So, what does it take to become a doctor?

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Idle Will Kill

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What are the core classes you have to start taking in college? After college, you have to go to med school, right? What does that involve? How many years? Then what after that?
 
4 years bachelors degree in any liberal arts or a science.
3 years med school (i think)
2 years internship
its basically a very long process, and mostly you just have to be very dedicated.
and of course, if you are specializing in anything, say neuro-surgery or surgery in general, which is a highly developed skill, it will take longer and specialized studies. its all about being dedicated though.
 
- 4 years undergrad having to take bio, chem, o-chem, and physics.
- 2nd or 3rd year, take the MCAT; an 8 hour long exam with a section of biological and physical scienes, an essay section and verbal reasoning.
- After that, you gotta apply to get in (which means it'd be nice to do som extra-curriculars that show your interest.) Once you apply, you may get an interview.
- Once you're in you have 4 more years of med school.
- Classes include: Biochem, Histology, Gross Anatomy, Embryology, Pathology, Microbio, and Neuro. Most med schools only do these classes first 2 years.
- After second year, you take the Board I exam, the first of 3 parts to get certified.
- 3rd and 4th year are clinical practice; going around to different fields seeing what you want to do.
- At 4th year, you do several things; you take Board II, and apply for Residency in a specific field. This also entails interviewing, and most likely you'll have an assload of plane tickets gettting to and fro places.
- There's a Match Day in spring, where your Residency is determined. Basically you rank the residencies that you like, and they rank you. Somehow somebody determines where you go. You don't get to choose.
- Off to Residency, which, depending on the field, could be a 3-7 year program, with shit money. You also have to take the Board III at some point.


Me? I'm a first year med student so I still have a ways to go. If you're thinking about doing it, get a jump start.
 
Idle Will Kill said:
What are the core classes you have to start taking in college? After college, you have to go to med school, right? What does that involve? How many years? Then what after that?
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At least 2 years in college. The 4 courses you need in college is Biology, Physics, Basic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry (which I remember nothing of.) After that, you want to take your MCATs. Bitch of a test. But they focus on those 4 courses and a writing portion. You want to shoot for 30 and above to be competitive but down to 26 will still get you into a school. Actually down to 24, which is 8's across the board will find you a place somewhere.


After college, you make your way to med school. 4 years across the board. Some schools have 6 year programs, which breaks down into 2 years of college and 4 years of med school but I'll be the first to say: Enjoy college. Drink more beer, fuck some more girls, take some more drugs. Life is long...the person who said life is short probably enjoyed it too much. Life is long when you allow great times to past you by. Like your 20s. I sometimes wish I would have fucked around in college more. Maybe taken a few years off. Then come back with a renewed self-worth and determination. Now go out into life and enjoy it. When you are putting in 8 hour study days during med school down the line, you won't feel the urge to go get drunk cuz you will already have gotten it out of your system...well, you can never let alcohol go but you can control it. :p

In med school, it's usually 4 years, 2 preclinical (basic science) and 2 years clinical (in the hospital). After that, you can expect a residency of between 3 to 6 years depending on what field you are interested in. 3 for Internal med., 6 for general surgery, 4 years for ob-gyn, 3 for family med. If you want to specialize, add another 1-3 years for fellowship, again depending on what field you want to go into. 3 years for cardiothoracic surgery fellowship (after the six years of general surgery residency) or 1 year for some fellowships in medicine, like endocrine or something.

All in all, the time commitment flies by when you are enjoying yourself. I can't believe I graduated high school in 1996 and all this time has flown by. I spent all of it in school and I kinda wish I had some of my 20s back. But oh well, time to be responsible.

FMan: where are you at?
 
So if you want to be a doctor you have to take the MCAT, then what about for dentistry anybody know what test you take for that?
 
Idle Will Kill said:
What are the core classes you have to start taking in college? After college, you have to go to med school, right? What does that involve? How many years? Then what after that?
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Look, no offense, but why would you come here to ask a question like that if you're even vaguely interested in an accurate answer? I mean come on.

