Tips for High School Senior

gobagoba43

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Hey yall...i am a high school senior who has had her fair share of health issues and is 100% committed to medicine. There is not another career I could even think about being! Obviously, I am fearful of the road ahead. Does anyone have any tips for preparing myself for pre-med/ med school and how to thrive and get ahead in my medical education? Also- any opinions on NC State or South Carolina Pre Med?

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I love USC Greenville campus. The city is beautiful and the school is very nice. I think the main campus is Columbia which is also an ok city although not as nice as Greenville. I'm sure South Carolina would be fine. I interviewed there for residency and was impressed.

Don't worry about med school you're way too early for that. Get into college and enjoy life while working hard. Focus on your classes and doing well while maintaining a good social life with good contacts who can help you down the road and good Ecs.
 
Don't break the law. Don't drunk underage on campus. Get good grades in any degree you want and get your prereqs done. Volunteer a few hours per week if it doesn't effect your grades. Join a club if it doesn't effect your grades. Do some research if it doesn't effect your grades. Enjoy being young and Hang out with friends to the degree that it doesn't effect your grades (noticing a trend?).

If you don't have a stable long term partner, try to not get pregnant. This process is harder on single parents.
 
Welcome to SDN.

Absolutely agree with cj_cregg. The worst thing you can do in college is only look at a single career. You miss out on a lot, and when you are applying for med school, you will be asked "Why not dentistry? Why not nursing or PA? Why not a PhD? Why not any other job that is fulfilling, well paid, important, all the reasons people want to be doctors?" You should, at the end of college, have good answers. Saying "I've only ever considered medicine" doesn't make you sound determined, it makes you sound like you haven't put a lot of thought into your decision.

The four things from college that won't go away:
1. GPA (community college? 4 year? dual-enrollment in high school? med schools will see all of these. Average is 3.6/3.7 and regardless of if your school allows you to repeat classes to replace a grade, med schools will see all attempts at a class)
2. MCAT (Med schools will see all attempts, you can't just not send you scores in. Only take when completely ready. Average is a 508/509)
3. IAs/Criminal Record (Institutional actions are not, as some people think, internal methods of discipline to protect students from long-reaching consequences. They must be reported.)
4. Reapplicant Status (schools will see if you've applied to their med school before. They will see if you have been accepted to a med school before. Only apply to schools you think you could get into and are completely willing to go to)

You need other things like letters of rec, clinical experience, volunteering, leadership, but that can be done later. Those four things, if failed, can haunt you.
 
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