What was your most INTENSE semester? (i.e., grades, ECs, etc.)

[American Shero]

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What was your toughest semester? 😎

What classes did you take and how did you do?

What ECs and how many hours?

Research?

Work?

Health Problems?

Etc.? 😀

 

[neuro nephrons]

What was your toughest semester? 😎

What classes did you take and how did you do?

What ECs and how many hours?

Research?

Work?

Health Problems?

Etc.? 😀

spring 2011 was the worst by far....


16 regular credits
4 credits for an EMT class (it met on mondays and thursdays from 6-10 PS never take a class that meets at night it was so difficult to stay awake)
president of a significant club
honors program stuff
approx 12 hours of work per week
other random obligations

 

[NickNaylor]

If you're doing it right, your junior year will likely be your hardest year: you start taking upper level courses, your ECs become more demanding as you (hopefully) have several going and are starting to get into leadership roles, and you're most likely preparing for the MCAT. I definitely consider my junior year a lost year.

 

[American Shero]

spring 2011 was the worst by far....


16 regular credits
4 credits for an EMT class (it met on mondays and thursdays from 6-10 PS never take a class that meets at night it was so difficult to stay awake)
president of a significant club
honors program stuff
approx 12 hours of work per week
other random obligations

I agree. Night classes are HORRIBLE, especially when you have a professor that threatens to lower your grade by 10% for each class that you miss after two absences. What is this? High School?!?! 😡

If you're doing it right, your junior year will likely be your hardest year: you start taking upper level courses, your ECs become more demanding as you (hopefully) have several going and are starting to get into leadership roles, and you're most likely preparing for the MCAT. I definitely consider my junior year a lost year.

This makes sense. I switched to pre-med late, so my senior year has definitely been the toughest.


What about your heaviest load of science courses in one semester? How'd it go?

 

[Lazybum2014]

If you're doing it right, your junior year will likely be your hardest year: you start taking upper level courses, your ECs become more demanding as you (hopefully) have several going and are starting to get into leadership roles, and you're most likely preparing for the MCAT. I definitely consider my junior year a lost year.

This is good news -yayayay. 13 creds last semester (junior fall) and wanted to pull my hair out by midsemester. 20 creds fall of soph semester after a car accident and was fine.

 

[octupus]

22 credit hours my second semester sophomore year

organic chemistry and biochem lab already took 8 hours out of the week!
worked 10-12 hours/week
was in a miserable relationship with another pre-med who just didn't care
father almost died. he was hospitalized 4 times for total of 2 months for unknown illness (he dropped from 150lbs to 110 lbs)

It was the darkest time in my life and I ended up with less than a 3.0 that semester.
and somehow, three years late, everything turned out just fine 🙂

 

[btown8908]

1st Semester freshman year.

14 credit hours (Hon bio, Hon calc, eng, bs class); D-1 athlete; honors stuff; ec volunteering at hospital. Just was too much for me at that time. Not saying the most difficult overall but was definitely stressed the whole semester.

 

[azerkail]

16 hour days, only 10 credits worth of classes. up at 6am to drive 1.5 hours to class, then at 12, drive back 1.5 hours to work from 2 to closing, usually getting home at around 1-2am, 3 days a week. the other 2 days i could be going back to back shifts at work... the nature of the pharmacy isn't necessarily hard but draining

suffice to say, i shot my gpa to hell.

 

[American Shero]

This is good news -yayayay. 13 creds last semester (junior fall) and wanted to pull my hair out by midsemester. 20 creds fall of soph semester after a car accident and was fine.

😕 Why did you have a harder time with 13 credits vs the 20? What were the classes?

22 credit hours my second semester sophomore year

organic chemistry and biochem lab already took 8 hours out of the week!
worked 10-12 hours/week
was in a miserable relationship with another pre-med who just didn't care
father almost died. he was hospitalized 4 times for total of 2 months for unknown illness (he dropped from 150lbs to 110 lbs)

It was the darkest time in my life and I ended up with less than a 3.0 that semester.
and somehow, three years late, everything turned out just fine 🙂

Yeah, that is def. an intense semester. I'm taking Orgo II and Biochem now, and I can't even imagine being able to deal with all of that while taking these courses.

