For as long as I can remember, I've wanted to be a doctor. Seriously. Like as a child (according to my parents), every time someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I said a doctor. I (apparently) would take it even further and say that I wanted to be a brain surgeon and not a heart surgeon because my tiny little self thought that messing with someone's brain vs. their heart would be less scary and detrimental. Yeah, I know. Weird. Anywho, this idea of going to medical and becoming a doctor has been a life long dream of mine.
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| My exact expression every time I imagine myself as a doctor. |
Since I always knew that I wanted to be a doctor, the decision to be a science major in college was an easy choice. College was a whirlwind. I had 3-4 jobs at all times, did a crap-load of community service, did research, held an internship, studied abroad, played soccer all 4 years, all while double majoring in Molecular Biology and Chemistry with a minor in Math. Yes, I am nuts. But somehow I made it and enjoyed it all at the same time (well most of the time). As my junior year came to an end, I kind of went into the medical school application process blindly -- stupid idea people. I had an internship in Boston at the time and I pretty much let it take the back-burner -- also a stupid idea people.
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| Actual image of me applying to medical school the first time. |
So, (if you didn't guess from the caption to this picture ^^^) I didn't get into medical school the first time I applied. I didn't even get an interview! Nada. This was one of the first things I applied to that I didn't get and quite frankly I was mad and sad and angry and tired and completely doubting whether or not I was actually good enough.
But, since mama ain't raise no quitter, I decided to go to plan B: try plan A again. So, I applied to a highly competitive 1-year masters program, re-evaluated myself, researched the process, and got different advising. Now, here I am a year and a half after failing with an M.S. after my name and getting ready to start medical school orientation in less than a week.
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| [Just started watching Parks & Rec with Lalo, so it seemed fitting] |
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| LOL JK. This is actually more accurate of my feelings -- still. |
Anyways, the whole point of this post is to try and maybe help someone not make the same silly mistakes I did when I applied the first time. So here are all the things that I wished I had known and done the first time around --->
1. Do your OWN research on the application process.
Believe it or not, your advisors don't live and breathe for you -- and you shouldn't expect them to either. You MUST do your own research. Go to the AAMC/AACOM website. Go to medical school websites. Read about the process and timing of things. Don't just take your professors' or friends' words for it. Find out for yourself. Learn what each school's requirements are, when their deadlines are, what application services there are (because Texas is special and uses a different service than the rest of the country). If you just blindly listen to the loose advice given to you without even blinking an eye, you're just setting yourself up for failure. You must invest your time and energy into learning how to even get to where you want to go in the first place or it's just not going to happen.
2. Write your personal statement about what you want to write it about, not what you think or are told the schools want to hear.
My first AND second personal statement was -- in the words of Pete Newman -- garbage trash. I started out by writing about how I wanted to help people (because duh). I had no turning point, no golden moment of realization, no hardships or tragedy to write about. However, I was told by an advisor that this wasn't a real reason to be a doctor. And BAM -- after being someone who can usually talk and write my butt off, my ideas just crumpled. So, I literally was stuck on my personal statement for 4 months -- approximately 120 days -- or a third of a year. THIRTY THREE POINT THREE REPEATING PERCENT OF A FREAKIN YEAR. Just to talk about why I wanted to be a doctor and why I would be a good one -- about that one thing I have literally wanted to do my entire life. I ended up submitting the crap I was advised to and thought was what the schools wanted from me. However, after researching, hearing from deans of medical schools, and listening to different advisors and peers, I found out that not writing about what my gut wanted to write about was just garbage trash. This time, in less than a week I was able to write and revise an entire beautiful personal statement about why I am passionate about people and science, why I want to help people and how I would just be damn good at it (ok?!). This time, my statement sounded like me, felt like me, and was something I was proud of.
3. If you don't do so hot on the MCAT, give yourself some REAL time to improve.
Dad, this one is for you. Background info: I took the MCAT 4 times. Other background info: I was advised to do so for these first 3. Other other background info: my dad works in standardized testing and told me again and again not to do it and I didn't listen and ugh he was right. Yes, I said it. Dad, YOU WERE RIGHT. The first time I took the MCAT in April, I didn't do so hot (and didn't prep enough). I was advised to take it again as soon as possible which ended up being in July during my internship in Boston where I had no car and was working and yadda yadda. And I did.. and got like 1 percentile higher. So then I was advised to take it again as soon as possible which was during soccer season in September between games andddd then I got the same exact score. Literally from my dad's mouth: you need TIME and drastic measures to really improve your score with standardized testing. No amount of Ryan Gosling pump up motivation memes is going to improve your score enough if you don't give yourself the right amount of time, effort, and circumstances.
4. Take a MCAT prep course.
Ugh, just do it. Just give them the money. No. I am not getting paid to say this. But seriously do it. With guidance and some other things, this time around I was able to increase my MCAT score by over 35 percentile (like 11 points). FREAKING INSANE. Still kinda bitter that dad was right... but if I had to choose between spending the money on this course and spending money to take it the other 2 extra times (14 extra hours of testing) I would pay for the freaking class over and over again. If you want to know exactly how I improved my MCAT score this much, read this.
