2015-2016 Non-Trad Overcome/Acceptance Thread

[pageantry]

Here's the idea: let's try something slightly different this year. "Slightly different" is sort of *us*, anyway.

Instead of only a list of usernames and acceptances, it occurs to me that three years ago I would have loved to see people say what they thought were their top three reasons they couldn't get accepted and/or shouldn't try. What did you have to overcome? And likewise (for keeping positive and real) what are the top three things you feel helped you? I might also put my LizzyM and date of acceptances/anything particularly noteworthy about the acceptance.

No need for copy/paste. You can add posts or edit your first post as you wish with any further acceptances.

This is also a place to talk about future plans. My hope most of all is that this will be a thread that encourages and excites others in the future.

I'll start:

LizzyM 68-69

Overcame:
1) hadn't taken a math or science class since I got kicked out of high school at 16 (14 years previously. Have a degree in poetry.)
2) had no family or friend support; started after a year of deep depression following Dad's death.
3) was terrified of the debt/loss of freedom.

Helped me:
1) great fit for a few schools based on origin, ECs, and even background.
2) free talk therapy from local teaching hospital (not gonna lie--this was one of the most important and first choices I made.)
3) had nothing much left to lose. I think this is really important. It would have been harder for me to stay focused if I didn't know the consequences if I didn't.

Accepted:
UC Davis (OOS), (10/15)
Oakland University William Beaumont with a full ride scholarship (10/15)
SUNY Upstate (10/26)

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[pageantry]

And never forget:

 

[Glycereine]

Ok here goes. A little back story. I'm 32, have a successful career as a Navy Officer and my whole family thinks I'm crazy for starting over now. Found out my wife is pregnant with twins about 2 months ago.


LizzyM 66-67 (72 if it's a school that goes with my post bacc and masters GPA instead of my cumulative)

Overcame:
1) Took 8 years to get my remaining prerequisites done once I started them. Some due to deployments or being stationed where there wasn't an accredited university. Went out of my way to take Organic Chemistry online with an online lab AFTER calling my 5 most likely med schools to make sure they'd accept it. All 5 changed their minds after I was done. Had to wait 2 more years to be in a location I could take it at night after that.
2) Was injured and on narcotics for 2 of my four years of undergrad and my GPA plummeted (2.85). Had to complete a masters in addition to post bacc undergrad work to get my GPA even tolerable for schools.
3) Was terrified of going from being eligible for promotion to O5 to starting my career over and the impact that will have on my family financially.
4) For reason number 3 I only applied to one school last cycle and 2 this cycle, knowing my odds were low but the school had to be a perfect fit.

Helped me:
1) Bouncing back from a really rough academic experience to finish all of my post bacc work with over a 3.8 while working close to 12 hour days helped me prove to myself I can "hack it"
2) The same injury that broke me in 2003 and the subsequent 6 surgeries got me passionate about medicine. It's really what started me on this path. Embracing that in my personal statement this year got me into one school and prevented even an interview at the school I was high on the waitlist for last year.
3) Several friends and family members have gotten sick or sicker with a huge variety of diseases that have led to a little bit of support, where I had none before, on this path.

Accepted:
University of Central Florida (OOS), (10/15)



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[pageantry]

I'm so happy to read this. I really hope others will contribute theirs too.

So glad for you and proud to be in a cohort (even if only online) with you.

 

[Glycereine]

I'm so happy to read this. I really hope others will contribute theirs too.

So glad for you and proud to be in a cohort (even if only online) with you.

Likewise . Really like the format you decided on too. It lets us know a little more.


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[Eternal_Premed_Struggle]

Super jealous but congrats to the both of you. Hopefully, I will be able to post my acceptance story soon...

 

[VegasPreMed]

27 y/o with two kids (one a two week old newborn). Former grocery manager.

LizzyM MD: 68. DO: 70.

Overcame:
1) Some really bad early grades. Had no idea I wanted to be a physician until three years ago. Classes were all over the place.
2) First generation college student.
3) Naysayers in my family. Ha!

Helped me:
1) Experience in management and service industry.
2) My wife and kids. Talk about motivation and inspiration.
3) Being a scribe for almost three years. Exposure really helped to keep me focused and seeing my understanding of everything grow was a big motivator.

Accepted:
Midwestern Chicago COM (10/2).

Still waiting on a few other schools. I'll update if/when things change. It's good to see nontrad success and I wish the best for all others still waiting to hear back!

