Medical School Advice

[jinp6301]

Its my junior year of college and I've been thinking of either grad school for biomedical engineering (which is what my major is right now) or medical school. In terms of requirements, I'm pretty set in either direction, but I need to study for the MCATs if I decide to apply for med school. I'm pretty set for GREs. I'm not fantastic in bio but I'm decent enough to scrounge a B+ in it

So if youve been to med school (ojnihs, deepak) and can give me some advice, or if you know any awesome doctor jokes, please post them

[ojnihs]

i guess the first order of business is to figure out if you really, really want to go to medical school or not. it's definitely a long haul, and i don't want you to jump head first into something unless you're sure that you want to do it. i had a friend who went through med school and was on his last year of residency before dropping out because he realized he didn't want to do it. it's an awful waste of time if you aren't committed to it.

[ojnihs]

also, if you want to go right out of college, you better sign up for the MCATs now, but I suggest having ample time to study for it.

[jinp6301]

Yea, I have to register really soon.

From looking at MCAT books, I'm pretty much set for everything except the bio part.

[ojnihs]

From looking at MCAT books, I'm pretty much set for everything except the bio part.

that's a great sign, although i found that concrete knowledge wasn't everything that you need on the MCAT. that test is a tricky bitch just waiting to pounce on you. my suggestion is to take as many practice tests as you can take, that helped me way more than any of those books did.

[jinp6301]

Yea, I'm going to B&N to buy some practice test books tomorrow.

How are you liking med school?

[deepak]

I did a six year accelerated program out of high school so most of my info won't be that relevant. But my sister is applying this year and I talk to her quite a bit.

I suppose key pieces of info:

AAMC calculates your GPA in two parts:

-science GPA

-regular GPA

Science GPA is pretty important and I believe the minimum at most schools is a 3.5. But that will vary depending on where you went to school, ie if you went to a competitive school the med school you're applying to will be a bit more lenient (since it's obviously harder to get better grades). If you have time you can fluff up your science GPA with side research, etc.

The highly competitive schools don't do rolling admission. The SUNY schools do rolling admission so it's best to apply as early as possible.

It's a ton of work applying and getting in; it is a super competitive field. Be prepared.

[deepak]

And my sister is going the Kaplan MCAT program right now, she says it's exceptional but it's pretty hard to fit in all their homework with her school work. Kaplan assigns about 3-4 hours of homework a night, but otherwise she finds it really beneficial.

[ojnihs]

How are you liking med school?

this place is stealing my soul man. it's a ton of work, but i love every minute of it. i think part of it is because i know for a fact that this is what i want to do. some of my buddies here aren't so happy, since they didn't technically get into it because of their desire, but more for the monetary reasons. to each his own though.

And my sister is going the Kaplan MCAT program right now, she says it's exceptional but it's pretty hard to fit in all their homework with her school work. Kaplan assigns about 3-4 hours of homework a night, but otherwise she finds it really beneficial.

the thing about kaplan is that it's heavily dependent on the teacher that you have. i had an absolutely shitty teacher, who happened to be doing the M.D., Ph. D. program at Feinberg, so I knew he was smart, but hell, an awful teacher. i basically paid all that money and never really attended class. so i didn't find it all that worthwhile, but again, YMMV.

Science GPA is pretty important and I believe the minimum at most schools is a 3.5. But that will vary depending on where you went to school, ie if you went to a competitive school the med school you're applying to will be a bit more lenient (since it's obviously harder to get better grades). If you have time you can fluff up your science GPA with side research, etc.

i agree with deepak. my regular gpa wasn't all that great, since i chose a major that i enjoyed, but wasn't good at (economics). i was going to switch majors during my junior year, but decided against it, since i was already chest-deep in the major and decided that the extra work wasn't worth it. my science gpa, however, was high, and was what was actually keeping my gpa where it was, since econ was dragging it down. i also did a lot of research, mostly in the field of nephrology, and got a ton of good recommendations from the doctors that i worked under.

gpa isn't everything for med school. to be honest, they make a bigger deal out of it than it really is. i know people who get into med school with 3.0 gpas, but they have other things to supplement it. the doctor that i worked under was a D.O., but world renowned for his research. he basically said that getting into med school is almost luck, because one thing doesn't really factor more than the other. it's everything put together that gets you in. gpa and mcat score isn't everything.

[jinp6301]

I did a six year accelerated program out of high school so most of my info won't be that relevant. But my sister is applying this year and I talk to her quite a bit.

