Major in UG-Does it help in med school admissions?

[xnfs93hy]

This has just crossed my mind a few times and I thought it was worth it to start a thread on it.

How much does the major you pick affect your chances at getting accepted to medical school.

Lets just say this person spends 5 years in UG.

Person majors in:

Special Education
Neuroscience
Spanish (or some other foreign language).

Yes I want three degrees haha. Lets not talk about that.


The title I guess should be how much does a major in Spanish (or another foreign language) help you in admissions? Do adcoms really like it when someone is fluent in another language? I talked to my Spanish teacher at my school and she told me that no matter what career I choose, a major in another language will always be a huge plus. I guess I agree with her, again, I'm just wondering how true this is in med school admissions.

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[xnfs93hy]

This has just crossed my mind a few times and I thought it was worth it to start a thread on it.

How much does the major you pick affect your chances at getting accepted to medical school.

Lets just say this person spends 5 years in UG.

Person majors in:

Special Education
Neuroscience
Spanish (or some other foreign language).

Yes I want three degrees haha. Lets not talk about that.


The title I guess should be how much does a major in Spanish (or another foreign language) help you in admissions? Do adcoms really like it when someone is fluent in another language? I talked to my Spanish teacher at my school and she told me that no matter what career I choose, a major in another language will always be a huge plus. I guess I agree with her, again, I'm just wondering how true this is in med school admissions.

By the way guys. Lets try and stick with the question and not talk about how I want three degrees. Thanks haha.

 

[Law2Doc]

This has just crossed my mind a few times and I thought it was worth it to start a thread on it.

How much does the major you pick affect your chances at getting accepted to medical school.

Lets just say this person spends 5 years in UG.

Person majors in:

Special Education
Neuroscience
Spanish (or some other foreign language).

Yes I want three degrees haha. Lets not talk about that.


The title I guess should be how much does a major in Spanish (or another foreign language) help you in admissions? Do adcoms really like it when someone is fluent in another language? I talked to my Spanish teacher at my school and she told me that no matter what career I choose, a major in another language will always be a huge plus. I guess I agree with her, again, I'm just wondering how true this is in med school admissions.

Doesn't matter one bit. Any major is fine for med school if you have the prereqs. And there is no advantage for having more than one major -- any single major will do. Spanish is probably the most useful thing you can take in college in terms of practicing medicine in many states, but don't expect schools to give you any real advantage in admissions. So the short answer is major in what you are interested in, not what you think will get you further. Because nobody is going to care.

 

[Thrombomodulin]

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[MilkmanAl]

Major doesn't matter, but difficulty of your course of study does, to some extent. You might earn a few brownie points for doing something notoriously hard like engineering, but it's not worth a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. Hard classes might be a tie-breaker between you and someone else with an easier load. You still need competitive numbers.

I know you didn't want this to be about your choice of degrees, but I'm here to tell you you're dreaming. I went into college with 44 hours of credit (that's a year and a half, for those of you who are unaware) and needed 4.5 years to do my 2 degrees (and the chem minor that came with my bio major). There's no overlap at all between those majors, so you're going to need a hell of a lot of classes. 5 years probably won't even come close unless you take a full load every semester.

 

[DrYoda]

Pretty much any field likes language skills. As thrombomodulin said it won't make up for any bad spots on your app, but would be seen as positive.

As a side note, fluency in a language does not require a degree, so it is fully possible to take a few classes and springboard from there. Or learn a language through other avenues (family, friends, cds, books).

 

[xnfs93hy]

Major doesn't matter, but difficulty of your course of study does, to some extent. You might earn a few brownie points for doing something notoriously hard like engineering, but it's not worth a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. Hard classes might be a tie-breaker between you and someone else with an easier load. You still need competitive numbers.

I know you didn't want this to be about your choice of degrees, but I'm here to tell you you're dreaming. I went into college with 44 hours of credit (that's a year and a half, for those of you who are unaware) and needed 4.5 years to do my 2 degrees (and the chem minor that came with my bio major). There's no overlap at all between those majors, so you're going to need a hell of a lot of classes. 5 years probably won't even come close unless you take a full load every semester.

I don't know if I will triple major, very few people do. I know I want to do two degrees though.

 

[xnfs93hy]

Major doesn't matter, but difficulty of your course of study does, to some extent. You might earn a few brownie points for doing something notoriously hard like engineering, but it's not worth a whole lot in the grand scheme of things. Hard classes might be a tie-breaker between you and someone else with an easier load. You still need competitive numbers.

