<p>My son is attending one of IVY schools as a frosh and
he wants to go to a medical shool unlike my wish.
Luckily he got GPA 3.86 in 1st semester.</p>
<p>He is involving in research now and doing other 3 extracurriculars
like sport, music and research journal editing and also taking
one more course in his 2nd semester to challenge himself.
Even he got CPR to prepare for EMT B next year.</p>
<p>But the time he's spending in research is around 20hrs/week
(I don't know whether he knew it befor joinging it) and
also too busy with othe extracuriculars.
I know that he'll manage all of them, but I'm worry that he might not
get high GPA which is very important to Med admissions.
Also I don't want him to burn out from the beginning,
as it is a long way to be a doctor.</p>
<p>Do I have to advise him to drop one or two extracurricular activity,
and if possbile one extra course, if 2 or 3 extracurriculars are
enough(?) in preparing for med-school ? </p>
<p>I know that as he is an international student and it's very hard
to get into USA med schools and also almost impossible to get
financial aid. That's why he wants to do many things and hard work.</p>
<p>If I have enough money and if he has USA citizenship or green card,
I might not worry about him that much.</p>
<p>But as a parent, I want him to enjoy(?) college life, not just working
too much for pre-med preparation.</p>
<p>i too am an international student looking to go to med school so i know exactly what you’re dealing with!</p>
<p>my parents worry all the time, because they dont want me to go pre-med for 4 years and then not get in to med school… </p>
<p>in my opinion he should just be reasonable and make sure he doesnt overwork himself, like you said, it is a long way and most people cant keep up working that hard for so long… however, working hard with many things will prepare him for med.school!</p>
<p>i think that because he is from an IVY he has a distinct advantage, from what i hear they have an extremely high rate of getting their students into med.school, so i personally wouldnt worry too much if i were you(or him) because odds are he will make it, as long as he does well GPA wise and on the MCAT’s :)</p>
<p>I think if he’s having fun with the extracurriculars then I wouldn’t advise him to drop any of them. As far as the research hours are concerned, to me, it seems like he’s spending a lot of time in the lab. With the prospects of him adding an additional course to his load, I don’t know how he finds the time to fit 20 hours a week of research in. And maybe more importantly, how much of that 20 hours is quality hours spent in the lab. And what I mean by quality is this: This semester, due to a lightened course load, I’m able to work around 14 hours a week in the lab. I could have worked more, but realistically the extra time spent in the lab would have been worthless. I would have only been able to come in for maybe 1 hour- 1.5 hour stretches, which would not be enough time for me to do anything worthwhile in the lab, such as experiments, and I would have been left doing maintenance work in the lab, which is not what I’m interested in being there for.</p>
<p>I think if you advise your son to cut back on anything, it might be the amount of time he spends in the lab, or at least to have him look at the amount of quality time he actually spends in the lab. Unless he plans to pursue a M.D./PhD or if he plans to write a thesis before graduating, I see no sense in him spending that much time in the lab in addition to all the extracurriculars and the increased course load, unless he truly enjoys it. </p>
<p>I had a friend who pretty much had burnt himself out during his fresh and soph years. In addition to taking the sophomore stretch of hard classes, he was spending a lot of time in the research lab AND working some nights due to him being on call for an Eye Bank. Not to mention the fact that he was involved in at least 5 different organizations. His GPA was lowered during this time (something that might keep him out of his top choice school). But from all of this he learned from his experience, and now does not work as much in the lab, and dedicates Fridays as party nights. :)</p>
<p>Hello, I am also an international student with the dream of entering med school in the US. I would very much like to go to Harvard Med, as they offer facilities for int. students. My dream pre med schools are cornell and harvard, yet I am affraid that in Cornell, because of the grade deflation, and because I am int. I might not be able to get into Harvard Med, is it really that difficult in Cornell? any advice?</p>
<p>As someone mentioned above, if he’s enjoying himself, don’t encourage him to drop anything. Have you expressed your concerns to him…maybe they are unsubstantiated? If he doesn’t get into medical school here…so what? There are plenty other options he can pursue down the line. Let him live his life. These are things he has to figure out for himself…what he wants out of his experience, etc. My parents meddled far too much in my education when they really had no clue what my life was like. Please don’t do this to him.</p>