Its basically the title of my thread
Unless you are applying to BS/MD or BS/DO programs, any volunteering or shadowing etc won’t be looked at that you did in high school (unless you continue it in college).
In high school…get the best grades you can get. Position yourself for perhaps significant merit aid for undergrad so that you have money to pay for medical school which will be about $100,000 a year or likely more since you are 7 years away minimally from being in medical school.
You will need four years of science, four years of English, 4 years if social studies, 4 years of math, and completion of level 3 or 4 of foreign language. And an arts course in many places. Your school counselor should make sure you are meeting your HS grad requirements.
If you plan to apply to BS/MD and BS/DO programs, then yes, you should plan to shadow doctors, do volunteer work with underserved populations, do some patient facing medical work.
You are in 9th grade. I personally think you are putting the cart before the horse here. Lots could change between now and even when you finish high school.
And also…every single person who thinks they want to be a doctor MUST have a plan B because most will not get accepted to any medical schools.
And pro tip…if you do get to the interview stage with medical school, you don’t want to hone in on any one specialty.
@WayOutWestMom might have something to add.
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@thumper1 gave you some good advice.
Unless you are planning on applying to BA/MD or BA/DO programs, what you need to do now is prepare yourself academically to do well in college. Having a strong background in science classes (yes, even physics!) and mathematics will help prepare you for the challenging college science and math classes you’ll need to apply to medical school.
Learning a foreign language is helpful because many of your future patients may not speak English. Spanish is especially useful for future doctors.
Medicine is a service profession. If you have the time and are inclined that way, doing community service volunteer work with people who are from a background different than yourself is helpful. Think about volunteering with the elderly, the unhoused, the newly immigrated (especially if you can speak a language other than English) or with those who are socio-economically disadvantaged. Many worship communities offer opportunities to help others who are less fortunate than yourself through soup kitchens and food pantries. You can also look for volunteer opportunities at local nursing homes, with Special Olympics, at summer camps for children with disabilities, or enrichment or tutoring programs for disadvantaged kids. Big Brothers/BigSisters has programs for high schoolers who are willing to mentor an elementary school student.
If you live in a state that allows those under 18 to earn a junior EMT certification, you can do that once you turn 16. Although you won’t be able to work as a EMT, you may be able to ride along as volunteer EMT with your local fire dept or rescue squad and get a first hand look at one facet of medicine.
One thing to keep in mind though, any activities you complete during high school don’t “count” for medical school applications. Med schools want to see more recent ECs, not something you did 4 to 8 years ago. But doing some of these things in high school can help you decide if you really want to pursue a career in medicine.
Also you may want to think about what other things you might like to do as a career. Most pre-med hopefuls will not end up going to med school. Only about 5% of college freshmen who say they want to be doctors actually finish all the required coursework and get accepted into med school.
You likely don’t know just how many different careers there are in health care. Do you know was a speech-language pathologist does? A occupational therapist? An audiologist? A cardiovascular technologist? A surgical technician? An anesthesiologist assistant? A biostatistician?
Here’s a website to look through to learn about other possible healthcare careers:
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Excellent advice above. It’s hard to find a doctor to shadow at your age unless you have some connection. But the key to all the above is doing something that is meaningful to you. Don’t do it if you think it would help your application to college. Most doctors want to help others. Find something that has meaning that helps others. How can you help your community?
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