Does anyone have good ECs/potential awards for someone planning on attending pre-med school? I’m trying to plan stuff out early on.
Are you talking about ECs in high school? If so…the ECs that would be considered by medical school admissions would be the ones you do in college, not high school.
You can check your state for requirements for things like CNA and EMS, both things you can start and continue in undergrad school.
1 Like
Well, for one thing, there’s no such thing as “pre-med school.” Pre-med is not even a major - it’s a collection of requirements that you can take while completing any major. At least half of students who begin college with medical school in mind change course, and medical school is an extremely difficult admission. All of this is to say that you don’t really know, at this point, what your future is, and you don’t need to commit to a long-term plan. In fact, it’s better not to – give yourself time to explore your interests.
So, what to do instead? Find what interests you. If medicine interests you, perhaps you can volunteer in an assisted living center or a hospital. But you might also find other interests – start with clubs in school, and see where they lead you. Sometimes, a club or community service project can open up a whole new area of interest that you didn’t know you had. Try creative writing or student journalism or theater or math club or a craft or a sport. Colleges want to see that you’re engaged in meaningful activities not that you’re moulding yourself to fit a career that might never happen. So don’t worry about what looks good for pre-med – focus on what interests you.
If you’re still interested in medical school by the time you get to college, a pre-med adviser there can help you find opportunities that would strengthen your medical school application, which might include shadowing, community service, learning a language commonly spoken in immigrant communities, etc.
2 Likes
Hi, yes, ECs in highschool. I’m talking more so about pre-med, currently interested in a neuroscience major.
Do whatever is right for you. Whatever you do, do it well. Treat people well.
Getting along well with people is important for a premed student. Medicine is after all largely about interacting with people (unless you are in a lab doing research on a cellular level).
Some experience in a medical environment is important for applying to medical schools, but that is way, way in the future. For now the main advantage of getting some experience in a medical environment would be just in case this causes you to decide to do something else instead. Some students get into patient-facing situations and decide they would rather be in a lab, or doing something completely different. This is perfectly normal and perfectly okay.
Medical school is expensive. Premed classes can be academically very challenging. Premed classes are often full of very strong students (both daughters had majors that overlapped with premed requirements, so both had quite a bit of experience taking classes that could be thought of as premed classes). There are many, many universities that are very good for premed, hundreds of them. In many cases this implies that you really do not want or need to to attend the highest ranked university that you can get into if you are aiming for medical school. Instead an affordable university where you are comfortable and where you can excel is often the best choice for a bachelor’s degree for someone who wants to go on to medical school.
And the large majority of students who start university thinking “premed” end up doing something else. Again, this is very normal and perfectly okay.
Which is a very long winded way to say “do whatever is right for you”.
There is a video somewhere on-line of a surgeon using a robot-assisted surgery system to paint a very small picture of the hospital where he works. He had majored in art as an undergraduate student, completed the premed requirements, and went on to medical school. To me “art” might be the last major that would occur to me for a premed student, but apparently it is possible.
And being bilingual (or trilingual) is valuable for anyone who deals directly with patients in a medical environment.
1 Like
So some important background information:
You can go pretty much anywhere for college that has decent undergrad science departments and be a successful pre-med. This is the vast majority of US colleges.
You can also major in whatever you like and be a successful pre-med. Some people choose something in Bio, Chem, or so on out of convenience or interest. But med schools don’t require it, and arguably if anything a more unusual major could be (minorly) helpful.
When it comes to people who start off wanting to go to medical school not ending up doing that, it is typically a function of something like not doing well enough in the required classes and/or MCAT, or realizing they would rather do something else (in the health professions or something entirely different), or not having the financial resources (which might become a much bigger factor with the new loan limits). Your college not being able to support an otherwise suitable med school applicant is not much of a concern.
OK, so to get admitted to a good college or good major for pre-med requires . . . basically nothing other than what college admissions in general requires. Again, if you actually have interests in related areas, that’s fine. But again, arguably diverse interests would be just as good, if not more so.
What I would be thinking about instead is making sure you have a plan to go to a college that is comfortably affordable. And unless your family is very wealthy, the more affordable the better. Because you might actually need to be saving money during college to make paying for med school a possibility.
And the nice thing is even if you don’t decide to go to medical school, that is still a good idea.
2 Likes
Right now…your goal should be doing the best you can in high school so that your undergrad options will be more plentiful. Then you need to concentrate on finding an undergrad school where you can see yourself being happy, and doing well for four years. THEN you can start thinking about medical school.
Also, affordable undergrad without loans is important. Medical school will likely cost over $100,000 a year, and the federally funded loans for you are now limited to $200,000 including any undergrad federally funded loans you take.
So…my suggestion…and it will help you down the road. Do the things that interest you now, and do them well. Enjoy high school. Enjoy the college search and selection process. Put medical school on the back burner for now.
