Transfer premed student in need of advice..

Pre-Med & Medical School Pre-Med Topics
1

<p>Hello everyone,</p>

<p>I'm a junior premed student that transferred from U of Puerto Rico to U of Michigan last semester. I had various reasons for transferring, but the main one was probably the fact that my peers weren't doing well on the MCAT so I figured taking the important classes in the states would give me an edge.</p>

<p>Needless to say.. that plan didn't go very well at all. I had a solid A GPA(3.7) when I got here. My performance here last semester was horrid, and it dropped my GPA to a 3.54. I got 9 B credits and 4 C+ credits. The C+ was for freshman english writing requirement.. which I guess is understandable given the fact that my first language is Spanish.. but it still made me really upset because I dedicated a lot of time to that class. Basically.. this semester I'm strongly considering to transfer back home in order to give myself a chance to finish up my bachelor's with a higher GPA. It all depends on my performance this semester and my family's financial situation(I don't want them to stretch their budget while I'm up here acting like a huge failure).</p>

<p>There's other factors to consider though. Right now I have no volunteering/clubs/anything whatsoever as extracurriculars. I really want to do something to improve this, but to be completely honest.. I don't know how. I know at this point it might be easy for people to dismiss my interest in pursuing a career in medicine, but I'd be lying if I said I could see myself doing anything else. This has been my dream since I was about 8, and if it does not work out I'm clueless about what I'm going to do with my life. As much as I'd love to get out there, be active in clubs, volunteer in a hospital, ect.. that's just not me. Clubs are not my thing, and I've never even tried going to a hospital to volunteer. I don't know any doctors here that I can shadow.. and well.. it's all just a nightmare as far as extracurriculars go.</p>

<p>An other issue is MCAT timing. I'd be graduating the same semester I finish physics. The poor timing wasn't my fault. Calc sections were always full in my old college and I had to take it the summer after my sophomore year(right before transferring). The counselor here greatly discouraged me from taking physics I last semester. So right now I'm taking Orgo I, I'll take Orgo II spring term, and then Physics I and II next year. If I stay here, I'll graduate in April, take a summer prep course, and then take the MCAT around August.(which isn't good.. I'll have 1 year with nothing to do, and taking the MCAT in August can only hurt me as far as the app process goes).</p>

<p>So... with all that said.. I'm really looking for some advice. Should I transfer back or stay here? What about volunteering ect? too late now? Advice regarding MCAT timing ect would be great too. I'm really confused/clueless at the moment.. :/</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.. and sorry about the long post.</p>

2

<p>My advice...PM 'bluedevilmike'</p>

3

<p>What? I don't know anything about this.</p>

<p>Med school needs EC's. I've never seen a student get into a US medical school from a foreign undergrad, but maybe that's just because nobody's ever tried. 3.54 is probably not going to kill you, but the timing of it relative to the transfer is very bad news. B's and C's is just not going to cut it. I don't know your study habits, so I can't offer any advice. It is silly to ever have your entire life tied up in one goal, whether personal or professional. There are lots of other things to do. I don't know you, so I don't know what the best options are. If you're going to take an August MCAT, you shouldn't apply until the next year. I don't know if you can take the MCAT without studying an entire summer. I don't know if you have something worthwhile to do during that year. I don't know if you need physics to take the MCAT, but in your case probably. If you're at Michigan you have an entire hospital full of doctors. E-mail until you find somebody to shadow. Or maybe you have a program. I don't know. If you're actually Puerto Rican, then a Puerto Rican medical school might not be a bad idea, and I don't know anything about those.</p>

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<p>I'm not a foreign student. Puertorrican students are not considered as foreign students. Truthfully, the only difference between me applying and the typical American student applying is that I'll need a lower MCAT and GPA to get in. (I don't agree with this, but it is the truth)</p>

<p>As far as having my whole life tied to one goal... perhaps it is a silly thing to do, but I'm almost done with my Bio major and my options are limited to either entering med school, becoming a Bio teacher(which would render me unhappy for the rest of my life), or getting a PhD and becoming a prof(same story as becoming a teacher). Everything else is mostly unrealistic.</p>

<p>For volunteering.. the hospitals around the area are not taking volunteers until Spring(I won't be here) or next term(I'll be here.. being picked isn't guaranteed.. I'll try).</p>

<p>The MCAT situation is complicated. I need to take it next year(not this year) the August after I graduate. I'll be graduating the same semester I finish physics. Are you telling me I should graduate, take the MCAT, and then wait almost 1 year to apply for the year after? That would be a two year application process.</p>

