Recently, I was invited to a Q&A session at an undergraduate campus where I and a few others fielded questions posed by students about medicine, dentistry, and PhD programs. It made me reflect on things I worried about as an undergrad. For instance, I received a decent amount of questions about what to do if you had a low GPA or study tips for taking that dreaded MCAT. However, I was surprised to find that those types of questions were actually in the minority. One student asked me to go through my daily schedule. Another student asked me about preparing for interviews and questions I was asked. I even received questions about how involved I was in medical school clubs. While I was perfectly happy to answer those questions, I realized that I honestly never even wondered about those things.
As an undergrad, I was more worried about my credentials and potential for admittance than anything else. I never really considered what life as a medical student would be like or what sorts of clubs existed in medical school. In retrospect, I should have thought about those things. Sometimes you get so wrapped up in the stress of the process that you never consider what it’s like when you’re actually there. However, I’ve definitely started to consider those aspects when I’m thinking about my future career. Those questions are more important to me as I’m considering what specialty to go into. But it was certainly refreshing to not hear as many questions about what classes to take in college!
