EMS degree to Medical School

[medicsb]

Originally Posted by Dwindlin

I'd wager no adcom member has ever said this. Hell, many of my professors flat told me they viewed it as a problem (not unique to EMS but really any allied health provider coming back).

Do a pubmed search. There has actually been some research on how EMS experience is viewed by adcoms.

[medicsb]

Originally Posted by zmedic

I disagree with the poster who said stats is worthless. Probably the most useful class I took in college in terms of medical school. You spend a lot of time reading medical research.

The original mention of stats (as I interpreted it) was in terms of math on the level of calculus. I would agree that knowing how studies are designed, assessed, and how to interpret the results are important. But knowing how to actually calculate p-values? Not so much. Anything beyond calculations of median, mean, std. error, std. deviation, confidence intervals, etc. is in my opinion unnecessary.

[Veneficus]

Originally Posted by medicsb

Do a pubmed search. There has actually been some research on how EMS experience is viewed by adcoms.

could you just sum it up?

[medicsb]

Originally Posted by Veneficus

could you just sum it up?

None viewed it negatively, some didn't care one way or the other, and most looked upon the experience favorably to varying degrees.

It was a small survey of medical schools in the US & Canada, a number somewhere in the 20s. So there is a lot of room for differing opinions. I imagine its viewed on a case by case basis. Adcoms know most people do research to look good and they know most EMTs are EMTs to pad their CV, but I imagine it is what the applicant has done with their experience that gets the attention of adcoms.

[Asclepius911]

You can't ever go wrong with biology and just do emt on the side

[eprex]

Your extracurriculars are all about continuity, longevity, and most importantly your ability to swing things if you need to. I did research with monkeys and I'm sure if I get an interview they'll ask me why and I'll do a good job of convincing them that A) it was relevant to medicine and B) that I did it because it meant something to me and wasn't just about filling up space. This is an important distinction. If I have to talk about being an EMT, I'll mention that I was interested in being an EMT before I even considered medicine and it was working with paramedics that helped push me towards medicine.