Setting up for an amazing 4 years of college

[grapp]

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Hi,

I plan ahead. If your going to post don't plan ahead this far please don't bother, obviously plans can, and quite possibly could change. I have put together an "ideal" 4 years of school and was curious if this would look for a good application. According to my estimates this would be possible taking 16.5 credits a year with study time.

- 5 years of hospital volunteering (13 hours per week) for aprx. 3,380 - 300 (sick days or other things) 3,080 hrs
- 3.5 years of working with ems (12 hours per week) for aprx. 1,872 - 300 = 1,572 work hrs
- 4 years of day care volunteering at a church (2 hours per week) 416 hours - 50 = 376 hrs
- 3 years of science tutoring *also study time* 😉 (3 hours per week) 468 hours - 50 = 418 hrs

Yes, of course these are estimates for a reason. I subtracted an amount I thought is reasonable if I am sick, or other instances come up that are to be prioritized. Research, and shadowing will be conducted during the summer. My MCAT study time will be conducted the summer of Junior year.

This will give myself a total of 30 class hours a week, which will classify me as a full-time student.

Without no-life studying, I will have about 12 hours outside of my other activities to conduct projects, papers, or study time. Getting 8 hours of sleep per night.* EMS also has downtime occasionally. * Including 3 hours for science tutoring, great refreshers!! 15 hours for social activity per week, summers a lot more. I can suffice with 5 a week, I normally get 5-6 now.

Is this enough to make me a strong qualified applicant?

I will be majoring in emergency management or psychology, but I am leaning towards emergency management.

*again, plans do change* (I am aware of this)

Any suggestions?

 

[WedgeDawg]

Sure, if you can keep this up, but you currently have no idea how much time you're going to need for other things in your life, for studying, etc. You'll be a good applicant, but you should start by creating and maintaining a strong GPA before you add other commitments. GPA repair is a lot harder and more expensive than EC "repair".

 

[grapp]

Sure, if you can keep this up, but you currently have no idea how much time you're going to need for other things in your life, for studying, etc. You'll be a good applicant, but you should start by creating and maintaining a strong GPA before you add other commitments. GPA repair is a lot harder and more expensive than EC "repair".

True for sure! Sunday's I would have a lot of time, including lots of time on Saturday's... But, my first year I will have 27 hours of study time and homework time. Therefore, I will take my first year easy with a piece of mind, until 6 months in I will have an additional 12 hours. 27 hours extra to begin with. I will start with that and see where I am. Thanks for the advice @WedgeDawg

 

[Hillo]

I would just sleep.

If you think people/programs are intimidating, they're just selling you dreams and telling you things. Arrogant liars, basically.

 

[grapp]

I would just sleep.

If you think people/programs are intimidating, they're just selling you dreams and telling you things. Arrogant liars, basically.

They aren't selling me anything.. Lol, I hope this is a troll post...

 

[ndafife]

Yeah those are the ECs of a competitive applicant.

But maintaining your GPA is much more important than ECs (as others mentioned), and you are setting yourself up for a sad, lonely life if you only have 4 hrs of social activity a week during college

 

[KitKat30]

Try not to focus so much on molding yourself into the "perfect" applicant. I have known many pre-med students who were so preoccupied with building their application that they had no joy or passion for the activities that they were involved in. Don't think of EC's a boxes to check off--just get involved in activities that you are passionate about and commit your time and energy to these things.

Just my two cents 🙂

 

[bengirlxD]

Dedicating that much time to EC's is going to significantly affect your concentration at school. I currently dedicate 20 hours a week to my EC's while taking orgo, bio, and physics and its pretty rough even though I have maintained an A in all the classes but if I added any more hours to my schedule, my grades would significantly drop. And also your EC's are very cookie cutter. Don't get me wrong they are great and will definitely add to your chances of getting in, but you need to find a hobby that is unique to you and that you have a strong passion for personally. I'm sure adcom's here about people volunteering at a hospital all the time but lets say you dedicate an extensive amount of time to fishing and then give your catches to the local food bank(purely hypothetical situation). That experience would be something different from the every day pre medical student who comes in to do an interview.

 

[Mad Jack]

You're really overkilling it on the ECs. If you finish all of that and come out a burned out tryhard that has trouble interacting with people because they haven't done anything fun in years, you might hurt yourself come interview time. Make time for yourself- college should have some degree of enjoyment for you, and the path you've laid out looks completely misery inducing.

 

[grapp]

You're really overkilling it on the ECs. If you finish all of that and come out a burned out tryhard that has trouble interacting with people because they haven't done anything fun in years, you might hurt yourself come interview time. Make time for yourself- college should have some degree of enjoyment for you, and the path you've laid out looks completely misery inducing.

