Is it time to switch my course of life?

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hi College Life, I feel as if I've put myself in quite a situation and I'm at a crossroads in my life.</p>

<p>I am a pre-med freshman student who is beginning to take all of his required courses and already, I am trying to figure out it is worth it or not. To constantly be studying only to end up right in literally middle of the curve among some of the most intelligent students in the world really demoralizes me every single time I get my exam back. </p>

<p>I'm not going to make excuses and blame the school or the competition or anyone except myself and my study habits, but after what's happened in the past two semesters - consistently performing better in my non-science classes, ending right in the middle of the curve (B- in intro Bio 1), dropping a science-related class because I was wayyy below the average and the grade was a huge part of my final average, and now I'm stuck in the middle of the curve again. </p>

<p>I feel burnt out all of the time. Even with three classes, I generally feel like I have no motivation to study for my science course (Bio 2) and sometimes this trickles over to my other two classes. I feel like everytime I think of studying for Bio, though, I just think, what's the point? I can't compete with these people. I'm not smart enough to beat the curves here.</p>

<p>I know I have to change my study habits and I tried the active recall method and was able to understand two lectures' worth of material in thirty minutes (when I originally had even a little bit of motivation, before a test I used the same method for also resulted in me scoring in the middle of the pack), but I don't have the same joy in learning it the same way I do for all my other classes. I feel like for my pre-med classes, I'm studying just for a grade, not for the material, because to be honest, learning about animal embryo development is not my cup of tea.</p>

<p>This is stressing me out, but as the saying goes, if you flip a coin you will know what side you want it to land on, and I still want to become a physician - I had already figured that the path I am still taking requires a LOT of sacrifice, and yet I can't turn away. But the competition here is monstrously tough and I'm losing my own confidence that I can actually be above these curves. Advice?</p>

<p>EDIT: I started to blame other things than myself -_- sorry about that.</p>

2

<p>Freshman year is stressful for everybody. It is NOT your fault. HS does not prepare students for college, even the best private prep. HSs do not. No matter what you choose as a major, you will be stressed. However, later you will adjust, get used to it. If this does not happen, then you need to rethink. You also need to take care of yourslef and figure out what resets / re-freshes / relax you. It might be exercise, it might be un-related minor, participation in college life, whatever, it is very personal and everybody need this, otherwise, it is not going to work. Best wishes!</p>

3

<p>I understand how you feel. I started college with the idea of being a research (PhD) chemist. That lasted until freshman OChem–where I crashed and burned. (B-/C+) I also got a D in Calc 2. I was utterly miserable at the thought re-taking calc. I dutifully enroll in chem and calc for my sophomore year, went to the first 2 classes with an increasing sense of dread and depression–and then dropped them and changed my major to something I was good at. I cannot describe the sense of relief I felt knowing I would never again have to spend hours and hours studying something I dreaded and knew I was terrible at. It literally felt like a weight had been lifted off me. Yes, there was a feeling I was “giving up”, but the relief far outweighed any sense of failure.</p>

<p>My new major was tons of work–just a different type of work --but I thrived and ended up graduating with top departmental honors and top Latin honors. I was accepted into every grad program I applied to.</p>

<p>Of course, I didn’t end up as a research chemist…but I have had a several interesting careers along the way. </p>

<p>I married a research (PhD) scientist and have come to know a large number of research chemists both socially and professionally—and I can sincerely say I’m glad I didn’t end up in that profession. I would have been utterly miserable.</p>

<p>TL;DR: We all have dreams. Sometimes they turn out not to be realistic. There are tons of careers out in the world. (I currently work in a profession that I didn’t even know existed when I was in college.) Be open to change. </p>

<p>Since you are still interested in medicine, stop by your career center and ask them to help you research some allied medical careers. Healthcare isn’t just for doctors.</p>

4

<p>classes. I feel like everytime I think of studying for Bio, though, I just think, what’s the point? I can’t compete with these people. I’m not smart enough to beat the curves here.</p>

<p>You’re at an ivy. When you were accepted, were your stats in the middle quartiles or were your stats in the upper quartile of UPenn? If your stats were in the middle quartiles, where were they within that range? </p>

<p>Since you feel that your classmates are going to score higher than you can, I’m wondering if either you’re not cut out for this or your stats were “average” for the school.</p>

5

<p>I notice that you recently changed from being a Bio major to an Eng’g major. Is Eng’g now you’re back up career? </p>

<p>As an Eng’g major, getting a strong GPA will now be even harder.</p>

6

<p>I ended up not going towards the engineering route; transferring to the engineering schools required too many prerequisites I didn’t have and I realized maybe it wasn’t for me.</p>

<p>My stats were in the lower-middle quartiles for Penn. SAT was among the upper quartile but my GPA was about .2 lower than the average IIRC.</p>

7

<p>Are there any study groups that you can participate in? </p>

<p>Do you have good study habits or is that the issue?</p>

8

<p>I don’t know if this will help you or not but you should try seeking out the kids who perform the best in the class (and pre-med/science coursework in the general) and study with them. Try picking their brains and learning how they study. I did this late in my freshman year (when I had weak study habits) and it has helped me immensely in my sophomore year.</p>

9

<p>There are also official (Supplemental Instructor’s) sessions for many classes. Every prof. also has office hours. Did you utilize ALL resources that your tuition payment is used for at your UG? Yes, you are paying for it, use them or not, might as well use them. Lecture is only one of them.</p>