“Don’t get bogged down in the overwhelming amount of information that will be presented to you freshman year. As a pre-med starting out at Columbia you will hear many different things regarding medical school–some true, some false–that will scare you and stress you out even more. Don’t get bogged down! Just reach out to your advising deans, pre-medical club events with admissions officers and doctors, and older students for tips and tricks that cut through the myths and rumors. People will tell you, you need bench research or you won’t get into medical school and that if you have a GPA below 3.6 don’t even bother–do not let this get to you! Believe in yourself, look for your own sources of information and above all stay true to your dream of studying medicine. No one else knows why you want to do medicine, only you can know that and try not to let the massive amount of information thrown at you bring you down.”- Cesar