What timeline am I looking at?

[OneCutAtATime]

Hi, I am an incoming freshman majoring in Biology with a minor in Spanish. I took quite a few of my prereqs including all of the Maths I will need, both intro levels of English, psych, and other classes while in high school. I also am highly aware that adcoms are indifferent about minors, but I chose to minor in a foreign language out of personal reasons and I also find an interest in actually learning the language. I'm trying to narrow down a timeline of things I need to be doing in these coming years along with about how many hours I should aim for. At the moment, I have an option of volunteering at either with a hospice service or at hospital in various departments. I would like to do both but I don't want to have to quit one when school comes around because it would too much to handle with volunteering at one, studying, and having a job. So firstly would the best choice be the Hospice service or Hospital volunteering?

Next, in this upcoming school year, what should I be doing? Should I focus on looking for interesting clubs to join or increase the number of volunteer hours/shadowing? Also, how many should I aim for in a year?

Lastly, I want to try to matriculate into Med school as early as possible, but also to the best of my ability. As in, I want to be a strong applicant as early on as possible. Would I take MCAT the summer after Junior year and apply during Senior year?

I also will have all of my prereqs needed for the MCAT completed by the end of Junior year. Should I study the summer before Senior year using the Spinach method or whatever works for me at the time and take the MCAT that fall before classes then apply in the spring?

Also, how do adcoms view tutoring? As in elementary students per say, or should I try to get a gig as a teaching assistant? Would working in the housing department on campus be considered anything on the application?

Thanks for any help that anyone can provide. I honestly appreciate any of it!

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[Lucca]

1. The best choice would be hospice service AND hospital volunteering. They are valuable experiences for different reasons. You have 3-4 years to get this sorted, you WILL be able to fit both in, just not necessarily at the same time.

2. The Single Most Important Thing (TM) you can do your freshman year is to get as high a GPA as possible. Seriously. Don't overload on classes, take a reasonable amount (13-15 hrs) as you get acclimated to the university environment. Start figuring out how to best balance your time. Time management will be a problem for you, it's nothing like high school, so work on figuring out a system to keep everything organized.

If there is an organization that strikes your fancy, feel free to check it out and, if you like it, join. 95% of college orgs are primarily social or honestly pointless in my opinion and 5% are actually meaningful in terms of what they do and the quality of the leadership/organization. Try to join people who actually care and do what they set out to do and don't just masturbate on social media. If the social chair is the most important position in an organization, then you might want to keep looking. If you want to join a social org, feel free to do so, not everything you do has to be super meaningful, you are free to have fun, just don't let it overtake priority number one: being a good student.

You should aim for 50-100 hours of shadowing. Volunteering, especially clinical volunteering, should be at that level and preferably higher. 200-500 hours sounds like a lot but it's really not that much at all if you do something over the course of 4 years.

3. The application cycle starts June of every year and stretches until the summer of the next year. In other words, if you submit your application June 1st 2016 you could potentially be waiting to hear back from schools until May or June of 2017. Ideally, you want to have the MCAT in your pocket before the application opens. Sometimes, for a variety of reasons this is not possible. Don't worry about the MCAT for now. Worry about figuring out whether or not you should go to medical school and doing well in school. The best prep for the MCAT is really learning the material in the pre-req courses.

The "traditional" route is to take the MCAT and receive your score some time before the summer immediately following your Junior year. Apply precisely that summer, interview and wait throughout senior year, and then matriculate the fall/summer immediately following your graduation senior year. There is no reason that you have to follow this path, and until you get into college and get the basics down/ obtain some clinical experience mapping out your path is a pointless exercise because things *will change*. I wanted to get in and get out as fast possible too. I thought about graduating in 3 because I had the credits and then going straight into medical school. Some of my friends actually managed to do this and are matriculating in August. But I'm taking a year off and am planning to apply to MD/PhD programs which tacks on another 4+ years to my education. You change in college, let it happen, and once you have your priorities clearly set start formulating a battle plan.

Try to enjoy college. It's a lot of fun, and I'm not just talking about the parties. Learning is lots of fun. Challenge yourself. Try not to drink the pre-Med kool-aid; premeds as a rule are awful students (and even people) no matter how high their GpAs are or how much they have volunteered.

 

[LizzyM]

Excellent advice from Lucca.

Working as an Resident Assistant in your campus housing is considered a good experience in dealing with difficult situations with human beings and working collaboratively on a team. Teaching an tutoring at any level is a good experience too, if you like that sort of thing, given that many med schools value students who can contribute to small group learning (reviewing course material with one another) and being able to explain things in simple terms and in different ways is a valuable skill for providing information to patients and families.

Now for some additional words of wisdom:

Go to office hours. Get to know faculty members. You are going to need to request letters of recommendation ~2.5 years from today if you are on the traditional time line and it helps if you are more than a name in a grade book. Don't be a suck-up but be friendly and be interested and interesting.

Take care of yourself in college and develop good health habits including physical activity, adequate sleep and a sensible eating plan.

Keep yourself out of trouble. Carefully weigh whether you want to have a drink, or attend a party with underage drinking, and take your chances that you won't get caught and end up having to explain the situation on your med school application. Be very careful not to collaborate with others on class assignments that are meant to be done independently (if you aren't sure about lab reports with a partner, etc, then ask the professor or the TA in the lab), or using materials such as instructor versions of your textbooks with the answer key in the back (again, if you aren't sure, ask someone in authority). Disciplinary hearings on campus do not operate under the same rules of due process as the US criminal justice system and "institutional action" meaning being punished by your school for bad behavior, even if you aren't suspended or expelled, must be reported on your application. Far, far better to never get in trouble than to come back here 3 years from now asking how you can word this to minimize the damage.

 

[Catalystik]

And:

Don't go heavy on the clubs. Except as they lead to opportunities for community service or leadership, they aren't of great benefit to your candidacy. And you don't want these time sinks to threaten your GPA.

Keep track of your volunteer and shadowing hours. Outside records of these activities seem to get lost with amazing frequency.

Consider taking on a peer leadership role eventually.

Consider getting some research experience. A summer or a term is sufficient for general purposes. A year is about the average. More is a good idea if you want to be a candidate for top-ranked, research-oriented schools.