Interested in being pre-med in college? If you missed our recent pre-med expert panel, you’re in luck! Not only did we record it, we also took down some of the key points our panelists made during the hour-long discussion. Magellan counselor Dr. Lesa Weber, who was a dentist in her first career, moderated this panel with our experts:
- Dr. Danielle Ivey, MD
- Prof. Drew Ivey, pre-med advisor, Dallas Baptist University
- Joon Kim, Ed.D, Senior Director, Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program at Keck Graduate Institute and medical school application advisor
Here were the tips from our expert panelists for students who are pre-med in college:
Med school admission success isn’t based on who you’ve been, it’s based on who you want to become.
Find a school that’s going to fit you best – that’s where you’re going to thrive!
GET TO KNOW YOUR PROFESSORS! Check the dining hall for faculty members looking for someone to have lunch with!
It doesn’t matter where you go to college, when it comes to getting into medical school. Don’t get fixated on where you go to undergrad. IT’S ABOUT WHERE YOU FIT and where you will thrive. Medical schools care more about how you performed in college than your college’s ranking.
Seek out your pre-med advisors on campus to stay on track! There are lots of details to keep track of as you move through college towards applying to medical school.
Recommendation letters for medical school need to be SPECIFIC. That means you need to get to know the people at your college who will write them. Sometimes it’s individual professors; sometimes it’s a committee. ASK so you know who will write your letters of rec!
Shadow, shadow, shadow! And make sure you really want to go into medicine.
Don’t follow your passions – follow your STRENGTHS. Passion will follow.
Strong priority placed on the diversification of health care providers. Med schools are looking to educate people who will practice medicine in their home community.
When you do that super-cool one-week vacation in a really beautiful place with 2 hours of volunteer activities: college admission offices call that “volun-tourism.” Better to find an ongoing volunteer opportunity that’s close to your home, recognizing that there are people in need right in your own community.
If you KNOW you’re pre-med, find your pre-med or pre-health advisor EARLY!
Medicine is a field that uses science but it’s not about science – it’s about people. To succeed, you’ll need to learn how to interact with different kinds of people in ways that are appropriate to them.
We hope this advice and this webinar is helpful to you as you pursue your pre-med dreams!