1st Semester freshman year.

14 credit hours (Hon bio, Hon calc, eng, bs class); D-1 athlete; honors stuff; ec volunteering at hospital. Just was too much for me at that time. Not saying the most difficult overall but was definitely stressed the whole semester.

Yeah, I would only recommend taking one challenging class during the first semester of college, ESPECIALLY if you're an athlete. It was definitely a difficult adjustment for me too.. (and I barely did any ECs 😛).

 

[American Shero]

16 hour days, only 10 credits worth of classes. up at 6am to drive 1.5 hours to class, then at 12, drive back 1.5 hours to work from 2 to closing, usually getting home at around 1-2am, 3 days a week. the other 2 days i could be going back to back shifts at work... the nature of the pharmacy isn't necessarily hard but draining

suffice to say, i shot my gpa to hell.

😱 That sounds horrible. Commuting sucks. I've had to do it before.

 

[btown8908]

​

😕 Why did you have a harder time with 13 credits vs the 20? What were the classes?



Yeah, that is def. an intense semester. I'm taking Orgo II and Biochem now, and I can't even imagine being able to deal with all of that while taking these courses.





Yeah, I would only recommend taking one challenging class during the first semester of college, ESPECIALLY if you're an athlete. It was definitely a difficult adjustment for me too.. (and I barely did any ECs 😛).

This sums it up:

 

[Lazybum2014]

​

😕 Why did you have a harder time with 13 credits vs the 20? What were the classes?

So sophomore fall was genetics (4), physics 1 (4), Research for Credit (2), Calculus 3 (4) two honors core (6)

This fall I was juggling Molecular (3) with lab (2), pchem (3) with lab (2), and two Honors cores (3). But on top of that I as tutoring 10 hours a week, club leadership, taking an ek course, and researching. Pchem lab was the death of me though. I worked harder than ever before on the labs and received awful grades. I ended up getting a B. In the end, the mcat course ended up being a waste of time (and $2k) BC I couldn't keep up. 👎

 

[varsityblue]

What was your toughest semester? 😎

What classes did you take and how did you do?

What ECs and how many hours?

Research?

Work?

Health Problems?

Etc.? 😀

Probably this past semester. I took five classes and earned a 4.0, I was super involved in my ECs, I didn't maintain a job, and I had strep throat twice. (Yes, you can get two different strains of strep throat in a three month period if you're as unlucky as I am. Sigh.) 🙁 I don't think I'll be able to really enjoy college until I'm done with the MCAT and the GRE, haha.

 

[candav]

This past semester (senior, fall) was pretty rough. Taking a full course load, including analytical chemistry, balancing two labs and various other commitments, and traveling almost every week for interviews. Not great for the GPA.

 

[dmf2682]

I crammed my entire masters of mechanical engineering into two quarters. The second one was rough- 18 credits of graduate level engineering plus my thesis. I ended up with a 3.3 and I'm incredibly glad the adcoms don't place too much weight on graduate credits. For ecs I played some im ice hockey, did some running, and drank a lot of beer .

 

[Kiting]

14 credits (Second semester sophomore year)

O-Chem 2 + Lab
Physics 2 (calculus based version) + Lab
Cellular/Molecular Biology + Lab
Philosophy and Literature
Research (2 credits)

Ended with an A, A-, A-, A-, A

Toughest semester I've ever taken and best grades. I'll take it!

