Whenever I meet students that are brand new to College or have finally decided to take on a path down the pre-medical route, I am reminded a lot about my first year in college when I decided to pursue a career in the healthcare field. It was definitely a time where I had a mixture of nerves and excitement. I figure that his might help out anyone who is currently in this situation right now.
The problem is with those starting out with being pre-med (or perhaps any other career choice) was that no one had told me what I had to do or gave me any kind of direction. I was figuring a lot of things out for myself and didn’t really have anyone to ask many of these things that I am sharing with all of you.
Meeting With Pre-Med Advisor:
Of course I did meet with my pre-medical advisor the second day of school of my first semester in college and he steered me in the right direction of the kinds of classes to take and some ideas on how to spice up my application. The only problem with meeting with my advisor was that he never applied or went to medical school himself so he could only lay some of the foundation of my knowledge for me. I would definitely recommend that everyone get together with any advisor or committee that your school has set up. That way they can give you a good push in the right direction but make sure to follow up with some work on your part by getting Involved with other facets of college.
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Getting Involved:
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What really helped me get on track was getting involved in societies and clubs at my school. They had a pre-medical society that met once a week where other pre-med students at different stages of college got together and shared insight with one another. That’s how I really got to learn a lot of this kind of stuff. I expanded on that when I started shadowing doctors and asked them a lot of questions since they went through it all and were successful. I then made it a goal to try to get involved with something every semester.
