Opinions about when to study?

WayOutWestMom
Tue, 06 Jan 2015 03:28:12 +0000

Critical & analytical reading skills come first. Specific course content comes last.

As for the not enjoying college–that’s terribly sad. You only get to go college once. You have the rest of your life to oh so very, very serious and not enjoy your life.

College is about learning to balance academics with the social side of life. You can have both and be a very successful pre-med. And frankly, if you can’t manage both a strong academic record and decent social life then you’re not a very good candidate for med school in the first place.

I have 2 in med school and I can guarantee you the neither spent their Friday and Saturday nights languishing on the library. Each had a very active social life that included parties, fraternity/sorority membership, sports, non-medicine related clubs, travel, and hobbies.

Medical school adcomms do not want academic automatons. They want interesting, rounded individuals. There is something informally called “the lunch test” that adcomms employ during interviews. Basically it’s a question they ask themselves about the candidate: Is this a person I’d enjoy eating lunch with every day while they’re on my service? (IOW, can they carry on a interesting conversation about stuff that is not medicine?) If the answer is no, then there’s no acceptance in your future no matter how good your grades are or how high your MCAT is.