools, you'll need over a 3.5. Preferably above a 3.7.

(Note: there is no such thing as a bad US medical school - don't let anyone tell you otherwise)

You'll need to do especially well in your science courses. AMCAS - the people who handle medical school applications - divide your GPA into two sections. The first is science (defined as biology, chemistry, physics, and math, and other courses that are more than 50% those subjects). The second is "All Other" (AO) Your science GPA (sGPA) should be at least a 3.3. As above, higher is better. 3.5 is better than 3.3, and 3.7 is better than 3.5.

If you plan on going straight through to medical school, you'll need to take the MCAT (typically in April/May/June of your junior year) and score well. Well is defined as over 10 on each section. (The national average for accepted students is around 11)


After that, you'll apply to medical school. It's a two part process: first the AMCAS application (which is a general app), next the school's individual secondary application. After applying, you'll have an interview, and then, if all goes well, be admitted.


Here's the critical part. After you've been admitted, take a year off. Travel. Work. Do whatever your heart desires. Going straight through from undergraduate to medical school isn't a good idea. There's a reason med school's average entering age is over 25. Maturity helps.

 

thanks, but i'm confused. going from my junior year in High school [next year] to med-school already?

 

The high school aspect of getting into med-school really isn't too important. Take APs, get good grades and all that in high school, but it really comes down to how well you do in college. Lots of these grad schools know that high school grading is a complete joke. Any idiot can do pretty well with minimal work. College grading is completely different and you'll realize that after your first freshman midterm.

I'm a business major and did well in high school (4+ on all 9 AP tests, 31 ACT), but work in college is FAR more important when applying to grad schools than college.

Going back to the cost-aspect, it's important to realize that grad school is really expensive. That's why I'm in Boulder right now, I have BIG scholarship so cost-wise its a good investment for me personally. I could have gone to a more prestigious east-coast school, but then I would have been worse off because of the student loans.

 

Junior year of college. You can - and some do - enter into 6 year med programs. But the path I outlined, started with getting into a the best possible four-year college.

 

I can only ask...why? But then, I am biased.

Here is the usual path

1) Get into a good college (top 25% of nationally ranked colleges). Do yourself a favor, and pick colleges people have actually heard of.
2) Major in one of the basic sciences. Bio/Chem is fine. You don't have to do this, and in fact many schools prefer majors in philosophy, etc. But, majoring in a basic science makes testing/mcat/med school easier.
3) Plan on being in the top 10% of your class. That typically means busting your balls for 4 years, unless you are trully gifted. And honestly, most of us aren't. And if you were...you probably wouldn't be asking the question.
4) Diversify in college. A minor helps, publishing heps, research helps, playing sports helps. Get to know your proffessors, their letters of recommendation will make or break you. My roomate barely passed highschool, did well in college (3.8/4.0), decent on the MCAT...became friends with a sociology prof who absolutely loved him. Turns out the prof was a huge harvard alum. Roomy got in with zero problems.
5) Ace your mcats. This is crucial. Most schools use this as the most basic screen. You screw this up, and you are done.
6) Write essays as part of the medschool application process, outlining how wonderful/unique/downtrodden/unfair/heroic your life has been. Mention you are an Olympian/Blackbelt/ who doantes 50% of his time working with the poor.
7) Get into the medschool of your choice.

Repeat steps 1-7, in perpituity, so you can get into a good residency. Learn to love caffiene, and be able to identify every local 7-11 that sells caffiene pills. Accept 110 as a normal resting heart rate for the 2-3 weeks around exam time. Divorce/break up with your significant other. Go without sleep 36 hours at a stretch. Learn that putting just made coffee AGAIN through the coffee filter increases caffiene levels...

Cool, now take the medschool exams, forgot what they call them nowadays...USMLE, I believe. Plan to ace those too, in you want to get into a great residency.

Cool, you get into your top 3 choice residency. Plan to wake up 530 am most days, work 36 hours every 4th day, and get 2-3 days off every 2 months. Most of the time off, after you go home at 7 pm is spent studying. You learn that sleep is way overrated. But, with the help of family and friends, you survive.

Excellent. Now, you repeat the whole process and apply for a specialty (or most folks do). Thats 3-7 years of the same.

Cool! You survived! Now, you get to do this for the rest of your life! Being on call is so much fun. Who needs sleep? Congrats!