Any Older Pre-Med Jumbos Here?

Colleges and Universities A-Z Tufts University
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<p>To Acceptd and others who found those links helpful - no problem!</p>

<p>The takeaway here should be that it’s vital to seek the counsel and guidance of upperclassman, but it’s important (as KJ aptly points out) to actually go in and seek Carol and the other Pre-Health advisors once you get here. Like, right away once you get here. KJ knows, I know, and many other students know that the Pre-Health folks are extremely helpful in planning your courses and your applications, especially at the beginning of freshman year. They’re honest, realistic, and knowledge, but they can’t help you unless you go to them.</p>

<p>Start going to see them early and build those relationships; they’re invaluable.</p>

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<p>^ right on. :)</p>

<p>PS. I actually paid a visit with Carol today. She’s even here during the summer! They really go out of their way to help you. She definitely clarified some things to me…like our $975 EMT course being a rip-off and that becoming a CNA will give me more direct patient contact then becoming an EMT. She also told me that majoring in Biopsych would be less flexible in terms of completing all my pre-reqs for the PA program then it is with Psychology. Awesome stuff.</p>

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<p>I can see bio 14 and orgo not that much of a problem, but bio 13 and orgo almost sounds like death. You have to consider the fact that Bio 13 will require a LOT of reading and Orgo will most likely require a lot of problem sets, where as Bio 14 is mostly Lecture-oriented. </p>

<p>Two of my good friends have successfully completed bio 13 and chem 1 during their first semester of freshman year. Even though it is not recommended to take these together, it isn’t impossible. You can always drop either Bio 13 or Chem 1 if it turns out you can’t handle them both. My other friend took bio 14 and chem 2 together last semester and did reasonably well in both classes as well (without any impact on her social life haha), so that’s another option. Also, Chem 1 can be taken during the spring so you can take that and Bio 14 during spring semester. </p>

<p>In terms of the MCAT, my understanding is that Bio 13 covers much more info that will be tested on the MCAT than Bio 14 does. Bio 14 only covers the cardiovascular and respiratory systems as well as the kidneys (out of the 8 systems that MCAT tests you on). If you’re considering using that AP Bio credit, AP out of Bio 14 and take a General physiology course if you’d like.</p>

<p>If you’re still stuck, see Carol after orientation. It would probably be best to schedule an appointment. I got stuck waiting til 3:15 to see Carol during open hours (1:30pm-4pm) today and it’s SUMMER. sheesh!</p>

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<p>ah wow! great advice. I’m really excited to meet with her and ask her some of the questions that’ve been coming up in my head.

Don’t you still need training to become a CNA? If not, can you clarify on what they do/how you become one, because i was actually planning on taking the EMT course haha :X What if i took it, and then if i decided i would like more direct patient contact, THEN became a CNA? </p>

<p>Also what is the PA program?</p>

<p>Thanks for the anecdotes about bio+chem! I still dont know if i should double phys. with gen chem or double bio with gen chem :X I guess that’d be one for carol! :)</p>

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<p>woops, I forgot to mention that Bio 13 is a prereq for Bio 115-116, which is general physiology.</p>

<p>Yes, you need training to become a CNA. There’s more info about CNA training programs on the Tufts HPA website. CNAs (certified nursing assistant), also known as Patient care assistants, are the ones that probably have the most direct patient contact in that they are the ones who provide the bedside care of the patient and meet their needs (i.e. administering meds, doing basic nursing procedures, observing their condition and reporting back to the nurse/medical staff) but also tend to their basic needs like feeding, bathing, grooming, etc. CNAs also get pretty decent wages. EMTs, on the other hand, their focus is mostly on patient transfer and making sure the patient is stable during transport. This is all stuff that Carol told me today, and it really has me wondering. Do I wanna become an EMT or a CNA? And what will my schedule allow me to do? It really boils down to what you really want to do and what you expect out of health care experience. If your focus is more on acute patient care, go for EMT. but if you really want to spend some quality time with patients rather than momentary time as an EMT, go for CNA. Given the time constraints as a college student, it’s best to choose either one or the other, not both. As for me, quality time really matters if I want to become a PA, which leads to my explanation as to what the PA program is.</p>

<p>The PA program is a Physician Assistant Program. It is typically a 2 year Master’s program that normally most nurses and EMTs go to if they want a career change, but people can attend directly out of college as well as long as they have had a lot of healthcare experience. A Physician Assistant is a midlevel practitioner that consults with a physician but can perform pretty much anything a Physician does, from diagnosing to prescribing medication. They can even specialize in surgery, pediatrics, OBGYN, anything a Physician can specialize in, but here’s the beauty of being a PA–since they are generalists trained in all specialties, they can work in more than one specialty. According to some admissions officers I’ve talked to some PAs can work in the emergency department one week while working in the OBGYN department the next. The catch is, they get paid less than doctors, and they’re not necessarily independent since they are supervised by doctors. But honestly, if helping people and patient care matters more than prestige and money, consider the PA program. :)</p>

<p>Sorry for these long posts. and you might be wondering why the heck I’m up, on College Confidential, at 4 in the morning. I’m actually at work right now and I don’t get off til 8am, so I need SOMETHING to do to pass my time. :p</p>