 

[wholeheartedly]

Congrats folks! Love the format idea, too

 

[Eccesignum]

35 years old. LizzyM 63 cumulative, 69 by just my most recent 150-odd credit hrs.

Overcame: I feel like kind of a douche because I don't have a history of illness or injury or significant family deaths or anything spectacular. Uhm...
1) I grew up in a gang-riddled ghetto but so did a lot of people. It was really my mother and her obsession with literacy and education as a "way out" that lifted me up when I was young. And my grandfather, who grew up dirt poor and black in the south and never even had the chance to go to high school. I wouldn't be here without them.
2) Pre-requisites were a bit rough. I have to drive an hour out-of-state one way to get to school because I live in the middle of nowhere. Had no pre-med advising whatsoever, but had support.
3) Poor old grades. Dropped out of school first time around. 100% my own stupidity.

Helped:
1) Wide variety of experiences, and I do mean wide. I'm an RN and EMT but I've done everything from professional theatre to overseas teaching, and more in between. My concept of the world was hugely broadened by it all.
2) Motivation. Once I decide to do something it is on, YOLO
3) Chocolate. Lots of it. Not even kidding.

But it occurs to me often that it's not just me, not by a long shot. I'll tell a story here, pardon the long-winded babbling.

My first name is a common one in Arabic-speaking countries. This will be relevant in a minute.

In 1998 (first year of college part one, lol old) I volunteered as a ESL tutor in Atlanta for an organization that dealt mainly with refugees. I was put with an Iraqi woman and sent to her tiny temporary apartment where she lived with her kids and her husband. The first day I went to see her, I introduced myself and she kind of stopped for a second and just looked at me. She touched my shoulder, took my hand, and pulled me into the sparse living room where she pulled a grainy photograph of four children out of a drawer. She tapped the face of a girl in the middle and said my name. Repeated it several times, and patted her hand over her heart. After a bit of linguistic gymnastics I realized that was her daughter, who had had the same name as I did.

"She die," she told me, and moved her hands quickly apart, spreading her fingers. A bomb, I finally understood. She put the photo down and her eyes were glassy. She took my hands and squeezed them. When her husband came home she let me stay for dinner and treated me like I belonged there. I worked with her on English for a few months and every time she welcomed me. Then she was relocated, and I never saw her again.

Seventeen years later I still get a chill thinking about that little girl with my name, who died violently while I'm sitting here on a quiet Sunday, sipping coffee and reading my acceptance emails over and over. Whatever related and unrelated events go on in this world, however one thinks it all works, I have a chance that billions of others never will, and so much of it is not due to anything they or she or I did by ourselves. Some of it is just so damn random that it both exhilarates and terrifies me.

It makes me so absolutely sure about my dedication. And that the purpose of it for me is to do everything I can for who I can, and be the biggest positive drop in the gigantic bucket of unfairness that I can be.

I can't save the world but damned if I won't try.


Accepted (will update as I hear from others):
Tulane University SOM (10/16)
Virginia Commonwealth University SOM/MCV (10/16)
Wayne State University (10/26)
Case Western Reserve University (11/4)

 

[pageantry]

YESSSSSS THIS GIVES ME LIFE.

Stories like the ones you guys are telling are redeeming the rest of SDN for me. So glad you guys are here.

 

[rilte4]

35 years old. LizzyM 63 cumulative, 69 by just my most recent 150-odd credit hrs.

Overcame: I feel like kind of a douche because I don't have a history of illness or injury or significant family deaths or anything spectacular. Uhm...
1) I grew up in a gang-riddled ghetto but so did a lot of people. It was really my mother and her obsession with literacy and education as a "way out" that lifted me up when I was young. And my grandfather, who grew up dirt poor and black in the south and never even had the chance to go to high school. I wouldn't be here without them.
2) Pre-requisites were a bit rough. I have to drive an hour out-of-state one way to get to school because I live in the middle of nowhere. Had no pre-med advising whatsoever, but had support.
3) Poor old grades. Dropped out of school first time around. 100% my own stupidity.

Helped:
1) Wide variety of experiences, and I do mean wide. I'm an RN and EMT but I've done everything from professional theatre to overseas teaching, and more in between. My concept of the world was hugely broadened by it all.
2) Motivation. Once I decide to do something it is on, YOLO
3) Chocolate. Lots of it. Not even kidding.

But it occurs to me often that it's not just me, not by a long shot. I'll tell a story here, pardon the long-winded babbling.

My first name is a common one in Arabic-speaking countries. This will be relevant in a minute.

