-

[deleted1094738]

-

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Goro]

It's just one year, and you're only a sophomore

 

[deleted1094738]

It's just one year, and you're only a sophomore

I see, okay. Freshman year I took 15 units in the fall, 14 units in the winter, and 18 units in the spring. Junior year I will be take 16 units every quarter. Are those still considered too light of a course load? @Goro

 

[Goro]

I see, okay. Freshman year I took 15 units in the fall, 14 units in the winter, and 18 units in the spring. Junior year I will be take 16 units every quarter. Are those still considered too light of a course load? @Goro

My problem is that I still can't figure out quarters. How many semester hours?

You should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. That is, do well in school AND engage in ECs.

 

[Putkernerinthehall]

You're fine, but engage now to line up EC's starting this summer. You don't want to wait until this time next year. Longer duration, steady, high quality EC's are the way to go.

 

[candbgirl]

My problem is that I still can't figure out quarters. How many semester hours?

You should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. That is, do well in school AND engage in ECs.

Oh thank you. I feel I’m in good company. No matter how hard I try I can’t figure out quarters. 🤣

 

[princesspeach2]

My problem is that I still can't figure out quarters. How many semester hours?

You should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. That is, do well in school AND engage in ECs.

Unless it varies by school, 1.5 quarter units equals 1 semester unit. So in fall they took 10 semester units, winter 9.33, 12 in the spring (which for one academic year would be ~31 semester credits) , and 10.67 semester units each quarter junior year.

I found this to calculate it Unit Converter Tool

OP don't despair, just gradually start doing some volunteering, ideally off campus, with those who are less fortunate then you. See if there are any food banks, shelters for the houseless, animal shelters, meals on wheels if you have a car or similar programs, etc who are looking for volunteers. Choose 1 that you actually care about and what to help, and stick with it. Usually it's 2-4 hours a week you'd be volunteering which isn't a lot of time.

Search on the volunteer section of craigslist or volunteermatch to find opportunities.

 

[Banco]

That seems like a totally normal course load? Take your time with ECs. Make sure you get your study habits down. Once you’ve done that then start looking for clinical experience and volunteering and go from there. You’ll also have your gap years. Small steps.

I did 0 ECs my first year. Then ramped it up after.

 

[YCAGA]

This is a half-baked hot take but I think the vast majority of premeds should focus on their classes the first two years with the absolute minimal EC’s…less than 5 hours/week. sGPA is so important and so hard to repair that getting as close to a 4.0 in your science classes should be your top five priorities in undergrad. The saying that “your stats get you in the door and your EC’s get you an acceptance” can be true, but I have personally seen waaaaay too many people have this view that they need 10 amazing EC’s that amount to 40 hours/week and then end up with a 3.1 sGPA. Then they have to do an SMP and barely slide into a DO school.

Okay, well none of that is a hot take, but this next part is. You can always spin not having a lot of medical school EC’s your first two years as you weren’t sure if you wanted to do medicine and were adjusting to college. Say you were considering a PhD or industry. Don’t straight up lie if you were 100% sure about medicine since preschool, but to be honest, no one can be 100% on medicine until you have gotten the majority of your prereqs out of the way. So I don’t think it is dishonest to say you were doing some soul searching until you got A’s in orgo, Gen Chem, bio, etc. If anything that’s what everyone should do. Not load up on EC’s before they have even passed a quarter of medical school prereqs.

 

[LunaOri]

This is a half-baked hot take but I think the vast majority of premeds should focus on their classes the first two years with the absolute minimal EC’s…less than 5 hours/week. sGPA is so important and so hard to repair that getting as close to a 4.0 in your science classes should be your top five priorities in undergrad. The saying that “your stats get you in the door and your EC’s get you an acceptance” can be true, but I have personally seen waaaaay too many people have this view that they need 10 amazing EC’s that amount to 40 hours/week and then end up with a 3.1 sGPA. Then they have to do an SMP and barely slide into a DO school.

Okay, well none of that is a hot take, but this next part is. You can always spin not having a lot of medical school EC’s your first two years as you weren’t sure if you wanted to do medicine and were adjusting to college. Say you were considering a PhD or industry. Don’t straight up lie if you were 100% sure about medicine since preschool, but to be honest, no one can be 100% on medicine until you have gotten the majority of your prereqs out of the way. So I don’t think it is dishonest to say you were doing some soul searching until you got A’s in orgo, Gen Chem, bio, etc. If anything that’s what everyone should do. Not load up on EC’s before they have even passed a quarter of medical school prereqs.

I disagree. Why not do a little volunteering, just because it's a good thing to do? Ditto for shadowing, as soon as opportunities arise.

 

[YCAGA]

I disagree. Why not do a little volunteering, just because it's a good thing to do? Ditto for shadowing, as soon as opportunities arise.

