What activities should I do in college to boost my medical school application?
I'm going to be a freshman in college next year and I want to get a good start to make my medical school application in a few years qualified but also interesting #medschool #medical-school #med-school #doctor #hospital-and-healthcare #healthcare #college #extracirriculars
3 answers
Suman’s Answer
Hi Allison! Good question. Some things you might want to think about:
1) Whether rightly or wrongly, a lot of medical schools care about research. Therefore active involvement in biological/medical research as an undergrad --- or even a name on a paper --- can be a good thing.
2) At least when I was an undergrad, medical schools liked people who had interests outside of the sciences (though of course you need good grades). It was actually very helpful that I was a philosophy major for example. Excelling at music or athletics, etc. can have the same effect.
3) Public service of some kind. If your work is somehow related to medicine (I worked with a child with an autism-spectrum disorder) all the better.
4) Your fellow students and guidance personnel will be good sources of information as well.
These are just a few tips. Ultimately people should go into medicine/medical research because they really care about other people. Nevertheless, admissions is a bit of a game, as I'm sure you are already aware.
Good luck!
Richard’s Answer
Try to find opportunities to pursue research.
Volunteer at your local hospital or low-income clinic. Ask physicians, PAs or other clinical providers if you can shadow them.
During college study for and complete the MCAT. Devote an entire summer to studying for the MCAT and consider paying for a prep course if you can afford it.
My son used MCAT Complete 7-Book Subject Review 2019-2020: Online + Book + 3 Practice Tests (Kaplan Test Prep) Kaplan Test Prep
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It was about $140 and he achieved his goal score.