Sometimes I feel like I'm not doing enough

[xnfs93hy]

What I mean is that I feel like I spend too much time on class, and not enough time on ECs. I've only shadowed for 25 hours so far. I have about 70 hours of volunteer work. Also, I contribute my services to the local church. Sometimes, though, when I read through the WAMC forum, I feel inadequate. People have done mission trips to Africa, have thousands of volunteer hours, research, publications, tutoring, et cetera. I want to do some of these things, but class and studying eats up so much of my time. I'm an engineering major (Civil) and it's hard to find time to do many of these things. Maybe I'm just bad when it comes to time management? I don't know. I'm not going to quit chasing my dream, but sometimes I feel really discouraged when I read some of the threads on here.

Do any of you feel the same way? Do you have any suggestions for me? Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks.

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[NoDakDok]

The SDN community is a gross misrepresentation of the general premedical population. While there are some great contributions from SDN members, there is also an extremely concentrated mixed bag of exaggeration, falsification, and exceptionalism with information regarding applicants here. Do not be intimidated. Do your best, get everything that 'makes' an application done, present your passion to become a physician in your application (activities) and interviews, and you should do just fine.

If you are feeling particularly inadequate, I would suggest maybe taking a look at how you are getting your work done. If you are being inefficient then dig for ways to improve. There are certainly many. But some people choose more difficult paths than others and may have to spend more time on classwork. There's nothing wrong with that.

 

[Boolean]

A decent number of the people here are gunning for the top. Let that be known. That does impact many facets of our forum. As a result of such, many choose to not venture towards here (hence SDN being the home of "Super Duper Neuroticism"). That said, you can always do more. Time manage. Multitask. I do flashcards while walking to and from classes (Anki iPhone App) and listen to lectures (some are recorded) when I commute. There's no reason you can't be doing more.

 

[Lamel]

It's less about the hours, and more about how you can present the experience, and the (hopefully) positive effect it had on you; even better if it can directly relate to your pursuit of medicine.

 

[xnfs93hy]

A decent number of the people here are gunning for the top. Let that be known. That does impact many facets of our forum. As a result of such, many choose to not venture towards here (hence SDN being the home of "Super Duper Neuroticism"). That said, you can always do more. Time manage. Multitask. I do flashcards while walking to and from classes (Anki iPhone App) and listen to lectures (some are recorded) when I commute. There's no reason you can't be doing more.

I think my problem is mostly time management. You brought up a number of good ideas that I think I will implement. I never thought of recording lectures. That's actually a really good idea. I could put them on my iPod and listen to them. I think that I also need to work on multitasking. I usually focus on one thing at a time and it seems to be counter-productive.

 

[Lucca]

Theres only so much you can do before you burn out. Pre-med is too soon in your career to let that happen to you. The most important thing you can do is improve your time management so that you can do everything you feel you need to do in an efficient manner. But there's always a limit.

 

[SnakeOilForSale]

Compare yourself to your ideal self, not other people

 

[NickNaylor]

To repeat what others said: SDN naturally attracts outliers in both directions. Use the information you see here to guide you in how you should be preparing to apply to medical school, but do understand that you don't have to be equivalent to the strongest applicants you see here to have a chance at getting into medical school. I think some people would be surprised at some of the applicants I've evaluated in my role as an admissions committee member. They would likely be laughed out of pre-allo as, at best, "mediocre" applicants, yet they are interviewing at one of the top schools in the country.

Don't try and compare yourself to others. Instead, do the best that you can to make your application as strong as possible while preparing yourself to pursue medicine. If you do those things, you really don't have much to worry about. You may not get into Harvard, but then again, most people don't.

 

[soccerman93]

SDN seems like a super neurotic pre-med echo chamber at times. I wouldn't worry too much about the hours you have or haven't put in. You've more volunteer hours than I do, and I have had a few interviews. Just pick an activity or two that you really enjoy and when it comes time to talk about those things in an interview they'll see that you are passionate about them. And as many others have said, you can't really fix a broken GPA, so I'd think there isn't anything wrong with spending lots of time on your classes and keeping your GPA up. You have all the time in the world (ok not really but you get my point) to study for the MCAT, do some EC's, garner clinical hours, etc.

 

[tofuuu]

I actually didn't join SDN until I started applying for medical school. I did feel a little worried at first as I was browsing through the threads because there are just too many supermen and superwomen on here. But then I started getting interviews & acceptances and realized that normal human beings like me can get into medical school too. So don't worry, you don't have to be superman or superwoman to get into medical school.

Here's my advice to you: Don't worry too much about what others are doing. Just keep pursuing the activities you enjoy and you'll find yourself with tons of things to talk about on your application and during your interviews. When you do things you love, it'll be more like a break from studying as oppose to being another obligation. In my opinion, if medicine is your calling, you'll find yourself doing things that somehow can be tied back to the medical field, even if that particular activity itself isn't clinical in nature. With that said, i'm not saying you shouldn't keep an eye out for shadowing, clinical, volunteering, research, etc. opportunities though. From what you've said in your post, I do think you need to work on your ECs. But you can always take things at your own pace. Take a gap year if need be. Lots of people take gap years!

 

[Holmwood]

What I mean is that I feel like I spend too much time on class, and not enough time on ECs. I've only shadowed for 25 hours so far. I have about 70 hours of volunteer work. Also, I contribute my services to the local church. Sometimes, though, when I read through the WAMC forum, I feel inadequate. People have done mission trips to Africa, have thousands of volunteer hours, research, publications, tutoring, et cetera. I want to do some of these things, but class and studying eats up so much of my time. I'm an engineering major (Civil) and it's hard to find time to do many of these things. Maybe I'm just bad when it comes to time management? I don't know. I'm not going to quit chasing my dream, but sometimes I feel really discouraged when I read some of the threads on here.

Do any of you feel the same way? Do you have any suggestions for me? Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks.

Well... you can talk about your senior engineering project too.

With the engineering project, you now have 3 stuff to talk about. Make the best out of what you already have, and you should be great.

Of course, you can always do more! Some volunteer opportunities require very little commitment. For instance, you can tutor kids for an hour or two, once a week. Maybe volunteer at a soup kichen, or women's shelter. If time is an issue, do a little more online searching for the right volunteer opportunity.