I said absolute minimum not necessarily zero. 2-3 hours of volunteering and 1 hour of shadowing per week (the shadowing can be averaged over the semester so that is like 16 hours of shadowing which is reasonable…4 half days for example) is <5 hours/week like I said. 3 hours per week of volunteering is still 300 hours in the two years which is more than a lot of people have.

What gets people in trouble is trying to do 10 hours of clinical and non clinical volunteering, 10 hours of research, officer of 4 different clubs, 15 hours working as an EMT, etc etc.

KISS is what I am advocating for.

 

[YCAGA]

I agree with @Goro that eventually you have to walk and chew gum at the same time, but until you can run, you shouldn’t be trying to walk and chew gum. And running for premeds is getting at least a 3.7 sGPA with a full course load. I’m really stretching that analogy but hopefully that makes sense.

The exact same thing is true in medical school. Residencies would much rather see someone with who is 2nd quartile with above average board scores, great clinical grades, and minimal EC’s than someone who is 4th quartile with below average board scores and below average clinical grades but has 15 publications and volunteers 10 hours/week. Of course a Superman who does everything and does it well will be the most competitive applicant. For us mere mortals, we are happy being in the middle 80% that will still be good doctors and focus on the most important part of medical school…the school part.

 

[Goro]

@Goro sorry if I'm over-analyzing this, so this school year I will have taken about 28-29 semester units. Freshman year I took about 31 semester units. Junior year I will take 32 semester units. This is all full time still and I've been able to maintain a 3.8+ GPA. I also had another related question below:

I took two quarters of ochem in the fall and winter, and I am planning to finish the third quarter of ochem in the summer (had some scheduling issues and wasn't able to take it this spring). I know I will be able to get some EC's/volunteering starting late spring/early summer. But how unfavorable is it if I only took 28-29 semester units with no extracurriculars, and then finishing ochem in the summer? I read that schools want to see you take all ochem classes with a full courseload?

Take ochem with a full course load??? That's a new one. It's pure b******* by the way.

Look , you can't just keep taking classes and not doing anything else until your Gap year. That will just stink of boxchecking.

Do you honestly mean to tell us that with all of your coursework you can't devote an hour a week to volunteering and some venue?

How are you going to handle medical school, which will be multiple times harder than what you're taking now???

 

[candbgirl]

You are really protesting too much. I think you know that you can do way more than you are doing and you are just trying to get @Goro or another ADCOM member to tell you it’s just fine. And that’s not going to happen. Thousands of premeds figure out how to do it every single year. They do well academically, do clinical and nonclinical volunteering , participate in campus activities, have fun and many even have real jobs to pay for college. What are you doing with all of your time? If you can’t figure out how to volunteer for a few hours every week in addition to studying and attending classes, you will flounder in med school. Maybe try going by the office that handles academic advising. Perhaps they can help you figure out a better time management schedule. If you are really unable to squeeze 4 hours a week for volunteering into your schedule you are doing something wrong or you haven’t told us the whole story of where your time is spent.

 

[LondonVibes]

@candbgirl I'm sorry, I think I should have worded what I said better. I will definitely start volunteering this quarter as soon I can, and continue those activities long term. I know I'm late to game with my extracurriculars, and it's mostly because I was too indecisive of what I should be starting.

I just wanted to know if I have already set myself in a position that will be looked unfavorably by adcoms given the total semester units I have been taking (since they will see there aren't any extracurriculars up till now). And if that is unfavorable, does it look even worse if I'm finishing ochem in the summer (I will still be volunteering, and starting research late summer after my ochem class), or do they want to see that I take ochem during the school year.

Normally I think it would look unfavorable to wait until junior year to start volunteering. However, there’s a pandemic right now and ADCOMS understand that, while paid clinical experience did exist mid-COVID, many people couldn’t take those opportunities for various reasons.

In a way, you kind of got lucky in that you were able to take some of harder prereqs without ECs when students in years past would’ve gotten penalized for that. But the vaccine is out in many states now and I would start some ECs ASAP.

 

[Banco]

Why not do a little volunteering, just because it's a good thing to do?

Because both adcoms and students know that's not why the vast majority of them do volunteering.

I'm of the opinion that at least for the first year, utmost priority should be on grades. You eff that up and you already are in the hole with regards to pre-med because of how stats centric pretty much all schools are.

 

[Goro]

@Goro I'm sorry if I'm not understanding, but if I will have 28-29 total semester units this year before summer, would it be alright if I finish ochem in the summer? By full course load I wasn't sure if people just mean full time or do they mean a heavy courseload?

Your question has been answered multiple times in this thread.

