How do you get into medical school?

Question

I know that pre-med major get you general chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, and physics with calculus. But besides grades(GPA) and MCAT scores and volunterring in the hospital in summer, that's pretty much it right? or is there more to do to get into medical school. If you have high GPA say 3.7 and MCAT scores of 10 in each section and some voulunterring hours, its good enough to go to say UCLA med school?

Answer 1

The short answer is to look at profiles of applicants on www.mdapplicants.com to see what you're up against.

The long answer is this:

Take any major you want, even if it's not science. Just do it because you were interested in it, not because you thought it would look good. Medical school admission committees (hereafter known as adcoms) have been analyzing people/intents for a long time and it will be immediately obvious from your tone/enthusiasm that you really didn't care about something like biochemistry.

Volunteering in medical setting and shadowing doctors is absolutely crucial to demonstrate 1) your genuine interest in the medical field and 2) you've been exposed to "real world" medicine instead of just what you saw on "Grey's Anatomy". When you volunteer, aim for patient contact and try to ensure consistency -- the fact that you volunteered once three years ago for a month isn't going to impress anybody.

Leadership positions are very helpful. They're even better if you started up something where there was a genuine need for it (read that as: don't start up a pre-professional club when there is already a pre-med club in existence).

Something not often recommended to people is to do something non-medical, especially if you have interests in art. A lot of people have found that the non-general aspects of their applications come up -- for instance, if you worked for a ski patrol or played in a rock band or ran a catering business.

I would advise against volunteering in Africa because your intention is pretty transparent. I know a lot of people think these are easy tickets into medical school, but they just make it look like you went out of your way to do something you probably didn't even care about.

A couple last things:

1) Look into osteopathic medicine (DO medical schools) and have an understanding of the similarities/differences between DO/MD (hint: there are very very few actual differences)
2) The UC system of medical schools -- UCLA, UCSF, etc -- are very difficult to get into because there are a lot of qualified candidates in California. Look into getting an MSAR, a book published every year that includes the average GPA/MCAT of applicants to every MD school in the US. That will give you some idea of what numbers you'll need to have for UCLA.
3) www.studentdoctor.net is the number one resource for premed information. If you have questions, they'll be better answered there than here... here you'll get a mixture of good responses and blatant misinformation like "I don't know but I've heard that UCLA medical school is easy to get into" (it's not).

Good luck!

Answer 2

Most medical students acquire a lot of debt through medical school (student loans). Scholarships can help with this, reducing the debt you'll have to pay later. You will want to improve your GPA, believe it or not. The courses you specified are correct, and you need to add human anatomy. This is a very tough field of study, so get yourself prepared with a good study schedule. Also your school should have a good counselor who should be able to point to other things you need. From what you say, he should be more than willing, eager even, to help you. I hope you make it. I like your goal. We need more people like you.

Answer 3

did you get a 30 on the MCAT?? IF so that is very good. But please add it to your question. Anyway, if you do get the 30, you should be in even without volunteer stuff.

Answer 4

Some schools want a 3.9. Some schools may want an essay.

Answer 5

you can definitely get into a med school with those numbers. top med schools are fiercely competitive though