- Joined
- Aug 29, 2012
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Dear Adcoms,
I recently graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor's in Biochemistry, and received my diploma frame, yesterday. However, the shippers made a mistake and sent me the diploma frame for MDs graduating from the David Geffen School of Medicine, as shown here:
I plan on returning the diploma frame with a stamped letter addressed to the David Geffen School of Medicine in the box, and a paper included asking politely that the stamped letter be placed in the outgoing mail. That letter will be as follows:
___________________________________________
Dear Constituents of the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine,
I recently graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor's in Biochemistry. However, the UCLA store mistakenly shipped the wrong diploma frame to me. They sent the diploma frame embossed with the David Geffen School of Medicine signature, and sadly, I did not graduate from your medical school. So, I included this letter in the box that I returned the diploma frame in, and asked that the UCLA store politely forward it to you.
Anyhow, I am a non-traditional pre-medical student who has, over the years, shown a consistent dedication to helping others through -- frankly -- work that no one else wants to do, such as being a CNA in long term care and tutoring (for free) at inner city community colleges, while spending untold thousands of hours and dollars struggling to achieve my goal of becoming the best doctor that I can be for me, not you. In fact, I even dropped out of nursing school and returned to community college, going on to UCLA for a hard major where it was either sink or swim.
And swim I did. Doing well at UCLA, and on the MCAT, I'm now working on a Master's Degree at UCD in Pharmacology and Toxicology in order to become more competent in my future prescriptive decision making, and because I have a real interest in the interplay between pharmacology and medicine. Also, from what I've seen in clinical situations, there is an increasing gap between clinical and pharmaceutical knowledge due in part to what I believe is people lacking adequate, basic science backgrounds by way of less rigorous majors and easier Universities. I'm also happily doing real research, performing in silico drug modeling by writing computer programs that draw from the complex kinetics of drug/receptor interactions (this isn't easy).
However, during my first years in community college, I had semesters of straight F's in easy courses as I moved around the state looking for work. I may be white, but my family is poor, my parents are disabled, and I was the first in my family to attend college. I did poorly in high school, and I didn't know that I'd one day want to attend medical school when I was in my late teens/early 20s. Some of the greatest hits in my family are: drug addict homeless people (2 cousins, 1 aunt), 2 mechanics (1 cousin, 1 uncle), unemployed auto painter (1 uncle), 1 stenographer (1 aunt), 1 construction worker (1 uncle), and my grandparents were poor and either mechanics or stay at home wives. I have no siblings. Long story short, I've earned a 3.6c and 3.58s over the last 180 units, enough for nearly two bachelor's degrees in rigorous coursework, but due to my early grades, my cumulative GPA is a 3.08c and 3.28s.
Anyhow, I'm not asking for you to feel sorry for me, but I would like to say that I find it unfortunate that our medical school admissions system doesn't always catch applicant's files like mine due to cumulative GPA screening policies. And, occasionally people like SOME OF the members of the Student Doctor Network forum (that do not care about helping others and are consistently and systematically, even, looking for ways to cheat the system)* make it through the cracks and into excellent medical schools like the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA by basically living insular, self-centered existences, cranking out high GPAs and not much else in life. Make no mistake, these people do not care about helping others; some have been pushed into medicine by their parents and/or culture, or are doing it for money.
I'm kind of joking, here, but this quote speaks the truth: do you remember the movie Cliffhanger? Well, as John Lithgow's character holds his own wife hostage in the movie, trying to get a money translocator from another character, he says something that's always stuck with me. Lithgow asks his on screen wife, "Do you know what true love is?" Then, with a twist of his head and a forceful pursing of his lips, hisses "Sac-ri-fiiice" as he shoots her dead.
Well, I've sacrificed more than you'll ever know to achieve my dream of becoming a doctor. I'm doing it to help others, and for myself. I believe that what I've seen in the clinical setting, the maturity I've gained over the years in the real world busting my ass, and from persevering in spite of starting this game 100 miles down the road from everyone else yet going on to an excellent Universities (and succeeding at them) will help me add perspective to your medical school class that is altogether unique and undoubtedly a contribution that stands on its own.
In closing, I hope that the fingerprints I've left behind on this erroneously shipped UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine diploma frame leave behind an indelible mark from someone who will not stop doing the best that he can to achieve his goal of one day becoming a physician, no matter what school he goes to.
