MD WAMC - Unconventional Nontrad

[polymerization]

Hi everyone,

Please do not quote this post. I’m preparing my application for this cycle, the culmination of nearly a decade of experiences in clinical care, research, and policy. My journey hasn’t been linear, but each step has reinforced my commitment to medicine.

• cGPA and sGPA: 3.52/3.5, strong upward trend (3.9 over last ~60+ credits)
• MCAT score(s) and breakdown: Scoring low 510s on official FLs, testing 3/8.
• State of residence or country of citizenship: FL
• Ethnicity and/or race: Afro-Caribbean; fluent in Spanish
• Undergraduate institution or category: State school, BS Neuroscience, Summa Cum Laude
• Clinical experience(volunteer and non-volunteer):
  • Clinical supervisor in interventional cardiology ~1800h
  • Clinical trainer in family medicine ~2600h
  • Surgical assistant in dermatology (Mohs) ~2500h
  • Patient counselor (navigator role for telehealth company serving immunosuppressed during COVID) ~3640h
  • Clinic tech in pediatric genetics (involved craniofacial cases/severe disfigurement) ~1050h
  • Clinic tech in orthopaedic surgery (hand) ~2000h
  • Scribe in emergency medicine ~1500h
• Research experience and productivity
  • Intern in cognitive neuroscience at NASA, led to a coauthorship + presentation at an international conference ~400h
  • Presented work on improving neuronal imaging through a crosslisted course with Max Planck FL ~100h
  • Worked on a project in drug discovery/bioinformatics in a collaboration between Max Planck FL and Scripps FL ~170h
  • Acknowledged in two publications for work as a research assistant in infectious diseases/moonlighting as a program admin for a global health program attached to a US medical school ~2500h
• Shadowing experience and specialties represented
  • Emergency medicine, ~200h, during a natural disaster—discussed in a recommendation
• Non-clinical volunteering
  • State-appointed government official involved in disability legislation impacting millions ~1200h
  • Contributor of LGBTQ+ health articles and essays to a local newspaper and magazine ~50h
  • Student peer reviewer for a small academic journal for articles listed in biochemistry, neuroscience, and psychology ~50h
• Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
  • On several advisory/selection/conference committees in different areas (research/academic)
  • Worked as a legislative assistant for a poverty alleviation nonprofit as a Global Leadership scholar
  • Editor-in-chief of a global health newsletter for the medical school while I was working there
  • Peer mentor/volunteer notetaker for the disability services office
  • Clinical research coordinator (CRC) credential from state training program
  • Credentials in fine/studio art from vocational training program
  • Worked in many foundations: from strictly scientific/research oriented to clinical/patient advocacy in rare genetic disorders, neglected diseases/tropical medicine... etc
• Relevant honors or awards
  • Phi Kappa Phi, Golden Key, Tri-Alpha + other institutional honors/scholarships
• Anything else not listed you think might be important
  • URM/FGLI/LGBTQ
  • Neurodivergent
  • Experienced housing insecurity, lack of access to very basic stories
  • Left college in my junior year due to a financial inability to continue, returned ~8 years later
  • Learned to leverage social services to hoist myself out of poverty
  • Strong social mission in writing that makes a case for being unconventional: the combination of strong patient care with innovation/technology and leveraging policy to make those translational insights available to all — computational psychiatry focus
  • Making an argument that the next generation of physicians can't afford to be just physicians, but stewards of the profession—protecting health through not only patient care, but research/innovation, patient advocacy, and dispelling medical misinformation
  • Strong disability angle from both sides as patient and advocate at the state level

Psychiatry resonates with me because it sits at the intersection of medicine, technology, and policy. I’ve worked with diverse patient populations, explored computational psychiatry, and engaged in policy reform. My journey—marked by adversity, exploration, and resilience—has prepared me to be a physician who not only treats patients but also drives systemic change.

What say you? Where should I apply?

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(Fixed!)

 

[Mr.Smile12]

First, great job. I think we gave you advice previously, so I hope you have done the suggested networking. Going to SNMA? Got a mentor with MSPA?

Second, do you want to stay in Florida? Why (yes or no)? The current atmosphere against equitable education and access has intensified in Florida (and you would know better than me). I don't know if any of this will push against you or admissions committees considering you. Hence, I hope you have done the suggested networking.

Third, what do you see yourself doing 10 years from now (presuming funding and mentoring is not interrupted)? Is it just to work in psychiatry? Is it to become more engaged in policy and community health?

We can't be sure of any lists until you get your MCAT scores back. Kill it as best as you can.

 

[polymerization]

First, great job. I think we gave you advice previously, so I hope you have done the suggested networking. Going to SNMA? Got a mentor with MSPA?

Second, do you want to stay in Florida? Why (yes or no)? The current atmosphere against equitable education and access has intensified in Florida (and you would know better than me). I don't know if any of this will push against you or admissions committees considering you. Hence, I hope you have done the suggested networking.

Third, what do you see yourself doing 10 years from now (presuming funding and mentoring is not interrupted)? Is it just to work in psychiatry? Is it to become more engaged in policy and community health?

We can't be sure of any lists until you get your MCAT scores back. Kill it as best as you can.

You have, and I continue to be deeply grateful for your assistance. 🙂

I've been trying to reach out to these affinity groups for a couple of years now, but I haven't made headway. I have a mentor at Project SHORT, and am part of MiMentor, which has a Hispanic focus, but they are not very active. Currently working with my SHORT mentor on pre-writes for secondaries.

I am open to any and all opportunities available to me. I share your urgency: the last few weeks have appeared to rock academia, and FL has been leading the pack in regressive policy in the areas I care about most deeply. In that way, I'm ambivalent. I can be in an ostensibly more comfortable progressive environment in another state, where I do not need to concern myself with what's happening back home. That said, my journey has shown me that I am drawn to the places where I can make the most significant impact—and I've shown I can do that, even here in the most intense of milieu. I will apply to all of my state schools, and would be proud to attend any one of them. It's a challenge I welcome.

While I am certainly partial to psychiatry as a neuroscience major, I'm very open to exploring more specialties as a medical student. I hesitate to say that my contribution must certainly be in psychiatry, I have learned over the last several years that I'm drawn to tough, interdisciplinary challenges—the hard questions. Whatever the specialty, I know that my angle always lies at the intersection of practice, innovation, and policy. I could lean Mohs and work on bringing advanced diagnostics to darker skin tones through advances in imaging, like I did at Max Planck—and specialize in working with those patients as a surgeon. I could see myself tackling mental health in an increasingly digital world, where much of our reality is virtual—like I did studying emotions at NASA. It's hard to say without donning the white coat for the first time and occupying that space.