I know you didn't want this to be about your choice of degrees, but I'm here to tell you you're dreaming. I went into college with 44 hours of credit (that's a year and a half, for those of you who are unaware) and needed 4.5 years to do my 2 degrees (and the chem minor that came with my bio major). There's no overlap at all between those majors, so you're going to need a hell of a lot of classes. 5 years probably won't even come close unless you take a full load every semester.

Let me ask another quick question. What can you do with a minor? Just curious.

 

[DrYoda]

Let me ask another quick question. What can you do with a minor? Just curious.

I don't have a minor. But most people I know get them make a skill that could be useful for a future career stand out. A common major/minor combo is business/language. Psychology and communications are also popular as they have applications for anything people oriented.

Other people do them just for the fun of pursing an outside interest.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Functionally, it's just an application padder. It's just a way to show that you're proficient in something other than your major course of study. Minors are almost like rewards for enjoying more than one topic, and you usually don't need to take too many classes to get one.

 

[GZA]

Functionally, it's just an application padder. It's just a way to show that you're proficient in something other than your major course of study. Minors are almost like rewards for enjoying more than one topic, and you usually don't need to take too many classes to get one.

Especially if your minor is in a subject similar to your major due to the probability that the coursework will overlap. This can also be applied to majoring in two similar subjects. At my undergrad I frequently witnessed a biochem & bio pairing.

 

[GZA]

Let me ask another quick question. What can you do with a minor? Just curious.

As another clarification that may be of use, let me extend this to major. If you are not pursuing a preprofessional degree or, in other words, you are majoring somewhere in the liberal arts, then I would venture as far as to say that even your choice of major has little impact on the value of your degree.

Liberal arts degrees (which probably most of you will seek, although not all) are directed at teaching students how to think and reason as opposed to teaching them the method of performing some job (ie business, engineering and so on). Not to say you will lack anything if you decide to pursue engineering and the like, you won't, but the classes you will take will be targeted to a particular profession.

Even if you pursue a scientific liberal arts degree, you may not come out of college highly marketable to any particular industry (although the skills certainly help with certain prospective employments).

Majoring or even minoring in Spanish (or perhaps other languages to a lesser degree) is unique in that it is an area of study that could potentially have broad application directly by the skills you gain. If I could do it over again, I would have at least taken more classes in such. Our spanish-speaking population is only going to increase; thus having skills in that language is lucrative.

 

[lord_jeebus]

I triple majored.

Don't.

 

[CScull]

Personally I think I'll minor in Spanish, and probably major in Biology... or Pre-Pharmacy if I go that way in Samford... but I would do it because I know I'm already pretty good at speaking Spanish. Remember it's not the quanity but the quality of the work you put in that counts. Also remember that undergrad and med school are going to take about a decade by themselves and it's EXTREMELY expensive... triple majoring, in my opinion would just add to the stress.

 

[ButImLETired]

I double majored (neuroscience and a language, so it's relatively similar to what you want to do) and was 1 course short of a minor in music.

I loved that I did that because I learned everything I wanted to learn and really took advantage of the liberal arts education offered me. Nevertheless, it was HARD, and it definitely didn't help my gpa. Not to mention the fact that I had to take extra classes pretty much every summer, including the summer after I graduated. Remember that pre-med (or pre-dent, or pre-vet, or pre-whatever) is 10 classes on its own and they're all really tough classes you HAVE to do well in- as well as in your majors. Also, whichever undergrad you end up at will probably have its own "core" requirements you'll have to put up with. And it's hard to switch mental gears quickly- imagine doing a physics problem set for 4 hours, then having to memorize 70 pages of neuroanatomy, then having to write a paper on a poet in a foreign language- one after the other. It requires not only great time-management skills, but also a sort of "mental agility" that is pretty hard to describe.

I also want to point out that it becomes EVEN MORE difficult to add EC's to that whole fat mess. I had a semester where I was taking 6 classes (for neuro, my language, premed, and music), had a 15-hour-a-week job I loved, was President of 2 clubs I couldn't drop, and volunteered every other weekend. I almost lost it. I slept 4 hours a night pretty regularly and I would have pretty much failed everything if I hadn't been lucky enough to have some great professors who were flexible enough to work with my crazy schedule and give me various extensions (and this is because I went to a relatively small school, where I really got to know my professors and they really got to know me- this probably wouldn't fly in bigger state schools). I also didn't have nearly as much time to hang out with my friends as I would have liked, and it really sucks to be in the library on weekends when everyone you know is out somewhere. And I didn't have time to do a lot of the impressive things (like research, or study abroad) other pre-meds get to do to pad their resumes for any significant amount of time because of the constraints of my schedule.

