My chance for med school?

Question

I am currently 16(turning 17 in december) and Im entering into 12th grade in September. I started volunteering and doing patient care work at a private hospital. I am just wondering whether I am volunteering early and doing a really good thing for medical school. What else should I do to be assured that I will get into med school when I apply in my senior year of college. Also, would I really stand out against all the other medical school candidates seeing that I am volunteering when i am only 16? Thanks!

Answer 1

The volunteer work is nice, but overall it is going to have very little effect on you getting into med school.  Med school is where the best of the best go...what's your GPA and SAT or ACT scores?  If they don't place you at the top of your class you probably won't get in to med school

Answer 2

worry about college, they dont even look at high school transcripts. do volunteer work in college and do well in your classes.

Answer 3

All they will care about at most med schools is your college GPA and MCAT score. If you want a top med school like Harvard or JHU, then internships in college doing medical research will really help.

Answer 4

Despite what the above people say, its never to late to start volunteering.

It shows a trend from a very early age towards the medical field.

And you are very smart for asking these questions now as opposed to later.

Basically to get into med school you need the following:

A BA/BS degree and the American Medical Association pre-reqs:

1 yr bio,phys, chem, Ochem, w/lab and 1 yr calc and stats.  Alot of people do a bio degree or soemthing science related.

But I also know philosophy and history majors who got in as well.

Also you need great letters of Rec., Experience in a hospital (find a training hospital and shadow or volunteer there)  and volunteer in school organizations.

Also you need MCAT scores of 40 and above and a 3.5-3.8 GPA for M.D. programs

You can apply to D.O programs as well and they accept lower GPA's and MCAT scores.

Most people take MCAT classes at KAplan or wherever to help improve their score.

When you apply to med school, apply to 10.  You only need to get into 1.  If you don't get in then go to an AMA approved post-bach school and apply the following year to DO or MD schools and you will probably get in.

Med school is 2 yrs bookwork and 2 yrs of hellish rotations of 60-90hr work weeks in some nasty environments.  You will seriously want to quit.  Then after that its 3-7 yrs in residency depending on your specialty.  

Med school will pay for your housig so you wont have to work unless you want to. This is done through loans.

In residency you will make between 40-65k a year and work alot of hours.  Then after residency your pay increases alot but you still work alot of hours.

Its a demanding job and I advise everyone to seriously consider this path.

Some people choose to go into pharmacy for the better hours and very generous pay.

Whatever you do make sure you keep the grades up.

Visit the studentdocnetwork online (google it) and go the the forums for detailed answers

good luck!