I want to be an OBGYN when I grow up. I’ll probably do something financial on the side, but that’s not really as relevant. I noticed that a lot of people have mentioned that you should pursue things that you’re passionate about in high school to see if you actually enjoy it. The thing is, I’m going to boarding school and I’m not really sure what I can do. My dad is a surgeon and I was going to help out/shadow at his OBGYN friend’s office this summer, but plans fell through. Is there anything that I can really do during high school that will help me out with a future medical career? I’m not super educated on biology or anything, but I am going through Khan Academy to gain a basic background. How exactly should a high schooler broach this topic? I’ve heard that there are summer camps, but I’d prefer to also do things in the school year. Thank you in advance.
I’ve heard of teenagers co-authoring studies. However, I’m assuming that this isn’t super common, but how would you go about doing that? It seems like this stuff is mostly based on connections and less on merit. Is that true? Are you just supposed to get your parents to set everything up for you? I mean… I feel like I am missing a piece of information.
& if possible I would like to participate in Choate’s SRP.
You are not going to get any good information in this sub-forum full of high school students…so, here is an advice from someone who’s considering career in medicine. I doubt high school counselors knows a jack crap about medical schools either. I am a senior in college.
Honestly, in respect to your spec strictly, medical schools do not care about what you do in high school unless it’s say, like you were a co-author of highly regarded medical article, volunteer in one hospital for years, etc etc. What you do during COLLEGE matters much more: Doctor shadowing, clinical experience(i.e. volunteer, receptionist, scribe), LOTS of volunteer hours, etc etc. You are lucky that your father is a doctor because doctor shadowing has become more and more difficult due to HIPAA.
Also, two misconceptions to avoid:
- You have to be biology major.
-FALSE. Medical schools do NOT care about majors. What they care about is your MCAT score and GPA. They are not going to pick an engineer major with 3.5 GPA over an English major with 3.9 GPA. As long as you have good grades in pre-med courses i.e. intro biology, chemistry, organic chemistry, biology, psychology. your major has zero role play in this .
- Your research has to be related to medicine.
-False. It may be more relevant, but what they look for is your research experience itself. A similar reason like above.