Freshman year.. help?

[blackarrowmoose]

Hey everyone,

Im a freshman in college and in my first semester of classes.

Im taking Writing, Spanish, History and Chemistry.

However, i feel as if i am not doing.. well "enough" to start building my profile for med school.

Im planning on working as an EMT possibly 2nd or 3rd semester, however i also want to take part in other activities.

Im in fencing club, but thats just a sport, and i was wondering if any older and wiser people on SDN can give me advice on what to do?

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[BBender716]

First and foremost come your grades. It sounds obvious and straightforward, but just make sure you're acclimated to college life and have your head on straight. You can have all the right ECs but that Freshman string of Cs will be tougher to overcome. Start out on top in that regard and ace the intro classes.

Join an organization you're interested in, plan on getting involved and looking for a leadership position at the end of the year (even if it's a committee chairman or publicity coordinator and not necessarily president, vp, secretary, treasurer). That'll set you up for Junior year being one of the more significant leaders.

Get volunteering/clinical exposure. Get in touch with the local hospital and volunteer a small amount of time per week to help out. If you're able to show a little volunteering over a long period of time at the same place, it speaks volumes. Do some other volunteering events/join a volunteer org (if that's your thing) that is non-medicine related, as well.

Investigate research. When I say "investigate", I mean just look into it and see if you can find anyone who's currently doing it to see what you may or may not like. It would be highly unlikely and/or pretty damn boring to do research freshman year because you don't really know much to even begin research. Instead, check around to see if any labs may need researchers over the summer (do this second semester).

Finally, try to enjoy your college years, especially freshman year. You will have the lightest load that you'll have for the rest of your life. Go out and make some new friends and have a life outside of pre-med. FWIW, if you do even half of the above, you'll be ahead of a good amount of others (who aren't as on top of things as SDNers).

If you have any other Qs, please do not hesitate to PM me.

 

[pianola]

Hey everyone,

Im a freshman in college and in my first semester of classes.

Im taking Writing, Spanish, History and Chemistry.

However, i feel as if i am not doing.. well "enough" to start building my profile for med school.

Im planning on working as an EMT possibly 2nd or 3rd semester, however i also want to take part in other activities.

Im in fencing club, but thats just a sport, and i was wondering if any older and wiser people on SDN can give me advice on what to do?

I'd say see how your first tests go before taking on too much.

Eventually you might consider research if you have an interest in it.

I'm not 100% sure what your question is, though