I'm afraid of losing myself.

[LTbulldogs]

Im somehow under the impression that if i continue to study the way I do (as an undergrad) Im bound to become this person that i don't particularly like. Im sort of afraid of becoming someone who I wouldn't futuristically recognize. Am I crazy? Does anyone else feel this way?

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[dopaminophile]

So stop studying the way you do. If you don't like who you are becoming, then change your actions. You may think that it's more complicated than that, but it's not. You won't (and shouldn't) get into medical school if you've compromised yourself under the meager stresses of undergrad. Med school and residency are going to be much worse. Maintain yourself as much as possible. Chill a bit.

 

[AStudent]

Dude, you and 90% of other premeds.

No offense, but I hate you guys.

I hate how they act around other premeds, especially around test time. I've always been a "type B" personality and disliked people who always need to have it their way or the highway. That's not what life is about, and there's no guarantee that you'll even get into medical school when this thing is done. Enjoy college and have fun with other students - it'll help keep you sane and prevent you from pissing off a (potential) future medical student.

Personally, I'm white, male, and got into medical school. I'm going to look back on college and say "damn, I had fun" instead of "I wish I would have spent less time in my orgo book and more time in a bar/party." College is the best time of your life...don't let being "premed" ruin it for you.

 

[Wilbury]

Definitely chill. I'm a non-traditional student and purposefully avoided pre-med in my undergrad because folks were stress cases. Seven years later I went back more focused and did very well - without the cutthroat aspect (plus a few life experiences in between). I studied a lot in undergrad, but I had a great time and have lifelong friends from it.

 

[PineappleGirl]

College is the best time of your life...don't let being "premed" ruin it for you.

I couldn't agree more.
Sure, maintaining a good GPA is important, but it's not the end of your life, or even your med school aspirations, if you get a B or a C or a D or even an F. Definitely try to enjoy college as much as you can. It really is the best time of your life, at least it was for me.

Take some time to connect with yourself. Maybe take a trip away from things for a weekend and reflect on your life. When I felt like this I liked to go home, but I realize for some people, home's not always the best place to go for some peace and quiet. While you're taking a break take some time to reconnect with yourself. Remind yourself of the person you are and the person you want to be. Then, get involved in something that reflects both. Perhaps an academic project, a research interest, a sport, an activity in your community, whatever, something you can feel passionate about. I find if you have one thing that you really enjoy in your life it's so much easier to do everything else to get by.

Okay, I was trying to go for something kinda deep here but the word CHILL keeps coming back into my mind. 😀

 

[SanDiegoSOD]

Im somehow under the impression that if i continue to study the way I do (as an undergrad) Im bound to become this person that i don't particularly like. Im sort of afraid of becoming someone who I wouldn't futuristically recognize. Am I crazy? Does anyone else feel this way?

So change the way you study, or learn to accept yourself as you change. *shrug*

 

[Haybrant]

you are who you surround yourself with; i knew maybe two premeds in 4 years during college

 

[indo]

If you're afraid of losing yourself perhaps you should purchase one of those kid leashes and strap on end to your right wrist and the other end to your belt loop.





Fa real do... summer is coming...spring break is coming...blow off some steam

 

[Sancho]

its pretty damn easy to get into the whole "just gotta work some more this week or month on X, and then I can chill and have the time to do what I really want" mentality.
There's a bull **** X every week in premed, and if you get a sweet curriculum like my school, every week in med. It never ends. Every choice comes with a sacrifice, its the economics of the will, its all a trade, a barter, and studying is like trading hard earned cash for some crap like a pet rock. not something to fill your memories with-but I still do it, easier said than done.

 

[scrappysurfer]

I was so turned off by the pre-med attitudes that it took 4 years of college to decide to dedicate my life to medicine. The stress of the pre-med process has at times made me step back and re-evaluate my approach to avoid becoming a crazy, whinny pre-med version of my generally friendly self.

At my last section in college the TA asked two questions: "Who here would have studied more in college?" Three people raised their hands. "Who would have partied more?" Most of the class raised their hands. I couldn't truthfully raise my hand for either.

