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I'm too busy - which of these summer activities should I prioritize for med school?


equus

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I hope to be incredibly busy next summer. However, I think I'm TOO busy and I don't think all my plans are going to work out. I would appreciate advice on what to do. (I'm currently in my 2nd year at Queen's)

 

This is my proposed plan for summer of 2012:

 

1) Travel to South America and perform my project director duties for a health-related organization --> 2 weeks in May

2) Take Orgo at Western --> May 14 - June 26

3) Paid research job --> July - August

 

However, there are a few issues with this. I am currently project director of a health-related organization at my university, and it is absolutely necessary that I travel to South America to set things up for the people I am in charge of. However, I had previously agreed to do this for THREE weeks, which would ruin the rest of my summer plans, and I don't think I can get my boss to agree to let me take 2 weeks. Therefore, I might not get back to Canada in time to take Orgo at Western. However, I need Orgo for my degree and I really want to take it in the summer so it won't ruin my year. I also need to take Orgo in order to be able to write the MCAT, which I planned to do the summer of 2013.

 

This is a compromised scenario:

 

1)Travel to South America and perform my project director duties for a health-related organization --> 3 weeks in May, 2012

2) Research job --> June - August, 2012

 

3) UWO Orgo --> May - June, 2013

4) MCAT prep course --> June - August 2013

5) Write MCAT --> end of August 2013

 

This would obviously suck doing Orgo and the MCAT at the same time.

 

 

I need help and advice on what to do!!!

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You don't need to take organic to do well on the biological section of the mcat. I'm not even convinced that it would help since the content is fairly different. Understand electronegativity, SN1, SN2, E1, E2, HNMR, and IR spectrums and you can answer 90% of the organic questions. You can learn these things yourself without the course if you're willing. But, since you need organic for your degree, try and get it done before the mcat; it definitely won't hurt. I'd either take it during the year as a regular course, or if you're convinced you can't do well in it, try and find a place that offers it from July-August and take it this summer. In general, I don't think your schedule looks too busy for next summer. See if you can reduce the South America thing to 2 weeks first as that is best case scenario.

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I think scenario one is fine. Simply tell the organization you belong to you can only do 2 weeks and they'll have to understand. Things pop up. You're telling them way in advance.

 

Taking orgo and studying for the MCAT simultaneously will be very difficult to do and I advise against it.

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You could decide to do orgo during the school year. Many people actually do quite well in the course.

 

The thing is, I can't do that now that I will have to take it after second year. To be eligible for UWO's med school, 3 of my 5 courses need to be of the same year I'm in, and since Orgo is a 2nd year course, I wouldn't be able to take the two 2nd-year French courses that I need for my French minor next year. Ugh it's so complicated!

 

Simply tell the organization you belong to you can only do 2 weeks and they'll have to understand. Things pop up. You're telling them way in advance.

 

I get the feeling that my bosses at the organization already don't like me for some reason, and if I tell them that I can't stay for the entire promised time, I think I can forget any idea of them ever writing me a reference letter for anything.

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Couldn't you just miss the first week of orgo? May be a bit more work with intersession classes, but every time I've started the term late due to travel professors have been accommodating as long as I'm willing to make up the work. People enroll late anyways.

 

This can be difficult as the intersession classes are so quick. Tests roll around in no time, from what I've noticed as an ochem TA. But, it is possible. Different students have different aptitudes, and some do very well during the summer because it is so fast-paced.

 

Equus, I've made an ochem review that simplifies the important concepts in ochem. I could send it to you if you would like when you start ochem. It should help quite a bit. Concepts like electronegativity, dipoles, and resonance are so important to have down from the beginning. And sure, there are people who start late in ochem. But you want to excel in ochem, and not get a mediocre grade. Make sure if you do it this way you use whatever resources are available in order to help you achieve that goal. I am more than willing to offer you help during that time if needed.

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Equus, I've made an ochem review that simplifies the important concepts in ochem. I could send it to you if you would like when you start ochem. I am more than willing to offer you help during that time if needed.

 

Thank you SO much, Cerena. You are always so helpful and generous. :)

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Cerena! I've just started ochem through Athabasca

 

I was thinking about other possible options to fit everything in this summer, and I thought maybe this would work:

 

May - Go to South America and do project director duties

June - August - Do research job, take orgo online with Athabasca

 

CaptainCrunchMan--how's ochem with Athabasca? Do you think it's going to be difficult to succeed in without live lectures? Would you recommend it? (I know you've only just started it) Do you think the workload for the entire course is doable while having a full-time job?

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May - Go to South America and do project director duties

June - August - Do research job, take orgo online with Athabasca

 

I think that's a good idea. I think the problem with athabasca courses is when the labs are available for you to complete. So even though you finish all the assignments and tests, you may have to do the labs at a later time.

 

There's lots of resources out there (cerena, youtube) that will be useful in teaching yourself orgo.

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I think that's a good idea. I think the problem with athabasca courses is when the labs are available for you to complete. So even though you finish all the assignments and tests, you may have to do the labs at a later time.

 

Fortunately, I live in London, which is only an hour away from Hamilton, where McMaster does intensive orgo lab sessions in August that Athabasca would permit me to use for the course. :)

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Fortunately, I live in London, which is only an hour away from Hamilton, where McMaster does intensive orgo lab sessions in August that Athabasca would permit me to use for the course. :)

 

that's awesome. so wait, the labs that you'll be doing are the McMaster orgo course labs?

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that's awesome. so wait, the labs that you'll be doing are the McMaster orgo course labs?

 

yeah, apparently Athabasca has some sort of agreement with McMaster so that the McMaster labs (completed in 4 full days I believe) count towards the Athabasca course.

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Hope I can +1 the regular term orgo here. I considered athabasca and summer very seriously last year, but I now incredibly glad that I'm taking it regular term. It's actually very easy (moreso than intro, for me) if you're involved in class, labs, and help sessions. I would be pretty scared to take it by any other delivery than day course now. Honestly, chem is not my strong suit, but I've been elated that I actually understand concepts (with pre-reading), ask intelligent questions of the prof, and have wicked awesome INTERESTING labs that are very applicable to daily life (Synthesis, extraction, tlc, distillation). Try it out - not that bad at all! just my 2c, good luck with whatever route you take. PS. McMurry's Organic Chem is a GREAT textbook, as is Zubrick's "Organic chem lab survival manual".

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