What would you recommend dropping? Honestly, I love kids so the day caring thing isn't a big deal more fun... I plan on doing the EMS thing as a job no matter what... Any idea? I will also play it year by year, any tips? Thanks.

 

[ndafife]

What would you recommend dropping? Honestly, I love kids so the day caring thing isn't a big deal more fun... I plan on doing the EMS thing as a job no matter what... Any idea? I will also play it year by year, any tips? Thanks.

There are hundreds of thousands (if not more) kids like you who will be entering college as premeds who did really well in high school with extracurriculars and great grades. In a given year about 50,000 people end up applying and 20,000 end up matriculating.

Your extracurriculars (if you keep them up) are good but not good enough to make up for a crappy GPA. I'd go into your first semester expecting a pretty big transition from high school then start adding 30 hrs a week of extracurriculars when you know you can handle school.

Also you are really gonna want more than 4 hrs a week of social activity.

 

[sonofva]

My thing is: I took 16.5 credits a semester in undergrad. I think the ADCOMS will look more favorably on academic rigor than heavy extracurriculars

 

[grapp]

Dedicating that much time to EC's is going to significantly affect your concentration at school. I currently dedicate 20 hours a week to my EC's while taking orgo, bio, and physics and its pretty rough even though I have maintained an A in all the classes but if I added any more hours to my schedule, my grades would significantly drop. And also your EC's are very cookie cutter. Don't get me wrong they are great and will definitely add to your chances of getting in, but you need to find a hobby that is unique to you and that you have a strong passion for personally. I'm sure adcom's here about people volunteering at a hospital all the time but lets say you dedicate an extensive amount of time to fishing and then give your catches to the local food bank(purely hypothetical situation). That experience would be something different from the every day pre medical student who comes in to do an interview.

That truly is emergency medicine, but in this case as pre-hospital care. I will keep this in mind though.

 

[grapp]

Yeah those are the ECs of a competitive applicant.

But maintaining your GPA is much more important than ECs (as others mentioned), and you are setting yourself up for a sad, lonely life if you only have 4 hrs of social activity a week during college

Initial math was wrong...

School = 30 hours a week. (30)
EC's = 30 hours a week. 13 + 12 + 2 + 3 = 30
Sleep = 56 hours a week. 8 x 7 = 56
30 + 30 + 56 =
Total time spent: 116 hours out of 156 hour week.
Therefore my remaining time is; 40 hours in the week.
Let's assume on the high end 25 hours for studying/homework/tutoring * still pretty high *.
My final result is 15 hours of free-time a week.

That's enough time for 4 good time length dates. Sufficient for me...

 

[JustintheDoctor]

lol i love reading posts like these. And then these kids get hit with bricks once it starts.

 

[jqueb29]

I would significantly cut down the hospital volunteering if I were you. Eventually you reach a point of diminishing returns where additional volunteering doesn't really improve your application, and 3080 hours is well past that limit. If you end up with 1000 hours of hospital volunteering, you're going to have more hours than the overwhelming majority of all other applicants.

 

[KitKat30]

15 hours a week barely leaves you enough time to eat...

 

[Apollo1]

-5 years of hospital volunteering (13 hours per week) for aprx. 3,380 - 300 (sick days or other things) 3,080 hrs
- 3.5 years of working with ems (12 hours per week) for aprx. 1,872 - 300 = 1,572 work hrs

These don't serve the same goal. If you want to be a physician, EMS won't give you a definitive advantage. Pick one or the other and gain more time to be used elsewhere.

You're also assuming that your academic performance will be at a level where this plan is feasible. You're making things more difficult than they have to be, and this schedule would not be an "amazing experience."

 

[grapp]

lol i love reading posts like these. And then these kids get hit with bricks once it starts.

Troll posts like these...

I would significantly cut down the hospital volunteering if I were you. Eventually you reach a point of diminishing returns where additional volunteering doesn't really improve your application, and 3080 hours is well past that limit. If you end up with 1000 hours of hospital volunteering, you're going to have more hours than the overwhelming majority of all other applicants.

I concur, good assessment; unlike critisizing, you work off of positive thinking. I'm sure you will make a good doctor, as I see you are in medical school.

 

[grapp]

lol i love reading posts like these. And then these kids get hit with bricks once it starts.

Dude, I go to school 40 hours a week. I sleep around 8 hours a night. I go to community college on the weekend for 5 hours. I volunteer at a hospital for 6 every Sunday. That accounts for 51 hours out of the 60 that I have marked. My current college GPA is a 4.0, sure it's a com college. I'm graduating high school early too.

You make a conjecture just based on the post alone, how about a recommendation next time instead, huh?

 

[grapp]

These don't serve the same goal. If you want to be a physician, EMS won't give you a definitive advantage. Pick one or the other and gain more time to be used elsewhere.

