INTRO: Currently studying chemistry at a top 50 (or 60? i'm not sure) university. State school, but its the best public school in the tristate area and i'm here for $2.5k/semester with housing. With all the credits I pulled in from high school I am a full four semesters ahead, and after next semester I will have 90 credits. After this semester I will have finished inorgo 1, orgo 1, 2, and lab, and I will be continuing with p-chem next semester. Also, I pulled a 4.0 last semester and there is a 90% likelihood that will be happening again this semester. However, there is an issue with my grades which I will get into later.
Here's the choice I have to make right now: do I change to a double major in chemistry and micro-cell biology, or stick with just chemistry? The reason why I wanted to do a double major is because the genetics course here is incredibly difficult to get into if you are not a bio/related major, and after I take all the pre-med related courses in MCB i will literally only have to take 2 more courses and perhaps a lab to have a full major under my belt. I mainly just want to know how much a double major would help or even hurt me.
Next,
I am currently employed for pay through the university's work-study program in the head of our chem department's lab. I'm fairly active (at least I feel fairly active) and get to do some actual research (running reactions, designing my own experiments, assisting with my grad student's paid work), which from what I've read on these forums isn't always the case. The biggest problem is that the professor I work under is big on catalysis and other inorganic stuff, and the graduate student I work under is also heavily inorganic and does a lot of environmental work. I've already brought this up with the professor, and he says he could possibly get me working with some inorganic prosthetics/artificial body parts, so I could definitely make it worth my while as a pre-med. This ties into my last question: just how much will undergraduate research help me? Should I forego my second major so that I can devote as much time as possible to working in the labs? I've read that a lot of pre-meds do a lot of shadowing of doctors and clinicals; is this something that I should devote attention to, or would publications make me a stronger candidate?
Next,
Do med schools look unfavorably on people who pull in a massive number of credits to undergrad? I am essentially supplementing every single one of the big pre-req areas. Took multi, taking diff e in the summer, retaking phys so that it includes calc, etc but I need English. Also, and this is where I get into the problem with my grades, I pulled in a lot of what my university calls "early college experience" credits. It amounted to 16 credits which averaged out to a 3.0, pulling my previous 4.0 down to 3.5. Do I need to worry about this and should I try my very best to get it stricken from my record (if at all possible)? The classes I pulled in were physics ab and bc (b and C+...yeah my HS teacher was kind of a dick with grades), english (b) and stat (A-).
Most important question:
Coming from a state school, even if it is top 50, is probably not an ideal set up. If I am able to pull all fours for the next 3 years including the 3.0 i pulled in from HS, will I still be in good shape?
Here's the choice I have to make right now: do I change to a double major in chemistry and micro-cell biology, or stick with just chemistry? The reason why I wanted to do a double major is because the genetics course here is incredibly difficult to get into if you are not a bio/related major, and after I take all the pre-med related courses in MCB i will literally only have to take 2 more courses and perhaps a lab to have a full major under my belt. I mainly just want to know how much a double major would help or even hurt me.
Next,
I am currently employed for pay through the university's work-study program in the head of our chem department's lab. I'm fairly active (at least I feel fairly active) and get to do some actual research (running reactions, designing my own experiments, assisting with my grad student's paid work), which from what I've read on these forums isn't always the case. The biggest problem is that the professor I work under is big on catalysis and other inorganic stuff, and the graduate student I work under is also heavily inorganic and does a lot of environmental work. I've already brought this up with the professor, and he says he could possibly get me working with some inorganic prosthetics/artificial body parts, so I could definitely make it worth my while as a pre-med. This ties into my last question: just how much will undergraduate research help me? Should I forego my second major so that I can devote as much time as possible to working in the labs? I've read that a lot of pre-meds do a lot of shadowing of doctors and clinicals; is this something that I should devote attention to, or would publications make me a stronger candidate?
Next,
Do med schools look unfavorably on people who pull in a massive number of credits to undergrad? I am essentially supplementing every single one of the big pre-req areas. Took multi, taking diff e in the summer, retaking phys so that it includes calc, etc but I need English. Also, and this is where I get into the problem with my grades, I pulled in a lot of what my university calls "early college experience" credits. It amounted to 16 credits which averaged out to a 3.0, pulling my previous 4.0 down to 3.5. Do I need to worry about this and should I try my very best to get it stricken from my record (if at all possible)? The classes I pulled in were physics ab and bc (b and C+...yeah my HS teacher was kind of a dick with grades), english (b) and stat (A-).
Most important question:
Coming from a state school, even if it is top 50, is probably not an ideal set up. If I am able to pull all fours for the next 3 years including the 3.0 i pulled in from HS, will I still be in good shape?
