What should I do? I think I have a decent plan!

[deleted830324]

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I graduated from high school in May of 2017. I haven't even started college yet and will be attending a community college. I really want to go to medical school and become a Neurosurgeon! I have to take some remedial courses in math before I can take Calculus 1 and statistics which are required for the biomedical sciences concentration at my intended transfer institution (four year university). I am earning an associates of science and will have to take at the community college orgo Chem, gen Chem, calc, stats, gen Bio, college phys, and intro to psych and soc. When I transfer to my four year institution I will take anatomy and physiology as well as evolution and genetics along with all the other upper level science courses bio majors have! I just hope taking most of my pre reqs at a community college won't hurt me along with spending 3 years at a community college just to transfer to a four year university. While attending the community college I am volunteering and job shadowing at my local hospital. I also work at a fast food restaurant and will be promoted soon to a shift supervisor, i've thought about staying here all through undergrad because the hours are so flexible and I'll get a raise to $10.00 an hour and hold a leadership position, I was thinking maybe holding some sort of a management position would help me on my app? When I transfer to the four year university which is in the same city I plan on still volunteering and shadowing as well as doing research with a professor at the four year university. I've talked to the bio chair at the four year university i will attend and she told me that they have many research opportunities! By the time I graduate in 2023 with my B.S. in Biology I hope to have the following! I'm willing to sacrifice my social life and work incredibly hard to do this, I don't see myself doing anything else but practicing medicine! As far as I am concerned with matching into Neurosurgery, I know that it is a very difficult residency to get into! For now I just want to focus on getting into medical school. What else should I do? I hope to have the following by the time I graduate!

• 3.8+ GPA
• Volunteering experience at local hospital for 5 years
• Job shadowing done at the same hospital for 5 years
• Extensive research done with professor at four year institution
• Shift Supervisor at a restaurant and even possibly a full manager in the future for 5 years
• Good MCAT score
• Member of a club at the four year university

My community college doesn't offer much for extracurricular activitity.

 

[Boogy'sChick15]

You are stressing way too much for not even having started undergrad yet. My advise, first off, is to relax. There is no need to sacrifice your social life in order to do well, med schools are not looking for academic robots. Find hobbies or activities that you enjoy that will keep you from burning out.

Just work hard to get a good GPA, and when the time comes give yourself enough time to prepare for the MCAT.
It is recommended to not take pre-reqs at a community college, however I am not sure where that stands for those who went to a CC first and then to a 4 year, so I will let someone else answer that.
Its good to get started on clinical volunteering and shadowing early, however 5 years of shadowing is extremely excessive.
Research is a plus to your resume, but not necessarily valued with high importance unless you plan on applying to research heavy schools. If you have time in your schedule though, then by all means go for it.
What I would highly recommend is to look for non clinical volunteer opportunities, preferably ones that serve the under-served. Show your altruistic side.

Finally, don't be a box checker. Find activities you're passionate about. You will enjoy your time much more, and you will have more to talk about when interviews come around.

 

[JMilo]

I graduated from high school in May of 2017. I haven't even started college yet and will be attending a community college. I really want to go to medical school and become a Neurosurgeon! I have to take some remedial courses in math before I can take Calculus 1 and statistics which are required for the biomedical sciences concentration at my intended transfer institution (four year university). I am earning an associates of science and will have to take at the community college orgo Chem, gen Chem, calc, stats, gen Bio, college phys, and intro to psych and soc. When I transfer to my four year institution I will take anatomy and physiology as well as evolution and genetics along with all the other upper level science courses bio majors have! I just hope taking most of my pre reqs at a community college won't hurt me along with spending 3 years at a community college just to transfer to a four year university. While attending the community college I am volunteering and job shadowing at my local hospital. I also work at a fast food restaurant and will be promoted soon to a shift supervisor, i've thought about staying here all through undergrad because the hours are so flexible and I'll get a raise to $10.00 an hour and hold a leadership position, I was thinking maybe holding some sort of a management position would help me on my app? When I transfer to the four year university which is in the same city I plan on still volunteering and shadowing as well as doing research with a professor at the four year university. I've talked to the bio chair at the four year university i will attend and she told me that they have many research opportunities! By the time I graduate in 2023 with my B.S. in Biology I hope to have the following! I'm willing to sacrifice my social life and work incredibly hard to do this, I don't see myself doing anything else but practicing medicine! As far as I am concerned with matching into Neurosurgery, I know that it is a very difficult residency to get into! For now I just want to focus on getting into medical school. What else should I do? I hope to have the following by the time I graduate!

