<p>Thank you so much for taking the time to answer questions. This is so kind and helpful. My son has recently accepted admission. This was not his first choice and was very disappointed to not get in to UNC. I was so glad to see that you have loved penn state even though it wasn’t your first choice either. My son was admitted to eberly for chemistry but has decided that he would prefer Immunology and Infectious disease. He would like to minor in philosophy because he loves it. Anyway, wondering what you thought of this major for premed. He is an EMT so I was so glad to see your advice there. I am a little unsure about this major as it is in the college of agriculture…do you think this makes a differrence? How would he go about switching?</p>
<p>psubmb: thank you so much for the answer. I am hoping that the advisors will be helpful to him. Do you have any experience with DUS advising? Thank you so much.</p>
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<p>I’m going to address this in three parts, two of which are responses to questions you specifically posed (getting through certain classes and an overall strategy for what extracurriculars to get involved in), and one of which is just an issue I feel strongly about (the premedicine major).</p>
<p>Let’s get the premedicine major topic out of the way first since you didn’t actually ask about it 
I would strongly advise against choosing this major. It seems like an obvious choice – you want to go to medical school, so major in premedicine, right? However, in reality, this major offers no advantages compared to others and only holds the potential to be detrimental to your medical school application and other future endeavors.</p>
<p>Medical schools do not have a preference for any specific major, they only care that you have taken and excelled in the prerequisites. In the face of this indifference from medical schools, for whom “any major works” officially, I think there are two ways to “get ahead.” The first is doing a tough major (most engineering majors, math, BMB, chemistry, physics are really those majors that come to mind as potentially challenging) and acing all your courses. Getting As in 400 level engineering or physical chemistry courses says something about your academic abilities. BE CAREFUL though. Medical schools won’t let you off easy when it comes to GPA just because you had a tough major. If you can get a 3.9 in engineering, it will look great and help you immensely, but it is far better to have a 3.8 in art history than a 3.3 in engineering.</p>
<p>The second way is to do an interesting major – some oddball major that you wouldn’t think of doing as a premed. Something like philosophy, african studies, theatre, whatever. Top medical schools seem to want liberal arts, humanities-focused majors who have also rocked the med school prereq classes.</p>
<p>All in all, the premedicine major is boring, even to medical schools, and offers no unique advantage. There are two specific disadvantages of this major worth mentioning, one of which is concrete, the other a bit philosophical.</p>
<p>The concrete disadvantage – The harsh reality is that a substantial number of people who start college thinking they want to go to medical school will either change their minds or not get into medical school. At the point you are at, you do not really have enough data to make an informed prediction regarding whether you will or will not be one of these people. Interests change (especially in college, where you are exposed to so many new opportunities) and medical school admissions is a nasty game. If you end up doing something other than medical school in the end, for whatever reason, a “Bachelor of Science in Premedicine” is something which looks odd and will forever be a bit of a scar on your resume.</p>
<p>The philosophical disadvantage – College provides an opportunity to spend four years developing a broad base of knowledge in a subject of your choice. Going to a school with as many majors as Penn State, that subject can basically be anything which is studied in a serious academic way! Take a subject you are passionate about, whether or not it is science-related or in any way something which will “help you in medical school” and seize this opportunity. You can major in anything, add on the medical school prerequisite classes, and achieve your goal of getting into medical school. There is no reason to take this amazing academic aspect of college, this opportunity to learn about anything in the world you have a passion for, and diminish it by defining the whole experience as just being a pre-professional program, a stepping stone for medical school. That is what the premedicine major does and the biggest reason I am opposed to its existence.</p>
<p>Now, on to something you actually asked about: extracurriculars.</p>
<p>To specifically address your situation – join the Blue Band! Medical schools like to see sustained (over multiple years) participation in extracurriculars that you have a passion for rather than “a larger number of diverse, medically related ECs”. I do have a friend who is on the Blue Band and has a difficult major. The time commitment of the Blue Band during the fall semesters is not to be underestimated, and the schedule constraints resulting from participating make it necessary to plan your class schedules extremely carefully. But that doesn’t matter – if you really want to do it, you’ll find a way to make all the logistics work out as you go along, and you’ll be glad you did it.</p>
<p>In general, you should have 1) sustained involvement in interesting extracurriculars that you truly love doing (if you have leadership positions, all the better), 2) community service, and 3) clinical experience. These categories can overlap somewhat, obviously. Here’s an example: let’s say you were heavily involved in a non-medically related community service organization, held a leadership position in it, and that was basically your primary extracurricular activity. You then have a few additional clubs that you are involved in to who knows what degree (minor commitments), a ton of shadowing (which is considered clinical experience but NOT volunteer/service experience) and minimal hospital volunteering… that would probably work out OK, because the combination fulfills the 3 areas I mentioned.</p>
<p>Traditional hospital volunteering is largely boring and a waste of time. You can’t really do anything. I’m a big fan of avoiding it by doing more interesting, non-medically related community service (where you can actually have a more significant impact) and finding other ways to get medical exposure/clinical experience, e.g. a paid or volunteer EMS job, shadowing, whatever.</p>
