WAMC/Recommendations (3.5/515) - FL URM, unusual circumstances

[polymerization]

Hi everyone, just trying to take a pulse on my application.

Bird's eye view: Afro-Latino, low SES. Grew up around a lot of poverty and violence. Parents were not education-focused at all and were dealing with MH issues in my childhood. I just barely made it to college and was already unable to afford basic necessities; was desperately clinging to loans and campus jobs to pay for tuition, but didn't have books and was already in dissaving by Day 1. I wasn't doing amazing in class but was excited by everything around me and wanted to be involved in everything. Eventually I couldn't continue financially. Sought out psych counseling on campus and learned I had ADHD. Left school in my junior year after withdrawing from an entire semester. I was a mess. Went out and worked FT in a bunch of specialties to try and keep the spark alive...for the next 8 years, as I tried to figure out how to swing school financially in a way where I could actually be successful with the materials I needed. Took classes here and there, thought I would study nursing at one point for the flexibility and proximity to patients.

Eventually found myself in front of a state disability program that offered educational resources to people like me. Was laughed out of the room. Advocated intensely for my own interests and uncovered systematic inequalities that I felt compelled to fight; later applied for and was appointed to public office overseeing health and education policy for 3.5M Floridians with disabilities. Eventually received a full support for any public MD school in FL. I can apply elsewhere, I would just have to make the case that accessibility is somehow better than a FL public MD. This was a really pivotal experience. I will be the second participant in the history of Florida to graduate with an MD out of this program. In my more formal role, I have learned how sometimes even in the highest rungs of oversight, there is still a lot of silence and apathy. I may have been a squeaky wheel to reach where I'm currently standing, but I see it as my duty to posterity to also kick the door I walked through off its hinges and make it a more equitable process so more people like me can receive benefits that are federally mandated and somehow has only resulted in a single beneficiary in 50 years. I wrote policies advocating strongly for mental health, technology integration, and bringing median earnings from participants in the program to align with median earnings in the broader population. It's something I'm very proud of and can talk about endlessly.

- GPA: c3.5, s3.6 (3.2 transfer), BS Medical Biology, BS Neuroscience
- MCAT: 515 (rough target, beginning to study now for a Jan 2025 date)
- FL, Afro-Hispanic, first-generation, LGBTQ, state school
- Lived out of my car intermittently, taking showers on-campus and struggled a lot with basic needs without the support of my family
- Shadowed ED (80h), Pain (20h), Plastics (20h)
- Full time employment with overtime as a clinical trainer in FM (1y1m), Clinical Supervisor in Int. Cards (7mo), MA Pediatric Genetics (5mo), MA Ortho-Hand Surgery (9mo), MA Derm/Mohs Tech (1 y), ED Scribe (8mo).
- NASA Intern, AI team - we worked on a proof of concept of essentially what is now ChatGPT back in 2014. Led to a publication in a computer science journal. (2y7m)
- Program administrator at my uni's medical school for a public health consortium that focused on neglected diseases (I wrote a lot of health advisories under the supervision of a staff MD and interacted directly with international public health figures; 1y8mo). I also did microbiology research with their lab, which was mostly testing new generation antibiotics effective against nosocomial infections prevalent in CF patients. We ended up doing a lot of antimicrobial stewardship, which ran concurrently.
- Organized a ton of conferences, but the neglected disease conference and an international conference on transcription were major ones.
- Minor involvement in other passion projects such as RESULTS (poverty alleviation) and an MLK Jr. celebration at my school's art museum—I would do logistics on a volunteer basis for them.

Upon returning to school in 2023, I've taken some odd 55 credits or so at a 3.9, which pulled me up quite a bit. At my new school, I ended up picking up a neuroscience double major as well.
- Currently doing some bioinformatics in a medicinal chemistry lab focused on natural product isolation for antibiotic discovery. No publications and don't anticipate one. (LOR writer)
- Advising Wiley on AI integration in organic chemistry, will have 1 year term.
- Presented a computer vision model for dendritic spine detection in spiky neurons based on work I did in a crosslisted graduate AI in Biology course. (LOR writer)
- Accessibility Services peer mentor and volunteer note taker
- Several named institutional scholarships
- Phi Kappa Phi, Alpha Alpha Alpha, Golden Key honor society inductee

I have the ability to massage my scholarship program to support me financially if a school is particularly noteworthy. Otherwise, I'm only applying public FL MD. I guess I want to know if it's worth even looking at the Ivies and shooting my shot. It's been a weird decade, but I've got a lot to talk about, and a lot more I want to achieve. I really am looking forward to attending a school that will help supplement my public service and provide the impulse I need to make broader impacts at a federal level. I believe strongly that everyone deserves a shot at a meaningful and dignified life, regardless of your different abilities.

