Pre-Med Students - Like or Dislike?

http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/04/top-5-reasons-t/

According to this article in wired.com, the Medical School application process causes pre-med students to act in a way that they dislike.

I will admit, the Adderall thing - I have been tempted. I have not gone that route, because I know that I would like it. A lot.

The point about pre-med students trying to get that A by any means necessary, and choosing classes because the professors are "easy", yes, I can see that. Although I will admit that I took inorganic chemistry 1 with a tough professor, and worked HARD for my A, but I felt like that class really helped me learn. I try to keep in mind that all of these subjects WILL come back to haunt me on the MCAT so I should try to learn them well so that it will be easy to recall them when I need to.

I thought this was an interesting article. I have definitely seen the things they speak of. :) I may have even been guilty of these sins from time to time. I DO believe that I try to learn because of my curiosity. I am VERY naturally curious.

So Much Studying To Do!

I have a test Tuesday. In Embryology - which is a class that requires a lot of memorization. So I have a lot of memorizing to do. :) Tomorrow I will be heading to Borders with my brain turned on and ready to study study study! Hoping to get the majority of this memorization done there. Of course, my friend Jennie asked me if I would help her with her chemistry too. Here's my thought process on helping her with chemistry. While yes, it does take me away from studying for my own class, it DOES cause me to review inorganic chemistry, which is a good thing for the MCAT. And if it is good for the MCAT it is good for me, right? So I will hopefully get Jennie on the right path with her chemistry quickly and easily and then memorize my heart out.

I was one of the smartest kids at my community college. I am so frustrated because now that i am in a school that really caters to the pre-med students, I don't feel like one of the smarties anymore. I feel like I am behind. I feel like there are people there that are so far ahead of me and that i will have to spend the rest of my life memorizing just to catch up. *sigh* I was a straight A student at the community college and so far at MC I have made Bs on all of my tests. VERY frustrating.

Stress and regrets...

At some point last reek I realized that if I want to apply to med school for the 2012 school year i would have to take the mcat this summer!! Meaning 2011. Okay, so I have less than a year to take the most important test of my life, the test that will determine where I will go to med school, where my family will live, oh yeah, and if I get into med school at all! It seems incredible that things are moving this quickly.

I met with a professor at school about job shadowing a doctor. I told her that I was interested in pediatrics so I will be following a pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist October 4th and 5th. The 4th he has surgery in the morning and clinic in the afternoon, and on the 5th he just has surgery. I am excited that I will get this experience. I feel like right now I am doing a lot of the extracurriculars right-volunteering, and job shadowing, but I do regret not taking one more science class this semester. I really really wish I had taken cell biology and the cell and genetics lab. That is just one more thing I am going to have to add to next semester. Apparently there are a few other classes I need to think about taking before mcat. I am taking physics 1&2 over the summer, and then Tuesday someone told me that I should consider taking medical physiology before the mcat because that is sometimes on the test. Fun! Med Phys is a 5 credit hour class.

Sooooo, right now for the spring I have to take cell bio plus the cell and genetics lab, med phys, calculus, organic chem 2 plus the lab. That's not including any electives! That is 17 hours. I feel like I should be taking at least one science elective, like virology or something. Starting to get stressed.....and I really wish I had taken cell bio!!!! :(

Classes Have Started!

Now that classes have started I am only volunteering once a week. Which is perfectly fine. :)

I am taking 15 hours this semester - Genetics, Human Embryology, and Organic Chem are my science classes, and I am also taking Trig and Chapel and a PE class. :)

So far so good. I have had 2 quizzes and gotten a 100 on both of them. I have found that my time is much more full now. Even when I am not in class I am almost always at school because my breaks aren't long enough to come home and then come back.

Tuesdays are a long day for me. I have Genetics at 9:25 am and then Chapel and then a break and then PE. Then I have a LONG break and I have Embryology at night. Well today during my LONG break there was a picnic at one of the Chemistry professors' home and it was free food so of course I had to go (being a poor college student and all!)

