Senior seeking guidance

[jaSteRdcX]

Hello, i'm a senior in highschool right now thinking about my future career options. I've considered being a doctor. I can't imagine myself doing anything else. Well i'm loaded up on the sciences and i'm taking hard classes right now. I didn't take AP sciences or math because i wanted to learn the way they teach them at the college level, but i am taking ap english. My classes that pertain to what i want to do are as follows..

math v, anatomy phys, chem b, physics b.

I have a decent gpa and i have a good sat and act to get into a 4 year college, i also played alot of sports and i'm in alot of clubs. This spring my doctor said i could shadow him and i'm thinking about volunteering at the local hospital. I have decent study habits but once i hit college i'm going hardcore student. I'm very dedicated to becoming a doctor. I think about it all the time. Any suggestions or tips on what i should be doing. I'm thinking about doing my pre med at OSU, OU, St. Mary's in texas or UT... Thanks :)

[AUCMD2006]

best advice is to NOT major in any of the "hard" sciences. do your pre med reqs and maybe take genetics and human anatomy as audit courses (not for credit) to help in med school but med schools are looking more and more at non science majors. in fact in my 2 years of clinicals with US med students only 1 was a "difficult" major, she was an electrical engineer everyone else has been a music, philosophy, education, history etc major.

most of all don;t beleive what your pre-med advisor tells you. med schools basically only care about having the best admission stats vs other med schools so get the absolutre highest GPA in undergrad you can in the easiest major then bust your butt on the pre reqs get good grades and take a mcat review course

all you gotta do is pick up newsweek from a few issues back to confirm all this that i have been saying for years they break down the number of applicants, acce3pted to med school by majors and talk about the huge shift in acceptance to non scince majors..they even say that non science majors score higher on the mcat

good luck

[jameslynton]

What AUCMD says is very true. Most hard science Profs "hate" premed students and do there best to mess them up. The premed advisors at most universities drew the short straw and consider the work advising pre-meds, doing grunt work to write req's and generally dealing with pre-med students who consider themselves as little entitled prima donna's and act like a horses rosetta.

The fact is the people who do the "best" on the MCAT are English & classics majors who took minimal science in undergrad!

So my advise is to major in something other than sciences. Major in something fun and easy.

The MCAT only test basic knowledge in chemistry - physics and Biology. They just use words and lots of verbiage to daze and confuse you. The verbal section test you on mastery of figuring out fine shades of meaning, writing tone and themes. It is the best predictor of medical school performance! Rock the verbal reasoning with a 12 or better and the medical world will be your oyster...

If you really want to take science. Audit them or take them pass/fail. Also remember most science Profs are an insecure lot for the most part because they are on the tail of the dog at most universities and on the short stick of the salary scale compared to the B-school profs in accounting and finance.