I’m making all of my secondary essays / AMCAS activity section / personal statement essays public

Hey all, I know that writing a PS and all of the secondary essays can be stressful and there are tons of examples online, but I’m throwing mine into the mix as well. They’re not perfect and there is a lot of redundancy especially in the secondary essays because of copying and pasting sections of text that work well basically anywhere. I figure that if I got in they’re good enough for some schools.

Although I can’t enforce this, please don’t copy these word-for-word. They are meant to be used as an example, not something you should just plug into the secondaries.

You can find everything here.

Good luck on the AMCAS!

(Pre)Med Students are the biggest pansies I’ve ever known

Just something I found while browsing /r/medicalschool that does a pretty good job of why premeds can sometimes get on my nerves.  I’ve done a pretty good job of paring down my social media to exclude these kinds of people but it still sometimes sneaks past in classes and I cringe a little lot.

Finals are done and now it’s board prep time for the second years. I have seen more “woe is me” posts and memes to last a life time. I think it’s time we put on our big boy/big girl pants and stop complaining about the fact that we’re actually pursuing our life dream in a well-respected and well-compensated field.

Stop taking a picture of all the binders and stacks of paper notes you’ve accumulated over the last year or two. “OMG, I have to know ALL OF THIS for boards? #fml #medschool”

Stop taking a picture of your laptop with Pathoma playing while your First Aid is opened to the most text-dense page you could find and your bookcase full of medical text books is strategically in the background. “Looks like my Friday night will be spent on a date with Dr. Sattar… #fml #medschool #whenwillitstop #boards #lifeofamedstudent”

We all know why you’re doing this. You think you’re the shiz because you’re in med school while all your friends and pseudo-friends and high school friends are pursuing lame jobs and you want to remind them every day that you’re going further than they.

I’m sure your grandma and your aunt and whoever are replying that they are so proud of you. I’m sure other peeps are saying, “OMG, how do you do it?! I could never do that! #hanginthere”

But seriously, I don’t think you’re getting much sympathy (which isn’t what you’re looking for anyway). When you’re done with residency (#cantcomesoonenough #amirite) you’ll be making in a year what some of these people make in half a decade or more. People don’t feel sorry for you so stop putting those posts in front of them.

You should step back and realize what position you are in right now. We should be grateful that our task is sitting in front of our books, binders (seriously, stop printing all that crap and accept technology), laptops, whatever, and learning about the human body and how to keep it alive.

Post useful things, please. Stop making us look like a bunch of cry babies that can’t handle what we’ve gotten ourselves into.

Source

Being a poor premed/college student

Nah this isn’t a post about “Oh, poor you.  Being a premed must be so hard because all of the classes are so hard. #teamnosleep #premed #futureMD”  This is a personal anecdote about how it’s different being from a poor family while trying to get into medical school and how to make the most of it.

First, some back-story.  I grew up in Southern Wisconsin in a small town which is known locally for their good academics, so I admit I wasn’t exposed to extremely poor conditions in the “ghetto.”  However compared to most premeds, my combined parental income of ~$40,000 meant I was in the bottom 10% of those who eventually matriculate to medical school based on 2005 standards.  Which meant that it was comparatively like living on an income of less than $10,500 (lowest 10%) in America where the average income is $46,000.  For more information, see this short study put out by the AAMC.

This is not saying I’m comparing my life to someone who barely makes $10,000 and goes hungry at night and making light of the situation.  Often times though, seeing people on the same track as me who complain about being poor while their parents pay for their entire schooling, housing, and any extras they could ever want struck me as extremely ungrateful.  This also meant I was competing for a spot in medical school against those who have had every opportunity growing up for enrichment and living a stress-free life. They were also able to drop the $2,000 for a MCAT review class like it was nothing, afford not working during undergrad to save time for studying, buying most of the required books, and not be limited by money.  On the flip side, I worked an average of 25 hours a week throughout undergrad, went to the library to read the textbooks because I couldn’t afford them, made spreadsheets recording the money I spent on groceries (because I rarely could afford going out to eat), and had to work a couple 40 hour weeks on top of classes to afford a suit when I finally got an interview invite.

Here are the things I found to be helpful if you’re in a similar situation.

