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Yea! Okay, I stole that title from singing devil's post last year, but his/her story inspired me so I'm keeping that title.
I've been accepted into the University of Cincinnati's College of Medicine! (i'm in the U. Cincinnati physiology smp now) I am so thrilled and just wanted to post b/c i remember i didn't think people in 'my position' could get into medical school until i read these threads and learned about/dediciated myself to the work that could be done. So here's my story:
went to a lovely undergraduate institution in my home state (hint...best mens and womens basketball teams in the country....go heels!). my experience was great, but definately jumped in too crazy, i had gotten a good amount of ap credit (20+ hrs) and dove in to sophomore/junior level science classes immediately. i also don't think there wasn't a club i didn't join...i was in rotc, chemistry clubs, service clubs, research beginning freshman year, anthropology clubs, the whole nine yards...oh and a double major too. i didn't even make it to basketball games i was so busy. in any case, it was a recipe for disaster....i did fine in my social science classes and electives, but my science coursework started off bad and got worse. bs and c's the freshman year, then to D's and even an F in calculus sophomore year. in fact, one of those D's was from retaking the calc class i had gotten an F in (ouch.....). i was extremely ignorant, and thought if i just stayed up later, worked harder, took more classes i would do better. eventually things reached rock bottom the first semester of my junior year when i took about 19 hours of all chem and got either c's or d's in everything. this was very ironic because i had done well -> okay in the first year of chemistry and i was working as a chemistry ta and a research assistant while i was racking up these grades. what a mess. i finally did scale back on my committments, balanced my schedule with science and non-science classes a little bit better. it was hard though, b/c my science foundation was rocky by now (hard to do pchem when you got a d in physics) and it took sooooo much more work than i ever would have thought. the last half of my junior year and two senior years (b/c i was a double major) went a lot better though and it felt so good to achieve and do well.
even though i had been pre-med, i knew i couldn't get in so i didn't even apply. i thought that dream was over and done with so i tried the next best thing for me personally. i had some great opportunities since then, i went to china and did cancer research, liked it so much that i got a master's in international studies at UWashington focusing on China and public health. also taught anthropology at community colleges for a while. i eventually worked for 3 years in clinical breast cancer trials but it was interacting with physicians again that really kind of rekindled everything for me - and i got to work with so many different types of clinicians it really let me see the career from a lot of different perspectives. i knew i wanted to do it but feared my sci gpa was just too low, esp. for MD programs - under 3.0 bcpm, 3.1 overall. my gpa from grad school was high - 3.8 but no science coursework. so i started to retake courses i did poorly in (hello physics) and took some graduate level pathology courses (very nice professors let me in) at the college i was working at. things were going well so i started to study for the mcat....and that went well too, 32S. then i knew the weakest part of my app was going to be my previous science coursework, so i applied to the University of Cincinnati's masters of physiology smp and was lucky enough to be chosen for that first class. i've worked very hard this year, started out strong, was interviewed in december and now in january have been accepted. it is incredible. i feel extremely fortunate, because there are so many reasons why i could have been ignored or disregarded. i can't believe i won't have a lag year, but that i get to keep going at a really great school with awesome faculty and facilities.
it has been five and a half years since i finished undergrad, and had a pretty circuitious (sp?) route, but i think that is what helped me honestly. i had time to reconfigure how i study, what i commit to, and in the long run i think i have grown from my endeavors. i will be 29 when i start next year, but feel like i'll be a different type of med student than i would have been at 22 or 23. so please don't beat yourself up if this route is taking longer than you had hoped, it took me 3 years (b/c for three of them i didn't even think about applying to med school, wasn't even on my radar b/c i thought i couldn't) to get here and it is wonderful!!! good luck everybody!!!!
I've been accepted into the University of Cincinnati's College of Medicine! (i'm in the U. Cincinnati physiology smp now) I am so thrilled and just wanted to post b/c i remember i didn't think people in 'my position' could get into medical school until i read these threads and learned about/dediciated myself to the work that could be done. So here's my story:
went to a lovely undergraduate institution in my home state (hint...best mens and womens basketball teams in the country....go heels!). my experience was great, but definately jumped in too crazy, i had gotten a good amount of ap credit (20+ hrs) and dove in to sophomore/junior level science classes immediately. i also don't think there wasn't a club i didn't join...i was in rotc, chemistry clubs, service clubs, research beginning freshman year, anthropology clubs, the whole nine yards...oh and a double major too. i didn't even make it to basketball games i was so busy. in any case, it was a recipe for disaster....i did fine in my social science classes and electives, but my science coursework started off bad and got worse. bs and c's the freshman year, then to D's and even an F in calculus sophomore year. in fact, one of those D's was from retaking the calc class i had gotten an F in (ouch.....). i was extremely ignorant, and thought if i just stayed up later, worked harder, took more classes i would do better. eventually things reached rock bottom the first semester of my junior year when i took about 19 hours of all chem and got either c's or d's in everything. this was very ironic because i had done well -> okay in the first year of chemistry and i was working as a chemistry ta and a research assistant while i was racking up these grades. what a mess. i finally did scale back on my committments, balanced my schedule with science and non-science classes a little bit better. it was hard though, b/c my science foundation was rocky by now (hard to do pchem when you got a d in physics) and it took sooooo much more work than i ever would have thought. the last half of my junior year and two senior years (b/c i was a double major) went a lot better though and it felt so good to achieve and do well.
even though i had been pre-med, i knew i couldn't get in so i didn't even apply. i thought that dream was over and done with so i tried the next best thing for me personally. i had some great opportunities since then, i went to china and did cancer research, liked it so much that i got a master's in international studies at UWashington focusing on China and public health. also taught anthropology at community colleges for a while. i eventually worked for 3 years in clinical breast cancer trials but it was interacting with physicians again that really kind of rekindled everything for me - and i got to work with so many different types of clinicians it really let me see the career from a lot of different perspectives. i knew i wanted to do it but feared my sci gpa was just too low, esp. for MD programs - under 3.0 bcpm, 3.1 overall. my gpa from grad school was high - 3.8 but no science coursework. so i started to retake courses i did poorly in (hello physics) and took some graduate level pathology courses (very nice professors let me in) at the college i was working at. things were going well so i started to study for the mcat....and that went well too, 32S. then i knew the weakest part of my app was going to be my previous science coursework, so i applied to the University of Cincinnati's masters of physiology smp and was lucky enough to be chosen for that first class. i've worked very hard this year, started out strong, was interviewed in december and now in january have been accepted. it is incredible. i feel extremely fortunate, because there are so many reasons why i could have been ignored or disregarded. i can't believe i won't have a lag year, but that i get to keep going at a really great school with awesome faculty and facilities.
it has been five and a half years since i finished undergrad, and had a pretty circuitious (sp?) route, but i think that is what helped me honestly. i had time to reconfigure how i study, what i commit to, and in the long run i think i have grown from my endeavors. i will be 29 when i start next year, but feel like i'll be a different type of med student than i would have been at 22 or 23. so please don't beat yourself up if this route is taking longer than you had hoped, it took me 3 years (b/c for three of them i didn't even think about applying to med school, wasn't even on my radar b/c i thought i couldn't) to get here and it is wonderful!!! good luck everybody!!!!
