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How Should I Get Ahead In High School?


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So I am currently in grade 11 with a 94% average and I'm wondering how I can get ahead in terms of extracurriculars as I know many people who have done a lot starting at high school. In terms of current extracurriculars, I am so far:

 

- Doing a co-operative education placement at a hospital in Toronto.

- Part of a volunteering organization as well as another organization focusing on environmentalism for 2 years.

- Executive in our school DECA and HOSA club as well as winning some awards.

- Awards for volunteering and having the highest grades in my class.

- Had a part time job in the summer (retail).

- Member of the school's healthcare club and table tennis club. May also plan on joining a few other councils. 

 

I was wondering if these activities are good for a high school student and if there is anything I should improve with it, such as maybe having research. 

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Relax! You will be part of a marathon on your path towards medicine. At the moment, you are doing fine.

 

Believe it or not, what you need most is life experience. That is the same when you participate in the MMI, the interview, years from now, your greatest attribute you will bring with you are your cumulative life experiences in how you react to the scenarios thrown at you at the various stations. Therefore, I encourage you to find employment in customer service where you are forced to deal with disgruntled customers, so you now how to communicate in difficult situations.

 

Undertake activities, extra curriculars and volunteering that interest you. Do not do what you think adcoms are looking for, only what you are passionate about. Same thing for university studies. You will do better in a program that interests you, that you are passionate about. This way you will be motivated and try harder.

 

Your grades in h.s. Give absolutely no indication of how you will do in university. The most important attribute you can bring with you to university is a strong work ethic, together with time and stress management skills. Humility too is a good quality to have. Good luck and welcome to the forum!

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I agree with everything in the above! I want to add one thing: use the time in high school to figure out how you learn best. Most people can get through high school with purely memorizing the material and not truly learning it and applying the knowledge - this bites them in the butt in university.

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Relax! You will be part of a marathon on your path towards medicine. At the moment, you are doing fine.

 

Believe it or not, what you need most is life experience. That is to same when you participate in the MMI, the interview, years from now, your greatest attribute you will bring with you are your cumulative life experiences in how you react to the scenarios thrown at you at the various stations. Therefore, I encourage you to find employment in customer service where you are forced to deal with disgruntled customers, so you now how to communicate in difficult situations.

 

Undertake activities, extra curriculars and volunteering that interest you. Do not do what you think adcoms are looking for, only what you are passionate about. Same thing for university studies. You will do better in a program that interests you, that you are passionate about. This way you will be motivated and try harder.

 

Your grades in h.s. Give absolutely no indication of how you will do in university. The most important attribute you can bring with you to university is a strong work ethic, together with time and stress management skills. Humility too is a good quality to have. Good luck and welcome to the forum!

 

100% agree. Try not to be too 'cookie cutter' with your activities. There is no list of things that you need to accomplish! Rather, choose activities that you are passionate about and help you develop the soft skills required to succeed in a career in medicine. Bambi hit it spot on with having experience in customer service; learning to communicate with dissatisfied people or people who have different perspectives then yourself is invaluable to a future in medicine. I personally think that too many students (often privileged) these days are trying to fit this 'cookie cutter' profile for med school to the point where not many seek opportunities that are best for their own personal development. Being genuine in your approach is key. 

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Everyone else has said has been spot on, Bambi usually provides solid advice.

 

Only thing I have to add is to make sure you actually want to do medicine. Use this time to explore other careers and talk with people who do them. People always ask about shadowing doctors and my opinion is it is beyond useless. You see only a few hours of the "fun stuff" without all of the behind the scenes crap. No one ever shadows a physician dictating for 2 hours at the end of the day, or writing referrals, or attending a sub-par conference so they can get their education credits. 

 

Find out who you are, what you really like. Ask yourself the hard questions, ask yourself why you really really want to do this then ask yourself if there are better ways to get what you want. The deeper down this rabbit hole you get the harder it is to climb out.

 

Its been touched on but to reiterate: stay away from cookie cutter activities. When I read these things and someone says they were on this and this charity, or volunteered here and here at this hospital I know that they are only going through the motions and trying to tell me what I want to hear. That makes me feel like I am being played and you are neither true to yourself or true to me. You can't fake real passion so find yours and run with it.

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To add to Bambi's observations, the hs to university transition is a large one socially but also personally.  Moving away from home is a big step that many people take, and although university residences can ease the transition, excessive social activities there can be a downside too.  Setting up a great university experience is probably one of the most important steps to take at this point including initiating non-academic activities as mentioned.  

 

Edit: Try to look carefully at costs and even a budget in planning your university experience, as this is a stumbling block for many.

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Unless you're a child prodigy who skipped 5 grades and have been dubbed the next Einstein/Picasso/Mozart... then what you do in high school really doesn't matter. Being in grade 11 with a 94% average and a handful of standard extracurriculars is not an accomplishment, and says absolutely nothing about how you'll transition to university. High school grade inflation is rampant, and partly explains why so many "high-achieving" students fall so dramatically in their first year (the other part being the adjustment to living away from home, in addition to the lack of discipline inspired by the normal distractions of first year university). To be frank, right now there's no guarantee that category won't include you.

