Tips on how do succeed as a freshman???

[deleted421268]

Plan on attending University of Pittsburgh Greensburg this fall. My goal is to become a doctor and get into Medical School. I thought Greensburg was a good fit for me due to small class sizes and atmosphere. There is always that option of transferring to Pitt Main after 2 years as well. Any tips on how to do well in college and succeed???

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[NPI]

Separate yourself from the rest of the pack by taking extracurricular activities into account. Network with professors and professionals, attend forums, consider hands-on CME courses to learn about procedural training up close, etc. Take that extra initiative to diversify your portfolio. Best of luck!

 

[PostDocCain]

Op,
take your studying seriously. Dont know what type of student you are but try and get off to a great start and make the adjustments. Typical schedule might look something like this:

Bio 3hrs
Bio lab 1 hr
Chem 4hr
Chem lab 1 hr
Eng 101 3 hr
Psy 101 3 hr

Typical pre meds usually take bio and chem at the same time. I would try to focues on studying the sciences as much as possible.

 

[iforget2]

Keep up with sdn once in awhile. If it wasn't for sdn, I would have had little to no clue about what kinds of ECs I need and would most likely be screwed when it came to that side of med school apps.

 

[akram_laiq]

As long as you do good in your prereqs as well as other courses and get a good gpa then you should be fine. Try shadowing a doctor in a field that you're interesting in, as well as pursuing research once you get into college. The more connections you have, the easier it will be to get your foot in the door. Also, study early for the mcat cause school might be really hectic and it'll be difficult to fit that in your schedule... lol i feel ya I'm a freshman as well....

 

[DermViser]

Plan on attending University of Pittsburgh Greensburg this fall. My goal is to become a doctor and get into Medical School. I thought Greensburg was a good fit for me due to small class sizes and atmosphere. There is always that option of transferring to Pitt Main after 2 years as well. Any tips on how to do well in college and succeed???

• Maintain a workable course load for you
• Have good study habits - colleges have great tips and you can Google this stuff too
• Save some time for fun activities that you enjoy
• Review MCAT stuff along with your courses
• Try to keep procrastination tendencies down to a minimum
• Get involved in ECs that you enjoy as well as activities that show you want to go for med school - there are tons of ideas of what people have done on SDN - research, shadowing etc.

 

[Cracker.Jack.]

A very similar thread was started on hSDN this spring called "Guide to a successful Freshman year as a Pre-Med?" that has some really good advice in it. I would take a look at that as it addressed almost the exact same question you have. It's not very far down the thread list I found it again right away.

 

[Stagg737]

No matter what anyone tells you, the 2 most crucial things that will determine what med schools will even look at your app are your GPA and MCAT. You won't be able to do much for your MCAT early on, but I know plenty of people that could have had 3.9+ GPAs and ended up around 3.5 instead (still respectable, but certainly not ideal) because they bombed freshman year. As Derm said, don't give yourself an unreasonably difficult semester and try to minimize procrastinating. Additionally, learn how you study the best early on and your whole time as an undergrad will be significantly easier.