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Science Education and Careers
STEM Career Guidance
Chemistry, material science, and med school
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[QUOTE="DrSteve, post: 5534412, member: 590671"] I work with students applying to MD and MD/PHD programs. It is an incredibly competitive process, especially for the top schools. Most med schools are looking for applicants who are unequivocal about going to med school, not considering it as an one of many attractive possibilities, nor a back up plan. Med schools love traditional students - you want to avoid any action that lowers your chance of an interview. Any old major will serve you when applying to med school, as long as you meet the course requirements, so your rationale for switching won't hold water with the admissions committee. If the switch of majors adds more time to your schooling, all the worse - successful applicants graduate in 3 or 4 years, no more. Anything that extends it beyond 4 years becomes part of a complicated story that the committee just doesn't have to deal with - the next application on the pile won't have these complications. Good med schools are looking for a 3.8 GPA, for starters. So, if by this point you cannot complete all the premed requirements in 4 years you're already at a disadvantage. Med school applications also require that you list 15 activities, and ask that you explain how these activities have shaped you to excel in the medical profession. Many applicants have started accumulating these activities starting in high school. Then you'll be asked to pick 2-3 of these essays and elaborate on how they prepare you to be an educator, researcher and clinician. These activities are almost always in the form of medical research or clinical shadowing. To show commitment toward the medical profession, often applicants will have put in 500+ hours shadowing, and in some cases much more. On top of that add plenty of experience as a volunteer feeding the needy, working on HIV clinics, delivering meals to the elderly and so forth. Then there's the MCAT, which you should be taking sometime during your junior (this) year. To quote "If you take the MCAT during your senior year, then you have decided to take a year off before going to med school. You need to take the MCAT during your junior year or early in the summer after your junior year in order to be competitive for applying for direct entry after college." ([URL]http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/mcat-in-junior-year-or-senior-year.661352/[/URL]). Again, you don't want to be a non-traditional applicant by taking a gap year, unless it's extremely well motivated. You have to not only already have had the material that will be covered on the MCAT, but you need to study for, it too. A score of 513 or so put you in the 70% percentile, which is a minimum score for top programs. Your personal essay must make the case that you want to be a doctor more than anything in the world, in fact, it's all you ever wanted to do. You have the proper motivating factors (e.g., I watched as my Dad recovered from triple bypass surgery when I was 7), requisite volunteer, shadowing and research experience and you'll bring something unique to the medical profession (you live in a small town in North Dakota and want to stay there after your MD). You know what kind of doctor you want to become, and also understand that anesthesiology requires another 4 years of residency, and perhaps even more. You are aware that med school will cost you upwards of $300K and that you'll be paid poorly during your residency. I'm going to say that it's probably too late to apply as a traditional med student for the reasons I described above. There are certainly other paths to getting into med school, say as a non-traditional student, but that's for another day. [/QUOTE]
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