And the DAT is for dentistry, I've taken both. Neither of which are particularly enjoyable.
 
skinnyrattler said:
FMan: where are you at?
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Just started my first year of med school at UC (Cincinnati.) We started with Embryology, Biochem (which is teh suck) and Histology. I think this week or the next we're adding Physiology and Gross, along with clinical practice.

Where are you at?

So if you want to be a doctor you have to take the MCAT, then what about for dentistry anybody know what test you take for that?
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You take the DAT, which is kinda like a mini-version of the MCAT, but with a different section; this spatial reasoning thing. I don't know too much about it, but a friend of mine started dental school at OSU.

This chart may help:
MCAT: 8 hours long
DAT: about 4-5 hours long

MCAT: Covers verbal reasoning, physical and biological sciences and essays
DAT: Covers same as above, but with a spatial reasoning section (i.e. what shape would fit in this hole) and the section's aren't as long

MCAT: Taken on paper; results come in two months
DAT: Taken on computer, immediate results

MCAT: Offered twice a year, one in April, one in August
DAT: Offered anytime of the year; you just call up a dude and schedule
 
Slurpy said:
Look, no offense, but why would you come here to ask a question like that if you're even vaguely interested in an accurate answer? I mean come on.
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I love reading these replies after there have been helpful and accurate responses.

Step 1: Ask a question.

Step 2: Question is answered.

Step 3: HAR HAR NOBODY NOS HERE DUMBASS
 
IAmtheFMan said:
Just started my first year of med school at UC (Cincinnati.) We started with Embryology, Biochem (which is teh suck) and Histology. I think this week or the next we're adding Physiology and Gross, along with clinical practice.

Where are you at?
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Just graduated at Jefferson (in Philly). Can't say I feel bad, 1st year sucks but for us, our second year was a bitch. Needless to say, I was a Biochem major in college and Biochem still sucked for me.
 
fart said:
i can already tell you won't make it.
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This is the truth.

Did you come up with the idea of being a doctor out of the blue? This is atrocious. To become a doctor you should have began planning ahead years ago. It's not just many years of school, it is a never ending and extremely challenging process that will keep you busy until you retire. Looks like you're going to have to find another career.
 
Idle Will Kill said:
Well I've already gone through one year of college, and I didn't take any science or math classes. I guess I'm screwed.
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LOL

Look, if you actually, really had your sights on it, you're not 'screwed'. You can take them 2nd yr, you dont even need a science degree. Theres only a few courses you need for the MCAT. (Physics/Organic/Biochem)

But since you never considered taking them, I doubt you're even seriously considering it.
 
Idle Will Kill said:
Well I've already gone through one year of college, and I didn't take any science or math classes. I guess I'm screwed.
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You need to figure out if this is what you want. Now more than ever, the 'why' is just as important as your grades. How did you come to this decision? What have you done to explore the field? Volunteer? At a hospital? Shadow a doctor? It's not a race, you can always get there. Some just have their direction set at an earlier time. But don't fret if don't have your future set. Quite often, I felt I didn't have my mind made up when others were looking 10 years into the future. It's ok. You just have to go about figuring things out.

I suggest volunteering at a doctor's office or hospital. They always need people to hang out and help. You'll get a chance to pick their mind's and figure out what led them into medicine. You might find you are on the same path with the same ideals.

Edit: Most of the required courses are 2 semester deals with General Biology and Chemistry required courses to get into Organic and possibly Physics. So, bank on 2 years to get threw these courses and if you have a full course load, it may be wise to tackle these things split up. As I said, these 4 courses are the only required courses to get into med school so if you can get these out of the way within the next 2 years, you'll still be just in time for applying during your senior year. Now, you just have to figure out if you will have enough credits in your major.

