- Joined
- May 1, 2012
- Messages
- 24
- Reaction score
- 0
I just finished my freshman year with a strong GPA. I am a Biochem major interested in pursuing a career in medical research (shooting for MD/PhD, but we'll see how that goes...). I also go to a top-25 university, if that makes any difference. Anyway, I'm finished with the Gen Chem and Gen Bio series, and am currently taking both calculus-based Physics courses at a state school this summer (closer to home, cheaper). Just for the record, the reason I'm taking summer classes is because I got rejected to the summer program I applied to and didn't have anything more productive to do. So instead, I'll be studying Physics and beginning my Verbal self-prep (starting super early) in my free time.
I only decided to do pre-med late in the spring semester after taking a medical seminar with a renowned-surgeon at the City of Hope. Before, I was interested in doing research in the sciences. So I figured it would be a good idea to combine those two interests and try out activities related to the health field to see if I like it. I "declared" pre-med officially in April during my last advisor meeting, so I'm way behind in terms of volunteering, shadowing, and other ECs.
Since I had a lot of career uncertainties, most of my activities are unfocused and sparse (i.e. Pre-Pharmacy Society, a few honor societies, community outreach). I'm a little disappointed in myself for not doing more in terms of ECs my freshman year, but in retrospect, my good grades were probably a result of not overloading myself with activities. With that said, I'll be starting research in the fall with a professor whose lab deals with molecular genetics and long-term survival of bacteria. I've mainly attended group meetings and discussed various research papers with him during the spring, because his lab was full at the time. But I'll be learning lab techniques and hopefully starting up a research project of my own soon.
I also hope to start volunteering at the hospitals near my university's medical campus. If I have time (on top of O-chem, MoBio, Multivar Calc), I also might volunteer or work as a teaching assistant through a science outreach program. In addition, I want to get involved in the health/pre-med orgs around campus to see which one is a good fit. I definitely want to start writing on the school health/pre-med paper and do some non-clinical work as well. Just got to be sure not to overload, because I've seen that happen to way too many people. On a funny note, I also applied to a few of those third-world country mobile clinic trips last semester and unfortunately got rejected because of my lack of experience in volunteering Maybe this year.
What words of advice would you give to me, now that I'm heading into my sophomore year? What types of activities should I check out? Am I on the right track and at a decent pace? I am very aware that my obvious weak point is my lack of volunteering experience and almost non-existent ECs (at this point), so I welcome all advice and criticism.
Thanks for reading! I appreciate your posts
I only decided to do pre-med late in the spring semester after taking a medical seminar with a renowned-surgeon at the City of Hope. Before, I was interested in doing research in the sciences. So I figured it would be a good idea to combine those two interests and try out activities related to the health field to see if I like it. I "declared" pre-med officially in April during my last advisor meeting, so I'm way behind in terms of volunteering, shadowing, and other ECs.
Since I had a lot of career uncertainties, most of my activities are unfocused and sparse (i.e. Pre-Pharmacy Society, a few honor societies, community outreach). I'm a little disappointed in myself for not doing more in terms of ECs my freshman year, but in retrospect, my good grades were probably a result of not overloading myself with activities. With that said, I'll be starting research in the fall with a professor whose lab deals with molecular genetics and long-term survival of bacteria. I've mainly attended group meetings and discussed various research papers with him during the spring, because his lab was full at the time. But I'll be learning lab techniques and hopefully starting up a research project of my own soon.
I also hope to start volunteering at the hospitals near my university's medical campus. If I have time (on top of O-chem, MoBio, Multivar Calc), I also might volunteer or work as a teaching assistant through a science outreach program. In addition, I want to get involved in the health/pre-med orgs around campus to see which one is a good fit. I definitely want to start writing on the school health/pre-med paper and do some non-clinical work as well. Just got to be sure not to overload, because I've seen that happen to way too many people. On a funny note, I also applied to a few of those third-world country mobile clinic trips last semester and unfortunately got rejected because of my lack of experience in volunteering Maybe this year.
What words of advice would you give to me, now that I'm heading into my sophomore year? What types of activities should I check out? Am I on the right track and at a decent pace? I am very aware that my obvious weak point is my lack of volunteering experience and almost non-existent ECs (at this point), so I welcome all advice and criticism.
Thanks for reading! I appreciate your posts