I will be attending UCLA in the fall as a freshman and wanted to make my game plan for the next 4 years for getting into top medical schools, specifically Stanford Medical School. People say it’s hard to get into medical as it is, and while I am sure that is true, I don’t want my goals to be small and limited to “oh I hope some med school takes me.” I want to be the best, prepare for the best schools, and work for it. With that being said, what types of students does a school like Stanford look for? I know the MCAT and GPA are the baselines. The MCAT has changed so the scoring is from 472-528 and I’m just starting to wrap my head around it so i think a 505+ is good? I don’t have a sense of the scoring yet. In regards to GPA, I’ve heard it should be 3.9+ if you want to be competing with the top 5%.
Other than those two things, can someone please tell me what types of profiles fits those who attend the best medical schools? What sets those people apart? Examples of extracurriculars, volunteering, and activities that catch the attention of the admissions committee. I’ve heard that they are looking for “good people”, hence the change in the MCAT which incorporates more Psych/Soc. So that basically means someone who is not only good at studying and getting scores but someone who demonstrates that they care and will make good doctors (in addition to having the good scores). I’m not really sure how they are going to measure that, but that’s where I need the guidance.
For anyone who is already in medical school or made it to a med school like Stanford or Harvard, can you please share your experience with me? Any help to make a game plan/any tips will be greatly appreciated!
Why must it be Stanford or Harvard?
MDs get paid based on their specialty and not based on the medical school they went to.
Go to the cheapest option - usually your state schools - Harvard and Stanford will not be cheap.
While it is great to plan ahead. Do not forget the “NOW”. Explore and enjoy your years at UCLA, work hard, have fun and do things you enjoy. Each person’s experience is different. Make your own path and network. Good luck to you.
Try not to get too attached to any one medical school. Med school admissions are more competitive than even elite college admissions. In 2014, only 43% of medical school applicants were accepted into any medical school. All med schools in the U.S. are great, and if you want to be a doctor, any med school is a good choice.
Stanford says this about the students they’re looking for:
Stanford School of Medicine utilizes a holistic review of the applicant pool each year. The School of Medicine seeks candidates who want to transform the fields of medicine and biomedical sciences, whose personal journey and accomplishments show strong evidence for originality, creativity, and a capacity for independent, critical thinking, who are academically ready to succeed at Stanford and whose personal qualities will serve them well in our profession.
They provide more information about their prerequisites [url=http://med.stanford.edu/md-admissions/how-to-apply/academic-requirements.html]here[/url], and there are some profiles of some of their students [url=https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/browse?affiliations=capMdStudent]here[/url]. Just at a quick glance, many of them seem to have taken some time between undergrad and med school; a few have master’s degrees (and one I saw had a PhD). It seems like you would need to distinguish yourself not just as someone who wants to be a physician, but someone who wants to change the face of medicine - become a clinical scientist making medical discoveries; planning to make some revolution in patient care; wanting to become a regional or national leader in some specialty…etc.
These are things like volunteering at hospitals or clinics, perhaps going abroad to volunteer for health/medical-related things there, tutoring - basically, community service. Demonstrations of leadership are good, too, especially if you an connected it to how you’d become a leader in medicine. TO be successful, though, I think you should be the type of person who already likes to do those things and would do them regardless of whether it would get you into medical school. If you are interested in becoming a clinical scientist, assisting some life sciences professors in research is a good idea. There are also lots of summer programs that are designed for med school hopefuls - they often combine research and shadowing at the same time.
It is not just good student or certain type of student, your personality and goals may match what specific Med. School is offering and it may not. Are you up to bending your personality and personal goals for a specific school? How do you know the details of the their program until you at least attend an interview? My D. could not decide even after interviews. She had to go to Second look events at both of her finalist Med. Schools and her choice FLIPPED
AFTER the Second look event.
You are NOT even at college yet! It is way way too early for you to focus on couple Med. Schools. You will have to achieve a lot of intermediate goals before you will be able to compile the list of Med. Schools to apply, let alone to make a decision which one to attend. Do not waste your time now. Just focus on academics for now and have a plan on how to achieve an A in every single class at college. Then your next step would be to get engaged with some medical ECs, then plan for MCAT in Junior year. After you have an idea about your stats and other stuff and develop personal criteria, only then you will be able to compile a list of Med. Schools to apply. Best wishes and enjoy your freshman year!
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I don’t want my goals to be small and limited to “oh I hope some med school takes me.”
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Uh…that would not be a “small and limited” goal.
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I will be attending UCLA in the fall as a freshman and wanted to make my game plan for the next 4 years for getting into top medical schools, specifically Stanford Medical School.
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At this point, this all just a parlor game. A year from now you could be posting about your C’s in Gen Chem and whether all chances for any med school are now dashed.
Some of your ECs may be done during school year. Summer positions are harder to get into. Everybody’s situation in this respect is different, do whatever you could in your specific environment. The benefits of long term internship at your college is that it may result in great LOR from the person in charge of the Research lab.
And keep in mind that all As are the goal, but first, do not get discouraged if it does mot happen and second, all As are still no guarantee that certain Med. School will invite you to interview. Some will still reject or ignore your application. So, applying widely and staying cool are the only appropriate options for you at the end. That is if you have enough of everything to apply.
Actually, an ALL A student for STANFORD med school is almost a must. You may have a B in non required science classes, otherwise your hope for STANFORD med school is mostly dashed, unless you are hooked. I say this because I have inside information about the school. My friend work for the med school, she has not seen any GPA lower than 3.95 and mostly 4.0 students under her review.
You have to ignore those published GPAs about STANFORD med school.
@artloversplus I don’t plan on having a GPA under 4.0. Obviously, no one plans to do badly. Which is why in my very first post, I already stated that I know having the best MCAT score and highest GPA is the minimum. I just need ideas or little sparks so I can get started on my own - to be efficient in college and stand out.
Everyone competing at the top shadows doctors, does research, helps the needy, tries to study abroad, gets all A’s, does well on the MCAT, volunteers etc. Everyone. Things like those are just so standard and I’ve done half of those in high school because I naturally like to do it, so of course I’ll be doing all of that in college. But there has to be more to that. There has to be something that sets people apart. And that’s what I don’t get. How do people accomplish setting themselves apart? Now, I got into UCLA where almost 100k people applied this year which means I did something right to be different. Now I have to step it up a notch. Actually…many notches to get into med school. I just need a starting point.
The number of seats at Stanford at one time used to be 80 but when their rank went up from 5 to 2, more people stared accepting and driving up the number of students. I believe Stanford wants to keep the class size at 90-95 but they got over a 100 last year.
While all As might be a must, all As do not guarantee an interview invitation at all, not only at Stanford, but basically at any Med. School. You absolutely have to do your best, but then you got to apply widely to get in ANYWHWERE, yes, it is YOUR ultimate goal, TO GET ACCEPTED BY ANY MED. SCHOOL, you may not agree with it, but you better face this fact.