Genuinely, think HARD about making that kind of commitment. I go back and forth on whether it was a good idea or not- and pretty much everyone I've spoken to has told me it was a bad idea (including my premed adviser). Schools don't really give you a whole lot of credit for having the craziest schedule known to man, so it's ultimately not really worth it, if that's why you'd do it.

 

[xnfs93hy]

I double majored (neuroscience and a language, so it's relatively similar to what you want to do) and was 1 course short of a minor in music.

I loved that I did that because I learned everything I wanted to learn and really took advantage of the liberal arts education offered me. Nevertheless, it was HARD, and it definitely didn't help my gpa. Not to mention the fact that I had to take extra classes pretty much every summer, including the summer after I graduated. Remember that pre-med (or pre-dent, or pre-vet, or pre-whatever) is 10 classes on its own and they're all really tough classes you HAVE to do well in- as well as in your majors. Also, whichever undergrad you end up at will probably have its own "core" requirements you'll have to put up with. And it's hard to switch mental gears quickly- imagine doing a physics problem set for 4 hours, then having to memorize 70 pages of neuroanatomy, then having to write a paper on a poet in a foreign language- one after the other. It requires not only great time-management skills, but also a sort of "mental agility" that is pretty hard to describe.

I also want to point out that it becomes EVEN MORE difficult to add EC's to that whole fat mess. I had a semester where I was taking 6 classes (for neuro, my language, premed, and music), had a 15-hour-a-week job I loved, was President of 2 clubs I couldn't drop, and volunteered every other weekend. I almost lost it. I slept 4 hours a night pretty regularly and I would have pretty much failed everything if I hadn't been lucky enough to have some great professors who were flexible enough to work with my crazy schedule and give me various extensions (and this is because I went to a relatively small school, where I really got to know my professors and they really got to know me- this probably wouldn't fly in bigger state schools). I also didn't have nearly as much time to hang out with my friends as I would have liked, and it really sucks to be in the library on weekends when everyone you know is out somewhere. And I didn't have time to do a lot of the impressive things (like research, or study abroad) other pre-meds get to do to pad their resumes for any significant amount of time because of the constraints of my schedule.

Genuinely, think HARD about making that kind of commitment. I go back and forth on whether it was a good idea or not- and pretty much everyone I've spoken to has told me it was a bad idea (including my premed adviser). Schools don't really give you a whole lot of credit for having the craziest schedule known to man, so it's ultimately not really worth it, if that's why you'd do it.

Yes, I am looking into both of those.

Oh No . Seriously? 70 pages? I guess I would be able to do it but I hope that is exaggerated because that is NUTS.

Even bigger oh no considering I will probably wind up going to University of Kentucky.

I don't plan on hanging out with many people once I get into UG anyway, I'd rather have your schedule to be honest. I was looking at your MD APPS and it looks like you got into Vandy med, nice, that is an AWESOME school.

So...what do you think I should do? I mean you did get accepted to medical school. I know you can't tell me what I should do obviously, but what do you recommend I do? I don't want to end up having a bad UG GPA, I'm not saying yours wasn't bad because I don't know what it is but it sounds like a "Good but not so stellar" GPA.

Do you think I should only take on one major and volunteer, research, do meaningful EC's the rest of the time?

 

[MilkmanAl]

Nobody can plan college for you. Once you're in, start taking classes you think you might be interested in. If you do end up liking them and can handle the workload of those classes and your pre-reqs, keep going with that course of study. College is very personalized, and nobody is going to be able to forecast how much you'll enjoy, say, European history or how you'll cope with intense amounts of work. Take it one step at a time.

Do you think I should only take on one major and volunteer, research, do meaningful EC's the rest of the time?

No. Absolutely not. You should go to college and get the social experience you've shunned in high school. Yes, you'll need to do extracurricular activities to pad your resume, but you should also make friends, get drunk, and grow personally. Doing nothing but studying all through college will make you miserable, and you'll probably burn out long before med school is even a possibility.