<p>I encourage you to go to ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ and start reading there. It is a college confidential scale site that focuses entirely on the premed/med student audience. Spending a ton of time on there will give you far better advice than any premedical advisor.</p>
<p>I will address getting through specific premed classes and tips for academic success in another post later when I have a chance, seeing as that answer will be another long one.</p>
<p><<blue band=“” (at=“” least=“” in=“” fall=“” semesters,=“” when=“” the=“” time=“” commitment=“” is=“” huge)=“”>></blue></p>
<p>If you play a band instrument but don’t want to do the Blue Band (which is great fun, but very time consuming), there are also fall and spring pep bands. The fall pep band plays for the women’s volleyball games, and the spring one (which actually starts at the end of the fall semester) plays for men’s basketball. You don’t have to play at every game, but there is a minimum (per week or month - don’t recall) that you have to do.</p>
<p>Both of these are classes in the Music Dept and earn 1 hour of credit. A fun, entertaining way of taking care of that general arts requirement!</p>
<p>Oh - and the pep bands go to any tournaments the teams might be in. So, several students in the fall pep band went to the NCAA women’s volleyball tourny last fall (4th consecutive win!), and members of the spring pep band are going to play for PSU in the NCAA basketball tournament.</p>
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<p>I would say that Immunology and Infectious Disease and Chemistry are equally great majors for premed purposes.</p>
<p>The type of skills required for success in these two majors is different, and I would say that the type of learning in IID is probably much closer to that in med school. The chemistry major has a ton of super-tough classes that require high-end analytical and math skills. There are many people who are successful in med school who would bomb these classes. That is the main caveat I would keep in mind with the Chem major and gives IID somewhat of an advantage for medical school.</p>
<p>Philosophy minor is a good move from two perspectives – first, it can be fun to minor in something non-science just out of interest, and secondly, medical schools will love it.</p>
<p>With regards to EMS in the area – the Penn State EMS service gets an extremely low call volume and most of their calls are alcohol-related. Fascinating. Joining the community EMS service, Centre Lifelink, is a much better move. They are top-notch in every way and have enough calls and variety of calls to keep things interesting.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about the fact that IID is in the College of Agriculture and your son has probably been admitted to Science. That is essentially a formality that can be corrected with a few forms. He can contact the advisor assigned to him now and ask how to switch. If they are unhelpful he can contact the IID department office and say that he wants to switch into their major.</p>
<p>Hi, I was recently accepted to Penn State and am interested in a Neuroscience major (Pre-Med). Unfortunately, I messed up my application to the Honors College and missed the deadline. Do medical schools put a large amount of weight on being in the Honors College and if so, is it possible to be reconsidered while attending Penn State?</p>
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<p>No, I don’t have any experience with DUS advising. My only concern would be that there are 160+ majors at Penn State and who knows how much they possibly know about all the different programs that are available. But, for their job (helping you figure out what you want to do, and getting you set up with the resources in that department) I’m sure they’re pretty good.</p>
<p>I would recommend always doing your own due diligence about planning what courses to take, requirements for majors, etc, especially since it’s so easy online.</p>
<p>Useful links for advising type questions:</p>
<p>Blue Book (Requirements for all majors and minors, listing of courses with their description)
[University</a> Bulletin: Undergraduate Degree Programs](<a href=“http://www.psu.edu/bulletins/bluebook/]University”>The Pennsylvania State University | Penn State)</p>
<p>Schedule of courses (note that this has a “past course offerings” feature which is great for figuring out whether courses tend to be offered spring-only, fall-only, or both)
[Penn</a> State University - Office of the University Registrar - Schedule of Courses: Course Search](<a href=“http://schedule.psu.edu/]Penn”>http://schedule.psu.edu/)</p>
<p>University Undergraduate Advising Handbook (answers to many many different questions, presented in a fairly accessible way)
[University</a> Undergraduate Advising Handbook](<a href=“http://dus.psu.edu/handbook/]University”>http://dus.psu.edu/handbook/)</p>
<p>Academic Policies (only really need to go here if you really want to do something strange and are wondering what the procedure for it is)
[Policies</a> for Students](<a href=“http://www.senate.psu.edu/policies/]Policies”>Policies and Rules for Undergraduate Students | University Faculty Senate)</p>
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<p>Keep a stellar GPA and you’ll have no problem getting into the honors college later (usually between your soph/jr year, though you have to apply during your soph year obviously) – see [Gateway</a> Admissions: Schreyer Honors College](<a href=“http://www.shc.psu.edu/future/gateway/]Gateway”>http://www.shc.psu.edu/future/gateway/)</p>
<p>One of the key components of the honors college is a significant dedication to research, and top medical schools do care about that. However, I personally am skeptical that being a member of the honors college is that valuable for medical school admissions… maybe Hershey puts some weight on Schreyers, but even that is doubtful. I think the benefit you get out of it for the time you invest writing the thesis is negligible. Great academic performance (high GPA) will speak for itself whether or not you are in the honors college.</p>
<p>You can take honors courses without being in the honors college (recommended). The priority scheduling of the honors college sure is useful.</p>
<p>All in all, don’t be worried at this point. The door to the honors college isn’t shut. Do well your first few semesters and you’ll have the option to join if you want.</p>
<p>so far on my list i have brandeis uconn, wpi boston university, northeastern, and umass amherst. In your opinion, what is the best school for premed out of these? I am a little weak in chemistry…so if one of these schools really has a good chem program with a bit of grade inflation that would help. thank you!!</p>
<p>Your not looking at Penn state? This is the Penn State forum after all…</p>
<p>Penn State Abington Info???
