Starting to be a premed... Help...

[Iron72]

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Hey everyone.

I’m looking for some advice in how to start my path down the road of the premedical student. After two years as an engineering major I have a lousy gpa. Not really from the difficulty of the classes but I just suck at studying. I have no sense of time management and no idea how to study. I breezed through high school without working and I did the same thing in college. I didn’t really have any expectations from myself for the future. I wanted to do better, but I fell back on old habits and new problems in college. (Chronic health and relationships and lots of EC’s)

Now I know I want to pursue an education in medicine and of course I know I have to start getting good grades. My cum gpa is about a 2.8 and my sgpa is worse than that. I have another 90 credits to go before I graduate. I have no experience in the healthcare field and no research. No faculty here who really know who I am.

So I guess my main concerns are…

1. How do you study in college? How do you manage your time and how are you organized? (I’ve looked through all the general stuff I want to know how you guys do it.)

2. Where did you start looking for volunteer or work in the medical field?

3. Any stories of people who have been able to make an upward curve in their gpa and how they did it?

4. How do you guys stay motivated and focused on your goals?

5. Is it even possible to try for it? Am I just reaching too far for something that’s not obtainable?

Advice please.

 

[nfgsjklgnsdfkjn]

1. Treat it like a 40 hour a week job and grades take care of themselves. Specific study habits and organization are really professor and subject dependent. The important thing is just to not procrastinate.

2. Look for hospital volunteer opportunities on the web or through your university. Basic volunteering is not very interesting, but you build personal connections that can land you better positions. Often universities have pre-med email lists that have calls for applications.

3. Don't have any experience here. 🙁

4. I stay motivated mainly by really enjoying what I'm majoring in and the material. And realizing that compared to real world jobs, being a student isn't so difficult, just stressful.

5. You might honestly have to do post-bacc work to raise your GPA before you can get in med school. A 3.5 GPA is really the unofficial target for getting into med school, and top schools want a good bit higher. It'd be great if you pulled it off, but being two years in with low science GPA and no experience does set you back if you want to take the MCAT during junior year and apply/interview during senior year as most do.

 

[Iron72]

1. Treat it like a 40 hour a week job and grades take care of themselves. Specific study habits and organization are really professor and subject dependent. The important thing is just to not procrastinate.

2. Look for hospital volunteer opportunities on the web or through your university. Basic volunteering is not very interesting, but you build personal connections that can land you better positions. Often universities have pre-med email lists that have calls for applications.

3. Don't have any experience here. 🙁

4. I stay motivated mainly by really enjoying what I'm majoring in and the material. And realizing that compared to real world jobs, being a student isn't so difficult, just stressful.

5. You might honestly have to do post-bacc work to raise your GPA before you can get in med school. A 3.5 GPA is really the unofficial target for getting into med school, and top schools want a good bit higher. It'd be great if you pulled it off, but being two years in with low science GPA and no experience does set you back if you want to take the MCAT during junior year and apply/interview during senior year as most do.

Thanks for the help...

Haha. I didn't notice but procrastination is a major flaw in my work ethic... Heck its a flaw for my life ethic. I put off everything that I have to do. How do you guys get away from procrastination?

And I have completed two years but I've decided to stay here for 3 more years. So based on that you think I have a shot at getting my life as a premed student together?

Also does anyone have specific examples of how they study. Or how they fixed their low gpas?

 

[redrower]

3. I'd like to think I have a decent upward trend. I raised my GPA from a 2.8 to above a 3.6 in 2 years. Like the above poster said, treat it like a 40 hr/week job (if you have experience with that). What really helped me was joining a sports team. A lot of discipline and hard work go into being successful at collegiate sports and if you take that discipline (i.e. mandatory 3 hour daily practices) and apply it to coursework (i.e. mandatory 5 hour daily library sessions) you will be very well prepared for whatever may come your way. Dont be discouraged, and keep at it. It wont be easy and you will have to sacrifice a lot of your time to making it happen, but trust me, it will be worth it when you're applying with a GPA you can be proud of!

good luck

 

[mike911]

1. I find it difficult to NOT be organized. Just write down whats due and what test is coming up. I usually do my full day, work, go to the gym and hit the library every night from 6-10. Usually that is plenty of time for me to get all my work done and get an A on every test. Just be confident and learn the material.

2. My school offers various programs for pre-med student for volunteer work. I just sign up through them. If not, check out the local hospital.

3. my freshman GPA was a 3.0, sophmore 3.6, junior almost 4.0. I didnt start really caring until i got to 2nd semester sophmore year and decided what i wanted to do. How i did it? i knew if i didn't i would not get into medical school. Use that for some motivation. Confidence is key.

4. Becasue it is something i really wanna do.

5. Yes migh ttake a hell lot of work and you might need to take addition classes after undergrad but work hard and get it done.

 

[Trexate]

1. I studied until I knew the material. This often equated to less time than my peers, who would be upset that I only studied for X hours while they had studied so much longer and received a poor grade. However, there were times when I'd put in considerably more time than they did.

2. I started volunteering before I was interested in medicine for a career. I picked an organization that I already had experience with and they were more than happy to have me on board as a volunteer. From there I asked people I knew would be able to help me. (i.e. PCP, a nurse, etc.)

3. Didn't care about my GPA until sophomore year. I maintained the same GPA throughout college. After you decide what you want to do, maintaining it becomes more stressful.

4. No idea. Lack of motivation hasn't often been an issue. When it is, chances are you're burnt out and you need to relax.

5. Nothing is impossible. It just depends on how much work you're willing to put into achieving your goals.