<p>From reading this forum is seems like if you want to be pre-med you can't do a lot of fun college things because you have to be doing something else instead, like research or shadowing. For example can pre-meds still do spring break, partying and getting drunk on the weekends, and going on spring break? or will you be forced to do things to help you get into med school? either way it wouldn't prevent me from being pre-med, it would just be a little disappointing.</p>
<p>If you don’t like being around being around doctors and hospitals, and you like getting drunk on weekends, you might have a problem being a successful pre-med. If, OTOH, you have to give up all social interaction, all travel, all “down-time” to do the necessary things to get admitted, well…you might have a problem being a pre-med. It’s all about achieving a balance. Might as well learn it now. It gets harder to stay balanced each step up the ladder.</p>
<p>BTW, my kid had a ball in college (sorority, Ultimate, intramurals, dating) and she was a successful pre-med. Then again, she and her friends would go the Med (the local teaching/charity hospital) on Friday or Saturday nights because …to them…it was fun and exciting. Then they’d go to a party the other night. ;)</p>
<p>Not instead, pre-meds are just like everybody else. They are taking care of academics, EC’s participate in Greek (if they want to), working, hitting bars on a weekends, getting GF’s, BF’s, if that’s what you mean. What else? D. had to drop athletic club, yes, she could not do that, it was too much. However, she continued using her sport for workouts. Yes, they hit gym also. Yes, they travel abroad and yes, they do not do anything during summers if there is nothing available in home town, so they use summers to spend time with friends and sleep until 2pm, they deserve it.</p>
<p>Both my kids had a good time in college (sorority, dating, beer pong, club sports, jobs, summer travel). One is in med school; the other is a very strong candidate. </p>
<p>You can be a successful pre-med if you can learn to use your time efficiently.</p>
<p>D1 use to do her ER volunteering on a Friday night (lots of stuff happening in a ER Friday night), then head out to a party/hang with friends afterwards. (Her friends used to party all thru the night 'til around 3-4 am so it really didn’t matter if she got there at 9pm or midnight. People were dropping by at all hours.)</p>
<p>It’s all about time management for most people. There will be some people who do nothing but study and build a CV and the reality is that Med school admissions is getting tougher for those who choose that route. Being a well rounded applicant appears to be getting more desirable. Being able to successfully balance the academic and social side becomes increasingly important in Med school.</p>
<p>Along with other activities including a fraternity, my S played lead guitar in one of the top local bands in the town he went to school in. That took some real balancing and the cooperation of band mates when scheduling gigs. Interestingly, he said it was something that was brought up in every Med school interview he had and generally resulted in a lot of positive feedback from the Docs who interviewed him. It was something that made him stand out from the pack and also made him “interesting” which is not a bad quality to have when they are looking to build/fill a class.</p>
<p>He has managed to continue his love of playing music. He and three other Med students put together a band that plays at school parties and even school sanctioned events like orientation activities and he has even had the opportunity to play/jam with one of the Deans.</p>
<p>It’s all about time management and moderation. Those who party too often will have problems.</p>
<p>My son has gone to every home football game…and watched every away game on TV. With good time management, anyone can find a few hours every weekend to have some fun.</p>
<p>Frankly, I’ve met few people who study on a Friday afternoon/night. That’s when son usually plays basketball with friends…and then they have fun afterwards.</p>
<p>Gee. We’re all singing the same tune. </p>
<p>The truth for me is , I have never once had to worry about my kid doing the work. Yeah! I have had to worry about her working herself to the nubs (literally to a unhealthy state). Boo! As a parent, I find that at least as disquieting. I have had to pound the idea of a balanced life: spirit/body/mind into her for a long time. She made some good progress in college. She may be making even more progress in med school (yeah for pass/fail). High school was the pits. </p>
<p>I’m quiet serious in saying that this balance does not in get easier after admission to med school and IMO, it just keeps getting harder. Don’t lose yourself to climb some ladder. It ain’t worth it.</p>
<p>“in get easier”? 