You're also assuming that your academic performance will be at a level where this plan is feasible. You're making things more difficult than they have to be, and this schedule would not be an "amazing experience."

I think working as a paramedic on a university ambulance is a wonderful idea and gives me an opportunity to work and pay off my school debt. While at the same time making a bit of money for myself, while volunteering at a hospital gives me the opportunity to look more into the life of a physician. I believe that it gives me an opportunity to learn emergency management skills, a critical asset if you are seeking a potentially stressful career.

So, I don't see what you mean when it will be a "definitive" advantage because I would love the opportunity to talk to a medical school about how it has helped me come a long way, even with my only current EMT-B training. Already, even after shadowing an ER doctor; it has taught me a lot of things. I'm referring to the basic medical training.

I understand where hours might be a factor, therefore I have considered lessening the hospital volunteering to around 1,000 hours instead of 3,000. I agree with your statement to assess whether or not the plan would work; depending on hours and course load.

 

[grapp]

Try not to focus so much on molding yourself into the "perfect" applicant. I have known many pre-med students who were so preoccupied with building their application that they had no joy or passion for the activities that they were involved in. Don't think of EC's a boxes to check off--just get involved in activities that you are passionate about and commit your time and energy to these things.

Just my two cents 🙂

Great advice. I really am passionate about working as an EMT for my university ambulance. As well as the hospital volunteer; however, I may lessen this due to the limited time in the week people have pointed out to me. The only thing I am not as passionate about is the day care volunteering, but it can be enjoyable at times.

 

[mcworbust]

When I conduct admissions interviews, I ask every applicant what they do for fun. This matters so much more to me than if you have 3,080 hours of hospital volunteering vs. 1/10th of that. I applaud you for planning, as a goal without a plan is a wish, but don't forget to give yourself time to take in life (aka more than 15 hours/week that you're currently planning on). Also, please don't tell me that you do ___(insert volunteer activity here) for fun, even if it is true.

In all seriousness, the question of "what do you do for fun" is important, because if you look way ahead to your clinical years of med school, residency, and beyond it will be imperative to be able to relate to your patients. There are many ways to build rapport, but one of the easiest is to quickly identify a shared interest you may have with the patient, and I guarantee you your patients aren't interested in the things that you're planning on consuming yourself with (minus 15 hours a week for fun). By letting yourself have some fun in undergrad you'll also build social skills that will be vital in your interactions with your peers, nurses, and other staff as a future physician. While there is an obvious educational value to undergrad education, I'd argue learning about yourself and mastering the social aspects of semi-adult life are just as important to long term success in whatever field graduates enter.

So, with this in mind, my specific advice is to learn how much alcohol you can tolerate/know your limits now so you avoid trouble in undergrad while having fun🙂.

Edit: see you're from Idaho, please ignore my alcohol advice if you're Mormon as it wouldn't really be applicable, my bad. Best of luck!

 

[JustintheDoctor]

Troll posts like these...

I concur, good assessment; unlike critisizing, you work off of positive thinking. I'm sure you will make a good doctor, as I see you are in medical school.

"troll posts" I don't think you understand what a troll post is. I'm being completely serious. We have seen posts like yours hundreds if not thousands of times. It always ends with a brick to the face. I'm not saying you won't become a doctor, because you probably will, I'm not saying you won't do good, you probably will, but you will get hit with a brick of being overwhelmed

High school posts like these...

 

[grapp]

When I conduct admissions interviews, I ask every applicant what they do for fun. This matters so much more to me than if you have 3,080 hours of hospital volunteering vs. 1/10th of that. I applaud you for planning, as a goal without a plan is a wish, but don't forget to give yourself time to take in life (aka more than 15 hours/week that you're currently planning on). Also, please don't tell me that you do ___(insert volunteer activity here) for fun, even if it is true.

In all seriousness, the question of "what do you do for fun" is important, because if you look way ahead to your clinical years of med school, residency, and beyond it will be imperative to be able to relate to your patients. There are many ways to build rapport, but one of the easiest is to quickly identify a shared interest you may have with the patient, and I guarantee you your patients aren't interested in the things that you're planning on consuming yourself with (minus 15 hours a week for fun). By letting yourself have some fun in undergrad you'll also build social skills that will be vital in your interactions with your peers, nurses, and other staff as a future physician. While there is an obvious educational value to undergrad education, I'd argue learning about yourself and mastering the social aspects of semi-adult life are just as important to long term success in whatever field graduates enter.

So, with this in mind, my specific advice is to learn how much alcohol you can tolerate/know your limits now so you avoid trouble in undergrad while having fun🙂.

Edit: see you're from Idaho, please ignore my alcohol advice if you're Mormon as it wouldn't really be applicable, my bad. Best of luck!

Oh hell no, I'm not mormon... Lol.