Tips to a pre-med freshmen

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jraz

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Hi everyone! im an international BME freshmen at UofR planning to go to med school. im aware of how scarce the seats are for intl students as well as how hard it is to get my GPA up for engineering, but other than that, do you guys have any tips or disclaimers for me? thanks!

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Other than switch from BME unless you know thats your unbiased first choice? Firstly dont overload on courses in a rush to med school. Challenge yourself but domt bite off more than you can chew. Use rate my professor and ask students if they can suggest good profs for certain courses.
 
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Other than switch from BME unless you know thats your unbiased first choice? Firstly dont overload on courses in a rush to med school. Challenge yourself but domt bite off more than you can chew. Use rate my professor and ask students if they can suggest good profs for certain courses.

it is honestly my first choice. + if i dont get into med school, working as an engineer sounds genuinely incredible and something id love to do, as opposed to being a bio major and working as a biologist or something like that.

and thanks!


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it is honestly my first choice. + if i dont get into med school, working as an engineer sounds genuinely incredible and something id love to do, as opposed to being a bio major and working as a biologist or something like that.

and thanks!


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Study hard your first semester. This will be your easiest course load. You'll see plenty of freshman tank first semester because they "college too much" i.e. frat parties and booze every night. If you do that, you're on a fast track to a 1.0 and can kiss pre-med goodbye. I'm not saying no partying - but every night will destroy your GPA (and your body!)
 
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Study hard your first semester. This will be your easiest course load. You'll see plenty of freshman tank first semester because they "college too much" i.e. frat parties and booze every night. If you do that, you're on a fast track to a 1.0 and can kiss pre-med goodbye. I'm not saying no partying - but every night will destroy your GPA (and your body!)

i made that mistake freshmen year of highschool (3.6 when it shouldve been an easy 4.0) and had to make it up later with a load of AP's haha. thanks!


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There are four things that won't go away/be able to be fixed.
1. GPA (even if your school does grade replacement, AMCAS and AACOMAS do not)
2. MCAT (you must send in all MCATs you take)
3. Arrests/IAs (even if it has been deleted from your record)
4. Reapplication status (to med schools you've previously applied to, to all schools if you got in somewhere but chose not to go there)

Everything else--volunteering, clinical experience, research, letters of rec, are necessary, but you have time to figure them out. These are the four that, if you make a mistake, you will have to work very hard to make up for it. Hope this helps your plan!
 
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There are four things that won't go away/be able to be fixed.
1. GPA (even if your school does grade replacement, AMCAS and AACOMAS do not)
2. MCAT (you must send in all MCATs you take)
3. Arrests/IAs (even if it has been deleted from your record)
4. Reapplication status (to med schools you've previously applied to, to all schools if you got in somewhere but chose not to go there)

Everything else--volunteering, clinical experience, research, letters of rec, are necessary, but you have time to figure them out. These are the four that, if you make a mistake, you will have to work very hard to make up for it. Hope this helps your plan!

Wasnt aware i had to send all MCATs! i heard that the more you take it, the worse you look in the eyes of the admission team, is that true?


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Wasnt aware i had to send all MCATs! i heard that the more you take it, the worse you look in the eyes of the admission team, is that true?


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Yes! Take the MCAT when you're certain you'll get a good score. If you get a bad score, a second MCAT with substantial improvement will look good. Someone who took like 3+MCATs with minimal improvement (or no improvement or even a lower score!!!) is someone who can't study, is wasting time taking tests when they could be volunteering, and is kinda trying to game the system by just hoping for a good score.
 
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Experience, experience, experience. Shadow, volunteer, and (maybe) work in the medical setting. But don't treat these ventures as a means to check off boxes on the 'pre-med checklist', really try and visualize yourself working as a physician in these settings and see if it's something that you're willing to dedicate 7+ years of intensive work and training to get there.
 
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Yes! Take the MCAT when you're certain you'll get a good score. If you get a bad score, a second MCAT with substantial improvement will look good. Someone who took like 3+MCATs with minimal improvement (or no improvement or even a lower score!!!) is someone who can't study, is wasting time taking tests when they could be volunteering, and is kinda trying to game the system by just hoping for a good score.

i see. thank you so much for giving me a heads up


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Experience, experience, experience. Shadow, volunteer, and (maybe) work in the medical setting. But don't treat these ventures as a means to check off boxes on the 'pre-med checklist', really try and visualize yourself working as a physician in these settings and see if it's something that you're willing to dedicate 7+ years of intensive work and training to get there.

i definitely plan to, but if i already shadowed and volunteered in highschool, (less than 100 hours so im not saying its much), can i also put that as evidence of medicine being my goal for a while, or does it not matter?


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i definitely plan to, but if i already shadowed and volunteered in highschool, (less than 100 hours so im not saying its much), can i also put that as evidence of medicine being my goal for a while, or does it not matter?


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You definitely can, I believe that the more you can get the better off you'll be in this situation.
 
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it is honestly my first choice. + if i dont get into med school, working as an engineer sounds genuinely incredible and something id love to do, as opposed to being a bio major and working as a biologist or something like that.

and thanks!


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Then why biomedE? I would think that mechE or ChemE would be more marketable, especially without a grad degree, then biomedE...if med school doesn't work out.
 
be open to not going to med school. Not because you aren't good enough, but because there's a good chance that it isn't the right choice for you.

Don't structure your life and identity around being premed.
 
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Then why biomedE? I would think that mechE or ChemE would be more marketable, especially without a grad degree, then biomedE...if med school doesn't work out.

if med school doesnt work out for whatever reason, i still want to do something relating to life science and medicine, + i might have a job in a relative's medical tech company in france. plus bme already includes all the the requirements for premed


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Go into a easy major, destroy your classes, then enjoy life as much as possible while you can.

