Empty-handed and frustrated on Secondaries

[medworm]

---

Members do not see this ad.

So I'm on secondary #2 and I'm really at a lost for words. Medical schools just have so many different ways of asking you qualifying questions. I've come to a point where I'm completely exhausted of material and selling points. I just don't have the relevant health/medicine/research experience. I've never worked with a doctor, only volunteered in a hospital, shadowed them and asked clarifying questions. I don't have a stellar resume of tons of competitive and cool sounding worldly experiences. I have never won an academic award, never outcompeted anyone, never done Fear Factor or trekked the Himalayas. And I don't have the aspirations to become the head honcho leading the development of a cure for Elephantitis or some obscure cancer that only affects 2,000 people in South America. I don't have an impressive medical vocabulary to even suggest that I know exactly what I'm talking about. At this point everything I write just sounds like sappy feature story in the NYT. Could any school possibly look at my application and think "Wow! She's very average. Let's take her over this young hot potato over at Harvard who's dad is a cardiologist." I just want to write "Look, I'm simple to operate. Breaks down occasionally, but give me a try anyway?"

🙁

 

[murphomatic]

I feel the same way, but it is their game and you have to play by their rules. You don't need to lie or anything, but you know that you can't just appeal to the fact that they want people who try to move the earth. It's funny, but my dad (who has been an orthopedic surgeon for like 25 years) always tells me that all the stuff med schools want aplicants to have done (voulenteer, shadow, reaserch, clinical, etc) is a joke, because 99% of them basicly stop the second they get an acceptance. He's like "I never had to do any of that stuff before I got in, why should you guys? I guess it's just another arbitrary hoop they make you jump through, but it means nothing" But like I said, adcoms want it so we gotta do it. good luck

 

[medworm]

Thanks for the compassion. I just can't seem to cull any TANGIBLE achievement from my blob of work experience or any tangible contribution I can make to my medical classmates, society, or the profession. I work day in and day out, get things done, yadda yadda. It's not rocket science, ANYONE could have done my job. I didn't prove anything or improve anyone's lives. If I grew up poor but managed to get a decent education and job, hey even paid my bills on time, how could that possibly benefit anyone else?



Hey, that's a neat little avatar by the way.

 

[keitaiKT]

Right there with you, sister. No research, average ECs in college, shadowing and volunteering like everyone else. No awards.... no hardships overcome.... very average. As a non-trad, I have some life/work experience that is interesting, but you can only repackage it in so many ways to interest the Adcoms. But don't despair. I hit a mid-secondary season slump, but you come out of it once you get some more under your belt. Just take a break for a day or two and come back to them.

 

[QofQuimica]

Think also about hobbies or causes that are important to you. If you are active in your children's school (if you have kids) or you are active in a group at your job, that is meaningful too. You don't have to have cured cancer or something. You just need to pick the things that matter to you and that you are passionate about, so that you can write about them in your essays and talk about them in your interviews.

I've talked a lot about teaching, because I feel very passionate about education. It's not a glamorous job, and it's actually often quite time-consuming, frustrating, and work-intensive, but it's taught me a lot, and I do feel that I have made a small difference in other people's lives. Of course, I talked about my research, too, but I don't really have any major clinical things to discuss either. The point is, don't worry about what you don't have; take what you do have, and package it in the best possible way to show what a mature, thoughtful, compassionate, and caring physician you are going to be.

 

[bubbleyum]

i totally sympathize with this. i'm a non-traditional borderline applicant who's been out of school for almost 10 years, nothing special to brag about or make me stand out so much. and especially reading these boards and seeing stellar numbers and qualifications makes your confidence take a nose-dive, ESPECIALLY when you're still struggling with secondaries and these gung-ho youngsters are already buying plane tickets to their interviews.

when i was doing my primary app essay i had some people proofread/critique it. i talked a lot about my sunday school teaching and how i love working with kids, how i loved volunteering at the free clinic health day as a translator etc. i hoped this would show i have personal qualities to be a caring, compassionate doctor. and you know, a lot of my friends read this stuff and said "if you love doing all that so much why be a doctor? you can just become a teacher or social worker instead?" i was even more at a loss. what else can you say, i want to help people and i love science?? it's difficult to "spin" in all the secondaries all over again.

