Joined SDN as a (failing) sophomore in high school, starting at T10 medical school in the Fall. AMA

Gilakend

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Hey guys, just wanted to start a thread that I would've enjoyed back when I was in HS. There's so many of these I'll let you guys tailor your questions however you want so I'll leave this short.

Joined SDN almost 7 years ago as a sophomore in HS, I was a VERY bad HS student. Failed multiple classes, very bad GPA (freshman year was 1.XX, graduated HS with 2.XX), never studied once and had no study habits going into UG. You name a mistake you could make and I did it. Started reading SDN, went to a low-tier public school for UG, graduated in 3.5 years, and am attending a T10-T15 medical school.

The people on SDN are 100% one of the main reasons for why I'll be starting med school so I want to at least try to add something of use on here!

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No questions from me, just want to congratulate you for your incredible success!!
 
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What ECs did you do?

What ECs did you do?

My EC section on AMCAS was pretty balanced I think, my main EC was a service organization I was apart of where we would organize events for college students to volunteer at local nursing homes. I had quite a few volunteering hours from this and was Vice President for one year. In addition to that I was an EMT for a 911 service which seemed to come up a lot, surprising to me as it seems so many premeds are CNA/EMT/scribe/phlebotomist etc.

In addition to that I had a lot of traditional ECs such as fairly strong research, clinical volunteering, shadowing, and hobbies (jiu-jitsu). I also had a few other organizations I was involved in on campus, but to a much lesser extent.
 
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Hello!
Questions I have would be:
What changed? How did you go from a failing high school student to being accepted to a T10 medical school?
What did your UG provide to you that you found helpful?
What would you wish you had told your sophomore self?
@Gilakend
 
Hello!
Questions I have would be:
What changed? How did you go from a failing high school student to being accepted to a T10 medical school?
What did your UG provide to you that you found helpful?
What would you wish you had told your sophomore self?
@Gilakend

What changed? How did you go from a failing high school student to being accepted to a T10 medical school?

Pretty much everything. The biggest thing for me was seeing a goal and knowing that I wanted to reach it. In high school I didn't have a clear goal in mind, I was just kind of going through it not caring about much. When I started college I knew that I had to seriously turn things around. A lot of my early success just came from hard work, I had essentially no study habits and was incredibly inefficient, but put enough hours in that I was able to do okay (first semester was like ~3.5 which was pretty good for me coming from such poor HS performance). Once I began to get settled in I learned how to study better and was able to lessen the hours I put in and enjoy college a little more. It was hard to find a balance at first because I also worked around 20 hours per week. However, it got easier. One of my biggest pieces of advice to incoming students it to be able to course correct. Being able to recognize what you are currently doing and change it to what you need to be doing. Having a good work ethic is key.

What did your UG provide to you that you found helpful?


I think my undergrad gave me pretty much every opportunity I could ask for. I was able to get into research very early (start of freshman year), they city I lived in had ample opportunities for volunteering and community service, the classes prepared me well for the MCAT, and my major is extremely applicable to my future. Overall it was phenomenal and it's crazy to me that a university was able to help me make such a transformation in 3.5 years. One downside would be there was essentially 0 premed advising. Our premed advisor seemed very uninformed and was the adviser for premed, predent, prevet, prePA, preOT, preXYZ etc. pretty much everything. 100% of my advising came from SDN and reddit.

What would you wish you had told your sophomore self?

I would tell my sophomore self that what you do in HS does matter. I think I thought I was ahead of the curve or something knowing that my HS performance wouldn't impact my med school chances directly. However, I was quite dumb. I could've entered college with better study habits, gotten more scholarships, had more school opportunities (not that I regret mine at all), etc. All of this would have made college much easier, but I was too naive to see that at the time.
 
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What changed? How did you go from a failing high school student to being accepted to a T10 medical school?

