u/RoutineHaunting7430

as someone who just finished first yr for premed here are some things i wish i knew before coming to uni

dont waste the summer!! there's still time before school ends for u guys but this period of time is when u should start applying to summer jobs, volunteering, uni club positions, etc. just having some sort of experience in the field of research or hospital work is great before starting uni. another thing that really helped me was starting to apply or even join the team of current clubs of the uni ur going to. it helps build connections and gets you ahead of everyone else in ur year (shameless plug: my club is hiring summer interns :D pm if interested). at the same time tho, try and enjoy the summer as much as u can bc on the premed track this is lowk the last summer u have to fuck around before u gotta lock in (summer research, mcat, etc.)
LOCK IN on choosing classes! i couldn't stress this enough, esp for programs that have more choice in your electives. im at queens hs so i can speak to that, i lowk didn't expect classes to be so hard to get into so knowing what you want before the course selection date is important! also make sure you do ur research on bird courses (courses that are easy to get high gpa), i got demolished by an art course which i thought was gonna be easy but found out the prof is notorious for giving horrible marks. u still have lots of time before course selection starts but keep this in the back of ur mind
network and build connections. this is smtg ppl dont really think of but fr makes such a big difference. queens has this peer mentor program (called qsuccess) and im sure most other schools do where they link u up with upper year mentors, i couldnt recommend this more. i genuinely wouldnt be where i am if it werent for my mentor cause uni is such a new experience and learning curve esp in the first month of school, so having someone guide u through ur stupid questions or just things ur not sure of is very helpful and gets u ahead of the game. they also usually have past assignments from the courses ur taking which is nice lol. make sure u build a strong relationship with them too bc if they like u they can nepo u into higher club positions and really just help u out alot

thats all i can think of rn feel free to ask me anything!

not letting me sign in to my queens acc when i wanna get full text access to journal article