<p>I was wondering what would be the best way to prepare for Yale during this summer. </p>
<p>What are some books, for example, that we're going to have to read anyway, that we might be able to knock off early? What are YOU all doing?</p>
<p>Personally I'm,</p>
<p>1) Lifting Weights</p>
<p>2) Reading philosophical books</p>
<p>3) Trying to find a good job</p>
<p>and, of course,</p>
<p>4) Donking around on CC way too much</p>
<p>What about everyone else?</p>
<p>I am right there with you: lifting weights, reading, and looking (kinda half-heartedly) for a job.</p>
<p>haha right on!</p>
<p>Interning, night job, lifting weights (or, well, trying to find a convenient gym near where I'm staying so I can start to lift weights again - I've been out of the weight room for toooo long), and reading. But nothing too intellectual. Just finished "Flags of our Fathers" which was very moving. I'm about to finish "Secrets of the tomb" this book about Skull&Bones. Maybe I'll get to some more heady books as I move through the summer.</p>
<p>Best,
DMW</p>
<p>IDEALLY, I "SHOULD" be:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Lifting weights: but at Yale I will be close to the gym in my residential college and there will be the Payne Whitney gymnasium</p></li>
<li><p>Looking for a job: trying hard in order to pay the finances</p></li>
<li><p>Studying a month before September for Chemistry, Calculus, Spanish: because of the placement test. But we ALL know how this will turn out :)</p></li>
<li><p>Starting on volunteer experience / Clinical Experiences: but that can wait to! :)</p></li>
</ol>
<p>And for those who are really crazy and take the initiative to the extreme: Reading books on "How to get into Medical/Law/Business/Graduate school</p>
<p><strong>That is the extrem</strong></p>
<p>Personally, I think that premeds should start preparing for the MCAT as soon as possible....like even now. Later, we will not have the time with studying, service, and having fun/living.</p>
<p>why is everyone interested in lifting weights?</p>
<p>My daughter is running up and down mountains in her hiking boots with backpack on prepping for 6 day White Mountain trip. She'll catch up on her reading later. ;)</p>
<p>D did the White Mountain trip last year. She said it was great. We had all her stuff moved into her room before she arrived back from the trip. We had even met her roommate's parents before she met her roommate!</p>
<p>I have a fabulous memory of her walking across Old Campus in all her hiking gear.</p>
<p>Oh UMDAD. How great! Unfortunately, we will not be there. D's on her own when she leaves this coast on August 25th. Your experience makes me want to reconsider. Hmmm...</p>
<p>"why is everyone interested in lifting weights?"</p>
<p>Probably because we all figure:</p>
<p>"Sweet, well, I'm at Yale - everyone will be an antisocial scrawny nerd (yes yes, I know, an untrue stereotype). So if I can look even moderately built and introduce myself to a girl without stammering / drooling, I will be a top choice for many a girl, because hey, beggars can't be choosers, right?"</p>
<p>Unfortunately, if everyone thinks this way, all advantage is lost. Yet we will still need to lift weights so as not to be at a disadvantage. But if we all agreed to stop lifting weights, we'd still be on a level playing field without having expended all that effort in the gym. Except if one person breaks said agreement... this is beginning to look like the prisoner's dilemma. </p>
<p>More seriously, I've been lifting weights for some time now, and I've found that it's a wonderful stress reliever, especially during times of high anxiety (midterms, finals, etc). It helps me focus and vent frustration. I also very much enjoy the direct correlation between effort and outcome in weightlifting. And finally, while not wanting to sound full of some fraudulent machismo, there is something strangely fun about moving heavy objects.</p>
<p>Light-Heartedly,
DMW</p>
<p>
[quote]
there is something strangely fun about moving heavy objects.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Yes.</p>
<p>To add to the thread, I've been reading Milton Friedman's "Free to Choose" book.</p>
<p>Weights are a quick way to do unnecessary muscle damage...</p>
<p>Calisthenics all the way baby.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/brent2.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.teenbodybuilding.com/brent2.htm</a></p>
<p>That's what I'm doing, week 3 as of now.</p>
<p>As for books, I'm reading "Blindness" by Jose Saramago... freakin' cool.</p>
<p>Done a bit of reading...this is everything from the last year that i can remember...</p>
<p>D. Alighieri - Inferno
M. Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale
A. J Ayer - Language, Truth and Logic
E. Bronte - Wuthering Heights<br>
J. Bunyan - The Pilgrim's Progress<br>
A. Burgess - A Clockwork Orange<br>
J. Conrad - Heart of Darkness<br>
G. Chaucer - The Merchant's Tale
D. Defoe - Moll Flanders<br>
C. Dickens - Hard Times
F. Dostoyevsky - Crime and Punishment<br>
F. Dostoyevsky - House of the Dead<br>
F. Dostoyevsky - Notes From Underground<br>
F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby
W. Golding - Lord of the Flies
G. Greene - Brighton Rock
G. Greene - Our Man In Havana
O. Hanfling - Essential Readings in Logical Positivism
E. Hemingway - The Old Man and the Sea<br>
H. Hesse - Siddhartha<br>
P. Highsmith - The Talented Mr Ripley
A. Huxley - Brave New World
J. Joyce - A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man<br>
F. Kafka - Metamorphosis<br>
F. Kafka - The Trial<br>
J. Kerouac - On the Road<br>
D.H. Lawrence - Lady Chatterley's Lover<br>
J. le Carre - The Tailor of Panama
D. Lodge - Changing Places<br>
D. Lodge - Small World<br>
D. Lodge - Nice Work<br>
D. Lodge - Paradise News<br>
G.G. Marquez - One Hundred Years of Solitude<br>
I. McEwan - Amsterdam<br>
Y. Martel - Life of Pi
H. Melville - Moby Dick
V. Nabakov - Lolita
F. Nietzsche - Daybreak
F. Nietzsche - The Antichrist
F. Nietzsche - Twilight of the Idols<br>
F. O'connor - Everything that rises must converge
G. Orwell - Nineteen Eighty-Four
G. Orwell - Animal Farm
B Russell - Problems of Philosophy
J.D. Salinger - The Catcher in the Rye
J.D. Salinger - For Esme - With love and Squalor<br>
J.D. Salinger - Franny and Zooey<br>
J.D. Salinger - Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters<br>
F. Sagan - Bonjour Tristesse<br>
Z. Smith - White Teeth
J. Swift - Gulliver's Travels<br>
W. Thackwray - Vanity Fair<br>
L. Tolstoy - The Death of Ivan Illyich<br>
I. Turgenev - Fathers and Sons<br>
E. Waugh - Scoop<br>
T. Wolfe - Bonfire of the Vanities<br>
J. Wyndham - The Chrysalids
J. Wyndham - The Day of the Triffids
J. Wyndham - The Midwich Cuckoos</p>
<p>
[quote]
Done a bit of reading...this is everything from the last year that i can remember...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>a bit of reading??!</p>
<p>well...i like reading. not had a lot else to do...and maybe that list is more like 18 months than a year. this summer i'm taking on 'war and peace'...thats the biggie.</p>
<p>xedx, take on The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand over War and Peace (bleh).</p>