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- Apr 21, 2012
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Hello everyone,
I graduated from UCLA in 2010 with a BS in biology. My science GPA was low, like 2.5, so I was like whatever, forget about med school forever. August 2010 I flew out to Senegal, West Africa to volunteer as a sustainable agriculture extension agent for the Peace Corps. I also do a lot of cross-sector work with health and agroforestry, and I do it all in Wolof, the local language in my region. I'm about to leave in October, back to America, but I've changed a lot these past 2 years. I'm not the same person anymore. I had some personal problems while at UCLA that I don't want to discuss here. They deal with mental health, but now I'm getting help for that, years later. And I think this experience has helped me grow a lot also. It's been hard, but wonderful at the same time. I don't want to bore people with the details of my Senegalese life, but it's hard. I'm not talking about the dirt or the poverty or the lack of running water or electricity. What I'm talking about are the situations that I face in my everyday life, with angry Wolof people. Sometimes I do have wonderful experiences, though. But it's the hard things that have helped me grow as a person.
Anyway, I just turned 25 last Friday, but you're never too old for med school. If I can get accepted and enroll by the time I'm 28, I'll be happy. But in the meanwhile, what advice do you guys have? I was thinking research as a job, if I can get a decent one with only a BS, but would that help me get into med school? I also want to do my own informal post-bacc in the meantime, like take UCLA extension classes, or even CSULA classes, but I think most med schools look down on Cal States. Maybe it's not meant to be, but if I can one day become a pediatrician, by the time I'm 40, and come back to Africa and help out, then that would be wonderful. I'm not done with development work.
Be honest please. Be like the Wolof people, let me have it and tell me how it really is even if it's mean. I'm ashamed of my GPA. Maybe nothing will ever make it right. I don't care if a DO school is the only hope I have. I'll take what I can take. I'd be really happy for a DO, actually. I know it's tough.
Side note: I'm also a minority, came to LA as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico with my mom when I was little. I worked at a lab at the UCLA Children's Hospital and I've done research with one of the UCLA med school professors, but it was nothing serious. I'm not published or anything.
Thanks for any advice. I've been gone from America for too long. I never even have internet access so I'm grateful for this opportunity right now.
Laura aka Ndeye Fatou Ndao in Senegal
I graduated from UCLA in 2010 with a BS in biology. My science GPA was low, like 2.5, so I was like whatever, forget about med school forever. August 2010 I flew out to Senegal, West Africa to volunteer as a sustainable agriculture extension agent for the Peace Corps. I also do a lot of cross-sector work with health and agroforestry, and I do it all in Wolof, the local language in my region. I'm about to leave in October, back to America, but I've changed a lot these past 2 years. I'm not the same person anymore. I had some personal problems while at UCLA that I don't want to discuss here. They deal with mental health, but now I'm getting help for that, years later. And I think this experience has helped me grow a lot also. It's been hard, but wonderful at the same time. I don't want to bore people with the details of my Senegalese life, but it's hard. I'm not talking about the dirt or the poverty or the lack of running water or electricity. What I'm talking about are the situations that I face in my everyday life, with angry Wolof people. Sometimes I do have wonderful experiences, though. But it's the hard things that have helped me grow as a person.
Anyway, I just turned 25 last Friday, but you're never too old for med school. If I can get accepted and enroll by the time I'm 28, I'll be happy. But in the meanwhile, what advice do you guys have? I was thinking research as a job, if I can get a decent one with only a BS, but would that help me get into med school? I also want to do my own informal post-bacc in the meantime, like take UCLA extension classes, or even CSULA classes, but I think most med schools look down on Cal States. Maybe it's not meant to be, but if I can one day become a pediatrician, by the time I'm 40, and come back to Africa and help out, then that would be wonderful. I'm not done with development work.
Be honest please. Be like the Wolof people, let me have it and tell me how it really is even if it's mean. I'm ashamed of my GPA. Maybe nothing will ever make it right. I don't care if a DO school is the only hope I have. I'll take what I can take. I'd be really happy for a DO, actually. I know it's tough.
Side note: I'm also a minority, came to LA as an undocumented immigrant from Mexico with my mom when I was little. I worked at a lab at the UCLA Children's Hospital and I've done research with one of the UCLA med school professors, but it was nothing serious. I'm not published or anything.
Thanks for any advice. I've been gone from America for too long. I never even have internet access so I'm grateful for this opportunity right now.
Laura aka Ndeye Fatou Ndao in Senegal