<p>IEOR. I did work at an animal lab my first two years at Cal; part of me is interested in learning about biology/animals. one of my goals before i graduate is to volunteer/work at MVZ. I've only been able to go inside when a grad student showed me around-that place is so cool!</p>
<p>but for now i'm mainly focusing on my studies. the grading might be more lenient but i still need to be ahead of the game to do well.</p>
<p>My son's best friend had a brother who graduated 3.8 GPA in MCB, had solid MCAT, and didn't get into med school. My son said, "Dad, he'd like to talk to you, is that okay?" "Well sure. Tell him to call me."</p>
<p>His problem was straightforward. He had spent hundreds of hours doing lab research, which he didn't find enjoyable. He stated in his AMCAS essay that he wanted to become a community physician. In our conversation it came out that his only reference frame for community practice was as a pediatric and ER patient, and an uncle was a happy community doctor. </p>
<p>"Have you done any volunteer work at a free clinic?" "No." "Well that's the entre experience for community medicine applicants. Your research experience doesn't connect with your professed aspiration." </p>
<p>He had just graduated and had no plans. So I said, "Volunteer full time at a free clinic this year. Work hard. You'll get a sense of whether clinical medicine is something that you find interesting and worthy of commitment to. You'll see some very sick people, and committed doctors and nurses in action."</p>
<p>He loved it. Still didn't get into med school, but was accepted into Hahnemann's "pre-medical" program, and excelled. He then got into USC.</p>
<p>Take-home lesson: If you have a dream to become a community doctor, don't waste time doing research, unless its sociological or public health. Do spend a good chunk of your time at the free clinic. Start as early as possible, and show sustained commitment.</p>
<p>A useful tip for acing courses: </p>
<p>Take notes in lecture. My wife was a fast cursive writer, who wrote near-verbatim transcripts of lectures. </p>
<p>I was a left-handed slow block writer. I had to devise a different method:
taking notes in quasi-outline form. By junior year, I could intuitively pick up on profs' voice inflections and separate key matters from nonessentials. Everytime a prof went to his notes, I got my pen ready to record his next statement. Whenever he said, "Oh, I forgot to mention this," I wrote his next utterances down.</p>
<p>When you get to the point where professors pause to remember a mot just, and you think of the exact word he's trying to think of before he says it, then you know your dialed in to his thought processes.</p>
<p>As early as possible after lecture ended, when the prof's voice still echoed in my mind, I sat down and filled in details. </p>
<p>In the afternoon, on non-lab days, or in the evening, I rewrote my notes in polished-outline form. (All this writing helped to mentally organize the material and later remember it.) </p>
<p>On weekends I studied the previous week's notes, and a week ahead of midterms and finals I went through all the preceding weeks' notes. Then the night before exams, I did a no-stress relaxed refreshment study, to wit not learning anything new, just getting ready for the next morning's "performance". Notes put away at 10, and to bed before midnight.</p>
<p>Learn to use textbooks as reference materials to clarify matters in lectures, as needed, with your notes being your primary information source. </p>
<p>Also go to profs' and GSIs' office hours to get clarification, and to get to know them on a personal basis. If you're studious, you'll ask questions that the profs will answer, "Yeah, I'm sorry, I know I wasn't clear on that." Then when they bring this up at the start of the next lecture, you know that they view you to be an insightful, serious student.</p>