Your biggest pre-med mistake

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NotASerialKiller

NotASerialKiller

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For those who have been accepted, what's something that you regret doing as a pre-med, or something that you were lucky to have gotten away with? It doesn't have to be incriminating, although that would make things more interesting.

Mine is that I did virtually nothing during my gap year, apart from working very (very) part-time and posting on SDN a lot. This was especially stupid because Canadian applicants often take 2-3 cycles to get in. Oh well, doesn't matter now!
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Really though, I have no regrets in regard to my gap year. Spent it well, with friends, family, my gf. Did some traveling, played some vidya. Wouldn't change a thing. Make sure you use what little time you've got left to have some fun people, cause it's a ****storm after you start.
tyrsa said:
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That was literally the first thing that came to mind after I saw the thread title lol
 
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Taking the MCAT for the first time at the end of my senior year of college without studying a lick of material..."ball-twister" is an understatement.

My whole process was haphazard anyway though. I wanted to be a doc before college but then got tricked by professors into wanting to pursue research so I did research in college and paid no attention to anything medical. Also did random bits of volunteering while in UG just because. Almost applied to PA school and then almost applied to an MPH program.

Ended up finally deciding on MD/DO, did a post-bacc, and somehow all of my ECs fell into place without any prior planning.
 
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Joining SDN
 
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Pledging a frat and living in the frat house for a year. It was the best experience of my life and now that I'm accepted I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, but from a strictly pre-med perspective it was idiotic.

Eviscerated my GPA, accomplished no meaningful extracurriculars for 2 years, compromised my health doing crazy pledge crap, and took a ton of unnecessary risks.

God damn it was fun though.
 
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I would have dropped a few unsavory friends a lot earlier than I did.

That being said, I was a pretty unsavory character myself for a while there lol. Still am.
 
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The Knife & Gun Club said:
Pledging a frat and living in the frat house for a year. It was the best experience of my life and now that I'm accepted I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, but from a strictly pre-med perspective it was idiotic.

Eviscerated my GPA, accomplished no meaningful extracurriculars for 2 years, compromised my health doing crazy pledge crap, and took a ton of unnecessary risks.

God damn it was fun though.
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Yeah, I had a big group of friends in UG. Me and my other two roommates had the unspoken club house that everybody liked to chill and hang out at. We threw party after party and needless to say, we definitely did NOT get our deposit back on the house we rented haha. It was so much fun and I wouldn't trade that experience either. It was the quintessential college experience outside of the frat experience and definitely played a role in my first MCAT score and my GPA for the last two years of UG haha
 
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Not taking a gap year.

Oh, also, I agree that choosing your friends carefully is so important. Surround yourself with the kind of people that you aspire to be.
 
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Not getting involved earlier.

I applied with laughable EC's the first time around, I "imbibed" in my social life generously in the first 2-3 years of undergrad (no regrets though, those friends I'll have forever). But I'm happy because I think doing a graduate program opened my eyes and hopefully a lot of doors. The extra 2 years also gave me the wisdom and the opportunity to get involved in a few things that I actually enjoyed, rather than the 25 things my friends did to lengthen their CV's.
 
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My ex-girlfriend
 
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Drugs SWIMs done:

Pot (hash oil and edibles too)
Shrooms
Binge drinking
Adderall (I once took 90 mgs of vyvanse, that was fun)
Xanax
Klonopin
"Spice"
Vycodin/Percocet/dilaudid
Cocaine
"Bladderall" (cocaine mixed with crushed adderall)
Muscle relaxers
Phenibute
Ambien
Ecstasy
MDMA/Molly
Modafinil
LSD
Cigarettes/dip
DMT
Nitrous/whippits

Still retained enough brain cells to get in!

Edit: oh yea Viagra too if that counts lol
 
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Not A Troll said:
Drugs I've done:

Pot (hash oil and edibles too)
Shrooms
Binge drinking
Adderall (I once took 90 mgs of vyvanse, that was fun)
Xanax
Klonopin
"Spice"
Vycodin/Percocet/dilaudid
Cocaine
"Bladderall" (cocaine mixed with crushed adderall)
Muscle relaxers
Phenibute
Ambien
Ecstasy
MDMA/Molly
Modafinil
LSD
Cigarettes/dip
DMT
Nitrous/whippits

Still retained enough brain cells to get in!

Edit: oh yea Viagra too if that counts lol
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I'm glad you embraced the spirit of incrimination, although I'm not sure why you list adderall, coke, and a mixture of the two all as separate entries. -1
 
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Not A Troll said:
Drugs I've done:

Pot (hash oil and edibles too)
Shrooms
Binge drinking
Adderall (I once took 90 mgs of vyvanse, that was fun)
Xanax
Klonopin
"Spice"
Vycodin/Percocet/dilaudid
Cocaine
"Bladderall" (cocaine mixed with crushed adderall)
Muscle relaxers
Phenibute
Ambien
Ecstasy
MDMA/Molly
Modafinil
LSD
Cigarettes/dip
DMT
Nitrous/whippits

Still retained enough brain cells to get in!