5 Likes
I don’t have a ton of time to reply to everyone individually, but I wanted to thank everyone for the help and suggestions!
2 Likes
I will reiterate everything you’ve been told above.
Do high school first. Worry about pre-med only after you get to college. Medical school adcomms don’t consider any activities you’ve done in high school anyway.
Find activities and clubs that interest you and pursue those.
Take challenging classes and do well.
Take some classes that are outside your comfort zone so you can say you tried it-- even if you ended up not liking it. (And who knows…maybe you will.)
There are literally hundreds of colleges in the US that will prepare you to apply to med school. You don’t need to attend a “brand name” university or LAC. State universities (even non-flagship state Us) are perfectly fine if you want to be pre-med. Except for art and music schools, almost every college in the US will offer the classes you need for pre-med. Getting the grades, experiences, test scores needed for med school—all that is on the applicants themselves.
Good luck on your journey!
FWIW, getting certified as a CNA requires being 18 years of age in most states. So does getting an EMT license. Check your local state regulations.
~~
My only comment has to do with neuroscience. Specialized biology majors (like neuroscience or microbiology) have even poorer post-college employment prospects than plain vanilla general bio majors. And neuroscience grad programs (in fact all science grad programs) are under attack with huge NIH and NSF funding cancellations. Grad student enrollment at top (and not-so-top) neuroscience grad programs has absolutely plummeted in the past year. Most programs are reducing incoming class sizes by 85-90% or more.
I’m not saying, don’t major in neuroscience, but…think hard about what you’d like to do if you don’t end up going to med school.
(The odds of going to med school are heavily stacked against everyone. Only about 3-4% of college freshman pre-meds end up matriculating into med school.)
3 Likes
I’m curious, how does this affect undergraduates seeking research in this area? Does it mean fewer research opportunities for undergraduates as well? Or does a decrease in grad students open up any opportunities for undergraduates (since they don’t have to be supported by research grant money)?
With funding down, there’s limited money for material & supplies, lab operating expenses (equipment maintenance and repair, overhead like utilities and janitorial services), new equipment, use fees (for access to shared equipment like large scale computer processing, a MRI facility used in neuroscience research, a level 1 clean room, etc), and just lab upkeep in general…so it’s affecting undergrad access to research too.
Plus there actually needs to be someone in the lab to supervise any undergrads because they aren’t fully trained in lab protocols and safety procedures. Typically this what the lab manager does, but if you don’t have funding for a lab manager…
PIs have had to scale back the number and scope of their research projects. Or shut them down entirely. Fewer projects = less opportunities for research for both grad and undergrad students
As a HS student you really have no idea what being a physician entails or if you would like it. So, I would encourage you to get patient facing experience. Some options depending on your age/state rules: EMT, CNA/asst CNA, hospital volunteer, hospice/assisted living home volunteer and things of that nature. You don’t need shadowing or research when you are in HS. Good luck.
So to answer your questions. I was the president of my high school health club. That got me a job in high school in the OT/PT department of a major local hospital . I actually had face time with patients assisting the therapists. I went to meetings about patient’s with the staff when I was able to. I just listened and absorbed as much as I could.
I worked in another hospital as an orderly shortly after and during college. Getting people and taking them to radiology from the ER
Taking patients from the floors to the OR etc. Since the ER doc’s knew I wanted to specialize in lower extremity they let me take out a nail from someone’s foot. It was amazing. Lol. (patient thought the doctor was doing it).
So see what opportunities there are locally. Even if you’re volunteering. It’s a great way to see if this “really “interests you.
How you handle situations also…. I had to take someone from high school to the OR for a nose job. She was so embarrassed. I was able to talk to her and make her relaxed. I never told anyone as I promised her. She told me afterwards that talking to me really calmed her down since she was nervous to begin with.
Other idea of face-to-face type activities would be thing like volunteering to assist with Special Olympics or working as a counselor at a day or sleep away camp for children with various types of disabilities (physically disabled, mentally ill/autistic, medically fragile, intellectually disabled, etc). These type of volunteer positions let you discover if you can be comfortable around people who have serious health problems/physical limitations.
Another place to look for volunteer positions is at a nursing homes. The elderly are the largest consumers of medical care and will represent a large portion of your patient population if you become a physician. Learning if you can be comfortable being around elderly people, especially those with dementia and/or physical limitations/disabilities will help you discover if medicine really is something you want to do.
Even working a customer service-type job is useful since medicine is actually a service job.
Lifeguarding, retail sales, counter food sales, restaurant host, restaurant waitstaff.
These job teach teamwork, time management , how to interact with work peers/subordinates/superiors, how to deal with difficult customers—all skills you’ll need as a doctor.
2 Likes