 

[PianoMajor]

Biochemistry w/lab (B+)
Genetics w/lab (A-)
Physics II w/lab (A)
Statistics (A)
Survey of Music History 1600-Present (A)
Chamber Music (P)
Collaborative Skills (A)
Tonal Practice IV (B+)
MCAT during the semester (30)
Senior recital one week after MCAT (was ****ty)
2 concerts in a Franz Liszt festival (was okay i guess)
Weekly lessons with my instructor (they all sucked b/c i couldnt practice 8 hours a day like most students)
Teaching 4 kids once a week
Library job

28 credit hours that semester

oh and an ex-girlfriend

How I managed it: Obviously, the MCAT was the #1 priority for that semester. I was lucky to get the grades I did and to even graduate that semester with how little I could practice and how utterly garbage my playing was in my lessons. The concerts were alright though. I skipped almost every class, made sure that attendance wasn't required, and self studied the subjects. I woke up at 6 AM every day, went for a run, went to my apartment, ate breakfast, studied for MCAT for about 4 hours, went to labs, practiced for an hour or two after labs and rehearsals, studied for MCAT until midnight or 1 AM. If i had midterms or finals, I would HAVE to sacrifice something, it was just IMPOSSIBLE to do everything. SO i wouldnt practice AT ALL that week, and I'm pretty sure i practiced the LEAST of anybody in my entire school and i should have been kicked out numerous times but i managed to pull miracles out of my ass when I needed to. Really this semester changed my life.

If you're wondering how I managed to get 28 credits... My school let me cross register to other schools for free (Harvard, Tufts), since I was in a joint program. So I would register at another school for my science courses, and report to my "home" school that the class granted me only ONE CREDIT rather than 4 or 5. So on my 'home school' transcript you will see all my science classes being worth one credit. However, we know that when you submit all your transcripts to TMDSAS or AMCAS, they look at how many credits the school you took the course at gave you... and that's what really matters. So I was able to take 28 credits, with it only showing up at 18 on my transcript.

 

[LilKangaroo]

Spring '11

17 credits (out of a max of 18 allowed)
Ended up with a 3.7 GPA that semester

Working a minimum of 20 hours a week
Doing a minimum of 10 hours a week of research (not for credit)
Volunteering 5 hours a week between two different hospitals
Between 5-10 hours dedicated to student orgs
Studying for MCAT

Eh, I guess it could have been worse

 

[idontcaureuknow]

Junior Spring (2011):

PChem II; 3 Cr; A
PChem Lab; 2 Cr; B
Graph Theory; 3 Cr; B
Inorganic Chem; 3 Cr; A
Hon Religion and Medicine; 3 Cr; A-

Attempted research early on, soon gave up and focused completely on PChem lab and Graph Theory (my PI expected this when I told him I was taking PChem Lab). I loved those two classes, but they killed me. My prof for the lab was intense, the labs were intense, and if you didn't know the material to his standards you were kicked out that day for "safety reasons." Passing was a 10/20 on a quiz btw. There was 1 make-up day, and everyone got kicked out at least once. In the end I completed every experiment, but I still do not know the derivation that got me kicked out the first time (9/20), but second quiz attempt i got the first two questions *completely* right and got a 10/20 (10 pts for that derivation!). The prof at office hours wouldn't tell me how to do the derivation and said it was in the book, which it was not. Google was also useless. The lab reports took forever to write and his final was insane. I had the highest grade on the final but my notebook wasn't perfect and I had many sloppy lab reports, so I did not receive the A. Many fun questions on that final though.

Graph Theory was a blast, but I just didn't put in enough study time. Before you blast me for being lazy, I worked very hard at that class. I had to split my time between the Lab and this course which resulted in both grades suffering.

PChem II wasn't too bad, I enjoyed it in an odd way. Inorganic chem I hated but it was pretty simple in some ways whereas others completely mind boggling. Test were easy though. For the religion and medicine course, I was often preoccupied and bitter with the other work. Learned a good bit from the course though.

Oh and this was the semester I first took the MCAT. Bad study technique: rolling out of bed and taking the test. Also presented a research poster this semester.

