Am In good shape? What do I need to work on?

[DoctorOrdinary]

Hello guys! The clock is ticking fast and I wanted to get some feedback to ensure that I am doing what is needed to be successful in the 2019 application process. I'm a rising junior at a public state university and planning to study for the MCAT during this upcoming summer and fall, then take it in the spring. I was told this was an effective way to give myself enough time to work on my application, given I do well. I was advised to use Kaplan for the material itself, and AAMC for practice. I won't be taking any courses in the summer so that's 4 months to study without additional stress (except volunteering and stuff), but then I will be taking courses in the fall (biochem, physiology, calc, +1 I haven't decided on) which should be a relatively lighter load since I'll max at 14 credits with one being online. Winter break and the month of January should give me enough time to review my notes and take more practice tests. Then I'll take it in February. Please let me know what you guys think of this plan.

Aside from the MCAT, my GPA right now is a 3.95 and I will have all my prerequisites done by the end of this semester. I haven't engaged in too much volunteering aside from special olympics, but will be doing a lot more over the summer back home at a hospital. I have shadowed 30 hours of geriatrics and will be doing more over the summer at a Free Clinic (underserved populations) and hopefully hit at least 100 hours. I am the founder of a successful Nonprofit near my school, which has been running for an entire year now. I am also on the board for a non-premed org in school. I will be starting research in the fall in a chemistry lab involving bioassays of new compounds from marine life. I'm afraid that my fall semester will be a little too cluttered for MCAT prep, but I'm hoping a lighter course load will compensate.

Please forgive my extensive usage of "I" in the last paragraph lol. Let me know if I'm on track!

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[Forever Geebs]

Target 150 hours of clinical volunteer (outside of shadowing) hours plus 150 hours of non-clinical volunteer hours to an underserved population. Examples of the latter would be at a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, etc.

Perform well on the MCAT and you will be fine.

Best of luck to you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Deleted member 737595]

Hello guys! The clock is ticking fast and I wanted to get some feedback to ensure that I am doing what is needed to be successful in the 2019 application process. I'm a rising junior at a public state university and planning to study for the MCAT during this upcoming summer and fall, then take it in the spring. I was told this was an effective way to give myself enough time to work on my application, given I do well. I was advised to use Kaplan for the material itself, and AAMC for practice. I won't be taking any courses in the summer so that's 4 months to study without additional stress (except volunteering and stuff), but then I will be taking courses in the fall (biochem, physiology, calc, +1 I haven't decided on) which should be a relatively lighter load since I'll max at 14 credits with one being online. Winter break and the month of January should give me enough time to review my notes and take more practice tests. Then I'll take it in February. Please let me know what you guys think of this plan.

Aside from the MCAT, my GPA right now is a 3.95 and I will have all my prerequisites done by the end of this semester. I haven't engaged in too much volunteering aside from special olympics, but will be doing a lot more over the summer back home at a hospital. I have shadowed 30 hours of geriatrics and will be doing more over the summer at a Free Clinic (underserved populations) and hopefully hit at least 100 hours. I am the founder of a successful Nonprofit near my school, which has been running for an entire year now. I am also on the board for a non-premed org in school. I will be starting research in the fall in a chemistry lab involving bioassays of new compounds from marine life. I'm afraid that my fall semester will be a little too cluttered for MCAT prep, but I'm hoping a lighter course load will compensate.

Please forgive my extensive usage of "I" in the last paragraph lol. Let me know if I'm on track!

Hey bud, I'm applying next year as well. I understand the "I" problem I have it too ( ).

I, like you, had no volunteering about a month ago and recently decided I was applying next year. My FIRST step was acquiring a volunteer position where I could make a year commitment or more, which I have done, for both clinical and non-clinical. If I were you, I would make this priority #1. This will be CRITICAL come application time, ESPECIALLY clinical experience that isn't shadowing. Non-clinical is also important, and your work with special olympics sounds great. Here on SDN, I've found everyone says to volunteer with those less fortunate which I would recommend, since this has been opening my eyes in the past month.

As for MCAT, you have a solid plan. You are lucky to have the whole month of January off to study, I don't so I'm doing the MCAT in September which is definitely doable. PM me if you would like a spiritual pre-med buddy.

Otherwise, your doing very well. Others will have more to say hopefully.

Cheers

 

[DoctorOrdinary]

Target 150 hours of clinical volunteer (outside of shadowing) hours plus 150 hours of non-clinical volunteer hours to an underserved population. Examples of the latter would be at a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, etc.

Perform well on the MCAT and you will be fine.

