Medicine from Georgia Tech

WayOutWestMom
Sat, 01 Feb 2020 17:30:02 +0000

@“Amberlanya Herwana”

I want to correct. few misperceptions about what it takes to get admitted to med school.

1. you don’t need to do research AT A MED SCHOOL during undergrad. In fact you don’t need to do research at all. Per AMCAS’ annual surveys of med school admission offices, research is the least important EC for a med school applicants. Stellar research with first author publications won’t gain anyone an acceptance to med school unless they also have physician shadowing, clinical exposure, non-medical community service w/ the disadvantaged and leadership. The only med schools that care about research are research-intensive med schools–and even those accept students without research experience all the time.

2. you don’t need to shadow doctors at a med school. Any doctor (MD or DO) with any type of practice is fine so long as you include some primary care physicians while shadowing

3. you don’t need to do your clinical exposure experience at a hospital, and especially not at an academic (medical school associated) hospital. Public health clinics/county health clinics, nursing homes, rehab hospitals, hospice centers, stand-alone surgical centers, Planned Parenthood, Healthcare for the Homeless, summer camps for disabled children, suicide or rape crisis hotlines, etc----these are all also very acceptable as sites for clinical exposure activities.

See: p 14 https://www.aamc.org/system/files/c/2/462316-mcatguide.pdf

tl;dr–you don’t need to attend a undergrad with an adjacent medical school in order to develop a strong application for medical school.