Starting UNDERGRAD soon

[flyingillini]

HEY EVERYONE, I'm starting my first year at the UofI Urbana this in about 4 weeks. Do you pre-meds have any useful advise to give this freshman? I'm a bit nervous with all the pressure of getting A's in the first year courses. And also of course I'll be away from home. Is there any suggestions or study tips you could give? I'm all ears! Thanks.

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[Trek]

Yeah...have fun and study hard. --Trek

 

[pbehzad]

like trek said have fun and study. get involved early with ecs. i dont know your schedule, but its good to double up sciences freshman year especially chem and bio. so you can take orgo soph, and physics junior. but you may have ap credit or whatever. most of all go watch the illini play football this fall and watch them get the big 10 championship in bball. enjoy your year.

 

[exigente chica]

Have fun, get involved and study! don't get to caught up in school, do other things too, but keep the grades up at the same time.

Good luck

 

[Bikini Princess]

Stay away from frat parties
especially on nights before exams.

 

[Mr. H]

have fun, study, and stay away from this website for a year!

 

[Smoke This]

Originally posted by flyingillini
HEY EVERYONE, I'm starting my first year at the UofI Urbana this in about 4 weeks. Do you pre-meds have any useful advise to give this freshman?

You're going to UIUC? Nice.

I have some advice: if you have Todd Trautman for any speech communication classes, pay attention. He's a stud.

 

[kidsmd]

Do the things that YOU like and don't get too caught up in what medical schools WANT... of course, I'm not saying to not get the clinical or research experience that you need, but it's important that you do things that you enjoy. Every one takes a their own path to medical school, and there's nothing that says that you can't take a bit of a twist or turn here and there....

 

[Adcadet]

Hmm.... a few things.
1. Volunteer/ECs:
If I were you, I'd look very hard for two good quality ECs (one medical, one non-medical) to participate in for the next 3+ years. And make sure you really like both of them 'cause you'll want to spend a lot of time in each for the next 3+ years. Med schools seem to appreciate a few good experiences much more than a multitude of insignificant experiences. I also think it may be wise to have one medical for some exposure to medicine (duh) and one non-medical just to keep you a bit more rounded and to be able to say that you've had some non-medical experience and you prefer medicine over XYZ.

2. MCAT:
learn your science material well. It might also be a good idea to review an MCAT study book at the end of each class just to make sure your class covered what you need to know. For example, embryology seemed to be on the MCAT yet I never had that in my cell bio or physiology class so I had to study that on my own. In contrast, my immunology class was waaaaay more in-dept that I needed for the MCAT. Knowing what you need to know for the MCAT might be nice as your studying for your classes....if nothing else it'll motivate you to study hard.

3. Grades
get good grades. I can't stress this enough. Make sure you take classes with the "good" profs, schedule yourself wisely, and keep in mind the fact that you'll need letters of recommendation. So when you have that great anthropology (or whatever) prof sophomore year, make sure to mention your medical interests and keep in touch so getting a good LOR from him/her will be easy.

4. Research
do research if you want to. I went to a small undergrad intitution near a large public university where I did most of my research - this made it a bit more difficult for my advisor to write a LOR for me since she had never really supervised me in the lab. So I would suggest doing research with your advisor or at least in your dept. at your college if you can. Research doesn't seem to be critical to the admissions game, but it can help.

5. Have a life
Perhaps this is the most important point of all...