Medical school?

Question

I want to go to Harvard's Medical school. so i'm gonna be finishing high school soon. i want to know if after high school do i have to go to some college and get a major/ phd something, then go to Harvard's medical school. also tell me if you anything about how i can get into harvard. like the couses to take and what to do that will help me out. also what's the mcat test about.

Answer 1

Before you finish high school, you need to have a long talk with your high school counselor, because you seem to have a somewhat limited view of how higher education works.

First of all, the order of degrees is associate's (a two-year degree you get at a community college), bachelor's (a four-year degree), master's (a one- or two-year degree you get after completing a bachelor's degree), and then a doctorate (including the Ph.D. and the M.D., these are degrees you get after your bachelor's degree which take a minimum of another three years beyond that).

If your eventual goal is medical school and the M.D.(Harvard or otherwise), you definitely need to go to the best college possible to get a bachelor's degree first. There are two ways of doing this. You can either go to a good 4-year college right away, particularly if you have been an outstanding student in high school and/or you have the money for four years of college, or you can go to a community college for two years, do really well, and then transfer to a 4-year college for the last two years after getting your associate's degree. You will probably want to major in something science-related, like biology, and some schools have pre-med majors, which you could join. That would give you all the classes you need to be eligible for medical school.

You do not need to get a master's or a Ph.D. or anything other than a bachelor's degree to get accepted to medical school, although you may find when you get there that some of your classmates have done so just because there were certain things they wanted to learn.

Just like in order to get into college, you need a combination of your high school GPA and the SAT exam score, your admission to medical school will be determined by the combination of your GPA in college and the MCAT exam score. It is a test which allegedly measures your aptitude for medical education, so it is a little more focused on things like math than other graduate school admissions tests, like the GRE, the GMAT, or the LSAT.

Now, please realize that while your goal is a very worthy one, it is very specific, which reduces your chances of success. It is like instead of saying that you want to some day be CEO of a major company, you say that you want to one day be CEO of Starbucks. There is only one Starbucks, and it only has one CEO at a time, while there are a lot of CEOs out there at any given time. Clearly, your chances of succeeding are greater the broader your goal. Similarly, I would say that you have a great chance of getting into medical school some day, if you make good choices and work hard. Harvard, however, is only one of many good medical schools, and it only admits a few students a year. I would say that you might instead say that your goal is to get into medical school, you are aiming at the best school possible, and your dream would be to go to Harvard Medical School. That way, you won't have failed if you don't get into Harvard for whatever reason, and you can still do extremely well if you end up at Yale, Columbia, UCLA, or any of the dozens of excellent schools out there.

Good luck!

Answer 2

The Committee on Admissions evaluates applications based on many factors. Just go to the following website...it tells you all you need to know about requirements including courses etc.
http://hms.harvard.edu/admissions/default.asp?page=application

The MCAT is The Medical College Admission Test which is required by all medical schools. The evaluation of grades alone is not helpful in selecting students. Thus, the MCAT is designed to help the admissions committee determine who is best suited for medical school. The American Association of Medical Colleges administers the test once in April and once in August. A whole day is spent at the testing center with an average of 9 ½ hours. In order to take the MCAT, a fee of $200.00 is required. Based on specific criteria, some students may be eligible for a fee reduction or waiver through the AAMC Fee Assistance Program.

The MCAT is divided in to four sections:

Biological Sciences: 77 questions in Biology & Organic Chemistry – 100 minutes
Physical Sciences: 77 questions in Physics & Inorganic Chemistry – 100 minutes
Verbal Reasoning: 65 questions – 85 minutes
Writing: 2 essays – 60 minutes

And to find out about MCAT, general requirements and college majors check out:
http://www.princetonreview.com/college/research/articles/prepare/hsPathMed.asp

Answer 3

Depending on the medical school, you may not have to finish a bachelor's degree. Some med schools in Canada and the States do not require a Bachelor degree, but just certain courses.

I'm just curious when you are going to be graduating? Because I think you need to do much more research on what it takes to become a doctor especially if you want to go to a prestigious institution like Harvard Med school.

Answer 4

Yes, you need a 4-year college degree before you can apply to medical school. That Bachelors' degree can be in anything, but you need to pass the MCATs before applying to medical school, so most people major in bio and chem. Talk to advisors at your college; they will tell you what most pre-med students do.

Harvard isn't the best medical school in the country (Johns Hopkins is), but it's still a good one - keep other schools in mind, especially when you try to figure out what your specailty will be.

As for getting in, take the required courses, do fantastic on the MCATs and GREs, and spend your summers working at hospitals. Good luck!

Answer 5

Yes. 1. Get a GED. 2. Go to community college. 3. Get a high GPA in community college and transfer to a 4 year university. 4. Do good in that 4 year university (get a high GPA, aim for 3.7 or above) 5. Take the MCAT and score high on it. 6. Apply to as many med schools as you can. If you can get yourself together and get good grades from now on then you still have hope. Many people have done it this way as well, don't listen to some of the morons on here.