I'm a resident physician and sometimes I think about how I kind of missed the college experience
 
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I would very much advise not going the BME route because you want a backup or it sounds interesting.
Going into BME as a back up for medical school is essentially a self-fulfilling prophesy. Unless you're ungodly smart, you're going to have a very tough time. More than likely you'll get a GPA under a 3.5, not because you're not smart but because it's just so much harder. This will crank your pre-med anxiety levels up 200%. You'll then either muddle through the rest of BME stress as heck, apply to schools under your potential and then get in or not OR you'll talk yourself out of medicine entirely because you don't think you can get in or into a "good enough" school and the starting salary of a BME is way higher than a resident.

Just my 2¢, I've seen this happen once or twice...
 
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I would very much advise not going the BME route because you want a backup or it sounds interesting.
Going into BME as a back up for medical school is essentially a self-fulfilling prophesy. Unless you're ungodly smart, you're going to have a very tough time. More than likely you'll get a GPA under a 3.5, not because you're not smart but because it's just so much harder. This will crank your pre-med anxiety levels up 200%. You'll then either muddle through the rest of BME stress as heck, apply to schools under your potential and then get in or not OR you'll talk yourself out of medicine entirely because you don't think you can get in or into a "good enough" school and the starting salary of a BME is way higher than a resident.

Just my 2¢, I've seen this happen once or twice...

Thank you so much for your honesty. I was wondering, if i get a below-average GPA but a fantastic MCAT, will they balance out + will the admission committee take into consideration that i did BME?


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Thank you so much for your honesty. I was wondering, if i get a below-average GPA but a fantastic MCAT, will they balance out + will the admission committee take into consideration that i did BME?


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yes to the first, prob no tot he second
 
Go into a easy major, destroy your classes, then enjoy life as much as possible while you can.

I'm a resident physician and sometimes I think about how I kind of missed the college experience

Yeah I definitely agree with this. Good GPA >>>>> trying to prove rigor by taking hardest classes/majors. Just show your rigor and aptitude by studying hard and crushing the MCAT. Take easy classes and use the extra time to volunteer, research etc. And have some fun. It will make the journey a lot more fun and memorable.
 
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Thank you so much for your honesty. I was wondering, if i get a below-average GPA but a fantastic MCAT, will they balance out + will the admission committee take into consideration that i did BME?


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Unfortunately, as is said throughout SDN, medical schools really don't care how hard your undergraduate major is or how many you have, only that you do well. Building on that, I would get away from thinking MCATs and GPAs balance out. If you have a below average GPA and an above average MCAT the best they can balance to is an average app.

Just imagine how frustrating it would be to kill the MCAT only to be held back by your GPA because medical schools don't care how hard your major is.

If you're going to kill the MCAT better to have a good GPA too. Then the sky is the limit
 
ratemyprofessors.com



But seriously. I'm confident this website probably influenced my GPA by like .3
 
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Thank you so much for your honesty. I was wondering, if i get a below-average GPA but a fantastic MCAT, will they balance out + will the admission committee take into consideration that i did BME?


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No, and that's a COMMON premed mistake. You don't get any brownie points for a harder major or getting a lower GPA in a major you believe to be a harder major.

Major in what will get you the best GPA.

You're an int'l....not only might you be operating under int'l perceptions (that things like a difficult major might matter), but as an int'l, admissions is already going to be nearly impossible, so don't further complicate your situation with a lower GPA.
 
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Wasnt aware i had to send all MCATs! i heard that the more you take it, the worse you look in the eyes of the admission team, is that true?


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Stop and think about what you just wrote. You've been told that the more you take it, the worse it looks....so....with that it mind, why would you think it's possible to have score choice? If multi-takes look bad to adcoms, then why would anyone send in multi-takes if they weren't required to?
 
BME is a fools gold major. Most graduates have trouble finding jobs in biotech, aren't refined and educated enough to get jobs in other fields of engineering, and have been ramrodded by their difficult course load and their GPA ends up taking a hit. There are, of course, few exceptions to this.

If you want to be an engineer, do mechanical, civil, electrical,etc and just take up the med pre reqs. Be advised it will be hard but you will have a "backup" if you don't get accepted into medical school.

If u really wanna just wanna be a physician, go ALL IN. Cut the engineering stuff and strictly pursue medicine by picking a major that won't be as tolling as engineering. You will have a fire under ur a$$ knowing there is really no "career" to fall back on.

Aside from all that, everyone above me seemed to give u really good advice as far as the things to focus on (experience, 4 things that won't go away, mcat, socialize with others)

This is coming from someone who was in the exact position as you, message me if you like. Good luck
 
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BME is a fools gold major. Most graduates have trouble finding jobs in biotech, aren't refined and educated enough to get jobs in other fields of engineering, and have been ramrodded by their difficult course load and their GPA ends up taking a hit. There are, of course, few exceptions to this.

If you want to be an engineer, do mechanical, civil, electrical,etc and just take up the med pre reqs. Be advised it will be hard but you will have a "backup" if you don't get accepted into medical school.

If u really wanna just wanna be a physician, go ALL IN. Cut the engineering stuff and strictly pursue medicine by picking a major that won't be as tolling as engineering. You will have a fire under ur a$$ knowing there is really no "career" to fall back on.


Agreed!

BME is often chosen by premeds because they think it sounds impressive...as if they're finding cancer cures as undergrads. As a Plan B, BME can be a loser. It's probably the only E discipline where you need a grad degree to get a job...because in the private sector, BME is sort of engineering-lite.

ChemE includes all or nearly all of the premed prereqs and is a much more marketable Plan B.
 
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