Q&A

To briefly (or not so briefly) address a common question.....

Yes, The people in medical school are ridiculously competitive no matter what anyone says. You have to remember that pretty much everyone who successfuly makes it in is an overachieving, driven perfectionist. That being said, maybe it's not so much that they're competing against each other, but that they're competing against themselves. Or both. Probably both. The averages in my class are ridiculously high because a lot of people are just unrelenting gunners. They piss me off sometimes, and make me look bad just because I want to have a life and be a doctor. And I'm not saying my grades are all that bad either. I got an 85 in biochemistry and that was actually below average if you can believe that.

But the important thing to remember is that it's your choice. If having a life is important to you, then you can have it and that's ok. But don't expect to be in the top of your class if you make that choice. There are people out there who are willing to study twelve hours a day. But also take into consideration what kind of specialty you think you might be interested in. Due to the competitiveness of some specialties, you may need to be one of those people who does nothing but study. Since I am personally interested in emergency medicine, psychiatry, and anesthesiology, I feel comfortable making the choice to have a life and knowing that that I probably won't be at the top of the class. I don't need to be. In each of those three specialties, there is pretty much a residency spot for any U.S. medical graduate who wants one.

Based on my research so far, the most competitive specialties are plastic surgery, orthopedic surgery, general surgery, and dermatology. For most other specialties, there are actually very high match rates. If you are interested in learning more about different specialties and statistics on match rates, check out http://www.careersinmedicine.org. Look to the right hand side of the home page at "Charting Outcomes in the Match". This website is awesome, and extremely helpful, for now and after you're in med school. Check it out!

Also, since somebody really wanted to know, the lowest GPA I've heard of that successfully got into medical school was 3.3. But, really, when you take all the variables into consideration, who knows? Bottom line: Don't think you're golden if you have a 4.0, and don't sell yourself short or give up if you have a GPA in the lower range. I got into med school with a 27 MCAT, during a year when only 40% of applicants got in. How do you explain that?