Oh, and LET's assessment of school is no exaggeration. My last semester of college, I took 4 classes. Granted, they were all really hard upper-level science classes, but it was still a light course load in terms of credit hours. My pre-fall break workload was as follows: 4 tests, a 10-page paper, a lab report that could be no shorter than 12 pages, and a quantum mechanics problem set. All of that was due over a 3-day period and was in addition to the secondaries I was still cranking out. During the meat of your pre-req courses, you'll regularly find yourself slogging through 10+ pages of lab report per week on top of trying to stay afloat in organic chemistry or genetics or whatever. It's loads of fun.

 

[xnfs93hy]

Nobody can plan college for you. Once you're in, start taking classes you think you might be interested in. If you do end up liking them and can handle the workload of those classes and your pre-reqs, keep going with that course of study. College is very personalized, and nobody is going to be able to forecast how much you'll enjoy, say, European history or how you'll cope with intense amounts of work. Take it one step at a time.

No. Absolutely not. You should go to college and get the social experience you've shunned in high school. Yes, you'll need to do extracurricular activities to pad your resume, but you should also make friends, get drunk, and grow personally. Doing nothing but studying all through college will make you miserable, and you'll probably burn out long before med school is even a possibility.

Oh, and LET's assessment of school is no exaggeration. My last semester of college, I took 4 classes. Granted, they were all really hard upper-level science classes, but it was still a light course load in terms of credit hours. My pre-fall break workload was as follows: 4 tests, a 10-page paper, a lab report that could be no shorter than 12 pages, and a quantum mechanics problem set. All of that was due over a 3-day period and was in addition to the secondaries I was still cranking out. During the meat of your pre-req courses, you'll regularly find yourself slogging through 10+ pages of lab report per week on top of trying to stay afloat in organic chemistry or genetics or whatever. It's loads of fun.

I am a total loser in school. In all seriousness I know what you mean but I'm sorry, I have to disagree with you. High school relationships ARE POINTLESS. I have a close knit small circle of friends that I have had basically my entire life. There is no point trying to "make new friends". I already discussed this in another thread and my parents are NOT paying 25-30k a year for me to "get drunk".

I will gather friends/connections, etc. in college where what you do actually matters in life. High school friends, relationships, etc. are stupid and a waste of time.

Just to point out that I am not a neurotic, cynical, millionaire wannabe freak I'll give you an example of my freshman year. I was put into stupid classes (I should have been in honors), so I thought I was stupid. I started hanging out with other students who smoked weed, get drunk, etc. That was the most *****ic thing I have done and it killed my chances to get into a top university which don't really matter to me anymore because I already pulled myself out of that hole of nothingness and could easily get into University of Cincinnati, U of Kentucky, Indiana, etc. The only reason I wasn't in honors was because I didn't apply myself entirely in eighth grade which I guess was my own fault. In hindsight, I don't even know why I smoked weed and hung out with those kids. My point is that I will never do something so stupid like that again in my life because I am much smarter than those kids who smoke. Partying, getting drunk, and getting on crack and weed, even just when having fun, gets you nowhere and you just feel like crap afterwards anyway.

I would rather be studying or doing something meaningful rather than that. I don't understand why choosing to do the latter makes me a neurotic loser who won't get into medical school, that honestly makes no sense at all.

I'm not going to spend four years studying in my dorm by myself if thats what you think.

 

[MilkmanAl]

High school relationships ARE POINTLESS.

Interesting. That must be why I still hang out with all of my high school friends. Thanks for clearing that up.

There is no point trying to "make new friends".

That's a very unfortunate way to look at life. There are tons of cool people "out there" who you'll never meet that way. I'm not saying you should go out of your way to meet everyone you run across, but meeting new friends never hurt anyone. It's worth noting that as a physician, meeting new people will be an integral part of your job. You might as well develop the skills necessary to communicate with relative strangers now.

I already discussed this in another thread and my parents are NOT paying 25-30k a year for me to "get drunk".

No, but they are paying for you to get an education. Not all teaching occurs in the classroom, you know.

I will gather friends/connections, etc. in college where what you do actually matters in life. High school friends, relationships, etc. are stupid and a waste of time.

Even if we're looking at this from a purely utilitarian standpoint, the connections I made in high school are far more useful than the ones I made in college where meeting classmates is concerned. Professors will be your bread and butter in college. Do you plan on hanging out with them all the time? I think they might have other ideas.

