help/advice needed

[GiaLauren]

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Hello, I am new to this forum and have a few questions about being a premed student. I have never wanted to be anything other than a doctor, I am currently a 23 year old pre med freshman( I took a few years off of high school because I needed to work). In high school I took general biology and chem however I am aware that it is not the same as the sciences that I must take as a pre med student. Being a freshman at this age I am wondering if there is any advice that anyone can give me now that I am on the right track. I am already thinking and getting excited about applying to med school even though its a few years away, is there anything I should be doing now other than getting good grades in all of my classes? volunteer work? stuff like that? Sorry for the long post but I just registered with the forum and am really excited!

 

[Pons Asinorum]

Hello, I am new to this forum and have a few questions about being a premed student. I have never wanted to be anything other than a doctor, I am currently a 23 year old pre med freshman( I took a few years off of high school because I needed to work). In high school I took general biology and chem however I am aware that it is not the same as the sciences that I must take as a pre med student. Being a freshman at this age I am wondering if there is any advice that anyone can give me now that I am on the right track. I am already thinking and getting excited about applying to med school even though its a few years away, is there anything I should be doing now other than getting good grades in all of my classes? volunteer work? stuff like that? Sorry for the long post but I just registered with the forum and am really excited!

Make. Straight. A's.

Seriously, before you need to worry about anything else possibly related to applying to medical school, you need to figure out how much work YOU need to invest in school to make great grades. As undergraduate grades have been inflated over the last decade or two, the median and mean scores for accepted medical school applicants have gone up even more. You want to be on the "better" side of that normal distribution. Read through old posts on this forum; the AMCAS shoal waters are littered with the wreakage of applicants' dreams, scuttled by trying to dig their way out from under 100+ credit hours of <3.0 uGPAs. It can be done, as many here can attest. But it ain't easy. Do your future-application-filling-out-self a favor and just make A's in everything.

 

[katiemaude]

Make good grades. Very good grades. Don't major in something you don't love just because you think adcoms will love it. Major in something that interests you and that you can ace (literature, languages, whatever). Get your prereqs done at a steady pace and get As. Take an extra upper level science class or two when you're done with prereqs. Go to office hours. Try to take the same professor twice if you can, or do research for one so they know you well enough to write your LORs.

Use the summers to shadow and volunteer if you can, or if you must earn money, find a job that will give you clinical experience or research experience. Otherwise set aside 4 hours a week for volunteering. Do something you are passionate about. Don't just do it for the adcoms.

In your junior year or summer after, take the MCAT and knock it out of the park.

 

[Lazarus]

Be cold and calculating about the classes you take, with which professors, and under what course load. Be a hunter and actively seek out opportunities, go to office hours, get to know professors. Find a passion and take classes around that passion but above all else get those all powerful A's. Find a volunteering position that is personally interesting to you, and medically related. Beat the streets looking for research, ask everyone and their mother about research opportunities.

Good luck.

 

[GiaLauren]

thank you all for your replies, I guess my biggest concern is with the sciences i am going to have to take. I only took general bio and chem in high school, i am just very apprehensive about the college courses. How hard are they? if i have a problem I do plan on getting a tutor, im just curious.

 

[ymcMD]

thank you all for your replies, I guess my biggest concern is with the sciences i am going to have to take. I only took general bio and chem in high school, i am just very apprehensive about the college courses. How hard are they? if i have a problem I do plan on getting a tutor, im just curious.

As far as how hard they are depends on the particular person and the particular class. What may come easy to you may not be so easy for others, personally I struggle with Chem so I know that's where I have to put the most effort. You will start finding out your strengths and weaknesses and you go from there. I agree with the rest, do all you can for those As!!! in general I have heard that orgo is hard but I cannot say from personal experience as I have not taken it yet. Just take it day by day, class by class and dont lose sight of your goal...soon enough you'll be worrying about all the rest, for now make the best grades you can until its time for your MCAT and knock that one out of the park!!!