Hey guys, I am an incoming frosh at Drake University and my major is Neuroscience. I am taking Chem 1, Bio 1, Intro to Neuroscience & an art class my first semester. I have class 8/9 am until 4:30 pm which includes my labs. I also have breaks in between. I am either deciding between PA school or Med school. My real question is, should I take an extra curricular/volunteer that semester and if so what? I kinda want to start off strong!
You need good grades to get into either med school or PA school. So earning a high GPA should be your first priority when starting college. Once you’ve completed a semester or two and understand how to do well in college, then you can start to add ECs.
For med school, you’ll need community service (non-medical), clinical volunteering, physician shadowing, leadership roles in your activities, and clinical or lab bench research.
PA school requires 500 to 3000 hours of hands-on patient care for admission.
How many students are in your classes?
You could push yourself and stand out for your well thought out questions and preparation, wait till a first, successful midterm, then ask a professor if you could assist in his/her lab. At first you’ll do boring, grunt work, but once you’ve proven yourself, you’ll be entrusted with more and more.
Your could read AFrenchie36 on tumblr for example.
As for leadership, join a club or several, as those will empower you structure your time, but do those for fun, for now.
You’ll build leadership from involvement in activities you like and you’ll know what that is after you’ve tried out a bunch of them.
Build things over three years - it’s a marathon, not a dash.