Whether to continue pursuing math on the side.

[Doc2019]

Hello everyone. I'm here, once again, to ask for all of your wisdom. I am currently an incoming Freshman and during my High School Career I've been on my school's Math Team for four years. In Math Team, we usually take a lot of contests and this year the people who make the contests for Math Team are reaching out to High School Seniors to become part of their Freshman Executive Board and to help them organize the contest.(Pretty much review and edit Math Contests and also send the contests to all the Math Team Coaches) I want to apply to become a Division Coordinator because I think it'd be helpful on developing my professional skills and maybe work my way up depending on how it goes. Although, I'd have to go through an application process and I am not sure I will get a spot, I wanted to ask all of you if you think this is worth my time. They say that it won't take more than 3 hours of a week. I don't know if a Pre-Med Student can afford to lose that much time. My mother is against this idea. She thinks it's a waste of my time and that I shouldn't pursue anything other than volunteering at a Hospital or doing research. She's also afraid it might be too much for me as a College student overall and a waste of time since I'm pursuing Medical School. I know she wants the best for me but I'm so conflicted. For College I plan to to be committed to my school's Badminton Club-Sport and work my way up to becoming the President of the Club-Sport (I've been practicing a lot of my Badminton shots and getting into shape by running everyday for the past month.) and also I plan to be committed to my school's Pre-Med Society and work my way up to becoming the President of that club. So I'm so afraid of overdoing it and crashing. However, math has been a big part of my life as long with the Sciences and I think this is the perfect way to keep it there. If any of you have any wisdom I'd greatly appreciate it.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Mecidimes]

Part of a successful application to medical school is doing things you yourself are passionate about, not just doing things for the sake of them looking pretty on your resume. It sounds like you are passionate about coordinating your math team, so go ahead and give it a shot. You mentioned you're a freshman, so you have plenty of time to learn time management and to choose your ECs. You probably will bite off more than you can chew initially, but that is totally normal. Just go with the flow, learn when something needs to be dropped, and do your best to manage your time appropriately.

Try to focus less on the positions you could earn (e.g. president of this, president of that) and more on what those positions will mean to you. In my junior year, I served as a senator in student government. I later took a committee chair position, but that was after my application was already submitted. I wasn't student body president, but I did a lot of good and made some pretty big waves in my position, and so I featured that prominently on my application. You don't have to be the head of head honchos to make a big difference, and if you focus on getting that position to the exclusion of all others, you may find yourself bouncing from club to club and generally making yourself miserable.

So try new things. Explore new clubs. Shadow, take courses you're interested in, and make a few mistakes. Enjoy your time in college, and don't allow your resume to be the be-all-end-all.