Any updates on the people who got accepted four to five years ago at the beginning of this thread?
I can't believe that I never posted on here before.
1. 25 YEARS when I started Medical school. Now 36
cGPA 3.85; sGPA 3.5 - MCAT 21
2. I was an LPN from AGE 19-24 then finished my RN/BSN at 24. Made around 12-30k yearly as an undergraduate.
I worked part time all thru undergrad and full time after I graduated from my BSN. After graduation I took the Kaplan review course over 8 weeks in the summer while working full time hours. As an RN I was making about 50k which was awesome for a 24-25 year old at the time!!
3. I was single thru most of undergrad and single thru medical school and residency. Got married last year.
4. My plan to success was initially to take the shortest route. I knew that I always wanted to be a doc, but didn't think I had the stamina to last thru 8 years of school and then training. I knew of no doctors growing up and no one to advise me. My dad immigrated to this country in his late thirties and became an RN at age 42 or so and he was the closest thing to a doctor I knew. I joined the military right after high school and became an LPN to help pay for my college because I didn't know how else to pay for college. Was a US army reservist the whole time and never deployed. Soon as I got out of training in the military, I started Junior college at age 19. Got my associates in science in less than two years and transferred to a private university which I hated as the kids where mostly entitled, privileged sheltered ones who had no idea what the struggle of life was about. I changed colleges and changed my major from Biology back to Nursing because I did research and realized that there was a decent chance I couldn't get into medical school and needed a backup plan if I didn't which would have been grad school in nursing.
Anyway, finished my BSN at the same time continuing my prerequisites at a different school and working 24 hrs a week to pay bills. Took the summer Kaplan course, and MCAT in August. Got a very low score. I wasn't going to apply that year but my friends asked me, what did I really have to lose as in TX the applications were centralized and cheap. So I applied late to four schools in September, got one rejection, didn't fill out the secondaries for one school and never heard from the other. I got a call for a last minute interview as someone cancelled their interview at one school. I drove there within 48 hours of the call, interivewed and got in!!!!
Thank God I lived in TX. I got into a very ethnically diverse school and that really helped my confidence to see so many others who looked like me, a URM
I am now an anesthesiologist making good money, dealing with a lot of the bull**** in medicine, but it sure beats being an RN!!!!
5. What I didn't do right?
Applied too late and missed many deadlines.
Did not apply broadly.
Did not study enough for the MCAT as I was working full time and I know I now that I could have done a hell of a lot more with my time spent studying.
I gave myself three tries/three years to get in and in the end only needed one. My biggest obstacle was the MCAT and had I had to retake it I was going to re-strategize and do much better. But my life experience spoke and good grades spoke for themselves. Never had any problems with the standardized tests in med school or any tests for that matter except the senior year OSCE.
In the end, I took the LONG SCENIC route, and am here living a good life today because of patience and perseverance.
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I am a complete sdn newbie. I am really enthralled by your story. I feel so much connection with your journey, felt as though you've been where I'm at now in my life; only many years ago.
I am a 25yo URM just getting started with my medical career journey, graduated college last year with a Medical Laboratory Science degree, I am currently an ASCP certified Medical Technologist, working in Blood Banking/Transfusion service for a 975 bed Hospital, setting up blood products etcetera. Job isn't too bad, nice pay for a single 25yo guy ,hours could be better, but I never want to be complacent, besides Anesthesiology is all I've wanted to do, I went into blood banking as a backup plan and for financial reasons.
I am also enlisting in the US Army Reserves. BCT is sometime later this year, AIT will be Fort Sam ,Houston TX. Getting trained as a 68W Healthcare Specialist (Medic).
Plan: is to get as much training and experience in Emergency medicine (Army MEDIC) and Transfusion medicine ( Via my civilian Blood bank job) , do a post bacc or SMP to improve my feeble cGPA (a sad 3.255), take the MCAT towards the end of the active drill portion of my enlistment. ( which is in about 4years, I think). Try to get the HPSP Scholarship to pay for med sch.
Challenge : this will put my med sch matriculation age close to around 30, many of my colleagues and some physicians I've talked too say its not worth the stress, debt and masochistic hell of starting med sch at that stage of my life and especially because Anesthesiology is the direction I want to go.
In conclusion, I really need your advice, guide and mentor as someone who's been through all i'm about to get into; from the Army Reserve via med sch to Anesthesiology residency to practicing medicine as a URM, you've seen it all.
I will really appreciate any words of wisdom, what would you have done differently, what can I still change now, how feasible is my plan?
Thank you so much. God bless!
