UF Med students!!!!!

[FutureM.D.]

Hi I'm a psychology/pre-med student at the University of florida. I know there are some UFCOM students here so this is mostly for them. I really want to be a doctor and I really want to get into the UFCOM. I'm only a freshman but I'm trying to plot my course the best I can right now, so I have some questions for you. I know they have a biochemistry requirement so I'm planning on doing that, but what can I do to make myself 'shine'.? Could you give me some examples of what you did that you think made you stand out? I love volunteer work and I heard about an equal access clinic but I don't know too much about it. Could anybody help me? And for you guys that are already in UFCOM, what is it like? Do you have any regrets? If ya'll could answer my questions I would greatly appreciate it.

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[usfgator]

I do not attend UFCOM however I did attend UF for my undergrad. The best thing to strengthen your application is to not take garbage classes to inflate your GPA. When the admissions committee looks at one's GPA, it is very easy to adjust it to its real value in order to truely reflect its worth. Take good, quality classes as your electives. Since you are a freshman, you will not be able to take any real electives until later on. Good electives that I took were Eukaryotic cell science and structure, human sexuality, medical terminology (not a hard class but it is helpful), virology, physiological psyc, soical psyc, and of course do not forget biochem. Next you have to do good in these classes that are the so called hard sciences. This will make you look better than the rest of the applicants. You are on the right track about volunteering. This will only strengthen your application and make you appreciate medicine. The equal access clinic is run through UFCOM and also premed AMSA sends students to help. In my opinion the best undergrad club you can join is Alpha Epsilon Delta (AED). They are a preprofessional honor society that does not accept anyone like AMSA does. There are quality volunteer activities as well as lots of great information you will receive as a member. The office is located on the third floor of the Reitz union. Good luck

 

[Cobragirl]

Those are all good starts but I would also HIGHLY recommend having "interesting" hobbies OUTSIDE of school and medically- related volunteerism. The ADCOM sees hundreds, if not thousands, of applications with AMSA, AED, Golden Key, collegiate sports, fraternities, sororities, "research", etc on them. They know that the "typical" pre-med will be padding the application with all that stuff (I did...and so did almost all my classmates) What gets you INTO medical school (and this goes for everywhere, not just UF) is having all the typical stuff PLUS having something like a job (not necessarily medically related!), a devoted interest (art, music, sports unrelated to school such as rock climbing, skiing, etc and volunteerism that just makes you happy (I volunteered at the Humane Society for years before I even thought about med school). I know it sounds like a lot, but you have 4 years to get all this in, and most of the stuff I'm mentioning is stuff you'd be doing on your own anyway. If you have interests outside of school (and you should!!!!) you need to keep them up and use them to show your "uniqueness" during interviews down the line!

Good Luck!

 

[FutureM.D.]

It was very sweet of the both of you to respond to my question. I really need to know what will make me stand out and this is a really good place to get advice. On the pre-allopathic forum they wanted to play around and wouldn't give me any mature, resonable answers. One person said that if I I contacted him by pm he would tell me what I need to know to get into UFCOM, but i'm not so sure............. Thank you both!

 

[Doctora Foxy]

Originally posted by FutureM.D.
One person said that if I I contacted him by pm he would tell me what I need to know to get into UFCOM, but i'm not so sure............. Thank you both!

That poster was offering you private, specific advice that he didn't feel comfortable posting for the whole world to see, that's all

 

[vfishy101]

Where do you go now for med school? Also, I may sound ambitious but I want to go out of state for med school and try to get into UPenn med, JHU. however, with UF I am afraid I'll get stuck in state because there are few EC opportunities. Shand's is the only hospital around and I'm not confident UF would help me get research, internship, or volunteer opportunities. Below are my questions:
1) As an undergrad, where did you volunteer?
2) how important are ECs for med school, and what did you do to stand out?
3) How is the advising at UF? I feel like you can get lost and not have a good relationship with your advisor because of the large volume of students they deal with.
4) is it competitive enough there? i've heard its very laid back and chill among students
5) for premed students/science majors, on a scale from 1 to 10, how easy is it to get internship opportunities? are they isolated to the UF area or are there some opportunities out of state? and are there opportunities for freshman?
6) what did you study at uf and do you have any tips on surviving on campus, getting into med school, things i should watch out for (good and bad), things you wish you knew as a freshman?
Thank you so much for your help!

 

[Warderino92]

Where do you go now for med school? Also, I may sound ambitious but I want to go out of state for med school and try to get into UPenn med, JHU. however, with UF I am afraid I'll get stuck in state because there are few EC opportunities. Shand's is the only hospital around and I'm not confident UF would help me get research, internship, or volunteer opportunities. Below are my questions:
1) As an undergrad, where did you volunteer?
2) how important are ECs for med school, and what did you do to stand out?
3) How is the advising at UF? I feel like you can get lost and not have a good relationship with your advisor because of the large volume of students they deal with.
4) is it competitive enough there? i've heard its very laid back and chill among students
5) for premed students/science majors, on a scale from 1 to 10, how easy is it to get internship opportunities? are they isolated to the UF area or are there some opportunities out of state? and are there opportunities for freshman?
6) what did you study at uf and do you have any tips on surviving on campus, getting into med school, things i should watch out for (good and bad), things you wish you knew as a freshman?
Thank you so much for your help!

This was posted in 2002 and OP last posted in 2004 so they either did get into med school and stopped posting or didn't get in and left the site. With that being said I went to UF so I can help you a bit. 1) I was in a fraternity at UF called APO that is a service oriented coed fraternity that required you to maintain a certain number of hours every semester to stay active. Great way to find experiences if you join them and are interested in doing service. There are also plenty of other volunteer organizations on campus if you look around for when people table.

ECs are extremely important. Volunteering, shadowing, clinical experiences, some research are all nearly required to get in.
Advising was hit and miss. You can figure it out yourself better from reading sites like SDN.
UF is a very big school with very large class sizes. There will be gunners and there will be laid back people. You will find people to make friends with that have either personality type.
Not sure what you mean by internships. Thats more of a business or engineering thing.
You can study whatever you want as long as you take the pre-reqs. Music majors get into medical school.

I suggest posting in the pre-med forum as this section of SDN is reserved for topics of those currently in medical school. Many people will be able to offer you further advice there. Good luck.

 

[vfishy101]

This was posted in 2002 and OP last posted in 2004 so they either did get into med school and stopped posting or didn't get in and left the site. With that being said I went to UF so I can help you a bit. 1) I was in a fraternity at UF called APO that is a service oriented coed fraternity that required you to maintain a certain number of hours every semester to stay active. Great way to find experiences if you join them and are interested in doing service. There are also plenty of other volunteer organizations on campus if you look around for when people table.

ECs are extremely important. Volunteering, shadowing, clinical experiences, some research are all nearly required to get in.
Advising was hit and miss. You can figure it out yourself better from reading sites like SDN.
UF is a very big school with very large class sizes. There will be gunners and there will be laid back people. You will find people to make friends with that have either personality type.
Not sure what you mean by internships. Thats more of a business or engineering thing.
You can study whatever you want as long as you take the pre-reqs. Music majors get into medical school.

I suggest posting in the pre-med forum as this section of SDN is reserved for topics of those currently in medical school. Many people will be able to offer you further advice there. Good luck.

Thank you!