<p>Well.. this is disheartening. Even if I improve my performance this semester(which I probably will.. judging by my performance so far) I'm still pretty much screwed. I guess I'll have to transfer back, change my major, and take an obscene ammount of time to graduate majoring in something else.(that wasn't my original plan, and isn't what I want to do.... I -WANT- to be a doctor.. if I wanted to make money I would've transferred to Kellogg or Wharton)</p>

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<p>I mean, your assessment of your alternatives is just plain wrong. For one thing, it's ridiculous to suggest at age, what, 20, that you already know for sure that being a teacher or a professor would be miserable. (For that matter, no career should make you miserable as a whole.) Second, you're ignoring very wide swaths of the economy -- science isn't just about professors and teachers. Third, you're ignoring the fact that many recruiters don't care all that much about your major. Fourth, you're ignoring the rest of health care. Fifth, you're forgetting that there are a lot of career switches in mid-life. Sixth, there are many sectors in entrepreneurship in which you are in charge of your own life and your degree doesn't matter. Seventh...</p>

<p>I could keep going. But surely you would find that tiring. You may want to be a doctor. But if your entire life's happiness rests on a dream that started when you were eight, then that's just not sensible behavior. When I was eight, I wanted to become a paleontologist like the ones that made dinosaurs in Jurassic Park. When I was fourteen, I wanted to be a point guard in the NBA. When I was eighteen, I wanted to be a CIA agent. Now I'm 24 and I want to play strong safety in the NFL.</p>

<p>I won't ever do any of those things. I'm incapable of doing any of those things. So I found something else. And I'm perfectly happy about it.</p>

<p>Sensible people can be happy doing more than one thing. Truly sensible people can be happy doing just about anything.</p>

<hr>

<p>Yes, if you can't take the MCAT until August after you graduate, then you need two years off.</p>

<hr>

<p>Oh, and an obscene amount of time to graduate is also bad. An extra year won't matter if that's normal at your school, but much longer than that and people will start to wonder what the problem is.</p>

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<p>I didn't call you a foreign student. But I will amend the statement I did make:</p>

<p>I've never seen a student from a university which is outside the US50+DC get into medical school. Then again, I've never seen any get rejected either.</p>

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<p>Note: Am I saying that you will certainly have to use one of the alternatives? Of course not. I have no idea what's going to happen to you next semester. I'm just saying that your current way of assessing them is not reasonable.</p>

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<p>Well.. the problem is that I can't want to want something else. I -WANT- to be a doctor. I had -very bad- advice from people when I started my bachelor's degree(I was 16) and I was made to think that majoring in science was my only option to enter med school. I am knee deep into this Biology Bachelor's degree, and I've performed fairly well in all the classes that matter. A in genetics, A in gen bio, B in chem, A in calc, ect.. I don't want to do any of the things I could do with my biology major. I don't want to enter the graduate sciences field. It's just not my thing.</p>

<p>It's looking like I won't be able to apply for med school(because my family won't support me taking two years off to apply) and it -will- take me more than 2 years to major in something else.(because of upper level classes prereqs)</p>

<p>The problem right now is that it doesn't matter if I get a 4.0GPA from this semester on, I'm still screwed with class timing and volunteering. This whole mess is giving me a huge ammount of stress.. and while I'm away from my family, in a different culture, using a different language... it sucks. I really have trouble finding any consolation anywhere I turn. In any case.. thanks for your advice...</p>

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<p>
[quote]
I don't want to do any of the things I could do with my biology major.

[/quote]
Because you have a very poor idea of what the alternatives are, some of which don't actually involve the major itself. Be a real estate agent. Become a baseball analyst. Write for a magazine. Sell science products. Get PhD in psychology. Get a master's in philosophy. Or political science. Become a nurse. Or a physician's assistant. Or an epidemiologist. Design shoes for Nike. Analyze lie detectors for the CIA. Or for a talk show. Read premed essays for Kaplan. Beta-test software for Google. Help Boeing design airline seats. Consult with pharmaceutical companies on behalf of Bain, or Deloitte, or some company I don't know about because it's not my sector. If you think you would hate every single thing on that list and hundreds more besides, then it's not because you belong in med school. It's because there's something wrong.</p>

<p>Again. You might not have to kick in any of these. I don't know what your life is going to look like in a few years. Maybe you'll be in medical school. But fixating your life on one specific career goal is just not reasonable.</p>

<hr>

<p>Besides which, you tell us you've never even volunteered at a hospital. If that's true, it means that probably the most exposure you have to medicine is a certain television show on NBC. How on earth do you know you'll even like medicine? Because you decided on it when you were eight?</p>

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<p>Well, your family shouldn't have to "support" you for those two years. Generally most students find jobs and work during their time off. And you've not "screwed" with volunteering. You just need to start. It's not like it's out of your control. Just do it.</p>