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- Dec 9, 2015
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Hello friends! I thought I'd finally stop lurking and make a thread to a) state my intentions to a bunch of strangers (because it's not official until strangers know, right?), and b) get my question answered.
Here's my story: I went to Columbia and took approximately two science courses in four years. In my sophomore year, my mother was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which was an almost catastrophic blow to our family. My mother's ongoing health issues, her distance from me (I studied 3,000 miles away from home), a very bitter personal struggle with depression/anxiety/PTSD, a string of suicides in my community, and abysmal mental health care options at Columbia led to my graduating in 2014, just barely, with a GPA of 2.6. For a kid who graduated from a top private high school with a 3.8, that was a blow.
But I made it! I've taken the last year or so to move home, decompress, live/work in the real world, and achieve my life-long goal of getting a dog. I got a job in Amazon's legal department, signed my first lease, am paying bills, have a dog (and a cat!), found an exceptional life partner, and have a good therapist.
Turns out, though, that I hate corporate America and working with lawyers, and I've been exploring career options that don't include the legal profession.
A few months ago, I got a new PCP who is obsessed with teaching. He runs our appointments like a class, and experiencing the class environment without the overwhelming external stress I faced in college has reminded me that I do, in fact, really love learning and have a mind very well suited to science. I once jokingly implied to my PCP that he was sneakily trying to get me to go to medical school, and while he denied the accusation, he said it would be a good idea, and the more I think about it the more I know it's a good fit for me.
I mean, aside from wanting to be able to tell my mother something useful (I'd like to have better advice for her than "Google 'how to install iTunes,' Mom"), I think of the health situation of my family. Like most Black families, we are generally overweight, have high blood pressure, struggle with insulin sensitivity, and don't live very long -- when we do survive past 60, our quality of life is very poor and is associated with high healthcare costs. Most of the Black people I know won't even consider seeing a doctor unless the doctor is black (which, given the history of medical professionals experimenting on black people, is fair). I feel obligated, to my family at least, to do what I can to improve their health.
More than that, though, I live in the Pacific Northwest, where healthcare and tech are starting to team up and create some amazing things. Amazon is teaching me the mentality and mechanisms required for innovation, which I can't help but apply to the primary care practice that I've built in my head. Furthermore, the business experience I'm getting now will prove invaluable once I become a physician.
I want to learn some more from the Amazon culture (not to mention save some money so I can not work and focus exclusively on the MCAT/interview process when the time comes), so I'm planning to work for another year and start my prereqs at a local (formerly community) college in early 2017.
Here's where you people come in. I have a year before classes start, but am itching to start learning new material right now. I have shadowing appointments set up at my PCP's office and at one of the hospitals around here, but would like to hit the books -- problem sets are fun!
Does anyone have suggestions on topics that are good to study ahead of time (I'm thinking chemistry) and/or recommended books/free-ish online courses to aid studying?
Any and all suggestions would be great! Thank you!
Here's my story: I went to Columbia and took approximately two science courses in four years. In my sophomore year, my mother was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma, which was an almost catastrophic blow to our family. My mother's ongoing health issues, her distance from me (I studied 3,000 miles away from home), a very bitter personal struggle with depression/anxiety/PTSD, a string of suicides in my community, and abysmal mental health care options at Columbia led to my graduating in 2014, just barely, with a GPA of 2.6. For a kid who graduated from a top private high school with a 3.8, that was a blow.
But I made it! I've taken the last year or so to move home, decompress, live/work in the real world, and achieve my life-long goal of getting a dog. I got a job in Amazon's legal department, signed my first lease, am paying bills, have a dog (and a cat!), found an exceptional life partner, and have a good therapist.
Turns out, though, that I hate corporate America and working with lawyers, and I've been exploring career options that don't include the legal profession.
A few months ago, I got a new PCP who is obsessed with teaching. He runs our appointments like a class, and experiencing the class environment without the overwhelming external stress I faced in college has reminded me that I do, in fact, really love learning and have a mind very well suited to science. I once jokingly implied to my PCP that he was sneakily trying to get me to go to medical school, and while he denied the accusation, he said it would be a good idea, and the more I think about it the more I know it's a good fit for me.
I mean, aside from wanting to be able to tell my mother something useful (I'd like to have better advice for her than "Google 'how to install iTunes,' Mom"), I think of the health situation of my family. Like most Black families, we are generally overweight, have high blood pressure, struggle with insulin sensitivity, and don't live very long -- when we do survive past 60, our quality of life is very poor and is associated with high healthcare costs. Most of the Black people I know won't even consider seeing a doctor unless the doctor is black (which, given the history of medical professionals experimenting on black people, is fair). I feel obligated, to my family at least, to do what I can to improve their health.
More than that, though, I live in the Pacific Northwest, where healthcare and tech are starting to team up and create some amazing things. Amazon is teaching me the mentality and mechanisms required for innovation, which I can't help but apply to the primary care practice that I've built in my head. Furthermore, the business experience I'm getting now will prove invaluable once I become a physician.
I want to learn some more from the Amazon culture (not to mention save some money so I can not work and focus exclusively on the MCAT/interview process when the time comes), so I'm planning to work for another year and start my prereqs at a local (formerly community) college in early 2017.
Here's where you people come in. I have a year before classes start, but am itching to start learning new material right now. I have shadowing appointments set up at my PCP's office and at one of the hospitals around here, but would like to hit the books -- problem sets are fun!
Does anyone have suggestions on topics that are good to study ahead of time (I'm thinking chemistry) and/or recommended books/free-ish online courses to aid studying?
Any and all suggestions would be great! Thank you!
