How do you deal with so much work to do???

[Claud05]

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I am a full time college student(freshman in second semester) with a 3.5 GPA and a 3.6 sGPA with a part time job of around 20-25 hours weekly and i usually study for 5+ hours everyday unless it's a weekend and have no work or school to worry about. Now i have read that i need EC's to improve my chances at going to med school and my question is how in the world will i cope with all of this? I am already tired with all the things i am doing and now i must volunteer or shadow or whatever to improve my application... My social life is pretty much non -existent as it is and i have no time to enjoy "my college years".... I'm just wondering how do you guys do it? assuming you are in similar circumstances..


Thanks for any advice, sorry for the rant just needed to get it out

 

[Morsetlis]

You're studying and working way too much. Most people do EC's in the time you are working. You could do it by years: Volunteering 4 hours a weekend freshman year, shadowing/clinical experience 4 hours a weekend sophomore year, ditch the job and research 20 hours a week junior year.

Luckily for you, working all through college earns you extra points at some schools.

 

[Claud05]

my problem is that i kinda "must" work to survive... i live in NYC and i need to make money, simple as that. I really try hard to keep up with everything but at my current pace i will burn out soon i feel. I am taking a lot of "hard" classes, or at least they are to me. Ex Calc 1, BIO 1 + Lab, Organic Chem 1 + Lab, Lit 1. I know you guys must think that those classes are easy but to me they require a lot of work and dedication to fully understand my concepts so that i won't have a lot of problems with the MCAT... or at least that's my thinking.
Anyway thank you for the advice.

 

[tremulousNeedle]

I am a full time college student(freshman in second semester) with a 3.5 GPA and a 3.6 sGPA with a part time job of around 20-25 hours weekly and i usually study for 5+ hours everyday unless it's a weekend and have no work or school to worry about. Now i have read that i need EC's to improve my chances at going to med school and my question is how in the world will i cope with all of this? I am already tired with all the things i am doing and now i must volunteer or shadow or whatever to improve my application... My social life is pretty much non -existent as it is and i have no time to enjoy "my college years".... I'm just wondering how do you guys do it? assuming you are in similar circumstances..


Thanks for any advice, sorry for the rant just needed to get it out

You hit the nail on the head, that's the life of a premed student/medical student/physician, a lot of time sacrificed. EC's are super important. The days of getting into medical school on just a good GPA and MCAT score are gone (unless you get like a 3.9 and 42S). The bar has been raised by your colleagues, so if they are doing it, then you too will have to do it.

You can still enjoy your college years, but you'll probably have to enjoy it a little less than the average non-professional degree candidate. It’s all about finding balance. Just wait until medical school, then you'll have no time to enjoy adult life. It’s hard work getting into medical school and its hard work getting into a good residency. I would suggest remembering that this process is a marathon; keep the end result in your mind while focusing on the next step.

In short, if you really want to be a physician, you have to do the EC's.

-admissions committee interviewer/ senior medical student

 

[Morsetlis]

You could try doing 5 years instead of 4. That'll take 1 class off each quarter or 2 classes off each semester. I don't know what the financials will be like for you.

 

[Claud05]

My parents pay for my school (NYU) since i am out of state it's extremely expensive. I committed to pay for my food/housing or just plain surviving but like i said it's a LOT of work.

Anyway, thanks for the advice and good luck to both of you.

 

[riverjib]

My advice is not to burn yourself out! I went back to pursue med school as a non-traditional student and I did research and a full (17-18 credit/semester) course load for my first two years, while working over 30 hours a week. I had absolutely NO life, which was okay with me at first.

But I'm glad I finally took everyone's advice and stopped working during the semester. You can take out loans to support yourself, and in the long run (even with interest) it's worth it in terms of the time you spend now at your current worth in the job market compared to the time you spend when you're a physician. I'm literally living on student loans, which gives me time to study, do research, and participate in two really meaningful EC's, and I still have some time to hang out with friends and family. I'm still only in about $30,000 of student loan debt, which isn't too bad. I work during the summer and winter. Think about it.

 

[Claud05]

Yes I agree, it's imperative for me to take some time off... like i said before, i feel burned out already and i havent even finished freshman year! I must find another way to make this work if i want to eventually become a doctor... ugh.😕

 

[Morsetlis]

I'm wondering why NYU instead of Podunk U, but that's another story.

 

[Claud05]

I love New York City and always wanted to live there... i applied for SUNY, Columbia and NYU and got accepted for NYU and SUNY. Columbia told me that i had good scores but not enough ECs pretty much. I am quite happy with NYU to be honest and really can't complain.

 

[FirefighterDoc]

You're studying and working way too much. Most people do EC's in the time you are working. You could do it by years: Volunteering 4 hours a weekend freshman year, shadowing/clinical experience 4 hours a weekend sophomore year, ditch the job and research 20 hours a week junior year.