In 1998 (first year of college part one, lol old) I volunteered as a ESL tutor in Atlanta for an organization that dealt mainly with refugees. I was put with an Iraqi woman and sent to her tiny temporary apartment where she lived with her kids and her husband. The first day I went to see her, I introduced myself and she kind of stopped for a second and just looked at me. She touched my shoulder, took my hand, and pulled me into the sparse living room where she pulled a grainy photograph of four children out of a drawer. She tapped the face of a girl in the middle and said my name. Repeated it several times, and patted her hand over her heart. After a bit of linguistic gymnastics I realized that was her daughter, who had had the same name as I did.

"She die," she told me, and moved her hands quickly apart, spreading her fingers. A bomb, I finally understood. She put the photo down and her eyes were glassy. She took my hands and squeezed them. When her husband came home she let me stay for dinner and treated me like I belonged there. I worked with her on English for a few months and every time she welcomed me. Then she was relocated, and I never saw her again.

Seventeen years later I still get a chill thinking about that little girl with my name, who died violently while I'm sitting here on a quiet Sunday, sipping coffee and reading my acceptance emails over and over. Whatever related and unrelated events go on in this world, however one thinks it all works, I have a chance that billions of others never will, and so much of it is not due to anything they or she or I did by ourselves. Some of it is just so damn random that it both exhilarates and terrifies me.

It makes me so absolutely sure about my dedication. And that the purpose of it for me is to do everything I can for who I can, and be the biggest positive drop in the gigantic bucket of unfairness that I can be.

I can't save the world but damned if I won't try.


Accepted (will update as I hear from others):
Tulane University SOM (10/16)
Virginia Commonwealth University SOM/MCV (10/16)

This made my heart hurt.

 

[Eccesignum]

This made my heart hurt.

Hah, is my writing that bad?

 

[rilte4]

Hah, is my writing that bad?

Not at all! Meant it positively.

 

[Eccesignum]

Not at all! Meant it positively.

Oh! For some reason I read it as made your head hurt. I need a nap

 

[Ad2b]

@Eccesignum - CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! love the end of your post Now for that certain MN school to chime in!

 

[BluMist]

Lol, I read it the same way... getting old...

Oh! For some reason I read it as made your head hurt. I need a nap

 

[hueso]

35 years old. LizzyM 63 cumulative, 69 by just my most recent 150-odd credit hrs.

Overcame: I feel like kind of a douche because I don't have a history of illness or injury or significant family deaths or anything spectacular. Uhm...
1) I grew up in a gang-riddled ghetto but so did a lot of people. It was really my mother and her obsession with literacy and education as a "way out" that lifted me up when I was young. And my grandfather, who grew up dirt poor and black in the south and never even had the chance to go to high school. I wouldn't be here without them.
2) Pre-requisites were a bit rough. I have to drive an hour out-of-state one way to get to school because I live in the middle of nowhere. Had no pre-med advising whatsoever, but had support.
3) Poor old grades. Dropped out of school first time around. 100% my own stupidity.

Helped:
1) Wide variety of experiences, and I do mean wide. I'm an RN and EMT but I've done everything from professional theatre to overseas teaching, and more in between. My concept of the world was hugely broadened by it all.
2) Motivation. Once I decide to do something it is on, YOLO
3) Chocolate. Lots of it. Not even kidding.

But it occurs to me often that it's not just me, not by a long shot. I'll tell a story here, pardon the long-winded babbling.

My first name is a common one in Arabic-speaking countries. This will be relevant in a minute.

In 1998 (first year of college part one, lol old) I volunteered as a ESL tutor in Atlanta for an organization that dealt mainly with refugees. I was put with an Iraqi woman and sent to her tiny temporary apartment where she lived with her kids and her husband. The first day I went to see her, I introduced myself and she kind of stopped for a second and just looked at me. She touched my shoulder, took my hand, and pulled me into the sparse living room where she pulled a grainy photograph of four children out of a drawer. She tapped the face of a girl in the middle and said my name. Repeated it several times, and patted her hand over her heart. After a bit of linguistic gymnastics I realized that was her daughter, who had had the same name as I did.

"She die," she told me, and moved her hands quickly apart, spreading her fingers. A bomb, I finally understood. She put the photo down and her eyes were glassy. She took my hands and squeezed them. When her husband came home she let me stay for dinner and treated me like I belonged there. I worked with her on English for a few months and every time she welcomed me. Then she was relocated, and I never saw her again.