 

[azerkail]

😱 That sounds horrible. Commuting sucks. I've had to do it before.

best thing from it though is that i learned to record and listen to lectures in transit. are you still commuting hard core?

also to an above poster, yeah i had an ex boyfriend to deal with at the same time. joy. -_-

 

[American Shero]

This sums it up:

👍😀

So sophomore fall was genetics (4), physics 1 (4), Research for Credit (2), Calculus 3 (4) two honors core (6)

This fall I was juggling Molecular (3) with lab (2), pchem (3) with lab (2), and two Honors cores (3). But on top of that I as tutoring 10 hours a week, club leadership, taking an ek course, and researching. Pchem lab was the death of me though. I worked harder than ever before on the labs and received awful grades. I ended up getting a B. In the end, the mcat course ended up being a waste of time (and $2k) BC I couldn't keep up. :

Oooh.. I see. Pchem seems to be the death of most people. Thanks to SDN, I was able to dodge that bullet. 👍

Probably this past semester. I took five classes and earned a 4.0, I was super involved in my ECs, I didn't maintain a job, and I had strep throat twice. (Yes, you can get two different strains of strep throat in a three month period if you're as unlucky as I am. Sigh.) 🙁 I don't think I'll be able to really enjoy college until I'm done with the MCAT and the GRE, haha.

Twice? That's rough.

👍 "Work now, play later"... that's my new motto.

This past semester (senior, fall) was pretty rough. Taking a full course load, including analytical chemistry, balancing two labs and various other commitments, and traveling almost every week for interviews. Not great for the GPA.

Yeah, I'll bet. I hope you were already accepted somewhere before the final grades hit your transcript. When did they start sending out acceptances?

best thing from it though is that i learned to record and listen to lectures in transit. are you still commuting hard core?

also to an above poster, yeah i had an ex boyfriend to deal with at the same time. joy. -_-

That's a great idea. I wish I would've thought of it. 🙁 And no, I decided to move closer to campus after my car broke down on the day that I had two final exams. 😡

 

[PantherPride]

I decided to move closer to campus after my car broke down on the day that I had two final exams. 😡

Ouch.

 

[American Shero]

I crammed my entire masters of mechanical engineering into two quarters. The second one was rough- 18 credits of graduate level engineering plus my thesis. I ended up with a 3.3 and I'm incredibly glad the adcoms don't place too much weight on graduate credits. For ecs I played some im ice hockey, did some running, and drank a lot of beer .

14 credits (Second semester sophomore year)

O-Chem 2 + Lab
Physics 2 (calculus based version) + Lab
Cellular/Molecular Biology + Lab
Philosophy and Literature
Research (2 credits)

Ended with an A, A-, A-, A-, A

Toughest semester I've ever taken and best grades. I'll take it!

Biochemistry w/lab (B+)
Genetics w/lab (A-)
Physics II w/lab (A)
Statistics (A)
Survey of Music History 1600-Present (A)
Chamber Music (P)
Collaborative Skills (A)
Tonal Practice IV (B+)
MCAT during the semester (30)
Senior recital one week after MCAT (was ****ty)
2 concerts in a Franz Liszt festival (was okay i guess)
Weekly lessons with my instructor (they all sucked b/c i couldnt practice 8 hours a day like most students)
Teaching 4 kids once a week
Library job

28 credit hours that semester

oh and an ex-girlfriend

How I managed it: Obviously, the MCAT was the #1 priority for that semester. I would be lying if I didn't say I was lucky to get the grades I did and to even graduate that semester with how little I could practice and how utterly garbage my playing was in my lessons. The concerts were alright though. I skipped almost every class, made sure that attendance wasn't required, and self studied the subjects. I woke up at 6 AM every day, went for a run, went to my apartment, ate breakfast, studied for MCAT for about 4 hours, went to labs, practiced for an hour or two after labs and rehearsals, studied for MCAT until midnight or 1 AM. If i had midterms or finals, I would HAVE to sacrifice something, it was just IMPOSSIBLE to do everything. SO i wouldnt practice AT ALL that week, and I'm pretty sure i practiced the LEAST of anybody in my entire school and i should have been kicked out numerous times but i managed to pull miracles out of my ass when I needed to. Really this semester changed my life.