 

[candbgirl]

@Goro I'm sorry if I'm not understanding, but if I will have 28-29 total semester units this year before summer, would it be alright if I finish ochem in the summer? By full course load I wasn't sure if people just mean full time or do they mean a heavy courseload?

It really doesn’t matter what any of us say. If your school considers you a full time student that’s what you are. Frankly you are in the low end of hours each semester , especially since you admit you aren’t doing anything else - like ECs. Many students take 16+ hours each semester. Did you bring a lot of AP credits or dual enrollment credits with you when you started college? I know you said you are graduating early but now I’m wondering how you are doing it.
Anyway, just calm down. None of us can predict what ADCOMS actually reading your application will think. There is nothing you can do about preconceived biases of people.

 

[Bored_Conscious]

Seriously, take a breather and chill out. If I am wrong, someone should correct me, but as long as you are a full-time student I doubt adcoms will be peering intensely into your course load.

Find research, clinical, and non-clinical experiences as soon as you can. Furthermore, do ones that you actually enjoy. Don't mope about the fact that you didn't really get to start until sophomore year of college. That isn't even late.

~Breath~

 

[deleted1025488]

This is making me a bit nervous so I just want some clarification. I'm currently a sophomore and I go to a school on the quarter system. I've mostly been taking 13-15 units fall, winter, and spring quarters (mostly 2 science courses, and 2 GE's per quarter). This quarter I'm taking physics, physics lab, genetics, and a writing poetry class (13 units).

I have had no extracurriculars yet, and COVID hasn't made it easier to start. I'm reading that adcoms will really look down upon the fact that I'm only averaging 14 units a quarter and I'm not even involved in any job, research, or volunteering yet? Is this really going to hurt me when I apply? I'm trying to get involved in hospice but the process will take some time.

If it makes any difference, I plan to take a gap year or two, and I will be graduating at least a quarter early.

I also go to a quarter school—I think it's easier to think about it in terms of 3 vs. 4 classes (min vs. max) instead of these weird, variant units.

Usually, people tend to save the 3 class quarters for later years, but in theory, you're not actually in a bad spot, you kind of just wasted the fact that the quarter system offers you 'easier' quarters for times like MCAT studying or applications. Physics + lab is the equivalent of one course, so you're essentially saying that you have taken 3 course average for the past 6 quarters....again, nothing wrong, but you'll have to juggle ECs and MCAT studying amidst 4 class quarters instead of 3 now.

 

[mwsapphire]

I haven't read this whole thread but just my personal experience with EC's.

I didn't start ec's until sophomore year of college. I had around 500 hours between clinical volunteering, non clinical volunteering, and shadowing by the time I applied ( end of senior year). I would have had more but MCAT prep and my senior year academic schedule ended up being heavier than expected. I had longevity with the volunteer positions being 1.5-2 years. I worked as scribe, part time, during my gap year but that was not on my primary (so , not a factor in getting an interview invite) , but it was discussed in my interview ( and update letter).


Quality and longevity are just as important as quantity.

 

[parscompacta56]

I also am not familiar with the quarter system, but if you are taking an equivalent to 28-32 credit hours a year... that's on the low end in my experience. Most of the successful pre-meds at my school took 16-21 credits a semester (with the people taking 21 usually having research credits or 1 on 1 classes with professors, which is just how my university worked) in addition to research, club leadership, volunteering, and/or paid employment. Even some of the unsuccessful ones had those types of resumes, usually just with lower GPAs and/or MCAT scores. I myself averaged 17 credits a semester as an undergrad. That being said, my main advice would be to absolutely kill your intro courses to both boost your GPA as high as possible while laying the foundations for what youll need to know for the MCAT. Having a 3.7+ and a 512+ just opens so many more doors than being a low stat applicant. You should at the minimum right now join some clubs and try to at least plan what type of long term ECs youll pursue later on.

 

[LindaAccepted]

This is making me a bit nervous so I just want some clarification. I'm currently a sophomore and I go to a school on the quarter system. I've mostly been taking 13-15 units fall, winter, and spring quarters (mostly 2 science courses, and 2 GE's per quarter). This quarter I'm taking physics, physics lab, genetics, and a writing poetry class (13 units).

I have had no extracurriculars yet, and COVID hasn't made it easier to start. I'm reading that adcoms will really look down upon the fact that I'm only averaging 14 units a quarter and I'm not even involved in any job, research, or volunteering yet? Is this really going to hurt me when I apply? I'm trying to get involved in hospice but the process will take some time.

If it makes any difference, I plan to take a gap year or two, and I will be graduating at least a quarter early.

Bottom line is that you need to start volunteering a least a little bit. If you are planning a gap year or two and volunteer consistently and increasingly, the fact that you haven't been involved until now won't prevent you from attending med school. But start with something you find meaningful. Start small and increase, but start.