• Have a chip on your shoulder, but don’t hate others who have it better than you because they have money.  Yeah, it might sound like I have an innate hatred for premeds who come from money.  That’s not true at all. I mean, it’s not their fault they were born into a family with money.  If I had their opportunities, I sure would not work in undergrad and save that time to do more research, volunteering, shadowing, and so many other things.  However, you do have to have a little chip on your shoulder because you should be (just as if not more) proud of your academic accomplishments if you overcame financial difficulties on top of doing well in school.  It’s soul-crushing to always feel inadequate compared to others around you, but if you look at it from a different perspective, you can be proud of yourself for working 10x harder than they have to for the same or slightly worse grades.
• Don’t sacrifice your grades for work.  True, I often had to not study as much as I wanted to because of my work schedule.  My grades probably suffered a little bit because of this, but not once did I let my work schedule cause me to get fewer than 4 hours of sleep the night before an exam or final.  If I had an exam the next day, I would request off of my overnight shift or ask to leave early so I could still get a solid amount of sleep.  School comes first.
• Work as much as you can.  This isn’t contrary to the last bullet point.  Even though you shouldn’t sacrifice your grades for work, work as much as you can when you have free time so you can afford to give up a shift or two here when your class load picks up.  This is a lot easier to do during summer/winter vacation and early on in the school year when you don’t have as many assignments.
• Seek out free resources. Even if you don’t acquire them by legal means. Some examples of this are torrents for books/MCAT materials, scanning entire textbooks from the library, working in a food-service job so you can take home extra food at the end of the night, and freebie giveaways around campus.
• Fill out the FAFSA. Almost everyone already does this, but if you come from a family with a very low income, you will probably get a fair amount of need-based financial aid so it’s especially important.  A lot of it is school-specific, but the government will often offer you a Pell Grant or subsidized loans.

I’m extremely proud of anyone who is in my same shoes and can put together an application worthy enough for interviews and acceptances to med school.  I’m not disparaging those who have the resources available to them and still can’t get in, but if you keep a fire in your belly and accept that you have to work much harder for the same results, then there’s no reason why you can’t get into medical school coming from a poor family.

EDIT: I found a reddit post in /r/medicalschool that sums up my opinion.

Having money helps… like a lot… you’re lucky you didn’t have to work a job after high school to help your folks make ends meet. so you were able to join the chess team, or the sci fi club, or the red blood cell society. as such, you were able to foster a natural curiosity about the world around you instead of worrying about where your family’s next meal was going to come from. you’re lucky you didn’t have to put yourself through college. as such you were able to spend that extra time studying, getting a good grade, and maybe even have a girlfriend or a social life – important mood stabilizers that allow you to do well in school as opposed to worrying about what loan to take out next if you don’t work enough to pay for everything. this allowed you to perform well enough to make you competitive ON TOP OF having a natural curiosity about the world around you. you’re lucky you were able to afford some of the expensive test prep books and classes that did an amazing job of deconstructing the test, telling you the highest yield approaches and important need-to-know facts to perform well enough on the test ON TOP OF doing well in college ON TOP OF having a natural curiosity about the world around you. All of the ‘great renaissance’ men were men of wealth because it gave them the luxury of time to ponder life, the universe and the nature of science instead of wondering where they were going to sleep that day or how to survive. you’re fucking lucky as shit to be in medical school because tons of people WAAAY smarter than you were born to shitty situations that didn’t allow them to develop the skills you did because you were lucky enough to be born to a situation that let you develop them. Do people born into shitty situations make it as docs? sure – not many though. Do people born into privilege blow it all on hedonism and sloth – of course, many. But lets not lie to ourselves that medical school is only for the hard working and intelligent. any examination on the demographics of medical schools will show a STEEP bias for those born to privilege and wealth.

Overall tips and strategies for improving your chances of getting accepted to medical school

These are all things you’ve probably heard before, but here’s a condensed list of tips to boost your chances of getting into medical school.  I’m not an ad-com or an expert, but by talking to many people who have been accepted, these tips seem to cover most of what I’ve been told.