I know most science majors have these courses stacked up from the first year, so if you haven't started in the first year, you may have to take an extra year for the major. My next suggestion: get a science advisor/pre-med advisor. My only caution: pre-meds majors are usually harsher/tougher and will be more pain than what it's worth. Although it'll be tougher, you can still get into med school with a english degree. It's tougher, cuz you have to prove your interest, I'm just trying to point out that you may still be able to finish in your current major as long as you can add on those 4 courses.

Bottom line, get some people to talk to. Current pre-meds, seniors who are applying now, advisors, some local docs, etc.
 
Its not really a few classes you need 20 quarter units of Chemistry and 8 of those have to be organic chemistry all with lab. You also need 12 units of Physics again with lab, and 15 units of Biology with lab.

This translates into about 14 semester units of Chemistry with 6 of those being organic chemistry, 8 semester units of lab physics, and 10 units of lab biology.

This is the typical requirement for medical school.

It is clearly more than a few science classes It is more than 1 year of full time classes and that is if you only take these courses and non other.
 
To be totally honest, I haven't even really considered becoming a doctor, I was just more or less interested in the process.

I'm currently a film major, and there are times when I'm sort of questioning if this is definitely what I want to do. I guess I was just fishing around for some ideas. I was never really very strong in math or science in high school (got Bs mostly, got through Calculus and did Chem and Physics).

I guess it's true that if I were very determined, I definitely could still do it. It's just that I've heard horror stories about O-Chem and without me even being very strong in the math/science area, I don't see how I'd possibly get through it.
 
As a side note, I got to the University of Pittsburgh, which has a very strong medical community. With Pitt being my undergrad, would I have some special consideration for getting into a med school at Pitt?
 
Well, IamTheFan and Skinnyrattler have pretty much covered all the bases, so I don't have too much to add except to say that, instead of two years, you'll likely need at least 3 years to take all the pre-reqs and get the extracurriculars you need while still completing your major (this can possibly be whittled down to two years if you're a bio major, as your major courses will include all the pre-med bio courses as well as one year each of chem & organic chem-- at least at my school, bio majors are required to take these; so they'll count towards your degree as well as satisfying the pre-reqs, which will save time).


I had originally wanted to try to do everything in two years, and I started taking the pre-reqs this past fall; so I had planned to take the August MCAT (one year from now), since there's no way I could take the April exam with what my course load would have been this coming spring (organic 2, physics 2, microbiology and experimental psych-- all w/labs), but now it looks increasingly likely that I'll end up taking the extra year to make my application as strong as possible, as that's what my advisor said was best. I'm not thrilled about taking the extra year, since I'm already quite old :p, but my application wouldn't have had many extracurriculars, and my cumulative GPA would have only been a 3.1 as opposed to a 3.3 (which is still not great, but competitive-- particularly with the last 3 years being a 3.9+ with all science courses). In addition, I'll be able to take some non-required (for most med schools) supplemental courses such as biochem, medical ethics, physics in medicine, and perhaps immunology. I'll also have a much lighter course load next spring and will have time to take a prep course for the MCAT, if only to get the resource materials they have. :p It'll also give me more time for extracurriculars such as volunteering and independent lab work off-campus. My advisor said that, of the people who take the August MCAT, only a few get interviews the next cycle anyway, and the vast majority of those that do get waitlisted rather than accepted, so I'd be waiting the extra year anyway most likely, so that was a big factor in my decision to take the extra year.


Still, I'm not thrilled-- but when you're looking at a minimum of another 9 years before you're done anyway, what difference does one more year make? :( But if you just finished up freshman year, you're not far behind at all. Just get started this September and you can still make it in the normal time frame-- it won't be easy, though; don't plan on having much free time, and less "vacation"...take it from me. : /


PS- it also takes some time to build decent relationships with professors and other faculty so that they'll write you strong, personalized letters of recommendation (as opposed to mere form letters). It's hard to just take one class with a professor and ask for a LOR-- you'll likely need to take two or more courses with each or do some work in their labs. When registering for courses, try to get some continuity with certain professors as far as possible.