If you're wondering how I managed to get 28 credits... My school let me cross register to other schools for free (Harvard, Tufts), since I was in a joint program. So I would register at another school for my science courses, and report to my "home" school that the class granted me only ONE CREDIT rather than 4 or 5. So on my 'home school' transcript you will see all my science classes being worth one credit. However, we know that when you submit all your transcripts to TMDSAS or AMCAS, they look at how many credits the school you took the course at gave you... and that's what really matters. So I was able to take 28 credits, with it only showing up at 18 on my transcript.

Spring '11

17 credits (out of a max of 18 allowed)
Ended up with a 3.7 GPA that semester

Working a minimum of 20 hours a week
Doing a minimum of 10 hours a week of research (not for credit)
Volunteering 5 hours a week between two different hospitals
Between 5-10 hours dedicated to student orgs
Studying for MCAT

Eh, I guess it could have been worse

Junior Spring (2011):

PChem II; 3 Cr; A
PChem Lab; 2 Cr; B
Graph Theory; 3 Cr; B
Inorganic Chem; 3 Cr; A
Hon Religion and Medicine; 3 Cr; A-

Attempted research early on, soon gave up and focused completely on PChem lab and Graph Theory (my PI expected this when I told him I was taking PChem Lab). I loved those two classes, but they killed me. My prof for the lab was intense, the labs were intense, and if you didn't know the material to his standards you were kicked out that day for "safety reasons." Passing was a 10/20 on a quiz btw. There was 1 make-up day, and everyone got kicked out at least once. In the end I completed every experiment, but I still do not know the derivation that got me kicked out the first time (9/20), but second quiz attempt i got the first two questions *completely* right and got a 10/20 (10 pts for that derivation!). The prof at office hours wouldn't tell me how to do the derivation and said it was in the book, which it was not. Google was also useless. The lab reports took forever to write and his final was insane. I had the highest grade on the final but my notebook wasn't perfect and I had many sloppy lab reports, so I did not receive the A. Many fun questions on that final though.

Graph Theory was a blast, but I just didn't put in enough study time. Before you blast me for being lazy, I worked very hard at that class. I had to split my time between the Lab and this course which resulted in both grades suffering.

PChem II wasn't too bad, I enjoyed it in an odd way. Inorganic chem I hated but it was pretty simple in some ways whereas others completely mind boggling. Test were easy though. For the religion and medicine course, I was often preoccupied and bitter with the other work. Learned a good bit from the course though.

Oh and this was the semester I first took the MCAT. Bad study technique: rolling out of bed and taking the test. Also presented a research poster this semester.

😍😍 You guys are my heroes. After seeing your schedules, I'm almost embarrassed that I was complaining about having to take Orgo I, Physics I, and Cell Bio in the same semester. 😳 😍😍

 

[American Shero]

Ouch.

🙁 ...Yea.. I was like "!!!!!"

 

[Isoprop]

Bio of Dinosaurs - 3 cr
Anatomy - 6 cr
Physiology - 5 cr
Pharmacology - 3 cr
Psyc and Law - 4 cr

21 cr hours, 3.96 GPA that term

working 20 hours per week.

Damn, I studied and worked hard in undergrad.

 

[xXIDaShizIXx]

If you're doing it right, your junior year will likely be your hardest year: you start taking upper level courses, your ECs become more demanding as you (hopefully) have several going and are starting to get into leadership roles, and you're most likely preparing for the MCAT. I definitely consider my junior year a lost year.

Sadly...This is true.😀

 

[xBODOMx]

.

