Salamu calaykum
I am glad to see Somalis helping each other, particularly, in education, which is very crucial for the progress of our society. I want to give a brief info about studying medicine in the U.S. which is different from studying in other countries around the world.
Step one: Undergraduate education; work hard in your undergraduate courses because they would be a part of determining your admission to med. School. Maintain a good GPA. From my experience, I would suggest to major in Science and also take a lot of English Calsses like writing and critical thinking. The English courses will help you do well in verbal reasoning and it will enhance your ability to read faster. Reading faster while being able to collect and process info is important in every part of the MCAT and also in med school itself.
Extracuricular activity: It isgood but if you have solid GPA and Solid MCAT score, that overrides. If you don't have good GPA and Good MCAT score nobody will put more load on your extracuricullar activity.
Make sure that you have a good mentor who direct you in the right path.
Plan a head So you can take the MCAT in the summer of the end of your third year. This will allow you to start medical school by the time you are done with your undergraduated education but it will also help you to repeat the MCAT unless you do well in the first attempt. For MCAT, the basics of each subject and put more of your time in doing question. The more questions you do and analyze your answers of the ones you got wrong the better you do. Doing question and going back to the answers after you finish will help you gain understanding in a lot of concepts.
Now that you took the MCAT and let's assume you did well; what is the next step.
Next step is to apply through AMCAS ( CENTRALIZED APPLICATION). The AMCAS will send your application to the scools you apply then any school that finds your application interesting will reach you and send a secondary application to you.
Next step is filling the secondary application. At this time, you will aso request your recommedation letters writers to send the letters to the schools (This has changed, I heard that now letters go throught the AMCAS so check that).
Next Step is that schools that are convinced that you are a good candidate for medical eduction will invite you for an interview. Make sure that you know what you wrote in your applications (first and second) because the questions might revolve around it. It depends who is going to interview you. Some people stick with prewritten questions while others prefer to know you as a person and their interview is casual and scattered.
Next step is the most difficult time while you are waiting for the response from the schools you were interviewed at. It won't hurt to call the schools once a while to remind them that you are still interested in their program by asking if they have any news for you. It is nice if you send thank you note to the interviewers that will show you respect and appreciation.
You get the response and you are happy.
Next step is starting med school. This is the most difficult part of the whole process because the medical education system is totally different from the undergraduate one. First semester might make you think, "I was not expecting this", but persistence and hardwork will prevail. Just look at the people who are behind you, in front of you, and both sides. They were all on the same boat as you and they had the same difficult as you do but they strive so why shouldn't you? If you are going to med school which is not in your state make sure you move to that place as early as possible so you familiarize yourself with the new place.
To tell you the truth, I believe that we, the Somalis, we have more chance than any other community because we have a lot to convince the interviewers if we have a moderate GPA and good MCAT score. Let's strive to be the best.
In summery, To go to med school after high school, you need 12 years of education to become a full physician and that is the average. If you choose certain specialties, it migh be 13 or 14 years and so on. 4 yrs undergraduate, 4 yrs med school, 3-6yrs residency depending what you choose as specialty. Time flies fast and there is no better time than the time spent in gaining knowledge. Medicine is one of the fields most needed all over the world, particularly, in our homeland.
Good luck and work hard. I am sure anyone can make to med school doing the job needed.
Topic: Study Medicine in USA (Read 81201 times)
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April 07, 2008, 06:33:24 AM