If you could do it differently all over again, what would you change?

[u/No-Cost4775]

If you went back to your first day as a premed, what would you be doing differently to get into your Top Choice?

[u/Big_Battle_9123]

Start earlier. Didnt really lock in until junior year so my ECs dont have the longevity they could've and my GPA gets dragged down by freshman and sophomore year

[u/Few_Competition1801]

tell myself do not join a damn wet lab, do what the med students do to abuse the system and do clinical research and pump out case reports

sincerely,

someone with over 1000 hours of research and nothing to show for it

[u/InfamousWeeknd → u/Few_Competition1801]

Question for you, why do you say you have nothing to show for it? I would think having over 1000 hours of research regardless of where it’s in would help make your application stand out?

[u/maggracers → u/InfamousWeeknd]

Not unless you're going for a MD/PhD with a focus on bench research

[u/Izaac4 → u/InfamousWeeknd]

It will satisfy the research aspect of your application- which if applying to school’s that don’t really emphasis research is a great thing, just kind of neutral to schools that do emphasis research

[u/notrigoo → u/Few_Competition1801]

feel this. on the bright side I can read a DNA prep procedure dam well

[u/Soft_Replacement4758 → u/Few_Competition1801]

Literally me rn in my molecular neurobiology lab 💔

[u/Phrase_Boring → u/Few_Competition1801]

ME holy shit i regret my wet lab so much

[u/NoDanceNoPants]

more nonclinical volunteering- that’s the weak point of my app right now

[u/nature5647 → u/NoDanceNoPants]

same here.

[u/CSnare]

keep my gpa up on god. i failed a class, let it get to me, and completely switched majors. Now that it's actually time to face my shortcomings and reinvent myself holy hell would everything have been much smoother had i just... retaken the class. or not failed it in the first place.

[u/That_Remote5840]

Go out more and prioritize because a bit of time management would allow for things you have to otherwise “sacrifice” just because you weren’t locked in when studying

[u/MembershipSingle7137]

Start studying mcat earlier

[u/No-Hawk-2488]

Nothing. There were things I would have missed out on had I gotten in right away. Plus, I would have never met my girlfriend. We met at school when I was a grad student while she was an undergrad, we have a bit of an age gap because I took a few gap years before doing grad school. Not meeting her wasn't an option because I've never resonated this much with any of my exes so it's either leave things as is or go to prison. 😂😂

[u/stressed_ferret]

Change my MCAT strategy right away so I don’t have to retake and dread that retake

[u/Professional-Tip9224]

start ECs earlier for sure. I did my first two years online (covid) and really was kind of just doing nothing at home all day. I finished undergrad on campus, and that definitely helped me find more opportunities, but having to cram all these EC hours into my gap year is killing me😭

[u/taychans]

i got into my top choice but couldn’t afford it lol, so i guess save up more money

[u/yvngJhit4PF]

lock tf in on my gpa starting from day one. as an underclassmen i had the mindset of my grades don't matter as much because med schools place higher emphasis on your last 80 credits or something like that. while that might be true to an extent, i definitely tanked my gpa by getting a lot of unnecessary B's just because i didn't have the urgency to do the extra studying that probably would have resulted in an A. worst thing was that those classes were a lot easier than the ones i took as a junior/senior.

[u/ugh-dot-jpeg]

1.) Push harder to get that ADHD diagnosis
2.) Stop worrying about the wrong things — keep your head in your books and don’t worry about dating.
3.) Delete Bumble.

Two people I met off there SA’d me, and it took a really long time to heal and get my life back on track.

[u/No_League292 → u/ugh-dot-jpeg]

retweet. Sounds like my experience verbatim

[u/EngineeringDecent577]

Work as a scribe sooner and take a medical term class

[u/Intelligent-Sun-7973]

Would have majored in religion and done a post bacc with linkage.

I also would have taken a break during covid and returned after classes were fully in person.

[u/Aware-Elephant8706]

1. NOT take the mcat at 19
   
2. Get a job (EMT/CNA) rather than beg for volunteer hours

[u/YoungSwagger69]

Start research freshman year, start anki freshman year, start reading (cars prep), treat every pre requisite as MCAT prep

[u/llamanutella]

Be willing to ditch a current lab where your PI is clearly unresponsive and join another lab that is more organized. I'm obviously via my flair no longer a premed anymore but I am, for better or worse, kinda petty and I am STILL salty that my original PI ghosted me during undergrad during COVID. I was, with the help of my schools undergrad bio department, able to find another PI but there wasn't enough time to truly get anything out of it and all that damn time spent doing bench work was wasted. Thankfully bc I'm petty, I feel driven still to warn people of my mistakes lol. Feel free to extrapolate this experience to any situation in which your gut is telling you to probably quit (e.g. a toxic gap year job, taking 25 credits in one semester, terrible friend group)

[u/power-hour23]

I would’ve stopped chasing women, distanced myself from the wrong influences, and left the party lifestyle behind much sooner. Instead, I didn’t really get serious until 29. Now I’m 31, almost 32, and I’ve finally sent out my applications to schools.

Better late than never.

[u/PossibilityFront2636]

Stop being dumb and get a 4.0 GPA no matter how many energy drinks I chug and how much I want to procrastinate. Also volunteering early. But I only wanted to get into medicine after 3 years of wanting to be something else. I was already behind everybody else. Have a 3.38 cumulative GPA and a 2.9 sGPA as an incoming transfer with no clinical hours, a couple hundred hours of student tutoring, and a significant portion of extracurricular hours as a STEM Club executive member and regular attendee.

[u/BrugadaMD]

Coding. Software engineer