a post about how it’s official.
1. This past saturday I graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Biology
2. Today I received my acceptance letter to my top choice medical school, Medical University of South Carolina.
FIAOJDFAOJKFOERFKAEROKDLDAJGFOAKJOEAWPELADF”jfioagjriajgoerfiasghfAIGJFGJSF
MERRY CHRISTMAS INDEED
about butterflies.
So, about nerves/nervousness going into the interview—unless you are the Buddha himself, or some super zen meditation master, you are going to have some nerves going into it. Just accept that.
But in order to crush some of those butterflies wrecking havoc in the stomach, I have what I basically call my war ritual, which I also did before the MCAT, and other important events. It involves a lot of loud dance music, me yelling and doing horrible dance moves in my car, and just generally getting myself pumped, telling myself that I’m awesome, that I’m going to do great, and I don’t even need to sweat it because I’m supercool.
And that’s it. Despite many insecurities and fears, I know who I am and I know that, if given the opportunity, I will be a good doctor. I know why I want to be a doctor and why it is important to me. It also helps that I’m at ease talking with other people, even if they are strangers. One key element of my strategy, so to speak, is to listen and observe carefully the person I’m talking to—they can reveal a lot about themselves in just a few short sentences or in pictures on a wall. If I can draw those things out, and find parallels in my own experience to talk to them about, I find it is much easier to relate to others.
The whole point of an interview is so that the medical school admissions board can get to know you as a person, and to figure out if you would make a good doctor. So if you don’t know yourself, it is going to make that task infinitely harder, because you are not going to know what to tell them, especially when those “unexpected” or wild card questions come up. So my best advice is to figure out who you are, at least to some certain, basic extent. Then you don’t really need to be afraid of any question.
a post about AMCAS.
Today, I submitted my AMCAS application to 13 different medical schools for a grand total of 560$. Thirteen wasn’t some kind of magical number, it’s just kind of where I landed. From the variety of med school students and residents I’ve talked to, the number of schools applied to ranged from 5 to 25. Quite frankly, I can’t afford to apply to 25 schools (especially once you start considering the cost not only of primary applications, but also of secondary applications and travel for interviews), and really, I don’t see much point in it either. Your best shot will always be in-state schools. If you live in state like Florida or California, naturally that number is going to be pretty high. For me, I have only two in-state schools. So the other 11 were in places that 1) fit my “profile” or numerical statisics in terms of avg GPA, MCAT score, etc 2) had a higher rate of out of state student acceptance and 3) were in a geographical region I liked.
After going through the list of US schools thoroughly on US News & World Report, I ended up with 13. I kind of had a goal of 10-15 to begin with, and I think I have a good mix of schools on there.
Now it’s time hope with every centimeter of my body that AMCAS processes my application quickly, that there are no problems, and that the medical schools like me enough to at least send a secondary application.
ROUND 1 COMPLETE!
a post about the essay.
So, my AMCAS application is complete. One hundred percent totally complete. But I keep coming back to my essay. Which is awful, because I’m a good writer, and I know that, but whenever I think about this particular piece of writing I feel like a fifth grader trying to do a book report on The Grapes of Wrath. Now I’m a week behind the personal schedule I set for myself to submit the damn thing which is also freaking me out. So I’ve decided that, regardless of how I feel about it, the application is going in tomorrow.
Once I’m done with the whole process and get my letters (either of rejection or hopefully acceptance somewhere lol), I’ll probably post my essay on here.
Some thoughts about the AMCAS:
1) Start early.
2) Contact potential “letters of rec” writers early and ask if they’re willing to write you one. Have 3-5 people ready and willing to write you letters even before the application if possible.
3) Settle any holds you have at ANY of the schools you’ve attended in as advance as possible, because they most likely won’t submit your transcripts to AMCAS until your account is settled.
4) Compile a list of all your extracurriculars/volunteer work/research and write a small paragraph describing each. Get contact information for all of them.
5) You can and should mention future plans for volunteer work/research/other extracurriculars
6) Make sure you’ll get your MCAT scores in a reasonable amount of time.
Most important: don’t rush yourself. If you’re not ready to take the MCAT, don’t. If you’re not ready to submit your application, don’t. Time is of the essence, but it doesn’t matter how early you submit your application if everything on it is shit. Take the time to do it right.
Hi, I just saw your post about your MCAT score and congrats =D. I was just wondering if you took biochemistry before taking the exam. I know its not mandatory, but my advisor says that I should consider taking it. I am just wondering if it would really make a difference wether I take this class or not.
