Choosing undergrad with med school in mind

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of kids who start out at CC get into med school. I wouldn't obsess over this. She should pick the right school for her based on whatever else is important to her, and then get the highest grades possible, especially in the science pre-reqs. She should make sure to take the classes that will help her with the MCAT (people forget that physics in on there). And she will want to get experience that shows her interest in medicine -- whatever that might look like for her as far as her interests and what opportunities are available. That experience could be a fancy internship in a lab doing cutting edge research on cancer, it could be learning about compassion while working long shifts as a CNA in a nursing home, it could be assisting on investigations for a medical examiner's office, it could be working as an EMT when home from school during summers (if you are in a rural area, that's great, an urban area, great, a suburban one, great -- learning opportunities everywhere there). Or whatever.

Community college classes are often not held in same regard as four-year college classes for medical schools.

Please see advice of medical school deans on this, not sure why DCUm has so many armchair experts who know nothing about the process:

https://www.prospectivedoctor.com/can-i-apply-to-medical-school-straight-from-community-college/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of kids who start out at CC get into med school. I wouldn't obsess over this. She should pick the right school for her based on whatever else is important to her, and then get the highest grades possible, especially in the science pre-reqs. She should make sure to take the classes that will help her with the MCAT (people forget that physics in on there). And she will want to get experience that shows her interest in medicine -- whatever that might look like for her as far as her interests and what opportunities are available. That experience could be a fancy internship in a lab doing cutting edge research on cancer, it could be learning about compassion while working long shifts as a CNA in a nursing home, it could be assisting on investigations for a medical examiner's office, it could be working as an EMT when home from school during summers (if you are in a rural area, that's great, an urban area, great, a suburban one, great -- learning opportunities everywhere there). Or whatever.

Community college classes are often not held in same regard as four-year college classes for medical schools.

Please see advice of medical school deans on this, not sure why DCUm has so many armchair experts who know nothing about the process:

https://www.prospectivedoctor.com/can-i-apply-to-medical-school-straight-from-community-college/

PP here. First, I work in a med school with med students -- I'm not an "armchair expert." I know plenty "about the process." And I have had many (very successful) students who attended community college for their first two years of undergrad.

Did you even read that stupid "article" you link to? It does not say what you think it does. It is a clickbait POS that makes zero sense -- it suggests that students consider transferring to a 4 year college rather than applying to med school from CC. Well of course one would transfer to a 4yr college/uni before applying to med school. No one applies to med school from CC. You can't do that. It's a 2 year degree. That's obvious. That article is stupid. It's telling people not to apply to med school from CC, which is something you can't do anyway. And that article was not written by "medical school deans." The video placed there does feature deans discussing the issue -- including one that I know personally (the dean at USUHS) -- and the dean who discusses the issue very specifically says that starting out a CC and then transferring to a 4-yr is "looked at no differently than if someone spent all 4 years at a 4 year university."

So stop spreading nonsense and misinformation. In fact I will quote you back to you: "not sure why DCUm has so many armchair experts who know nothing about the process"...

[Anonymous]

I don’t hear much about this - state residency. If you are determined your kids need to go to medical school, move to Alaska or few other midwestern states. Their in state heavily prefer in state kids for medical school. They want their rural areas to have primary care doctors.

[Anonymous]

^This…. My DD attended NVCC for two years and transferred to GMU for her BS degree in chemistry. Scored 527 on the MCAT, and she is now in medical school in medical school at one of the Ivies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^This…. My DD attended NVCC for two years and transferred to GMU for her BS degree in chemistry. Scored 527 on the MCAT, and she is now in medical school in medical school at one of the Ivies.

Good for your daughter. CC can be great; students often come out of it with valuable experience and skills that they wouldn't have had if they had gone straight to a four-year school. Experience and skills that serve them well in med school and beyond.

[Anonymous]

T10 med school admissions. Pick a school strong in the sciences with opportunities to be a leader, be of service to others, work with patients, and do research. Get mostly As. And importantly, build relationships w professors and community leaders who will write letters for you. Explore sufficiently to be sure that medicine is really what you want, and be prepared to explain why. Remember that medicine is above all a service profession.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:T10 med school admissions. Pick a school strong in the sciences with opportunities to be a leader, be of service to others, work with patients, and do research. Get mostly As. And importantly, build relationships w professors and community leaders who will write letters for you. Explore sufficiently to be sure that medicine is really what you want, and be prepared to explain why. Remember that medicine is above all a service profession.

