a little help about med school

[isparknotes]

First I would like to say hello to everyone, i have been reading on this site for a few days so i decided to join and i really enjoy the feedback that you guys give out, so I'm hoping someone could help me out

 

so i am a little confused as to waht to do. right now i am goin to school to be a surgical tech. I am in my third term and my gpa is a 3.67. The more i go through school the more i feel like i want to become a surgeon. I still want to be a surgical tech, but I fell like I don't want to be one forever. I have started looking at what classes i have to take to get into med school (like chemistry, physics, calc,etc). Right now i am attending a business & technology school, and i know a 4 year college wont accept all my credits i get from this school if any.

 

i was thinking about taking my prereq classes at a community college while still attending the school i am at now, then transfer to a university. I believe i have the time because i have nothing to(i pretty much don't have a social life because i choose not to i feel its important to get my school work done then have fun later in life) when i am home so i study and when i am at work i study.

 

Is it a good idea to go to both schools at once? should I just wait until i get my degree as a surgical tech? should i just switch and stop pursuing my degree as a surgical tech and go ahead and be on my way the become a surgeon?

 

sorry if this is a little confusing

 

i am open to all opinions and suggestions

 

thanks in advance

[Chris_Rob]

Try asking that question at forums.studentdoctor.net as they probably have a better idea of what you need to do.

[Marat]

Med schools are always looking for applicants who stand out from the pack because of some unusual attribute, such as volunteer work, experience assisting in professors' research, nursing experience, etc. If you were to complete your surgical tech degree/certificate first and then do the premed requirements, that would help your admission chances by attesting to the seriousness of your interests.

 

Since the impact of your GPA will be multiplied at some med schools by the reputation of where you earned those grades, it much is better to do your premed courses at a regular, four-year university than at a community college, and of those, the greater the renown of the university the better.

 

For applications like you with an unusual background, it is always a good idea to consider alternative routes into medicine, such as going to a good medical program in Europe if you speak a foreign language. European medical schools include both North American premed and medical courses in a single program lasting about six years, so if you don't yet have the premed requirements, you might consider the European option. Another major plus is that European medical schools are generally very inexpensive, even for foreigners, though they are getting more expensive over time. When I studied medicine some time ago in Germany, for example, my total yearly fees amounted to about $30 for the student activities charge, used to support the various extra-curricular clubs. The education per se was free, which was a lot cheaper than what my fellow students were paying in the U.S.

[isparknotes]

Chris_Rob: thanks that site was very helpful i appreciate you throwing it out there

 

Marat: good point and i would love to go to school in Europe but i don't have the money to go nor do i know to go about applying and getting in :/

[Chris_Rob]

First of all, do not go to an international medical school. There are more medical schools opening up in the United States with residency positions staying the same. That means that IMG's (international medical graduates) will have a much more difficult time getting into a residency. The last thing that you want is to have medical school debt without a residency.

 

Like I said earlier, SDN is a great resource. I'm on there, and I have gotten great advice from some of the posters. Unfortunately, the medical school admissions process is VERY complicated. For example, if an admissions debate is between a 3.5 engineering major and a 4.0 art major, barring any major differences in MCAT scores or science GPA, the art major will always get in despite the toughness of an engineering major.

 

That's all I really know, but hopefully it can help.

 

Edit: Just saw that you posted at the same time that I did. Quite the coincidence. My user name on SDN is AntiHouseMD, in case you find my advice there to be garbage . I would ask that question on the pre-med forum if you sign up, as that's probably the place where you'd find the best answers. You could also try the surgical sub-forum.

Edited July 9, 2011 by Chris_Rob

[isparknotes]

ok sounds good i was on the site and i didn't know where to go lol

[Marat]

You can now apply online to many European medical schools, and they are all astonishingly cheap compared to U.S. schools, except for Ireland and Britain. As I said, I went to med school in Germany for $30 a year, not the $40,000 a year you hear about today for U.S. med students. Sure, it costs a little more to get there and live there, but that's trivial compared to the fees.

 

Getting a residency in the U.S. if you graduate offshore is really a matter of the quality of the school you attend abroad. Berlin has a few more Nobel Prize winners than the Universidad Medico del Este in the Dominican Republic. But why worry about getting back, when medical practice is much more conceptually open to independent thinking, as well as much more humane because of the lack of user fees, in Europe than it is in the U.S.?

[Genecks]

First I would like to say hello to everyone, i have been reading on this site for a few days so i decided to join and i really enjoy the feedback that you guys give out, so I'm hoping someone could help me out

 

so i am a little confused as to waht to do. right now i am goin to school to be a surgical tech. I am in my third term and my gpa is a 3.67. The more i go through school the more i feel like i want to become a surgeon. I still want to be a surgical tech, but I fell like I don't want to be one forever. I have started looking at what classes i have to take to get into med school (like chemistry, physics, calc,etc). Right now i am attending a business & technology school, and i know a 4 year college wont accept all my credits i get from this school if any.

 

i was thinking about taking my prereq classes at a community college while still attending the school i am at now, then transfer to a university. I believe i have the time because i have nothing to(i pretty much don't have a social life because i choose not to i feel its important to get my school work done then have fun later in life) when i am home so i study and when i am at work i study.

 

Is it a good idea to go to both schools at once? should I just wait until i get my degree as a surgical tech? should i just switch and stop pursuing my degree as a surgical tech and go ahead and be on my way the become a surgeon?

 

sorry if this is a little confusing

 

i am open to all opinions and suggestions

 

thanks in advance

 

Yeah, keep doing the surgical tech thing. Then get a job as a surgical tech. From there, shadow a surgeon. Furthermore, attempt to do clinical volunteer work. After working for a while, maybe a year or two, go pre-med, get good grades, and apply to med school. You should be set.

 

Surgical techs tend to be put in hospital settings, so you will have an advantage for doing volunteer work and being able to get shadowing experience from a doctor. Furthermore, if you shadow a surgeon, it might make you a better surgical tech (thus put you in higher demand).

Edited July 27, 2011 by Genecks