Internet
resources for medical school
and school for other
health professions
Resources to start you thinking • Medical school • Dental school • Veterinary school
Resources to start you thinking
Summer
Medical and Dental Education Program (SMDEP)
These summer programs, intended for low-income or underrepresented
college
freshmen and sophomores, introduce students to what medical or dental
school
might be like. All those accepted receive housing, a living stipend,
and
transportation to the site (there are many around the country to choose
from). http://www.smdep.org/
Explore
Health Careers
A free online health careers
resource for students and advisors
This website can help you decide if a health career is right for you.
In includes
a page of questions to help you decide if health careers are a good fit
for
your interests and personality, as well as preparation timelines
for dental, medical, veterinary, optometry, and podiatric schools.
There are
also search pages for research and learning opportunities (e.g., summer
programs
similar to the one described above), medical schools and other
post-graduate
programs, and funding for those programs. http://www.explorehealthcareers.org/
The
American Medical Association’s Med School page
Medical School and Residency:
Research graduate and medical education
programs, access educational resources about becoming a physician and
get
tools to help guide your career path.
When it comes to the practice of medicine in the United States, you
can’t
get more authoritative than the American Medical Association. This site
features
information about various health careers and the required licensure.
There
are also links to articles, subscriptions to free e-newsletters, and,
best
of all, a link to FREIDA, a complete database of accredited medical
schools.
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/12851.html
Medically
Inspired
Medically inspired is a Global
non-profit organization dedicated to premed
students. We have made it our goal to make the premed years as
trouble-free
as possible.
Sign up for the free membership in order to gain access to a
newsletter, advice,
and links.
http://www.medicallyinspired.com
Student
Doc
Medical Student’s
Resource Guide
This website has so much information! As you can probably guess by its
subtitle,
this site is a resource for those already in medical school as much as
it is
for those looking to apply. However, there are plenty of resources for
both
groups of people (and reading the information for those already in
school will
give you a sense of what it might be like).
There are two separate sets of links: The left sidebar links to information on the subjects of student loans, essay editing, test prep, financial aid, and medical schools. Scroll down the middle section of the page to find links to the Medical School Forum and information about medical student finances, USMLE, medical careers, and premed resources. You can also find information about the pros and cons of Caribbean medical schools.
The
most useful links for current undergraduates are probably “Medical
School Admissions” and
“Medical School Search: Are your MCAT
scores competitive?” The latter, if you enter your MCAT
scores, gives
you an alphabetical list of programs with color-coding for
“competitive”, “very
competitive”, and “less competitive”,
which might give
you a vague sense (just based on this one factor--it’s by no
means
foolproof) of how easily you might get in to each program (click on
“details” to
get the school averages).
http://www.studentdoc.com/
The
Official Website of MCAT: the Medical College Admission Test
This test is essential for admission to medical school. It has four
sections
(Verbal Reasoning, Physical Sciences, Writing Sample, and Biological
Sciences)
and 22 testing dates per year. Starting in January 2007, all MCAT tests
will
be computerized. The scores are valid for three years. This website has
one
test’s worth of free practice questions, and additional
practice tests
for $40 each (or several with an $80 membership). You can also register
for the official test online.
http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/start.htm
American
Medical College Application Service (AMCAS)
This service enables you to apply to multiple medical schools with just
one
application. It is expensive, but most medical schools in the United
States
require you to use it, and a fee waiver is available (which, if
awarded,
would reduce the cost of the MCAT, as well).
http://www.aamc.org/students/amcas/start.htm/
American
Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM)
This site provides a similar application service for schools with a
more holistic
(and still scientific) approach to medicine. For more details about
what
osteopathic medicine entails, and how to use their application service,
see
their website:
http://www.aacom.org/
Need
more information?
For further information on applying to medical school, contact Dr. Dale
Pederson
in the Biology department (pederson@augsburg.edu),
sign up for an appointment to talk to Dixie in the URGO office, and/or
stop
by to browse the book Medical
School Admission Requirements (MSAR™),
which is an essential
resource for the process.
American
Dental Education Association
Use this website
to learn all about dental school. The link “Student
Applicant and Advisory Information” in the center frame is
especially
helpful. You can also use the application on this site to apply to most
dental
schools.
http://www.adea.org/
Dental
Admission Test (DAT)
Dentistry has its own standardized test, required for admission all
U.S. dental
schools. It attempts to measure general academic ability, comprehension
of
scientific information, and perceptual ability, and is available in
computerized
form almost every day of the year. Students should have taken at least
one
year of biology, general chemistry, and organic chemistry before taking
the
test, in order to do well on the Natural Sciences section (90 minutes).
The
other three sections are as follows: Perceptual Ability (60 minutes),
Reading
Comprehension (60 minutes), and Quantitative Reasoning (45 minutes).
Please
see the website for more details and to register.
http://www.ada.org/prof/ed/testing/dat/
Association
of American Veterinary Medical Colleges
This website is a comprehensive resource for veterinary school. You can
use
it to both research and apply to schools. (The site links to VMCAS, one
application
that can be used to apply to multiple schools—a great time
saver.)
But be careful when navigating this site! Clicking on the links in the
left
sidebar provides different results than hovering over those same links,
and
both methods provide important information. Explore thoroughly! And
check
the application requirements for each school. Most of them require the
GRE
(and some the GRE bio subject test), but some will accept the MCAT
instead.
http://www.aavmc.org/