Question about Med School

[Jdawgflow]

I know that this is not the proper place for this post, but homecourt seems to get the most traffic. I am sorry if this is an inconvenience, but I have lots of questions about med school and I was hoping to get answers from people who are actually there.

I am a sophmore in college right now and am hoping to get into either MCG or Mercer for Med School in a couple of years.

I was wondering if i could get info. on what the experience is like, the MCAT, and the difficulty of being accepted.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

[Iman]

I'm not sure where you can find people to chat on this subject but there's really not that much general info they can give you, specific questions might be easier.

I got into MCG but decided to go to Optometry School at UAB instead. In general you'll need around a 3.4 gpa at a solid college to have a 50/50 shot of getting in. Other factors are considered but gpa would be first, then mcat scores. Scoring in the top half of applicants would again be a solid score. Some people specifically study or take prep courses for the mcat, I'd say wait and see how close your gpa is and then if you need a good score take a prep course and study, otherwise it probably wont help that much anyways. One thing that got me was I scored better in areas where my basic courses were more recent. For example I was a Chemistry major and I'm sure among the tops in my school (Berry) in Chemistry but I scored better in Biology, probably because the mcat type question lean more toward the basic stuff that I had sorta forgotten already.

Professional school in general for most people who are able to get in isnt as "hard" as you might think. The main thing about it is that it's a full time thing. In undergrad to go to class about 20 hours per week and study variably, lets say 30 hours per week. Well Med school, etc will be practically 40 hours per week so you'll have to study proportionately also, ie 60 hours per week. After the first two years the studying drops off as clinical time goes up.

Good luck, talk to you as needed here or elsewhere.

[KB21]

Well, I'm still trying to get in myself.

I've been told that some med schools won't even send you a secondary application unless you score a 27 on the MCAT.

The only advice I can give you is to work hard on your classes to keep your GPA high. Find some extracurricular activities to do. It would help to find either a volunteer position or a job that is in a health care setting. I currently work as an OR Tech while I wait to get in. I'm about to go back and get a master's degree if I don't get in this go around though.

Don't take the MCAT lightly. A strong MCAT can somewhat offset a not so strong GPA.

[Jdawgflow]

Thanks for the information so far and I appreciate the willingness to help me out in the future. I was wondering, were you talking about Berry College in Rome, GA? Anyways, thanks again for the help and good luck to ya'll in your endeavors.

Just believe and have faith.

[Guest]

mercer genearlly accepts the lower (somewhat significantly) MCAT scores, however they almost demand that you go into general practice, hopefully in an underserved area for awhile. email me any questions you have - (3rd year med student)

[Iman]

Yep, I went to Berry in Rome 81-85 then UAB Optometry School 85-89. I'd say that I'd do it the same way if I had to do it again too, I like the more casual environment of an Optometrist. I actually work more in the winter and less in the summer so I can go to the lake, etc more.

[Jdawgflow]

I actually live near the Rome area now and am attending Shorter College. Do you live in the area at all?

[cyman3]

how is the scoring, equivalent to SAT score?

As in if SAT ranges from 0 (if possible) through 1600, what about the MCAT? And assuming the average SAT score is about 1000, what about the average MCAT score?

[Iman]

I'm from Emerson, which is between Cartersville and Acworth. I had planned to go to Berry two years then Ga Tech for engineering. After leaning towards a Doctorate type degree I stayed at Berry, plus I liked Rome and had mostly pre-professional type friends there. Plus ROTC was paying my way at Berry.

The last assignment in the Army stationed me at Ft McPherson in downtown Atlanta so I got a condo in Buckhead and I still stay there part-time and at Lake Lanier part-time.

[Guest]

ok, here goes. I'll do my best with this...but I broke my wrist this weekend so I'm typing much less. the MCAT has three sections, verbal (much like sat - reading comprehension, not generally medical passages), orgo/bio, and physics/gchem. each section has a max score of 15, except verbal which rnages between 13+ to 15, depending on how the scores go for the year (ie if too many people score too high on verbal to skew percentiles, the just go with the 13+ score there). Thus the best score is a 43+ to a 45, depending on the year. In general, a score of 30 is aobut what's needed to start setting one apart, but some depends on where you're applying. Going to your "state school" helps in that they'll accept lower scores if you're in state (MCG has about a 3% out of state enrolment I think; Emory is about 50% in state, but they're not a state school persay).

the private schools, ie not state schools, generally require higher scores. In general, the best thing you can do outside of acadmics is have some experience in a hospital, primarily to show them that you know what yo'ure getting in to).

[Jdawgflow]

I was actually in Buckhead last weekend staying with a friend. It is a nice area, but is very crowded, at least from what I saw. There sure are lots of people clubbin' on Friday night.