Am I in way over my head?

[felix_exitus]

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Hello Doctors, Med-Students, and people like myself. Forgive me; I am new to this site. I'll learn my way, eventually. 😉 Let me first explain my situation: I am 21 years old, married after high school, I work full time and go to a public university as a sophomore. I slacked off in high school towards the end although my education has always been important to me. When I entered college, I turned myself around. I am dedicated, studious, I earn good grades, maintain a high GPA (3.5 & >), try to involve myself in extra-curricular activities although it is difficult at times. I also have a plan! But I need some advice. It goes without saying but Medical School is competitive. I want to have the "edge" that admissions looks for in a student. I have a deep interest in Psychology. I do not want to be "another psych major" though. Your thoughts on a psych undergrad? I am pursuing a BS with a General Science track. Do you think majoring in Psychology with a heavy concentration on the sciences will be beneficial to me? Or should I pursue a different major? I also work in a hospital as a Patient Care Tech. I am float staff so I get to experience everything from Intensive Care, to Peds, to Psych, and Surgery. I believe Med Schools like to see some experience/volunteer work in applicants, right? Should I pursue a summer research internship? Maybe set up some long term job shadows of Physicians? Say once a week for 2-3 months at a time? Is it too much to ask each Physician to sign a documentation and a write a short letter of acknowledgement expressing their experience with me? Sort of like an informal recommendation letter I suppose. When should I start studying for the MCAT? Any tips on how to succeed on that exam? Lastly, as the title states, am I in over my head? Is Med school just a dream? I often question my own intelligence and if I am smart enough to make it in medicine. Is this normal? Doctors seem so sure of themselves and I want that! Sorry for the long post, I had to make it personal. Any advice is appreciated!

Best!

 

[On Eagle's Wings]

If your photo is one of yourself, I would remove it to protect you anonymity. Medical school Adcoms are known to go through SDN looking at what people post, and you do not want to be easily identified.

 

[Meeehai]

Hello Doctors, Med-Students, and people like myself. Forgive me; I am new to this site. I'll learn my way, eventually. 😉 Let me first explain my situation: I am 21 years old, married after high school, I work full time and go to a public university in Indiana as a sophomore. I slacked off in high school towards the end although my education has always been important to me. When I entered college, I turned myself around. I am dedicated, studious, I earn good grades, maintain a high GPA (3.5 & >), try to involve myself in extra-curricular activities although it is difficult at times. I also have a plan! But I need some advice. It goes without saying but Medical School is competitive. I want to have the "edge" that admissions looks for in a student. I have a deep interest in Psychology. I do not want to be "another psych major" though. Your thoughts on a psych undergrad? I am pursuing a BS with a General Science track. Do you think majoring in Psychology with a heavy concentration on the sciences will be beneficial to me? Or should I pursue a different major? I also work in a hospital as a Patient Care Technician. I am float staff so I get to experience everything from Intensive Care, to Peds, to Psych, and Surgery. I believe Med Schools like to see some experience/volunteer work in applicants, right? Should I pursue a summer research internship? Maybe set up some long term job shadows of Physicians? Say once a week for 2-3 months at a time? Is it too much to ask each Physician to sign a documentation and a write a short letter of acknowledgement expressing their experience with me? Sort of like an informal recommendation letter I suppose. When should I start studying for the MCAT? Any tips on how to succeed on that exam? Lastly, as the title states, am I in over my head? Is Med school just a dream? I often question my own intelligence and if I am smart enough to make it in medicine. Is this normal? Doctors seem so sure of themselves and I want that! Sorry for the long post, I had to make it personal. Any advice is appreciated!

Best,
H

You should study things that interest you in undergrad, so I think you should definitely stick with psych if you like it. I don't know about being "just another psych" major, I think there are more generic science pre-med majors than psych. Either way, you just need to maintain a good GPA and you'll be fine. Keep up with your clinical experiences. Do everything you're already doing and the things you proposed. I think it's more about work ethic than intelligence when it comes to medicine, so if you're willing to go for it, then you're not in over your head by any means.

 

[cooldriver]

I agree...Some adcoms here are very judgemental so god forbid if you said something that they don't like, they will definitely remember you..so save your privacy

 

[felix_exitus]

If your photo is one of yourself, I would remove it to protect you anonymity. Medical school Adcoms are known to go through SDN looking at what people post, and you do not want to be easily identified.

Thank you for that! Should be good now 🙂

 

[felix_exitus]

You should study things that interest you in undergrad, so I think you should definitely stick with psych if you like it. I don't know about being "just another psych" major, I think there are more generic science pre-med majors than psych. Either way, you just need to maintain a good GPA and you'll be fine. Keep up with your clinical experiences. Do everything you're already doing and the things you proposed. I think it's more about work ethic than intelligence when it comes to medicine, so if you're willing to go for it, then you're not in over your head by any means.