I suppose key pieces of info:

AAMC calculates your GPA in two parts:

-science GPA

-regular GPA

Science GPA is pretty important and I believe the minimum at most schools is a 3.5. But that will vary depending on where you went to school, ie if you went to a competitive school the med school you're applying to will be a bit more lenient (since it's obviously harder to get better grades). If you have time you can fluff up your science GPA with side research, etc.

The highly competitive schools don't do rolling admission. The SUNY schools do rolling admission so it's best to apply as early as possible.

It's a ton of work applying and getting in; it is a super competitive field. Be prepared.

And my sister is going the Kaplan MCAT program right now, she says it's exceptional but it's pretty hard to fit in all their homework with her school work. Kaplan assigns about 3-4 hours of homework a night, but otherwise she finds it really beneficial.

Yea, I've been looking into the requirements for the semi-competitive schools and I make the cut (barely). I've been looking into the Kaplan courses as well. I'm taking the free practice test in a couple of weeks so I'll see how that works out.

or I'll be a t-shirt printer and look down on doctors

[jinp6301]

this place is stealing my soul man. it's a ton of work, but i love every minute of it. i think part of it is because i know for a fact that this is what i want to do. some of my buddies here aren't so happy, since they didn't technically get into it because of their desire, but more for the monetary reasons. to each his own though.

This is basically my problem. I have no idea if I want to do this for a living. I'm just wishy washy about this type of stuff

[deepak]

the thing about kaplan is that it's heavily dependent on the teacher that you have. i had an absolutely shitty teacher, who happened to be doing the M.D., Ph. D. program at Feinberg, so I knew he was smart, but hell, an awful teacher. i basically paid all that money and never really attended class. so i didn't find it all that worthwhile, but again, YMMV.

Yeah she's taking it at the Weill Cornell campus in NYC so she says her teachers are good for the most part.

[ojnihs]

This is basically my problem. I have no idea if I want to do this for a living. I'm just wishy washy about this type of stuff

yeah i hear you. like i said though, if you really want to do it, i say go for it for sure. i have a friend, graduated from a top liberal arts college with a 3.2 gpa. took 1 year off to teach english in korea. then did post-bac at columbia. got a 30 mcat. got into 6 medical schools. she got in, and she acknowledges this, more from the fact that she was able to convince medical schools that this is what she really wanted to do, rather than from her credentials. i think that's the most important thing you have to show to medical schools.

[ojnihs]

i agree with deepak. my regular gpa wasn't all that great, since i chose a major that i enjoyed, but wasn't good at (economics). i was going to switch majors during my junior year, but decided against it, since i was already chest-deep in the major and decided that the extra work wasn't worth it. my science gpa, however, was high, and was what was actually keeping my gpa where it was, since econ was dragging it down. i also did a lot of research, mostly in the field of nephrology, and got a ton of good recommendations from the doctors that i worked under.

gpa isn't everything for med school. to be honest, they make a bigger deal out of it than it really is. i know people who get into med school with 3.0 gpas, but they have other things to supplement it. the doctor that i worked under was a D.O., but world renowned for his research. he basically said that getting into med school is almost luck, because one thing doesn't really factor more than the other. it's everything put together that gets you in. gpa and mcat score isn't everything.

damn i agreed, then kinda disagreed with you there. my bad deepak. should have been two different points.

[jinp6301]

gpa isn't everything for med school. to be honest, they make a bigger deal out of it than it really is. i know people who get into med school with 3.0 gpas, but they have other things to supplement it. the doctor that i worked under was a D.O., but world renowned for his research. he basically said that getting into med school is almost luck, because one thing doesn't really factor more than the other. it's everything put together that gets you in. gpa and mcat score isn't everything.

Hmm, well my bio GPA isint that good but my physics GPA is pretty damn high so it kinda evens out

[deepak]

damn i agreed, then kinda disagreed with you there. my bad deepak. should have been two different points.

No worries I know what you're saying.

My experience with med school:

Some of the best times of my life and some of the worst times of my life. Worst four or five week stretch was when I started a really intensive surgery rotation. I was getting about four hours of sleep a night, had about an hour commute on the bus, and had to study at the same time. And one week I had to give a presentation to the rest of our class, so that meant knowing a topic inside out. I was basically tearing my hair out to manage a patient load, study for exams, and stay sane. Not very easy when you're thrown right into it, and there isn't a very good support structure setup at our school for that sort of thing; you're pretty much relying on your friends.

