Coping with stress junior year

[BTheM]

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[jm192]

I usually had one focus at a time. Get your grades now. That's in your face, so focus on it.

Decide who you're going to get your letters from, ask, and be done with it. Who cares if you aren't up to the standards the other pre-meds set. You have to have letters. Ask and be done with it.

If you don't have a deadline looming on the research paper--work on it between heavy testing periods.

Also, a beer once in a while would probably go a long ways.

 

[phxf]

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. Work on what needs the most amount of attention now, and gradually work on the others.

Personally, I don't stress much because I once had an epiphany. Why spend time worrying about something in my future when I can take steps now to avoid that sort of situation? I get that stress is unavoidable, but preparation takes it down a notch. That being said, the day before you get your MCAT result, will be the pinnacle of it.

 

[youmed]

I usually had one focus at a time. Get your grades now. That's in your face, so focus on it.

Decide who you're going to get your letters from, ask, and be done with it. Who cares if you aren't up to the standards the other pre-meds set. You have to have letters. Ask and be done with it.

If you don't have a deadline looming on the research paper--work on it between heavy testing periods.

Also, a beer once in a while would probably go a long ways.

+1 Do one thing at a time but plan your schedule at least a week ahead, not months or years ahead. Once you feel like you have control of the sources of your stress, then you can start planning more and more into the future. Good luck! 😉

 

[pietachok]

Realize that the world doesn't end if you don't apply during your senior year. I'm not saying you should or even have to take a year off, but if you come to peace with the fact that that's not a bad thing, it will lift a lot of the sense of urgency and overwhelmed-ness that you seem to have.

Also realize that pre-meds on SDN tend to be on the more neurotic end of the spectrum and that there is a huge segment of the applicant pool that has lower standards than you seem to be judging yourself by. Many people apply with no publications and minimal research experience.

You will get rejections in the med school application process. That is a given. I guarantee you there are applicants at top schools who received rejections from many schools . . . just remember it only takes one acceptance, and try to keep things in perspective. Med school acceptances can seem extremely random -- a huge percentage of qualified applicants are not accepted at any given school, so you really cannot take it personally.

 

[Ace-Co-A]

I was pretty stressed out at that stage, as well. I recommend running. I am always better able to focus on my studies after I jog a few miles. 🙂

 

[3838]

Hey all,

For those of you who have gone through the process (relatively) unscathed, how did you manage? It just feels overwhelming because the application cycle is coming up very soon and I do not feel prepared. Right now, I'm a bit of a borderline applicant, so I'm trying to work hard on getting the best grades I can and on doing well on the MCAT. That alone is pretty (really) hard, for me at least.

But there are so many other things to do as well. I'm supposed to get good letters of recommendation from professors, and I'm not entirely sure I'll get ones that are up to the standards that other pre-meds will be setting. I have to work on clinical experience, turn up my leadership to 11, and my research paper is still being written (though I am getting published so I guess that's a plus! unfortunately I don't think I'll be that involved in the writing) and I don't know if it'll be published in time.

Once I do all of this, I might have a shot at getting into a good medical school. It's just overwhelming thinking about the school list I need to make and then actually applying and going through the process of convincing tons of people why they should give me a shot at med school. When I went through college admissions, it was extremely stressful for me. I got a huge ton of rejections, I felt like a failure after working really hard in high school, and I wasn't excited at all about starting college. How can I avoid all of the stress again? I'm just dreading this whole thing.

Sorry for the rant... I hope you can offer some advice! I know there are lots of people in my position.

First of all, take it one step at a time. As far as all of your recommendations, clinical experience, leadership experience, all of that jazz -- just do what you're passionate about and let the pieces fall into place. I'm not even kidding. There is no "recipe" for getting into medical school. Admissions committees want to know that you are academically capable of handling medical school and leading a balanced life, committed to service, have some sort of experience working with others and being a leader, think deeply about your motivations for pursuing medicine, and some schools want you to have some research experience. Finally, they want to know that you are mature, that you understand yourself and your limitations, that you do what you do deliberately, that you relate well with people/have life experiences that allow you to do so.

