Graduate Undergrad in 3 years? (Pre Med)

[thebiosinger]

Hey everyone, this is my first post on SDN, and just wanted to get some advice from you guys.

So first off I am a first year in college at a small, private HBCU (Biology Major) and I entered with a large amount of credits (40). I essentially entered as a sophomore. I came in with a GPA of 3.93 from my dual enrollment courses. I just finished my first semester and I did pretty decent. I took 17 credit hours.

Bio 1 Lecture: A
Bio 1 Lab: A
Chem 1 with Lab: A
Religion course: A
PE: A
Musical arts course: A
Calculus 1: B+

I have about a 3.9 now cumulative. I just wanted to ask if I can keep this up is it possible to graduate college in 3 years and still be able to get in medical/dental school. I did 50 hours of research with my biology teacher this semester and I’m doing shadowing too this break. I feel if I can stay organized and focused I can make it happen. I’m also really involved in my school, I sing in the choir, I love music and I have YouTube channel where I sing and stuff. I do a lot of musical activities on campus.. it’s a real passion of mine. I also am gonna run for positions in the medical clubs that I joined etc etc..

Also, I’m not trying to rush, but not trying to waste time either. I have lots of friends and I party a lot and I’m not a book worm, just a chill guy who is trying to be a doctor lol.
I know this is a long post but I wanted to get some insight from you guys. Preciate it in advance. I’m 18 btw.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

OP a lot of people here are just going to hate on this post instead of giving any advice. Seems like a lot of people here are more concerned with pushing their world-view onto you.

Anyways, if you want to graduate in 3 years, go for it! Personally, I would have done 3.5 and graduate 1 semester early because I wouldn't want a whole year to do nothing. Also, it gives you that last semester to be in school when you go to interviews and if all goes perfectly, you can interview and be accepted while still in school (last semester, fall senior year) and have 0.00 responsibility once you graduate instead of having to do something to convince people you're still a benefit to society.

3 years is fine, just make sure you complete all of your pre-req's (except maybe biochem) before starting to study for the MCAT (actually, you can take biochem at the same time).

If you graduate in 3 yrs and matriculate during what would have been senior year, that means finishing the MCAT after sophomore year and interviewing junior fall-spring to matriculate august after spring graduation. That's a fast timeline, but still possible; another reason I would say 3.5 years is better, allows you to get another year to complete pre-reqs.

A word of advice though. If you want to graduate early, get on your volunteering ASAP. You don't want to be scrambling at the end. If you spread yourself too thin, you can always push graduation back, better to take it slower and get a higher GPA than anything. Nothing matters as much as your metrics in this game.

 

[AMCASTuesdays]

Hey everyone, this is my first post on SDN, and just wanted to get some advice from you guys.

So first off I am a first year in college at a small, private HBCU (Biology Major) and I entered with a large amount of credits (40). I essentially entered as a sophomore. I came in with a GPA of 3.93 from my dual enrollment courses. I just finished my first semester and I did pretty decent. I took 17 credit hours.

Bio 1 Lecture: A
Bio 1 Lab: A
Chem 1 with Lab: A
Religion course: A
PE: A
Musical arts course: A
Calculus 1: B+

I have about a 3.9 now cumulative. I just wanted to ask if I can keep this up is it possible to graduate college in 3 years and still be able to get in medical/dental school. I did 50 hours of research with my biology teacher this semester and I’m doing shadowing too this break. I feel if I can stay organized and focused I can make it happen. I’m also really involved in my school, I sing in the choir, I love music and I have YouTube channel where I sing and stuff. I do a lot of musical activities on campus.. it’s a real passion of mine. I also am gonna run for positions in the medical clubs that I joined etc etc..

Also, I’m not trying to rush, but not trying to waste time either. I have lots of friends and I party a lot and I’m not a book worm, just a chill guy who is trying to be a doctor lol.
I know this is a long post but I wanted to get some insight from you guys. Preciate it in advance. I’m 18 btw.

What I feel like is that a lot of people treat the med school app process and the typical undergrad timeline as 1 thing when really it's 2, albeit intertwined and complicated, matters.

I totally think you can graduate in 3 years, just based on your credits alone. It is only your first year though, so just try to stay diligent right now rather than fixating on that - you never know when school can throw you a curveball.

The real problem isn't whether or not you can graduate in that time, its the quality of experience you get within that time (hence, two separate issues). This is really just gonna depends on how much time you have. You don't need to have all the classes taken when you apply, but at the same time, the more reqs you have taken, the easier preparing for the MCAT will be, which will be your biggest hurdle. And then there's the matter of EC's. I don't know your schedule so this is up to you - you might have time to get significant hours in during UG, but maybe finishing in 3 years crunches your time so significantly that this isn't possible.

