Feeling Overwhelmed

[mreyno18]

I am feeling very overwhelmed this semester. I will be applying this upcoming cycle and I have too much going on until then. I am mentally very stressed because I have so much going on and am not getting enough sleep or any downtime. I would love your advice on what to do.

Best Option: Drop something...
If I continue everything I am doing by the end of the semester I will have accumulated the following:

Volunteering: 900 hrs
Clinical Experience: 500 hrs
Shadowing: 100 hrs
Extra-Curricular: 575 hrs
Leadership: 350 hrs
NCAA Athletics: 2700 hrs
Research: 1050 hrs
TA / Tutor: 425 hrs

AT THE SAME TIME: I am studying for the MCAT (Take May 1)

Is there anything I could cut back on? If not what should I do, because I cannot keep doing this for the next 2 months before the end of the semester...

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[DNAJB6]

Drop TA/tutoring, shadowing, and miscellaneous ECs at least. If you're not applying to research power houses or about to have publications, I'd pause or stop research. Personally I'd pause everything until May 2 personally, but I realize this will be an unpopular answer. Your MCAT score is forever and should take priority over everything else.

 

[Vivid_Quail]

I am feeling very overwhelmed this semester. I will be applying this upcoming cycle and I have too much going on until then. I am mentally very stressed because I have so much going on and am not getting enough sleep or any downtime. I would love your advice on what to do.

Best Option: Drop something...
If I continue everything I am doing by the end of the semester I will have accumulated the following:

Volunteering: 900 hrs
Clinical Experience: 500 hrs
Shadowing: 100 hrs
Extra-Curricular: 575 hrs
Leadership: 350 hrs
NCAA Athletics: 2700 hrs
Research: 1050 hrs
TA / Tutor: 425 hrs

AT THE SAME TIME: I am studying for the MCAT (Take May 1)

Is there anything I could cut back on? If not what should I do, because I cannot keep doing this for the next 2 months before the end of the semester...

Stop everything that you realistically can without burning bridges. If you can't stop, cut back on hours until you take the MCAT. If you cannot at least cut back hours, like for your NCAA athletics I would imagine, keep doing those things but hopefully after cutting back your only left with one or two activities. You already have an above average amount of volunteering, research, and leadership (TA/tutor included). You have plenty of shadowing and your clinical experience hours are also very high for someone who has not taken a gap year.

What is your GPA? You can always go back and add more hours of extracurriculars during a gap year, but you can never go back and redo classes to improve your GPA. Trying to mathematically drag your GPA up is also very time-consuming and expensive. This is general advice, not saying that you don't already have a good GPA, but you didn't mention it so I thought I'd throw this in here.

If GPA is King, then MCAT is Queen. You can technically retake the MCAT, unlike you GPA, but it's best to plan on not doing that (obviously). Everything else other than GPA and MCAT is lesser royalty in your application. If you can't get in the door because of a bad GPA or MCAT, it doesn't matter if you are a Navy SEAL who won a Nobel Prize.

 

[KendallJennerSniperLady69]

Speak to your supervisors about pausing some of your involvement. Think of pausing your ECs as another coin in the coin jar for med school apps because then you'll have something to talk about when med school interviewers/secondaries ask you about a challenging time in your life/conflict and how you handled it (not kidding here).

The MCAT is probably the single most important metric in determining where you will be able to apply and receive interviews from.

 

[mreyno18]

What is your GPA?

My cGPA is 3.97 and sGPA is 3.96

 

[Vivid_Quail]

My cGPA is 3.97 and sGPA is 3.96

You could basically ghost all of your ECs right now and still get into medical school. But seriously, prioritize the MCAT and your mental health at this point. You have put in the hours for ECs and then some.

Have fun at an MD school next year (as long as you break like 505 on the MCAT).

 

[Moko]

Stop everything that you realistically can without burning bridges. If you can't stop, cut back on hours until you take the MCAT. If you cannot at least cut back hours, like for your NCAA athletics I would imagine, keep doing those things but hopefully after cutting back your only left with one or two activities. You already have an above average amount of volunteering, research, and leadership (TA/tutor included). You have plenty of shadowing and your clinical experience hours are also very high for someone who has not taken a gap year.

What is your GPA? You can always go back and add more hours of extracurriculars during a gap year, but you can never go back and redo classes to improve your GPA. Trying to mathematically drag your GPA up is also very time-consuming and expensive. This is general advice, not saying that you don't already have a good GPA, but you didn't mention it so I thought I'd throw this in here.

If GPA is King, then MCAT is Queen. You can technically retake the MCAT, unlike you GPA, but it's best to plan on not doing that (obviously). Everything else other than GPA and MCAT is lesser royalty in your application. If you can't get in the door because of a bad GPA or MCAT, it doesn't matter if you are a Navy SEAL who won a Nobel Prize.

I agree with your overall assessment, though truly noteworthy ECs like serving as a Navy SEAL and/or winning the Nobel prize are each easily worth several LizzyM points. Even more if that someone happened to be on the assault team that took out bin Laden .

Numbers certainly matter a lot, but don't tell the whole story.

 

[Vivid_Quail]

I agree with your overall assessment, though truly noteworthy ECs like serving as a Navy SEAL and/or winning the Nobel prize are each easily worth several LizzyM points. Even more if that someone happened to be on the assault team that took out bin Laden .

Numbers certainly matter a lot, but don't tell the whole story.

Yeah it definitely makes up for something. But the absolute lowest accepted GPA at MD schools is almost always above a 3.0 and at top schools about 3.5. I am sure that they have people with insane EC's applying with bad GPA's and it simply isn't enough to be a Navy SEAL if you have a 2.9 sGPA.

 

[LunaOri]

Pause every activity (except maybe your athletics) from which you are not expecting to ask for a LOR. A couple of months is not a big gap in your participation for most activities.