EDIT:

PPS-

As a side note, I got to the University of Pittsburgh, which has a very strong medical community. With Pitt being my undergrad, would I have some special consideration for getting into a med school at Pitt?
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If your university has an affiliated med school, look into whether or not they have a BA/MD or BS/MD program for undergrads at your uni. My university has such programs with some of the SUNY (state university of NY) medical schools, and the admission criteria are generally much less stringent from what I've seen than if you were just applying on your own. The thing is, you usually have to apply during your freshman year or else you're locked out of the program, so it's no use to someone in my position. To give you an idea, all a participant in this program has to do is maintain a 3.5 GPA (overall as well as BCPM-- bio, chem, physics, math) and get a 28 on the MCAT and they are GUARANTEED a seat at these SUNY medical schools. Now, maintaining a 3.5 with pre-med coursework is NOT easy, but neither is it impossible; for comparison's sake, I need 3 years of a 3.9+ in order to make up for past failures, and I'm shitting bullets, quite frankly-- it's a lot of stress. A 28 on the MCAT is not easy considering that the national average is a 23-24, but considering that they usually advise normal applicants to shoot for a 30+, a 28 is doable (I need a 35+...stress). :p Beyond that, you're GUARANTEED a seat with these programs, whereas by applying normally, no matter WHAT your stats and extracurriculars are, it's still largely a crapshoot.


I'd look into it ASAP if you're really interested in pursuing this, because it makes life a HELL of a lot easier.
 
the DDS has the spatial reasoning section because clinical dental work is mostly operative, even for non-oral-surgeons.

personally, i think medicine's for the birds, but i fully support how rigorous the preparation is. you know, life and death and all.
 
I should point out you dont even need a undergraduate degree to go to medical school. If you compleated your junior year than you can got o medical school. You can apply at the end of your sophmore year and be accepted during your junior year. The only requirement is you finish the course work for your junior year before you go to medical school.
 
skinnyrattler said:
At least 2 years in college. The 4 courses you need in college is Biology, Physics, Basic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry (which I remember nothing of.) After that, you want to take your MCATs. Bitch of a test. But they focus on those 4 courses and a writing portion. You want to shoot for 30 and above to be competitive but down to 26 will still get you into a school. Actually down to 24, which is 8's across the board will find you a place somewhere.
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Gosh I don't know how anyone could get away with a 24 unless they have some nice stories/ EC's /LOR's to make up for the whole package. I mean, I've heard stories of people with 39's being rejected from medical schools. However, don't be discouraged. Ochem and the MCAT are those tests that just require practice. The people who whine about ochem tend to slack off and party all the time. Hunker down, do the work, and you will be fine.

If you really want more information, you should head over to http://forums.studentdoctor.net
Over there, you can find people with SDN addiction, instead of GA-addiction. The amount of information there is huge, try it out.
 
eggplant said:
Gosh I don't know how anyone could get away with a 24 unless they have some nice stories/ EC's /LOR's to make up for the whole package. I mean, I've heard stories of people with 39's being rejected from medical schools. However, don't be discouraged. Ochem and the MCAT are those tests that just require practice. The people who whine about ochem tend to slack off and party all the time. Hunker down, do the work, and you will be fine.

If you really want more information, you should head over to http://forums.studentdoctor.net
Over there, you can find people with SDN addiction, instead of GA-addiction. The amount of information there is huge, try it out.
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Yeah, a 24 is very low, considering. It's the national average, but then, allopathic medical schools don't take "average" candidates unless they have some stellar EC's (see: UN volunteer work in sub-saharan Africa :P) or publications etc., as mentioned. The prevailing wisdom is that you should shoot for a 30; a 31 or better is already in the 90th percentile, and 35 or better is in the 96-97th percentile. Less than 1% of all takers receive a 40 or better each year (all scores are out of 45). People who get a 24 usually end up either applying to osteopathic medical schools or foreign (mostly Caribbean) schools, or they take the exam again the following cycle in hopes of improving.