Luckily for you, working all through college earns you extra points at some schools.

And which schools are these?
I would looooove to know that with all the working im doing lol

 

[Tesseract]

OP, you have to find extracurriculars that you will actually enjoy.

My university is on a quarter system. I run 16-18 credits/quarter, work an undergraduate research position (~15-20 hours a week), volunteer with an ambulance agency (~5-10 hours a week), work a RA position, and shadow a physician (~4 hours a week). I purposely schedule my ambulance shifts for friday nights to give me something to look forward to during the week- I still haven't found anything that compares to the adrenaline rush of the job (had a patient try to set me on fire once- it was awesome).

I study while I'm at the ambulance agency or waiting for a qRT-PCR experiment to finish. My free time coincides with my RA time. I also sleep for maybe 6 hours a night.

Here's the kicker. Buy an agenda-paper/phone w/e works for you. Plot out every minute of your day. I've been doing this for three years now and it works.

 

[riverjib]

I love New York City and always wanted to live there... i applied for SUNY, Columbia and NYU and got accepted for NYU and SUNY. Columbia told me that i had good scores but not enough ECs pretty much. I am quite happy with NYU to be honest and really can't complain.

Congrats! NYU is a great school. Learn from your previous experience, though. You had the scores for Columbia, but didn't get in. It sounds like you're currently doing the same thing...achieving great scores (I presume you will do so on the MCAT), but not structuring your life in a way that is conducive to getting involved in EC's, and even experiencing college life! As important as non-academic stuff is for med school, it's equally important for your own personal growth, not to mention your sanity 🙂 What's the point in choosing a REALLY pricey college mainly for the NYC experience if you're holed up in the library???

Your first step is to go to financial aid and ask them if you're eligible to for ANY aid related to cost of living. It's probably a stretch, since there are tons of kids who are struggling to pay for their own state U. (let alone a private school), with no help from their parents even with tuition. But it's worth a shot. If you can't take out loans or do a work-study program, check out becoming an RA next year. That will cover housing. My best friend was so broke that she got a scholarship that covered most of her tuition at NYU (Tisch) year ago, and though the financial aid office couldn't do much, the cool thing about NYU is that they are privy to placing students in really cool jobs that are in their chosen fields. She was a film major, and NYU helped her find a job at the university in the film department, as well as a paid externship at MTV that helped her land a really sweet gig when she graduated.

For now, as a freshman pre-med, NYU can probably help find you some unusual position in the hospital or a clinic that is much more interesting and relevant on your AMCAS than whatever you're currently doing for $10-15/hour. The pay may be the same, but the experience will be better. You need to be REALLY proactive and knock on a lot of doors if you want to tap into these opportunities. My best friend worked at a coffee shop and spent all her free time freshman year asking about opportunities, and found two that paid the bills and paved the way to her future job.

Get used to a lifestyle that does not include much sleep or downtime. Just find the opportunities that allow you to pursue this path as efficiently as possible. Best of luck to you!

 

[BMEZephyr]

I feel your situation buddy.

I'm virtually in the same state. I have to informally teach kids to cut my tuition since I receive no scholarships or financial aid because I'm an international student. I take 19 credits per semester for an engineering curriculum. My travel to and from school takes about 45 minutes to an hour every day (I can't afford campus housing), and to top it off, I'm a complete idiot who has to study 5 hours a day to retain as well as all the other lunatics out there.

You really need a balance out of everything. I highly recommend a steady intake of caffeine, preferably one set on an IV drip. Depending on your case, I also recommend that you abandon your previous musical taste and adopt one with voluminous amounts of guitar riffs, distortions, and electronica/synth. For the sake of your sanity, try to do ECs that you actually enjoy and volunteer at where YOUR curiosity takes you. And really, really, really find time to laugh.

Above all else, pull your pants down and check if you have a healthy set of balls, because it's going to be a rough ride. Either way, enjoy it.

 

[FirefighterDoc]

OP, you have to find extracurriculars that you will actually enjoy.

My university is on a quarter system. I run 16-18 credits/quarter, work an undergraduate research position (~15-20 hours a week), volunteer with an ambulance agency (~5-10 hours a week), work a RA position, and shadow a physician (~4 hours a week). I purposely schedule my ambulance shifts for friday nights to give me something to look forward to during the week- I still haven't found anything that compares to the adrenaline rush of the job (had a patient try to set me on fire once- it was awesome).

I study while I'm at the ambulance agency or waiting for a qRT-PCR experiment to finish. My free time coincides with my RA time. I also sleep for maybe 6 hours a night.

Here's the kicker. Buy an agenda-paper/phone w/e works for you. Plot out every minute of your day. I've been doing this for three years now and it works.