I was put into stupid classes (I should have been in honors), so I thought I was stupid. I started hanging out with other students who smoked weed, get drunk, etc. That was the most *****ic thing I have done and it killed my chances to get into a top university which don't really matter to me anymore because I already pulled myself out of that hole of nothingness and could easily get into University of Cincinnati, U of Kentucky, Indiana, etc.

I got similarly handicapped class-wise and also hung out with the "bad crowd." It didn't kill my chances - far from it. That experience let me head to college without the urge to party my face off at all times.

The only reason I wasn't in honors was because I didn't apply myself entirely in eighth grade which I guess was my own fault.

I got shafted despite succeeding. I tied for 1st in Missouri's Mathcounts competition and got stuck in basic geometry, 2 classes behind the people I was beating. It really doesn't matter at all, in the long run. If you can get into an OOS college as easily as you claim, it won;t matter for you, either. Take something away from the experiences you've had so far instead of convincing yourself that high school sucks.

I would rather be studying or doing something meaningful rather than that. I don't understand why choosing to do the latter makes me a neurotic loser who won't get into medical school, that honestly makes no sense at all.

Dude, I'm not trying to tell you to become a junkie in college. I can't tell if you really aren't understanding what I'm saying or you're just being obstinate. I'm saying that you desperately need to loosen up and expand your social horizons. Not drinking doesn't make you strange, but deliberately shutting yourself off from the rest of the world definitely does. If you want people to think you're a complete freak, shut them all down without even giving them a chance. That's the a great way to make sure you're immortalized in someone's "weird roommate" stories.

Stressing about your medical subspecialty while you're halfway done with high school qualifies you as neurotic, like it or not, and it's just going to get worse as the pressure ramps up. You've got to find a way to decompress, or college will eat you alive.

I'm not going to spend four years studying in my dorm by myself if thats what you think.

Of course not. I fully expect you to be running several clubs, holding down 5 volunteering gigs, working full-time, and cranking out several research projects at a time. You'll probably be a two-time Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner by the time you graduate, too. After you take the MCAT and score the first ever 46, you can throw teaching Kaplan courses into the mix.

Seriously, though, no partying, no friends, lots of work, and squeezing EC's into every nook of free time you have is not the way to approach college.

 

[DrYoda]

I am a total loser in school. In all seriousness I know what you mean but I'm sorry, I have to disagree with you. High school relationships ARE POINTLESS. I have a close knit small circle of friends that I have had basically my entire life. There is no point trying to "make new friends". I already discussed this in another thread and my parents are NOT paying 25-30k a year for me to "get drunk".

I will gather friends/connections, etc. in college where what you do actually matters in life. High school friends, relationships, etc. are stupid and a waste of time.

You could say this about relationships at any level.

As for connectons:One of the companies I do business with needed something done quick, and I called up two of my highschool buddies who are in that particular field. Turned out good for all parties involved. So, you never know what connections will be useful in life.

 

[ButImLETired]

Yes, I am looking into both of those.

Oh No . Seriously? 70 pages? I guess I would be able to do it but I hope that is exaggerated because that is NUTS.

Even bigger oh no considering I will probably wind up going to University of Kentucky.

I don't plan on hanging out with many people once I get into UG anyway, I'd rather have your schedule to be honest. I was looking at your MD APPS and it looks like you got into Vandy med, nice, that is an AWESOME school.

So...what do you think I should do? I mean you did get accepted to medical school. I know you can't tell me what I should do obviously, but what do you recommend I do? I don't want to end up having a bad UG GPA, I'm not saying yours wasn't bad because I don't know what it is but it sounds like a "Good but not so stellar" GPA.

Do you think I should only take on one major and volunteer, research, do meaningful EC's the rest of the time?

Well, as Al said, I can't plan your college experience for you, so take my advice with a HUGE grain of salt.

Only you know what kind of balance you want to maintain between academics and your personal life. The important thing, however, is that you maintain a balance. Doing only one out of the two things, or being FAR more involved with one rather than the other will result in failure, I can promise you that. As you probably know, applying to med school requires good grades, good MCAT scores, and good EC's- however, it also requires a "hook" of sorts. You will be writing tons of essays about the most humbling experiences you've had, the toughest ethical dilemmas, "what makes you special or diverse" (I was asked this question by TONS of schools), what you do for fun, etc. Letters of recommendation will also be requested, and "I'm this kid's science teacher and he got an A and I have nothing else to say" won't cut it. Being academically strong will only get you so far. You need to have something to talk about, and have some professors and doctors who cared about you and with whom you forged relationships. Not to mention the fact that you will need to present yourself at an interview and be charming and likable. A social life will help ALL of these things. At almost every interview I've been to, I was asked what I do for fun and how I fit it into my college schedule. You will need to have a good answer for this. They want to see that you're not only capable of handling undergrad, but also able to strike a balance with your social life, otherwise you won't handle the far tougher rigors of med school and a life in medicine. No med school wants to produce a bunch of doctors who can't talk to people- sure, some will certainly slip through the cracks, but for the most part, being able to fake being a charming, funny, nice person goes a LONG way.

