Winter Break During Undergrad

[blazinfury]

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I am just curious what most MD/PhD applicants do over winter break? I ask b/c the break typically around 3 wks or so. Do most applicants stay in their respective institutions and continue their research or do they do shadowing? Do some applicants also take winter classes (such as humanities courses or science labs)? Thanks.

 

[xcrunner01]

In my opinion, winter break is a great time to focus on research without the distractions of class, EC's, etc.

 

[ecoli]

I catch up on research.

 

[blazinfury]

For those of you who do research, do you also do research during the semester and you just continue it during the break?

 

[Neuronix]

Do some applicants also take winter classes (such as humanities courses or science labs)? Thanks.

That's what I did. That's one of the ways I could graduate in a reasonable time taking the minimum number of classes per semester for full-time status.

 

[blazinfury]

Thanks for answering myu main question Neuronix. Now I would like to know if admins were suspicious or angry by this? I agree with you about easing the semester workload. I intend to do that. My plan is to take winter courses rather than summer b/c there is more time during the summer and if I want to do internships and stuff to that effect, I will be unable to while taking summer courses. I just hate it that I will graduate with more than 120 credits just b/c I have to take all of these general education requirement courses that I will never need nor that I enjoy. Did the same happen to the rest of you about the gen requirements?

 

[Neuronix]

Now I would like to know if admins were suspicious or angry by this?

Nope. Adcoms don't squint at your academic record with a magnifying glass to make sure you took x number of credits per semester. They don't see "oh that schedule looks hard, so their GPA is forgiven/boosted." They see a time to graduation (if they're paying attention), an overall GPA, and a BCPM GPA. They might glance at your transcript just to see there aren't a lot of odd grades or Ws. That's about it.

I always advocate on this board to take a light course load and maximize your GPA and research time. Nobody is going to argue with a 3.9+ from any school or any science major, unless you did something really odd like take 6 years to complete undergrad or something.

I just hate it that I will graduate with more than 120 credits just b/c I have to take all of these general education requirement courses that I will never need nor that I enjoy. Did the same happen to the rest of you about the gen requirements?

That's undergrad. Just do it. It's easy to add in 2 humanities with 2 science classes rather than taking 4 science classes a semester anyways 😀

 

[URHere]

I am just curious what most MD/PhD applicants do over winter break? I ask b/c the break typically around 3 wks or so. Do most applicants stay in their respective institutions and continue their research or do they do shadowing? Do some applicants also take winter classes (such as humanities courses or science labs)? Thanks.

I always tried to do interesting things during my breaks that I never had time for during the year. These were things like traveling to London to study theatre, going horseback camping in the Midwest, etc.

I always felt that it was better to work my butt off during the semester (classes, research, etc) and to give myself time to really 100% relax later on. I've never regretted not staying on campus to work.

 

[bd4727]

I always tried to do interesting things during my breaks that I never had time for during the year. These were things like traveling to London to study theatre, going horseback camping in the Midwest, etc.

I always felt that it was better to work by butt off during the semester (classes, research, etc) and to give my time to really 100% relax later on. I've never regretted not staying on campus to work.

I think this response is understated. In 3 weeks as an undergrad are you really going to come up with a Nature paper? I mean don't get me wrong, I certainly respect hard work and over-ambitiousness, but there is a lot to life and assuming you work hard all year around it seems almost ridiculous to me to not take a few week break once in a while. Anyway, just my opinion, but I know you will get a lot of people on here telling you to work over break. In the long run, it really is not going to matter what you do for 3 weeks as an undergraduate. Enjoy life a little while you still can.