Undergrad tips

1. Pick a major you can do well in, and/or one which will fulfill many of the required classes for med schools. This will make your undergrad years much less stressful as far as studying for classes and exams.
2. Surround yourself with people who lift you up instead of dragging you down.  I’m not saying you have to be friends with only hyper-competitive premeds (actually that’s probably the worst thing you can do) but a happy medium between people who you can have fun with while also keeping you accountable for doing well in school will vastly improve your happiness.  Avoid those who make you feel guilty for skipping going to the bars to study and are going to drop out in their second year of university.
3. Stay fit. Not much else to say about this. Having a normal workout schedule will give you more energy and keep your mood better overall.
4. Get involved in extracurriculars and research early. Admissions committees like to see total amount of hours spent on activities.  But another super important thing is how many years or months you’ve spent on them.  Putting in 100 hours volunteering in the ER over two years looks a lot better than knocking them out in one winter vacation.  The sooner you start getting involved in clubs, extracurricular activities, and research, the more opportunity you have to make a significant impact during your undergrad career.
5. Give yourself plenty of time to relax.  Undergrad is a marathon, not a sprint.  It’s no use getting burned out halfway through sophomore year even if you have a 4.0 GPA to show for it.
6. Seek help when you need it.  This is vague for a reason.  No matter what you’re struggling with – academics, mental health issues, research projects, social skills, etc., there is probably a resource that can help you on your campus.  Seeking out help isn’t something you should be ashamed of.  It doesn’t mean you’re weak, or worse than others who don’t need it.  You’ll be glad you did.

AMCAS – specific tips

1. APPLY. EARLY.  Seriously, I can’t stress this enough.  I’ve heard countless stories of applicants with average to great stats who don’t get in anywhere because they waited too long to submit their primary/secondaries.  If you submit everything within the first 1-2 days that you are able to, you’ll have such a better chance of getting into a medical school.  The primary application usually opens up a month before the submit date so make sure you have it 100% complete, ready-to-submit on the opening day.
2. If your stats or application is weak, apply more broadly.  I had a 3.54c/3.50s GPA which isn’t terrible, but below average for most schools’ matriculants.  I didn’t have a ton of volunteering (clinical or otherwise), and my application was just subpar across the board.  I applied to 25 schools on the primary, filled out 22 secondaries, and received 2 interview invites.  If you apply broadly with a relatively weak application (and early. Please don’t forget. Apply early.) you can have a more successful application cycle than someone with above average stats who only applied to 1-5 schools.
3. Spend time on the secondaries.  This may seem like a no-brainer, but if your secondary essays sound disingenuous or otherwise poorly written it will reflect poorly on you.  Do some looking around on the internet and you can find the essay prompts from most school’s secondaries from the previous years. If you pre-write the essays and spend quality time on them, you’ll come off as a better applicant.
4. Apply early.  Come on, man.

Interview tips

1. Wear a suit.  Now isn’t the time for a fashion show or showing how unique you can be.  If you’re a guy, wear a suit.  If you’re a girl, wear a suit or something equally as professional (although a suit is a solid choice).  If you’re a gender critical-fluid, trisexual, potato-(s)kin who is oppressed by suits, wear a suit.  Oh also if you’re a guy, make sure your hair is relatively short.  Having sick flow is cool and all, but if you want to get into med school then you’ll probably have to cut it off.
   

   And don’t be this dude.

2. Practice basic hygiene.  Okay, this is a no-brainer as well.  Make sure you take a shower on the morning of the interview, use deodorant, shave, and just look like a presentable human being.
3. Be courteous to everyone.  This not only goes for the interviewers, but also the students currently at the school and other interviewees.  Yes, you’re competing against them for the same spots, but they’ll also be your future classmates.  Don’t make your first impression of yourself as a caustic, cutthroat gunner. They will remember that.
4. Bring a water bottle. In all four of my interviews, my mouth got extremely dry while talking to the interviewers.  It was probably a combination of talking 100 words a minute and being nervous, but seriously it was like a desert in there. Even if you think you don’t need it, it’s good to have a small bottle of water as backup if you do.

Accepted!

This is a bit overdue, but on Oct. 15 I was accepted to my first medical school.  It was a huge weight off of my shoulders to finally see the words in print (okay, email) saying that I would be a medical student for the 2014-15 school year. While I didn’t get into where I thought I wanted to go before interviews, once I got the acceptance and interviewed at my previous #1, I decided that I wouldn’t be happier anywhere else.  So I sent in my $100 deposit to hold my spot for the class of 2019 at the Medical College of Wisconsin.

                              My home starting August 2015.