T10 med school grad who used to serve as admissions adjunct ….agree wholeheartedly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Pick schools with low cost, no grade deflation, good pre med advising, high med school admission rate, located in medical districts to get year around internships, research, shadowing, volunteering, mentoring opportunities.

+1 FWIW, my good friend's husband is a doctor/Ivy grad. Two of their kids went to Ivies (finance and CS careers) but the one who wants to be a doctor (equally good student) is going to an excellent regional state U. The parents plan to pay for medical school and prioritized the things detailed above to set her up well for med school admissions.

That is one opinion. Dual doc family and we would encourage this only if our aspiring premed was not likely to be top half at a T10/ivy. We would pick the school with the best research and preferably med school on or near campus that they were likely to end up in the top 25%. If they were a very top student who aced standardized tests(sat is somewhat predictive of mcat), we would encourage an elite school if they got in, because elite undergrad programs often have much easier access to research and a med school on campus, AND med admissions happens even for average kids, because the premed advising is top notch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of kids who start out at CC get into med school. I wouldn't obsess over this. She should pick the right school for her based on whatever else is important to her, and then get the highest grades possible, especially in the science pre-reqs. She should make sure to take the classes that will help her with the MCAT (people forget that physics in on there). And she will want to get experience that shows her interest in medicine -- whatever that might look like for her as far as her interests and what opportunities are available. That experience could be a fancy internship in a lab doing cutting edge research on cancer, it could be learning about compassion while working long shifts as a CNA in a nursing home, it could be assisting on investigations for a medical examiner's office, it could be working as an EMT when home from school during summers (if you are in a rural area, that's great, an urban area, great, a suburban one, great -- learning opportunities everywhere there). Or whatever.

Community college classes are often not held in same regard as four-year college classes for medical schools.

Please see advice of medical school deans on this, not sure why DCUm has so many armchair experts who know nothing about the process:

https://www.prospectivedoctor.com/can-i-apply-to-medical-school-straight-from-community-college/

PP here. First, I work in a med school with med students -- I'm not an "armchair expert." I know plenty "about the process." And I have had many (very successful) students who attended community college for their first two years of undergrad.

Did you even read that stupid "article" you link to? It does not say what you think it does. It is a clickbait POS that makes zero sense -- it suggests that students consider transferring to a 4 year college rather than applying to med school from CC. Well of course one would transfer to a 4yr college/uni before applying to med school. No one applies to med school from CC. You can't do that. It's a 2 year degree. That's obvious. That article is stupid. It's telling people not to apply to med school from CC, which is something you can't do anyway. And that article was not written by "medical school deans." The video placed there does feature deans discussing the issue -- including one that I know personally (the dean at USUHS) -- and the dean who discusses the issue very specifically says that starting out a CC and then transferring to a 4-yr is "looked at no differently than if someone spent all 4 years at a 4 year university."

So stop spreading nonsense and misinformation. In fact I will quote you back to you: "not sure why DCUm has so many armchair experts who know nothing about the process"...

The main point of that video is that pre-requisites for medical school not be done at community colleges, even if students attended for two years before transferring to a four-year school. Science classes at community colleges are not to the same rigor and caliber as four year school. The video makes that point. Not sure what low level medical school you are at, top ones aren't really wanting those CC science class students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:T10 med school admissions. Pick a school strong in the sciences with opportunities to be a leader, be of service to others, work with patients, and do research. Get mostly As. And importantly, build relationships w professors and community leaders who will write letters for you. Explore sufficiently to be sure that medicine is really what you want, and be prepared to explain why. Remember that medicine is above all a service profession.

