Problem
If
p
is 25% of
q
, and
q
is 50% of
r
, what is
p
+
q
in terms of
r
?
|
So What?
The length of one side of a triangle must be less than the lengths of the other two sides combined.
Petersons.com
|
Add SAT* Tip of the Day to your personalized My Yahoo! page:
About My Yahoo! and RSS »
|
|
|
Yes,
it starts as early as high school! If you know, as a student in high school,
that you want to become a medical doctor, you can get a head start on your
preparation for medical school. Take advanced-placement courses. They may
enable you to take advanced science courses once you get to college. And of
course, get work experience in the medical field, such as a summer job with
your family physician or volunteering at a local hospital. Not only will it
help you decide if medicine is for you, it could help you get into medical
school.
Begin Researching Medical Schools
While
in high school, you also can begin researching medical schools and checking
admission requirements - get your first copy of Medical School Admission
Requirements (MSAR) now! You can order this volume online from the
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) at their Web site, www.aamc.org.
You might consider meeting with a premed or admissions counselor at a local
university to discuss what kind of preparation you will need to succeed in a
premed program. It's also good experience; formal interviews are uncommon for
admission to undergraduate programs, but you can treat this meeting as a
practice interview for medical school. Try to look your best, speak well, and
come prepared with questions. Ask what the ideal academic program would be, and
then plan to follow that program.
Choose
an Undergraduate School
If
medical school is in your plans, you will want to choose an undergraduate
college or university with a good premed program and a good premed adviser.
However, you should not only be thinking about medical school when selecting
your undergraduate school; there is, after all, the definite possibility that
you will change your mind over the next four years. You want an undergraduate
school that will suit your learning needs, and you should consider the school's
class sizes, location, overall course offerings (in case you decide Greek, not
medicine, is your true passion) and cost. Do not limit yourself to the school
you think will give you the best chance of attending medical school. There are
many variables that go into your medical school applications, and your
undergraduate institution is just one of them.
If
you are considering attending a two-year college first, you may want to
reconsider: Many medical schools do not include community college grades when
calculating GPAs. This then requires that your prerequisites be taken at a
four-year institution (otherwise you could officially have no science GPA!).
Even if the medical schools to which you apply do accept your two-year-college
science courses, they will likely weigh the two-year courses less than those at
most four-year colleges, and this will hurt your chances of acceptance. This
does not mean you cannot get into medical school if you start your college
career at a community college - only that there may be additional factors for you
to consider.
Consider
a Combined Program
Some
schools offer combined programs that allow you to obtain your bachelor's degree
with the assumption that if you do well in your undergraduate studies, you will
be admitted to a medical school program upon graduating. Not all of these
programs combine the bachelor's degree and M.D. at the same school; some
medical schools have joint programs that begin at another university, and
others begin in the undergraduate division of the medical school. A few programs
are limited to state residents (City University of New York, University of
Illinois at Chicago, State University of New York Health Science Center at
Syracuse and Texas A&M, for example), and though the majority require a
full eight years for the completion of the two degrees, a number of schools
reduce the full time to six or seven years. The MSAR includes a section on such
programs.
CHECKLIST
If
you think medical school is in your future, here are some tips to follow while
you're still in high school.
- Take advanced-placement courses.
- Get
work experience in the medical field; e.g., get a summer job with your family
physician or volunteer at a local hospital or nursing home.
- Apply
to selective colleges and universities if your grades and SAT or ACT scores are
good.
- Find
out which undergraduate schools have combined programs.
- Speak
with the premed advisers at the undergraduate schools you are considering to
find out:
- how
many premed students the school has;
- their
rate of acceptance into medical school; and
- how
extensive the advisers' knowledge of medical school admission is and how
helpful they will be.
- When choosing a college, remember that you may change your mind about medical school, so make sure the college you select can meet all your requirements for a good education in any major you may choose.
|
*Test names and other trademarks are the property of the respective trademark holders.
Copyright © 2007 Peterson's, a Nelnet company. Used under license. All rights reserved.
-
|
