Higher medical degree requires work
Patrick Felling
Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: TruLife
Many students claim to be pre-med but actually making it into medical school is an arduous process.
Senior biology major Seth Freeman has been working toward his goal of attending medical school since his sophomore year.
"I studied abroad in Costa Rica and saw the need of the Indian village there," Freeman said. "Med school had always been in the back of my mind, but this is when it became more of my dream."
After deciding to go into medicine, Freeman said he borrowed a set of Princeton Review books from a friend who already had taken the Medical College Admission Test, the medical school entrance exam.
"I started studying in January, about 1 1/2 or two hours a day," Freeman said. "I also took three or four practice exams before I took the real MCAT in April."
Freeman said he had to wait a month to get his results.
"I was pleased with my score," Freeman said. "My target was a 30 [out of 45] or better. I knew I would feel comfortable applying to med school with that score."
After receiving his MCAT scores, Freeman was eligible to apply to the American Medical College Application Service.
"AMCAS is a company that has the primary application for all students wanting to go to med school," Freeman said. "[The application] is extensive and required me to fill out every class I've taken and what requirement it fulfilled. AMCAS then made sure everything was in order and sent out the information to the med schools that I was interested in."
Freeman said he received applications from seven universities after AMCAS sent out his materials.
"If schools like what they see, they send a secondary application," he said. "Then, if the schools like the secondary application, the student may receive an invitation to come to campus for an interview."
When he finished interviewing with the University of Kansas, University of Missouri-Columbia and University of Arkansas, Freeman had to wait for responses.
Senior biology major Seth Freeman has been working toward his goal of attending medical school since his sophomore year.
"I studied abroad in Costa Rica and saw the need of the Indian village there," Freeman said. "Med school had always been in the back of my mind, but this is when it became more of my dream."
After deciding to go into medicine, Freeman said he borrowed a set of Princeton Review books from a friend who already had taken the Medical College Admission Test, the medical school entrance exam.
"I started studying in January, about 1 1/2 or two hours a day," Freeman said. "I also took three or four practice exams before I took the real MCAT in April."
Freeman said he had to wait a month to get his results.
"I was pleased with my score," Freeman said. "My target was a 30 [out of 45] or better. I knew I would feel comfortable applying to med school with that score."
After receiving his MCAT scores, Freeman was eligible to apply to the American Medical College Application Service.
"AMCAS is a company that has the primary application for all students wanting to go to med school," Freeman said. "[The application] is extensive and required me to fill out every class I've taken and what requirement it fulfilled. AMCAS then made sure everything was in order and sent out the information to the med schools that I was interested in."
Freeman said he received applications from seven universities after AMCAS sent out his materials.
"If schools like what they see, they send a secondary application," he said. "Then, if the schools like the secondary application, the student may receive an invitation to come to campus for an interview."
When he finished interviewing with the University of Kansas, University of Missouri-Columbia and University of Arkansas, Freeman had to wait for responses.
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