The feeling is a mix of excitement, mild nervousness, and incredible happiness. All of the work that I put in starting from day 1 of undergrad culminated to this one day.  I had little to no help from my parents (barring a few small Christmas and birthday gifts), but I can’t say I did it alone.  My one advice to those following the path of a premed is to seek out mentors who can help you, and make sure you know what you have to do. Then do it.  My mentors came from three major sources: the internet (especially /r/premed), my research mentor, and the nicest, most altruistic person I’ve ever met, Tommy Carrigan. It’s not easy to get accepted to med school, but it’s definitely not impossible either.  Mentors who can inspire and motivate you are worth their weight in gold, and make sure they know that they’re appreciated.  You don’t have to be the smartest student but if you have a strong work ethic and good morals, you can definitely make it.

Good luck to those who are still waiting on an acceptance this cycle, and to those who are planning on applying in future cycles.

MCAT Study Advice: Balancing Classes and MCAT studying

The MCAT can really kill your social life, but keeping calm and not trying to study 10 hours a day will help you score higher on it in the long run.

Hey all. Keeping it short and sweet, here is a message I gave someone about MCAT studying advice for studying while keeping up a full load of classwork (and volunteering, and life commitments, etc.). This was a personal message on Reddit and is written as such, but it really applies to anyone in this situation.  Enjoy!

I’m not going to lie to you, the MCAT sucks almost all of your free time for the ~2 months before your test date. There is really no getting around that if you want a good score. Even people who devote themselves full time to studying barely have any free time. However, you can schedule breaks and mental vacations during your study time to maintain your sanity and peace of mind during a time when most of your fellow premeds are freaking the fuck out. Trust me, taking a more relaxed approach to this beast is the only way to conquer it.

Right now I would say your priority should be doing as well as you can in your classes and getting through your review books ASAP. If you’ve already done that then you’re golden.

One big thing about the MCAT (and the ACT, and SAT, and Step 1 [I’ve heard]), is that knowing all of the information they test you on is only 25% of what gets you a good score. The other 75% is knowing and “gaming” the test. Or a less cynical view would be just knowing the format of the questions that they will throw at you. Because of this, your #1 priority is PRACTICE QUESTIONS. Again: DO A SHIT TON OF PRACTICE QUESTIONS. Not only will this help you review the material, you will get super comfortable on test day when other people (I did this too unfortunately) are freaking the fuck out because they’re actually expected to apply the information that they’ve learned and think critically. Some good sources of questions are Exam Krackers, TPR, and Kaplan. BR seemed to be a little too complex in terms of the practice questions / practice tests. It’s all personal preference which one you like most or which one(s) you can get for cheap if you happen to care about that. Some other sources of practice I used were the MCAT questions of the day websites / apps (there are tons of them). I also torrented EK audio osmosis to listen so I could feel like I was kinda productive while drifting off to sleep. I’m not sure if it helped much at all, but I like to think that it did.

If you can devote a couple hours or so to practice problems every school night and 5-6+ hours on the weekends between now and the test, factoring in a few days off for Thanksgiving and just recoup time (plus exam week), then you’re looking at a solid 60-70 hours of time between doing practice problems, reviewing them, and taking a few full-lengths. If you have a good knowledge base built up, then this should be plenty to get used to the types of questions they can give you.

Another big help to me was taking the official AAMC practice tests. They’re relatively expensive ($35/ea), but they’re THE best representation of what the exam is going to throw at you during the real thing. I think I took 5 of them (including the free one they gave you, so $140 total), and they were all different in terms of which sections were hard and easy. However, when taken as a whole they’re all pretty much equivalent in terms of difficulty and how difficult the real deal is. When should you take those? Ideally, you should space them throughout the time you allot to practice questions. Save one for ~1 week or so before your test date and do not take another one within 3 days of your test. You’ll get burned out faster than a rice cake put into an oven at 500 degrees. When you do these, make sure you simulate a real testing environment. That is: ear plugs, no taking extra time, limiting bathroom breaks, and when you do take your breaks factoring in time for checking in/out of the testing room. It’s just you, the computer, and scratch paper. Testing facilities are hit or miss, but if you’re going to Prometric here in Madison they’re pretty decent. The computers aren’t anything fancy but they’re definitely good enough so that they wont hinder your performance. Also make sure you don’t study a lot the day before the test. It’s so not worth stressing yourself out needlessly. Just take the day to be unproductive. Eat at Five Guys. Watch some TV. Cuddle with your significant other. All of the above, whatever. Just make sure your mind set is calm, yet keep a sharp edge and prepare to walk into that building and kick that test’s ass that you prepared so hard for.