Best times were when I got the hang of clinical medicine and everything sort of clicked. You walk into a patient's room and can form a definitive differential diagnosis and be confident about it based off a 10 minute history and physical exam. It's one of the best feelings in the world when that happens. Most people will adjust to the unstructured schedule of hospital life. I definitely think I changed a lot in those two years.

But yeah it sort of does steal your soul. No body really does anything other than study, study, study and then just wind down with what little free time you get. So I'd say you need to have the work ethic otherwise it's going to be a pain in the ass. But the other good thing is there are a ton of career paths open to you once you finish. You can pretty much get a job doing as little or as much work as you want. You can practice clinical medicine, do clinical medicine and clinical research, just research, if you get an MBA (there are MBA/MD two year programs and aren't that hard to get into once you finish med school) you can do hospital administration or something similar, you can go to law school afterwards and do med law, etc.

Lastly I don't know how good this website is for premed, but it was a great source of info during med school and for residency information: http://forums.studentdoctor.net

Good luck man, if you decide to do it you'll have the pleasure of working and collaborating with some of the most brilliant people in the world

[deepak]

This is basically my problem. I have no idea if I want to do this for a living. I'm just wishy washy about this type of stuff

You can't be wishy washy about this kinda stuff

Don't do it for the wrong reasons. Though most of my class enjoyed it and are pretty much doing academic or some form of clinical medicine a few people decided that it wasn't for them and are either doing side branches of medicine or thinking about starting something else.

[jinp6301]

The thing is that I'm pretty sure I'll be going into a medical field even if I decide to stay with bioengineering, but if I decide to stay with engineering, theres much less human contact and if I stay with med school, its much more work, even though its more rewarding.

and my roommate is a pre-dental senior, so he's always at the student doctor forums. I've looked at the site a couple of times before, its pretty informative for premeds.

I've talked to my advisor, who's a MD and electrical and bioengineer, and she basically told me the same thing you guys told me. Just make sure you want to be a doctor before you jump into med school.

[JBLoudG20]

but if I decide to stay with engineering

[ojnihs]

But yeah it sort of does steal your soul. No body really does anything other than study, study, study and then just wind down with what little free time you get. So I'd say you need to have the work ethic otherwise it's going to be a pain in the ass.

that's all i do, study. i study best if i take short breaks here and there, and that's when i get my head-caseing done, but other than that, i can't say i've had that much free time. ug.

The thing is that I'm pretty sure I'll be going into a medical field even if I decide to stay with bioengineering, but if I decide to stay with engineering, theres much less human contact and if I stay with med school, its much more work, even though its more rewarding.

i had a few friends at Northwestern who were biomedical engineers. i think only one out of the 6 decided on med school, but he was the one guy out of them who i thought shouldn't be a doctor. basically think of a human robot and you can picture him. calculates everything he wants to say before he says it and does everything mechanically. extremely socially awkward obviously because it takes him 2-3 minutes to respond to something you say to him and his answer basically makes you go, "what the fuck?" anyway, he went into it for the money, which shouldn't be your number 1 reason, and i just can't imagine him speaking to patients in the future.

anyway, i'm just trying to reiterate deepak's point:

You can't be wishy washy about this kinda stuff

Don't do it for the wrong reasons. Though most of my class enjoyed it and are pretty much doing academic or some form of clinical medicine a few people decided that it wasn't for them and are either doing side branches of medicine or thinking about starting something else.

[jinp6301]

i had a few friends at Northwestern who were biomedical engineers. i think only one out of the 6 decided on med school, but he was the one guy out of them who i thought shouldn't be a doctor. basically think of a human robot and you can picture him. calculates everything he wants to say before he says it and does everything mechanically. extremely socially awkward obviously because it takes him 2-3 minutes to respond to something you say to him and his answer basically makes you go, "what the fuck?" anyway, he went into it for the money, which shouldn't be your number 1 reason, and i just can't imagine him speaking to patients in the future.

heh, i'm not like that at all.

[luvdunhill]

post-bac at columbia.

I have nothing to add to this thread, other than a for Columbia

[ojnihs]

I have nothing to add to this thread, other than a for Columbia

you go there?

[postjack]

When I applied to medical school, I was like, shut the f up and let me in this bitch and i'll cut fools open for surgery and shit and they was like damn holla pj

[ojnihs]

When I applied to medical school, I was like, shut the f up and let me in this bitch and i'll cut fools open for surgery and shit and they was like damn holla pj