Pretty much everything. The biggest thing for me was seeing a goal and knowing that I wanted to reach it. In high school I didn't have a clear goal in mind, I was just kind of going through it not caring about much. When I started college I knew that I had to seriously turn things around. A lot of my early success just came from hard work, I had essentially no study habits and was incredibly inefficient, but put enough hours in that I was able to do okay (first semester was like ~3.5 which was pretty good for me coming from such poor HS performance). Once I began to get settled in I learned how to study better and was able to lessen the hours I put in and enjoy college a little more. It was hard to find a balance at first because I also worked around 20 hours per week. However, it got easier. One of my biggest pieces of advice to incoming students it to be able to course correct. Being able to recognize what you are currently doing and change it to what you need to be doing. Having a good work ethic is key.

What did your UG provide to you that you found helpful?


I think my undergrad gave me pretty much every opportunity I could ask for. I was able to get into research very early (start of freshman year), they city I lived in had ample opportunities for volunteering and community service, the classes prepared me well for the MCAT, and my major is extremely applicable to my future. Overall it was phenomenal and it's crazy to me that a university was able to help me make such a transformation in 3.5 years. One downside would be there was essentially 0 premed advising. Our premed advisor seemed very uninformed and was the adviser for premed, predent, prevet, prePA, preOT, preXYZ etc. pretty much everything. 100% of my advising came from SDN and reddit.

What would you wish you had told your sophomore self?

I would tell my sophomore self that what you do in HS does matter. I think I thought I was ahead of the curve or something knowing that my HS performance wouldn't impact my med school chances directly. However, I was quite dumb. I could've entered college with better study habits, gotten more scholarships, had more school opportunities (not that I regret mine at all), etc. All of this would have made college much easier, but I was too naive to see that at the time.

Thank you so much for telling me that. How many medical schools did you apply to? What was your MCAT and GPA?
What did you major in?
Also, what type of volunteer work did you get involved in?

What's your opinions of Greek life as a pre-med or how it helps? Or, is it just a waste of time?
Thank you for all the advice/info!
 
Thank you so much for telling me that. How many medical schools did you apply to? What was your MCAT and GPA?
What did you major in?
Also, what type of volunteer work did you get involved in?

What's your opinions of Greek life as a pre-med or how it helps? Or, is it just a waste of time?
Thank you for all the advice/info!

How many medical schools did you apply to? What was your MCAT and GPA?

I submitted secondaries at about 22 schools if I can remember correctly. 3.76 cGPA/3.72 sGPA and a 516 MCAT (retake). I got 6 interviews and attended 4 of them.

What did you major in?

Pharmacology and toxicology with a minor in chemistry

Also, what type of volunteer work did you get involved in?

I volunteered in the hospital, at soup kitchen/homeless shelters, habitat for humanity, and a few other places. My big volunteering activity was through an organization where we would volunteer at nursing homes. I honestly enjoyed all of my volunteering and think it's important to do it in a setting/with a population you are passionate about helping.

What's your opinions of Greek life as a pre-med or how it helps? Or, is it just a waste of time?

I didn't get involved in greek life, but I see no issue with it and being premed. I would say 80% of my college friends are involved in greek life. However, it will almost certainly not help you get into medical school, anything that you can do within the organization that would help you (e.g. leadership positions, volunteering) you could do just as well without it. However, if you are interested in the social aspect of greek like you should 100% do it if it won't interfere with your coursework. Personally, I'm not a fan on required events such as weekly chapter meetings or having to pay dues every semester which deterred me strongly.
 
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A true success story here, nice job. I agree ... Knowing when to course correct, being able to admit it, and working in incremental steps are so important and will serve anyone going into medicine well
 
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A true success story here, nice job. I agree ... Knowing when to course correct, being able to admit it, and working in incremental steps are so important and will serve anyone going into medicine well

Thank you!
 
What are your reasons for going into medicine?

What are your reasons for going into medicine?

I could probably write an entire page on this. I guess simply, I like the interpersonal side of medicine and how you continually learn throughout your career and communicating that with patients. I also enjoy the idea of procedures and working with my hands (I am from a very blue collar/rural background) and in a way that interests me. I hope to eventually work with rural/Low-SES populations to improve health literacy and health outcomes among these groups.

Also obviously helping people and loving science/human biology. However, I feel everyone who goes into medicine has to have these, the above are more personal to me because of my experiences.
 
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