Monday, October 20, 2008

The Best Way to Prepare for Medical School: Get a Job

By Dena Rifkin, MD

I like to listen to the conversations of the twentysomethings working in my department. They do everything from coordinating research activities to recruiting patients for new studies of kidney disease. Most have finished college and are thinking about medical school. At the lunch table, they talk about postcollege premedical classes (here’s an example of one in New York), the MCAT test, and admission interviews.

Hearing them, I realize the benefit of the practical experience they are getting.
First of all, they get to see a little bit of what medicine is like before investing four years and more than $100,000 in medical school. Once they’re in school, some of them may still decide that medicine isn’t for them, but working in a hospital will certainly decrease the likelihood of that happening. It would be awful to go through medical school and then realize that you don’t want to be a doctor (almost as awful as having that person as your doctor). Read More

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