Best of luck to you.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you! Yes I have been specifically looking into that as well (feeding the homeless). Hopefully I'll get a nice amount done by the end of the summer and continue on into the fall.

 

[DoctorOrdinary]

Hey bud, I'm applying next year as well. I understand the "I" problem I have it too ( ).

I, like you, had no volunteering about a month ago and recently decided I was applying next year. My FIRST step was acquiring a volunteer position where I could make a year commitment or more, which I have done, for both clinical and non-clinical. If I were you, I would make this priority #1. This will be CRITICAL come application time, ESPECIALLY clinical experience that isn't shadowing. Non-clinical is also important, and your work with special olympics sounds great. Here on SDN, I've found everyone says to volunteer with those less fortunate which I would recommend, since this has been opening my eyes in the past month.

As for MCAT, you have a solid plan. You are lucky to have the whole month of January off to study, I don't so I'm doing the MCAT in September which is definitely doable. PM me if you would like a spiritual pre-med buddy.

Otherwise, your doing very well. Others will have more to say hopefully.

Cheers

Man you are so right. I had been itching to volunteer somewhere with commitment but things just don't work out sometimes. I really hope it will be different from now on. Asides from that, are you studying only over the summer for your MCAT? I would have wanted to do that but I haven't taken biochem yet so I thought it would be best to take the test right after fall semester when the course is finished.

I appreciate your response, I'm down to be your spiritual pre-med buddy

 

[Deleted member 737595]

Man you are so right. I had been itching to volunteer somewhere with commitment but things just don't work out sometimes. I really hope it will be different from now on. Asides from that, are you studying only over the summer for your MCAT? I would have wanted to do that but I haven't taken biochem yet so I thought it would be best to take the test right after fall semester when the course is finished.

I appreciate your response, I'm down to be your spiritual pre-med buddy

I’m currently working full time in biotech where I get to learn a lot about Biochemistry in my job. The material for Biochem that will be on the MCAT is pretty shallow; Ive learned a good chunk of it in high school honors Bio. It boils down to four main things: amino acids, enzymes, metabolism, and DNA/RNA. I’m having success teaching myself these things and am seeing more and more that Biochem isn’t this monster of a subject but is pretty straightforward. I’m actually almost done with learning Biochem, just have to learn the ten or so pathways. Being interested in the subject is also important (Biochem major here).

BUT, everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and what works for me may not work for you. Then again, you have a significantly higher GPA than me (3.68) so consider that.

 

[bigeman101]

Man you are so right. I had been itching to volunteer somewhere with commitment but things just don't work out sometimes. I really hope it will be different from now on. Asides from that, are you studying only over the summer for your MCAT? I would have wanted to do that but I haven't taken biochem yet so I thought it would be best to take the test right after fall semester when the course is finished.

I appreciate your response, I'm down to be your spiritual pre-med buddy

Honestly I don’t think biochem is necessary for the mcat. Most review books go over it well and tbh you just need to memorize amino acids and their pka haha.

 

[MareNostrummm]

Honestly I don’t think biochem is necessary for the mcat. Most review books go over it well and tbh you just need to memorize amino acids and their pka haha.

You need enzyme kinetics, gibbs free energy, how to synthesize macromolecules as well but that's all in the books.

 

[Deleted member 737595]

You need enzyme kinetics, gibbs free energy, how to synthesize macromolecules as well but that's all in the books.

Honestly I don’t think biochem is necessary for the mcat. Most review books go over it well and tbh you just need to memorize amino acids and their pka haha.

Yeah, I'll disagree that you 'don't need Biochem' because that can be misleading. I think you need a good thorough treatment of the basics, just not a college course which includes a lot of extras. Biochemistry is incredibly important, I wasn't trying to undermine its importance, only that it can be self-learned with dedication.

 

[bigeman101]

Yeah, I'll disagree that you 'don't need Biochem' because that can be misleading. I think you need a good thorough treatment of the basics, just not a college course which includes a lot of extras. Biochemistry is incredibly important, I wasn't trying to undermine its importance, only that it can be self-learned with dedication.

You don’t need to put off taking the mcat because you haven’t taken biochem.

Yeah, I'll disagree that you 'don't need Biochem' because that can be misleading. I think you need a good thorough treatment of the basics, just not a college course which includes a lot of extras. Biochemistry is incredibly important, I wasn't trying to undermine its importance, only that it can be self-learned with dedication.

+1

 

[Deleted member 737595]

True. Personally my bioche

You don’t need to put off taking the mcat because you haven’t taken biochem.

+1

Ex actly. ESPECIALLY today with the amount of internet resources available, INCLUDING actual people you can ask questions to for free.