About the person who got rejected with a 39: either their GPA/EC's weren't up to snuff at all, or they only applied to the top 10 schools (where every applicant has a 3.8+ GPA/37 MCAT at minimum). :P
 
eggplant said:
Gosh I don't know how anyone could get away with a 24 unless they have some nice stories/ EC's /LOR's to make up for the whole package. I mean, I've heard stories of people with 39's being rejected from medical schools. However, don't be discouraged. Ochem and the MCAT are those tests that just require practice. The people who whine about ochem tend to slack off and party all the time. Hunker down, do the work, and you will be fine.

If you really want more information, you should head over to http://forums.studentdoctor.net
Over there, you can find people with SDN addiction, instead of GA-addiction. The amount of information there is huge, try it out.
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I've heard about people with mythical MCAT scores and I chalk them up to the people who got 240+ on their boards and didn't match. These mythical creatures usually, and I emphasize usually cuz this is a general assumption, are asses. The dorks with no social skills or cocky attitudes. People focused on the top 5 schools and that's all. I've always heard about these beings and you wonder what type of dumb fuck could botch up a '39'. I always doubt the validity but that's just me. 2nd, I can't believe a well mannered and spoken person without some severe deficit could botch up a score that's clearly in the top 1 percent of the country. That's like not making it into college with a 1520 SAT. College admission offices usually start sucking your dick around 1400. WTF?

And on that same token, I'm not attacking your claim but just addressing it, there are some people in med school with 24s. Not a lot but it's possible. Just trying to alleviate any potential fears that every premed has about MCAT scores. There's a huge range. Of course, you won't get a return call from Yale with a 24 but you can find your place. At the end of the day, whether you graduated from a school in the Caribbean or Harvard, they'll still call you doctor.

As Fman said, I had classmates up into the 40s. Sometimes, it helps to have some experience with life. This is a massive decision and you should be pretty certain before making this decision. If your heart is not into it, you'll be wasting a lot of time. That's why I said the 'why' is often important. Your personal statement from now to you die will have significant influence on how people see you. It's all about why you want to be a doctor, an oncologist, a family doc. What makes you tick and why do you think you should be given the chance. Not to discourage you but when you have the 'why' locked down, you'll be on the right path.

Idle: You may get some special consideration at Pitt, only if you have a great record. Pitt's one of the best schools in PA. It's one of those things where you still have to bring the goods on your record to get special consideration. In the future: Get used to the idea of having a top 5 or 8 that you'll be interested. '6 people for every spot' is usually the statistic thrown around when thinking about the size of the competition. In other words, you can have a good record, or even great but there still is a randomness to applying and being admitted to med school. I had U of Penn and Temple in my sights and along came Jefferson. I thought my mentor at U of P gave me a great in but it's still hypercompetitive. You can count on the lottery probably more. :p But seriously, get the why down and start working on the required courses. As I said, get some mentors and start asking a lot of questions. Talk to everybody.

Everybody has their own opinion but you can condense all that info and compare and contrast and decide based on popular opinion and your own opinion what works best. And believe me, once you get into med school, you have to do that quite often.

'What's the best way to get over anatomy?'

'Note Cards.'
'Study Groups.'
'Read the book 7 times.'

It'll get confusing.
 
Loki said:
Yeah, a 24 is very low, considering. It's the national average, but then, allopathic medical schools don't take "average" candidates unless they have some stellar EC's (see: UN volunteer work in sub-saharan Africa :P) or publications etc., as mentioned. The prevailing wisdom is that you should shoot for a 30; a 31 or better is already in the 90th percentile, and 35 or better is in the 96-97th percentile. Less than 1% of all takers receive a 40 or better each year (all scores are out of 45). People who get a 24 usually end up either applying to osteopathic medical schools or foreign (mostly Caribbean) schools, or they take the exam again the following cycle in hopes of improving.