Good luck, (wo)man. As long as you prepare for it and keep your sanity while preparing, the MCAT will never, never, NEVER get the better of you. You just have to not let it win.

My MCAT study schedule

Photo by: Evan Lawrence Bench

I bit the bullet this winter break and finally signed up for the April 11th MCAT.  While having an actual deadline is a little frightening, it also gives me a tangible goal to reach and a little extra spark to my motivation.

I researched a few different study methods to see which ones sounded like the best mix of material coverage while also being efficient with my time so I wasn’t studying things that probably wouldn’t be on the MCAT. There are plenty of MCAT study schedules to choose from.  The SN2 schedule (http://www.studentdoctor.net/3-month-mcat-study-schedule/) is probably the most popular, but as I was working over winter break and starting classes in a month, I couldn’t devote the time needed to follow it.  Berkeley Review (at least for reviewing the material) was out immediately because of the density at which they present the information, so it was down to either Exam Krackers (EK) or The Princeton Review (PR) study materials.

Review Phase (1 month)
They each have their own pros and cons, and this is what I decided on for REVIEWING the material (i.e., just the lecture books)

EK – Organic chemistry and Bio (except for physiology) (+ EK 101 VR passages)

PR – Physics, General chemistry, and the physiology chapters of biology

It has taken me about a month of reading about a chapter a day (of whatever I felt like studying that day), and I’m almost done with all of these books. I also did a few passages of verbal every day after reading the chapter of the day.  This phase is just to get introduced to the material or review the material if you’ve already taken the class previously.  You should be spending 1-3 hours each day on the reading and ~30 minutes on verbal each day.  When I’m done with all of the “review phase” I’ll move on to…

Self-assessment & review phase 1 + practice problems

I will take a full-length, timed AAMC practice test and review both the questions I got wrong and right and order a list of topics from “high priority” to “low priority”.  For the high priority topics, I will go back to the lecture material and re-read the chapter or section and spend plenty of time to make sure I understand the topic completely.  For the lower priority topics, I will either skim the chapters again, or just skip them if I did really well. I’m expecting to have to skim them all at least once more however. I will be working through practice problems taken from the PR workbooks and the EK “1001 problems” series of workbooks for all topics.  I will also continue to complete ~1-3 VR passages a day each weekday.  After I feel comfortable with the topics I didn’t do well on, I will move on to…

Self-assessment & review phase 2 (AKA hella full-lengths)

During this time which I expect to move on to with about 2-3 weeks before the exam, I plan on taking a full-length test every other day and spending time the following day reviewing the problems I got wrong and hammering down the concepts once more.  This will continue until 3 days before the exam, during which I will give my brain a rest (I know I’ll need it for sure) and just skim over the notes I will make for “high yield” and “high priority” topics.  The day before the exam and day of, I will do absolutely NO studying whatsoever to freshen up before the real thing.

How much will this cost me?
If you actually bought everything new, all of the PR books and EK books (+ workbooks) and the AAMC tests would cost upward of $500.  If this amount of money is nothing to you, then by all means buy the physical copies of all of these. The book publishers definitely deserve the money for putting out these study materials.  However, there is a certain bay of pirates on the internet that has a torrent called “MCAT all in one” that I’ve heard (from a friend) that is super complete and has everything I’ve listed and more.  Check it out if you’re short on cash.

I am by no means a MCAT study expert and do not know how well this method will work for you (or even me for that matter).  If you have plenty of time to devote to studying i.e., your only job is to study to make sure you absolutely crush the MCAT, then I would use a more popular method such as SN2.  However, if you’re trying to study during a busy semester then this plan could definitely work for you.  Happy studying, and good luck!

I’ll update on the efficacy of this method when it gets closer to the actual test date and when I get my score back!

Hitting my stride

Looking out from the Genetics-Biotechnology building onto University Ave in Madison, WI

It’s the middle of Winter right now in Madison, but my academic career is just heating up.

