NSers going through premed/med school.

Piste.Off

Piste.Off

Active member
I'm currently a sophomore recreation/tourism major and business minor at CSU and I'm rethinking my career choice. I'm strongly considering changing my major to biology and going through CSU's premed program. I have always been able to picture myself as a doctor but going through premed and all ready being 2 years behind is incredibly intimidating. Has anyone gone through pre med that can offer some advice? I'm really struggling with this decision right now.
 
Im in my 2nd year of a BSc which i have tailored to get all my premed stuff done by the end of this year. Its not bad the only sucky thing is you gotta put effort into every class you need 4.0's if you wanna get in after 2 years. Im gonna apply after next year because we need mcats in canada i dont know if you do. If you just accept that youll probably need an undergrad degree before med school and go for it and its not bad.
 
we need mcats in the states as well, and I would end up getting a biology degree, it coincides with nearly every premed class.
 
If you want to do it then go for it, but I highly urge that you only go down that road if you deeply care about people and are passionate about helping any and all of them. I go to a big research University and is thus a science, bioscience, and pre-med factory. Its easy to tell that there is a large number of students who are eager to pursue medical careers, but do so for financial and social-status reasons. I worry that they won't make good, caring doctors. I say this because Ive been interested in pursuing a career that involves helping people, which has lead me to different volunteer opportunities. My most recent endeavor involves work at a homeless clinic. Most of my co-volunteers are claimed pre-meds, but the majority are lazy and poor at helping people in the clinic according to clinic staff. This is obviously a worry, seeing is that some of them may end up being a doctor I could potentially have.

Make sure you think critically about future career options. There are millions of options and most are overlooked. You don't want to be a medical doctor simply because you are interested in biology or get a kick out of the hard sciences.

 
If you can get that 4.0 then do it and go. i have friends who got 3.95s and have been rejected from some med schools. its competitive to say the least. source: im on my way in an engineering program and my exes brother is becoming a neurosurgeon
 
Started pre-med, finished 3 years including calc, stats, gen-chem, o-chem, physics, and bio, all with lab, all with grades good enough to go on to med school. Got to upper-division sciences and found it utterly boring and worthless to me. Switched to public policy, graduated, now in grad school for public health policy.

Something to keep in mind is that you can go to med school from any major or discipline as long as you have completed the requisite requirements (essentially what I listed above, sometimes also with biochem). You're also expected to be an ideal student in your other classes, do research, and volunteer work and kick ass on the MCAT (which is a very difficult test). It's a lot of work. Look into it in a fair amount of detail and be fully committed to it if that's what you know you want to do. Trying it half-way will just end up in a let-down.

Doesn't mean you need to be a loser in school, my one friend was one of the biggest partiers in my fraternity but spent about every other waking moment working towards his goal so he had the opportunity to get stupid drunk rather often. Now he's in his second year at a UC med program and will make a great doctor.

 
Im in dental school, so its nearly the same thing for medicine. They like you to get good grades in the sciences, especially organic chem. They like to see you take high end sciences like biochem, molecular bio, cell signaling, pharmacology, anatomy physiology etc. They also wanna see you do stuff like the guy above said, outreaches, medical mission trips, shadowing etc. Med school is like dental school except you need to kill yourself in school cause after graduating its like getting into med school all over again trying to lock in a residency. Its a nightmare. You need to apply to tons of programs, spend tons of money and HOPE you get into that specialty. Most based on grades/board scores. If you wanna be a pediatric MD, its less competative. Id suggest looking into studentdoctor.net or .com whatever it is these days. Oh, and you have to do super well on the MCAT. It helps if your a spanish speaking jewish black woman whos family is super poor (just saying, they like diversity)

Good luck. Look into dentistry if you like sciences and working with your hands. Its great. And your not a slave to the system... MAAAAAAAAN.

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If you want to be a physician, then I would talk to your advisors at your school.

If you are already a sophomore, then adding an extra year to your studies might not be a bad idea.

The path to becoming a physician is LONG, and needs your best effort at every step.

It might not be a good idea to squeeze in the classes you need and study for the MCAT in the time you have left.

You DO NOT have to have a 4.0, and you DO NOT need a perfect score on the MCAT.

Do the best YOU can in school and the MCAT, volunteer and shadow and you'll do well!

Ryan

medicalschoolhq.net
 
If you're 'considering' going to med school, don't do it. Only enter a health profession if you are absolutely confident about your desire to help other people. Also people in college who are premed for money, I can smell you out, not cool kids.
 
The average med student will graduate with anywhere from 100,000-200,000 dollars in

debt from med school alone. The average residency pays 50k annually with no substantial raises. Mind you these residencies could be anywhere from

4-8 years which will require you to work anywhere from 70 to 120 hours

weekly... so unless if you are seriously into medicine and have a strong

desire to help people, doing it for the money will be a huge waste... go into law or business if you want money.

Here are a few general things I've come to learn throughout the past few

years in my pre-health track (I'm a junior undergrad applying in a

year):

-According to statistics, you are more likely to get rejected than accepted... around 60-70% of applicants don't get into med school

-Average matriculant cumulative gpa: 3.7-3.8

-Average matriculant science gpa: 3.6

-Average matriculant mcat: Low-Mid 30's

-Average matriculant clinical experience: 200-800 hrs

-Average matriculant volunteer experience: 100-?? hrs

-Average matriculants will have some type of research experience (around 70% I believe)

These are all AVERAGE statistics for allopathic med schools... don't let them scare you and don't try to look like a "cookie-cutter applicant" by simply checking all these off. Osteopathic med schools are more lenient with gpa/mcat/upward trends in grades so you can always look into those as well. Also, the average matriculation age for med students is now somewhere around the mid-20's. Less people are going straight into med school from undergrad. Take a year or two off after college and ski patrol at your dream resort and have the time of your life while doing something remarkable if you still need to "pad your resume". Your love for skiing is something that will give you an advantage in comparison to the few thousands of other applicants who simply have good grades, volunteer, research, and have some type of leadership position in their pre-med club that they just made up 2 weeks prior to applying to med school.

In the end, don't listen to anyone who discourages or doubts you... if you really want to go to med school you'll get there eventually. There are many different possible paths for getting into med school. I'm in a similar boat as you and probably not so far ahead of you in the process so if you want to talk about it just PM me and we can help each other out.
 
If anyone wants to I'll start up a cult where we can all help each other out and ask questions there rather than asking the general NS population... PM me if interested
 
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