 

I'm not saying to not be proud of what you've done so far, because it seems like you're definitely striving to be a balanced individual. However, it's too early to be this focused on being a competitive candidate for medical school, especially at the expense of exploring other worthwhile interests, or just having fun.

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My situation is basically the same as the OP. I'm in grade 11 and I have a 97% average. In terms of extra-curriculars, I'm on student council (likely to have some sort of executive role next year), debate club, and I referee soccer (which I suppose helps due to experience dealing with angry people). I'm not 100% yet that I want to go into med school, but it's one of my top options at the moment and I'm wondering if I should try and do more related activities or even just volunteering in general. 

 

If things like that don't matter in high school, when do they start to matter? And how important are they in order to get accepted for an interview, especially if one a high GPA in university? I have a neighbor whose been trying to get into med school for a long time, and he's been doing quite a huge amount of med-related work and volunteering and it kind of makes me anxious about becoming a doctor.

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My situation is basically the same as the OP. I'm in grade 11 and I have a 97% average. In terms of extra-curriculars, I'm on student council (likely to have some sort of executive role next year), debate club, and I referee soccer (which I suppose helps due to experience dealing with angry people). I'm not 100% yet that I want to go into med school, but it's one of my top options at the moment and I'm wondering if I should try and do more related activities or even just volunteering in general. 

 

If things like that don't matter in high school, when do they start to matter? And how important are they in order to get accepted for an interview, especially if one a high GPA in university? I have a neighbor whose been trying to get into med school for a long time, and he's been doing quite a huge amount of med-related work and volunteering and it kind of makes me anxious about becoming a doctor.

 

Hi Kagedomo, I encourage you to read the posts above since your question is nearly identical to that of the OP.

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Demonstrating altruism and scholarly activities, why not volunteer to do peer tutoring for students who otherwise cannot afford it. Also, you can help the elderly, going messages or shopping for them or just keeping them company. There are also the blind or disabled whom you can help. Helping those less fortunate than you develops character, creates compassion, empathy and humility, all traits desirable by doctors. There is much you can do if you set your mind to it.

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I would honestly say this, just enjoy life in high school. It's great that you are joining many clubs and councils as well as volunteer work and a paid job, but don't go overboard with it. You're in high school, develop your study habits and try to enjoy the rest of your high school life. You'll be busy in grade 12 applying to universities and scholarships and by the time you are in university, you will have more responsibilities and a lot less free time. 

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To be fair high school does matter in the sense that if you are a superstar you could apply to QuARMS. Good grades and a good essay means you can apply to Mac Health Sci. Otherwise, high school gives you the knowledge foundation and study habits and life lessons to succeed in university. Day one in university matters, a good performance in high school gives you a running start. 

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To be fair high school does matter in the sense that if you are a superstar you could apply to QuARMS. Good grades and a good essay means you can apply to Mac Health Sci. Otherwise, high school gives you the knowledge foundation and study habits and life lessons to succeed in university. Day one in university matters, a good performance in high school gives you a running start. 

 

That's mostly true, though I disagree with your point on study habits and life lessons.  I would argue the first term of university gives you those (at least study habits anyways).  

 

High school education is so variable (especially in Ontario).  I used to TA a number of first year courses in undergrad and I dealt with students who graduated grade 12 with a 90+ average who were now getting high 70s/low 80s.   In high school, studying the night before the test was typically enough to do well.  For most people, this doesn't work out so well in university. 

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That's mostly true, though I disagree with your point on study habits and life lessons.  I would argue the first term of university gives you those (at least study habits anyways).  

 

High school education is so variable (especially in Ontario).  I used to TA a number of first year courses in undergrad and I dealt with students who graduated grade 12 with a 90+ average who were now getting high 70s/low 80s.   In high school, studying the night before the test was typically enough to do well.  For most people, this doesn't work out so well in university. 

 

Thats true, but I had a different experience I guess. High school is hugely variable, in my case my study habits were built during high school (i went to a competitive academic high school) so that when I hit university I hit the ground running. This ended up helping me in my medical applications. 

 

It is true that for many they develop study habits in university, but I would argue that if you are doing well in high school and developing good study habits then, when first term uni hits and everyone is shocked by the mark drop, you might be one of the students who doesn't notice that. Good high schools and by good I mean those that teach you properly can make first term uni seem like a repeat of high school and that helps soften the blow for many students. If you don't go to one of those schools, one option is to pursue extracurricular studying and tests for example, the AP or SAT II series of books (you don't need to write the exams) often give you a more advanced look at Gr. 12 material much of which can overlap with first year uni. 

 

McMaster is one such school that offers no mark dropping when it comes to the GPA calculation for medical school applications, which means having a strong first term in first year can give you that competitive edge that results in acceptance versus rejection and at the very least it helps everyone with acceptance if applying during 3rd year of university (none of the ontario schools that accept 3rd yrs provides their weighting formula for 3rd year applicants). 

 

Its probably the simplest thing to do, but managing to get those study habits and prep ready just a year earlier, in high school can often mean students get into medical school a year earlier or make the difference between acceptance and rejection. 

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