I appreciate that, thank you for your advice!

 

[cooldriver]

Hello Doctors, Med-Students, and people like myself. Forgive me; I am new to this site. I'll learn my way, eventually. 😉 Let me first explain my situation: I am 21 years old, married after high school, I work full time and go to a public university in Indiana as a sophomore. I slacked off in high school towards the end although my education has always been important to me. When I entered college, I turned myself around. I am dedicated, studious, I earn good grades, maintain a high GPA (3.5 & >), try to involve myself in extra-curricular activities although it is difficult at times. I also have a plan! But I need some advice. It goes without saying but Medical School is competitive. I want to have the "edge" that admissions looks for in a student. I have a deep interest in Psychology. I do not want to be "another psych major" though. Your thoughts on a psych undergrad? I am pursuing a BS with a General Science track. Do you think majoring in Psychology with a heavy concentration on the sciences will be beneficial to me? Or should I pursue a different major? I also work in a hospital as a Patient Care Technician. I am float staff so I get to experience everything from Intensive Care, to Peds, to Psych, and Surgery. I believe Med Schools like to see some experience/volunteer work in applicants, right? Should I pursue a summer research internship? Maybe set up some long term job shadows of Physicians? Say once a week for 2-3 months at a time? Is it too much to ask each Physician to sign a documentation and a write a short letter of acknowledgement expressing their experience with me? Sort of like an informal recommendation letter I suppose. When should I start studying for the MCAT? Any tips on how to succeed on that exam? Lastly, as the title states, am I in over my head? Is Med school just a dream? I often question my own intelligence and if I am smart enough to make it in medicine. Is this normal? Doctors seem so sure of themselves and I want that! Sorry for the long post, I had to make it personal. Any advice is appreciated!

Best,
H

Hello Doctors, Med-Students, and people like myself. Forgive me; I am new to this site. I'll learn my way, eventually. 😉 Let me first explain my situation: I am 21 years old, married after high school, I work full time and go to a public university as a sophomore. I slacked off in high school towards the end although my education has always been important to me. When I entered college, I turned myself around. I am dedicated, studious, I earn good grades, maintain a high GPA (3.5 & >), try to involve myself in extra-curricular activities although it is difficult at times. I also have a plan! But I need some advice. It goes without saying but Medical School is competitive. I want to have the "edge" that admissions looks for in a student. I have a deep interest in Psychology. I do not want to be "another psych major" though. Your thoughts on a psych undergrad? I am pursuing a BS with a General Science track. Do you think majoring in Psychology with a heavy concentration on the sciences will be beneficial to me? Or should I pursue a different major? I also work in a hospital as a Patient Care Tech. I am float staff so I get to experience everything from Intensive Care, to Peds, to Psych, and Surgery. I believe Med Schools like to see some experience/volunteer work in applicants, right? Should I pursue a summer research internship? Maybe set up some long term job shadows of Physicians? Say once a week for 2-3 months at a time? Is it too much to ask each Physician to sign a documentation and a write a short letter of acknowledgement expressing their experience with me? Sort of like an informal recommendation letter I suppose. When should I start studying for the MCAT? Any tips on how to succeed on that exam? Lastly, as the title states, am I in over my head? Is Med school just a dream? I often question my own intelligence and if I am smart enough to make it in medicine. Is this normal? Doctors seem so sure of themselves and I want that! Sorry for the long post, I had to make it personal. Any advice is appreciated!

Best!

You should stick to psych major since thats what you like, Your major will not set you apart, it will be your extracurriculars and you seem to be on track. Yes, I would highly reccomend shadowing physicians, especially psychiatrists since that is in line with your major and interest and might help you in your personal statement too, but shadowing any physician is fine at this point of time. You can ask for letter of aknowledgement for your record but letters of recommendations have to be sent directly to AMCAS by the recommenders when the time comes, so you would have to ask them again when its time for applying. I would also recommend joining or starting a medicine related organization at your school to hilight your leadership skills. Also look into starting a chapter of medical brigade in your school if its already not there. Summer research is always a good option, since some schools do require some kind of research experience, if you get published thats a huge bonus. I think that is more than enough for most of the schools. I found it very hard to find a balance between extracurriculars and studying, your priority should always be maintaining good grades and high gpa first. I always went hard on extracurriculars during summers and focused more on studying during semesters.
Start studying for MCAT as soon as possible, some kids I know started in high school ( i know its crazy but the earlier the better) , I started in sophmore year. I would recommend buying Kaplan and berkley review and dowloading as much stuff as possible from online. Slowly start going over each book and using your school text books to re enforce concepts you don't understand. Towards the last 3 months before taking the exam, just focus on speed, and building mental stamina by taking as many practice exams as possible, this will be the difference between a good score and a great score.
If medicine is your passion then you would definitely achieve your goal. It is more about hard work than being smart. I would not consider myself as smart by any means but I always wanted to be a physician and a lot of people doubted me along the way. People told me I would never survive MCAT since english is my second language, people told me that my app would be thrown in garbage since I am not a citizen, people told me that my gpa wasn't high enough to apply, but I knew that I had the passion and determination to overcome all the obstacles and thats what I told my interviewers and I got into half of the schools I applied. You don't need mine or anyone else's reaffirmation to achieve your goal, if you really want it , you will get it 🙂

