<p>Hi! I want to summarize it quickly and shortly.Im currently juniour in turkey.GPA of 2.8.I want to go to med school in usa.ıs it better for me to go a moderate pre-med or going to cc and than transferring to a big university like ucla?</p>
<p>Hey everyone I had a silly question about awards and stuff we got in high school.</p>
<p>I am going to be a freshman in UCLA and I am planning on going to medical school so I was wondering if the National AP Scholar Award has any value other than feeling good about it.</p>
<p>Because by the time you get this award you would already have been accepted into a college. So has anyone been able to use this award (as well as National Honor society award and california scholarship federation award) during their college careers in any way?</p>
<p>Thanks for your help guys!</p>
<p>@smartalic34 What do you mean a 3.7/30 won’t get you into Stanford? Are you saying that Stanford only accepts medical school applicants from top notch undergrad institutions?</p>
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<p>No it does not have any value (even for undergrad admissions); it’s a marketing deal by CB.</p>
<p>would anyone be willing to give me some advice? i’m in a bit of a pickle, jr Biochem major at a respected state school</p>
<p>Ask away, but you’ll get more responses if you post in the main pre-med forum with an appropriate thread title.</p>
<p>Hi,</p>
<p>This is my first semester in college. I took two sequence Math course. It is slightly more challenging that three sequence calculus. I got a B+ on the course. Is that bad start? I am just worried. </p>
<p>Please, I would appreciate your thoughts on this matter.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>What do you think isolates a person from the pool of all students? Majority of the students will probably have 3.5 and above gpa, very high mcat score, leadership positions, volunteering experience, community service and basically everything… so what do you think makes a student stand out for the admission committee?</p>
<p>First of all, the applicant has to match the school’s mission. An applicant with only minimal community service who is interested in cosmetic dermatology is not going to fare well at a school whose mission it is to provide primary care practioners for its state residents. Likewise, an applicant with only 1 summer’s worth of low-level research experience isn’t going be taken seriously at a high powered research school.</p>
<p>Besides that an applicant needs to express themselves well orally and in writing, be personable and kind and not arrogant or condescending, have good interpersonal skills, have a real passion for medicine and have enough outside-of-medicine interests that the adcomm reading the application will say–Wow! Sounds like an interesting person. I wouldn’t mind eating lunch with this individual once a week for the next 4 years. </p>
<p>The successful applicant will bring something unique to the school to add to the diversity of experiences of the students enrolled there. </p>
<p>What that uniqueness is–that’s all up to you. There are no one-size-fits-all answers, no checklists you can tick off.</p>
<p>Hello 
New to the premed forums as I just entered college this Fall. I go to a good state California university and so far my first year has been great. I initially came into college only planning to major in something biology related, but after taking a few history classes, I’ve decided to also major in history.</p>
<p>My main concern is that a double major in History and Microbiology will not only hurt my GPA, but also take away some time I have for jobs, research, personal time, etc. My science GPA is 4.00 and my cumulative is 3.92 so far. I’ve gotten A- in my past two history classes, but I’m hoping to finally get an A this quarter. Personally, and I hope I’m not being too optimistic, I’m planning to maintain around 3.9 - 4.0 GPA range when I graduated. I’m confident in my science courses, but I’m just not sure how much of a boost my history classes will give to my application. I know that it probably won’t be a lot but I actually really enjoy History in college now (as opposed to in high school). Also, on a more obscure topic, does anybody have advice/experience on doing research in the humanities/social sciences (history for me obviously) and how med schools read into that?</p>
<p>Shirafune,
I believe that you are on the right track. You are pursuing your interests, and it is important, UG is a right time for it, you will not have opportunities later. Most of my D’s pre-med friends had combo of major(s)/minor(s), one was medically related, others in the area of personal interests. My D. has graduated with Music Minor and it was enriching experience that let her meet others outside of her pre-med circle.<br>
On the other note, not sure about research in the humanities/social sciences, maybe somebody else has an experience. As far as I know, pre-meds around my D. were in Medically related Research, D’s was multi-year commitment with several great benefits, like great LOR, nomination for Phi Betta Kapa, great personal connection and support. She was in many other EC’s primarily at her college, there were practically no opportunities in our home town during summers, a bit of volunteering if you are persistent in your search. But the last depend on your location.<br>
So, I would say pursue opportunities at college, continue with your great efforts in academics, if you have something at home during summers, good for you!</p>
<p>If you’re worried that your GPA and/or ECs will suffer then why double major? Why not do a minor or just take some history classes for interest?</p>
<p>Also, since getting classes at Calif publics can be hard, are you sure that you can even complete two majors in four years? You don’t want to be one of those Calif kids who gets to his fourth year with a double major and still can’t graduate with either one. </p>
<p>To be safe, make sure that you complete the req’ts for one major and the premed classes. When time and schedule permit, add in a history class for interest.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that med schools won’t care at all about the double major, so don’t risk your chances.</p>
<p>BTW…my son who is graduating TODAY, took a few of his “interest” classes his senior year so those classes weren’t even included on his med school apps. However, his med school app did include his add’l Spanish classes that he took for interest and to improve fluency.</p>
<p>I understand interest but why deliberately sabotage a perfect GPA with a second major?</p>
