Accepted as a pre-med student; what now?

DadTwoGirls
Sun, 05 Mar 2023 19:53:14 +0000

Lindagaf:

Keep up the grades.

Enjoy yourself.

Relax a bit.

I think that this pretty much covers it.

Get some rest over the summer. Plan to show up at university in the fall ready to work hard. You will want to stay attend every class, pay attention, and try to keep way ahead in your homework.

One secret that I did not fully appreciate until I was in graduate school (and it helped me a LOT once I got it): If you are way ahead in your homework, and if you start doing your homework they day that it is assigned, then you learn just a little bit in doing the homework early. Even if the only thing you learn is “I do not quite fully understand this concept” that will still help you to pick up just a little bit more in the next class session. If you keep this up, over a year (and even more over four years) you get ahead a bit.

Also do not jump ahead in university classes. Instead pace the hard classes out over the full four years of undergraduate classes. For example, we sometimes see posts here on CC from university freshmen who are already taking organic chemistry and are suffering. In contrast, by the time that you get to your junior year of university assuming that you take appropriate prerequisites you are likely to be better prepared to do well in it (one and I think both daughters waited until their junior year, which helped them do well in this tough class).

In terms of getting a paying job over the summer versus volunteering in a medical environment, I am basically neutral. You will need quite a bit of experience in a medical environment before you apply to medical schools, but you have time. Both daughters had multiple friends who were premed. One friend had great grades and test scores but little medical experience. She was turned down by every medical school, so after getting her bachelor’s degree she worked for a year (now going on two) in a medical environment, and reapplied. This is relatively common. My daughter who is currently studying for a DVM similarly got quite a bit of veterinary experience after getting her bachelor’s degree.

To me (and having reviewed your other thread) it looks to me like you are doing very well and are well prepared for university.