I’m an international student and I got in Abington last week. Before this I didn’t realize Abington and University Park are 2 different schools! </p>
<p>So PLEASE define Abington:
- Is it a community college or it’s just another part of Penn State?
- Does it share the same ranking as Park?
- I was accepted to Smeal College of Business as well, so am I guaranteed to go to Park automatically after 2 years?
- Does it offer all the courses I need to make it to Park Campus?
- Any other info I need to know?</p>
<p>Also, some stats, I have an SAT score of 1960, TOEFL score of 103 (outta 120), GPA 4.3 (unweighted). I was offered a $2500 scholarship and invitation to Honor Program at Abington.</p>
<p>Thank you SO much</p>
<p>psubmb, I sent you a pm. thank you for your help</p>
<p>I have a few questions:</p>
<p>i decided only a few days ago that Penn State is the right school for me and I’ll be starting there in the fall. I spent two days there and fell in love with everything… the size of the campus, the school spirit, the college town, the programs for my major, etc.</p>
<p>Only issue I’ve been having is that as much as I love to party, I’m not the kind of person who goes ALL out every night. I’m assuming this isn’t a big deal, but considering Penn State… it’s kind of been worrying me. Another issue is that I have a serious boyfriend. He’s attending college only 2 hours from Penn State and will have his car next year, so is completely ready to visit whenever needed. I’ve already been in the distance relationship with him about a year, and it’s worked out great. Just wondering if the fact that Penn State is a huge “party school” will make it a lot harder, or if being in a long distance relationship is rare at this school?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>@fayth10</p>
<p>First of all…Congratulations!</p>
<p>Also, don’t worry about the whole “party school” thing. Just choose carefully what type of people you hang out with. One of the great things about such a big campus is that there is something to do all the time. That said, there is always an alternative to partying. Also, if you do choose to party, as a freshman, you’re access to parties will mainly be limited to stuff that happens on the weekends (unless you are very well connected, or decide to try out greek life).</p>
<p>One of the reasons Penn State has a reputation as a “party school” is the bar scene. It’s when people turn 21 that the whole “drink/party everyday” thing sometimes becomes a problem. Eventually most people grow out of that phase too.</p>
<p>In short, keep you’re priorities straight as a freshman, and hang out with the right people, and you can have a good time WHILE having a good time.</p>
<p>Have fun and study hard!</p>
<p>Do you happen to know anything about Linguistics classes? Ling 001, Ling 100, or Apling 200. Anything about Professor Xiaofel Lu?</p>
<p>My advisor tells me that I should take some linguistics classes for my major and I am worried about the complexity of the topic. (not totally sure what linguistics entails)</p>
<p>Thanks so much!!</p>
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<p>Don’t let the fact that you don’t want to go out every night or go crazy every night you do go out dissuade you… it’s all about finding the right group of people. I would probably advise staying away from greek life, FWIW.</p>
<p>I think being at college (any college) will be a major test of your relationship but the fact that you are going to a school with a “party school” reputation isn’t going to make it that much worse. I have a good friend who managed to make her relationship with her BF who was 4 or so hours away work throughout her time at PSU. She didn’t really go out and go crazy though that much.</p>
<p>Two somewhat opposite things to add here: First, just make sure that you don’t visit/have him visit so much that it hinders you from developing a good group of friends and social life at school (I’ve seen this happen to someone)… especially be cautious of this at the very beginning, which is when everyone is looking to meet people and make friends and a lot of groups of friends seem to come together. Second, if you wanted to have a car your first year so you could go visit when you wanted to, you could… Penn State won’t give you parking your first year, but they can’t stop you from having a car. If you look on Craigslist for State College you can rent a parking spot off campus.</p>
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<p>I know nothing about linguistics unfortunately. Have you checked ratemyprofessor for that professor you are interested in? It is usually a pretty accurate resource despite being based on anonymous reviews.</p>
<p>What’s your major?</p>
<p>Hi psubmb, I was the one that sent you a private message. These are the other schools she has been accepted to: Marist (private school in poughkeepsie), Syracuse, SUNY Binghamton, Colorado State, Univ. of Oregon and University Reno. University of Reno which is instate is the cheapest at$16,000. If Penn State opens doors to get into a great grad school and would have a job waiting for her, then we may be able to justify it. But just wondering if the state school, can do the same, even though she realllllllly doesn’t want to go there. Thanks:)</p>
