Taking 25 credits and I hate my life, will I survive med school?

[Mkif586]

Howdy. So this semester I overestimated my limits and took 25 credits (3 science classes with labs, arts elective, and 8 credit EMT course at local CC with labs each Saturday and test every week). Semester is almost over and I am going to get all As and one B+ if everything is going to stay as it is right now. And do I hope to pass my nremt exam during the break. However, I am completely exhausted and just want to cry somewhere under the bed (on this forum haha). In addition to all of that, I volunteer with 2 organizations and have a part time job (1 shift per week), I just started clinicals for my EMT class which are going to last the whole week and I am no longer sure at this point that I will survive medical school. I cram all that material into my head, digest it and vomit on the tests, but I am reaching the point when my body is going to say “Sorry mate, I am out”. My hospital shift starts in 5 hours, yet I have 2 chapters to go through for tomorrow classes. I lost 12 pounds, I don’t remember when I had a good sleep last time, and I am just waiting for thanksgiving to give myself a little break. People are saying that med school is 30+ credits per term, I am just afraid that if I struggle that much with EMT basic class and ug classes, how will I bulldoze myself through med school and residency (if I ever get in).

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[Lucca]

premed is a marathon, not a sprint. Don't push yourself needlessly like this. Nobody will care whether you took 9 credits a semester or 45, only that you have a good GPA, MCAT, and CV.

UG and Med school are just not comparable in this way (credit hours). It's easy to make the credit hour comparison and it makes it seem really scary but the expectations / learning and teaching style are very very different (first of all theres a big difference between taking 30+ credits pass/fail compared to taking even 15-18 credit hours trying to get the maximum possible score on every exam).

Take a step back and stop beating yourself up like this for your own sake, particularly if it has been taking a very serious toll on your physical health, which it has.

Dont worry at all about whether or not you will be able to survive med school. If you can get in then you can survive, and even if you dont honestly you probably also can lol. Worry about getting in, worry about being happy, worry about enjoying UG and getting the most out of your education. There is plenty of time to beef up the rest of the CV, absolutely no rush.

 

[ciestar]

Yeah you study a lot, but I didnt take on nearly as much as you are right now my first two years of med school. Minimal EC hours, no job, minimal clinical stuff that wasn’t already blocked out in the schedule.

 

[Pagan FutureDoc]

You are taking more than a double full time courseload and doing ECs on top of it? I’d hate your life too.
calm down, you aren’t doing yourself any favors if you burn yourself out.

 

[Isoval]

I'm pretty sure 25 college credit hours is worse than anything I've done in medical school.

My medical enrollment is on the order of 40 hours, but I'd certainly believe than 25 hours of undergrad is a much harder thing to chew through.

 

[deleted804295]

Why would you do this to yourself?

 

[Moko]

Cut back on extracurricular commitments immediately. If this is not enough to give you some breathing room, then take a W on one of your courses (any time and money spent are already sunk costs). Moving forward, do not overload your schedule like this again -- doing so is a sign of poor judgment. Set realistic expectations for yourself. You need to view sleep and wellness as being another full time job, and plan for that accordingly.

If you get into a medical school, then be reassured that you can handle the course load. Medical schools will not accept an applicant if there were any doubts about their academic abilities. And your current course load is more intensive than anything in a medical school curriculum. Good luck

 

[mwsapphire]

This reminds me of that kid in HS who takes 2 or more AP classes while continuing to play a varsity sport and sleeps 5 hours a night to get into a good college...only to later fine out that wasn't necessary at all. And was just killing themselves for no reason.
Please drop some classes. Honestly, most UGrad schools don't even allow more than 20 credits a semester, so I'm not sure how you ended up here.

 

[Mkif586]

Thank you everyone for the support. Even having a poor judgment skills I am still a good student (I went through all of these without damaging my nearly perfect GPA), but I will never want like to do that again, I can endure for 1 semester but not for 4 years in a raw. I cannot withdraw from any class at this point, too late. I am just going to push myself through the last 3 weeks of the term and restore throughout the winter break. My main concern was that medical school is something similar and I don’t have enough health to go through this. Thank you everyone!

 

[LeaveNoTrace]

Yeah. You got a near-perfect GPA on those classes, while working a part-time job and holding down other extracurricular commitments; a closer comparison would be aiming to get B's or C's on those classes and not working that job either...

 

[Mkif586]

Quick update. So, I have successfully completed the EMT school and did really well at college (3.9 semester GPA). However, I don’t recommend this to anyone considering this route. Now I have one month to get some really good sleep, don’t think I can do anything else at this point.