On Wednesday, I learned that I got into the Honors College for SEBS. This is my target school, so there’s pretty much a 0% chance that I will go anywhere else except if the other places I applied to can somehow offer a lower price tag than Rutgers.
While I was elated, I’ve stumbled into a new problem: I have no idea what to do for the next several months, especially over the summer, before walking into the New Brunswick campus. Most of the online resources I’ve looked at give advice that’s no longer applicable for an admit (i.e. “take ap classes”). I know that pre-med will be an arduous journey, so I’m looking for options to prepare for the courses and the researching. Here are the three major questions that I have:
1. What are some good resources I can use to prepare for pre-med classes such as chemistry, biology, physics, advanced math, etc. over the summer?
2. Working or volunteering? My parents are pushing me to get a summer job so I can save a bit before entering college. I’m not against the idea, but I was wondering if it would be a better use of time volunteering instead.
3. What are some steps I should take to prepare for the Rutgers pre-med experience specifically?
If you are definitely going to go into medicine, find ways to be involved with something meaningful that will help prepare you for getting into med school. There are a ton of ways to do that and you can research the best ways.
You do not need to do anything to prepare for college other than continue to do good work in high school. They’ve accepted you based on what you do now and what you will continue to do. The whole point of college is for them to teach you what you need to know.
I’m going to give you some free advice. This is the last summer before you start college. If you go to medical school, then residency, it could be the last summer for MANY years (like 10j that you can actually do things you enjoy. So do some things you enjoy.
I would suggest these four things.
Enjoy your summer. You don’t have to “prepare” for college courses. Just plan to attend all classes once you get there…and study well…and seek any extra help you need if you find you need it.
A summer job is never a bad thing to have. So…get a summer job. Earn some money for your discretionary expenses and get some job experience.
You are preparing to be a student at Rutgers. That you have a premed intention is secondary.
See if you can take an EMS certification course. Becoming an EMT will enable you to get work experience while you are in college and subsequent summers. You can also look into CNA courses of study and medical assistant courses of study. I’m not sure these can be completed in a summer…but again worth looking into.
Many EMS services offer training courses. Community colleges also offer EMS, CNA and MA training. So contact your local CC and see.
1. What are some good resources I can use to prepare for pre-med classes such as chemistry, biology, physics, advanced math, etc. over the summer?
2. Working or volunteering? My parents are pushing me to get a summer job so I can save a bit before entering college. I’m not against the idea, but I was wondering if it would be a better use of time volunteering instead.
3. What are some steps I should take to prepare for the Rutgers pre-med experience specifically?
I’ll second @thumper1’s suggestions! If you can get EMT certified over the summer you will have a great source of both extra funds and contact hours towards your med school goal. It is also a useful test to see how you like being at the coal face.
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.
Thank you for all of the replies! Taking everyone’s advice, I will try to enjoy my summer as much as possible. I’ll definitely look into being EMT-certified for the experience and funds!
My daughter’s friend is an engineering major, she took AP AB and BC calculus in HS, took calculus over the summer at CC (I think she had to because of her placement test was a few points low). Calculus is a weed out at Rutgers, a lot aren’t taught well, many end up taking it at CC instead of risking failing and having to retake it at Rutgers. My oldest was a business major and ended up taking it later, maybe junior year, and did fine, but thought about taking it at CC.
I concur with some others in recommending EMS training and volunteer opportunities. It’s an easy early way to determine over time whether you like the practice of medicine (exposure to medic red tape bureaucracy/blood and guts/clinical MD) or the study of medicine (research MD/PhD).
In addition, be prepared to practice and memorize, practice and memorize and oh did I say practice and memorize? That’s a major reason why medical education and training takes so long.
I do think the courses need to be taken at Rutgers, I’ve just seen so much bed reviews of the classes. Ag the very least check rate my professor or search Rutgers Facebook pages, for intro chemistry, biology and physics classes (my straight A student had a rude awakening at UDel with her first chemistry class, all of my kids went to public schools for undergrad, it seemed pretty much the norm).
Over the summer the EMT course can be great. Lower key is the wilderness first aid certification that is a couple days and good to have.
You will probably have a math placement test to take, review for that . Most colleges use ALEKS. There are modules you can review on there or use Kahn.
If you’re a NJ resident, then your EMT certification will allow you to serve with your local corps during breaks, but also pick up shifts near New Brunswick, once you get a feel how much time you can set aside during the year.
There are private ambulance companies that cover underserved towns, hospitals that have BLS services (even if just for transfers/transports), and even some county-wide “mutual aid” EMS services. Some will be every flexible, allowing you to sign-up to shifts on an irregular basis, or just for contracted “special events” (such as staffing testing centers).
Especially in the summer there are sleep-over camps, township “Recreation Department” camps, sport leagues, etc. that look for trained personnel.
I would encourage you to get some type of certification so that you can get in some clinical working hours during college. Phlebotomy. CNA. Maybe EMS, but what you’ll wind up doing is medical transport - hard on the back, and no real clinical involvement, although you do have contact with patients.
EMT and CNA are great ideas, as is phlebotomy. A few other paths include medical scribing and lab research. Re: “getting ahead” in classes by studying actual science content: you might actually get just as much bang for your buck by doing some advance planning. Make a sample 4-year plan that gets the pre-med reqs, distribution requirements, and requirements for your desired major all taken care of. Then shake it around. What happens if you don’t get the classes you want for the first couple terms (this happens at large state schools)? What happens if you want to change your major? Etc. This isn’t to find some magical schedule, but to familiarize yourself with the realities of the Rutgers course catalog. It’ll also help you realize you don’t need to frontload all the hard, weed-out stuff (I did this; it sucked).
However, the bigger part is patient assessment, scene/family/bystander management, establishing medical history, independently deciding course of action under pressure, asserting authority, HIPPA compliance, charting/state-mandated reporting/record-keeping, effective emergency-room hand-off (and occasionally have to ascertain that the registrar snaps out of their routine and “gets” the gravity), decontamination/bio-waste handling – all experiences that are highly relevant/telling, and about as hands-on as one can get before actually having attended medical school?
PS: Modern ambulances have lifts and LUCAS devices, and in many towns, police on the scene, or the fire department hulks can be called in (again / now that CoVid is managed) for lift-assists as needed.
If you go the EMT or CNA route you can look into any hospitals job openings and see what they require for ED tech. Most have one or the other certification. It would give you a lot of patient interaction in a more controlled environment and probably pays better than EMT field work - much of which is volunteer in parts of NJ.