Inferiority complex?

[gotfaith]

Reading through the posts, and especially seeing how many people are getting accepted, I am really seeing that this 'inferiority complex' that I seem to have has really done me no good. I feel like people always took one look at me and told me for one reason or another that I wouldn't be able to go to medical school, and although I THOUGHT that I just brushed it off, I now realize how I looked at schools and said 'I could never get in' and so I just looked past a few schools that I really liked thinking that there was no way I could do it. Now...I'm seeing people with stats similar to mine, getting into those schools, and I really wish I would have at least tried. I'm wondering if others have had similar issues, automatically thinking that you aren't good enough, and then realizing that you definitely are

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[da me ka don]

Reading through the posts, and especially seeing how many people are getting accepted, I am really seeing that this 'inferiority complex' that I seem to have has really done me no good. I feel like people always took one look at me and told me for one reason or another that I wouldn't be able to go to medical school, and although I THOUGHT that I just brushed it off, I now realize how I looked at schools and said 'I could never get in' and so I just looked past a few schools that I really liked thinking that there was no way I could do it. Now...I'm seeing people with stats similar to mine, getting into those schools, and I really wish I would have at least tried. I'm wondering if others have had similar issues, automatically thinking that you aren't good enough, and then realizing that you definitely are

I definitely understand what you are going through becos I think almost the same way. The difference between me and you probably would be the people in my life who push me to do it. I think about all the cons of a particular activity before the pros and sometimes I am never courageous enough to start. Usually it's my bf or dad that pushes me along. I have found that asking so many people about it ( I mean people who know what they are saying, and care for you and aren't jealous in one way or the other about you) might help. In this cycle for example, I thought I might only get an interview from my state school. I am shocked at the responses I have received. So get a solid support group, u might start actually feeling superior if they help well. Goodluck

 

[aaj117]

Similar to da me ka don, the only reason that my inferiority complex didnt get in the way was because there were some very convincing people who did believe in me. My pre-health advisor kept telling me to add more reach schools to my list. i thought he was saying it to be nice because he really liked me, we had done some activism work together so we had bonded outside of the pre-med world. But actually, he was just a better judge of me as an applicant. i don't think i ever felt like oh i coulnd't do well at x school, but it was more like i assumed they wouldn't really look at my whole app because of my gpa. Schools say that they look at the whole applicant, but i didn't believe it. GPA is the only weak part of my app, but it's definitely one of the first two things they look at.

 

[flaahless]

To go along with what da me ka don and aaj wrote, I doubted myself to an extent but my advisors and professors had complete confidence in me. The premeds at my school were extremely supportive, but the premeds at other schools, particularly UC Irvine, weren't shy about letting me know that they didn't believe I had a chance in hell. However, the individuals that were closest to me and knew me best, believed that schools would see my passion and understand my life experiences. However, like Aaj said, I didn't think that schools would actually give me a look, especially with a 7 in VR. Furthermore, I was in North Carolina in the summer and visited Wake Forest, and the dean really let me have it and said that my VR score was unacceptable and that I'd have major difficulty applying to med school. And I was actually going to retake the MCAT but all the testing sites were full so I dejectedly decided to go ahead and apply. I figured I had a shot at the HBCUs, but I NEVER thought I'd get accepted to UCSD, they have a huge rep as being very heavy on numbers in CA.

Moral of the story, you never know until you try. Goodluck!

 

[Coconut45]

Congrats on UCSD! I just got back from San Diego and I'm a little jealous. But just to echo everyone else, it's normal to be uncertain when you're applying to something so selective. I withdrew my app at Yale in February (last year) like an idiot because I couldn't face rejection, and my homegirl interviewed there in April and is an M1 at Yale now. Now people like us will know not to sell ourselves short for residency. It's a great lesson really.

 

[Tachymeter]

Wow, I have a very similar inferiority complex too. I always think that I'm not good enough to get in to schools. Right now I'm sitting on 4 med school interviews later this month and I'm still having negative thoughts. It's really weird and I wish I could get over it. I constantly have people telling me I'll do great, especially the doctor I shadowed, so it helps me believe that I can do it. But until I get an acceptance I won't fully believe.