Wow, that sentence didn’t sound good in my head and it looks even worse written.  All cliches aside, there comes a point in most college students’ careers where everything seems to flow effortlessly.  A lot of it comes down to knowing exactly what you want to devote your time to, and having the motivation to stick to those activities.  Classes are more interesting because you’re finally getting into your major-specific classes.  This makes studying for those classes easier. Two years ago, I thought I would never be able to write that sentence and mean it!  You are able to get more time shadowing and clinical volunteering, which makes you all the more eager to start your own journey in the medical field.  By now, you’ve found a club that fits your hobby (or two or three), and you’re having fun putting on events for those groups.

It took me until my first semester of Junior year, but I think I finally hit my stride.

This winter break I didn’t spend as much time relaxing as I wanted to or probably should have, due to starting my MCAT studying (I’ll outline my study method in the next post). I also worked, did research, and worked out quite a bit. I also marathoned about 70 episodes of various anime series…but that’s besides the point!  I didn’t travel to any exotic locations, but I got a lot done and I realized that all of the studying, lab work, and work on countless other projects came much easier than it did a few months ago.  It was no longer a chore to crack open my MCAT physics book and hammer out a chapter or two.  I didn’t look forward to it by any means, but I realized it was something I needed to do and just accepted that fact.

I think that’s what hitting your stride really feels like.  You no longer resist the work that you know you have to do.  However, you don’t have to enjoy it either.  If you have to read a chapter or do an hour of verbal reasoning, just do it and don’t stress out about it.  You’ll feel much better in the long run, and you can move on to other things.

If you have already discovered this in your life, you know what it feels like.  If not, I hope you hit your stride soon. 🙂  Trust me, you’ll get there eventually.

The motivational wall and how to overcome it

Call it ‘losing motivation’, ‘losing steam’, getting ‘burnt out’, or any number of other phrases: they all describe the same thing.

There’s a point in every semester where several things happen all at once that seem to doom your academic success.  Classes don’t seem worth going to anymore. You seem to have an exam every week that you’re constantly studying for.  Homework assignments blend together with your other commitments until your life turns into “waking up at 8am, completing a checklist and going to bed at 2am just to start it all over again tomorrow.”  Compounded by not seeing the sun for days at a time due to being inside for all of the 5 hours it’s bright outside (or being tempted to slack off in the warmer weather), and your morale plummets to rock bottom just as you should start preparing for finals.

The motivational wall seems to come up every semester without fail.  It’s easy to start classes after a hiatus –  you’re excited to jump into new classes and build on your previous semesters that you seem to have partially blocked out the bad memories of. You figure out a routine and fall into it, not yet desensitized to doing the same thing over and over, week after week.  Pretty soon though, you’re looking forward to the end of the semester just as the work load increases exponentially.

How do you get past this motivational wall?

While regaining motivation is different for everyone (and even I haven’t been able to fully avoid it yet), here are some ways to prevent or get over the hurdle once you hit it.

 

1.) Set daily, weekly, and monthly goals

Setting daily goals that build into weekly goals, that eventually build into monthly (and etc.) goals keeps what you’re doing now in perspective to where you want to go.  Spending 8 hours on MCAT practice during some Saturday might seem like the last thing you want to do, but if you realize it will go toward your weekly goal of 15 hours of MCAT studying/week, and your eventual goal of scoring a 35+ on the actual test it can help motivate you to push through the monotony.

 

2.) Try something new

Doing the same thing week in / week out gets extremely boring after a while.  Switch it up sometime by trying something new that you don’t normally do.  It doesn’t have to be part of your new routine (in fact, it’s probably best that you’re not adding in extra obligations) but it just needs to give your mind a break from the rut that you’re in.  Make it mentally and/or physically engaging! Try going to a club meeting you’ve seen around campus that you’ve always wanted to check out, go for a bike ride off campus, or check out a book to read for fun that isn’t academic at all.

 

3.) Take a weekend off to think about nothing at all

If you don’t have any exams coming up within the next week and you’re feeling burnt out heading into the weekend, try taking the entire weekend off to recharge (if you can spare the time to do so).  Two days of “lost” time will pay dividends for the entire school week or even longer. Can’t spare both days? Try saving Sunday for your day of relaxation.

