[araniaraniratul]

Originally Posted by wajirock

I am also a 2016 FIRST graduate, and I am considering waiting at least a few years before I start mentoring a Robotics Team. I am aiming for medical school, so I might not want to not take the risk of my grades and test scores slip due to mentoring. On the flip side, mentoring a Robotics Team might give me the edge I need on my résumé to edge out the other applicants. I am also majoring in biology, and I am not sure how useful that would be in regards to being a mentor. Anyone want to give their thoughts?

My problem with this is you're looking at mentoring for all the wrong reasons. You should want to mentor because it's extremely fulfilling and you find it $@#$@#$@#$@# near impossible to leave the community. I took a semi-year off from FIRST before stepping back into it, and I'm glad I did. It really helped me appreciate the program more. Mentoring will absolutely tank your grades at any competitively tough school with no inflation (i.e UC Berkeley) but I've been pretty blessed enough to have so many learning opportunities outside of academics that I'm pretty set in the employment department.