Relax. You do not need to make 4 year plan yet. You do not need to commit to a major yet. You do not need to doggedly chip away at major requirements yet. No need to stress out.
What you DO need to do is come up with a reasonable schedule for the first semester. I know you have spoken of highly ambitious plans for a combined Bio/English major plus a French minor, but planning is easy, doing is not.
Do not delay on getting out of the way that ONE French class that will satisfy your language requirement. Do not think that it doesn’t matter because you intend to do a French minor in the future, and because you feel that the placement exam underestimated your level, since you did not take French in 12th. The longer you wait, the harder it will be. Get it out of the way in the 1st semester. It will be easy, it will give you a class in place of one of the two writing intensive classes, it will be fun!
Think less in terms of credits for this semester than in terms of classes. A usual premed might take chem plus lab, calc 1, freshman comp, and a foreign language. That is 4.5 classes. Take chem with lab, knowing it will move very fast, since it is a year of chem in one semester. Freshman comp. French. The mandated overview P/F English class. Youre not going to take calc yet, because that would definitely torpedo your semester. So 3.5 classes plus the english overview would be a light load. If you really want to, add in another gen ed type class to satisfy gen ed requirements. You can always drop it if it is too much for you.
Try to just focus on this semester, get launched on premed, get lang req out of the way.
OP, you have received great advice on this thread as well as your other. It may be time to take control of your schedule and your career plans. Enough guidance has been given to you to make a plan suitable for you and your circumstances. Hand holding advice will not be available to you always. Learn to figure things out for yourself as you won’t have the CC community forever. Best of luck.
No…it’s not too early to think about a plan B. Every medical school aspirant should have their Plan B in mind right from the get go. This enables them to take and complete courses that will lead to that Plan B. The longer you wait, the less likely it is that your Plan B will work out…and you most definitely need a Plan B.
Hold it…you want to do an MD/PhD? These are amongst THE most competitive programs in medical school. Please research what it takes to get accepted and complete this type of program.
I don’t know if this student wants MD/PhD or was considering either MD or PhD.
My family member is in an Md/PhD program. This person got straight A’s, did medical research during 4 years of undergrad, multiple publications, along with shadowing, volunteering, strong leadership etc. They went straight from undergrad and hit the ground running day 1 of undergrad. That’s hard, as there is an adjustment period.
I want you to be successful and also realistic. Md/PhD admissions are even more competitive than regular medical school admissions. I understand you want to do research…and some folks on your first thread explained that being an MD might not get you to that point. Adding in the Md/PhD option at this point is something I would suggest.
At this point, I would suggest you get a manageable schedule, see how your GPA looks, see how managing the work goes, see what your sGPA looks like…and THEN make some decisions about medical school.
ETA…be successful at college. Right now…put all the premed stuff, and Md/ PhD stuff out of your head.
But even then…I’m sure that the current posters who are here today care enough about the OP to answer their future questions during college or beyond. After all, “you don’t know what you don’t know”, and reaching out to a concerned, caring and informed community is a great way to gain valuable input to take to the actual decision makers == oneself, advisors, etc.
As for the adults, in recent days there has been an active thread from a parent about how to get help for her possibly depressed student, as well as threads on others’ experiences in parenting an adult child who is living at home post-graduation.
I think this is a great community and has such a wide range of advice. I never planned on sticking around as long as I have (5 years) but I know others have been here for decades.
My advice is to focus on your first semester and do not think about anything else.
Create a manageable schedule and do very well.
Socialize and make friends
Get involved on campus, clubs etc.
Get to know your professors, attend all office hours
Take the time to adjust
Once you finish your first semester and get an idea as to the work load, grades, difficulty, activities, amount of studying etc, then you will be in a better place to think about your future goals.
You chose a good school, but it’s also a tough school with exceptional students and I am not sure there is a strong support system in place. That is something you will need to navigate.
It’s definitely a lot to think about. It’s funny, maybe a bit ironic, but if I was living in Pakistan, I would be going into my first year of medical school. /sighing
But yeah. I’ll focus on my first year GPA, making my schedule a little more manageable, and trying out for NUEQ, joining some clubs, but putting my studies first above all. /thoughtful but also feeling extremely worn down and a bit discouraged
As for putting premed/MD-PhD out of mind… I intend to keep it in mind solely for motivation and to remind myself of the track I want to go on. /honest
Please don’t be discouraged. I hope you can be excited instead. You are now going into your first year with a plan to have a wonderful semester where you can excel in your classes and have time to ride and be with friends. It will also give you some breathing room to assess what does and doesn’t work well for you. It is a blessing, not a curse. You have lots more time to figure out your career. You’re only 17 (or perhaps 18). Delaying the decision-making for a few months or a year is a gift you can give yourself.
It is a lot to think about, but that’s why giving yourself some breathing room is so important. Right now, you really don’t know what you don’t know – this is all new. Your plans are based on incomplete information. This first semester will be a chance to round out your knowledge and will help you make better decisions at the next decision-making point, which will likely be mid-semester when you sign up for your second semester classes. So you are really only kicking the can down the road for a few months, but the experience you gain about what college and a college workload are actually like will be invaluable as you make your next set of decisions. /warmly
OP- you are going to do GREAT things, I am convinced.
There was a pretty terrible book that was very popular in the 1970’s-- a terrible book with a fantastic title- “How to be your own best friend”.
You’ve gotten a LOT of advice on your thread and I’m sure it is way beyond overwhelming and sometimes annoying and scary. But I think all of us- your fan club- are trying to help you be your own best friend. If you are used to being a straight line, push push push kind of student in high school, it is hard to transition to a different way of being in college. And yet that’s precisely how you need to approach your transition. You don’t have to prove that you belong at Northeastern- you are there. You don’t have to prove that you can overcome whatever challenges get thrown at you- you already did that. You don’t have to overachieve just to prove something- you just need to take on what is reasonable, do well, learn and grow, and then move up to the next challenge once you are ready. On your own timetable.
You can be your own best friend by giving yourself the gift of NOT always pushing yourself to the max right now. You can take a solid but manageable freshman year and STILL become a physician. You can take a solid but realistic course schedule and STILL have time for a social life and to eat and sleep.
But you need to be your own best friend in order to make the decisions that allow you to do that.
. Sometimes the flood of responses can get overwhelming even for an adult.