5. Submit your application early.
A big misconception that I had my first time around was that you couldn't submit your primary application until you had all your stuff in (letters, transcripts, MCAT scores). This is 100% WRONG. Submit it AS SOON AS YOU FINISH FILLING OUT THE STUFF ONLINE. Don't wait for the mail. Don't wait for letter writers. Don't wait for your scores. Just submit it. Once you submit it, it goes into a pile where they wait for your things. If you don't submit it, no one even knows you exist. So when you finally do, you go to the very very bottom of the pile. Example: I submitted my primary application in June, my secondary applications in July, and then took my MCAT in August -- meaning my MCAT scores came in September, 2.5 months after I submitted the first application. In less than 72 hours of receiving my scores, I already was offered an interview. These pending piles EXIST. Don't wait. Listen to Mr. Pratt.
6. Shot-gun apply -- but strategically.
If we all had an unlimited amount of money or if applications were free (which they are most definitely not), then I would say apply everywhere. But let's be realistic -- no one has the money to apply everywhere, the money to travel to all those interviews, or the time to complete all those secondary applications. Instead, strategically shot-gun apply. What I mean by this, is do some research. For me, I first thought about where I could see myself living and serving for the next 4+ years and that chopped off about half of the country. After this, I looked into the mission statements of schools, looked at their average acceptance statistics, and looked at their prereqs (because they're not all the same). This narrowed it down to a handful of schools that I really believed I would have a realistic chance at, would be happy at, and could afford. Also, don't forget about DO schools! If you don't know what that is, read this. Luckily for me, I had shadowed and worked with a DO (wrote about her here) and already knew that this was a path I was extremely interested in.
7. Make sure you AND your medical advisory board know what a "committee letter/packet" is.
Yeah, so this I was COMPLETELY oblivious to. This "committee letter/packet" thing is something that the TMDSAS application service asks for and even prefers. From hearing professors talk to each other and from what I understood as they were explaining it to me, this was a letter of recommendation written by a member of the medical advisory board that included comments and quotes that other professors wrote about you when responding to basically an email. WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG. Once I got into my master's program and heard from several medical schools, I learned just why they loved these packets so much. Instead, a committee packet is literally a packet of letters of recommendations from bosses, PIs, professors, etc. Some schools cap it at like 5 letters and some don't care how many letters are included. And once all these letters are compiled into a packet, and committee letter is written that basically summarizes all the wonderfully nice things people wrote and agreed upon about you. So, the medical school will get the summary AND a chunk of letters from wonderful people. That being said, YOU need to be the one who asks for these letters from said people. YOU have to stay on top of the process. You can't sit around and wait for it to get done by itself. And if this packet is not something you can get together or your school does, then opt out and submit individual letters.
Also, don't forget to ask if they can honestly write a GOOD letter for you. Very important. You should never expect someone to lie in a letter for you. Ever. However, you can ask for letters from people who would write a good one and expect them to be honest with you as to whether or not they can do that. If someone is not capable of writing a positive letter of recommendation for you and doesn't believe in you, DON'T HAVE THEM WRITE YOU A LETTER. Example from real people on my Facebook:
8. The notion that you need a perfect GPA and a bomb MCAT score to get in anywhere is just bologna.
Unless you love methods of self-torture, get off Student Doctor Network. I personally know people with 4.0 and people with 3.0 GPAs, people with 515 and 495 MCATs, people with no community service and people with a shiz ton, people who are grown with kids and people who are fresh out of college who have gotten into medical school. And I know those same types of people who didn't get in. Heck, I even know someone who got accepted into a school that they originally were rejected from. ANYTHING can happen. There is no perfect formula. Just keep chugging and use every resource you can to get there homie.
9. Practice telling people (whose opinions you care about) why you want to be a doctor.
Ohhhh my gosh. This literally helped me SO MUCH. One night a close friend of mine sat on the phone with me for around 4 hours and asked me, out loud, a list of 75 different interview questions. For some reason, saying out loud why you wanna do something that just means so much to you is terrifying and kinda difficult -- especially when you care about what the person thinks. At first I fumbled around, but afterwards, I was able to write secondaries like nobody's business and interview with confidence. If you want this list of questions, just shoot me an email!
10. Know that you ARE good enough.
Last but not least, KNOW THIS. Now is the time to bust out those Ryan Gosling memes and believe in your damn self. My senior year of college, my advisors spent a lot of time trying to convince me to quit things. Quit soccer, quit my jobs, quit my dream of medical school and look into something else. But you know what? I went on and had a bomb soccer season, picked up an extra job, and now I'm starting medical school next week. So BELIEVE IN YOUR DAMN SELF. Don't listen to anyone else because they don't get to decide where your dreams take you, and they don't get to chase them. Only you do.
All this being said, I am extremely proud of my journey. If I would've gotten in the first time, I probably wouldn't have all this advice, I wouldn't have gotten my master's and met a bunch of super cool peeps, and I for sure wouldn't be able to happily say that I am a member of the inaugural class of 2021 at the new osteopathic medical school in San Antonio, just down the road from my parents. My dad would probably call this serendipity. Anyways, rant over.
If you are applying to medical school for the first time or fifth time or just want to ask me anything, just email me! The road to being a doctor is a long, bumpy, windy road with a bunch of hills you have to get over and cliffs you have to jump off -- but just know you're not driving or jumping alone!
Please feel free to share if you think this will help anyone you know who is currently applying or thinking of applying in the future! Also if you agree, disagree, or have other points that you think should be added to this list: COMMENT BELOW! ↓ I'd love to hear from y'all!
Quote from a friend: "Do what you have to do so you can do what you want to do."
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