Extremely undecided about college.

[Gmkdd]

Ok so after a few weeks of looking around on these forums and other websites, I feel like I have a pretty good understanding of what matters when it comes to having a good medical school application. I just have one big problem right now, and as a high school junior, this problem is deciding what 4 year college to attend.

Before you immediatly post saying "It doesn't matter, just go where you will get good grades and major in what your intrested in" (this is what I hear everywhere) I want to take a second to say that this is what I'm having trouble with. Everyone says to go where it will be easy to get good grades. How do I know which school will give out easier grades than others? I've heard some people say small liberal arts schools are good because one on one time with professors helps a lot, but I live in Georgia and I have heard a lot of people say that UGA is a great place to go to school for pre med, so I'm kind of confused because that school is the opposite of small and liberal arts. UGA is the main school that i'm looking at currently but I would really like to know if any Georgia residents or people that went to school here have any recommendations for some other schools that offer good pre med experiences.

One more thing. People say to major in what your intrested in, not what is a hard major, but I love chemistry however I'm afraid I'll die if I major in something science related, so if anyone that is intrested in science would like to post how they made ends meet in college that would be awesome too. Thanks.

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[frosted_flake]

IMO, you will thrive where you "fit" best. I went to one of those fancy pants private schools surrounded by stuck up kids whose parents paid for their every want and need... I was miserable. After 1.5 years there, I transferred to my state school where I am surrounded by people who actually have to work for a living (like me) and who are generally overall nicer people and I am doing great.

My advice? Go where you fit the best. You will know... things will just fall right into place
Regarding your major, it is completely fine to go in undecided! Take a few classes freshman year (intro bio, intro chem, gen eds) and figure out what you like!

Good luck to you

 

[Gmkdd]

IMO, you will thrive where you "fit" best. I went to one of those fancy pants private schools surrounded by stuck up kids whose parents paid for their every want and need... I was miserable. After 1.5 years there, I transferred to my state school where I am surrounded by people who actually have to work for a living (like me) and who are generally overall nicer people and I am doing great.

My advice? Go where you fit the best. You will know... things will just fall right into place
Regarding your major, it is completely fine to go in undecided! Take a few classes freshman year (intro bio, intro chem, gen eds) and figure out what you like!

Good luck to you

Thanks for the advice! I took a campus visit to UGA and I really think I would enjoy the atmosphere there so definitely considering going there. Also I haven't thought about the undecided major option before, but that sounds intresting and pretty smart considering since college is probably going to seem so different from how I expect it to seem, that when I go there I will probably find something intresting that I never thought about before.

 

[Gmkdd]

I also have one other concern. UGA is all the way in Athens which is quite far away from the nearest big city (Atlanta). I'm afraid that if I go here, I will have trouble finding hospital volunteering opportunities, since I read someone else's post saying there are only like 2 hospitals near UGA and they are super competitive to volunteer at. So if I'm unable to volunteer at these two places I basically lose my shot at getting into med school? Because I read everywhere that med schools want volunteer hours.. ugh! I could go to school in atlanta but I heard that Georgia State University has kind of a trashy reputation and I really wouldn't want to go to school in the middle of atlanta anyways with off campus housing. If anyone has advice for me that would be great thanks.

 

[Gmkdd]

Should I just consider out of state? Maybe it's just the fact that I live here and have done the most research on Georgia schools but it seems like this isn't a good state to live in when it comes to colleges. But maybe that's just me.

 

[frosted_flake]

@Gmkdd, If I were you (and unless you have a burning desire to get out of GA) I would stay. Unless another OOS school really interests you, you will likely get the cheapest tuition at your public IS school.
In terms of clinical volunteering, don't limit yourself! Volunteer at a nursing home, hospice, homeless shelter, etc. There are countless opportunities!


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[pocillopora]

With UGA being the largest state school in GA and you having previously heard that it is a good place for pre-med education, I would bet that it would be a great place for you to go to college rather than going out of state and having to pay out of state tuition. You would also have plenty of different majors to choose from if you decided you don't like chemistry. I would also say not to worry about the number of hospitals 0r the difficulty of getting a volunteering experience there. Med schools don't require you to have a lot of hospital experience as long as you do have volunteering and other clinical experiences. There are plenty of other options for getting clinical experiences such as outpatient clinics or hospitals in your hometown (which are probably not swarming with premeds like in college towns) which @frosted_flake has pointed out.

Also, don't stress over what major you should pick for medical school. Adcoms really don't care so you should just first figure out if you would like to do a science major vs a non-science major once you have your basic chemistry's, calculuses, and biologies under your belt. Then you can figure out what classes you tend to enjoy the most and pick your major. Some good advice I received in undergrad was to pick a major that would give me a job that I would enjoy if I was unable to go to medical school.

 

[Granny Watkins]

I also have one other concern. UGA is all the way in Athens which is quite far away from the nearest big city (Atlanta). I'm afraid that if I go here, I will have trouble finding hospital volunteering opportunities, since I read someone else's post saying there are only like 2 hospitals near UGA and they are super competitive to volunteer at. So if I'm unable to volunteer at these two places I basically lose my shot at getting into med school? Because I read everywhere that med schools want volunteer hours.. ugh! I could go to school in atlanta but I heard that Georgia State University has kind of a trashy reputation and I really wouldn't want to go to school in the middle of atlanta anyways with off campus housing. If anyone has advice for me that would be great thanks.

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