Seventeen years later I still get a chill thinking about that little girl with my name, who died violently while I'm sitting here on a quiet Sunday, sipping coffee and reading my acceptance emails over and over. Whatever related and unrelated events go on in this world, however one thinks it all works, I have a chance that billions of others never will, and so much of it is not due to anything they or she or I did by ourselves. Some of it is just so damn random that it both exhilarates and terrifies me.

It makes me so absolutely sure about my dedication. And that the purpose of it for me is to do everything I can for who I can, and be the biggest positive drop in the gigantic bucket of unfairness that I can be.

I can't save the world but damned if I won't try.


Accepted (will update as I hear from others):
Tulane University SOM (10/16)
Virginia Commonwealth University SOM/MCV (10/16)
Wayne State University (10/26)

Holy mackerel. I have been MIA on sdn lately and I sure missed a doozy. Thanks for this beautiful piece.

 

[asyouwish29]

Ahh! Amazing, amazing stories! I just got lost in the SDN black hole and needed to come back to this! You all are truly inspiring!

 

[68PGunner]

35 years old. LizzyM 63 cumulative, 69 by just my most recent 150-odd credit hrs.

Overcame: I feel like kind of a douche because I don't have a history of illness or injury or significant family deaths or anything spectacular. Uhm...
1) I grew up in a gang-riddled ghetto but so did a lot of people. It was really my mother and her obsession with literacy and education as a "way out" that lifted me up when I was young. And my grandfather, who grew up dirt poor and black in the south and never even had the chance to go to high school. I wouldn't be here without them.
2) Pre-requisites were a bit rough. I have to drive an hour out-of-state one way to get to school because I live in the middle of nowhere. Had no pre-med advising whatsoever, but had support.
3) Poor old grades. Dropped out of school first time around. 100% my own stupidity.

Helped:
1) Wide variety of experiences, and I do mean wide. I'm an RN and EMT but I've done everything from professional theatre to overseas teaching, and more in between. My concept of the world was hugely broadened by it all.
2) Motivation. Once I decide to do something it is on, YOLO
3) Chocolate. Lots of it. Not even kidding.

But it occurs to me often that it's not just me, not by a long shot. I'll tell a story here, pardon the long-winded babbling.

My first name is a common one in Arabic-speaking countries. This will be relevant in a minute.

In 1998 (first year of college part one, lol old) I volunteered as a ESL tutor in Atlanta for an organization that dealt mainly with refugees. I was put with an Iraqi woman and sent to her tiny temporary apartment where she lived with her kids and her husband. The first day I went to see her, I introduced myself and she kind of stopped for a second and just looked at me. She touched my shoulder, took my hand, and pulled me into the sparse living room where she pulled a grainy photograph of four children out of a drawer. She tapped the face of a girl in the middle and said my name. Repeated it several times, and patted her hand over her heart. After a bit of linguistic gymnastics I realized that was her daughter, who had had the same name as I did.

"She die," she told me, and moved her hands quickly apart, spreading her fingers. A bomb, I finally understood. She put the photo down and her eyes were glassy. She took my hands and squeezed them. When her husband came home she let me stay for dinner and treated me like I belonged there. I worked with her on English for a few months and every time she welcomed me. Then she was relocated, and I never saw her again.

Seventeen years later I still get a chill thinking about that little girl with my name, who died violently while I'm sitting here on a quiet Sunday, sipping coffee and reading my acceptance emails over and over. Whatever related and unrelated events go on in this world, however one thinks it all works, I have a chance that billions of others never will, and so much of it is not due to anything they or she or I did by ourselves. Some of it is just so damn random that it both exhilarates and terrifies me.

It makes me so absolutely sure about my dedication. And that the purpose of it for me is to do everything I can for who I can, and be the biggest positive drop in the gigantic bucket of unfairness that I can be.

I can't save the world but damned if I won't try.


Accepted (will update as I hear from others):
Tulane University SOM (10/16)
Virginia Commonwealth University SOM/MCV (10/16)
Wayne State University (10/26)

I can see why you're racking up those MD IIs like cookies on a platter now. You're very good at showing your heart and passion through your writing in interesting ways.

 

[Eccesignum]

I can see why you're racking up those MD IIs like cookies on a platter now. You're very good at showing your heart and passion through your writing in interesting ways.

Thank you

(Plz more people post their acceptances in this thread, I am getting self-conscious lol)

 

[Ad2b]

@Eccesignum - I wish I could!! Will have to wait until next year (and pray I can!!)

 

[deleted520847]

@Eccesignum your story was beautiful

 

[NaomiM]

Everyone who has posted here already: congrats on making it through and on your acceptances!! This thread is exactly what I needed to find today. Hope I get to post on here before the cycle is over, but if not I'll be back next year.