This is great advice. DS got into med school from our state flagship. Large classes, difficult to stand out in large science classes etc. But, got involved in a couple of research projects (a great way to do research and to get to know professors), volunteered, got a lot of clinical experience and shadowed doctors . Most importantly, he spent his first three years of college getting experiences that allowed him to explore different aspects of being in a field that is dedicated to the service of others.
It is also important to get a good MCAT score.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of kids who start out at CC get into med school. I wouldn't obsess over this. She should pick the right school for her based on whatever else is important to her, and then get the highest grades possible, especially in the science pre-reqs. She should make sure to take the classes that will help her with the MCAT (people forget that physics in on there). And she will want to get experience that shows her interest in medicine -- whatever that might look like for her as far as her interests and what opportunities are available. That experience could be a fancy internship in a lab doing cutting edge research on cancer, it could be learning about compassion while working long shifts as a CNA in a nursing home, it could be assisting on investigations for a medical examiner's office, it could be working as an EMT when home from school during summers (if you are in a rural area, that's great, an urban area, great, a suburban one, great -- learning opportunities everywhere there). Or whatever.

Community college classes are often not held in same regard as four-year college classes for medical schools.

Please see advice of medical school deans on this, not sure why DCUm has so many armchair experts who know nothing about the process:

https://www.prospectivedoctor.com/can-i-apply-to-medical-school-straight-from-community-college/

PP here. First, I work in a med school with med students -- I'm not an "armchair expert." I know plenty "about the process." And I have had many (very successful) students who attended community college for their first two years of undergrad.

Did you even read that stupid "article" you link to? It does not say what you think it does. It is a clickbait POS that makes zero sense -- it suggests that students consider transferring to a 4 year college rather than applying to med school from CC. Well of course one would transfer to a 4yr college/uni before applying to med school. No one applies to med school from CC. You can't do that. It's a 2 year degree. That's obvious. That article is stupid. It's telling people not to apply to med school from CC, which is something you can't do anyway. And that article was not written by "medical school deans." The video placed there does feature deans discussing the issue -- including one that I know personally (the dean at USUHS) -- and the dean who discusses the issue very specifically says that starting out a CC and then transferring to a 4-yr is "looked at no differently than if someone spent all 4 years at a 4 year university."

So stop spreading nonsense and misinformation. In fact I will quote you back to you: "not sure why DCUm has so many armchair experts who know nothing about the process"...

The main point of that video is that pre-requisites for medical school not be done at community colleges, even if students attended for two years before transferring to a four-year school. Science classes at community colleges are not to the same rigor and caliber as four year school. The video makes that point. Not sure what low level medical school you are at, top ones aren't really wanting those CC science class students.

.

No. Watch it again.

The Dean speaking in the video simply says that she needs to see success in upper level science classes. Those upper level classes are only going to be taken at a four-year college or university; they aren’t going to be offered at the community college level anyway. You do understand that someone who majors in a science has to take science classes all four years right? So a CC student who goes on to major in a science (which most premed students do) at a four-year institution will probably have taken many community college classes that were science classes. Probably all/most of the intro ones —and then will go on to take plenty of upper level classes at their four year school. And the speaker in the video is very clear that that is fine. As long as the student succeeds in the more rigorous upper level science classes at the four year they go onto attend. The prerequisites for medical school are not upper level classes, though — and clearly you don’t understand that. Again, you don’t know what you’re talking about. And It I work at Georgetown—which is not “low level.” But by all means keep blathering on and on about everything you think you know about med school admissions having obsessed over wanting your little Larlo to go to med school.

The situation that the dean addresses in that video is pretty limited. There are times when someone has gone to college and received a degree in, oh say, history or dance, and hasn’t taken any of the prerequisite science class classes that you need in order to even apply to medical school. It is possible to take all of those classes at a community college— those prerequisites are not the upper level science major classes. And people will do that, because it is the cheapest option. That is concerning from the standpoint of a medical school admissions committee because such a student has not demonstrated an ability to succeed in science classes in a more rigorous environment. That is not the same thing at all as a student who is premed from the beginning, but takes their first first two years of school — including those med school prerequisites like biology, organic chemistry and genetics— at a community college, which, if you were listening to the video, you would understand is fine.

[Anonymous]

Some more data here. Some schools report > 70 percent med school acceptance rates.

https://blog.prepscholar.com/best-pre-med-schools

This isn't that helpful though, because most people can't say Harvard or Duke have great acceptance rates so I will go there.

As others have noted, med school acceptance is highly driven by GPA and MCAT so go somewhere with good sciences where you can get as close to a 4.0 as possible.