Getting a Head Start

[workinboy]

Hey guys. I just joined this forum today, seems like a great place to get involved to get a good start on my career in medicine. I am very interested in Orthopaedic surgery; I have been ever since I broke my leg at the age of 7. Anyway, I will be attending NCSU in the fall for Biology and I am trying to get ahead of the game and start building my resume for medical school. I am 17 years old (not 18 until September), so I know that will limit me quite a bit. I am currently enrolled in an EMT-Basic class at a local community college and have been riding along with one of the local EMS agencies. I plan on getting certified as an EMT and volunteering at a local EMS agency. How well will this look on my resume? I am also volunteering at Rex Hospital over the summer in endoscopy. I guess my main question is what is the best thing to do as a beginning undergraduate student interested in going to Medical school? Would it be a good idea to try to become a tech in the surgical ICU and/or the ER? How would I go about doing that? Is there any training I would need to go through? Any input and advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!
James

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[FlowLimited]

The best thing you can do is focus on your academics and do well in your classes. Academic success is the foundation of a good med school application, and the transition to college can be difficult for many people. Once you've found your niche and are comfortable with your schedule, you can start adding on extracurricular activities. Anything that will get you exposure to the medical field is just fine. What path you want to take is up to you and can be tailored to your particular interests. Consider volunteering, gaining leadership positions on campus, but most of all, just explore. You're young, so don't lock yourself into the mindset that you have to be an orthopedic surgeon. There's a whole world of medicine out there that you've never experienced.

Lastly, I'll say this: Use your time in college to really discover why you want to be a doctor. An experience you had as a child is a reasonable starting point, but you should try and develop an idea of why medicine is the field for you. Maybe you know already, maybe you don't.

Good luck on your path.

 

[Tiger26]

By the time you've finished residency, Barack will have destroyed health care anyway--I'd go to law school if I were you . . .

 

[Rendar5]

By the time you've finished residency, Barack will have destroyed health care anyway--I'd go to law school if I were you . . .

Our healthcare system is ****ed and has been for a very long time and will continue to be unless we tear down the entire thing and restart from scratch, which is not gonna happen. Whatever Barack does, it's not gonna destroy it or save it. God, I hate all this prophet of doom stuff (I hated it when the dems did it about Bush too)