pr1ncess
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This is a very long post with a lot of background detail so thanks for reading.
I am hoping to understandmy chances of getting into top med schools either in the northeast (preferably) or west coast how I can improve my candidacy over the next 3 years while doing postbacc. I want to also understand what actual difference attending a top med school like Harvard vs a not top but still good school like UMass Chan or Zucker makes - is it about residency matching chances mainly? I also want to understand how I ought to prepare in the next year or so before going to a postbacc program which I will need to do.
I am a 28 year old engineering manager at a top tech startup in Japan. I was born and raised in the US, went to a top 50 US uni double majoring in Game Design & Computer Science with a minor in Japanese. I was an officer in a volunteering club and also founded a gaming club (more on that below). I had a 3.9 GPA but no science and very few math courses.
I interned at the US HQ of a FAANG company and then started full time as a software engineer at their Japan branch. I then switched to a top tech startup here in Japan and got promoted to engineering manager last year. I am currently on medical leave due to anxiety disorder and adjustment disorder to the Japanese work environment, and also severe burnout.
I plan to move back to the US in about a year and apply for a postbacc program there while working part-time as a medical scribe for hopefully a psychiatrist but if not, a GP. In the meantime, I plan to quit my job and sign up to become a volunteer for TELL which is the English-language suicide hotline in Japan. They have a 70 hour basic training program which is then followed by a minimum commitment of 10 hours a month. If I can, I will also try to shadow/part-time work with an English-speaking psychiatrist or GP here in Japan but chances are pretty slim I think. I am also studying for the MCAT via some Youtube videos.
As for "extracurriculars" I'm far out of school but I like hiking/camping, travel, cooking, photography, and gaming. I'm top 20 in Japan for one game and compete regularly in tournaments and I plan to start streaming and hopefully use it as a platform to talk about mental health.
While I'm still in Japan for the next year, is there anything else that I should be doing to prepare? Will I have enough clinical hours? When I do a postbacc should I do it part time and work part time as a medical scribe for example?
I'd like to use this thread as "my space" to track and get advice on my journey into a postbacc program and prepping for med school. Thanks for any help.
As for why I want to switch - I want to help others who may have gone through, or are going through, something similar to what I experienced growing up as an LGBTQ immigrant abused child. I am personally very interested in psychology, and spend a lot of free time reading and thinking about mental health, therapy, trauma, and PTSD. In addition, I come from a family of TCM doctors, and I grew up learning about the symptoms of different diseases, how different drugs work, and also a strong focus on holistic and preventative medicine and blending Western medicine with TCM. While my current job pays well, I feel immense stress regarding delivering products on a deadline and "maximizing shareholder value." I'm sick and tired of mining user data just to show them personalized ads that subconsciously manipulate their spending habits. I hate being owned by investors and trying to hit KPIs every quarter.
As a doctor I'd love to combine doing some clinical work and also research on non-drug treatment methods (hopefully some statistical or ML based stuff that can utilize my programming background).
Of course, I am working with my therapist and psychiatrist now on getting to a place where I am able to work at all - I know that being a doctor has its own stress but I genuinely believe, and know from other doctors in my family, that the kind of stress that comes with it is very different than working in a cutthroat corporate environment.
I am hoping to understand
I am a 28 year old engineering manager at a top tech startup in Japan. I was born and raised in the US, went to a top 50 US uni double majoring in Game Design & Computer Science with a minor in Japanese. I was an officer in a volunteering club and also founded a gaming club (more on that below). I had a 3.9 GPA but no science and very few math courses.
I interned at the US HQ of a FAANG company and then started full time as a software engineer at their Japan branch. I then switched to a top tech startup here in Japan and got promoted to engineering manager last year. I am currently on medical leave due to anxiety disorder and adjustment disorder to the Japanese work environment, and also severe burnout.
I plan to move back to the US in about a year and apply for a postbacc program there while working part-time as a medical scribe for hopefully a psychiatrist but if not, a GP. In the meantime, I plan to quit my job and sign up to become a volunteer for TELL which is the English-language suicide hotline in Japan. They have a 70 hour basic training program which is then followed by a minimum commitment of 10 hours a month. If I can, I will also try to shadow/part-time work with an English-speaking psychiatrist or GP here in Japan but chances are pretty slim I think. I am also studying for the MCAT via some Youtube videos.
As for "extracurriculars" I'm far out of school but I like hiking/camping, travel, cooking, photography, and gaming. I'm top 20 in Japan for one game and compete regularly in tournaments and I plan to start streaming and hopefully use it as a platform to talk about mental health.
While I'm still in Japan for the next year, is there anything else that I should be doing to prepare? Will I have enough clinical hours? When I do a postbacc should I do it part time and work part time as a medical scribe for example?
I'd like to use this thread as "my space" to track and get advice on my journey into a postbacc program and prepping for med school. Thanks for any help.
As for why I want to switch - I want to help others who may have gone through, or are going through, something similar to what I experienced growing up as an LGBTQ immigrant abused child. I am personally very interested in psychology, and spend a lot of free time reading and thinking about mental health, therapy, trauma, and PTSD. In addition, I come from a family of TCM doctors, and I grew up learning about the symptoms of different diseases, how different drugs work, and also a strong focus on holistic and preventative medicine and blending Western medicine with TCM. While my current job pays well, I feel immense stress regarding delivering products on a deadline and "maximizing shareholder value." I'm sick and tired of mining user data just to show them personalized ads that subconsciously manipulate their spending habits. I hate being owned by investors and trying to hit KPIs every quarter.
As a doctor I'd love to combine doing some clinical work and also research on non-drug treatment methods (hopefully some statistical or ML based stuff that can utilize my programming background).
Of course, I am working with my therapist and psychiatrist now on getting to a place where I am able to work at all - I know that being a doctor has its own stress but I genuinely believe, and know from other doctors in my family, that the kind of stress that comes with it is very different than working in a cutthroat corporate environment.
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