Most of these kids on the forums have never worked a full time job for more than a month or two --- odds are most of them haven't really worked at all (most pre-meds are middle to upper middle class). They've really been coasting along throughout high school and especially college (average course load is 12-15 credit HOURS PER WEEK/semester).
Of course, Indians/Chinese/Japanese kids are a different group but their countries are a lot more competitive from the day they're born
you have to remember there are 24* 7 = 168 hours per week and you need 8 hours a day of sleep * 7 = 54 hours, and you want to chill for like 3 hours everyday * 7 = 21 hours, then you want to workout for 1 hours everyday (this is the max) * 7 = 8.5 (shower time, getting to gym and back) lets make that 14 hours (i like to workout m w f an additional hour), then you're in class 23 hours a week, then you study about 8 hours a week for those classes.
Let's just say you're doing that. Out of those classes, how many are really going to be studying 3 hours/credit hour? It depends on the difficulty of your classes/professors.
I'm taking microeconomics, macroeconomics, financial accounting, a guitar credit, elementary french I, mathematics of finance, and intro to business (financial accounting and intro to business I am taking through ONLINE CLASSES).
You'll probably do al ittle here and there and then study the night before an exam. No one studies more than an hour to two hours a week for these classes.
So let's say you want to do 5 hours of MCAT studying a week * 7 days = 35 hours. Realistically, it'll be more like 3.5-4 hours (with break times and losing attention span)
So let's add up - 168 hours - 56 (total sleep in a week) - 21 (total chill time per week THATS 3 HOURS PER DAY!) - 14 (hours working out per week (this is more than what most people do), 31 hours (23 hours in class + 8 hours of studying/week) = 46 hours left over in the week for MCAT studying which gives me 6.6 hours of study time every day.
Now for me to do this it means that I am sacrificing time with others (i won't be out late, will be going to bed on time, eating well, exercising everyday).
because in general you have 3 fields here you can cut short to compensate for the other 2 (health, relationships/family/friends, work/education/money endeavors)
I am sacrificing relationships/family/friends for 3.75 months (classes run 75 days excluding thanksgiving and saturdays and sundays or 15 weeks @ 5 days at "part-time" 20 hour shifts).
So even with this schedule, i have 3 hours a day of CHILL TIME and I can cut it down to 2 hours a day or even 1 hour a day if need be.
In my free time, i have to take into account travel time to classes (8 minutes), to the gym (5 minutes), wasted time/procrastination/zoning out (1 hour), and I won't be watching tv in my free time.
I'll probably end up reading magazines (The Economist + The New Yorker, reading news online) just for the heck of it.
I can do this because I'm a little older and I've taken time off after college after working a full time job for a few years.
I will admit this will be like a bootcamp but frankly it won't be hell because I'm taking classes I want (fun interesting relevant classes) and not bull**** biology classes like organic chem ugh....
Your schedule doesn't have to be as crazy as mine, but as you can see, I am taking 23 credits this semester, plus spending 4-5 hours a day studying for the MCAT, plus working out and I still have like 2-3 hours a day to chill out and relax.
You're going to have a schedule like this in medical school, you might as well get used to it now you know?