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<p>haha wow i dont think i’d ever be able to do a late night job lol. </p>

<p>I feel like being an EMT and getting put in front of emergency types of situations where people are bleeding/dying/etc. would be a better experience for me, and especially for me to be able to determine whether or not i would be able to handle the stress, blood, and guts. Considering that i’m not especially interested in a job as a PA, i think an EMT experience would help me more (than a CNA) in deciding if i want to go into a medical field or not. I feel like you can get a similar (maybe a little less intensive) experience with “direct patient contact” by simply volunteering at a hospital in terms of: “CNAs are responsible for basic care services such as bathing, grooming and feeding patients.” I just don’t think that “more direct patient contact” would give me a better background than actually dealing with some emergency situations. Maybe she recommended this because she knows that you are interested in a future as a PA? Do you think she recommends CNA > EMT to everybody? I was also thinking that if i did take PE 131 in the fall, that i’d be able already get some early volunteer experience with TEMS. Then if i feel i was lacking on the direct patient contact aspect, possibly volunteer at my local hospital in the summer.</p>

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<p>Off topic but kj, you’re at work??? What kind of job do you work?</p>

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<p>^ Well CNAs do much more than what volunteers do seeing as they need to be trained to do certain medical procedures. The limit to which most volunteers’ patient contact most likely lies in patient transport and visiting, and CNAs obviously do more than that. But all in all your choice is understandable. It really depends on your preference of patient care. From Carol’s implications it did seem like she thought that CNA > EMT in certain aspects…but for my preferences, I might actually end up just taking the EMT course in my hometown next summer because I feel that it would definitely give me more experience in terms of the medical procedures they perform and it seems more convenient. *But you have to remember, being a doctor isn’t always about the intensive care and trauma–the patient themselves, in critical condition or not, is what matters most. *</p>

<p>Oh yea. If you’re interested in shadowing a doctor, idk if you heard about the Tufts Alumni Network on the career services website, but check it out some time as there are plenty of alumni who are doctors that are willing to offer their time to show you around in what they do and answer your questions. All ya have to do is ask. ;)</p>

<p>@ Neethus1: yea, sucks, doesn’t it? haha. I work for the Tufts Conference Bureau this summer. Great job in itself in that it gives you a lot of experience in the professional world, but the schedule is pretty erratic.</p>

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<p>Ah i see. Yeah i agree with that. </p>

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<p>!!! YES! Hahaha I actually really wanted to ask this, but had forgotten. I am really interested in shadowing since I had found all of zero opportunities to shadow here where I live. Are these alumni local to Medford / would it be feasible to shadow them while still in school? Perhaps on a weekend or something? I definitely need some shadowing experience and would love to start as soon as I could! Also, how easy is it to find a doctor to shadow once you ask? :slight_smile: Sorry for all the questions</p>

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<p>^ haha, it’s totally fine. I don’t mind answering…I mean, there’s really nothing else for me to do at work…haha (yes, I’m at work right now x_x)</p>

<p>anyway, I know exactly how you feel. The thing about the alumni network is that these people choose to give their contact information for these kinds of purposes, you know, helping out the undergrads (woopwoop!). All you need to do is go on the career services website, go [Here](<a href=“http://careers.tufts.edu/students/majors/networking.asp”>http://careers.tufts.edu/students/majors/networking.asp&lt;/a&gt;), and follow the directions. you need your Student ID number and your SIS pin (I don’t know if you got this yet, but you will definitely have it once you’re here at Tufts). Once you’re on the network, you can search “doctors” or something like that and it will give you a listing of all alumni who are doctors. Click on a name and it will give you the contact info, what they majored in at Tufts, what year they graduated, and where they work now. Just shoot them an e-mail, say you’re interested in learning more about becoming a doctor and perhaps even shadowing. More than likely they will reply back, but if they don’t, there are plenty more alumni there to choose from. Hope that helps!</p>

<p>Woops. I forgot to add, not all of them are local, as there are probably many who decided to work at their hometowns or other places. But there should be a good amount that are still in Boston.</p>

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<p>haha wow. Heavy worker!</p>

<p>Niceee i checked out the site and it looks awesome! Hopefully some of them can help us jumbos out!! :)</p>

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<p>a lot of the earlier posts said that many people think bio 13/14 are very difficult - but is 14 generally easier than 13? i just took bio 13 and did ok in it, but now im debating if i should use my AP bio credit to skip 14 or to just take 14 if it can boost my science GPA. if i do skip out of 14, that would mean i’d have to take an upper level bio course as a premed student, and aren’t the upper level classes even harder to do well in than in bio 14?</p>

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<p>either way you’re going to have to take upper level bio courses as a pre med student (med schools, like to see them taken instead of just the intro-classes), so taking 14 won’t get you out of upper level courses. from what i’ve heard, at least bio13 (not sure about 14), is the hardest bio class in the bio dept. at tufts - so the upper lvl courses probably aren’t as rough - but I could be wrong (it’s just what i’ve heard) </p>

<p>i plan on opting out of 14, because the material sounds dull and it could potentially be another weeder course (maybe not as bad as 13). ultimately it’s up to you. if you did well in 13, then you can probably do well in 14, too. but if you want to boost your sciGPA, chem1/2 and math11/12 is probably an easier route.</p>