 

[Genefreak]

Fall junior yr, I took
Physics I w/ Lab- 5 credits
Chem I w/Lab- 4 credits
Cell Bio- 3 credits
Immunology- 3 credits
U.S history- 3 credits
Anatomy dissection class-- 2 credits
TA for Anatomy Lab- 2 credit
total 22 credits.
I also worked anywhere for 16-20 hours each week. I was involved in a number of clubs as well and had other stuff going on. I got all A's but man, I did study a lot and spent a lot of time doing home-work.

 

[cyanide12345678]

What was your toughest semester? 😎

What classes did you take and how did you do?

What ECs and how many hours?

Research?

Work?

Health Problems?

Etc.? 😀

freshmen year spring semester.

16 credit hours (Intro to chemical engineering, Intro to comp programming (Matlab and C), Differential equations, principles of composition, Stat 400)

28 hrs/week job

3 hrs/week volunteering at a hospital.

 

[FrkyBgStok]

Fall 2010 and Spring 2011

Driving a semi from 7p-730a tues through fri night, patient transport 1230p-11p sa and sun, shadowing and volunteering most mondays. Took 21 credits in the fall and 20 credits in the spring. Also retook the mcat at the end of the spring semester. I also have 3 kids. I also was very active in my kids' school as a volunteer. Both semesters I basically ended with 3 As and 3 Bs both semesters. Took cell bio and biochem, retook the physics series, and the rest were elective classes (mythology, pop music, etc.). That's basically the gist of it. Couple small things here and there like covering a Monday when someone got sick or similar.

 

[Cinematographer]

Woah some impressive time-management heroes/geniuses in this thread! I transferred from a community college and had to take a bunch of upper level science classes during my last four semesters. Example:

Fall 2009:
- Comparative anatomy w/ Lab
- Quantitative Analysis w/ Lab
- Molecular Biology
- Evolution
- Biology Seminar

Passed all with A (Quant lab was an -A though).

Together with a part-time chemistry/biology tutoring job, research and a retail job, I am still amazed I survived that semester and managed to retain a bit of a social life.

 

[romanjetfighter]

biotech lecture + lab <-- had to learn computers for this...was not expecting that
developmental biology <--decided to add this class in the 3rd or 4th week, had to catch up with a lot of material
physiology + lab
immunology
research
24+ hours a week paid internship (night shift) + several workshops
president of a club
representative on student council/fundraising and helping w/ events
on a board w/ faculty members and executive director with associated students
volunteering at hospital
studying for MCAT (not too much of this done, mostly reading books)

stupidest decision was planting 7-8 square meters on different ends of my home.. a very very thirsty plant that required constant wet soil and im in a dry climate so twice a day i would have to stand there and water everything. haha

twice a week i pulled regular all nighters and other 3 nights a week get about 3 hours in the form of 2 1.5 hour power naps. there wasn't an option really since i worked night shift and had school with labs and research that required me to time everything correctly. the scariest thing was not enough sleep. more than once, i would be driving to work on the freeway feeling fine, blink, fall asleep for 2-3 seconds, feel my tires go bump bump on the lane dividers, then wake up in a completely different lane. this is after drinking 64 oz of soda. it was pretty bad. also forgot to feed my pets sometimes. dont worry they're all cold blooded fish/reptiles so they were okay.

i wanted to give my all because i didn't want to regret it a few months down the line.

 

[EarthtoneJon]

Spring 2010, and it was just 12 credits

Organic Chemistry II
Calculus II
Quantitative Analysis (the weeding-out class of my major. 9 hours of lab and 4 hours of lecture weekly, for only 4 credits.)

I got As in Orgo and Calc, and an A- in Quantitative Analysis. College has seemed easy ever since.

 

[notbobtrustme]

By far my toughest semester was junior year, Fall Semester of 2003.

BIOL 251 Cell Biology
BIOL 282 Genetics
CHEM 223 Organic Chem A Lec/Disc
CHEM 225 Organic Chemistry Lab A
CLST 271 Classical Mythology
MUSC 284 Applied Music: Piano
PHYS 111 College Physics I Lec/Dis
PHYS 131 College Physics Lab I
PSYC 306 Research Methods in Psyc


On top of that classload, I was doing research 20-30 hours a week. It was rough. Ended up with a 3.9 despite all that.

