<p>Does secondary school record matter at all when applying to med school?</p>
<p>Nope, unless you have some sort of unique thing you did that you want to bring up in your interview or personal statement. I shadowed an orthopedic doc for 8 months starting in Jan of my HS sr. year, I mentioned that in my Personal statement and it was brought up by one of my interviewers. The AMCAS specifically asks for only Post-Secondary record.</p>
<p>There is some stuff that says WashU in STL looks at either standardized test scores or class rank from HS, but that’s rare.</p>
<p>Pardon my ignorance, but what exactly is “shadowing” and how do you get a person to shadow with.</p>
<p>Basically you just follow the physician around and watch what they do, ask questions. Looking back I realize how little I knew but it was still a good experience. </p>
<p>Ask around. Maybe start with your primary care doc and see if he or she knows anyone who would be willing to take students. Or if there is some particular specialty that you want to see, they may be able to direct you to some MD in that field they know (rather than you just randomly calling any doc in the phone book). You might also try talking to the volunteer resources/liason person at your nearby hospital about either volunteering or if they could help you with shadowing.</p>
<p>How much does how you did freshmen year matter? If I made say a 3.2 but the next 3 years I can make it up to 3.8 or so will it be a hinderance?</p>
<p>8 months, isnt that overkill, didnt you end up seeing the same procedures over and over again? how many hours were you shadowing a week?</p>
<p>Who are you replying to?</p>