WAMC Advice for UNC

[luesi02]

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To be honest, I think I just need some reality check? I feel a little bit too confident and I need some people to be honest with me and lower my ego. I have NO pre-med friends and while I love my friends for being so supportive...they are inflating my ego a bit with constant assurance that I'll get in.

Basically I don't make good life decisions and only applied to and attended UNC for undergrad and grad school...and not surprisingly with my track record, I only sent UNC a secondary and have completed my interview recently (delayed invitation because my last LOR came super late...and got invitation immediately after that last LOR was sent RIP). I think interview went okay? Honestly I can't tell since I only did that one.

I copied below stat from premed reddit. I am a NC resident but also ORM. Please be honest with me (also no, I don't really want to attend any other school...hence the not applying to more, but yeah I want to know from some people that aren't my loving and supportive friends to be frank with my chances and if I should start planning out getting a public health position after graduation).

• Year in school:
  • 2nd year MPH candidate in Environmental Health Solutions --> I focus mainly in environmental mapping and geospatial analysis
  • BSPH in Environmental Health; BA in Classics (aka ancient Romans and Greeks)
• Country/state of residence: NC; ORM
• Cumulative GPA: 3.9
• Science GPA: 3.86 (curse you gen chem and physics)
• MCAT Scores: 514 (130/126/127/131) lower than what I wanted but hey covid happened, wrecked my exam schedule, enough for me to apply
• Research – include any abstracts/posters/publications and how you were credited (eg. First author, senior author, etc):
  • Not science related...but I did a Honors Thesis on "Environmental Health in the Ancient World." where I pretty much combined my two study of focus. Looking at how ancient Greeks and Romans had an understanding of public health via study of various writings of Hippocratic physicians, Dioscorides, and Frontinus.
• Volunteering (clinical) – include hours/sites: ~150 hospital and Red Cross volunteering
• Physician shadowing – include hours/specialties: Not shadowing but clinical experience as medical scribe (350+ hours) with the Hospitalists and Infectious Disease
• Non-clinical volunteering: 350+ of various volunteering, but the biggest one is for food pantry and platelet donation center.
• Extracurricular activities:
  • Student Government Association: Communications Director (~3 years)
  • Leadership team facilitating learning experience for high schoolers across the state (SPLASH) (~4 years)
  • Help facilitating development of Minority Health Conference as part of the communications committee (~1.5 year)
  • Global Brigade: Medical brigade to Nicaragua
  • The above volunteer things? I was part of the leadership team for pantry.
• Employment history:
  • Graphic designer for Undergraduate Drama department ~3 years making posters. I also make logos/flyers/graphics for other organizations both within campus and outside.
  • Teaching ESL to students in China ~ 1 year. Started it because I thought it would be fun and easy way to make money during the summer after graduating. Very rewarding and it definitely helped with learning how to communicate with language barriers.
  • Internship with county public health department vector control
  • Few other employments that I don't think I hold to much significance but can talk about as needed.
• Immediate family members in medicine? (y/n): n
• Specialty of interest: ID, interested in combining current knowledge in environmental health and future knowledge on human health particularly infectious diseases and work with the government as Medical Corps or broadly with CDC.
• Graduate degrees: will have MPH
• Honors: The typical ones you usually see with pre-med, phi kappa beta, cum summa laude, highest distinction, etc.

 

[m1redsox]

According to @TheDataKing ’s google sheet for UNC, it looks like their post-II acceptance rate for IS students is about 46%. So your chances aren’t terrible, but yeah if you actually want to be a doctor, applying to only one school was a silly idea.

 

[TheDataKing]

At this point, there is nothing you can do but wait to see the outcome. Until you have an acceptance, I would work on preparing to re-apply. What's done is done and if you really only would be happy at UNC and only want to attend there, I think it's pretty awesome that you were able to apply and get an interview and I hope you get that A 🙂 If you have to reapply, I suggest casting a larger net though as this process is a crapshoot

 

[deleted314957]

I did not finish reading your post. I read the first three paragraphs. It is as plain as day to me that you have neither the interest nor commitment to a career in medicine.
You have to want it BAD and you don’t.

 

[luesi02]

According to @TheDataKing ’s google sheet for UNC, it looks like their post-II acceptance rate for IS students is about 46%. So your chances aren’t terrible, but yeah if you actually want to be a doctor, applying to only one school was a silly idea.

Thanks for the data sheet and percentage information! I guess it's somewhat 50/50? Lowkey makes it even more stressful, but you're right it's a silly idea. Did the same for undergrad...and for grad school as well. In retrospect not the best decisions, but a lot of factors from my background that limits where I can apply (a lot of financial reasons as well as location - I can't be too far from my home in NC)

 

[luesi02]

I did not finish reading your post. I read the first three paragraphs. It is as plain as day to me that you have neither the interest nor commitment to a career in medicine.
You have to want it BAD and you don’t.

I don't think it's good practice to make a presumption on my commitment or interest in medicine without fully knowing me or my background. I do, of course, want it a lot. It's been a long journey here but not everyone HAS the opportunity or really the privilege to apply to many schools all around the US. Due to various background, personal and especially family reasons, I'm quite limited in the schools I can apply to. As such, UNC has been what the best my state can offer that is holistically affordable with top notch education and allows me to stay close to family. I want medicine with a burning passion but I also have commitments that I won't burn down in pursuit for my self-interest only. I get that people will do anything to get into medical school, but I find that quite depressing and possibly why a lot of pre-med students have various mental health issues.

This post was mainly for my anxiety, because I KNOW it's not a good idea to only apply to one school. I knew that for undergrad and I knew that for grad, and I know that ESPECIALLY for med school. So that's not what I made this post to hear, I wanted to hear statistics, what are my chances at getting into this institution specifically as a way to really buffer out what my very supportive family and friends are saying. Because realistically, I know they can't be an unbiased source. And perhaps in a way, your comment that I don't have commitment can be some sort of indirect gauge in that, so I will express gratitude.

 

[luesi02]

At this point, there is nothing you can do but wait to see the outcome. Until you have an acceptance, I would work on preparing to re-apply. What's done is done and if you really only would be happy at UNC and only want to attend there, I think it's pretty awesome that you were able to apply and get an interview and I hope you get that A 🙂 If you have to reapply, I suggest casting a larger net though as this process is a crapshoot

Thank you very much for your message! And also making that spreadsheet, it's very useful! By far your comment is the most practical and most helpful, you're very right, all that is left is to wait patiently and in the meantime start prepping for next year. Thanks again!

 

[deleted314957]

OK. Statistics and chances. You have what looks like excellent stats and a good application. I think you will have a high chance of acceptance. I just get the feeling, from those first three paragraphs, that you are gonna be an unhappy doc 20 years from now.
As an aside, like you, I only applied and went to one undergrad and med school. But that was 1973.