Hello everyone. First off all, I hope everyone out there is doing well in this crazy process. I've enjoyed reading the posts on this board for many months now, and I thought I'd toss in my two cents on this topic.
I have fared far better in this process than I ever would have expected to, and hopefully what I've learned about the process can help some of you in the future.
First of all, my stats are not astronomical (GPA, 3.7; MCAT 31). I started out not knowing what to expect, just as we all do. Today, I've been fortunate enough to be accepted by 10 of the 23 schools to which I applied so far. I know that seems like a lot of schools to apply to, but I have been out of school for 2 years now, and although I certainly don't feel "old," I did want to do everything possible to make sure I would not have to apply a 2nd time.
In college, I was president of my a cappella group. I was also director of the regional herpetological society for 2 years. No, not herpes.
Herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians. I have also been breeding snakes on a fairly large scale for the past 10 years.
Throughout school, I also worked as many hours as possible to curb the debt incurred by my parents, who have had some rough financial times in the past decade or so. Partly this was due to a debilitating and rare spinal cord condition that afflicts my mother. I chose to postpone applying to medical school at the traditional time to work for my father's small business, which was in very serious trouble at the time of my graduation. In just over a year, and with some really hard work, we were able to turn that business around. Since the end of that first year out of school, I have been doing paid work as a research assistant at a major academic medical center.
In retrospect, apart from grades, I think the real strengths of my application lie in my extracurricular and work activities. I cannot stress enough how important my life outside academics was to my interviewers. Don't be afraid to get out there and get involved in something that interests you! Hell, I've been breeding snakes most of my life because they interest the hell out of me. But what does that have to do with medicine?!
) If you have real interests, go with them. Just be able to talk about them in an intelligent and interesting way when the application process gets going.
Finally, I know many have said it before, but I will say it again: get everything in as early as you possibly can. If you are sure medicine is what you want, there are no good excuses for procrastination at this juncture. And believe me, in college I got an A in a graduate-level procrastination course. I had my AMCAS in in early June, and as secondaries rolled in, I had each one of them back to the school within one week. With this approach, out of 23 schools, I received 17 interview invitations.
I feel so fortunate when I look back at the uncertainty of one year ago. It is so amazing to think it was a full year ago that I was pouring over material for the April MCAT. What I want to get across to all of you out there who will be applying or reapplying, is that it does not take super stellar "stats" to get into medical school, no matter what you may hear or read on TPR, for example.
Just be focussed, get stuff in quickly, and pursue your personal interests, no matter what they are! They will only serve to make you a more interesting applicant when the adcomms are voting to accept you!
Good luck to everyone out there.
-Keyser