What do you mean by this. Do you mean write it all down as in journal-style or write it all ahead of time as in schedule-planning?

 

[Claud05]

OP, you have to find extracurriculars that you will actually enjoy.

My university is on a quarter system. I run 16-18 credits/quarter, work an undergraduate research position (~15-20 hours a week), volunteer with an ambulance agency (~5-10 hours a week), work a RA position, and shadow a physician (~4 hours a week). I purposely schedule my ambulance shifts for friday nights to give me something to look forward to during the week- I still haven't found anything that compares to the adrenaline rush of the job (had a patient try to set me on fire once- it was awesome).

I study while I'm at the ambulance agency or waiting for a qRT-PCR experiment to finish. My free time coincides with my RA time. I also sleep for maybe 6 hours a night.

Here's the kicker. Buy an agenda-paper/phone w/e works for you. Plot out every minute of your day. I've been doing this for three years now and it works.

My friend thanks for the advice first of all, you seem to be doing a lot of EC activities which is good, i wish you the best. Also going back to my original point, i just love making people feel better, so i guess in the i will try my very best to get through everything do that one day i can do what i love while having the ability to support my fam. ( i have no kids btw, lol)

I truly feel burned out right now with school and my job and to be completely honest, i don't know what to do. Sure i know i can take out a loan, but i just don't want to have any debt until i get to medical school.



I LOVE medicine, and just the idea that i can do that for a living makes me feel very excited, but as of today, i truly am in a predicament.

 

[Claud05]

Congrats! NYU is a great school. Learn from your previous experience, though. You had the scores for Columbia, but didn't get in. It sounds like you're currently doing the same thing...achieving great scores (I presume you will do so on the MCAT), but not structuring your life in a way that is conducive to getting involved in EC's, and even experiencing college life! As important as non-academic stuff is for med school, it's equally important for your own personal growth, not to mention your sanity 🙂 What's the point in choosing a REALLY pricey college mainly for the NYC experience if you're holed up in the library???

Your first step is to go to financial aid and ask them if you're eligible to for ANY aid related to cost of living. It's probably a stretch, since there are tons of kids who are struggling to pay for their own state U. (let alone a private school), with no help from their parents even with tuition. But it's worth a shot. If you can't take out loans or do a work-study program, check out becoming an RA next year. That will cover housing. My best friend was so broke that she got a scholarship that covered most of her tuition at NYU (Tisch) year ago, and though the financial aid office couldn't do much, the cool thing about NYU is that they are privy to placing students in really cool jobs that are in their chosen fields. She was a film major, and NYU helped her find a job at the university in the film department, as well as a paid externship at MTV that helped her land a really sweet gig when she graduated.

For now, as a freshman pre-med, NYU can probably help find you some unusual position in the hospital or a clinic that is much more interesting and relevant on your AMCAS than whatever you're currently doing for $10-15/hour. The pay may be the same, but the experience will be better. You need to be REALLY proactive and knock on a lot of doors if you want to tap into these opportunities. My best friend worked at a coffee shop and spent all her free time freshman year asking about opportunities, and found two that paid the bills and paved the way to her future job.

Get used to a lifestyle that does not include much sleep or downtime. Just find the opportunities that allow you to pursue this path as efficiently as possible. Best of luck to you!

Thank you for the words of encouragement first of all, and to answer one of your points, i am currently on scholarships/financial aid but i pay around
8k per semester for fulltime classes (lab included). scholarships cover about 3k and my parent do the rest. I will try very hard to hopefully find a position in a hospital which hopefully will kill two birds in one shot.
Thank you once again for the advice.

 

[Claud05]

I feel your situation buddy.

I'm virtually in the same state. I have to informally teach kids to cut my tuition since I receive no scholarships or financial aid because I'm an international student. I take 19 credits per semester for an engineering curriculum. My travel to and from school takes about 45 minutes to an hour every day (I can't afford campus housing), and to top it off, I'm a complete idiot who has to study 5 hours a day to retain as well as all the other lunatics out there.

You really need a balance out of everything. I highly recommend a steady intake of caffeine, preferably one set on an IV drip. Depending on your case, I also recommend that you abandon your previous musical taste and adopt one with voluminous amounts of guitar riffs, distortions, and electronica/synth. For the sake of your sanity, try to do ECs that you actually enjoy and volunteer at where YOUR curiosity takes you. And really, really, really find time to laugh.

Above all else, pull your pants down and check if you have a healthy set of balls, because it's going to be a rough ride. Either way, enjoy it.

Hahaha i do enjoy coffe and i love music. Thank you for the advice my friend,

 

[Tesseract]

You really need a balance out of everything. I highly recommend a steady intake of caffeine, preferably one set on an IV drip. Depending on your case, I also recommend that you abandon your previous musical taste and adopt one with voluminous amounts of guitar riffs, distortions, and electronica/synth. For the sake of your sanity, try to do ECs that you actually enjoy and volunteer at where YOUR curiosity takes you. And really, really, really find time to laugh.

