E-Book, Englisch, 400 Seiten, ePub
Thomas / Wagner / Funahashi Pre-Medicine
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-68420-509-7
Verlag: Thieme Medical Publishers
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
The Complete Guide for Aspiring Doctors
E-Book, Englisch, 400 Seiten, ePub
ISBN: 978-1-68420-509-7
Verlag: Thieme Medical Publishers
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 6 - ePub Watermark
The one-stop, comprehensive resource for students considering a career in medicine
In recent years, applying to and getting accepted to medical schools in the U.S. has become increasingly difficult. In 2020–2021, only 38% of the 53,370 students who applied to U.S. medical schools were accepted. For the most prestigious medical schools, the acceptance rate was just 1.4–2%. by Joel Thomas, Phillip Wagner, Ray Funahashi, and Nitin Agarwal is a comprehensive roadmap that guides aspiring physicians through the rigorous process of preparing for and getting into medical school in the U.S. By bringing together multiple authors with different life experiences and perspectives, this unique book has broad appeal to students from diverse backgrounds.
The text is organized by five sections: The Pre-Med Primer, Succeeding as a Pre-Medical Student, Applying to Medical School, Medical School and Career Insights, and an Appendix. This invaluable resource tackles challenging topics and addresses uncomfortable questions that necessitate engagement with multiple opposing viewpoints and careful data analysis. The first and foremost goal of this book is to provide essential information to individuals that need it to succeed in their pre-med and medical school journey.
Key Features
- Authors graduated from the U.S. News Top 20 medical schools and/or trained at a Doximity Top 20 residency program
- Demystifies the lengthy and confusing medical school application process, providing practical advice and evidence-based strategies for successfully tackling each step, starting in high school
- Provides readers with a realistic and honest picture of the daily challenges and rewards that aspiring physicians face—from pre-med to residency
This is a must-have resource for anyone who is considering a career in medicine. The no-holds-barred insights shared in this book will greatly optimize the chance of medical school applicants gaining admission to their top choice.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Fachgebiete
Weitere Infos & Material
Section I: The Pre-Med Primer
1. The 30,000-Foot View
2. What Medical Schools Look For
3. The Pre-Med Principles
4. The Types of Pre-Medical Students and Paths to Medical School
5. Building Your Narrative
6. Common Pre-Med Diseases and How to Treat Them
Section II: Succeeding as a Pre-Medical Student
7. Guaranteed Admission Programs and Early Assurance Programs
8. Schools, Majors, and More
9. Timing, Class Structure, and Personal Schedules
10. Obtaining a Solid GPA
11. Extracurriculars
12. Clinical Experiences
13. Shadowing
14. Volunteering
15. Research
16. Gap Years, Employment, Graduate Degrees, and Post-Baccalaureate Fellowships
17. Crushing the MCAT
18. Self-Care and Wellness
19. Finding Mentors
Section III: Applying to Medical School
20. The Big Picture
21. Before You Begin: Application Strength Analysis
22. Before You Begin: Application Cycle Prophylaxis
23. Letters of Recommendation
24. DO, MD, and International Schools
25. Dual-Degree Programs: MD/PhD, MPH, MBA, JD, and Others
26. Medical School Rankings
27. Making Your List: What Schools Do I Apply To?
28. Primary Application: AMCAS, AACOMAS, TMDSAS
29. Transcript Review
30. Activities and Meaningful Experiences
31. Personal Statement
32. Altus Suite: CASPer, Snapshot, and Duet
33. Secondary Application
34. Interviews
35. Interview Trail Travel and Attire
36. Wait-List and Update Letters
37. Financial Aid
38. Acceptance and Decisions: What Really Matters When Choosing the One School
39. Before and After Matriculation
40. Plan B and Reapplication
Section IV: Medical School and Career Insights
41. Real Talk on a Medical Career
42. Real Talk on the Medical School Experience
43. Real Talk on Succeeding in Medical School
44. A Peek at the Residency Application Process
45. A Day in the Life in Medicine
46. Nonclinical Careers
47. Stories of Inspiration
Section V: Appendix
Appendix A: Resources
Appendix B: Medical Specialties and Subspecialties
1 The 30,000-Foot View
Ray Funahashi and Joel Thomas
Whether you’re already committed to or still contemplating a career in medicine, understanding the birds-eye view to becoming a physician is paramount.
You might be surprised to learn that applying to medical school requires years of preparatory work from required courses and grades to volunteering, shadowing, and extracurricular activities. There are also many unwritten rules, like working with the “pre-medical committee/advisors/office” at your college and carefully timing your application.
Feeling overwhelmed? Don’t worry! We’ll explain all of these things step-by-step so that you will feel well-prepared and poised for success. Below, we outline the basic pathways to medical school and becoming a physician. We will describe each step in more detail in the subsequent chapters, so focus on understanding the big picture for now. You’ve got this.
How do you become a physician in the United States? Let’s get started!
1.1 Step 1. Get a Bachelor’s Degree
All medical schools in the United States require you to have a bachelor’s degree (B.S. or B.A.) from an accredited college or university (they require you complete 90 credits before you apply, and that you will complete your bachelor’s before enrollment). The degree can be in any major. Yes, whether you are a biology major or a philosophy major, it doesn’t directly affect your chances of getting into medical school.
Additionally, some applicants take additional time to pursue another degree, work, or do research after finishing their bachelor’s to become more competitive applicants. More on this later.
On the other hand, if you're in high school and committed to becoming a physician (and have thoroughly explored that commitment), then you can apply to Guaranteed Admissions Programs to secure a spot in medical school at the time you enter college. More on this in Chapter 7, Guaranteed Admission Programs and Early Assurance Programs.
