I ask this question as sort of a Rorschach test. I'll echo what others have said, your response tells me that you think you're very talented (and you may well be), but I get no little that you actually know what you're getting yourself into.
If ever there as a field that shouldn't be rushed into, it's this one. While a medical degree is quite versatile, ultimately the practice of medicine is a service job, and learning it comes at a cost that can't be measured in years or dollars.
It would behoove you to pump the brakes. Your GPA is a great start, but to make yourself broadly competitive you will need to focus a lot more attention on volunteering. Don't take the MCAT until you are on track to get a solid score. And don't even think about starting a personal statement until you can articulate a rationale for pursuing this profession that's more compelling.
SDN is a great resource. Don't be a stranger.
Thanks for the feedback, and I think this is an important response for me to switch my mindset a little bit.
Some schools average MCAT scores. All will see scores. Some take the highest. Some take the most recent. My advice again is take the MCAT when you feel ready, when you feel you can get the score you are truly capable of.
I also read you response to why do you want to become a doctor. Given that you put in15 minutes of effort it is well written, BUT it is way too negative and spends too much time on why you didn't want to be in school (which is what you're applying for), why you didn't want to be a lawyer like your family, why you don't want to continue in computer science as opposed to why you want to be a doctor.
Yes being a doctor doesn't necessarily chain you to a desk and computer screen, but why do you think you will be passionate about it? What attracts you to it (other than it's not what you've tried to avoid in the past)?
Basically you wrote 4 paragraphs and only one touches on why you want to be a doctor, and at the risk of being harsh, it's on the superficial side.
I think, if it's any explanation, the focus of my response is due to the fact that along this journey I've been asked almost entirely questions with the same exact theme. There's a pattern - First I'll tell them why I've been interested in medicine, but because I'm talking to primarily physicians and professors in the field (along with friends), its somewhat assumed that I have good reasons for an interest in medicine as a whole. Here's the actual questions I've been asked:
Why M.D. rather than PA?
What are your plans for school and prereqs?
Why do you think you are able to keep this schedule? (Usually from professors in response to me attempting to waive prerequisites, like taking Organic and General chemistries simultaneously)
With your background with little effort in academics, why do you want to make a switch to something so much more academic?
Why do you want to switch to a more difficult lifestyle? You should stay in Tech
Will you be able to balance marriage, hobbies, and the rigorous schedule of med school and residency?
I've had these types of questions much, much more often than the standard, "Why do you FEEL like you want to do medicine". It seems much more often people have been asking "CAN you do medicine", and so my priorities thus far have basically been an attempt to prove myself academically since I never have had to before, or even had the inclination to do so.
I do have answers to the "Why?", I just feel like those answers often fall on deaf ears that assume anything you say about "Why?" is BS cultivated for AdComs. Especially when talking to physicians.
For one, I want to work and live in a community, preferably a small one. I grew up in slightly more rural Montana, and also lived in other areas in the rural West, and I love those areas (especially Montana) with all my heart. I've since lived in cities, and I find myself constantly going back for outdoor recreation and for the friends and family I knew there. And I would love to find a way to bring myself back into those communities and actually contribute to them. Taking a remote development job out in Montana could be a way to get myself back there, but I want to actually serve the communities and be a part of locality. When growing up, the same Doctor delivered me and siblings, and was my family doctor for my whole childhood. I remember not only admiring his intelligence but thinking of him as a part of the small family I had in the community and at church. This personal relationship combined with his expertise in his field has always kept him in my mind, even after many years away from home.
Because of my religious background, I've been on many mission trips in high school, and I enjoyed the experiences serving other cultures. However, much of the "work" we did seemed more like a feel-good vacation without providing anything of real use to the communities. Medicine is a way for me to develop a long term relationship with a community in a missions field while providing something of real value. The two physicians I'm most close to, both surgeons, have had long term relationships with mission fields in Central America and Africa, which has been a great inspiration to me in my exploration of medicine as a career field.
Medicine is constantly changing, and the challenges are different every day. This diversity within the job itself attracts me heavily. While I problem-solve in my current job, I believe the presence of other humans in every day of my work as a Physician would bring a diversity of problem solving to my life with the ability to provide something of value to others.
I love to teach and I love to introduce people to new concepts. I've spent years and years teaching friends, family, and acquaintances how to rock climb, whether through my job as a climbing instructor or in my personal life. I've been the leader of many trips, whether to smaller cliffs in the Arkansas backcountry or to the big walls of Yosemite. This part of my hobby is immensely fulfilling - teaching my proteges how to keep themselves safe and how to improve their physical and mental abilities in order to overcome the inherent obstacles that outdoor recreation. I feel like I can draw many principles from this part of my life to a career in medicine. I believe a career in medicine could often be a way to help others not only in the immediate interaction with the patient, but to help and inspire patients to find ways to improve their physical and mental health for other obstacles in the future. I look forward to seeing a patient change their lifestyle and health, just as I love seeing my friends do their first outdoor rock climb or even their first pull-up in the gym.
I'm confident about the reasons I have FOR medicine. My struggle has always been leaving what is currently a very easy and healthy lifestyle, and uprooting my family for a passion I have. What if I can't do it? What if I'm not academically capable? I'm almost 26, am I too old? Will I get into the field and bring my family into debt just to discover that all my wonderful reasons for loving medicine are peeled away by the drudgery of another 8+ years of education and monotony, when I was burned out in my current field during an easy undergrad?
These "no" questions have always been much more difficult for me than the "yes" questions. It's been an assumption for a long, long time that a career in medicine is something I would want. I've always admired the profession, I've always thought that If I could have
any job, I'd pick one in medicine. But I didn't think I was cut out for it. It's always been more difficult for me to convince myself that I'm actually capable.
Thanks for reading my shpeel. I appreciate your help.