/agreed. Mix Starbucks with Disarmonia Mundi, In Flames, Tiesto, and some Armin for success.

[/B]

What do you mean by this. Do you mean write it all down as in journal-style or write it all ahead of time as in schedule-planning?

Schedule-planning. I sit down every week and figure out what experiments I need to run, how much time I need to allocate to study for a given test, what homework I have due when, etc. I feel the process helps me to find extra time. Organization is huge in undergraduate imo.

 

[Tesseract]

I LOVE medicine, and just the idea that i can do that for a living makes me feel very excited, but as of today, i truly am in a predicament.

You may want to check out classes to earn your EMT-B over the summer. With your school selection, I assume you are a NY resident? In NY state, the class runs maybe 3 months at about 12 hours a week. Fresh EMT-B's also have the opportunity to make ~12$ an hour with an private ambulance agency in my part of NY state (NYU may even take the class for college credit). Now, I'm not sure how NYC is organized- fire/EMS or EMS solo or if you are even interested in emergency medicine (versus hospital-based), but it sounds like this option might help to "re-ignite" you while paying the bills.

Looking back, you are also taking Organic Chemistry with Biology. That combo is the hardest pre-req combo out there imo based on sheer memorization and understanding.

 

[Ilovewater]

In undergrad, I took about 16 or 17 credit hours every semester, worked 25+ hours/week, did research for 20+ hours/week, and volunteered. Make a schedule for each activity you do and commit to it, and once the routine kicks in, it's actually pretty doable, and you realize you still have time to go out with friends at least once a week. For instance, if I had short class time on Monday and Wednesday, I volunteered on those days. Then, I did research in between and after classes ended. Then, I studied on week nights and worked all the 25+ hours during the weekend. For me, following a routine and being efficient with time-management made the workload a lot easier.

 

[riverjib]

Thank you for the words of encouragement first of all, and to answer one of your points, i am currently on scholarships/financial aid but i pay around
8k per semester for fulltime classes (lab included). scholarships cover about 3k and my parent do the rest. I will try very hard to hopefully find a position in a hospital which hopefully will kill two birds in one shot.
Thank you once again for the advice.

If your goal is to enter med school with no debt after you chose a private school, I can't say I have any sympathy for you. I turned down Columbia, Cornell, and UPenn because I wanted to start med school with the least debt possible. I chose a state university honors program that covers my tuition, and I still had to decide to take some student loans so that I have time to study for classes and the MCAT, as well as volunteer and do research.

It doesn't sound like you have much on your plate. It's great that you have so much financial support that allows you to focus on school, but if you want to go to medical school, nobody is going to care that you had to work part-time for extra cash.

My brother-in-law and his best friend are both graduate students at Columbia and MIT. His best friend chose Rutgers over Harvard, Princeton, etc. because he was the oldest of three and Rutgers gave him a full ride. He triple majored in math, chemistry, and physics, and got a 4.0 GPA. He's brilliant, so I'm not suggesting any of us compare ourselves to him, but he certainly didn't complain while he put the rest of his family first and worked his butt off to get into one of the top few PhD programs in the country.

Pre-med is tough, but it's not uniquely hard. Just work hard, and look at other students who have it much harder than you do when you feel the urge to complain 🙂

 

[YouNeverKnow22]

OP, you have to find extracurriculars that you will actually enjoy.

My university is on a quarter system. I run 16-18 credits/quarter, work an undergraduate research position (~15-20 hours a week), volunteer with an ambulance agency (~5-10 hours a week), work a RA position, and shadow a physician (~4 hours a week). I purposely schedule my ambulance shifts for friday nights to give me something to look forward to during the week- I still haven't found anything that compares to the adrenaline rush of the job (had a patient try to set me on fire once- it was awesome).

I study while I'm at the ambulance agency or waiting for a qRT-PCR experiment to finish. My free time coincides with my RA time. I also sleep for maybe 6 hours a night.

Here's the kicker. Buy an agenda-paper/phone w/e works for you. Plot out every minute of your day. I've been doing this for three years now and it works.

this is terrible advice, yes it's good to plan out things but every minute of the day is insane.....there are things that come up during the day that are unexpected which could dismantle your whole schedule and put you in over stress mode....I plan in chunks of hours to leave plenty of time to finish what I plan and not stress too much about it

 

[Claud05]

What kind of jobs help me with my medical app, and also pockets me some cash for food,etc? Also, i don't want to do any kind of long programs that require me to deviate from my current plans..

Thanks in advance.

 

[Morsetlis]

Research Associate, EMT, CNA, Phlebotomist, Camp Counselor.