 

[ppfizenm]

Endocrinology
Systems Neurobiology
Systems Lab
Physics
Physics lab
Molecular biology of cancer

vp of the bio honors society, chem club, college swim team (started but quit after our coach left and new one came on), research about 10 hours a week, prob some more stuff

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

This fall was pretty much a killer and the sad thing is that it wasn't due to the credit amount, but rather my universities asinine scheduling plan and commuting.
14 credits
Ochem 2 w/lab
Physics 1 w/lab < Easy>
Women's psych < Easy but depressing>
Professional English < Annoying>
However 2hours commuting every day.
Classes and Volunteering started at ~9, End around 4:50 and get home at 6.
Around 8 hours of volunteering a week.

Either way, this semester made me realize that commuting is probably the worst thing you can ever put yourself through. It takes away time from volunteering, social life, and studying. You pretty much come home and want to relax the night away.

 

[circulus vitios]

Linear algebra, o-chem II, differential equations I, applied probability & statistics, and calculus III credit by exam, on top of commuting an hour each way to school (five days a week) and no opportunity to study on weekends because of work.

 

[deleted357625]

this semester is going to kill me no doubt..


physics 2 w/lab
chem 2 w/lab
neurobio of pain
neuropharm
studies in prose narrative
pathophys

maybe volunteer research during the weekend

 

[schwabejr]

What was your toughest semester? 😎

Fall 2010 without a doubt

What classes did you take and how did you do?
Honors Biochemistry (3hr, no lab) - A
Human Consciousness (3hr, Honors Seminar)-A
Evolutionary Biology (3hr, No lab) -A
Tropical Ecology of Costa Rica (3hr, winter study abroad) -A
Genetics Laboratory (1hr) - B
General Physics I (4hr, With Lab) - A
Appalachian Studies (3hr) - A

20 total hours, 3.94 GPA.

Pulled myself up from a 3.75 to a 3.8 this semester.

What ECs and how many hours?
BSA Fraternity (President) - Anywhere between 4 and 30 hours per week depending on the week. This was our first semester running the fraternity completely on our own since we founded the chapter the previous spring.

Undergraduate Neuro Journal (Peer Reviewer) - Between 0 and 6 hours per week depending on whether or not we had a submission or a conference to go to.

BSA volunteer - 3 hours, once per week

Honors Vanguard (Adjunct Staff) - Between 0 and 5 hours per week. Mostly presenting about the honors college, giving tours, talking to prospective students.

CVS/Pharmacy (Pharmacy technician) - Working between 0 and 10 hours per week.


Research?

Spent all semester developing a procedure to extract whole capillaries from the mouse placenta. Between 5 and 15 hours per week depending on the needs of the experiment. Thankfully, no presentations this semester.


Health Problems?

I really ended up letting my health go to try and save my grades this semester. Thankfully it worked, but I spent the entire fall either crashing or rallying.

Etc.?

The worst part of this semester was, without a doubt, my girlfriend studying abroad in France. She left about a week before I started classes and got back about a week after I took my last final. We went from talking foa a considerable amount of time every single night to video chatting (at most) three times per week. The time change was miserable too. Either I was up at 5:30 to talk to her around lunch time or taking an hour or two out of the middle of the late afternoon to talk to her when she went to bed.
Our relationship was just fine during that time, but it was really hard being without my best friend for four whole months and I never want to do it again. The kicker, is that I left for two weeks in Costa Rica about four days after she got back from France and we didnt see eachother again before spring semester started.

 

[lazymd]

.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

This thread gives me hope. This upcoming semester will be the toughest for me.

