finishing up my first year as premed, some concerns

Colleges & Universities University of California - Los Angeles
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<p>Well, I just finished my first year as a MIMG major with the intentions of med school. I’ve been taking my lower division premajor requisites and did well in a lot of the weeder classes I’ve taken (chem, math, life sciences). </p>

<p>I have some concerns about what I actually need to do and how well I need to do it to be competitive for graduate schools. I talked to my counselor and she basically told me to do my best, etc and did not give me solid, discrete answers. </p>

<p>Some background info:</p>

<p>My GPA overall for this year is around 3.82. I’m currently actively involved in one of the university’s most active social fraternities and plan to continue to do so. I also have a job which is around 15-20 hours a week which I plan to hold on to. I’m also in several honor societies (ALD, PES, UCLA honors, National Society of Collegiate Scholars) and a program that tutors and mentors disadvantaged youth. </p>

<p>I really want to do some research or lab work or something along those lines but don’t really know where to start.</p>

<p>So my questions are:
What GPA do I need to maintain to be competitive for medical schools (mainly in California, as I do not see myself leaving the state)? </p>

<p>Is my current GPA likely to drop or go up as I finish up my premajor courses and take more GEs and upper division courses? (I haven’t really taken any GEs yet except for A&A10)</p>

<p>What other extracurricular activities should I pick up and do they even matter? I’m just really concerned if I’m on the right track and not sure what I should be doing with whatever free time I have. Among the activities I am doing, I do enjoy most of them and have learned a lot from them (my mentoring program, fraternity, and job). </p>

<p>Any thoughts, tips, or input would be greatly appreciated.</p>

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<p>

If you’re interested in med school, an unofficial requirement is that you have exposure to doctors and the medical field so you can show you know what you’re getting into. The medical committee doesn’t want to admit someone who finds 3 years into med school (when you start clinical rotations) that they don’t like doctoring after all. Search the forum for posts by bigredmed, a med student who I think is finishing med school this year, and he talks about this. </p>

<p>Also you should get a book or two about med school admissions; they will talk about the evaluation process as well as giving advice on how to be a strong candidate. See also the info at <a href=“http://career.ucla.edu/Students/GradProfSchCounseling/PreHealthCareerServices/Medicine.aspx[/url]”>http://career.ucla.edu/Students/GradProfSchCounseling/PreHealthCareerServices/Medicine.aspx&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>you should really post this in the med school forum. Lots of good information there.</p>

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<p>go to studentdoctor</p>