Third-Year Premed: Peace Corps, Major, On The Right Track?

Krasnodar1
Wed, 04 Jan 2017 18:22:21 +0000

Hello all!

I’m currently a third-year premed student at the University of Florida. I have a bunch of questions about everything from whether I’m on the right track to actually applying to med school, so here goes!

I currently have a 3.95 GPA as a biochem major/Russian minor, but I’m thinking about switching my major to biology. My logic is that the remaining biochem classes–really the core of the major–are quite difficult and demanding, and I don’t know if my GPA would fall by going through with that. I talked to a prehealth advisor briefly today, and she said that medical schools don’t care what your major is, that GPA is more important. Is that true? Does a higher GPA in a less-rigorous major outweigh a lower GPA in a more rigorous major?

Also, I don’t really know whether I’m on the right track from a non-GPA perspective. I haven’t done any consistent volunteering/research so far–my extracurricular involvement consists of marching/volleyball/basketball bands and Florida Rowing each year, and I don’t have a leadership position in any of those, though I will be applying for drum major and section leader this year for band. During the summer after my freshman year I interned at a rural healthcare clinic and the pathology department of a hospital for two months, then worked as a camp counselor for gifted/talented high school students at Princeton for a month. During this previous summer I lived and studied Russian intensely in Russia on a State Department scholarship (Critical Language Scholarship) for two months. For the upcoming summer I’m currently talking with an outdoor outfitter in my hometown about becoming certified as a whitewater rafting guide and doing that for the summer, while also volunteering with an adaptive sports program nearby.
Basically, what do I need to do to right the ship and get on track for med school? Is it possible to make up for my lack of ongoing clinical involvement somehow over the next year and a half?

Finally, a lifelong goal that I finally have the opportunity to realize is within reach, and that is volunteering for the Peace Corps. Ideally I’d like to be a healthcare officer, and after speaking with the PC rep on campus, I feel pretty decent about that. He said that UF sends the third-most volunteers of any university, and he said that I was right on track to be accepted, particularly with a background in Russian and Spanish. How would applying for med school work with the Peace Corps? Do you apply ahead of time and try to defer admission? Do you apply while on the program and interview through Skype? How do you go about that?

All in all, what do I need to do from here moving forward to get into med school?