Mammalian Physiology - 4cr
Fundamentals of Biochem- 3cr
Physics II- 4cr
Genetics -4cr
Intro to Logic- 3cr
CNA course - 4cr
__________________
TOTAL: 22 credits

Plus:

•Work- 50hr/wk (30 research assistant & 20 cashier)
•One leadership position
•5 hours/wk volunteering
•4 hours/wk shadowing
•1 hr/day workout/stress management techniques

Ugh! Shoot me now.

Sounds like you're going to be getting at best a power nap most days.

 

[487806]

This thread gives me hope. This upcoming semester will be the toughest for me.

Mammalian Physiology - 4cr
Fundamentals of Biochem- 3cr
Physics II- 4cr
Genetics -4cr
Intro to Logic- 3cr
CNA course - 4cr
__________________
TOTAL: 22 credits

Plus:

•Work- 50hr/wk (30 research assistant & 20 cashier)
•One leadership position
•5 hours/wk volunteering
•4 hours/wk shadowing
•1 hr/day workout/stress management techniques

Ugh! Shoot me now.

Harsh. Guess you can't be lazy anymore. 😉

 

[lazymd]

Sounds like you're going to be getting at best a power nap most days.

Really? I thought I could squeeze in at least 5-6 hours a night. I can survive off of that. 🙁

 

[lazymd]

Harsh. Guess you can't be lazy anymore. 😉

Ha! Guess not. As one of my classmates used to say before every exam... "****'s about to get real."

 

[grodon909]

Probably this semester (Junior Fall) for me. I wanted to have an easy-ish semester, so I only took 16 hours. Unfortunately, those "easy hours" were
Spanish (4 hours, A-),
Fundamentals of Neuroscience (3, A-),
Nueropsychology of Language and Memory (3, A-),
Memory(3,A) and
Research (for 4 credit hours).

Those A-'s are killing me over here. I'm guessing that part of the reason my semester wasn't very good was that all of my classes were pretty difficult and rather time consuming, combined with the fact that my roomate for the past 2 years graduated, so I had to adjust to a new---rather distracting--roommate. I'm not really a library guy, but next semester, I may have to be...

Also, I'm in a sketch comedy group and am a member on a couple other (very small but hardworking) committees, which ended up taking quite some time.

 

[Hemorrage]

This thread gives me hope. This upcoming semester will be the toughest for me.

Mammalian Physiology - 4cr
Fundamentals of Biochem- 3cr
Physics II- 4cr
Genetics -4cr
Intro to Logic- 3cr
CNA course - 4cr
__________________
TOTAL: 22 credits

Plus:

•Work- 50hr/wk (30 research assistant & 20 cashier)
•One leadership position
•5 hours/wk volunteering
•4 hours/wk shadowing
•1 hr/day workout/stress management techniques

Ugh! Shoot me now.

how is this even possible? you have class all the time and squeeze in work randomly in-between?

 

[aspiring20]

What was your toughest semester? 😎

What classes did you take and how did you do?

What ECs and how many hours?

Research?

Work?

Health Problems?

Etc.? 😀

all 8 of them.

 

[glam407]

6 hours a week of clinical research, volunteering a bit, participating in a cultural dance while balancing 19 credit hours and the worst relationship I will never be in again.

Though this next semester with 12 easy credit hours, 10 hours in lab, and cramming the mcat into January-March will definitely be the hardest yet.

 

[lazymd]

.

 

[Mithril]

My entire fourth year was ridiculously hard. My program, microbiology and immunology, had 400-level courses that were GPA killers. I had to take two bacterial pathogenesis courses, a virology course, an environmental microbiology lab course, and a microbiology genetics lab course. I was lucky to get an A- out of all of them, except the virology course where I got an A+ and the environmental microbiology lab course where I got a B+. I busted my ass off day and night studying. I've never studied so hard in my life, not even for med school. I managed to boost up my 4th year GPA taking easy electives, but it was still my worst year in my undergrad in terms of GPA (although better than my 1st year in terms of % average). On top of all that I had to work 20 hours a week to pay for tuition.