About the person who got rejected with a 39: either their GPA/EC's weren't up to snuff at all, or they only applied to the top 10 schools (where every applicant has a 3.8+ GPA/37 MCAT at minimum). :P
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One of the stories was from a friend fo mine. The guy who got a 39 applied to only CA schools and seemed to have a good GPA. The other story came from my relatives, who are also physicians. They told me that apparently he didn't do too well in the interviews, and was thus not accepted.

I don't want to leave home, so I essentially have only one medical school that I can attend. Practically everyone I talk to tells me that there are no sure bets for medical school... and I'm very worried. My stats are fine, but I have no publications or significant volunteer hours.
 
eggplant said:
One of the stories was from a friend fo mine. The guy who got a 39 applied to only CA schools and seemed to have a good GPA. The other story came from my relatives, who are also physicians. They told me that apparently he didn't do too well in the interviews, and was thus not accepted.

I don't want to leave home, so I essentially have only one medical school that I can attend. Practically everyone I talk to tells me that there are no sure bets for medical school... and I'm very worried. My stats are fine, but I have no publications or significant volunteer hours.
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Seriously, unless you have legacy or something, think about expanding your potential schools. You'll be severely disappointed by targeting only one school. It's not hard if you have the grades to get into a school if you have the grades but nothing, absolutely nothing is guaranteed when applying to med school.

Just a warning.

Loki: Are you this applying this year? Edit: NM, I see. Also, I can't type.
 
eggplant said:
I'm applying to 8 schools or so, just in case I change my mind next year (assuming that I get in the first place). However, even if I got into UCSF or UCLA, I don't really think I want to leave home at all.
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Home's in CA?
 
I know someone with a 4.0 Under Grad GPA at UCLA who never got an interview for UCSF. I think the reason was because he only got a 30 on his MCAT. While a 30 is high it is well bellow the average for UCSF. Don't expect to get into a tier 1 med school with a 24, while it is not impossible it will take a miracle.
 
To get into med-school you need:

- 4 years of undergrad studying Biology, Chemistry, or Bio-Chemistry.
- A GPA of 3.75 or above in one of the above fields to be competitive.
- A good score on the MCAT (which is at least a 40)
- To apply to a lot of schools (the rule of thumb is that the farther away the school is from you the better the chances you have of being accepted because schools want to spread their name)
- Good communication skills.

After you get into med-school you will need to:

- Complete 3-4 years of graduate school (depending on the program).
- Cut the throats of anyone and everyone who gets in your way while you attend graduate school.
- Follow that up with a 2 year internship in the field of your choice (those students with the highest GPAs get first pick).
 
JC10001 said:
To get into med-school you need:

- 4 years of undergrad studying Biology, Chemistry, or Bio-Chemistry.
- A GPA of 3.75 or above in one of the above fields to be competitive.
- A good score on the MCAT (which is at least a 40)
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This isn't quite accurate.

You need bio, chem, o-chem, and physics. I whipped this out in 2 years also with a non-science degree and I didn't feel rushed. A lot of people do it in 3.

Yes you need a high GPA, but I have friends with 3.2-3.3's BCPM (science) and they got in.

The MCAT's just not right at all. A competitive score is over 30; decent is still 26 or so.

. Like skinnyrattler was saying, the mythical 39 score is something that's heard on every standardized test, be it SAT, MCAT, LSAT, etc. I've heard some crazy stuff before about people with 3.9 GPA's and 35+ MCAT's not getting into any schools.

This being said, there is something that must be stressed; there is NO magic formula for getting into med school. This isn't a computer tabulating an average of your GPA, MCAT, and the number of your E.C's. These are people looking at your credentials, seeing if you are 1) capable of doing it, and 2) have the PASSION to do it. True, they look at your credentials in deciding to see if they want to continue the admissions process, but once past this, your credentials won't mean nearly as much.

The med school interview is the thing that will make or break you. It's said that once you get a med school interview, everyone's on the same level; you show 'em what you got in that interview. Realistically, this may not be completely true (afterall the guy that has the 21 MCAT compared to the 45 MCAT may not be on equal footing) but this is the one point where you show your knowledge, passion, and above all, maturity.