<p>While some people might have more time in senior year, it did not happen to my D. First, allow yourself time for interviews, so schedule less credit hours in senior year. Also, allow yourself to be flexible, Med. Schools might change / add requirements AFTER you apply and already registered for your senior fall semester. That is exactly what happened to my D. She had to drop one of her minors being only 2 classes short of completion and totally change her schedule and “walk in” into some fall classes. Thank goodness, her pre-med advisory was on top of things, warned her ahead of time, helped with re-scheduling classes, very supportive. Not every school has such a supportive pre-med environment. Any way, I would not wait until your senior year to pursue your interests. One thing i liked was mentionning of Spanish. Having some degree of Spanish and another language(s) migh open additional opportunities at Med. School and might result in some positive written comments from superiors. It has happened to my D. She took only one semester of college Spanish as required by her major anyway. However, she was able to place right into 3rd year of Spanish and it ended up being one of her best UG classes, she could speak after it.<br>
I do not understand the notion of sabotaging a perfect GPA. The OP is doing great. Yes, my D. ended up with 3 “A-”, all in her minors. So? The benefit outweight the 3.98 vs. 4.0. She develped a great voice singing in duets with Music majors who have had a previous voice training, she got to record her own music in a real recording studio, she was so excited about opportunity, why to deprive yourself of that? BTS, major or minor or just taking few classes here and there, all grades are counted in GPA. And, yes, it was very challenging to sing from the sheet of paper (no instrument) in duet with somebody who already possessed a great voice before starting at college and be able to hold your own and receive an A- for your efforts (no single voice lesson in her life). So, you learn what you do about challenges, basically just work harder. No matter what you do in UG, Medical School will be much much harder, completely overhelming and you will have to meet this challenge. Might as well get used to it.</p>
<p>If all history classes end up being A-, then the GPA can drop to 3.75.</p>
<p>I understand interest but why deliberately sabotage a perfect GPA with a second major?</p>
<p>Exactly! </p>
<p>One can take classes “for interest” without the discipline be a major or minor. That fact seems to get lost with some kids. They think that if they have some interest then they need to minor/major in that subject. No. Just take a few that interest you and that you know for sure that you’ll get an A in it. If you suspect that you might get an A- or B, then take it senior year. I doubt any med school would rescind an acceptance if the final transcript had an A- or B on it for senior year. </p>
<p>My son first had an interest in obtaining a minor in Spanish because he was nearly completely fluent as an incoming frosh. However, once he saw that the minor req’d several Spanish Lit classes, and he really only wanted to better his fluency, he “cherry picked” the Spanish classes that he felt would help him - including a Medical Spanish class. He realized that getting the minor wasn’t important to med schools at all. He did mention his Spanish fluency and med Spanish class in his app. </p>
<p>And, because he didn’t do the Spanish minor, he had room in his schedule for some Italian classes, which were just for fun.</p>
<p>Too much calculations has never worked for us.
OP has to decide, but there will be no time after UG to pusue the personal interests. Life gets very very busy and very financially challenging…</p>
<p>I suppose the misconception was that I intended taking on a history degree to better my chances of medical school. I am not looking for this history degree because it’ll help my application (I am well aware that it will do little to nothing, even possibly hurting my chances of getting in). I should have worded my first post differently. I came to this thread hoping for some insight for somebody that might have gone through the same thing. I am as much devoted to biology/medicine as I am to history, and I thought bringing up the topic of research in history would suggest just that. </p>
<p>So I guess the better question is how does this non-science double major play into the selection process. In the initial screening of numbers, would they consider it less important, equally important, or not even consider it at all. In the interview portion (or I guess any part of the process that involved actual humans), how likely would it influence their decision/image of me as an acceptance candidate? </p>
<p>I’m in the honors program at my university and get priority registration so getting classes won’t be a huge issue for me. I’m fairly confident that I’ll finish within four years (I’ve planned it out with my major advisors), but it’ll just be a moderate to heavy courseload.</p>
<p>“I suppose the misconception was that I intended taking on a history degree to better my chances of medical school.”</p>
<p>There is one school, Mt. Sinai, which seems to admit students in their sophomore year if they are pursuing humanities. This might impress them and in fact you can apply to them next year. Everyone else seems to be driven more by GPA than how hard your curriculum might be.</p>
<p>Here is what med schools are looking for. You should try to put more time there if you have the time.</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15889349-post221.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/15889349-post221.html</a></p>
<p>In the long run it won’t make a difference. Some schools might value it, some schools won’t care or devalue it and within those schools there will be people who disagree with the school’s general approach. I will provide you the only concrete example I can give based on applying to MD/PhD as a BS biology/BA classics double major. First, a tiny bit of background: depth and subject of study are a bigger factor in MD/PhD than MD (i.e. major very much does matter), and MD/PhD applicants are interviewed by more people (5-7) per school compared to MD (1-3).</p>
<p>I recently learned that at the admissions committee discussing my application, there was one faculty member who did not interview or meet me who was very vocal that my classics major indicated a lack of commitment to science and that I should be rejected. This was thankfully balanced by the fact that everyone who actually interviewed me gave me very good reviews and everyone decided to ignore the one faculty member who basically didn’t know anything about me.</p>