Saturday, November 4, 2006
Getting accepted to medical school
My path to med school was a somewhat nontraditional one. I
did not decide that I wanted to apply until my senior year
in college, and even then, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go
to med school or graduate school in bioinformatics. At that
point, I had fortunately taken all the required courses (I
majored in neurobiology and behavior), but I had not taken
the dreaded MCAT, nor had I partaken in any kind of serious
scientific research project. So I planned to take a few
years off to make sure I was headed in the right direction
and to prepare my application.
I took a job at a biotech company doing research and
development in an endocrine lab. It started out pretty
interesting and the pay was decent (knocked down quite a
bit of those undergrad loans) but high turnover rate of
personnel led me to do a lot of technical work that wasn't
that interesting. I decided to head to the world of
academia. I started working as a research assistant in a
neuroendocrine lab (the subsequent pay cut forced me to
take on multiple teaching/tutoring jobs to make up for the
difference), and worked there for the next two and a half
years before starting medical school. During that time, I
took the MCAT, volunteered at a free clinic, and got a few
papers published (only one was a first-authorship).
I applied mainly to schools in California, as J was
finishing medical school there at the time, with a few
scattered "back-up" schools across the country. I
interviewed at four schools and thankfully, was accepted. I
never expected to get in, since I wasn't a superstar
applicant. My GPA in college was decent but not stellar
(perhaps partially balanced by attending a competitive
institution), and I had an average MCAT score (for accepted
students). I am thankful every day that the admissions
committee decided to give me a chance to pursue a career in
medicine, as I feel it could have gone either way. I don't
have any doctors in my family, and my parents are
blue-collar immigrants who make less than my annual school
budget each year. I feel pretty lucky to be where I am now.
In terms of general advice that I'd give someone who is
thinking about applying to medical school, I'd have to say
that initially, it is pretty important to have
good grades, and a decent MCAT score (at least 30). If you
have those two things, you won't have to "make up" for weak
numbers by tackling the other things that would support
your application (research, community service, personal
statement, etc.). Now of course the other things are
important too (after all, it's best to be well-rounded),
but It is much harder to play catch-up, if that makes any
sense. If you don't have good grades, you might want to
consider taking some upper-level science courses and get
really good grades in those classes. While your GPA might
not increase much at that point, it will show that you are
able to handle the workload and are serious about applying.
As for the MCAT, there is not much to say about that except
that you should have a plan and stick to it. Doing lots of
practice questions is always a good idea. It's a long test,
with somewhat random topics, and it's not great to have to
retake the exam if you aren't thrilled with your score.
I felt like the whole application process was pretty
stressful and humbling. I'm not sure if the match is
anything like it (I guess it depends on how competitive
your application is, and what field you apply into) but I'm
glad I don't have to go through that again.
I've got much more to say on the topic of getting into
medical school and what's it's like, and I'll be adding
more in the near future.