 

[gyngyn]

There is no benefit to long term shadowing.
Get a variety of experiences.
You only need to keep the doc's name, address and hours for the activities section. No MD school wants a shadowing LOE.
Don't forget longitudinal care in the shadowing.

 

[felix_exitus]

There is no benefit to long term shadowing.
Get a variety of experiences.
You only need to keep the doc's name, address and hours for the activities section. No MD school wants a shadowing LOE.
Don't forget longitudinal care in the shadowing.

What type of work/volunteer opportunities would be the most beneficial? How can I get involved with a Physician for actual experience in medicine premed school? Thanks!

 

[gyngyn]

What type of work/volunteer opportunities would be the most beneficial? How can I get involved with a Physician for actual experience in medicine premed school? Thanks!

Clinical experience can be found in and out of hospitals: nursing homes, "student run" clinics, hospice, federally funded clinics, VA, Planned Parenthood...
You don't need to to be "involved with a physician" as much as you need to be involved with patients.
If you have skills that you can use to help those in need, use them (translation, tutoring, music...)

 

[felix_exitus]

Clinical experience can be found in and out of hospitals: nursing homes, "student run" clinics, hospice, federally funded clinics, VA, Planned Parenthood...
You don't need to to be "involved with a physician" as much as you need to be involved with patients.
If you have skills that you can use to help those in need, use them (translation, tutoring, music...)

Thank you! Lastly, does my current job not count as adequate experience for Med school? Despite the fact that it is in direct patient care, I need to seek out a variety of volunteer clinical experiences/opportunities within different facilities and different lines of work, right? Whatever can increase my chances.

 

[gyngyn]

Thank you! My current job consists of direct patient care within a hospital. This is different than clinical experience for Med School, no? Or do I need a variety of unpaid, volunteer experiences at different facilities with different lines of work?

It's no different. Patients are patients.
Any volunteer experience helping others?

 

[felix_exitus]

It's no different. Patients are patients.
Any volunteer experience helping others?

Yes. Besides my job, I volunteer at booths at local events that are hosted by my employer reading BPs, education, and information regarding the hospital, healthy living, etc. I suppose I could get in touch with the local Red Cross and volunteer to work at events and possibly get some training for clinical experiences wherever I am qualified. I can also start this semester organizing a club or seeking out an organization for premed students to get involved with health fairs, home health, nursing home activities, etc. I could also do some volunteer work at therapy clinics perhaps as well as walk-in clinics at our local drugstore. Do these sound like promising actions to take?

 

[gyngyn]

Yes. Besides my job, I volunteer at booths at local events that are hosted by my employer reading BPs, education, and information regarding the hospital, healthy living, etc. I suppose I could get in touch with the local Red Cross and volunteer to work at events and possibly get some training for clinical experiences wherever I am qualified. I can also start this semester organizing a club or seeking out an organization for premed students to get involved with health fairs, home health, nursing home activities, etc. I could also do some volunteer work at therapy clinics perhaps as well as walk-in clinics at our local drugstore. Do these sound like promising actions to take?

Do something useful. That's all we ask.
There are homeless, hopeless, fatherless children everywhere.
There are lonely aged too.

 

[felix_exitus]

Do something useful. That's all we ask.
There are homeless, hopeless, fatherless children everywhere.
There are lonely aged too.

Good point. Thank you for your insight. I appreciate it!

