All Aspiring Doctors: How are you preparing for med-school?

[white_widow]

I still have about two years of undergraduate pre-med to cover, but I'm an aspiring doctor (Internal Medicine/ID) and I've recently started shadowing at a local PCP/Endocrinologist office. I'm finding the experience remarkably interesting and helpful. I'm learning things much more intuitively than in the lecture hall, and I get serious hands-on exposure, and expert information from a guy who's been doing it for a couple of decades. Absolutely brilliant.

So far, everything is going swimmingly, but I was wondering if anyone else has found these pre-clinical experiences useful, or if it's turned anyone away from the practice. I've heard both sides and I'm interested in the feedback.

 

[Jerry Atrick]

I've never studied medicine, but one of my old roommates from college was a senior pre-med student when I lived with him, so I observed his study habits and we talked a lot about our futures.

Anyways, I think that any research or internships you can participate in outside the regular classroom would only benefit you in getting into med school. You will need to submit a CV/resume with your applications and it will look good that you have experience in your field. Not only that, but the experience itself should prove beneficial as you won't necessarily be a newbie when you begin doing these things in med school.

On the flip-side of that coin, if those experiences were to cause someone to turn away from the profession, better to find out early as an undergrad than to find out when you're already waist deep in it.

 

[scureto1]

I was first a pre-pharmacy student, and spent about a year working as a pharmacy technician for the dual purposes of getting a taste of the field and boosting my pharmacy school application. The result of that job was me changing tracks to pre-med - I liked the science and education behind pharmacy, but I hated the environment of working in a retail pharmacy but was not willing to limit my job options to only hospital pharmacies.

As far as med school prep, I spent 9 years in the national guard as a medic, 10 months of which were a deployment in which I worked in a clinic. That gave me lots of opportunities for a pretty wide variety of care - got to do screening of patients, physical exams, simple procedures, and assist the physicians and PA's with more complicated procedures. It really gave a lot of opportunity to get hands-on experience I could not have gotten as a civilian without taking an entirely different educational track.

I am in my super-senior undergraduate year, I'll be graduating after the fall 2010 semester and I'm applying to med school for the fall 2011 starting class. I'm in the middle of preparing for the MCAT now, using a Kaplan study book and full-length practice tests. I also did one semester (around 100 hours) as a research assistant in an organic/medicinal chemistry lab.

 

[MaW]

Nice post

and good luck into getting into med-school!

 

[onmyway]

MCAT MCAT MCAT!!!!

get a kaplan review book and study the relevant sections while you take the prereqs.

MCAT thinking is different from class in the sense that you must quickly recognize relationships and figure out how to apply basic concepts. learning to think like that will make all the sciences much easier and you will retain the important concepts better.


besides that, get as much clinical experience as you can.

shoot for a 30 mcat and at least a 3.5 gpa with great letters and great clinical experience. success story: i had a 3.3 gpa but made up for it with outstanding letters and experiences. but, i did not make the gpa cutoff for some schools so they never even looked at my app. i did get into several schools though because i rocked the interview. once you get the interview, they are looking at the whole person not just grades.

 

[Missykins]

MCATS sucked. Studying for them while you take the class is a really good idea. Here's my advice (I am in the profession):

1. Take more science classes than you need.

2. Shadowing/interning with a doctor is a good idea but you need have some research experience so reach out to one of your professors for a project. A lot of the med school curriculum is research-driven, so it's important to understand the scientific method, reading the primary literature, etc.

3. Charitable organizations--volunteer for something that's not necessarily related to medicine.

4. Grades of course.

Good luck and get ready for a long haul!