<p>It’s dramatically too early to answer this question.</p>
<p>You need to have some kind of idea what your MCAT score will be. They do, as all standardized tests do, have a correlation with your MCAT score, but the correlation may not be all that high.</p>
<p>You need to have some idea what your GPA will be, and your freshman year is not a very good indicator, especially as a biomedical engineer.</p>
<p>Your undergraduate school matters some, but not nearly as much as
these two factors matter.</p>
<p>Hey, thanks for the advice but yeah its just that I know I will do good as I am doing well at least relative to my peers. However, a more powerful reason for changing schools is the fact that I do not like it; it is just that the advisor for the Pre-med program is very apathetic towards you if you are not a Chem bio major. That is why I do not want to stay and seeking schools with better reputation for Med school. At first I decided to go to Stevens thinking I was going to be a Mech eng. but changed ideas and therefore I am also considering changing college to better suit the idea of going to Med school. Any other advice as where to go would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>hey, I am a UC Berkeley freshman thinking about medical school… the thing is I am only 17 right now and I will be 19-20 (my summer of junior year) when i will apply to med school. Do you guys think this will hurt my chances of getting into medical school.</p>
<p>long answer…The average age of med school matriculants is 24…applicants that are straight out of college at the age of 22 are in the minority and it is usually more normal for someone to take a couple of years off after college. I think this would be a very worthwhile consideration for you taking into account your age…I think med schools might not like your percieved immaturity just from looking at ur age.</p>
<p>It seems unfair though. I mean, if i was mature enough to get into a tough college like UC Berkeley, and mature enough to study and good grades/MCAT score, why would i not be mature enough to go to medical school.</p>
<p>I’m not saying if you have a good GPA and good MCATs you will not make it anywhere because of your age…i’m just saying that if you wait a little you could maximize your chances. its ultimately up to you though, taking into consideration how well you actually do in the MCATs and how good your gpa remains.</p>
<p>oh man i thought being younger would be great because i would be younger when i finished med school and residency, but now i am very discouraged and disheartened</p>
<p>I don’t know anything specifically, but as an applicant at the moment I can, in fact, tell you that I find the numbers previously stated in this thread… counterintuitive at best. I know that as an undergraduate from elite private schools, your chances of being admitted decrease as you take time away from school. One admissions officer has told me that there is some (mild) concern about students becoming rusty over time.</p>
<p>I’d double check the average age = 24 number. It sounds a little bit on the high side to me (I’d have guessed closer to 22.5-23), but I’m indisposed (i.e. no access to information) at the moment.</p>
<p>And even assuming that what everybody says on the thread is true - which it might well be - it still doesn’t mean you’re at a disadvantage. Remember, they’re not talking about age - they’re talking about taking time off after school.</p>
<p>Plus, aren’t you only one year younger anyway? I highly doubt that will matter in the least.</p>
<p>The advantage solely based on age isn’t nearly as great as that conferred to a URM so no need to worry about it.</p>
<p>It’s not so much that a med school prefer older applicants simply because they’re older. It’s that they typically have done things since graduating from undergrad (like getting a master’s degree or working w/ a biotech company, etc.) that demonstrate they are more mature.</p>
<p>will it get you higher pay in doctor field or just better chance at med school?</p>
<p>when i graduate from undergrad i will be 20 years old, so I am considering doing my masters before medical school, i really dont know, but i just dont want to go into low paying biology field</p>
<p>hi … this is, I suppose, for anyone who might be able to answer me. I spent my college years in the Marines and am now about to graduate from CU-Boulder with a psych degree. I’ve been tailoring my education so I could go to grad school in neuroscience but didn’t get into the three schools I applied to (berk-stan-ucsf). I was stuck to applying in that region due to girlfriend-job related issues and am frankly not too surprised to not get into those top programs.</p>
<p>Now I’m debating taking the MCAT in August and applying to med school out there (stanford & ucsf). I would be going into neurology in lieu of neuroscience that way–still related to what I want to do. I certainly have the GPA for it and all of the classes required (well, i’m missing 1 semester of gen-bio-lab but I’m sure my numerous other bio labs could make up for that). I obviously haven’t taken the MCAT yet but am pretty sure I would fare decently given my track record and the fact that I’ve seen the sort of material on there from the free test online. I don’t, however, have any sort of extra-curricular work in the field. Quite frankly, I put myself through college and work every free moment that I’m not studying or in class (hence the bloated GPA). Do you think this sort of situation would help or hinder my application with the ACs? I’m really set on Stanford or UCSF now and think I have all the numbers for them (except for the MCAT, which I would have to take). Also, does taking it in August allow me enough time to get the application off before the standard October deadline? It seems sort of silly that they only offer it in April and August if the August one wouldn’t suffice to report your score by the deadline for most colleges. </p>
<p>ECs are important and it will hurt your application though you can either try to explain it really well or start volunteering at a hospital now!</p>
<p>As for the august MCATs, it will get to the med schools in time but you will have to apply without knowing your MCAT scores which doesnt seem like a prob in your case since you have already decided where you are going to apply.</p>
<p>Honestly though, dont be surprised if you go through the process and end up with nothing. Its very competitive and some of it as with any admissions process is based on luck, so applying to only two schools for not so good reasons doesnt give you the best shot at ending up in med school where most barely accept 10% of applicants.</p>
<p>yeah, i guess realistically i should probably take the mcat in august so i can focus on it over the summer, work in a related field for a year, then apply to med school as a much stronger applicant. i just don’t like waiting around and there’s no way i could take it in april and be prepared. thanks for the advice.</p>
<p>One of the key criteria that we’re told med schools look at is desire for medicine - desire to treat patients, or change the world through research. I’m a little surprised that your reasoning for applying to medical school was that you got rejected by PhD programs and are looking for something similar!</p>
<p>On top of that, if you are really, truly committed only to attending one of two medical schools - I applied to 25, and that’s a very normal number - then you’re in pretty serious trouble, no matter how strong your application is. This also speaks to a lack of commitment: you don’t want medicine, you want a school in the area.</p>
<p>I’d be very wary were I you - you may be very qualified, but medical schools are not just looking for qualified applicants. They want kids who care a great deal about becoming doctors, and it’s a hard road even for those of us who are 100% committed.</p>
<p>Mike,
I’ve meditated on it a bit and decided it would be overly brash to jump into medical school just because “I can.” I’ve been making fun of pre-meds and their over-competitiveness for the last several years and it’s funny that now I’m considering it … I see what all the fuss was about. I guess I came off wrong and made it sound like the ONLY reason I would go to med school is because I was rejected from a few PhD programs. I really want to go into biomedical research and see an MD as another way to achieve my goal. But I suppose the proper thing to do is to spend the next year getting some clinical experience and determining if I could really commit to that life, then consider my options. Research is a relatively small part of being a doctor as I’m finding out and I agree that I need to be committed to the other aspects as well. Besides, my application will be much stronger if I decide that I do want to do this after spending a year getting experience.</p>
<p>That sounds like a good plan, scotty. My own premed path came about strangely, too, so I’m certainly no stranger to non-hardcore-since-my-first-toy-stethoscope premeds.</p>
<p>I wish you all the best, no matter how intense California schools may turn out to be.</p>