 

[njbmd]

i totally sympathize with this. i'm a non-traditional borderline applicant who's been out of school for almost 10 years, nothing special to brag about or make me stand out so much. and especially reading these boards and seeing stellar numbers and qualifications makes your confidence take a nose-dive, ESPECIALLY when you're still struggling with secondaries and these gung-ho youngsters are already buying plane tickets to their interviews.

when i was doing my primary app essay i had some people proofread/critique it. i talked a lot about my sunday school teaching and how i love working with kids, how i loved volunteering at the free clinic health day as a translator etc. i hoped this would show i have personal qualities to be a caring, compassionate doctor. and you know, a lot of my friends read this stuff and said "if you love doing all that so much why be a doctor? you can just become a teacher or social worker instead?" i was even more at a loss. what else can you say, i want to help people and i love science?? it's difficult to "spin" in all the secondaries all over again.

Hi there,
I think you have articulated why you might enjoy and excell at a career in medicine. I do not believe that you need to use SDN or any other message board website as a "ruler" for your suitablity for medical school. If you believe everything that you read on SDN, you will make yourself pretty crazy. Sure you can become a teacher or social worker and help people but you have chosen medicine so articulate WHY you chose medicine. Pick YOUR theme and YOUR reasons and put them on paper.

I have an average IQ, (85 to 100). I was a good and hard-working undergraduate and graduate student. I took the MCAT and I got into and through medical school. I am nothing special but I do have an infinite ability and desire to be the best physician that I can be and I never lose sight of that goal (even at 4AM when I think I can't do another thing). I knew that I would enjoy this vocation and I do. I certainly could have done other things (and I did) but I chose this because I love it.

There are no hard and fast predictors of who will and who will not make a good physician. You can be the most brilliant person on the planet but have a poor work ethic or non-interest in your fellow humans and you WILL be a very poor physician. All of your interests and volunteer work that you love shows that you DO love interacting with your fellow humans and interacting with them under fairly stressful circumstances (illness or trauma). Get this on those secondaries somehow and write convincingly enough to get the message across to anyone who reads what you have written.

Take everything (including what I have written above) on SDN with a healthy "grain of salt"; incorporate things that you find useful and dismiss what is not. Above all, DO NOT compare yourself to anyone else. You are the resident expert on living your life and no one walks in your shoes like you do.

I am living proof that you can be as average as you want to be and still become a good physician if that is what you desire. If you have to, make a list of everything that you love to do and weave those things into how they make a good physician because they do. You are the unique sum of all your experiences and feelings so make them count in your direction.

Good luck with the secondaries
njbmd 🙂

 

[cfdavid]

So I'm on secondary #2 and I'm really at a lost for words. Medical schools just have so many different ways of asking you qualifying questions. I've come to a point where I'm completely exhausted of material and selling points. I just don't have the relevant health/medicine/research experience. I've never worked with a doctor, only volunteered in a hospital, shadowed them and asked clarifying questions. I don't have a stellar resume of tons of competitive and cool sounding worldly experiences. I have never won an academic award, never outcompeted anyone, never done Fear Factor or trekked the Himalayas. And I don't have the aspirations to become the head honcho leading the development of a cure for Elephantitis or some obscure cancer that only affects 2,000 people in South America. I don't have an impressive medical vocabulary to even suggest that I know exactly what I'm talking about. At this point everything I write just sounds like sappy feature story in the NYT. Could any school possibly look at my application and think "Wow! She's very average. Let's take her over this young hot potato over at Harvard who's dad is a cardiologist." I just want to write "Look, I'm simple to operate. Breaks down occasionally, but give me a try anyway?"

🙁

One school asked to list your college activities. For one, I put "honestly, i just worked a lot in college" Fu...k it. It's the truth.

In high school, I was playing hockey, chasing skirt, and getting into a whole lot of trouble during my free time. I was not volunteering down at the soup kitchen or doing cutting edge research in my parents basement.