Whether you can achieve both A(finishing in 3 years) and B(doing so while prepping for the MCAT/getting in good EC's) is going to be up to you planning well and setting good achievable goals. I get not wanting to waste time or that $$$, so maybe what you want to do is focus on graduating, and then spend some time out of school beefing up your app with experiences and/or a job.

 

[Detective SnowBucket]

1) Bragging about length? Saying this is a long post is as an exaggeration at best
2) Premed clubs are at best secondary activities; they are mostly meaningless
3) Shadowing isnt as important as both clinical volunteering and community service
4) Is your goal to get into medical school or to get into medical school quickly?
5) 60% of the people who apply, get rejected, 20% get a single acceptance applying to average of 15 schools
60% of matriculants took at least 1 gap year
( see https://www.aamc.org/system/files/2019-12/2019 MSQ All Schools Summary Report.pdf )
6) 35% with 3.8+GPA get rejected
(see https://www.aamc.org/system/files/2019-11/2019_FACTS_Table_A-23.pdf )
7) 25% of students who apply each cycle are reapplicants
( see https://www.aamc.org/system/files/2019-10/2019_FACTS_Table_A-7.2.pdf )
9) immaturity, lack of introspection, and similar items are strong reasons not to apply early as the recent lengthy threads below indicate

There have been some threads on this recently, certainly pointing out many of the issues in applying both early and young
Will I need to take a gap year?
Finishing college within 3 years and taking MCAT during the third year.

Like I said @thebiosinger :

OP a lot of people here are just going to hate on this post instead of giving any advice. Seems like a lot of people here are more concerned with pushing their world-view onto you.

Wait, which part of this is actual advice on how to succeed with Op's plan...
This is just a lot of gloom&doom about how you should strive to be average. Why are you citing immaturity in 9? Is it immature to try to get out of ug quick? Any reason to say this to op? I don't think a lot of your statistics are applicable to OP since it appears he's URM. Why is commenting on the length of his post relevant. Have you given op anything useful here?

The question was, can you give any advice as to how he should graduate in 3 years, you have not helped in the slightest and are just bringing people down.

 

[Sephirakra]

Like I said @thebiosinger :


Wait, which part of this is actual advice on how to succeed with Op's plan...
This is just a lot of gloom&doom about how you should strive to be average. Why are you citing immaturity in 9? Is it immature to try to get out of ug quick? Any reason to say this to op? I don't think a lot of your statistics are applicable to OP since it appears he's URM. Why is commenting on the length of his post relevant. Have you given op anything useful here?

The question was, can you give any advice as to how he should graduate in 3 years, you have not helped in the slightest and are just bringing people down.

Let's see... OP didn't ask how to graduate in 3 years. OP asked whether they could get into medical school/dental school if they graduated in 3 years. Gonnif posted his thoughts on admissions (which are actually based on experience), provided sources for statistics (aggregate data, which includes ORM and URM applicants), and pointed out some potential pitfalls - like immaturity - encountered in the past by those in OP's shoes (complete with links to those threads). Oh, and OP mentioned it was a long post when they said, "I know this is a long post but I wanted to get some insight from you guys."

Stop trying to manufacture conflict.

 

[Sephirakra]

consider an MD/JD you would be good in court

I'll be happy just to get through medical school! But I appreciate the sentiment.

 

[malikhind]

Hey everyone, this is my first post on SDN, and just wanted to get some advice from you guys.

So first off I am a first year in college at a small, private HBCU (Biology Major) and I entered with a large amount of credits (40). I essentially entered as a sophomore. I came in with a GPA of 3.93 from my dual enrollment courses. I just finished my first semester and I did pretty decent. I took 17 credit hours.

Bio 1 Lecture: A
Bio 1 Lab: A
Chem 1 with Lab: A
Religion course: A
PE: A
Musical arts course: A
Calculus 1: B+

I have about a 3.9 now cumulative. I just wanted to ask if I can keep this up is it possible to graduate college in 3 years and still be able to get in medical/dental school. I did 50 hours of research with my biology teacher this semester and I’m doing shadowing too this break. I feel if I can stay organized and focused I can make it happen. I’m also really involved in my school, I sing in the choir, I love music and I have YouTube channel where I sing and stuff. I do a lot of musical activities on campus.. it’s a real passion of mine. I also am gonna run for positions in the medical clubs that I joined etc etc..

Also, I’m not trying to rush, but not trying to waste time either. I have lots of friends and I party a lot and I’m not a book worm, just a chill guy who is trying to be a doctor lol.
I know this is a long post but I wanted to get some insight from you guys. Preciate it in advance. I’m 18 btw.

Had a friend who graduated high school in 3 years, undergrad in 3 years and took a year off (study for MCAT, worked) and got in to a few MD programs. He said he could've done it without the year off but it would've been too stressful and he wanted to do as well as possible on the MCAT. It's definitely possible as long as you stay focused and grind through it. Let me know if you have any other specific questions, feel free to message me instead as well!