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<p>I am not familiar in-depth with the other schools you mentioned.</p>
<p>For getting a job, Penn State’s connections are valuable. But for going to grad school, it might be even more important that there is so much research going on at Penn State that you can get involved in if you make the effort, so when it is time to apply for grad schools, you already have significant research experience.</p>
<p>Furthermore, I would discourage you from pressuring your daughter to go to any school if she “realllllllly doesn’t want to go there.” I think it would be hard to thrive and be successful at a place you were pressured to go and did not really want to be. I was not excited to be going to Penn State when I arrived as a freshman and had every intention of trying to transfer after two years. However, I had made the decision to go to Penn State entirely on my own (while there were a few alternatives, my final decision came down to PSU vs. Boston University) and this made all the difference. I think if I had been “steered towards” going to PSU I would have found reasons to be miserable there.</p>
<p>Now, on the other hand, financial considerations are incredibly important. But it comes down to a tough decision involving what the added cost means to your family vs. the advantages of the more expensive school. I guess my overall message here is that you seem very willing to consider a more expensive school if you can justify it using “objective” factors. I would argue that the intangible, subjective feel your daughter has for these schools – which she likes best, where she feels most comfortable, etc – is at least as important as any single “objective” factor you could be looking at since it is so much easier to be successful and take advantage of the opportunities available at a place you love rather than a place you don’t want to be.</p>
<p>psubmb, D is interested in studying about diseases, oncology, and infectious diseases. Should she go with a chemistry or premed major? I read what you wrote in your earlier post about the premed major and was hoping you could share your advice. thank you:)</p>
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<p>Based on these interests, I would look at these majors as well:</p>
<p>Immunology and Infectious Diseases
[Undergraduate</a> Degree Programs: Baccalaureate Degree Programs](<a href=“Undergraduate Bulletin | Penn State”>Undergraduate Bulletin | Penn State)</p>
<p>Microbiology
[Undergraduate</a> Degree Programs: Baccalaureate Degree Programs](<a href=“Undergraduate Bulletin | Penn State”>Undergraduate Bulletin | Penn State)</p>
<p>Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Molecular Biology option (compared to the others - less related to infectious diseases, more related to cancer)
[Undergraduate</a> Degree Programs: Baccalaureate Degree Programs](<a href=“Undergraduate Bulletin | Penn State”>Undergraduate Bulletin | Penn State)</p>
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<p>Premed major is a bad choice for the reasons I explained in a previous post. Really, do not choose a premed major.</p>
<p>Chemistry major is great but very difficult compared to all the other majors discussed here… you have to be great at quantitative science and math to be a chem major and get the kinds of grades you need for medical school. I almost did the chem major but ended up choosing BMB instead. I was torn between the two and one thing which swayed my decision far more than it should have is the fact that to graduate with a chem major requires foreign language classes or proficiency, while BMB does not. I ended up doing BMB + a chem minor.</p>
<p>Biochem and Molecular Biology is a tough major also but you can slide with slightly worse quantitative skills and fare pretty well. Especially since they split the major into two options now (biochemistry is an option, molecular biology is the other) – molecular biology is the easier of the two AND the more relevant one to your daughter’s interests.</p>
<p>Microbiology and IID are both probably easier majors than the ones above (do not discount this factor, since grades are so important for medical school) and are very relevant to the interests your daughter has. IID in particular is a great major. The fact that it’s in the ag college instead of the college of science is a formality and doesn’t make any practical difference.</p>
<p>When I talk about “difficulty” here I am specifically talking about rigorous, quantitative, hard science classes. IID is not a less valid, less interesting, or less useful major because I said it is “easier” but at the same time, it doesn’t have classes which involve the Schrodinger equation in spherical coordinates or tough inorganic synthesis labs like the chem major does. All of these majors have very different “personalities” and the types of skills which lead to success in them are very different.</p>
<p>Does this help a little? I’m sure I could give you more – feel free to ask me to expand on anything here.</p>