@AnonymousMy advisor said the same. So I did take biochemistry but you really don’t need to. There isn’t any material on the MCAT that requires previous knowledge/understanding of biochemistry. I had a bad experience with it because the professor was awful and I ended up getting a not so spectacular grade in it. If I could go back, I would have opted not to take it.
There are really two main things you need to consider when ultimately making the decision for yourself:
1) What schools are you applying to? A few schools actually require biochem as a pre-req, some of them “strongly” recommend it while some only list it along with a variety of other recommendations (like genetics, molecular biology, etc etc). If your dream school/the school you have the best chance of getting in to requires or really emphasizes it, then you should probably take it.
2) What’s your course load look like? I had a very hard course load that semester and that also contributed to me not doing as well as I could have. While in my opinion the material is more interesting and accessible than organic, it’s still equally hard, and you are going to bust your ass studying for it unless the professor is super slack. If, for example, you were taking biochem in spring, AND trying to prep for taking the MCAT in may, along with some other regular courses, you’re going to make it really hard on yourself.
Your best resource to prepare for the MCAT will always be putting a ton of studying in (starting 3 months in advance is typical) + using good study tools like the prep books, and if you can afford a private one (Kaplan, etc) or your college offers one, an MCAT prep course. Take practice tests. Learn how to strategically think about the questions.
That’s my two cents. :) Good luck!
Pre-Med.
Pre-Med has been a long journey. From not knowing what the hell I was doing with my life freshman year to now, it hasn’t been easy and it was anything but a straight line. But today I’m starting, in earnest, the last round of pre-med: applying to medical school. I registered for the MCAT (July 6th), registered for the kaplan prep course, and am finishing up the last semester that will appear on the transcript I send out to the schools I’m applying to. I also took my very first practice MCAT. I did it “blind” so to speak; I didn’t study or review anything, I wanted to see how I did just based on my coursework so far. I made a 24. And I was pretty happy with that as my first ever test score.
My goal is to make at least a 30, distributed evenly among the three sections (10-11 points in each section). And in verbal reasoning and the biological sciences sections, I’m basically there, with a 9 in the former and a 10 in the latter. Physical sciences is another story. But honestly I’m pretty happy with this picture—it’s very obvious that there is one specific area I’m struggling in, and so I can really focus in on studying that in preparation. The other areas it’s simply a matter of brushing up the details and maintaining where I am already. So I’m very optimistic about it.
Medical schools start accepting applications as early as May 15th, and I believe AAMS opens them up on May 1st, so as soon as I finish finals I’ll begin the application process. Before we leave for the semester, I’m planning on asking two of my professors for letters of recommendation. Not sure who my third will be—definitely from one of the doctors that I did research and shadowing with.
Anyway, from here on in I’m going to try and keep a good record on tumblr of my entire application process—both for any readers also applying or thinking of applying, and for my own sanity/as a place to vent my frustrations. I’m going to be completely honest, because I think what every pre-med and potential pre-med student out there really wants to know—what works, what doesn’t, and what is going to get you in? Of course, my path is one of many, but in my opinion, the more insight the better!
So here’s my academic profile:
GPA: 3.6
Major/minor: Biology major (B.S.), minoring in chemistry and peace studies
Science courses taken:
Introductory biology
Botany
Zoology
Microbiology
Human Anatomy and Physiology (2 parts/2 courses)
Scientific Process (learning how to do research and present studies)
Cell Biology
Pathology
Immunology
General Chemistry I and II (2 courses)
Organic Chemistry I and II (2 courses)
Biochemistry I
University Physics I (Physics w/ Calculus)
Calculus I
Outside the Classroom (I’m going into somewhat limited detail here because I do not want to be stalked by some creep with an internet connection):
Summer spent doing research at a medical school; I shadowed and observed surgeries at least twice a week and worked with a doctor on his research project
Did research with a professor at my university. This research is ongoing, I am coming back in the fall to continue working in the lab.
Will be doing shadowing of operations/surgeries and research at another medical school this summer
(I am being purposely vague here in order to stay relatively anon)
Preliminary practice MCAT score: 24
So that’s where I’m at! On a more personal/emotional note, this is an incredibly stressful process. I got on this bandwagon late, and so ever since the end of sophomore year I’ve been playing catch up with my better prepared classmates and, on a broader scale, the competition on a state and national level. Everything I’ve done since then has been the framework of this question: “How bad/good is this going to look on my application?”
Most difficult of all, for me, is the uncertainty. I am a planner. I make to-do lists everyday, I have like 3 different calendars I use, and I always like to know what I’m doing a month before I’m doing it. But after I graduate college, there’s nothing. Just a big, huge, gigantic question mark. And I hate that.
But hey, no sweat. It’s time to do the damn thing.
