Some time ago I made a thread called “Navigating undergrad as a pre-med” where I said how I was confused as to what I should do throughout my undergraduate studies.
I’m currently a sophomore in my second quarter of the year. I planned on being more proactive last quarter but due to some unfortunate events and an awful relationship with my roommate, I barely managed to get a 3.6 GPA for the quarter while not being proactive at all.
I’m even more lost as to what I should do as an undergraduate student at UCSD; this is what I’ve managed so far:
3.85 GPA right now
Volunteer at a Hospital
~30 hours of Physician Shadowing over the Summer
Work at a research lab
Participate 2 clubs (Bio and Med related, Rejoined them this quarter from when I quit last quarter; as a result I have no chance of a likely leadership position soon in these org.s)
Aside from this, I’ve just been doing my studies. Is there anything else I should be doing to help me down the line when I apply to medical school? I’m too timid when it comes to being more proactive and trying to gain leadership positions, so how do you suggest I go about that?
I also plan on studying for the MCAT this upcoming summer, is that a bad choice?
IMHO
You are doing just fine. Questions: Your Major and sGPA?
Assuming you are a bio major, here are few of my suggestions:
Try to get clinical volunteering in a hospital, not administrative.
Not sure what kind of doctor you are shadowing, but be sure to shadow a diverse spectrum of doctors, it should include some primary doctors and urgent care doctors.
Try to concentrate to have a paper written by you and you only in a lab, no matter how small the project is.
Needless to say you should get involved in leadership row in a club, but that is not the most important.
Its way to early to take the MCAT if you have not finish the med school prerequisites.
add some community service. Medicine is a service profession. Adcomms will want to see long term involvement in service to the less fortunate/vulnerable populations as proof of your altruism.
continue your clinical volunteering
make sure you shadow some primary care physicians
too soon to start studying for the MCAT. Wait until you’ve finished all your pre-reqs.
Not really sure what you mean by this. Certainly, a publication is not going to be written by OP and only OP even if OP is the first author. Even if I wrote the entire first draft of a manuscript, by publication time it had been edited and altered by the other authors.
Especially if shadowing opportunities appear limited I would recommend listening to: http://www.undifferentiatedmedicalstudent.com/ It will provide you some insight into specialties you might not get to encounter.
@WayOutWestMom@iwannabe_Brown would you happen to know if we put our 4th year achievements on our medical school applications or not (i.e. positions gained in 4th year, etc.)?
AMCAS has 15 slots for achievements/activities/job/research/leadership positions/ etc. You can list anything you want–even anticipated future activities. There are no hard & fast rules.
However, adcomms are likely to discount anything listed as anticipated simply because it hasn’t happened yet and things we think are going to happen often don’t. Adcomm members know this. (Also listing anticipated awards or elected offices is pretentious and a wonderful demonstration of hubris.)
I would list an anticipated activity that is going to happen with 100% certainty - eg a research or volunteer position you’ve already secured, a leadership role for senior year you were appointed/elected to at the end of junior year but haven’t had the chance to accomplish anything yet. I wouldn’t put anything you “expect” or “think” will happen.