An arrogant dick with a 37 MCAT, 3.96 GPA that makes it evidently clear that he doesn't want it for the right reasons will not be looked upon favorably at all. A guy that has the 26 MCAT with a 3.4 GPA, who speaks with a maturity and brevity about why he wants to become a doctor will shine greatly.

Even if you stumble, it's not the end of the world. Despite what may be said, those admissions people are pretty good at reading people. If you're not genuine, they'll know.
 
IAmtheFMan said:
This isn't quite accurate.

You need bio, chem, o-chem, and physics. I whipped this out in 2 years also with a non-science degree and I didn't feel rushed. A lot of people do it in 3.

Yes you need a high GPA, but I have friends with 3.2-3.3's BCPM (science) and they got in.

The MCAT's just not right at all. A competitive score is over 30; decent is still 26 or so.

. Like skinnyrattler was saying, the mythical 39 score is something that's heard on every standardized test, be it SAT, MCAT, LSAT, etc. I've heard some crazy stuff before about people with 3.9 GPA's and 35+ MCAT's not getting into any schools.

This being said, there is something that must be stressed; there is NO magic formula for getting into med school. This isn't a computer tabulating an average of your GPA, MCAT, and the number of your E.C's. These are people looking at your credentials, seeing if you are 1) capable of doing it, and 2) have the PASSION to do it. True, they look at your credentials in deciding to see if they want to continue the admissions process, but once past this, your credentials won't mean nearly as much.

The med school interview is the thing that will make or break you. It's said that once you get a med school interview, everyone's on the same level; you show 'em what you got in that interview. Realistically, this may not be completely true (afterall the guy that has the 21 MCAT compared to the 45 MCAT may not be on equal footing) but this is the one point where you show your knowledge, passion, and above all, maturity.

An arrogant dick with a 37 MCAT, 3.96 GPA that makes it evidently clear that he doesn't want it for the right reasons will not be looked upon favorably at all. A guy that has the 26 MCAT with a 3.4 GPA, who speaks with a maturity and brevity about why he wants to become a doctor will shine greatly.

Even if you stumble, it's not the end of the world. Despite what may be said, those admissions people are pretty good at reading people. If you're not genuine, they'll know.
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I thought jc10001 was joking :shrugs:
 
IAmtheFMan said:
This isn't quite accurate.

You need bio, chem, o-chem, and physics. I whipped this out in 2 years also with a non-science degree and I didn't feel rushed. A lot of people do it in 3.

Yes you need a high GPA, but I have friends with 3.2-3.3's BCPM (science) and they got in.

The MCAT's just not right at all. A competitive score is over 30; decent is still 26 or so.

. Like skinnyrattler was saying, the mythical 39 score is something that's heard on every standardized test, be it SAT, MCAT, LSAT, etc. I've heard some crazy stuff before about people with 3.9 GPA's and 35+ MCAT's not getting into any schools.

This being said, there is something that must be stressed; there is NO magic formula for getting into med school. This isn't a computer tabulating an average of your GPA, MCAT, and the number of your E.C's. These are people looking at your credentials, seeing if you are 1) capable of doing it, and 2) have the PASSION to do it. True, they look at your credentials in deciding to see if they want to continue the admissions process, but once past this, your credentials won't mean nearly as much.

The med school interview is the thing that will make or break you. It's said that once you get a med school interview, everyone's on the same level; you show 'em what you got in that interview. Realistically, this may not be completely true (afterall the guy that has the 21 MCAT compared to the 45 MCAT may not be on equal footing) but this is the one point where you show your knowledge, passion, and above all, maturity.

An arrogant dick with a 37 MCAT, 3.96 GPA that makes it evidently clear that he doesn't want it for the right reasons will not be looked upon favorably at all. A guy that has the 26 MCAT with a 3.4 GPA, who speaks with a maturity and brevity about why he wants to become a doctor will shine greatly.

