RACHEL: "Contract" Response
Quote:
>I am a Jr. in Electrical Engineering and am interested in entering
>medicine. I am currently taking the required BIO and CHM classes that
>are not in the EE curriculum. First question: All of the literature I
>have been reading about the med schools say that unless you have an
>extremely high GPA, activities, experience, etc, that you should apply
>to 15-20 different schools. Then, IF you are accepted to any take the
>best offer. What are your thoughts?
Sounds about right. You won't get in anywhere without meeting the
grade-point cutoff, which hovers around 3.5. It had dropped down a bit
but is going up again. They look particularly at grades in the pre-med
courses like Organic Chem. For those who pass this hurdle, the chance
of getting in seems to depend more on whether you have done other
interesting things with your life than how much higher the GPA is. They
are looking for Renaissance men/women. My parents who were on the
admissions committee at Dartmouth might overlook a borderline GPA in
college football captains, olympic kayakers, published authors,
professional musicians, etc.
Quote:
>Also, if one attends a "lower tier" school, will this affect one's
>career down the road? If so, how and to what extent?
You probably won't be as good a doctor, as the best schools have the
best teachers and opportunities for learning. It won't make such a big
difference if you plan to go into clinical practice as if you are
planning an academic career.
Quote:
>Another thought: Is medical school as difficult as they say? I have no
>contact with any here (engineering specialty school). All of the rumors
>I hear (taken with a grain of salt) tell of nightmarish schedules with
>loads of rote memorization. Sleepless nights, extreme competition for
>grades, people walking around bug eyed from too many no-doze pills with
>gobs of white hair falling out?
It's all true, unfortunately. Count on the first year of medical school
and the first year of residency being the most stressful ones of your
life. The idea is that you can't learn medicine unless you are totally
immersed in it, I guess. Kind of like 8 years of boot camp.
David Nye MD * Midelfort Clinic, Eau Claire, WI
No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does
not want to adopt a rational attitude -- Karl Popper
