Post-Bacc Lurker with Humanities Degrees & Plenty of Questions

[chekakanova]

Hey Everyone! Hope you're all enjoying the weekend (if you can).

So a little bit of introduction: I'm a post-baccalaureate student (not in a post-bacc program) with two bachelor's degrees in English Literature and Philosophy. In the year after graduating, I had a lot of time to think about what direction I wanted to take in life, and after deciding against teaching and law, I came to the very strong conclusion that I wanted to be a doctor, and in particular a psychiatrist.

I also want to say that I've never been so motivated in my life as I am now. In high school and university, I was what I would call a smart slacker... I didn't have to put much effort in my classes, and I still received a 3.87 GPA. I always felt that if I had some actual motivation and/or more self-discipline, I would be a much better student.

Now, I feel that I have that motivation, and I want to do the absolute best I can with the next two years I have to take the pre-requisites for med school. I have minimal doubts about being able to succeed in all my pre-requisite courses, as I have always done well in the sciences, so I anticipate that I will maintain my 3.87 GPA, and perhaps I might even raise it a bit. I also plan to study extensively for the MCAT, but that's a ways off at this point (>1 year).

Of course, this leaves me with many questions, which I'm sure will probably be answered when I talk with my pre-med adviser next week, but I figured the more opinions the better.

First, one of my main inspirations for this huge change has been my experience working as a medical receptionist at a clinic for low-income patients. Having become familiar with patients and physicians, I came to have a great sense of empathy for the patients and the desire to be able to help them the way that their providers do. Due to this experience, I also plan on coming back to my community after med school and residency, which is an underserved and semi-rural community. But I don't know how far this will get me with med school adcoms, besides being an interesting side note in my story, because I know it's not considered clinical experience.

Second, I have personal reasons for wanting to be a psychiatrist. I lost my father to bipolar disorder, and I myself was diagnosed as bipolar disorder five years ago. I know how difficult it is to struggle with mental health problems, and I feel that this affords me a more in-depth understanding of patients struggling with similar issues. I've already discussed this with my physician friends, and they've said that if I bring up this part of my inspiration on my application, I should probably only discuss the story of my father, and not my own story of having bipolar disorder. I generally agree, but I also wonder if there would be some way of sharing it that wouldn't be a detriment to my chances, as it really is one of my biggest reasons for wanting to pursue psychiatry in particular. I personally feel that it's more of a sign of strength than a sign of weakness, but I've been thinking it's probably better to be safe than sorry.

Third, and probably the most important questions I have, are about what I can do to increase my chances. With this new found motivation comes new found ambition, and while in the end, I know it would be enough to get into medical school period, I'd also like to do whatever I can to increase my competitiveness and get into the best school that I can. To that end, I have the following plans:

1. Clinical Experience/Volunteering. Because I understand that being a medical receptionist does not qualify as clinical experience, I have applied to volunteer at one of the local hospitals, and I plan to do as much volunteering as I can over the next two years. I was also wondering about whether or not to actually pursue a job involving clinical experience, which I could also probably manage to do.

2. Joining my school's pre-med club. I was wondering, though, if there are other ECs I should consider, maybe my university's book club, etc. However, I am not a particularly athletic person.

3. Shadowing. I have many contacts in my clinic, and have no doubt about being able to get as many hours shadowing as I want.

4. Saving my best idea for last: I am going to start a student group on Mental Health Awareness, to promote mental health advocacy about such issues as stigma, resources available to students, etc. There is nothing like it on my campus, and I figure this will be one of my greatest assets in applying to med school (if I am successful). I genuinely look forward to doing this, and I wanted to know how this would look on my application.
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Now for some things I'm not sure about doing:

1. Research. I'm not particularly interested in research, and I don't know that I could even find any research opportunities, given that I'm only in the introductory college courses and most-likely won't be taking any higher level classes until I'm almost finished. I also don't mind if this means I'm not competitive to schools who primarily focus on research. But I also know that I might be limiting myself if I don't at least consider it.

2. Non-clinical Volunteering. Not sure what/how much I should do.

3. Being specific about wanting to pursue psychiatry. I've heard mixed information on this subject, and before anyone asks "What if you decide you don't want to do psychiatry?", I already have other specialties I'm interested in as well, mainly gynecology/obstetrics and general practice.

4. Ironically, doing too much. I'm afraid that it will look like I'm only doing some of this to get into med school, which is at least partly true, but I don't want to seem disingenuous.
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So, given this wealth of information (seriously, I'm very sorry to anyone that actually read this whole thing...), what are some of your thoughts? What are my chances based on this information and if I'm able to pull off what I plan to do? What else can I do to be competitive?

Thank you to ANYONE who actually got all the way down here... I can't wait to hear what you have to say!

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[pageantry]

1) The person you need to convince of your aptitude isn't on this forum.

2) As a fellow English major, I sympathize, but in the medical world (and this world, which wants to be the medical world to a pathological extreme), you'll get a lot farther with concise questions.

