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As a senior in high school who plans to study biomedical sciences on a pre-med track, what should I be doing to prepare for medical school?

I am currently an associate in the Center for Advanced Professional Studies (CAPS), where we get experience through job shadowing and volunteering.

science fall25 medical-school pre-med biomedical-science
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Cassie’s Answer

It's awesome that you're already involved with CAPS! While I'm not a doctor myself, a close family member who is an Emergency Medicine MD stood out in his application with a dual major in science and philosophy. It took him an extra semester to complete, but he was always proud to demonstrate that he could excel beyond just science courses.

I've also heard that taking productive gap years, tutoring or teaching, and learning another language are some excellent ways to differentiate yourself in such a competitive field.
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Thirada’s Answer

Hi! I wasn't pre-med as an undergraduate, but as a neuroscience major, most of my classmates were pre-med, so I can tell you what they were doing. If I'm not wrong, you need a certain amount of research experience and clinical experience when you apply to medical school. Research experience is when you're helping scientists conduct experiments/studies in a lab, and you can volunteer, do an internship, or work part time for this. Clinical experience is when you're working directly with patients. Some of my pre-med classmates interned as nurse assistants to get experience with patients. However, there's a way to complete both requirements (research and clinical experience) together: clinical research. This usually involves working/volunteering at a hospital lab that studies patients directly. For example, one of my classmates worked in a lab where researchers did MRI brain scans on alcohol addiction patients. This way, you're involved in science experiments and getting patient interactions at the same time. You may want to look for these clinical and research opportunities as you're finishing up high school and going into college. For clinical experience, you can try contacting hospitals to see if you can do an internship, volunteer, or shadow someone. For clinical research, you can contact the person in charge of each lab (the principal investigator) at hospitals that do clinical research. For non-clinical research, you can also contact the principal investigators at universities or research institutes. At universities, many principal investigators (lab bosses) are also teaching professors, so when you take classes in college, you can ask your professor if they run a lab, and if you can volunteer/work with them.

Other than that, I assume you'll need to take the MCAT exam. I don't know how to prepare for it, but you should gather information on how to study for it.

Finally, I'll add a little note about where you're going to college. I did my undergrad in Boston, and it made me realize that location matters. Boston has a very big biomedical and health care industry. Most of my classmates could get internships in the many hospitals nearby, most of which already had connections with various universities, so they were used to having undergrad interns. If you go to college in a place with fewer hospitals and a smaller biomedical/health care industry, you may have a harder time getting clinical experience to boost your medical school application. It's just something to keep in mind. Good luck!
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