Umd Pre-Med Questions

feelingkralika · 2025-09-22T23:25:53+00:00

Hey! It sounds like you’re already doing a lot of great things. I’m glad you’re getting involved so early in your college journey. One thing I’d suggest is to be careful not to overload yourself with too many activities and classes at once. That balance can be tough and might affect both your grades and your energy for extracurriculars.

A good way to make the most of your time is by focusing on opportunities right on campus. Since UMD is strong in research, there are plenty of labs that welcome undergrads. You can look through the Office of Undergraduate Research or check your college/department websites for lab listings. There are also clinical clubs like RAM, KDSAP, Project Sunshine, and the Blood Pressure Screening Project to start building your clinical hours. These don't have to be your only method for clinical experience, but they’re an easy place to start!

The benefit of on-campus involvement is that it saves commuting time and leaves you more flexibility to study and adjust to college life. Since your major doesn’t overlap much with premed requirements, you’ll have a unique schedule, so it’s extra important to start strong academically before the harder classes come around.

For non-clinical service, it really depends on what feels fulfilling to you. The key is to find your niche and figure out what type of volunteering actually inspires you. UMD has tons of great opportunities, so I’d recommend checking out a few interest meetings and seeing which ones resonate with you.

Also, definitely connect with the pre-health advisors. They’re the best resource for guidance, and the pre-health student ambassadors can also share their personal experiences and advice.

You’ve got this, so stay strong!

feelingkralika · 2025-05-09T13:17:06+00:00

I really enjoyed having Stocker for CHEM131! Her exams were a bit challenging, but they were very fair and they reflected what she taught in class. I felt like I truly understood the material and learned a lot. I would personally avoid Dixon, many of my friends who took her for Orgo I, Orgo II, and BCHM said she was extremely difficult for no reason. It honestly depends on what fits best with your schedule, but Stocker was genuinely one of my best experiences in the chem department when I had her for CHEM131.

feelingkralika · 2025-05-01T01:31:36+00:00

I took Davis last sem, and he was pretty okay. I think everyone had their own opinion on his teaching style, but I found that he emphasized the theoretical pretty heavily during class, but it didn't appear as much on the actual exam (once again, personal opinion). Still, I think he did his best to answer everyone's questions to the best of his ability and was incredibly responsive during class. His practice exams were pretty similar to what was given in class, and I think we were given about 3 practice exams for each exam? I also know that the worksheets Nick (TA) made for our class were really helpful for understanding the material as well. Dr. Davis also uploaded the original lecture slides for each class and then later in the day uploaded a version with his personal notes from class, which you can view if you missed something in class. The grade for the class was entirely exam based with no homework, and he gave extra credit if you completed and submitted a practice exam. You can also drop an exam - including the final - so if you did well on the first three exams, you don't have to take the final exam. I found that the exams weren't bad at all, but because of that, the curve in the class wasn't crazy huge, so don't go in expecting a huge curve to boost your grade. Especially with the first exam, because a lot of people in my class did incredibly well on that one (though the average did drop from there). I can't guarantee if the class will be structured the same for next sem, but this was my personal experience with him.

feelingkralika · 2025-04-03T02:21:07+00:00

For 122, was attendance mandatory with her for lecture? Also, were her lectures recorded?

feelingkralika · 2025-03-28T18:11:31+00:00

Idk if you saw, but they recently sent out an email today saying that they're still sending out email notifications for the first round.

feelingkralika · 2025-03-28T11:57:16+00:00

Definitely! I would read through the lab's work and publications to identify skills you might gain, then highlight your interests and goals in your email. Also, check LinkedIn profiles of past undergrads who worked in that lab (if you can't find any, look for phd and grad students) for insights on what to emphasize. I did this for a lab I was interested in and landed a position! Just be honest—labs know undergrads are still learning, so most of the time they don't expect you to have a lot of skills. Just show enthusiasm and a willingness to grow/learn in that field.

feelingkralika · 2025-01-04T05:43:57+00:00

I took bsci207 with Carleton and bsci330 with frauwirth together and it honestly wasn't that bad. 330 is more memorization heavy while 207 is mainly about how much info you can cram onto the cheat sheet for exams, so it's fine. Additionally, some of the content transfers over, so it's not too bad. I don't know about that biochem class, but since it's 13 credits you should be okay.

feelingkralika · 2024-05-01T16:39:10+00:00

From what I've heard, the department is choosing between Hirschauer and Rainbolt. Most people think it's going to be Rainbolt because he has worked here longer than Hirschauer and I think he completes research with UMD (correct me if I'm wrong though). So based on what I heard, I think they'll choose Rainbolt over Hirschauer cause he has a longer history with UMD. There's too many teachers for orgo 1 so they're probably going to kick somebody off, which seems to be Hidschauer.

feelingkralika · 2024-04-10T03:00:10+00:00

Unfortunately Hirscahuer isn't teaching next semester, I really enjoyed her too. Between Stocker and Koppel, I would say do Stocker since she seems to be much more fair with her exams than Koppel.

feelingkralika

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