Edit: oh yea Viagra too if that counts lol
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Can I put this on my app doe?
 
teeayejay said:
My whole process was haphazard anyway though. I wanted to be a doc before college but then got tricked by professors into wanting to pursue research so I did research in college and paid no attention to anything medical. Also did random bits of volunteering while in UG
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Are you me? Lol. I didn't get involved in on-campus activities as much during both my degree and didn't use my first gap-year wisely (bit of traveling and volunteering and applying to endless jobs)!
 
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Lannister said:
Not taking a gap year.

Oh, also, I agree that choosing your friends carefully is so important. Surround yourself with the kind of people that you aspire to be.
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One caveat to that- a lot of people think about this merely on a career/success level. Sometimes the sorts of things you should aspire to be are completely separate from success, as the term is widely understood. Don't merely surround yourself with successful people, but with truly good people.
 
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NotASerialKiller said:
I'm glad you embraced the spirit of incrimination, although I'm not sure why you list adderall, coke, and a mixture of the two all as separate entries. -1
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I'll make an exception for anyone mixing alcohol with cocaine- cocaethylene is a hell of a drug from what I hear.
 
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JK did I say me? I meant SWIM...
 
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I would have sold my soul to my GPA since almost every student I know from my school with a 3.6+ and 32+ either got a scholarship or into a top school that provides good financial aid.

Then I would have doubled in econ, because I find it interesting now, and to potentially have a solid back up career if I needed it
 
Oh, and my biggest pre-med mistakes, now that I think about it, were not taking calculus and underselling myself in regard to what my MCAT would be- should've applied MD, but was ineligible for my state school care of the lack of calculus, and got my results too late to get a successful MD app together. Who knows though, might've hated being at an MD school compared to where I'm at now, maybe everything happens for a reason.
 
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Lannister said:
Oh, also, I agree that choosing your friends carefully is so important. Surround yourself with the kind of people that you aspire to be.
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So true. All those people I thought were so cool when I was 16 are working at Panara bread and living in their parent's basements now lol
 
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My biggest premie mistake was being a biochem/biotechniques major. I love biochem, but the biotechniques courses I've had to take (all lab protocol and such) have literally sucked the soul out of me. The classes are like dementors; only difference is that there is no patronus charm to stop them from slowly sucking the life out of you.
 
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Mad Jack said:
Oh, and my biggest pre-med mistakes, now that I think about it, were not taking calculus and underselling myself in regard to what my MCAT would be- should've applied MD, but was ineligible for my state school care of the lack of calculus, and got my results too late to get a successful MD app together. Who knows though, might've hated being at an MD school compared to where I'm at now, maybe everything happens for a reason.
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Why would you say your biggest mistake was not taking calculus? Just curious.


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NotASerialKiller said:
For those who have been accepted, what's something that you regret doing as a pre-med, or something that you were lucky to have gotten away with? It doesn't have to be incriminating, although that would make things more interesting.

Mine is that I did virtually nothing during my gap year, apart from working very (very) part-time and posting on SDN a lot. This was especially stupid because Canadian applicants often take 2-3 cycles to get in. Oh well, doesn't matter now!
Click to expand...
Taking MCAT September 3 for current cycle admissions. Yikes!
 
I really wish I took that summer course in Germany that would have been paid for by my UG. Too bad I needed research experience lol
 
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Getting black out drunk and waking up in a different state.

Not specific to being premed...but it's not something I recommend
 
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Hanging out with the wrong people for four years, and realizing I made very few real friends.

EDIT: Any incoming pre-meds, PLEASE be 100% sure you want to join a fraternity if you're at all consider joining one. The very few real friends I made only have one thing in common, they weren't in my fraternity.
 
Not bringing a pillow to my biology classes


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I think my biggest mistake was deciding to be pre-med. Luckily, I was really bad at it and I got to take 3 years off post-grad before starting school.
 
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Releasing Charizard.



APSxlWc.png
 
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Taking the MCAT before becoming a TA in both general and organic chemistry. I can't beat myself up too much because I didn't know I would get so into teaching, but I look at some practice MCAT chemistry questions now and I could do them in my sleep. I still did fine, but I wonder about the road not taken.
 
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Spending too much energy on stuff that didn't matter.
 
I'm starting to feel like it may have been a mistake to start college a decade ago as a "premed," decide that I didn't want to go to med school after all, and then proceed to take another two years of hard science classes with the mindset of "I don't need to worry about my grades since I'm not going to med school or anything." 18-year-old me could have saved current me a lot of time, money, and explaining if he'd either been a harder worker or if he'd been smart enough to go be an econ major after first semester of freshman year.
 
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Listening to my premed advisor.
 
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I had a brief stint as a cigarette smoker

I'm pretty embarrassed by that too...
 
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Taking the MCAT before taking any upper division science classes.
 
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