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Advice to first year undergrad?


faithrl

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Other than getting the best marks I can, does anybody have advice? I'm currently a social science major at McMaster University, doing my electives in science. 

Things you wish you knew when you first started university, things you wish you could've done differently. 

Appreciate the help :)

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Familarize yourself with the MCAT. Plan out a schedule for yourself of when to take it. I missed the deadline to take it to apply for schools out of 3rd year. Study hard. I took it 4 times and wasted a good 2k. 

Join extracurriculars that you plan on keeping for a while. I understand life can change, and your schedule will change, but long term > short term commitments. Even if it is only 2 hours a week, or just once a month. 

Don't worry too much about debts, don't try too hard to make small money and lose out on more important things. I worked >3 part time jobs pretty much all through undergrad, and lived at home to save money. Easily one of my biggest regrets. Now I'm 4 cycles in, and wish I could have had a better portfolio filled with extracurriculars and better grades than minimum wage jobs/nothing to show for the 25 hours a week I spent on transit. 

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Have a solid back up plan and also know how far you are willing to push this (ie 3/4/5 years or longer). 

 

If you don’t make it by the second time consider overseas schools early to avoid wasting time doing masters etc for no reason. 

 

Make sure you you do well in school. Make sure you do well on the MCAT. 

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On 10/18/2018 at 1:27 PM, chiynadoll said:

Familarize yourself with the MCAT. Plan out a schedule for yourself of when to take it. I missed the deadline to take it to apply for schools out of 3rd year. Study hard. I took it 4 times and wasted a good 2k. 

Join extracurriculars that you plan on keeping for a while. I understand life can change, and your schedule will change, but long term > short term commitments. Even if it is only 2 hours a week, or just once a month. 

Don't worry too much about debts, don't try too hard to make small money and lose out on more important things. I worked >3 part time jobs pretty much all through undergrad, and lived at home to save money. Easily one of my biggest regrets. Now I'm 4 cycles in, and wish I could have had a better portfolio filled with extracurriculars and better grades than minimum wage jobs/nothing to show for the 25 hours a week I spent on transit. 

Well damn. At least you probably learned a lot from all that, and thanks for sharing :) 

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Make sure your marks don't slip in first year; it's easy to get distracted and such but keep your eyes on the goal !! Also, start investing in some long term clubs/commitments; rather than doing a lot of things, having a couple things that you showed commitment to and growed in I think speaks a lot more in your application

 

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