Preparing for Pre-Med: A High School Student’s Guide
Let’s take a new direction today and talk about a specific area – future pre-med students. In addition to this topic, we will talk a bit more about becoming a successful college student. This will include knowing how to choose your school. These topics are things that high school students should keep in mind starting early in the high school career.
High school students who hope to become doctors should bear these five points in mind:
1. Don’t be too concerned about the strengths of the different undergrad pre-med programs. That is not important in the consideration of med school admission.
#2 Instead, choose the college that has the best programs overall. If you are making a choice between UCLA and Stanford, clearly you will want to go with Stanford.
3. Most four year universities do have pre-med accreditation. For this reason, you can and should pay attention to other aspects of the school when you are choosing the one for you. Things like campus culture, the size of the student body, the teacher/student ratio and whether or not the school is in an urban or suburban setting should be some of the deciding factors.
Click here for more on studying pre-medical in college.
4. When you get to college, you should pay close attention to your GPA. You should also begin your research early. You will want to publish papers, build good relationships with your professors, and work on academic excellence. These three areas really increase your chances of getting into the med school of your choice.
#5 Cultivate a college career that produces a well-rounded student. Don’t just focus all your attention on getting into med school or you will end up with a very flat, dull application. Your application should present a picture of a balanced student who has a number of accomplishments, an impressive resume and a variety of interests. This is the sort of student that is sought after by the best schools.
I hope this post has been helpful to you and has made you a little more knowledgeable about college admissions and how to establish good goals for success as an undergraduate.
Click here for more questions on Ivy League schools.