Just coming back in to make some comments before the end of the day. Well, that and I also received an interesting piece of mail today. It seems that I have been summoned for jury duty despite the fact that I will have summer school classes on that day (July 24) 😱 😡
Does anybody have any tactics for dodging jury duty? I'd like to, because this notice has just come in on a really inconvienient time.
Speaking of which, the jury duty summons has reminded me that my birthday is coming up (it's in July). If anybody wants to know, I'll give a hint: my birthday is on the same day as Tom Cruise's birthday 😎
Mr. Premed - Hi again, dude! So you decided on medicine? Anyhow, my comments on what your plans are:
I don't think that volunteering in both the hospital and at a hospice is too much provided that you can handle it. Looking at your schedule, I wonder if you can handle all the plans you've made. Well, if you can, great, and if you can't, then you're going to have to drop something to make ends meet. I don't think volunteering in the hospital and hospice is redundant either, because you sort of get to see patient care from two perspectives: the hospital, which is mainly there to help sick people get healthy, and the hospice, which is there to provide palliative (comfort) care to the terminally ill (i.e. there's no cure for their diseases). These are two very different perspectives on patient care, and I think that the hospice is a good place to develop your humanistic skills in caring for the sick and aged.
The hospital volunteering is nice for clinical experience. I haven't volunteered at a hospital yet, but one piece of advice I can give you is, get to know the nurses and doctors you're working with. See what their work hours are like, see what they do, see how they communicate with their patients, ask for their feelings on doing their work, etc. Get to know exactly what it is like to be a doctor...your romanticized view may or may not match reality. This is what medical schools are looking for, according to my primary care physician. He said that basically, prospective medical students should know just what we are getting ourselves into.
As for your classes...I've taken English 101 and Intro to Psych at the same time. That English schedule sounds about right...it's all about the essay writing anyhow. Although that totally sucks how subjective the grading is...find out what your professor looks for. I mean, truly analyze the comments the professor makes when you get your essays back...after all, what one prof thinks is brilliant, another thinks is trash...you'll just have to get to know your professor, dude. That's the advice I can give for English. As for Intro to Psych, don't expect it to be too exciting. It'll cover some interesting things about Psych and some boring things about Psych, since it is an Intro class. Hopefully the later classes will be more interesting. For Intro to Bio...well, I've never actually taken an intro to bio class, you'll need to ask someone else about this...
BallerinaTina16 - Hmm...interesting about Physics. I think that my professor from my first bio class did the same thing. Sure screwed a lot of people 🙁 As for English, I'd agree...I've never found English to be difficult (except for the subjective grading, that is). Is your English final going to be an essay of some kind, or what? Well, regardless, go and kick some butt on your last two finals! Once this week is over, you can go and relax some.
An internship at the UCD medical center sounds interesting, and your sister sounds cooler than you've made her out to be before (in our IM's 😉 😀 )
Good luck! (I know it's redundant, but what the heck, why not).
washkeep - funny that you should ask about Oregan. I don't know much about it, even though I'm a CA resident and I've visited Seattle, Washington (most of my relatives on my mom's side live there). As for attempting to calculate a formula on your chances of being accepted, I do have one piece of advice...DON'T. I know that it probably sounds harsh, but people who do that usually end up stressing too much, and I don't want you to do that, dude, when you're already studying for the MCAT. There is no set formula that could determine acceptance or rejection to medical school. I'd say, just do the best you can and don't listen to the people who babble about the fact that you need at least X amount of research experience, or Y amount of clinical experience, or...well you get the idea. It's really quality, not quantity, that matters. Oh wow, look at me, I volunteered 50 hours at hospice, and what do I got to show for it? Well, so far, I'm still working in the clerical part...but at least I can see all the BS and paperwork health professionals have to go through.
Oh yeah, I found out from a current medical student that there are lots of people with good numbers who do not get accepted to medical school because, well...they totally lack in other areas. Extra-cirricular activities, interviews didn't go so well, personal statements just weren't interesting, letters of rec stunk, etc. Or they could have had the wrong personality for medicine. Or, get this...they could have been lying about their stats. I mean, most pre-meds are somewhat arrogant or they don't like to say that they had bad numbers. Get my point? Don't assume that they did everything perfect. And GPA/MCAT scores are the primary screener, but they aren't necessarily the most important. Medical schools will take someone with a 3.5 GPA/32 MCAT with tons of EC's/clinical/etc. over someone with a 4.0 GPA/45 MCAT with little to none...
Then there's the interview stage, where medical schools get to see what a prospective student's personality is like. Wrong personality, forget about applying again, 'cuz you won't get in. Unless you're willing/able to change it. Well, in any case, you seem like the right applicant for medical school, if what you've been saying all the time you've been here is true. Besides, it's not the end of the world if you don't get in on the first try, right?
Oh yeah, I forgot to respond to manna...my ROP course starts on June 23rd, assuming that all goes well, and my jury duty doesn't cut into it 😡
Why do full-time college students have to serve on a jury too? 🙁
And the "walls" that you keep running into...I think that all pre-meds run into walls at some point...difficulty in finding volunteering, or research, or difficulty in getting out of the 2 point hole GPA 
