Being more active in your early days of school can take you far when you actually go to apply for medical school. You might find it hard to set yourself apart, even when you’re participating in programs during medical school and that could lead to less than savory job opportunities in your future.
You need a way to start preparing for school and have something impressive on your application while you’re in undergraduate school, even before that would benefit you a great deal.
So what exactly can you do?
As you go through premedical studies you need to become a master of time management. You’ll be expected to master a number of courses from math to biology.
In fact, Kaplan found that the average medical student sees about 30-40 hours per week of study and lecture time. That’s a full-time job!
That being said, you need to diversify your studies in addition to taking these very STEM heavy classes. Even studying things like psychology or counseling will help you develop valuable skills that would make you an ideal candidate to help patients.
Taking these classes or programs will also prove that you have the time management skills that go along with being a doctor. The people reviewing your medical school application know how difficult it can be to have a life outside of core studies so when they see that you went above and beyond, they’re sure to be impressed.
There are three main ways you can bolster your application with experience, extra classes, shadowing programs, and lab programs. There are a few others but these are the most popular and abundant.
Many students feel the need to get experience in a hospital while they’re studying. That’s a great way to shine on your medical school application. However, you also don’t want to run yourself ragged and let your grades slip as a result.
However, it’s more important to focus on your core studies. Primarily, this means you need to ensure the information you’re hearing isn’t going in one ear and out the other. This means it’s paramount to develop a system that reinforces the knowledge that your teachers pass down to you.
Medical school affiliates like to see programs and work experience because these things reinforce what you learn. You can take a page from this example by creating a system all your own.
Some schools are even implementing mystery illnesses that students have to research and solve on their own. Testing your knowledge with other students in this fashion would improve your reasoning and research skills a great deal.