10 pre-med tips no advisor will tell you from a Columbia medical student

Hi I'm Sophia. I was a pre-med student at WashU with a major in Psychology and recently graduated. I will be attending Columbia University Medical School (VP&S) for the next four years! I applied to 35 schools during the 2023-2024 medical school admissions cycle through both AMCAS and TMDSAS. I ended up receiving 14 interviews including Baylor, UTSW, Perelman/UPenn, Weill/Cornell, Vanderbilt, WashU, and more, as well as 6 acceptances including Vagelos/Columbia, UC San Diego, Dell, amongst others. Today, I share with you my top 10 secret tips for pre-med students that helped me get into medical school. If you are interested in medical school application consulting or pre-med consulting either as a WashU or non-WashU student, find out more at my website:

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[agmad]

I agree with the take that you don’t need to major in biology to be premed but a lot of ppl that do see it’s pretty easy to do premed classes while getting ur major (other majors like biochem is like that), but tbh I did biology because the upper division classes can be medical classes (dependent on universities) so I wouldn’t discourage biology. Also, it’s not really that hard of a major, more of taking the premed classes simultaneously can be hard but everyone has to. I think other stem majors have it harder if they wanna do premed (biochem, chem, phys, math, etc) so just do what you enjoy. I’d rather take tests than be writing essays for history or other humanities classes.

[joaquinvazquez]

Pre-med is so stressful ughh.
I got work-study, a separate part-time job, 15 units worth of courses, volunteering at a hospital on weekends, and it's only my first year. I wanted to add research, but I won't have time :, (

[odeleya]

I’m currently pre-PA and about to be a sophomore in college. I’d say this advice extends to us as well! Especially the one about majoring in biology. I started off as a bio major, but I saw that a lot of the classes weren’t even biology related, like I would’ve had to take calc and physics 1 & 2 which felt so unnecessary and looked like it would take me more than 4 years. My gpa would suffer horribly if I had to take all of those crazy difficult classes. I switched to majoring in psychology and minoring in biology and I’m so much happier now, since I love learning psychology and I think it’s important for any healthcare field. And I still take biology classes without the unnecessary math and physics

[adr]

I found your videos earlier this year when I was stressing about my Ervin interview and now as I'm getting ready to start my premed journey I find this as well! This is very very helpful :)

[nikkip]

i remember when i followed you like 4 years ago during covid when you were making videos, congrats on graduating and best of luck at columbia!!!

[christian]

You just made the realist video, you covered so many topics people avoid talking about!

[oliviasungyt]

I found your channel and I love it!!! 💗

[thimylinhbui]

Omg thank u for the advice. I was on the verge of choosing bio over psych as a pre-med because my parents disapproved of psych. I’m actually more passionate about psych though.

[ttm]

As a surgeon with a HS student wanting to go to med school, I think this is great advice. Though difficult, you can find interesting research. I did basic gene therapy research that became FDA-approved years later. My 16yo was trembling with excitement just talking to the PI about the project. Sometimes having a front row seat in innovation can be exhilarating.

[Whoknows-mfcv]

THesse are such awesome tips! Thank you for sharing!

[Canyourixit]

How do I study for orgo & biochem? Spaced repetition + practice problems?

[carolyncvaldez]

Glad you mentioned not being a Bio major to get into med school. I'm a software engineer and I know a lot of EE graduates who worked at Intel, etc, and then went into med school after taking the pre-reqs. A lot of times, you won't know what you want and don't want until you're in the workforce.

[Quellit]

girl I think we have the same mirror and door LMFAO

ty for the advice though, coming from a high school student <3

[arushidinker]

hi sophia! incoming premed @ rice and i was just curious as to what year you took organic chemistry in? i wanted to take my MCAT after my freshman year like you, but that seems to be the only topic i didn't already cover in high school. thanks and congrats on colubmia!

[AveryDierenfeld]

I decided to major in biology because I genuinely enjoy the subject. I did know that I could do different majors as a pre-med but I chose not to.

[winni]

Thank you for this video! I would love to see one that goes more in depth on the four-year plan. I'm an incoming first year, and I am still a little confused about what all I need to do.

[macbethapple]

What did we do to deserve so many Sophia posts in one week ?? ❤

[meadowlarrk_]

thanks this was incredibly helpful!! just out of curiosity, did your youtube channel come up in interviews?

[FarehaMir]

Hi Sophia, please let me know when is the earliest we can schedule an initial consultation w you. Tried to email you, not sure if you had a chance to see it. Look forward to hearing from you. Thank you!

[fly]

recently graduated and i am going to be attending unc charlotte, not the best school but its close to home and I didnt do good in hs at all... but the last semester I started taking my academics serious, do you think id be able to make it :D