What is the single best piece of advice you can give to a freshman pre med?

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passionformed

passionformed

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Let's say you could give only one piece of advice to freshman, just one. What would it be?
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Take your grades serious from the start, so that you don't find yourself under the pressure of having to fight to dig yourself out of a hole.
 
Pick an easy major and focus on getting good grades
 
+1 on taking school serious from the start. However, try to have some fun in college too. Don't want to look back once you're a doctor and think that all you did was work.
 
Figure out what the extracurricular 'checkboxes' are (research, volunteer, etc) and cover all of them - even in you genuinely dislike them.

Also, get the best grades humanly possible and get a 35+ MCAT.

Boom. Harvard.
 
passionformed said:
Let's say you could give only one piece of advice to freshman, just one. What would it be?
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Avoid institutional action. Don't get caught drinking if you're not allowed to, don't get caught with weed, don't get arrested for aggravated stalking.
 
Put time and effort into areas that deserve it (GPA, MCAT, research) and practice your bs skills for everything else (personal statement, interviews, club leadership, volunteering.)
 
Have fun.

This may sound irresponsible, but it's not. Think about it:

If you pick a major and classes that you enjoy, you will tend to have higher grades, and get to know the people in your academic niche. If you do extracurricular activities that you enjoy, you should have no problem fitting them into your schedule. If you find a job that you enjoy (and is also medicine related) you will perform better, and develop stronger professional connections. If you view the MCAT as a challenge and a door opener, rather than a grueling, time-consuming monstrosity, you will probably study more often and more effectively.

Make no mistake: being pre-med should be a good time, and not just a good time relative to someone who has no life outside of the library. I mean a good time relative even to the idiots who majored in beta delta phi and Keystone Light. I had more fun than they did, because being fit and healthy, staying out late on the weekends, going on vacations, camping with friends, all while working toward a tangible goal is more fun than binge drinking and making an endless number of dorm room party acquaintances who don't care about you. Again, make no mistake: as a pre-med student, there is potential for you to get more out of your college years than anyone else, both in terms of fun and fulfillment.
 
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You'll always be able to find a way to medical school if you really want it (i.e. getting even more than a couple Cs is not the end of the world -- though the road will be tough at that point).
 
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Quoting 3 Idiots
 
Grades always, always before social life.

Don't take on more extracurriculars than you can handle. Quality over quantity, i.e. better to stay involved and obtain strong leadership in 2-3 meaningful activities than spend too much time doing non-meaningful things for 4-5.
 
Get good grades and be involved at the same time. You need to find a way to balance it all.
 
Josh7 said:
Watch out for the school bullies
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LOL if that was a refrence to that Organic II Thread :thumbup::thumbup:


Advice

Don't Procrastinate. It's easy to fall behind and be devoured by the workload while managing Extracurriculars. Stay strong, set goals for yourself. Choose a school you'd like to matriculate into and look back at it when you feel unmotivated. Strong EC's and Research Opportunities are your very much needed sidekicks to a great GPA & MCAT. Goodluck Bud:thumbup:
 
Take your GPA seriously from day 1. Trust me, it is very hard to bring it back up after you let it slip a little. Take some easy classes and some you will truly enjoy, but maintain a decent GPA.

My second piece of advice would be: RELAX. One bad grade or experience is not going to ruin your chance at getting into school. You can always take a fifth year if you need during undergrad. Don't panic about Ochem, Biochem, or Physiology. You'll get through.
 
Hm one piece of advice to freshman? It would be to use the search feature, since this question is brought up multiple times every few months.
 
Get a second opinion after you talk to your premed advisor. Lets just say they are confused.
 
EarthtoneJon said:
Have fun.