3) Everyone will tell you not to bring up your own psychiatric issues. Having been slammed in a recent interview for starting a psychiatrist-advised support group serving people with my own trauma, I agree.

4) That said, I've had a lot of interview love for showing leadership and rocking the volunteer hours by starting my own group. Do what matters to you. Be as excellent as you can. I like that you want to start a group. Expand it into research and networking with professionals. The rest will follow.

5) There's also a good non-trad forum on here that is used to people showing up with long, convoluted life stories and plenty of questions. (Been there.)

6) I gotta go, sorry if I didn't answer all your questions!

Good luck!

 

[Cotterpin]

I think you should try to do some research. It doesn't have to be bench research. It could be psych research or similar.

You could do any kind of non-clinical volunteering that interests you.

Don't worry about doing too much. You will be competing against people who have done way more than seems humanly possible.

Don't bring up your own mental health issues. You probably shouldn't be specific about doing psychiatry, either. On my first day of undergrad, someone asked the dean of our postbacc program if they should focus on psychiatry and he was like "Nooooooo, you don't want adcoms to think that you're only interested in psych and not medicine in general." Because then you could just become a psychologist and you wouldn't need to go to med school at all.

Anyway, good luck. Don't take it for granted that you're going to do well in your science classes. It's a very hard path.

 

[Lucca]

Do well in your post-bacc classes, do well on the MCAT, get some clinical volunteering experience in your community and try to do research in an area that does interest you like sociology or psychology. Look up "narrative medicine", it might interest you as a humanities student.

 

[mcatjelly]

Don't bring up your own mental health issues. You probably shouldn't be specific about doing psychiatry, either. On my first day of undergrad, someone asked the dean of our postbacc program if they should focus on psychiatry and he was like "Nooooooo, you don't want adcoms to think that you're only interested in psych and not medicine in general." Because then you could just become a psychologist and you wouldn't need to go to med school at all.

I don't know. I have a very mental health-heavy background and I just received an invite at a school that does closed-file interviews. My friend mentioned her struggles with anorexia and got accepted at a top medical school. I know of someone else who talked about their depression and got into MD school as well.

 

[Cotterpin]

I don't know. I have a very mental health-heavy background and I just received an invite at a school that does closed-file interviews. My friend mentioned her struggles with anorexia and got accepted at a top medical school. I know of someone else who talked about their depression and got into MD school as well.

I'm just saying what I've been told.

 

[chekakanova]

Thank you all for reading my post! I'm going to try to take a lot of your advice to heart. Next time I post, I'll stick to one or two questions instead of writing a novel. That being said, I have a few questions about and responses to what some of you have said.

1) The person you need to convince of your aptitude isn't on this forum.

I'm not quite sure what you mean by this.

Don't worry about doing too much. You will be competing against people who have done way more than seems humanly possible.

I guess I should have clarified what I meant. What I meant to say was perhaps that I'm worried about seeming like I'm only doing volunteer work and ECs to get into medical school. I didn't really do any volunteering or ECs when I was in undergrad. And now that I'm getting ready for med school, they are a necessity. I don't want to seem like I'm only doing these things to get into med school and not because I genuinely want to do them.

Don't take it for granted that you're going to do well in your science classes. It's a very hard path.

Also probably should have clarified. I say this because I'm already doing very well in my university's hardest science courses, and I plan to keep up this level of work. I also recognize that med school is a hard path, but I feel I am ready, more so than I have ever been, to meet the challenge.

I don't know. I have a very mental health-heavy background and I just received an invite at a school that does closed-file interviews. My friend mentioned her struggles with anorexia and got accepted at a top medical school. I know of someone else who talked about their depression and got into MD school as well.

I tend to agree with Cotterpin that I probably shouldn't bring it up. Also, while I believe you that you and some of your friends and acquaintances shared this personal information and still had luck, I have heard that for the vast majority, this is not the case. Perhaps if I'm not accepted in my first application cycle, I'll try to include it on my PS in the next cycle.

 

[Law2Doc]

I don't know. I have a very mental health-heavy background and I just received an invite at a school that does closed-file interviews. My friend mentioned her struggles with anorexia and got accepted at a top medical school. I know of someone else who talked about their depression and got into MD school as well.

There will always be "I know a guy" stories. The reason people bring them up is because it's so far off the norm. Don't try to sell mental health issues as a selling point. Let that stay your own private motivation. Med schools are very isolating and emotionally taxing and so someone without a known mental health issue is always going to be the "safer" pick for a med school.

More importantly, make sure you are in a good place with your health issues before you start. You don't want to be isolated and dealing with death and disease and end of life and other emotional issues without being very grounded yourself, first. If you are relying on support groups or regular physician visits think long and hard about how things will go if your job keeps you from those for extended periods of time. Also bear in mind that sleep and diet hygiene changes during call/float situations in late med school/residency can make even the most grounded of us a bit manic. So know what you are getting yourself into.