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[Mr.Smile12]

So can I ask why you want to do medicine and endure at least another decade of struggle when you have already accomplished so much? Why are you not considering Florida DO schools?

Adding: also, have you connected with SNMA and MSPA?

 

[polymerization]

So can I ask why you want to do medicine and endure at least another decade of struggle when you have already accomplished so much? Why are you not considering Florida DO schools?

Great question. I found myself really frustrated by my options (or lack thereof) to effect profound change in my clinical experiences. For example, even as I rose to supervise nurses and MAs in my clinical supervisor position, I didn't actually have a specific clinical license; and felt I had lost the primary motivator behind what I was doing in the first place, which was engaging with patients. I realized I didn't want to be an admin and do medical-adjacent work, I wanted to be the person making the difficult and relevant decisions. I wouldn't have even found myself in those roles in the first place if it weren't for my tremendous financial need.

Once I started engaging as a public servant and writing policies, I realized that there was some breadth of experience I could draw upon to supplement my vision for FL's future. However, if I want to be intellectually honest and authentic in my presentation of medical problems and policy, I need the relevant education, which in this case would be traditionally that of a physician. Further, I'm really looking for a high-impact school with faculty that will assist me in propelling myself to reach a broader audience. I've gotten so far, yes, but I need a school that can take me to the next level and won't see my nontraditional path as something to reform or punch down as a medical student. At the end of my 3 year term in FL, I intend on applying for the Board of Medicine in the state I am attending school in, to continue addressing systemic issues as they relate to disability in the medical school process and beyond.

I didn't choose DO schools because my scholarship program will only fully fund public MD schools, which is an unreasonable technicality given the hypercompetitive admissions process, but it's an accommodation I have to make if I want Uncle Sam to foot the bill.

 

[AJS59]

Based on your background alone while the Harvards of the world might take a pass due to the GPA, there are other quality OOS privates (with potentially good tuition packages) worth looking into. Obviously you need to consider how much effort you'd want to throw into those, but I think it'd be worthwhile to give it a go at more than just the FL public schools, especially given your story.

 

[polymerization]

Based on your background alone while the Harvards of the world might take a pass due to the GPA, there are other quality OOS privates (with potentially good tuition packages) worth looking into. Obviously you need to consider how much effort you'd want to throw into those, but I think it'd be worthwhile to give it a go at more than just the FL public schools, especially given your story.

Thank you! I really appreciate you reading through all of that.

I am definitely finding myself in an anxious position anticipating to apply exclusively into state schools, if there is some opportunity for interest from the Ivies.

I focus specifically on the Ivy League because my path within this government program is really uncharted territory and they would have a hard time seeing why an acceptance from a state school like UMich is more impressive than an acceptance from Dartmouth, for example.

Keeping it to the Ivies and maybe some really prominent OOS schools like Stanford have a lot of name recognition and would probably be exceptions for funding rules within my scholarship program. For example, I know of at least one student in my program attending Harvard as an undergraduate. Of course, the schools with name recognition are the ones I think would really help me as I continue to do this advocacy work as a physician, even if they don't put up any resources to support me specifically and all I have is the name itself. Could still help a lot with matching a desirable residency and opens doors for me politically. What do you think?

 

[polymerization]

Adding: also, have you connected with SNMA and MSPA?

I had more communication with these organizations when I was a PUMP (Pre-med Undergraduate Mentoring Program) scholar at my university, way back in 2016 when I initially received the honor. I have a ton of connections with medical students who were in the throes of clerkships around that time, but they're all over the country in residency now, and it's been years since I've spoken to most of them.

I'd love to entertain further engagement with them. What do you suggest? I would like to engage with current students but I'm trying to straddle what feels like the thinnest line on the planet in terms of professionalism in talking to anyone about my application, especially considering what I've received a lot of feedback as a "victim narrative." I'm sure you can understand the butterflies!

