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- Dec 27, 2004
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It's been a long time since I've posted on SDN, but I used to visit the re-applicant forum fairly often and I feel a special kinship with a lot of people posting on here, since I was a reapplicant about 4 years ago.
I'm graduating medical school in 3 weeks and matched to a solid university-based residency program, so I just want to remind everyone that it IS possible to be successful if you work hard, take the advice of people who have had more experience, and don't give up!
The first time I applied, I applied to 20 places, got one interview (in October) and heard nothing from that school (despite writing a letter of intent) until late May, when I got an outright rejection. (I'm happy to provide details about my stats and stuff but I don't think they really add much to the story). I had been basing all thoughts about my future about this one letter of acceptance that would hopefully come in the mail one day, anxiously checked the mail every day for six months, and would just sigh and look forward to tomorrow when nothing came that day.
Anyway, after 15 minutes of kind of staring at this rejection letter and thinking, "ok, what now?" I decided to go and look for part-time jobs to supplement the crappy lab job at which I had been working. I looked for jobs for about an afternoon, and then decided that I didn't want to work part-time for a little extra money (the lab job provided enough to live on, though not much more- I was just a single guy after all), and that instead, I'd use the time I would have spent at a part-time job to work really hard and re-apply.
So I took that time to study and re-took the MCAT, then went about the business of addressing my grades (which I was pretty sure were the reason for my perfect score of rejections), learned about an SMP from a friend, applied and was accepted to it, and then worked my butt off for the year to show people I could do it.
The re-application process went much more smoothly: I completely re-vamped my personal statement, got an additional letter, and got all my ducks in a row to apply as early as possible. I applied again to 20 schools, (mainly because of my budget or I would have applied to more), but I shuffled out a few of my original reach schools to put in some more reasonable ones. The result: 8 interviews, 2 waitlists, 2 acceptances, 1 rejection and I withdrew from the other 3 schools before going on the interviews.
I guess the theme is the same: Don't let anyone tell you you can't do it. Most people were very supportive of me, but the dean at my undergrad school said I should think of a different career within healthcare. I kind of want to mail her a copy of my diploma, but mostly I don't even think about her anymore.
The good news is, even though this might not be something you want to hear right now, getting in really IS the hardest part. The SMP actually made first year much easier for me because I had seen most of the material before. Second year is easier conceptually, but just takes a lot of stamina to memorize a lot of lists. Third year, as long as you show up on time, you'll pass. Fourth year, you don't even need to show up on time.
I think the hardest part is getting your mail and finding two or three rejection letters in one day, and just feeling like it's never going to happen for you. But it will. Keep working hard. Follow the advice of the people who have been there. There's a lot of good advice on SDN as well. Take that too. And when you finally get to medical school, be open about how it took you more than one attempt to apply if the topic comes up in conversation. It gives you a different kind of street cred than Random Allstar X who got in everywhere he applied. Good luck!
I'm graduating medical school in 3 weeks and matched to a solid university-based residency program, so I just want to remind everyone that it IS possible to be successful if you work hard, take the advice of people who have had more experience, and don't give up!
The first time I applied, I applied to 20 places, got one interview (in October) and heard nothing from that school (despite writing a letter of intent) until late May, when I got an outright rejection. (I'm happy to provide details about my stats and stuff but I don't think they really add much to the story). I had been basing all thoughts about my future about this one letter of acceptance that would hopefully come in the mail one day, anxiously checked the mail every day for six months, and would just sigh and look forward to tomorrow when nothing came that day.
Anyway, after 15 minutes of kind of staring at this rejection letter and thinking, "ok, what now?" I decided to go and look for part-time jobs to supplement the crappy lab job at which I had been working. I looked for jobs for about an afternoon, and then decided that I didn't want to work part-time for a little extra money (the lab job provided enough to live on, though not much more- I was just a single guy after all), and that instead, I'd use the time I would have spent at a part-time job to work really hard and re-apply.
So I took that time to study and re-took the MCAT, then went about the business of addressing my grades (which I was pretty sure were the reason for my perfect score of rejections), learned about an SMP from a friend, applied and was accepted to it, and then worked my butt off for the year to show people I could do it.
The re-application process went much more smoothly: I completely re-vamped my personal statement, got an additional letter, and got all my ducks in a row to apply as early as possible. I applied again to 20 schools, (mainly because of my budget or I would have applied to more), but I shuffled out a few of my original reach schools to put in some more reasonable ones. The result: 8 interviews, 2 waitlists, 2 acceptances, 1 rejection and I withdrew from the other 3 schools before going on the interviews.
I guess the theme is the same: Don't let anyone tell you you can't do it. Most people were very supportive of me, but the dean at my undergrad school said I should think of a different career within healthcare. I kind of want to mail her a copy of my diploma, but mostly I don't even think about her anymore.
The good news is, even though this might not be something you want to hear right now, getting in really IS the hardest part. The SMP actually made first year much easier for me because I had seen most of the material before. Second year is easier conceptually, but just takes a lot of stamina to memorize a lot of lists. Third year, as long as you show up on time, you'll pass. Fourth year, you don't even need to show up on time.
I think the hardest part is getting your mail and finding two or three rejection letters in one day, and just feeling like it's never going to happen for you. But it will. Keep working hard. Follow the advice of the people who have been there. There's a lot of good advice on SDN as well. Take that too. And when you finally get to medical school, be open about how it took you more than one attempt to apply if the topic comes up in conversation. It gives you a different kind of street cred than Random Allstar X who got in everywhere he applied. Good luck!