 

[felix_exitus]

You should stick to psych major since thats what you like, Your major will not set you apart, it will be your extracurriculars and you seem to be on track. Yes, I would highly reccomend shadowing physicians, especially psychiatrists since that is in line with your major and interest and might help you in your personal statement too, but shadowing any physician is fine at this point of time. You can ask for letter of aknowledgement for your record but letters of recommendations have to be sent directly to AMCAS by the recommenders when the time comes, so you would have to ask them again when its time for applying. I would also recommend joining or starting a medicine related organization at your school to hilight your leadership skills. Also look into starting a chapter of medical brigade in your school if its already not there. Summer research is always a good option, since some schools do require some kind of research experience, if you get published thats a huge bonus. I think that is more than enough for most of the schools. I found it very hard to find a balance between extracurriculars and studying, your priority should always be maintaining good grades and high gpa first. I always went hard on extracurriculars during summers and focused more on studying during semesters.
Start studying for MCAT as soon as possible, some kids I know started in high school ( i know its crazy but the earlier the better) , I started in sophmore year. I would recommend buying Kaplan and berkley review and dowloading as much stuff as possible from online. Slowly start going over each book and using your school text books to re enforce concepts you don't understand. Towards the last 3 months before taking the exam, just focus on speed, and building mental stamina by taking as many practice exams as possible, this will be the difference between a good score and a great score.
If medicine is your passion then you would definitely achieve your goal. It is more about hard work than being smart. I would not consider myself as smart by any means but I always wanted to be a physician and a lot of people doubted me along the way. People told me I would never survive MCAT since english is my second language, people told me that my app would be thrown in garbage since I am not a citizen, people told me that my gpa wasn't high enough to apply, but I knew that I had the passion and determination to overcome all the obstacles and thats what I told my interviewers and I got into half of the schools I applied. You don't need mine or anyone else's reaffirmation to achieve your goal, if you really want it , you will get it 🙂

This has been incredibly helpful! Thank you so much for your input. I had a rough go my first year in college. I thought pursuing medicine wasn't attainable and so I did a little bit of everything and wasn't happy. I withdrew from a handful of classes but luckily my grades didn't suffer too bad. I'm now back on track. How badly will that first year affect my application? I hate to have a bad track record but at least I am working to prove myself, right?

 

[Goro]

Agree 100% with my learned colleague. the key thing we look for is service to others less fortunate than yourself.

Do something useful. That's all we ask.
There are homeless, hopeless, fatherless children everywhere.
There are lonely aged too.

 

[Meeehai]

This has been incredibly helpful! Thank you so much for your input. I had a rough go my first year in college. I thought pursuing medicine wasn't attainable and so I did a little bit of everything and wasn't happy. I withdrew from a handful of classes but luckily my grades didn't suffer too bad. I'm now back on track. How badly will that first year affect my application? I hate to have a bad track record but at least I am working to prove myself, right?

Adcoms love stories of improvement throughout your college years. I don't really think it negatively impacts your chances at all, as long as you rock it from now on.

 

[deleted393595]

Hello Doctors, Med-Students, and people like myself. Forgive me; I am new to this site. I'll learn my way, eventually. 😉 Let me first explain my situation: I am 21 years old, married after high school, I work full time and go to a public university as a sophomore. I slacked off in high school towards the end although my education has always been important to me. When I entered college, I turned myself around. I am dedicated, studious, I earn good grades, maintain a high GPA (3.5 & >), try to involve myself in extra-curricular activities although it is difficult at times. I also have a plan! But I need some advice. It goes without saying but Medical School is competitive. I want to have the "edge" that admissions looks for in a student. I have a deep interest in Psychology. I do not want to be "another psych major" though. Your thoughts on a psych undergrad? I am pursuing a BS with a General Science track. Do you think majoring in Psychology with a heavy concentration on the sciences will be beneficial to me? Or should I pursue a different major? I also work in a hospital as a Patient Care Tech. I am float staff so I get to experience everything from Intensive Care, to Peds, to Psych, and Surgery. I believe Med Schools like to see some experience/volunteer work in applicants, right? Should I pursue a summer research internship? Maybe set up some long term job shadows of Physicians? Say once a week for 2-3 months at a time? Is it too much to ask each Physician to sign a documentation and a write a short letter of acknowledgement expressing their experience with me? Sort of like an informal recommendation letter I suppose. When should I start studying for the MCAT? Any tips on how to succeed on that exam? Lastly, as the title states, am I in over my head? Is Med school just a dream? I often question my own intelligence and if I am smart enough to make it in medicine. Is this normal? Doctors seem so sure of themselves and I want that! Sorry for the long post, I had to make it personal. Any advice is appreciated!

Best!

There's a search function above, and a lot of good quality threads posted over the years on stuff like this.

 

[felix_exitus]

There's a search function above, and a lot of good quality threads posted over the years on stuff like this.

Thank you! I have been viewing a lot of them since posting this. I needed it for myself. Specifically tailored my personal situation. I'll try not to post too much more that can be answered in other threads 😉

 

[felix_exitus]

Adcoms love stories of improvement throughout your college years. I don't really think it negatively impacts your chances at all, as long as you rock it from now on.

Sweet! Thank you. There's definitely a life altering reason behind all the chaos my freshman year🙂 Here goes to rocking the rest of my undergrad.