• 3.8+ GPA
• Volunteering experience at local hospital for 5 years
• Job shadowing done at the same hospital for 5 years
• Extensive research done with professor at four year institution
• Shift Supervisor at a restaurant and even possibly a full manager in the future for 5 years
• Good MCAT score
• Member of a club at the four year university

My community college doesn't offer much for extracurricular activitity.

For the sake of everyone at your ug, please change from your gunner ways. It seems like you understand the system, but holy cow...you cannot just plan your whole college experience.

 

[Jasmine2022]

I graduated from high school in May of 2017. I haven't even started college yet and will be attending a community college. I really want to go to medical school and become a Neurosurgeon! I have to take some remedial courses in math before I can take Calculus 1 and statistics which are required for the biomedical sciences concentration at my intended transfer institution (four year university). I am earning an associates of science and will have to take at the community college orgo Chem, gen Chem, calc, stats, gen Bio, college phys, and intro to psych and soc. When I transfer to my four year institution I will take anatomy and physiology as well as evolution and genetics along with all the other upper level science courses bio majors have! I just hope taking most of my pre reqs at a community college won't hurt me along with spending 3 years at a community college just to transfer to a four year university. While attending the community college I am volunteering and job shadowing at my local hospital. I also work at a fast food restaurant and will be promoted soon to a shift supervisor, i've thought about staying here all through undergrad because the hours are so flexible and I'll get a raise to $10.00 an hour and hold a leadership position, I was thinking maybe holding some sort of a management position would help me on my app? When I transfer to the four year university which is in the same city I plan on still volunteering and shadowing as well as doing research with a professor at the four year university. I've talked to the bio chair at the four year university i will attend and she told me that they have many research opportunities! By the time I graduate in 2023 with my B.S. in Biology I hope to have the following! I'm willing to sacrifice my social life and work incredibly hard to do this, I don't see myself doing anything else but practicing medicine! As far as I am concerned with matching into Neurosurgery, I know that it is a very difficult residency to get into! For now I just want to focus on getting into medical school. What else should I do? I hope to have the following by the time I graduate!

• 3.8+ GPA
• Volunteering experience at local hospital for 5 years
• Job shadowing done at the same hospital for 5 years
• Extensive research done with professor at four year institution
• Shift Supervisor at a restaurant and even possibly a full manager in the future for 5 years
• Good MCAT score
• Member of a club at the four year university

My community college doesn't offer much for extracurricular activitity.

IMO, the sooner you can get to university, the better. Having completed most of my pre-requisite coursework at a CC was a major discussion point during an interview at my state MD school, as there is stigma that it isn't as rigorous as university science coursework. Upon transfer, I only took science coursework full-time, and despite maintaining a competitive GPA in upper level sciences, I had to provide evidence of why I wasn't lacking and defend my CC education.

There are also many medical schools which say they accept CC credits, but have limitations. Texas A&M does not accept organic and calculus completed at a CC, Lewis Katz will only accept two pre-requisite sciences completed at a CC, and these are just two examples I can think of at the moment. I'm sure there are others.

And if your CC is truly lacking in extracurricular activities, that's another great reason to transfer to university sooner. In most cases, there will be a MULTITUDE of options for just about any extracurricular activity you can think of.

As someone who had to re-apply (and likely for more reasons than just my CC pre-requisites) I really wish I would have transferred much sooner. I don't feel like my A.S. in Chemistry is at all impressive to AdComs, and even my previous management career seemed to take a back-burner to my academics and more recent volunteering/shadowing/research/leadership experiences during interviews. That being said, I know plenty of people who crushed the MCAT (515+) coming out of CCs and got accepted to excellent schools (again, for more reasons than just their excellent MCAT). Just some food for thought as you move forward in this endeavor.

 

[Blanky]

I like the motivation but for your own happiness please take a chill pill.
1. Always be improving time management skills this will have a huge impact on your GPA.
2. Do well in the classes you take. DO NOT overload your schedule trying to finish anything quickly. (take more classes as you feel like you can handle more)
3. After 1-2 years reassess and consider what major you ENJOY MOST. Do not get a BS in biology because you think it is going to impress anyone. It will not.
4. Also be open to all aspects of medicine as Neuro is not just competitive you may grow and find a passion for something else that you enjoy more than you think.
5. Be resilient... sometimes life is going to get hectic, this road is long but you can make it.