Even if you stumble, it's not the end of the world. Despite what may be said, those admissions people are pretty good at reading people. If you're not genuine, they'll know.
Click to expand...


But what you need to remember is that all schools are different. Most of the top schools do require around 60 quarter units or 1 and half year of biology, chem, and physics classes. It would be very difficult but not impossible for a non-science major.
 
IamtheFan--


Kudos to you in getting that done in two years. :) How long overall did you spend in undergrad, and when did you take the MCAT and apply for med school? End of junior year?


I wanted to do it in two years as well, but it's difficult at my college (and for me in particular) for a number of reasons. First off, a few years back, they decided to break up the pre-med bio courses (cell/molecular bio, organismic plant physiology, and comparative animal physiology) into lecture and lab components which MUST be taken separately; that is, the lecture must be passed before you progress to the lab. This effectively doubled the amount of time you spend getting the bio pre-reqs out of the way. Supposedly, it was because all these freshman come into college with pre-med dreams and take these courses, and a lot of students ended up failing the courses, wasting valuable lab space which required equipment/resources as well as the hiring/allocation of staff to teach the lab portions. They felt that it was a money-waster, and so now they split it up in the hopes that only the serious students-- the ones who do very well in lecture-- will take the lab and consume those resources. Odd rationale imo, but that's what my advisor informed me; we're also the only uni that I know of that does this (and it's only in the past few years), and it's a pain in the ass.

Also, the science curricula at my university are serious. Many students at my university will voluntarily go to NYU or Cornell or some such to take some pre-reqs (particularly o-chem and physics); as such, loading up on 3-5 science courses w/labs each semester for 2 straight years is a daunting prospect (and none of them can be taken over the summer according to my advisor, as it doesn't look good). Further, due to my past failures (my GPA was at a 1.7 at one point), even if I had two years of a 4.0 in all these pre-reqs (plus summer courses), my cumulative GPA would have only been a 3.0-- possibly passable in some universe, but by no means solid. In addition, I needed all A's (as I mentioned), and taking 5 science courses together isn't conducive to the procurement of A's. ;) Up until this past April I was also working 35 hours/week in addition to my tutoring and research obligations, and so I wasn't able to progress as far in my research as I would have liked because I just didn't have the time to devote to it. At any rate, it's taken me longer than it should have to make any significant headway in my experiments-- I at least want to merit a mention in a published paper as a couple of the other folks who work in the lab have. Getting all my EC's in order has been rough given the courseload and these other obligations-- I just started volunteering this summer, and need at least 100 hours to get a LOR; fortunately, I also managed to befriend a neurologist who's going to let me shadow him during winter break, so that'll be nice.


I'm not a science major, to boot. :P I'm a psych major, so I had to take some psych courses with all the sciences to complete my degree. How about you- what's your major? Also, when you say that you did it in two years, you don't mean the pre-reqs PLUS the EC's PLUS the MCAT PLUS your major requirements, right? That'd be insane. :) At least with the extra year, my GPA will be a 3.3 or thereabouts, with 3 straight years of a 3.9+. In addition, I'll have a lighter courseload during MCAT time and will be able to take a prep course, in addition to having boatloads more studying time for the exam (I'm shooting for a 35, considering my history). Doing all the other stuff plus cramming for the August MCAT next year while trying to get a 35 seemed a bit too much, both in my own opinion and that of my advisor; so I decided to take the extra year, and I'm very confident about my chances if I do that.


Basically, this entire post was an excuse for me to vent, pretty much. :P But I also did honestly wanna ask you how you managed it in two years. The courses alone I could understand...but everything else? Perhaps you took some of the science courses over the summers, which my advisor warned me against? Just curious. :)


PS: If anyone can enlighten me as to why smilies aren't showing up in my posts despite the fact that my "disable smilies in text" box is not checked (nor has it ever been) and I haven't changed any options in my preferences, it would be appreciated. :P

EDIT: nevermind-- it seems to be disabled in everyone's posts, unless my viewing options got screwed up somehow.
 
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