Lindsay is a senior premed and captain on the track team. She has one All American title and is in the process of deciding which medical school to attend. Ahead is some of her advice for premeds!
1. Name: Lindsay Cheu
2. Major, Year: Neuroscience, Senior
3. Hometown: Glenmont, NY
4. Affiliated with: Varsity Track & Field, Nu Rho Psi – Undergraduate Neuroscience Society, Johns Hopkins Hospital Adult Emergency Department Volunteer Program, Muscular Dystrophy Research at Kennedy Krieger Institute
5. You can usually find me: On the track
6. My favorite part about Hopkins: The people. I’m so grateful to have supportive teammates and friends, as well as caring professors who’ve mentored me throughout my time here.
7. I am most proud of: my All-American track honor. I didn’t run faster than my high school track times until my junior year of college. It was so fulfilling to earn All-American honors with my relay team at Nationals last year after persevering through years of injuries, difficult workouts and races.
8. In five years I will be: In residency! Possibly neurology or family medicine
9. Something most people don’t know about me is: I’m a quarter Scot-Irish
10. My favorite location on campus is: Dunning Hall where you can find Brady, Dr. Gorman’s dog.
11. What are you looking forward to in your final semester at Hopkins?
I’m looking forward to my last season of track and having a somewhat relaxing senior spring. I want to make a point to get off campus even more and try some of the new restaurants in the Baltimore area, like the ones in Remington.
12. How did you prepare for the MCAT while balancing your commitments to other organizations and school?
To make enough time for MCAT studying, I took a semester off from working in my lab and made sure that my course schedule wasn’t too intense. I also took an Examkrackers prep course to keep me on pace with my studying. I knew that I was already balancing a lot with school and track, so I wanted to be kept accountable. I had scheduled my MCAT for early May, but ended up pushing it back to early June. I’m glad I took the extra couple weeks to study even though it meant studying through finals period and beyond. You should only plan to take the MCAT once, so only take it when you’re truly ready. It’s not like the SAT where you can superscore.
13. How do you prepare for medical school interviews?
For overall prep, I did a mock interview through the Pre-Professional Office. It was great to practice some of the most frequent questions such as: “Why are you pursuing medicine?” and “Tell me about a challenge you faced.” For each individual interview, I researched the school’s mission, curriculum, special programs, and research opportunities. I made sure I was able to give a specific answer to “Why do you want to attend ___________ School of Medicine” after completing this research. I gathered information from schools’ websites and a premed website: Student Doctor Network. I also made sure to prepare school-specific questions for both my faculty and student interviews. For multiple mini interviews, which is an interview style that involves interactive stations,I practiced the timing of my answers to some example questions online and brushed up on common ethical situations using this website: https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/.
14. Do you have any advice for young premeds?
Don’t overload yourself with courses and activities! I’ve never taken more than 16 credits a semester, and had multiple semesters of 14 or 15 credits. I feel like Hopkins premeds are particularly prone to committing themselves to too many things. It’s better to excel at a select number of activities than you’re passionate about than to be overwhelmed and average in an excessive number of activities.