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I got a call today and a nice man told me that they decided to accept me to their medical school. It's been a long road for me, but probably shorter than some of you here. You've probably heard how hard you have to work since most of us, including me, will not be very competitive as those students who knew they would go into medicine early on. So I will spare you the inspirational stuff and focus on how you can get into medical school.
First, Some Background:
I graduated with my computer science degree in 2005 with a 3.32 GPA. I had an interest in medicine while in college and shadowed a surgeon for a couple of months. I used to wake up at 5am to get to the clinic at 6am and on my days off I used to stay until 8pm. He ended up writing me a very strong letter.
After I graduated, I worked for about 1.5 years before seriously thinking about medicine. I started to volunteer at a hospital and started school, taking 3 classes at a 4-year university and switching to a graveyard shift, working 40 hours a week from 10pm-6am and going to classes at 8am. After 6 months of insomnia I switched to a part time schedule and continued taking classes. I took around 15 courses and maintained a 4.0 there. After those courses my GPA was 3.4 and my science GPA was a 3.62. I got involved in research with rats too. Enough about me.
Tips, Advice, and Reality:
1. I did an informal post-bacc as opposed to a formal program. It probably cost me around 20k. I chose my own classes (year of bio, chem, ochem, chem with labs). I would recommend doing a formal post-bacc. It's probably
comparable in cost and the program will probably help you get into a med school. The logistics for me were very hard as I had last priority when getting into classes. Go with a formal program.
2. Get letters early! Do whatever it takes. Get them a year early if possible. Lots of professors get loaded with LORs and this will delay your apps and cause you massive stress.
3. Speaking of apps, submit your AMCAS in early. I planned to get them in early but I delayed writing my personal statement and this really hurt me. My friend got an acceptance in October from a school that rejected me, even though I had better numbers than him. He applied very early. Like first week of June early.
4. Again, apply early! If you start getting invitations to interview around Nov and Dec like me, your acceptance will be delayed because of the holidays. Adcoms won't meet because they are on break. Months will go by. You will worry. Save yourself the heart attack. Luckily I'm taking 6 capsules of fish oil a day. 6 grams of fish oil FTW!
5. Have something that stands out about you. I was the guy who worked a full time graveyard shift while maintaining a 4.0. They knew I really wanted it.
6. Most of the elite schools didn't care that as an engineer, I had harder classes. Repair your GPA and show an upward trend. These science classes were a cakewalk compared to my engineering classes. Do well in your current classes no one cares how hard your past classes were.
7. As for money, I worked part time and had some saved up. But I still could not cover the costs of school and applying to the 30+ schools that I did. One option is transferring credit card debt to a credit card that has 0% APR for balance transfers for a year. There may be better options out there. Do your research.
8. Do well on your MCAT. I got a 34. I took 17 full length tests before taking the real thing. At 4 hours per test (I was taking the longer old format tests), this was almost 70 hours of sitting down and taking tests. More hours were put into reviewing those tests and content review. I averaged a 35.5 over all those exams. Give yourself some room for anxiety on the real test, it's not the same as sitting at your desk.
9. Make sure you really want this. It's hard work but time flies and next thing you know you'll be a doctor.
Good luck to those who are applying and plan to apply! Feel free to PM me with any questions.
First, Some Background:
I graduated with my computer science degree in 2005 with a 3.32 GPA. I had an interest in medicine while in college and shadowed a surgeon for a couple of months. I used to wake up at 5am to get to the clinic at 6am and on my days off I used to stay until 8pm. He ended up writing me a very strong letter.
After I graduated, I worked for about 1.5 years before seriously thinking about medicine. I started to volunteer at a hospital and started school, taking 3 classes at a 4-year university and switching to a graveyard shift, working 40 hours a week from 10pm-6am and going to classes at 8am. After 6 months of insomnia I switched to a part time schedule and continued taking classes. I took around 15 courses and maintained a 4.0 there. After those courses my GPA was 3.4 and my science GPA was a 3.62. I got involved in research with rats too. Enough about me.
Tips, Advice, and Reality:
1. I did an informal post-bacc as opposed to a formal program. It probably cost me around 20k. I chose my own classes (year of bio, chem, ochem, chem with labs). I would recommend doing a formal post-bacc. It's probably
comparable in cost and the program will probably help you get into a med school. The logistics for me were very hard as I had last priority when getting into classes. Go with a formal program.
2. Get letters early! Do whatever it takes. Get them a year early if possible. Lots of professors get loaded with LORs and this will delay your apps and cause you massive stress.
3. Speaking of apps, submit your AMCAS in early. I planned to get them in early but I delayed writing my personal statement and this really hurt me. My friend got an acceptance in October from a school that rejected me, even though I had better numbers than him. He applied very early. Like first week of June early.
4. Again, apply early! If you start getting invitations to interview around Nov and Dec like me, your acceptance will be delayed because of the holidays. Adcoms won't meet because they are on break. Months will go by. You will worry. Save yourself the heart attack. Luckily I'm taking 6 capsules of fish oil a day. 6 grams of fish oil FTW!
5. Have something that stands out about you. I was the guy who worked a full time graveyard shift while maintaining a 4.0. They knew I really wanted it.
6. Most of the elite schools didn't care that as an engineer, I had harder classes. Repair your GPA and show an upward trend. These science classes were a cakewalk compared to my engineering classes. Do well in your current classes no one cares how hard your past classes were.
7. As for money, I worked part time and had some saved up. But I still could not cover the costs of school and applying to the 30+ schools that I did. One option is transferring credit card debt to a credit card that has 0% APR for balance transfers for a year. There may be better options out there. Do your research.
8. Do well on your MCAT. I got a 34. I took 17 full length tests before taking the real thing. At 4 hours per test (I was taking the longer old format tests), this was almost 70 hours of sitting down and taking tests. More hours were put into reviewing those tests and content review. I averaged a 35.5 over all those exams. Give yourself some room for anxiety on the real test, it's not the same as sitting at your desk.
9. Make sure you really want this. It's hard work but time flies and next thing you know you'll be a doctor.
Good luck to those who are applying and plan to apply! Feel free to PM me with any questions.