As for me, my gpa wasn't great, it was around a 3.5 overall with a bit lower science gpa. Yes, I got into Vanderbilt, which was unbelievably exciting. However, I wouldn't necessarily take me as an example, cause I have a lot of unique stuff that isn't written in my mdapps. I grew up in 3 countries, speak 3 languages fluently, have awards for writing, probably great recommendations, an interesting life story (it really really helps when writing essays), etc. I tried to make damn sure when applying that the ONLY weak spot would be my gpa, so I made everything else as perfect as I possibly could. I was definitely screened out of a bunch of places I applied to because of my gpa, which I expected, but some gave me a shot, which I'm incredibly thankful for. And it really helps to be not too socially awkward at interviews, because they are inherently awkward experiences.

So I agree with Al- focus on having a life. Try a few classes you don't necessarily think you'll love and see what kind of major you want to pursue (it may surprise you!). If you see that you really really can't do without the double major, do the double major, but ONLY do it if you think you can keep your gpa up. Certainly don't make that sort of decision until you've seen how much time chem takes and whatever other classes you take freshman year. Make friends- this is important. You don't have to be a social butterfly, but make friends, because they'll teach you how to have an interview and they will give you something to think about- and of course, they'll enrich your life. I had a lot of fantastic friends who I didn't hang out with as much as I wanted to, but they were always there, and of all the things I learned in undergrad, they were the most important (and I forgot everything I learned in class already anyway). Add the EC's you think you'll love, or otherwise it'll be transparent when you're talking about them that you only added them to pad your application. And seriously, have fun! You don't have to get drunk and high every weekend, but find a group of people who love the stuff you love and do it with them. You will find that in college there are WAY more groups of people than in high school, meaning you'll have options beyond the popular kids and the stoners. You'll make your own niche and work with it. Incidentally, I also hated high school and only kept a couple of friends from there, but I hung out with TONS of people in college. It really is very very different.

 

[xnfs93hy]

Interesting. That must be why I still hang out with all of my high school friends. Thanks for clearing that up.

That's a very unfortunate way to look at life. There are tons of cool people "out there" who you'll never meet that way. I'm not saying you should go out of your way to meet everyone you run across, but meeting new friends never hurt anyone. It's worth noting that as a physician, meeting new people will be an integral part of your job. You might as well develop the skills necessary to communicate with relative strangers now.

No, but they are paying for you to get an education. Not all teaching occurs in the classroom, you know.


Even if we're looking at this from a purely utilitarian standpoint, the connections I made in high school are far more useful than the ones I made in college where meeting classmates is concerned. Professors will be your bread and butter in college. Do you plan on hanging out with them all the time? I think they might have other ideas.
I got similarly handicapped class-wise and also hung out with the "bad crowd." It didn't kill my chances - far from it. That experience let me head to college without the urge to party my face off at all times.
I got shafted despite succeeding. I tied for 1st in Missouri's Mathcounts competition and got stuck in basic geometry, 2 classes behind the people I was beating. It really doesn't matter at all, in the long run. If you can get into an OOS college as easily as you claim, it won;t matter for you, either. Take something away from the experiences you've had so far instead of convincing yourself that high school sucks.

Dude, I'm not trying to tell you to become a junkie in college. I can't tell if you really aren't understanding what I'm saying or you're just being obstinate. I'm saying that you desperately need to loosen up and expand your social horizons. Not drinking doesn't make you strange, but deliberately shutting yourself off from the rest of the world definitely does. If you want people to think you're a complete freak, shut them all down without even giving them a chance. That's the a great way to make sure you're immortalized in someone's "weird roommate" stories.

Stressing about your medical subspecialty while you're halfway done with high school qualifies you as neurotic, like it or not, and it's just going to get worse as the pressure ramps up. You've got to find a way to decompress, or college will eat you alive.