I have blips in my grades and my GPA is so-so, but I tried a little of everything: research, R&D engineering, manufacturing engineering, surfing, triathlon. My outside activities kept me sane and made me a more productive student. I explored everything avaliable to me and came out knowing that I truely wanted to study medicine. I said so in my personal statement and the adcoms responded favorably.

By some miracle, I interview at Harvard this week and was surprised to hear that most of their students also had an inferiority complex about their suitability for the program. At Harvard's med student orientation they were told, "We could have filled this entire class with 4.0 GPAs and 40+ MCAT scores. We choose all of you instead because we believe that you belong here."

Explore a little and try out something new -not because it will look better on your application but because it will make you happy. A well rounded person with a C or two can still get into medical school. In the end you will be far more successful and far happier. Those life experiences will make you a better, more understanding physician and a better, more understanding human being.

 

[ts9977]

Personally, I'm white, male, and got into medical school.

Huh?

 

[LTbulldogs]

Thanks a lot! All opinions have been extremely helpful.

 

[cromagnon]

...the choice is yours

 

[AStudent]

I like

...the choice is yours

 

[ms2209]

"He that commends me to mine own content
Commends me to the thing I cannot get.
I to the world am like a drop of water
That in the ocean seeks another drop,
Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,
Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself.
So I, to find a mother and a brother,
In quest of them, unhappy, lose myself."
~ Comedy of Errors

Sorry for the random aside, but anytime someone talks about losing him/herself, I think of this passage from Shakespeare's play...yes, I know, I need help 🙂 .

 

[akanene]

i really recommend that you make friends outside of the pre-med circle if you dont have many... this is almost essential and will make you a much more well rounded (and sane) person... instead of getting caught up in the post-test discussion about what you put for this answer or what you thought about that question, go out and have a beer or watch a movie, basically know when to stop studying or obesseing about your grades (and the grades of others around you)... instead of driving yourself crazy studying for that extra hour, go play frisbee or call a friend.. in the grand sceme of things an A- instead of an A wont make a bit of difference, and the most successful doctors are ones that have outside interests and are well rounded. dont do everything to be able to put it on your resume. i agree with all the rest, you need to enjoy college, because believe me graduating kinda blows. i know i wont be getting into harvard or anything, but i can truly say that college kicked a** and i have no regrets about not studying enough (i only have one other pre-med that can say the same and all the rest have realized otherwise).

 

[Psycho Doctor]

College is the best time of your life...don't let being "premed" ruin it for you.

so life is only downhill from here? 🙁 what a bummer 👎

 

[Psycho Doctor]

Personally, I'm white, male, and got into medical school.

Huh?

reality check: they're a dime a dozen and therefore it's most competitive for them 🙁

 

[Blake]

Im somehow under the impression that if i continue to study the way I do (as an undergrad) Im bound to become this person that i don't particularly like. Im sort of afraid of becoming someone who I wouldn't futuristically recognize. Am I crazy? Does anyone else feel this way?

How does studying a lot turn you into some kind of ''monster'' ? 😕

 

[dopaminophile]

reality check: they're a dime a dozen and therefore it's most competitive for them 🙁

I can feel this thread going down hill, but it wasn't that great to start with so I'm going to take the bait.

Your uniqueness isn't defined by the color of your skin when you're in front of an adcom. Rather, it's defined by the experiences that you've had. Often, that can correlate to the color of one's skin, but usually in the pre-med crowd it doesn't, at all. If you feel that you were born into a background that, in itself, doesn't set you apart, then go do something that sets you apart! Exceptional people are so because of the things they decide to do. Anybody can be exceptional. I wander these forums and am amazed that people put down their race as one of their credentials along with their stats. Who the hell cares if you're white?? There's no doubt in my mind that adcoms are far less concerned with the life you were born into than what you've decided to do with the life that you were born into.

reality check: they're a dime a dozen because they have decided to live in mediocrity and complain about the "system" that keeps them down.

 

[Reckoning]

reality check: they're a dime a dozen because they have decided to live in mediocrity and complain about the "system" that keeps them down.

Holy generalization, Batman! 😀 Imagine I changed the race that "they" refered to. Woud you have the balls to say the same thing?

 

[dopaminophile]

Holy generalization, Batman! 😀 Imagine I changed the race that "they" refered to. Woud you have the balls to say the same thing?