“get any easier”. Sheesh.</p>
<p>nah I do all my work from Sunday through Thursday evening and then have fun the rest of the week. Pretty easy to do both. Just gotta have that work hard play hard mentality.</p>
<p>You may be missing the point. Your weekends are not going to be as free as your classmates’ weekends. You’re not going to have the shadowing, clinical contact, volunteering, research, meaningful EC’s on your app if you try to do it Monday through Thursday and stay toasted from Thursday night on. That’s not the balance we are talking about.</p>
<p>^Most of those shadowing/clinical experience/volunteering/research happens during the weekdays. </p>
<ol>
<li><p>As far as shadowing goes, most doctors see patients in clinics on weekdays. Good luck finding a doctor to shadow on the weekend.</p></li>
<li><p>For clinical experience/volunteering, most programs will force you to do a lot of weekday volunteering (my particular program doesn’t let you volunteer on Sundays, and Saturdays are so slow that you never end up doing much so you’re best off coming in on the weekdays).</p></li>
<li><p>Research labs are mainly open on the weekdays. And even if they are open on weekends, you probably won’t be able to go in then if you’re working with the PI/post-doc/grad student since you have to follow THEIR SCHEDULE (and they’re mostly in the lab on weekdays during the day).</p></li>
<li><p>Weekends are, IMO, best for job, non-medical volunteering through other clubs, or catching up on work/studying. I do most of my EC’s during the week, and as a result, I don’t get too much work or studying done during the week. But then I use the weekends to catch up/work ahead for classes. Its actually been working out pretty well so far.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>curm,
“Yeah! I have had to worry about her working herself to the nubs” - funny, the same story. When my D. was in JH, I called her principle (tiny private school) to ask how to make her to do less. Priciple said, I was the only one with this question in her entire proffessional life. I am glad that D. was literally burried in all kind of actvities since she was 5 years old (also by her own choice), otherwise she would do her homework rule - 10pm was the limit for everything, including homework. That also helped. Principle had no suggestion.indefinitely. She does not have 10pm rule any more, but burrying herself in everything that available outside of academics is still going on, even after being at Med. School for less than 2 months, the list is getting long. I am getting worried…as usual though.</p>
<p>curm and theespy, you are talking about 6 of one, half a dozen of the other. Theespy is right that many research/shadowing opportunities will be weekdays, but curm is right because theespy, you obviously have less time on the weekend than your friends because you have to do all your work then (or maybe you have less time during the week since your friends don’t do work during the week). Whatever. We all agree here. Many pre-meds have lots of fun, and this is coming from a former DI varsity athlete and fraternity president who was pre MD/PhD. I certainly never did any work during spring break!</p>
<p>^The same for D’s summers or other breaks. She did close to nothing, since nothing is available where we live. She was happy to be able to find some shadowing/volunteering. but she mostly relaxed, spent time with her HS buddies and slept in. She did all her EC’s during school year at her college. She had to drop her sport though for the sake of other stuff, but it was her choice, she had to draw a line somewhere, everybody needs to sleep and eat and have fun on the weekends.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it’s just me, but doesn’t anyone else here consider their studies and research to be “fun”? I certainly do! There are few things more exhilarating than running a gel/Wblot and getting exactly what you wanted, or having a protein sent off for sequencing come back correct!! This is some FUN stuff. :)</p>
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<p>If this is true, then I should consider myself fortunate. All summer I was working at one of the top cancer research centers in the country and I had access whenever I needed it. As a matter of fact, there is no way I could have finished my project without 7 day access. I will keep this in mind in the future. Perhaps greater access can be negotiated?</p>
<p>It’s not just premeds. Any hard science major will have to put in more work to earn top grades than a standard liberal arts major. That is just the way it is. A lab write-up for a one-unit (or zero-unit )course can easily require more work than a 5-page Hume paper for a 3-unit course.</p>
<p>(And I opine one of the reasons that STEM majors have easier times finding jobs than Lit majors: there are just fewer of them since the work load limits the # non-STEM majors who’d rather go drinkin’ on Wed-Thur nights.)</p>
<p>P.S. Architecture and Engineering are two majors which are a real sink-hole of time.</p>