Introduction
I remember being super intimidated as a first-year because I felt as though I didn’t know how to start as a pre-med student. With how quickly school hits the ground, it’s easy to compare yourself to others and feel behind. But, no worries because I’m here to give the best advice I can. We don’t gatekeep here!
Volunteering
Many medical schools require volunteer hours, and even if they don’t require it, it’s another thing to add to your application. Important thing to keep in mind, volunteering does not have to be related to medicine! If you want to volunteer at the hospital then you go for it, but it’s good to know that you have other options. Madison House is the main resource in terms of finding volunteering opportunities on grounds and they usually release a powerpoint that contains all of this information toward the beginning of each fall (and maybe spring) semester. There are opportunities to work for animals and environment, education and youth, health and medical, and human services.
There are a lot of clubs such as the Women in Medicine Initiative, Creative Care Initiative, etc. that are dedicated to volunteering in the local community and hospital. There are also usually other local organizations associated with the homeless shelters that are usually in need of volunteers as well. Don’t be afraid to veer away from UVA centered volunteer opportunities!
Research
Email! Email! Email! Departments at UVA and the UVA medical school usually have professors that have open labs which require you to email them. Reach out to a lot of professors that you seem interested in! It can be a bit tiring to reach as you might be met with a closed lab or just straight up ghosted, but that just means you’re one step closer to getting an email back.
Classes
This one’s a bit hard to decipher but I’ll give a short synopsis of each pre-med class I’ve taken so far.
General Chemistry 1 -> Professor: Prof. Stains: She is by far the professor with the best notes for gen chem in my opinion. She was really good at preparing you for the exams and the exams are built with an opportunity to work in a group. What helped me for the exams was going to the review sessions, reviewing the notes, and re-writing them out if standard objectives were given. What I used to do is get a white board and write out each chapter’s standard objectives answers and relevant equations then take a picture of it, so when I had open note assignments I wouldn’t have to go searching through my whole notebook to find what I needed.
Gen Chemistry 2 -> Professor: Prof. Welch: One thing to know about him is that he is very much a visual imagery type of note taker, so be prepared for that. The class is basically set up as gen chem 1, so I recommend the same study advice. He’s really great 1:1 as well so feel free to go to him to ask for help.
Bio 2100 -> Professor: Prof. Kittleson: … this ones a bit rough. His exams are difficult but what I found I did on the exams I did the best on was re-reviewing the textbook chapters assigned to make sure I understood the basic concepts being taught and then went over the standard objectives given, making sure I answered them thoroughly. I fear his advice of constantly studying for bio is true, the times I did best was when I went over the content at least a week ahead of the test. His curves are helpful, but it is a good habit to not fully rely in a potential curve in any classes! Also, work in groups, working by yourself is fine but when you have another person that knows the content they’ll be able to correct you if you’ve made a mistake in an answer.
Bio 2200 -> Professor: Prof. Manson -> I truly believe this class is doable. What I found got me the highest test grade was doing the practice test, re-doing the homework, and group studying!! If you know someone in the class, study with them by answering the standard objectives together. If you don’t know someone, go “network”. If a finance bro can do it, you can too, girl. Another mini habit of mine that helped me was writing the notes before lecture so during lecture I can annotate them when Prof. Manson elaborates or makes a specific example.
Organic Chemistry 1 -> Professor: Prof. Vlad: This review might not be as reliable as some of his policies and assignment rules did change. His quizzes and tests aren’t exactly the same type of questions you do in class, homework, or discussion. The best advice I can give is make sure you have the basics of the concepts DOWN. How do you do that? Practice!! Use the textbook to get extra problems, they’re usually located at the end of each chapter. One thing that was my absolute saving grace was P2L. I cannot recommend it enough, it’s extra practice and a mini review session. With a basic understanding of everything, you’ll be able to connect the dots on the more complex word problems on the exams. I cannot stress this enough, do not get behind. I don’t mean this in a fear mongering kind of way as I fully believe in your capabilities, but sometimes life happens. In those moments please don’t be afraid to reach out, it can be scary but in most cases of what I’ve heard, he’s pretty understanding.
Conclusion
The most important piece of advice would be to not compare yourself to others! Everyone is on their own path, and you truly don’t know what could happen next. And if you can’t stop comparing yourself to people, go up and talk to them. Ask them how they’re able to get those high grades, volunteer hours, clinical experience, etc. One thing I was told growing up was that there is no such thing as a “bad” emotion, what you do with that emotion is what counts.
It’s a scary route to take, especially under the current administration of the government currently, but change happens when you make the effort to help. These classes aren’t easy, but what I tell myself that makes me feel better is that this is just the hard part to get to the good part. You got this and I believe in you!