 

[pageantry]

I'm glad. I feel bad about forcing everyone who posts in it to do so under the auspices of SnugSeal (TM) tho, since I've already received a few bewildered messages.

@wholeheartedly, would it be too much to ask you to remove that part of the title (the part in parentheses)? I don't know if it's possible. I was just being exuberant and don't want to confuse anyone away from posting.

This post has been stamped with SnugSeal regardless. We're solid.

 

[wholeheartedly]

Done.

 

[dataDyne2]

Alright I think I can do a short little bit here, let's see...

LizzyM: 61.5 (Whaaaaaaat?! Should have seen it when I restarted!)

Overcame:

1.) GPA. I graduated from undergrad with a Bachelors in Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics. Sounds cool, right? Downside to it, though, was I had no passion for it, so I didn't put in the effort to keep up grades. Long story short, MD calculated GPA was 1.86, sGPA 1.66. Yes, bad. Very bad. Many Fs, many more Ds. I don't think any of us will be surprised by the fact that putting no effort into school doesn't breed good results .

2.) Naysayers. I'm sure we've all had them, for whatever our reasons. Mine were just as fierce. I remember going to see my premed advisor for the first time, about 2 years into my post-bacc. He basically laughed me out of his office, but it was to be expected and didn't really get me down.

3.) Time. I was ridiculously busy, as I'm sure almost all of us were/are. When I finally made the decision to go back, I signed up for classes (part-time, nothing crazy) only to be told a few weeks later that my then-gf was pregnant with my first (and only, phew) child. Whoops, bad timing! Combine that with a full time job in engineering (~55 hours a week, at the time), a side job/club/volunteer/thing of personal training, and the fact that the school is an hour commute from my home, and it really felt like there was no time in my life to get to class. But guess what, there was!


Helped:

1.) Stubbornness. I don't know how many of you are fans of the old show LOST, but if so, you'll recognize a phrase that I've often told myself, "Don't tell me what I can't do!" Everyone and their mother, and their sister, and their dog told me that I absolutely couldn't go to med school. I dug myself too big of a hole, there was no way it was gonna happen, so just give up and take care of your kid! Well, that didn't sit right with me, because you don't tell me what I can or can't do. As Eccesignum said above, when I decide to do something it's ON. So even though I was getting about four hours of sleep a night for months at a time, it didn't matter, I made a decision and I was gonna stick to it.

2.) Support. Sort of. My now ex was adamant that it was a terrible idea, and that I was wasting my time and never really gave me any support (and in fact, became quite a downside as she would often prevent me from studying for whatever reasons, hence my "now ex" hah). However, other than her, the rest of my family really had my back (my mother and step father were, in fact, the initial reason I ended up going back, as they talked me back into it in the first place). On top of that, my boss was more than happy to let me come and go from work as I needed initially (that changed and I ended up getting a new job, but at first he was really helpful).

3.) YouTube. Not even kidding. Watching motivational videos, teaching videos, or even just Bob Ross painting in the background while I studied was a fantastic tool to level my head back and and refocus my attention.

4.) MCAT. Had to add it, because it really is the only reason I got a second look anywhere. It wasn't absurdly high, but a 36 gets noticed, at least.


Accepted:

Wayne State (10/26)

 

[pageantry]

GOD BLESS BOB ROSS AND HIS HAPPY LITTLE TREES. AMEN.

 

[Glycereine]

GOD BLESS BOB ROSS AND HIS HAPPY LITTLE TREES. AMEN.

I LOVE the happy trees. Used to watch this all the time with my grandma when I was little.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[breezy16]

guys.

I really love reading these Absolutely inspirational!!
(I'll post one day; I just can't touch the amount of hard work, blood, sweat, and tears you guys have told here!)

 

[MamaPsalmist]

OK I was wrong in the other thread. THIS ONE is the most encouraging thing I've ever seen.

 

[Seattle Mariners Fan]

This thread is more inspirational than the new Rocky movie!

Congrats to all of you!

 

[jedi silva]

Congrats to you all for your hard work.

How did you guys manage to fit in volunteer experience? I currently have 3.15 cGPA, 3.75 sGPA, and 10 years experience as an electrical engineer but I don't have any volunteer hours

I'd like to apply next cycle for D.O but between work, school, and studying for the january mcat I'm worried about getting enough time in volunteering.

For the people in this thread that got accepted what were your EC stats like?