 

[Mr.Smile12]

I had more communication with these organizations when I was a PUMP (Pre-med Undergraduate Mentoring Program) scholar at my university, way back in 2016 when I initially received the honor. I have a ton of connections with medical students who were in the throes of clerkships around that time, but they're all over the country in residency now, and it's been years since I've spoken to most of them.

I'd love to entertain further engagement with them. What do you suggest? I would like to engage with current students but I'm trying to straddle what feels like the thinnest line on the planet in terms of professionalism in talking to anyone about my application, especially considering what I've received a lot of feedback as a "victim narrative." I'm sure you can understand the butterflies!

It doesn't hurt to check-in after a few years, saying, "It's taken me a few years but I need support with my upcoming application." Some might remember you, but others may need a reminder. It's good to have people ahead of you in this journey, and they should know that too.

You should be in control of your narrative, so hopefully they can give you advice to go beyond the victim perception to someone with greater perspectives and wisdom. You got this.

 

[polymerization]

It doesn't hurt to check-in after a few years, saying, "It's taken me a few years but I need support with my upcoming application." Some might remember you, but others may need a reminder. It's good to have people ahead of you in this journey, and they should know that too.

You should be in control of your narrative, so hopefully they can give you advice to go beyond the victim perception to someone with greater perspectives and wisdom. You got this.

Thank you! That makes a lot of sense. I think a lot of the people I've shared my story with find it incredulous. It might seem really weird to hear that I expected to do well in college with no textbooks or parental support: only a couple composition notebooks, pencils, and $500 I'd saved from a summer job...but my parents thought school was a waste of time. The opportunity cost of studying and not working to support them meant that I'd soured my relationship with them and they often made my life even more difficult. Again, I know that sounds crazy, but we're talking about poorly educated, mentally ill individuals living in poverty. Even in all of that struggle, my parents thought I was away on a resort vacation.

I'm hoping having come out of all of this on the other side, acquiring resources that can't be taken away from me, and finally living in a stable situation for the first time in my life can help to position my story from a place of resilience and not just 5000 characters of woe is me.

If there's anything I've said that comes across as less than favorable, please feel free to let me know! I'm continuing to refine and tweak the way I talk about my experiences as I move through the process.

 

[jvquarterback]

Go for it. Loans are worth taking for you just like everyone else so just apply broadly. Do as well as you can on the MCAT and retake if you need it. Come back when you're weighing UCF, UF, WashU, Pitt, NYU, and Vandy. Good luck.

I was hesitant to add this but here's my take on your story:
Talk about overcoming rather than being a victim and more than anything don't say a word against your parents. Every administrator and other person you meet will be a parent and even if not they want to know what you learned from them more than how they held you back. My road thru college, med school, residency, and beyond really has been a resort vacation compared to the life of my sisters and mom. I think that attitude would serve you well. It worked for me.

 

[polymerization]

Go for it. Loans are worth taking for you just like everyone else so just apply broadly. Do as well as you can on the MCAT and retake if you need it. Come back when you're weighing UCF, UF, WashU, Pitt, NYU, and Vandy. Good luck.

I was hesitant to add this but here's my take on your story:
Talk about overcoming rather than being a victim and more than anything don't say a word against your parents. Every administrator and other person you meet will be a parent and even if not they want to know what you learned from them more than how they held you back. My road thru college, med school, residency, and beyond really has been a resort vacation compared to the life of my sisters and mom. I think that attitude would serve you well. It worked for me.

Edit: I rethought my response for brevity. I really don't want to toss rocks at my parents; we're estranged and have been for years. You're right that the medical school interview process isn't the time or place to unpack and process these adversities. At the end of the day, as many good reasons as I may have to tell my story the way I had experienced it, including the experience of intermittent homelessness, is really kind of a nothingburger because it can maybe be massaged to display resilience, but I think the drawbacks of taking such a negative angle could really skew the point of the interview, which is to demonstrate positive qualities—not just present negative experiences as potential excuses for anything short of a perfect application.

I really appreciated your response. I think I will take on the position of having had a highly aversive and challenging upbringing, but what emerged from that was a particular "scrappiness" and resourcefulness that kept me alive and dreaming for something better. As many times as life shut doors in my face and knocked me on my behind, I just got up and looked for more doors. Sometimes those doors had good things behind them, and sometimes they didn't. But what mattered in the end was the willingness to get up and try again, even when everything in my orbit told me to stop.