Does your college offer pre-med as a major? That would be the first major to choose. If not, do the above mentioned courses.

Get a job working in the medical field – plasma center, CNA, nursing home. Anything that will be medical related. You could also volunteer.

As far as working in the actual setting vs. research – that is something only you can answer. If you love research, then perhaps you don’t exactly want to be in medicine. You could do research and go into public health administration instead of being a doctor. If you want to stay in the research aspect, you will spend hours upon hours in the lab, and you need to make sure that life is what you want.

In any event, you want as much experience as you can get. If you want to tie research in your studies, please check out the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. They have summer undergraduate research opportunities: you get PAID to do research and you can take classes for FREE! Just something to look in to for the future. It’s quiet competitive, but with more classes (apply between your sophmore and junior year or junior and senior year) and by doing the summer programs, your chances of being accepted in the grad school will be better.