Doing all of the "required" things separately is difficult and come application time, will be really difficult to integrate into a cohesive vision of yourself. Do less things, but do them well. Don't compare yourself with other pre-meds, set a standard for yourself that is not based on how much you do, but how well you do it. You've got to remember that this is your life. You can't stress yourself out or construct a life around getting into medical school! Rather, construct a life that you are passionate about and you will get into medical school! Get to know a few of your professors because they're usually pretty cool people and will help you out. Your research mentor should be one of your recs. Again, get to know your research mentor.

Second, don't take the process personally at all. Before you go into this, you need to come to terms with the fact that your worth and value as a person is not contingent on your acceptance into medical school, your GPA, or your MCAT scores. You need to define yourself in a way that would exist even if you don't end up going to medical school. For example, you could define yourself by your relationships, by your dedication, by your pursuit of passion, by your desire to help? This will help you come application time, of course (the ad comm wants to see people who are mentally healthy and able to withstand extremely stressful situations), but this is important for you to do as a human being, in order to deal with all the crap life will throw at you.

Last piece of advice: study your butt off for the MCAT. Study smart, though. Know the material, and then spend a few weeks and study the test. I spent a few months reviewing material for about 1-2 hours a day during the semester. Then I spent two weeks studying the exam (I wish I had had three). It's about changing your thinking patterns so that you're thinking in the "correct" way about questions/their answers. It's about noticing trends in the types of questions and passages. Do not make the mistake of thinking that because you took a bunch of practice exams and studied/reviewed material for two months that you're going to do well. In fact, I didn't really take any full lengths, (maybe one?) they drain the life out of you. Doing timed passages/sections and then going over them, analyzing your thought process (why did I get this question right? why did I get this question wrong? did I know the material? If I did, then how should I have thought about this question in order to select the correct answer?), categorizing the questions and passages, and reviewing any relevant material (if needed) is much more useful.

In other words, do what you do for normal exams...be prepared. You've taken so many exams at this point in your life; just prepare for it, but don't stress out -- stress is counterproductive. Just do it.

And as far as the rest of it goes? Chill and live your life. Be engaged. Pursue your passions. Try to really learn from your experiences; make them deep and rich. It will show, I promise. Even if you have a 100 less hours of clinical experience than some other applicant or only one leadership position, you'll have more stories to tell. And that's what applying to medical school is about--being able to tell your story.

Also +1 to running and realizing that SDN is full of OA's/people stressing out. Seriously, SDN had me convinced that interviews stopped going out in like October, and if you didn't apply before mid-July, you were screwed. Apply early, if you can, though. I couldn't apply early; I was in rural India with no internet and limited computer use/time.

 

[Dandine]

BTheM, thanks for posting this. I think all of us (including myself) need perspective on our goals! 😀

 

[BundleofHis]

I gave up my winter break. I studied for the MCAT, I picked all of the schools that I would be applying to, I set up clinical/research opportunities for my spring semester, I started my personal statement, picked my letter writers, etc. Just think: you'll have nearly a month of no classes. USE IT WISELY! Good luck! 🙂

 

[BTheM]

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[Pasmal]

I pulled my hair out for a few years like you're doing but then I realized that it's just the name of the game. It's not easy. Med school is stressful too, but a whole different "if I screw this up maybe it means I'm going to be a terrible doctor" kind of stress. There's always stress.

The only thing that you need to remember is to use time to your advantage, because right now it's on your side.

Get your transcript verified well ahead of time, take your MCAT asap (only you know when for that one), send all of your primaries in during the first 1-2 weeks of June, and have all of your secondaries done within 48 hrs of receiving them.

If you do this, you'll set yourself up for a very LOW stress senior year. Imagine walking in to class in August with an acceptance in your pocket. That would be a good feeling.

I didn't follow the above guidelines to the T. I was accepted two weeks before graduating. That sucked bad. So trade some stress now for less later, and just keep chugging along like you're doing 🙂