This may sound irresponsible, but it's not. Think about it:

If you pick a major and classes that you enjoy, you will tend to have higher grades, and get to know the people in your academic niche. If you do extracurricular activities that you enjoy, you should have no problem fitting them into your schedule. If you find a job that you enjoy (and is also medicine related) you will perform better, and develop stronger professional connections. If you view the MCAT as a challenge and a door opener, rather than a grueling, time-consuming monstrosity, you will probably study more often and more effectively.

Make no mistake: being pre-med should be a good time, and not just a good time relative to someone who has no life outside of the library. I mean a good time relative even to the idiots who majored in beta delta phi and Keystone Light. I had more fun than they did, because being fit and healthy, staying out late on the weekends, going on vacations, camping with friends, all while working toward a tangible goal is more fun than binge drinking and making an endless number of dorm room party acquaintances who don't care about you. Again, make no mistake: as a pre-med student, there is potential for you to get more out of your college years than anyone else, both in terms of fun and fulfillment.
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Couldn't have said it better. :thumbup:
 
ElCapone said:
Also, make sure that you don't get D-carded
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Literally laughed out loud.

To OP: identify an area of passion and pursue it. The sooner you get involved, the sooner you can get leadership opps. And learn how to study as soon as possible, even in easy classes. It will help you develop an invaluable work ethic.
 
ElCapone said:
Avoid institutional action. Don't get caught drinking if you're not allowed to, don't get caught with weed, don't get arrested for aggravated stalking.
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this. avoid an IA at all costs. you dont want to know the pain one has to go through on a daily basis with this on the record.
 
circulus vitios said:
Put time and effort into areas that deserve it (GPA, MCAT, research) and practice your bs skills for everything else (personal statement, interviews, club leadership, volunteering.)
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This. x 100000000
 
Bangersandmash said:
Choose a different career
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Spoken like a true gunner. :D

Also for OP, when you get that feeling in your gut telling you that you should be studying instead of doing whatever it is you are doing, listen damn it.
 
+10000 for getting good grades from the start. take class seriously as it is a huge pain trying to raise a GPA after flubbing it all up.
 
If you're gonna gun then be subtle about it. Don't be that gunner that everyone hates, be the one who pretends to be nice and helpful but secretly has a malicious agenda.
 
I think the best advice was given to me during my Surgery clerkship about choosing a specialty and I think it applies to pre-med as well.

When you wake up in the morning, can you see yourself doing anything else? If the answer to that question is, yes, then I would do that other thing. Medical school isn't the most fun in the world - there will be times where you are working from 4am-8pm 6 days a week and then have to come home and study. Not the ideal situation for someone in their early 20s; and I can promise it doesn't get much better than that after you are done with school.

The field of medicine is amazing and would probably choose to do it again. However, there are people in my class who are miserable because they were not honest with themselves in the beginning,

I wish someone would have asked me that question 5 years ago.
 
Learn the information from your basic science classes the first time around. It is much easier to review for the MCAT rather than re-learn all of that information before the test.
 
passionformed said:
Let's say you could give only one piece of advice to freshman, just one. What would it be?
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Sorry to necropost, but just realized this: Try to get into the honors program at your school just for the sake of priority registration at the very least. You'll thank me for this one later.
 
ElCapone said:
Sorry to necropost, but just realized this: Try to get into the honors program at your school just for the sake of priority registration at the very least. You'll thank me for this one later.
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Already done ;)
 
Nesir said:
I think the best advice was given to me during my Surgery clerkship about choosing a specialty and I think it applies to pre-med as well.

When you wake up in the morning, can you see yourself doing anything else? If the answer to that question is, yes, then I would do that other thing. Medical school isn't the most fun in the world - there will be times where you are working from 4am-8pm 6 days a week and then have to come home and study. Not the ideal situation for someone in their early 20s; and I can promise it doesn't get much better than that after you are done with school.

The field of medicine is amazing and would probably choose to do it again. However, there are people in my class who are miserable because they were not honest with themselves in the beginning,

I wish someone would have asked me that question 5 years ago.
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That's why I'm not going to pick a surgical specialty.:)
 
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