"It'll be a snapping retort from here Robin!" The operative phrase is "dime a dozen." His complaint was that everybody's white, so white people don't have a fair shake--not that white people are otherwise disadvantaged. My point is, that is a remarkably easily rectified situation.

Adcoms care if you can't be picked from the crowd, sure, but the crowd is of people that have followed the proverbial "formula" for getting into medical school, not people that are just white. So many times on these forums kids think "geez, I've done what I was told is needed, I've done what everyone else did. Why am I not getting into medical school. It must be because I'm white." That's just nuts to me. Correlation doesn't mean causation.

I have to go to a meeting... but I'll be back. I think it's a relevant topic, especially on these boards so long as it doesn't turn too deeply into an AA thread. 😀

cheers,

-dope-

 

[Reckoning]

"It'll be a snapping retort from here Robin!" The operative phrase is "dime a dozen." His complaint was that everybody's white, so white people don't have a fair shake--not that white people are otherwise disadvantaged. My point is, that is a remarkably easily rectified situation.

Adcoms care if you can't be picked from the crowd, sure, but the crowd is of people that have followed the proverbial "formula" for getting into medical school, not people that are just white. So many times on these forums kids think "geez, I've done what I was told is needed, I've done what everyone else did. Why am I not getting into medical school. It must be because I'm white." That's just nuts to me. Correlation doesn't mean causation.

I have to go to a meeting... but I'll be back. I think it's a relevant topic, especially on these boards so long as it doesn't turn too deeply into an AA thread. 😀

cheers,

-dope-

All agreed. Perhaps the "they" you refered to previously was not "white people", but "white people who are med school applicants complaining that they jumped through all the hoops and still did not get in and are now blaming their rejections on their majority race status". Got my orange tights all in a bunch for a minute there.

I will add that following the prescribed formula is actually quite difficult timewise, not at all mediocre. I for one had to bust my butt to do all the needed pre-med extra-currics. But as you said what got me in, I think, was how I pursued my own interests and excelled.

Standing out in my opinion is just being yourself in a very pro-active and documentable fashion.

 

[GuyLaroche]

Don't be afraid to lose yourself. Go ahead! "Loose yourself." See what it's done for Eminem.
Just to aid you:

"
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo"

 

[Attentive]

Don't be afraid to lose yourself. Go ahead! "Loose yourself." See what it's done for Eminem.
Just to aid you:

"
You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime yo"

Booooo!!

 

[Cherebourg]

Im somehow under the impression that if i continue to study the way I do (as an undergrad) Im bound to become this person that i don't particularly like. Im sort of afraid of becoming someone who I wouldn't futuristically recognize. Am I crazy? Does anyone else feel this way?

BUY A MAP!

 

[scrappysurfer]

I can feel this thread going down hill, but it wasn't that great to start with so I'm going to take the bait.

Your uniqueness isn't defined by the color of your skin when you're in front of an adcom. Rather, it's defined by the experiences that you've had. Often, that can correlate to the color of one's skin, but usually in the pre-med crowd it doesn't, at all. If you feel that you were born into a background that, in itself, doesn't set you apart, then go do something that sets you apart! Exceptional people are so because of the things they decide to do. Anybody can be exceptional. I wander these forums and am amazed that people put down their race as one of their credentials along with their stats. Who the hell cares if you're white?? There's no doubt in my mind that adcoms are far less concerned with the life you were born into than what you've decided to do with the life that you were born into.

reality check: they're a dime a dozen because they have decided to live in mediocrity and complain about the "system" that keeps them down.

Dopa,

Kudos to you. That was one of the best posts I've seen in a long time.

 

[underAchiever]

This is just my opinion. Enough has been said about one side of the coin. Remind yourself of why you are in college... is it to become someone educated enough to improve something important in his community or to "have the time of your life"? And what is that crap anyway? "the time of your life"? I heard the same thing said about high school. Anytime can be the time of your life if you choose to make it so. If your ambition is to get into medical school, then it is paramount then you get in. Once you are in, then you can "regret" all the bars/parties you did not hit. Ideally, though, you should find a balance. Chill...as you say in America.
Always remember. You are who you are, not what people like you or dislike you for. Such, you can never lose yourself because of a few late nighters or whether you made top or bottom marks on a test.