Of course not. I fully expect you to be running several clubs, holding down 5 volunteering gigs, working full-time, and cranking out several research projects at a time. You'll probably be a two-time Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize winner by the time you graduate, too. After you take the MCAT and score the first ever 46, you can throw teaching Kaplan courses into the mix.

Seriously, though, no partying, no friends, lots of work, and squeezing EC's into every nook of free time you have is not the way to approach college.

No, no, no. Miscommunication. I meant that there is no point in "making new friends" at this stage of the game in high school because I already have an established group of friends many of which I will still stay in touch with for years.

Edit: I actually met three people at the hospital I am now friends with believe it or not. I just hate my school, people are spoiled underachievers who are stuck in their own little world. This one girl from my school also volunteered there in the SAME area and refused to talk to me.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Right...I still don't see the motivation to completely stop meeting people, though.

edit: Hey, wait a second. I seem to remember you claiming emphatically that you literally have no friends at all...

edit again: I guess that wasn't technically right. You said "...there is no point in making friends and getting social at this stage in the game because no one in my school likes me" (emphasis mine). Most of the people I hung out with regularly didn't go to my school.

 

[xnfs93hy]

Right...I still don't see the motivation to completely stop meeting people, though.

edit: Hey, wait a second. I seem to remember you claiming emphatically that you literally have no friends at all...

edit again: I guess that wasn't technically right. You said "...there is no point in making friends and getting social at this stage in the game because no one in my school likes me" (emphasis mine). Most of the people I hung out with regularly didn't go to my school.

-I really just hate everyone in my school, I understand what you meant but I really just want to leave my town I hate all the kids from around here. It's really sad but there are very few people at my school that actually genuinely friendly, then again, I guess this might be the same at every high school, I have gone to public school my whole life...so...I don't know maybe that is just how it is. As you can tell I am not a fan of public school at all but that is not the point.

-I lied, I was probably trying to enforce a point that I am a nerd or something, I remember saying that in another thread as well. I do not have a lot of friends though, I do have a small group of friends but they are actually genuine friends, not "fake" ones.

-Ok.

 

[Crazyday]

-I really just hate everyone in my school, I understand what you meant but I really just want to leave my town I hate all the kids from around here. It's really sad but there are very few people at my school that actually genuinely friendly, then again, I guess this might be the same at every high school, I have gone to public school my whole life...so...I don't know maybe that is just how it is. As you can tell I am not a fan of public school at all but that is not the point.

-I lied, I was probably trying to enforce a point that I am a nerd or something, I remember saying that in another thread as well. I do not have a lot of friends though, I do have a small group of friends but they are actually genuine friends, not "fake" ones.

-Ok.

Alright, I'm a junior in High School and I'm kind of in the same boat. I've hung out with the wrong kids the last two years, so it's kind of like an oh **** I just want to break away so I can get out of this mess (that's how I'm sort of feeling anyway), make things right, and actually enjoy studying and all that jazz.

So I'll just offer my 2 cents as I've stepped back and observed myself lately.

It's all in the bonds you make. You can become friends with stoners etc. and make yourself known as that type of person. You're right here, that these are the people you don't want to associate yourself with and will only bring you down. On the other side of the token, you can become friends with people that hopefully have the same direction as you and the same focus. These people will support you, you'll understand eachother, and this is definitely a positive influence on your life.

You just have to be responsible with who you associate yourself, and decide whether or not that person or group is likeminded and will have a positive impact on your life.

Personally, I see you as trying to transition into becoming a better student. Maybe I'm way off base here, but that's how I'm feeling. You run with the stoner crowd, they're all laidback and cool. Then you step back for a minute and realize what you're doing. You don't want to be with that crowd anymore because they'll only bring you down, but then everyone else just seems lame, fake, and/or uptight.

Just calm down. None of us here care if you're a closet nerd or a druggie (although hopefully we would try to influence you out of being that ). Just be yourself and reach out to people you think you do click with. Try to genuinely understand them and maybe, just maybe, they won't be as bad as you think.

I'm kind of in a ****ty situation myself. I go to high school (public mind you) with a bunch of rich *******s who have the silver spoon in their mouth all the way through. They're all buying a new 400 dollar blackberry and a porsche or corvette every few months while I can't even afford a cell phone, much less a ****ty little car.

Maybe you're right. Maybe everyone in your high school are a bunch of a pricks. Hopefully in college you can find some nicer people though. But I figure if I can find a few gems in my school, you can find them just about anywhere.