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Some of you may understand how I feel about this, many of you won't.
Like many kids growing up, I've always wanted to become a doctor, but during high school, I've learned that pre-med (aka Life sciences in Canada) was easy to get into but, it became really hard/it doesn't have many specialty courses until later years. And of course, the chances of ACTUALLY getting into a med school after taking life sci.
It was then I decided that I would become a nurse. I liked biology and chemistry, and I am generally a caring person. So now I am in a very good nursing program (First year nursing science student at Queen's University. One of the 3 best nursing programs in Ontario). There are A LOT of specialty (many are medical related courses), and I am really enjoying this program a lot.
First year so far, my courses are the following: Professional Nurse-Client relationship, Nutrition/Healthy Eating, Physiology, Anatomy, Microbiology and Psychology.
Medically, Microbiology, anatomy and physiology have taught me so much stuff. Now here is where it gets interesting. Those 3 courses, among others are what med school students will focus on during med school. And those 3 courses happen to be my favourite courses, to the point where I actually enjoy learning/memorizing them and I enjoy going to those lectures.
Then it hit me today. Should I prepare, and write the MCAT to get into med school? It just made sense because it is all of that I am so interested in, why don't I go further into it and become something greater?
Most of you would just say: Yes, but you have to realize the amount of work prep that goes into doing this. Applications, preparing for the test (this is the big one), getting certain prerequisites. And of course, the uncertainty of actually passing MCAT and getting into a med school.
Like every TLer out there, I do have a good intellect (Especially good at memorizing and understanding concepts) however, always underachieve. I do not have the work ethic currently to go through this process, but I figured, I know what it takes, and I know that I have the brains to do it, why not just grow a pair at some point and work at it? That's the big question mark at this point.
What I want from YOU, are the opinions. I know many of you are in university, and have friends that may be in med school or you are in med school yourselves.
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It just made sense because it is all of that I am so interested in, why don't I go further into it and become something greater?
From what I can infer, the only thing stopping you from trying is laziness/fear of failure?
Just do it.
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You won't know how you'll do until you give it a try! I take it you are going for a RN career at the moment?
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On October 26 2010 05:25 LonelyIslands wrote:
You won't know how you'll do until you give it a try! I take it you are going for a RN career at the moment?
Yes that is correct. The 4-year Bachelor of Nursing Science degree which allows me to write the RN exam.
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Calgary25986 Posts
On October 26 2010 05:24 Cambium wrote:Show nested quote +It just made sense because it is all of that I am so interested in, why don't I go further into it and become something greater? From what I can infer, the only thing stopping you from trying is laziness/fear of failure? Just do it.
Same. I read the story as "I really wanted to be A+, but then I found out it's really hard. So now I'm C, but that's pretty good, right?"
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The pre-reqs for med school in terms of courses aren't really that bad, but you have to realize that some of them have little to nothing to do anything med related. For example, there's organic chemistry - you're going to have to take two semesters of this, and while I don't know how good you are at chem, this is usually an incredibly hard course. There's also courses like physics, inorganic chemistry, calculus, etc. you're going to have to take care of that have nothing to do with physiology and whatnot. So prepare yourself to take courses you might have absolutely no interest in.
On the bright side, organic chemistry is probably the toughest of the pre-reqs, usually physics and calculus are stuff that has been taught in AP courses in high school (but obviously in college things are generally harder), and as such, the pre-reqs aren't that hard to get out of the way.
As for the MCAT, I'm not sure you should worry about that all too much at the moment. Obviously, you should know that it is there, but the MCAT is a standardized test like any other. With enough effort and willingness, it is possible to get a good score. Of course, that depends on where you want to go, but that's not too important at the moment, unless you're interested in getting into really top-tier med schools.
You should know that medical school is very, very hard to get into, and all the myths about it are not unfounded. Many schools have a below 5% acceptance rate, and top tier medical schools have around 3%. For example, in 2007 of the around 80 people from my school, Duke University, could were all rejected from Stanford Med. Duke's certainly not the best school in the nation, but it is still top 10 material for undergraduate studies. Therefore, getting into top medical school is a risky business a lot of the time, if you choose to aim that high. However, you should know that the majority of the students that apply to med school actually get in to a med school. It may not be the one they're hoping for, but they do get in.
Also, there are a lot of things that you should start doing in terms of extracurriculars if you want to apply. It would be good to do a lot of volunteer work during school and out of school. Lab work/internships are also really good to have of course. Summers are extremely important, and a lot of the time you're going to have to put down what you did over it, and playing SC2 is not a very viable option.
So basically, getting into medical school is a lot of work. A lot. Half the pre-meds that go to Duke switch out of pre-med after their first year. It's tough, but if you have the willingness to put yourself through that, then you should be fine.
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On October 26 2010 05:39 DarkOptik wrote:
The pre-reqs for med school in terms of courses aren't really that bad, but you have to realize that some of them have little to nothing to do anything med related. For example, there's organic chemistry - you're going to have to take two semesters of this, and while I don't know how good you are at chem, this is usually an incredibly hard course. There's also courses like physics, inorganic chemistry, calculus, etc. you're going to have to take care of that have nothing to do with physiology and whatnot. So prepare yourself to take courses you might have absolutely no interest in.
On the bright side, organic chemistry is probably the toughest of the pre-reqs, usually physics and calculus are stuff that has been taught in AP courses in high school (but obviously in college things are generally harder), and as such, the pre-reqs aren't that hard to get out of the way.
As for the MCAT, I'm not sure you should worry about that all too much at the moment. Obviously, you should know that it is there, but the MCAT is a standardized test like any other. With enough effort and willingness, it is possible to get a good score. Of course, that depends on where you want to go, but that's not too important at the moment, unless you're interested in getting into really top-tier med schools.
You should know that medical school is very, very hard to get into, and all the myths about it are not unfounded. Many schools have a below 5% acceptance rate, and top tier medical schools have around 3%. For example, in 2007 of the around 80 people from my school, Duke University, could were all rejected from Stanford Med. Duke's certainly not the best school in the nation, but it is still top 10 material for undergraduate studies. Therefore, getting into top medical school is a risky business a lot of the time, if you choose to aim that high. However, you should know that the majority of the students that apply to med school actually get in to a med school. It may not be the one they're hoping for, but they do get in.
Also, there are a lot of things that you should start doing in terms of extracurriculars if you want to apply. It would be good to do a lot of volunteer work during school and out of school. Lab work/internships are also really good to have of course. Summers are extremely important, and a lot of the time you're going to have to put down what you did over it, and playing SC2 is not a very viable option.
So basically, getting into medical school is a lot of work. A lot. Half the pre-meds that go to Duke switch out of pre-med after their first year. It's tough, but if you have the willingness to put yourself through that, then you should be fine.
Thank you for such an informative post.
And I also thank you for understanding how much work there is before going to med school/MCAT, which is why I am inquiring about it now, even though I am only a first year.
I am not actually looking to get into a top tier med school. I don't think Queen's university is a top-tier med school, let alone good. However, I do have a question. Even if the school may just have an average med school, is it still extremely hard to get into (like 5% acceptance)?
And as for extra curriculars, I am very glad that I volunteer at the town's largest most advanced hospital currently.
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To be perfectly honest, I'm afraid I don't know much about Canadian medical schools. I do know, however, that in the States that medical schools ranked in the top 50 have extremely low acceptance rates regardless of their rankings. It is always going to be below 10% and generally is going to be around 5-8% for any of the mid-tier med schools. The reason is because most med schools take only take 500-700 students, and you can probably imagine how many people apply.
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EPT