I didn't know any of the other students at this picnic. I have only been back in school for a week after all! I am obviously much older than almost all of the other students there. I met one girl who is a freshman, and she started asking me questions about my life. Eventually I told her my whole life story I think, or the life that began when I met my sweet husband at Longwood University, that led to me becoming a pre-med student at 28! I thought I would share this story on my blog!

I went to college at Longwood University in Farmville, VA in 1998. I was not a pre-med major at this point, I was an elementary education major. I met my husband there. We both ended up dropping out and we moved in together. We were engaged at this point, and had set a wedding date for May 22, 2000. Soon after that we found out that we were pregnant with our first child, due May 8, 2000 so we moved the wedding date up and ended up getting married in Nov of 1999. Our first daughter was born in May of 2000 followed closely by another one in December of 2002 and yet ANOTHER daughter in June of 2005. Yes, if you did the math correctly that means that i had 3 children by the time I was 24 and at that time I had my tubes tied. I chose to stay home with these children until the youngest went to school, and I loved every minute of it. I breastfed my babies and enjoyed them as babies so much - and was able to take care of them while my sweet husband worked full time AND earned his bachelor's degree.

While my husband was in school and I was home with my babies I noticed that I was jealous. I really wanted to go back to school myself. I had a very strong desire to continue my own education. Unfortunately we couldn't afford for both of us to be in school at the same time, plus we needed one parent to be available for the children. I talked about this occasionally with my husband but nothing came of it and we never really talked about it. He graduated in 2008 and I started taking online class in January of 09. At that point my youngest was still at home with me during the day. I took 12 credit hours Spring of 09, 9 credit hours summer of 09, 12 credit hours fall of 09 12 credit hours in spring of 10 and 12 credit hours in the summer of 10, before I transferred from Hinds Community College to Mississippi College. My GPA at Hinds was a 3.902.

I'm sorry if some of this is a repeat from a previous post, I am just trying to be thorough.

Right now I am absolutely positive that I want to be a doctor "when I grow up". When I was 18 I did not know what I wanted to do with my life. I knew I wanted children to be a part of my life, and then i had my own children. Now that I am working at the hospital I am considering specializing in Neonatalogy. I love the NICU and love those babies. It all goes full-circle, and I may end up in a Peds department as a doctor rather than an elementary school classroom. It all goes to show how much you learn about yourself as you get older and have more life experiences. And it is fun to share those life experiences with others who are not there yet.

Volunteering Up A Storm!

I volunteered at the hospital/Med School twice last week and again today. I LOVE it. :) Today I was given the honor of being asked to train someone else in this position. When I mentioned to one of the nurses that I was considering a specialty in neonatology she called in one of the doctors to talk to me. It was SO awesome to get to talk to someone that has been in my position.

1 more week until school starts for me! I am getting nervous.

Making progress!

Yesterday I went to the hospital to start preparing for volunteer work. I had to get fingerprinted, have my picture taken for my ID badge, and have a TB skin test. Tomorrow i go back to the hospital to have my TB test read.

Monday, Aug 9 my girls start school, and I will have time to start volunteering. I am excited to get some volunteer hours under my belt before my fall classes start. This is a good process for me for med school. I feel like everything I do is in preparation for med school! This is getting more and more exciting every day!

Summer Classes 2010 are done!

And I finished with 4 As! WOO HOO!! One semester closer to realizing my dream!

I now have a 3.902 GPA. I am thrilled! Looking forward to the start of the fall semester - Orgo, genetics, embryology, trig, chapel and water aerobics. Its going to be challenging.

Tuesday I go to the Medical School for my fingerprinting and TB test for my volunteer work. I also need a new wardrobe for this - a professional wardrobe. I own nothing of the sort. I am excited about the volunteer work though - planning on volunteering in the womens' hospital, rocking sweet babies in the nursery.