1.1.1 Complete Required Classes
In addition to receiving a bachelor’s degree, completing certain classes in the sciences, humanities, and mathematics is a prerequisite to applying to medical school. These classes can be—and often are—done while working toward a bachelor’s degree. The usual length of time for this step is 1.5 to 2 years if doing this in the context of an ongoing bachelor’s degree, and 1 year if completing a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program. In general, it takes most people 4 years if they need to complete a bachelor’s degree, although students in some Guaranteed Admission Programs can save up to 2 years off the process and complete their undergraduate studies in 2 years instead of the usual 4.
Common Prerequisite Classes for Applying to Medical School
?One year of Biology with laboratory.
?One year of General Chemistry with laboratory.
?One semester to one year of Organic Chemistry with laboratory.
?One year of Physics with laboratory.
?One year of English.
?One semester of Biochemistry.
One year = 2 semesters, or 6–8 credits, depending on the course and your school’s academic credit system.
Some schools require additional classes such as Statistics, Calculus, Genetics, Sociology, and Psychology.
Some schools will accept Advanced Placement (AP) credit and some won’t. Some schools require one year of organic chemistry, whereas others will accept one semester of organic chemistry + one semester of biochemistry.
Since these requirements are a moving target (i.e., liable to change over time), we recommend discussing with your pre-med advisor and/or checking the admission requirements on individual schools’ websites before creating your academic schedule.
You might be surprised to note that you’re not required to complete any “medical” courses as an undergraduate, (e.g., anatomy, physiology, microbiology, and immunology). This is because all medical students will cover these subjects in the first 2 years of medical school, but in extreme detail and focus on clinical applications. The undergraduate years are instead designed to develop your general scientific thinking to develop a scaffold for clinical decision-making and application of science in medicine.
If you didn’t complete these required classes, you have options to complete them by taking them through a pre-medical post-baccalaureate (post-bac) program (see Chapter 16, Gap Years, Employment, Graduate Degrees, and Post-Baccalaureate Fellowships).
You should have a good — ideally great (close to 4.0) — GPA, especially in your science classes (more in Chapter 10, Obtaining a Solid GPA).
1.1.2 Engage in “Recommended” (Essentially Required) Activities
Most medical schools want to see that applicants have the following:
Clinical Exposure
How do you know if you want to become a physician if you have never been exposed to medicine from a career perspective? Medical schools expect applicants to have either (ideally both) shadowed a physician in person or worked/volunteered in a setting where they worked with patients and/or physicians. In case you were wondering, being a patient yourself doesn’t fulfill this expectation.
Volunteering and Service
Medicine is a field where you are caring for others. Accordingly, medical schools expect applicants to demonstrate this through volunteering over a significant period of time. Volunteering should be longitudinal and personally meaningful.
For example, an applicant who volunteers for several years at his/her local food shelter and communicates personal meaning from the experience demonstrates a more compelling commitment to service than an applicant who volunteers to clean the local park for a week and can’t articulate any transformative insight after doing so. Medicine is a 24/7 vocation, and showing you can commit to something matters.
Research Experience
The practice of clinical medicine actively evolves through scientific discovery, and many medical schools are also academic research institutions. Most—if not all—value students who have demonstrated critical thinking using the scientific method. In addition, as a doctor you will be a lifelong learner. This means that you will have to be able to consistently appraise and critique the latest research when making day-to-day clinical decisions. The research you get involved in doesn’t have to be medical—it can be in any academic field from philosophy to theoretical mathematics.
Schools don’t necessarily expect you to become a researcher or conduct research once you are in medical school, but they still value those who at least have had the experience.1
1.2 Step 2. Take the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT)
MCAT stands for Medical College Admissions Test, and it is a standardized computer-based exam that tests critical thinking and comprehension across physical sciences (physics and chemistry), biological sciences (biology and organic chemistry), psychology and sociology, and verbal reasoning. This is the “big test” that you may have heard other pre-meds talk about. Taking this test is a prerequisite to applying to medical school, and doing well is essentially a requirement for acceptance into medical schools.
Your MCAT score is one of the most important factors in your application’s competitiveness besides your GPA because medical schools will have a soft (and sometimes hard) cutoff on reviewing applications based on the MCAT score. That means some schools will have automatic cutoff scores that will preclude certain applicants from having their applications even be seen by reviewers.
Generally, this test requires you to have a strong grasp on the scientific concepts central to the required coursework we have discussed. Your college classes should cover the majority of what you need to know, but you will most likely need to buy a MCAT review book or review materials to make sure you can focus efficiently on the right content. Some people choose to enroll in preparation classes, which are generally very expensive.
Basically, the MCAT questions give you information or evidence in a written passage or graph/table form. Sometimes this information will be baffling on purpose. You will need to understand how to identify the relationship between the new information given and scientific concepts you already know.
When you take this exam is up to you, but most people finish their science classes first and then dedicate weeks to months of study time to prepare to take the exam prior to June of the year before starting medical school. For traditional applicants, this would be around the end of their junior year of their undergraduate degree.
The timing of when to take this exam will vary based on your situation, especially if you are not applying to medical school straight out of college. Those applicants that have already graduated—or plan on taking time off but have not taken the test—will have to find a time that makes sense for them and when they want to apply.
The exam is graded with a numerical score that will permanently remain on your record. Generally, most medical schools will accept MCAT scores from the last 2 to 3 years. However, some schools may accept older scores. Schools also vary on how they determine the time cutoffs. Some schools count the time backward from the date of expected matriculation, while others count the time backward from time of...
