who gets in? advice please

Bigredmed
Tue, 12 Sep 2006 18:06:56 +0000

There are too many factors that go into even applying to medical school to really say that only the top X students are capable of handling med school.

For some, motivation in HS is non-existant, they are planning to go to the state school nearby and getting a 24 is enough for admissions there. Others are able to get the best grades in the class without trying, and certainly seem capable of making it to medical school, but when they get that first test they fail (or their first B in a class) in college it causes them to turn tail and change their major to business. There are certainly plenty of people who are capable students who have no desire to enter medicine. Further their are also plenty of people who are smart enough to go to medical school but lack the associated personality to really make it a truly viable option.

There are also people who start off pre-med but find a new passion and something they prefer even more than medicine.

There are just too many factors that go into it all. And even if you could quantify them all in hs students, actual med school admissions are extremely ****ed up in my opinion - I know too many people who applied and were rejected that were more than capable and would have been great doctors.

If it helps, of my graduating class (of ‘01) of 434, I currently only know of 2 people who are in medical school: Myself and one pretty good friend of mine. We were both top 10%, involved, in multiple AP classes over jr and sr years (both english exams, US history, I took US Govt’, she took Calc AB). But there were certainly people who were ranked higher than I was in HS that could have done well in med school. And even class rank is a poor predictor. My valedictorian ended up getting way into cocaine and ran up huge gambling debts and disappeared for about 10 months after stealing about a total of $12000 from his roommates over the course of a school year - not even his parents knew where he was. Things happen.