 

4.) Schedule a time in the near future where you have a significant amount of time off

If you can’t find any time for relaxation, or you’re heading into peak finals-studying time and every hour of studying counts, the other tips wont really help.  However, you can look forward a week or two and find a solid chunk of time – 5-10 days – to schedule a vacation.  It doesn’t have to be a vacation in the traditional “travelling” sense (although it could be if you want it to be), but more of a vacation from constant responsibilities and obligations.  It will give you something to look forward to and motivate you to work hard now for the reward of free time later.  The key to this is to make sure you have the scheduled time open, and to stay with your decision to take the vacation.  Plan in advance to be certain that you won’t have any responsibilities during your vacation and let others know that you won’t have time for work-related business.  Also when the time comes to take your time off, don’t make an excuse to start something else!  It may seem tempting to get a head start on the work you’ll inevitably have to do after your vacation, but it will just keep the burnout cycle going and when the time comes to get back to the “real world”, you wont be any better for the time off.

 

Everyone hits the motivational wall every once in a while, but with the proper relaxation time off, you can overcome this obstacle or at least limp past it until you have time to recover.

Fall 2012 Wrap-up and what I have learned

Going into the fall 2012 semester, I felt more prepared than ever for classes to start.  I had a schedule made, I had read and practised problems for organic chemistry, and I felt recharged and eager to learn.
Three weeks into the semester, the work of 17 credits of mostly science courses started to get the better of me, and it was a painful grind to the finish line.
While I escaped the semester with only a small drop in my GPA, I learned a ton about the process of college itself.  Here’s a few things that I learned.

1.) Take classes that you’re interested in
While you’ve probably heard this many times before, I hadn’t actually experienced it until this past semester.  It was the first semester of the two-year honors biology program at UW that I had been lucky enough to be accepted into.  Or at least I thought I was lucky.
It turned out to be the single most involved course I had ever taken, and the one that required the most out of class time for studying, doing projects, conducting experiments, and writing papers.  Even organic chemistry didn’t require the amount of work that the class took.

Maybe it was the fact that the class was so challenging and it’s a case of Stockholm Syndrome, I actually enjoyed it.  As bad as the class seemed at the time, and as much as I debated dropping into the traditional biology sequence, I don’t regret taking it at all.  All of the time studying, performing experiments, researching, and writing doesn’t seem so bad now, and I’m looking forward to this semester and the strange mix of being in awe of the material and overwhelmed at the same time.

2.) As prepared as you think you are for a class, you never are truly prepared
Going into organic chemistry, I felt very confident that I would not struggle with the material as much as everyone else in the course talked.  I read through “Learning organic chemistry as a second language”, my brother’s old organic chemistry textbook, and I was eager to tackle the class and show my stuff.
As it turned out, what my professor deemed important enough to put on exams and what the book emphasized were quite different, and I didn’t have that much of an edge compared to everyone else in the course who didn’t put in hours during the summer reading about chemistry.  Reading the textbook ahead of time can help reinforce topics brought up in lecture, but don’t expect the class to be a breeze because of it.  Professors vary widely in how much they use the textbook, and it can be a lot of wasted effort.

3.) Pick a major that you are interested in, even if it means a drop in GPA
Which major you choose has a large role in which classes you will take, and how much you will enjoy said classes.  However, it also means that you will be taking classes that are potentially more difficult if you pick a major like engineering or other stereotypically hard majors.
I would argue that even though a hard major might be more difficult and lower your precious GPA, being in a major that you like and are interested in learning about will make the four years of undergrad much more enjoyable.

4.) Take some time to relax during the semester
Taking time for yourself during the stresses of the school year can pay off by making you happier and less overwhelmed.  Whether this is working out, staring at the T.V. for a half hour, writing something for personal enjoyment, or dancing around your apartment blasting electro music, spending a little time every day doing something fun is huge for surviving college.  I took on too much work to do this every day last semester, and it ended up making it more difficult to get up every morning knowing that it would be 15 straight hours of class, homework, studying, and working.  Being miserable for the entire semester is not worth an extra 3 credit class!  Find something that makes you happy, and make time for it.  Even if it’s -gasp- unproductive.

I learned a lot this semester.  I learned about ecology, population genetics, how to perform research, how organic molecules react, and about other academic topics.
I also learned how to be make college a little more bearable, even if it means that your grades and time usage are less than perfect.