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What It Takes to Get Into Medical School (Ep. 94)

Last Updated July 25, 2019
Ryan Gray

I’ll admit this without embarrassment: during the 5+ years I’ve been running College Info Geek, I’ve known very little about what it takes to become a doctor.

Sure, I knew that aspiring M.D.’s are called “pre-meds” during their undergrad years. I knew they have to eventually take something called the MCAT, apply for medical schools, and go through rotations.

Beyond that, though, I didn’t know much. And maybe you have the same questions I did:

  • What do you have to major in before going to medical school?
  • How hard is the MCAT – and how do you study for it?
  • What is the process of applying to medical schools like?
  • What impresses medical school committees? Is it all perfect grades and club participation?
  • How do you set up a job shadow with a doctor?
  • Can you become a doctor even if you majored in something completely unrelated?

On this episode, my friend Ryan Gray is here to shed light on all those questions and more.

Ryan received his M.D. from New York Medical College and worked as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force for five years. He also runs Medical School HQ, a blog and podcast (or should I say podcasts) dedicated to helping students navigate the entire process of becoming a doctor.

This episode is pretty much a crash course on the process of going from high school to successful medical school applicant. In a future episode, Ryan and I will dig into the second half of the process: finishing med school itself and becoming a practicing doctor.

If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more, definitely check out his site – he’s recorded more podcast episodes than I have (over 160 episodes), so there’s a good chance he’s got an answer for pretty much any question you’ve got.

Things mentioned in this episode:

Want more cool stuff? You can find all sorts of great tools at my Resources page.

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