 

[markelle]

I like this plan! But, like the others above me have said, do not stress out!! I had these same ideas right when I graduated high school. Its good to have a working plan memorized, but know that life happens and things may be delayed or deferred.

1.Having an extra year in CC is good if that's what you need, and that in itself, allows you more time to space out your schedule. Personally I started out at CC and my pre-med advisor, and those on SDN, have not mentioned any down falls to attending CC. I'd recommend taking the pre-req's at CC, bc if you did NOT, you would have wasted THREE years taking other classes and not working towards completing them, which is obviously inevitable!

2.Biology 101 is Biology 101, of course not all med school admissions com. see it this way. However, it would be a red flag if, when you transfer, you declined in your academic performance your last two years @ that 4 inst. So if you did great at CC, then they expect that you do great at the university! which is why it is REALLY important, REALLY important, your CC and university have some type of transfer plan, so you know what the course objectives are incase there are any gaps in course objectives. Usually this doesn't happen within a state where the CC and uni are in close coordination.

3. Dont sacrifice your social life for school. If there is ever a time to do that, it should only be during finals lol. with completing a BS in 5 years you have so much time to et everything done. I personally condense my schedule in CC to graduate a year earlier, only to change my mind at my university and get a minor making it a 4 year degree not 3. Now my plans for MCAT studying are delayed. The point of that was, life happens! You have an outlined structure in your head, which is great for a high school graduate!! you know all that you need to do, and you can start getting involved in those activities at your leisure. But ENJOY college, you paying a **** ton to be there lol, or at least FAFSA or your parents are. Also 5 years for every activity on that list, is over-kill, really. you may find that you wont be interested in research, or dont like doing activity "X" very much. Don't stick with something you hate just bc its required. but if the time permits, and you do enjoy those activities, then you would have attained enough experiences for a very competitive application!

 

[Themyscira]

IMO, the sooner you can get to university, the better. Having completed most of my pre-requisite coursework at a CC was a major discussion point during an interview at my state MD school, as there is stigma that it isn't as rigorous as university science coursework. Upon transfer, I only took science coursework full-time, and despite maintaining a competitive GPA in upper level sciences, I had to provide evidence of why I wasn't lacking and defend my CC education.

Really? I mean I know they seem to have a preference for 4 years universities but I would think you could two years at CC, transfer to university and if maintain good grades and all, then you could just tell them you went to cc first for financial reasons. They don't think financial reasons is good enough? Even when you do well at the university classes, do ECs, shadowing, etc?

 

[candbgirl]

Of course financial reasons are understood. But you know you are transferring, you know med schools prefer prereqs be taken at 4 year universities so just do it. Takegen ed courses etc and do the sciences at the 4 year school. What’s the difference ?

 

[Jasmine2022]

Really? I mean I know they seem to have a preference for 4 years universities but I would think you could two years at CC, transfer to university and if maintain good grades and all, then you could just tell them you went to cc first for financial reasons. They don't think financial reasons is good enough? Even when you do well at the university classes, do ECs, shadowing, etc?

The questions I was asked during my interviews were not about the finances or why I chose community college, they were geared more toward whether or not I could perform at the same academic level as other students who had completed all coursework at university. I have a solid and consistent GPA from both CC and University, although my MCAT was rather low, and good ECs. There are reasons why it might come up, and I'm sure they vary from school to school and interviewer to interviewer. There's no doubt that you can be successful and get an acceptance after starting at a CC (I am matriculating this year), but I wanted to share that it's not so easy to explain away the decision based on financial reasons, especially if you come across an interviewer or admission committee who has negative opinions regarding CC coursework. In a hypothetical decision between accepting an applicant who started at community college versus one who completed all of undergrad at a university who were otherwise identical in metrics, ECs, interview, LORs, etc, I'd bet they'd choose the student who did all four years at university.

As stated in my previous post, there are some schools that have strict limitations on the amount of CC coursework they will accept or which classes they will accept being completed at a two-year college. Organic chemistry appears to be a class medical schools really like to see taken at university (according to my observations). Check the detailed requirements for the schools you think you'd like to apply to ASAP so you can make adjustments to your academic plan if restrictions apply.

You may not come across ANY of this, especially if you maintain an above average GPA, have a great MCAT score, and all the things that make for a great medical school application. But I did, and knowing what I know now, I would have either transferred sooner or done all of my pre-requisite courses at university.