I’m currently a HS Junior in Texas hoping to pursue pre-med when I apply to college in 2024. I’m very worried about my stats and extra-curriculars because I feel like I slacked off freshman and sophomore year. Here are my current stats:
101.3 weighted gpa
95 unweighted gpa
1450 sat
unranked
APs:
AP Computer Science Principles: 4
AP Computer Science A/1: 4
AP Human Geography: 4
AP World History: 5
AP European History: 5
ECs:
member of bpa, deca, hosa
ap scholar
Background:
Male, Asian
Any advice/suggestions on how I can improve my cv/resume/stats if I’m aiming for t30s (dartmouth, umich, etc…)
Study advice would help to as I have a huge attention deficit.
I am primarily interested in attending top 30 universities because of the prestige they have and the extensive alumni networks I have heard they provide from relatives and family friends. I am also interested in the resources available at these universities, it seems as if these ‘ranked’ schools have better facilities, etc.
In terms of my attention deficit, I suppose its the lack of discipline I place onto myself, I’m sort of accustomed to skimming over the notes and winging the test with m/c strategies, but that method is starting to show negative effects upon my grades and stuff.
I feel like my grades are ‘poor’ because of my rank, I feel like I’m capable of achieving top 6% (for in-state admission), but at the same time it seems out of touch due to the intense environment some of my fellow classmates put themselves through. I’ve heard accounts of students studying for 6-7 hours straight (unbelievable), while I can’t seem to stay focused for 30-45 minutes.
Some state schools are on my list as well, such as Baylor, UT Austin, uHouston, t30(s) are just what I want to achieve!
I think personally you need to look beyond prestige. There are some fabulous colleges with brand spanking new and up to date labs, for example, with outstanding faculty. You make it sound like every doctor out there has attended a top 30 college and that just isn’t true.
There are folks on this forum with doctor kids who went to great medical schools after graduating from NOT top 30 colleges. And some who graduated from top schools and didn’t get acceoted to top medical schools.
I will tag @WayOutWestMom who might be able to give you some advice about how prestige college names factor into medical school admissions…and how students from other than these schools can get outstanding medical school acceptances.
Thanks! Will definitely look into that… I’ve pretty much always assumed that you needed a ‘prestigious’ undergrad to get into top medical programs, but I guess not.
Regardless of what schools I want to go to, are there any general recommendations you suggest to do to improve my resume?
You need to have excellent grades in college and do well on the MCAT to get into med school. It’s a benefit to go to a school where you can shine and do well and you definitely need to learn to study now in high school. That is incredibly concerning if you honestly can’t focus for more than 30-40 minutes. I hope you are exaggerating. Work on your study habits now. You absolutely need to be able to focus in Med school and in college before that. And yes sometimes that means for 6-8 hours. That’s a work day.
I sat down and talked to my parents and they told me there really is no budget in mind if it is whats best for me and my future. But realistically in my mind, i think 40-60k/year tuition is fine because thats what TCU, SMU, Rice cost. I think I’m going to have to make a list and really breakdown with my parents what the costs are before I make a fully-pledged decision.
In terms of pomodoro, I’ve tried but everytime I try sitting down and studying I just end up getting distracted by something. Then when I try to remove those distractions I just wander off and forget about my task.
I see what you’re trying to say here, I’ll definitely look towards improving my habits using your resources. It just seems like I struggle with staying focused for when I need to, like I know of all the methods like active recall, spaced repetition, etc. But I can’t seem to actually apply them to myself. Maybe I just need to work on finding a good, quiet environment that I can focus in.
It’s not assessed or diagnosed. I just feel like sometimes I have an inner monologue that basically prevents me from doing work. Maybe I’m just lazy and all, but most of the time when I get home from school and I tell myself I have some important tests coming up, or maybe I should do the assigned homework, I feel like I can’t bring myself to it and I end up in a loop of just scrolling on my phone. I’m going to try moving my study place and keep my phone away.
Med school admission officers look at applications holistically and place little emphasis on the name of the undergrad attended. (It’s not zero, but it’s among things with the lowest importance to adcomms.)
Med school admission is holistic–your science GPA, MCAT score, get you through the first round of cuts. Your ECs, LOEs (letters of evaluation), mission fit, personal statement & essays, and your lived experiences are what will take you through the next several round of cuts.
Your success in gaining a med school admission is firmly within your control. It is not dependent upon where you go to undergrad.
There are some considerations you need to make when choosing an undergrad–
adequate pre-med advising (although, frankly, even at some top schools the advisors are terrible)
the presence or absence of a health profession committee (which will write your LOE for your med school application. A HP committee often acts like a med school pre- screener and usually refuses to write a LOE for any student they believe doesn’t have an excellent chance of gaining a med school acceptance.)
the option for other majors beside pre-med (Research shows that ~85% of freshmen pre-meds never end up applying to med school)
cost (The cost of med school is rapidly approaching $100K/year and there is precious little financial aid except for loan, loans and more loans. Pre-meds are strongly advised to minimize undergrad debt)
the strength of your academic cohort at your undergrad (Pre-med is intensely competitive. Your classmates will be competing with you for the limited number of A grades available in all your pre-reqs classes. Since science/engineering majors tend to be the strongest students academically, you don’t want to attend a university where your stats put you in lower 50% of entering freshmen, maybe not even in the lower 75% of entering freshmen.)
It may be worthwhile to get a neuropsych evaluation. If you truly have ADHD then help/medication can be made available. If you do not have ADHD then it is imperative that you improve your study habits. Either way, it would be best to find out and deal with the situation while you are still in HS.
I will also echo others in saying that a T30 college is not needed to gain admission to medical school.
Is there a website/resource out there that denotes if a school meets these criteria?
No, there isn’t.
You need to research each school you plan to apply to.
Private colleges are more likely to have HP committees, but many public college also have them.
You can check each college’s website to see if they offer health profession advising. Unless it’s a very small college, they usually do.
Cost is going to be entirely dependent upon what you and your family can afford to pay. You and your parents should run the net price calculator for each college you plan to apply to see if it’s affordable.
You can look up the stat quartiles for ACT/SAT and GPA for each college you plan to apply to. and see where you stand. Google “common data set + name of university/college”
I teach high school in Texas. Many of my students have attention deficit, even if they don’t have the diagnosis. One strategy has been proved useful by many students who are willing to work. The main point is to NOT attempt to do a lot of work for a long time (i.e. studying for 4 hours straight); instead, do small amount of work, take short breaks, and switch subjects.
I tell them to take a close look at each assignments as they receive them, estimate how long each assignment is going to take, figure out a way to break down in smaller pieces any assignment that’s going to take more than 20 minutes. Each piece of work should be around 15 minutes (or 10 if that’s how long they can actually focus), followed by 5-minute break. They can do these small pieces of work on their ride home, before lunch (when the lines are long), after school before club time, etc. When they have a longer period of work time, they should do one piece for one subject, take a 5-minute break, then do another piece for another subject. For example, do 2 math problems, break, read one page for world history, break, do one chemistry problem, break, watch one Python tutorial, break, etc.
Additionally, making an actual to-do list of homework and crossing off items one by one can give great feel of satisfaction.
I give all my students this tip; however, only a handful actually follow. Those who did told me it worked and they had more free time. Semester finals are coming soon. I need to remind my students again to study more efficiently.
