Getting into Medical School
Jul 25 '00 (Updated Aug 06 '00)
Unless you have a 4.0 GPA from Harvard, a 45 on your MCAT and 3 research articles published under your name as lead author in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, chances are that you need a solid organized action plan to get you through the rigorous process of getting into medical school.
Before you read any further, consider reality. I remember that when I was just another clueless freshman back in those good old undergraduate days taking Bio 1010, just about everyone in my class of 800 expressed a desire to get into medical school. However, by the time I was taking Cell Biology 3103, the number of students in my class had dwindled to 105 and perhaps twenty were actively applying to medical school. What happened there? Its just simple math. Someone has to get the A's and B's while others have to get the C's. Fact #1: Unless you are of Native American, Mexican or African American descent, you MUST have a 3.4 bare minimum GPA to even think of getting in. Fact #2: You also MUST have a 27 on your MCAT. As the student representative at my medical school's application process, I know that all other applications are disregarded.
So what do you have to do to separate yourself from the rest? First, be like the rest. Study hard, fight for your grades and never be satisfied with a "B". In my undergraduate education, I had just one "B" and yet I was asked "what caused me to do poorly in that class" in at least 5 of the 20 interviews to medical schools that I went to. Your college GPA is perhaps the single most determinative factor in getting into medical school. Don't simply major in Biology either. You will not get the opportunity to be an undergraduate student again so make the most of it. Otherwise, maybe you might be like the couple of students in my first year medical school class who dropped out deciding it just was not for them. Explore yourself and find out if you like History, English, Art, Anthropology or even, God forbid, Law :) Medical Schools like accepting well rounded individuals with different interests rather than someone with a science only one-track mind. You really need a little creativity, imagination and common sense to get through medical school, and courses in undergraduate Biology do not sufficiently arouse that area of your brain, in my opinion.
Secondly, make sure that your preparation for the MCAT is thorough and organized. It is actually a good idea to take courses like Physics or Organic Chemistry while studying for the MCAT because those sections will be easier while you are actually studying them rather than if you take the MCAT a year after you've taken those courses. There are some useful review books as well with questions. Everyone has their own method of studying but in general, do as many questions as possible. Once you do the questions, don't just relax if you got a question right but read through that topic quickly and make sure that your thinking process when you answered the question was correct. That is, make sure that you got the question "right" for the right reasons. If you get questions wrong, use the same process and go through the available answers and using a textbook, determine why all the "wrong" choices are indeed wrong and why the "correct" choice is correct.
Third, show your desire to work in the health care sector. Volunteer in a hospital and/or apply for a summer or co-op job in a medical research center. You don't have to being doing "medical stuff"; it's just the desire to be in that environment that medical schools look for.
Finally, and perhaps what separates the men from the boys are the actual medical school application process and the interviews. Remember that work ethic, desire, organization and common sense are the most important factors, with intelligence coming in a distant fifth. Write your application essay with feeling and individuality. And remember that plagiarized text is treated in the same manner that Epinions treat it. Who are your heroes, and why? Include that low point in your life where you thought everything was turning sour. Write about what helped turn things around. Explain why medicine and yourself are a perfect fit. If you like, describe what you would like to see yourself doing, if you could wave a magic wand and "fast-forward" life to a point ten years from today. Indicate also why you would like to receive your medical education from that particular university. When at the interview, be confident but not arrogant, dress elegantly but not extravagantly, and try to act intelligent and hard-working (hopefully, your true persona). Never show that you are trying to hide something by avoiding a question. Be as direct and concise as possible and always look your interviewer in the eyes with a hint of a smile on your face but dont stare obviously :) Different medical schools ask a range of questions. Some will ask about your undergraduate experiences, i.e.- your grades, courses, recommendation letters, volunteering at the hospital, etc. They might ask why you got "bad" grades in a certain subject or maybe they might ask what you liked most about volunteering at the hospital. Other schools will ask about your feelings regarding medicine. That ever famous question, "Why do you want to become a doctor" comes to mind. Avoid common cliches such as "I want to help people" and try to be as specific as possible. For example, you could state that while volunteering at the hospital you were always curious as to the different medications taken by different patients and their effects. Or you could say that your dad/uncle/brother is a physician and you were always digging in their medical textbooks when you were a kid and wondering if you had a particular syndrome or not! These are just a couple examples of how to be more specific in answering questions.
Finally, submit your application EARLY. I'm sure the reasons why to do so are obvious.
For any college freshmen thinking about medical school and reading this, before you go any further KNOW YOURSELF. Are you prepared to motivate yourself enough to be a disciplined student throughout the rest of your life? And yes, that is correct, the rest of your life. Studying, for a physician, does not stop after your undergraduate years. Medical School is even more arduous; residency after that is a trying experience for just about anyone; and even after that you continually have to keep up with the latest advances in prescription medications and surgical procedures to better serve your patients. Yes, there is more money than other service sector jobs but the hard work required to get there needs more than a simple desire for the money. You must want that feeling, of wanting to read and learn more about medicine, and tending to patients. When you go to the bookstore, is your "first stop", the fiction, sports or fashion section, or is it the medical section? Perhaps the answer lies there ...
Good luck to everyone!
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