Signed,
MDforMee
*http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/a-culture-of-lies-and-an-open-letter-to-adcoms.1055807/
*http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/changing-name-for-urm-advantage.1055903/
I recently graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor's in Biochemistry, and received my diploma frame, yesterday. However, the shippers made a mistake and sent me the diploma frame for MDs graduating from the David Geffen School of Medicine, as shown here:
I plan on returning the diploma frame with a stamped letter addressed to the David Geffen School of Medicine in the box, and a paper included asking politely that the stamped letter be placed in the outgoing mail. That letter will be as follows:
___________________________________________
Dear Constituents of the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine,
I recently graduated from UCLA with a Bachelor's in Biochemistry. However, the UCLA store mistakenly shipped the wrong diploma frame to me. They sent the diploma frame embossed with the David Geffen School of Medicine signature, and sadly, I did not graduate from your medical school. So, I included this letter in the box that I returned the diploma frame in, and asked that the UCLA store politely forward it to you.
Anyhow, I am a non-traditional pre-medical student who has, over the years, shown a consistent dedication to helping others through -- frankly -- work that no one else wants to do, such as being a CNA in long term care and tutoring (for free) at inner city community colleges, while spending untold thousands of hours and dollars struggling to achieve my goal of becoming the best doctor that I can be for me, not you. In fact, I even dropped out of nursing school and returned to community college, going on to UCLA for a hard major where it was either sink or swim.
And swim I did. Doing well at UCLA, and on the MCAT, I'm now working on a Master's Degree at UCD in Pharmacology and Toxicology in order to become more competent in my future prescriptive decision making, and because I have a real interest in the interplay between pharmacology and medicine. Also, from what I've seen in clinical situations, there is an increasing gap between clinical and pharmaceutical knowledge due in part to what I believe is people lacking adequate, basic science backgrounds by way of less rigorous majors and easier Universities. I'm also happily doing real research, performing in silico drug modeling by writing computer programs that draw from the complex kinetics of drug/receptor interactions (this isn't easy).
However, during my first years in community college, I had semesters of straight F's in easy courses as I moved around the state looking for work. I may be white, but my family is poor, my parents are disabled, and I was the first in my family to attend college. I did poorly in high school, and I didn't know that I'd one day want to attend medical school when I was in my late teens/early 20s. Some of the greatest hits in my family are: drug addict homeless people (2 cousins, 1 aunt), 2 mechanics (1 cousin, 1 uncle), unemployed auto painter (1 uncle), 1 stenographer (1 aunt), 1 construction worker (1 uncle), and my grandparents were poor and either mechanics or stay at home wives. I have no siblings. Long story short, I've earned a 3.6c and 3.58s over the last 180 units, enough for nearly two bachelor's degrees in rigorous coursework, but due to my early grades, my cumulative GPA is a 3.08c and 3.28s.
Anyhow, I'm not asking for you to feel sorry for me, but I would like to say that I find it unfortunate that our medical school admissions system doesn't always catch applicant's files like mine due to cumulative GPA screening policies. And, occasionally people like SOME OF the members of the Student Doctor Network forum (that do not care about helping others and are consistently and systematically, even, looking for ways to cheat the system)* make it through the cracks and into excellent medical schools like the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA by basically living insular, self-centered existences, cranking out high GPAs and not much else in life. Make no mistake, these people do not care about helping others; some have been pushed into medicine by their parents and/or culture, or are doing it for money.
I'm kind of joking, here, but this quote speaks the truth: do you remember the movie Cliffhanger? Well, as John Lithgow's character holds his own wife hostage in the movie, trying to get a money translocator from another character, he says something that's always stuck with me. Lithgow asks his on screen wife, "Do you know what true love is?" Then, with a twist of his head and a forceful pursing of his lips, hisses "Sac-ri-fiiice" as he shoots her dead.
Well, I've sacrificed more than you'll ever know to achieve my dream of becoming a doctor. I'm doing it to help others, and for myself. I believe that what I've seen in the clinical setting, the maturity I've gained over the years in the real world busting my ass, and from persevering in spite of starting this game 100 miles down the road from everyone else yet going on to an excellent Universities (and succeeding at them) will help me add perspective to your medical school class that is altogether unique and undoubtedly a contribution that stands on its own.
In closing, I hope that the fingerprints I've left behind on this erroneously shipped UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine diploma frame leave behind an indelible mark from someone who will not stop doing the best that he can to achieve his goal of one day becoming a physician, no matter what school he goes to.
Signed,
MDforMee
*http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/a-culture-of-lies-and-an-open-letter-to-adcoms.1055807/
*http://forums.studentdoctor.net/threads/changing-name-for-urm-advantage.1055903/
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