What can you do to maximize your chance when you're pre-med?

Question

Hi. I am a sophmore in a chemical engineering program. I am also pre-med and taking courses that work toward medical school. I want to do chemical engineering because it is a practical major and I'm not 100% sure that I want to be a doctor. My question is: what should I focus on outside of classroom if I what to go to med school? Volunteering at hospitals, doing community service? Should I be getting an internship as an engineer for summers? I know med schools look at various experiences, but I would like to know what I can do to maximize my chances of becoming a doctor.

I actually volunteered in a hospital pharmacy over the summer; there wasn't too much patient contact or doctor contact though. But I understand there is only limited amount of extracurriculum activities I can do. I plan to spend my time on books, a community service club, a medical-related job (either volunteer or some lab involving biomed engineering, since chemical engineering is pretty versatile), and martial arts (gotta have fun and be balanced, right?). I guess my other question is: many companies and organizations emphasize the importance of leadership, and as a pre-med undergrad, should I focus on the activities that give me more of a leadership role, or more of a medical experience?

Answer 1

If you really want to get into medical school, obviously make sure you take the right courses, keep up your grades, that sort of thing. Get involved in extracurricular activites as much as you can (you don't have to be super-involved -- pick something you really enjoy or care about and really make a difference). And, yes, volunteer in a hospital, or somewhere similar like a hospice. This is an absolute must because they want people who know what they are getting into. I would say it's an absolute must for you as well, since you admitted that you're not entirely sure if you want to be a doctor ot not. There are a lot of programs out there now where you don't have to be a typical volunteer if you're aiming to go to medical school -- you can instead shadow doctors directly, watch them as they work, observe surgeries. Any volunteer work is good, but it's better to be around actual doctors and see what you're doing instead of bringing patients their meals and changing beds.

However, since you did say that you aren't sure that you want to go to medical school, I would definitely recommend doing an internship in chemical engineering at some point in your college career. You're only a sophomore, so if you don't have time to do hospital volunteering, you could do it this summer, and you could even try to juggle it with an internship depending on how rigid it is. Or you could wait to do an internship until after your junior year.

In any case, you never know what might happen. You might start volunteering at a hospital and realize for sure that it's what you want to do. Or you might like some things and dislike others, and still be undecided. In which case an internship would help tremendously. Perhaps you'll end up loving the work in the chemical engineering field and decide to forgo medical school, or perhaps you'll hate it and realize that you do want to be a doctor.

The bottom line is this: keep up with what you'd need to do to get into medical school, which is basically keeping your grades up and taking the right prerequisites, getting involved, and volunteering in a hospital or medical setting. At the same time, explore all of your option, before you never know when you might find something you enjoy even more.

Answer 2

Volunteering in the Pharmacy was a waste of time for you.....even if you were trying to get into Pharmacy, instead of Med school. My suggestion is to use your engineering know-how to improve things in your community. Habitat for Humanity is one that isn't a big damn waste of time. The med schools will look at that as genuine.