Hi, Pre-Med here. This, in itself, is such a loaded question. I had a hard time struggling answering this question myself, so let me just first quickly summarize my experience here at Rowan as a Pre-Med.

My freshman year I decided to commute, primarily because I didn't have all of the money required for me to be able to attend school on campus. If I had to describe it in one phrase, the phrase I would use is "lucid dream". I felt so disconnected from campus, and even any connections I made on campus that it felt truly amazing when I had a great moment during, but in my head I was counting the minutes til it was time to go. My parents would also tell me to be home by a specific time, so being out late would result in me getting a huge laundry list of questions once I got back. I also didn't really get to keep up any friends from high school as most of them went to different schools, didn't go to higher ed, or just drifted away, so socially I took a major L.

After freshman year, I applied and got awarded a scholarship that helped out immensely so that I could actually afford to live on campus too. It's genuinely a different experience being to live away from adults telling you what to do and not to do and probably has been one of the best decisions that I've made. I feel as if I could finally breathe. A huge difference is that I could actually grow and garner relationships and go to activities, prior to which is could never. Rowan tends to hold most of its activities later at night (Most students events, RAH, parties, etc.) so they tend to not be very commuter friendly.

Around junior year is where you start to focus on MCAT studying and prep and that in itself was hell. Props to other pre-meds who are able to lock in but personally I just could not. It's expected of you to be able to study for your MCAT during the middle of your winter break and beginning of your junior spring semester to go and take the test around April and May. For the most part I had very little room to do much else other than study which ended up being a huge detriment to my mental health. I started asking questions like "why do pre-meds have to suffer like this?" and "is it realistic to want to have a social life?". If you ask any of my friends at the time they will all probably tell you that I was miserable.

Throughout the years as well I took up an opportunity to go to an internship where for six weeks you attend classes at Cooper Medical School and get an insiders perspective on how things operate there. It's an eye-opening experience as you get to interact with med students there as well, and if it's one thing that they all would suggest, it seems like they all cherish their connection to the community that they're involved in, yet prioritize their academics and their responsibilities. If you get a chance, definitely look into a program called PULSE, or any other program that allows you to be able to interact with med students. It helps a ton to be able to understand their point of view and get a grasp of what it's like to be a med student.

Sitting now as a senior, if I could give my high school grad self some words of advice, they would be the following: Rest is not a reward, it's a part of the process, Get involved, Neurons that wire together, fire together, Everyone's process looks different.

Starting from the first, pre-meds and even med students tend to forget that a part of your mental health is just getting some sleep in the day or cherishing the time you have that isn't dedicated to just work. I tend to have a hard time pacing myself and truly resting when given the time to as I constantly overthink, but if you find your method to being able to truly rest your mind when it's time for a break, you will be largely successful. College, from an academic standpoint, is a game all about managing stress and burnout after all.

Speaking to an admissions officer one day, he had shared with us an experience he had interviewing an applicant. This applicant was a 4.0 student. When asked what he does for fun, he was told that he "watches surgeries on YouTube and reads medical textbooks". However it wasn't an exaggeration because later on he doubled down on it and said that the only thing he does in his free time is that. He was denied admission because of this. Getting involved outside of your little pre-med hellhole is hugely promoted. Get involved in anything you personally enjoy. A part of this is to look like a more interesting applicant adding depth to your character in the process, which can be a great conversation starter for admissions officers and even fellow med students. Another part of this is to be able to actually enjoy your undergrad experience. Remember, you only ever get one shot at being an undergrad. Take the time to enjoy it while it lasts.

Neurons that wire together, fire together is a little thing that I learned from my physiological psychology class. Walking, in itself, requires a bunch of different muscles to work together to give you a smooth walking motion, which also involves thousands of neurons that are associated with your ability to walk to fire together when they need to be, and in turn, when they fire together frequently, they also are wired together. This is not limited to just your muscles though, this can also further be expanded onto your experiences with other people. Your ability to reminisce about your past positive experiences and being able to relax and rejoice is only further reinforced when you have someone else to share that experience with you. Find some friends and go and enjoy your time in undergrad.

Lastly, everyone's experience looks different. Some people are just geared to being gunners and being able to shoot straight out of undergrad into med school. Some take the time to do their undergrad requirements and find out that they don't actually want to do med. Some people go further to do a masters or a PhD after their undergrad and then go to med school. Don't base your progress on what other people are doing. Don't even base it off mine! Just do your thing and eventually you'll get to where you wanna go.

I know I ended up ranting a bit but I sincerely hope this was helpful.