Indiana University was absolutely the right place for me to go for my undergraduate education. I’ll never regret the experience, the knowledge I received, and the friends that I met there. I chose biology as a major, not because I felt that I needed that education to enter medical school, but because it was the subject I enjoyed learning the most. I find molecular biology fascinating. Learning the biologic transfer of information was a ton of fun. Although it isn’t a knowledge set that I use in my career, the basis of learning biology is still beneficial for understanding and practicing medicine.
In general, I see getting an undergraduate education as learning how to learn. It is also a significant transition from being dependent to being an adult. Aside from making sure to get medical school pre-requisites and test prep, my advice to any student would be to study whatever in college. Much like I mentioned in my post on the medical application, a unique undergraduate degree can make an application for medical school stick out – in a good way.
I mentioned this in an earlier post, but I see the most important thing one can do at a large University is make it smaller. Step one is to get engaged in courses. The 100 level courses at a place like IU are likely to be large, with multiple sections and a large teaching team. Engage in the small sections, but don’t forget to get to know the professors as well. Office hours are a great place to learn in a large class, and sometimes it’s good to go for the social interaction. It’s great to have questions, but it isn’t always about asking questions. Sometimes it’s just about getting to know the professor, where you can learn about the course material – or maybe just have a conversation about life.
I grew up in a small town. Introducing myself to diversity was an important part of going to a large university. I was fortunate to be able to make friends from all over the world. It was undoubtedly a new setting compared to a small town of 5,000 people in central Indiana.
I worked my way through college. I had two jobs during the year: teaching first aid/CPR/lifeguarding courses to the recreational sports employees and referring basketball for intramural sports. In the summer, I worked at the swimming pool.
I also had the opportunity to be involved in intercollegiate athletics. I worked as one of the managers for the IU Men’s Basketball Team. While not actually playing a sport, I had the opportunity to travel with the team and watch the team play for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. This was close to a year-round job. We started practicing in the fall and played through March, with basketball camps and other activities in the summer. It was a challenging and rewarding experience that taught me how to manage my time and be a successful student. It also lengthened my undergraduate experience by a year – which is not necessarily a bad thing.
I applied to be a manager during my freshman year. I wasn’t successful – mostly because the team was worried I might ruin my chance to be a physician if I couldn’t focus on studying. I was able to convince them that I could manage both, and I’ll never forget the experiences that came from being a member of that team.
If you are looking for an experience, you’ll find it at a larger university. The full breadth and depth of opportunities are available, and I enjoyed that. At the same time, if you aren’t looking to be noticed, that’s possible, as well. Just remember, if you want to apply to medical school, getting noticed should be a goal. Finding mentors and advisors who know what they are talking about is key to making it to the next stop along the journey.
I don’t want to write this post to say you have to go to a large school to get into medical school. That is far from the truth. I know plenty of people who were successful at medical school admissions after attending a smaller college. It’s important to make your secondary education what you need out of it!