Nearly ready to reapply

I'm nearly done with my AMCAS application, with just the personal statement left to edit. So that's going to be submitted early next week. I'm not taking any chances this time around so I'm getting everything in as soon as possible (application submission opens on Tuesday).

I still have to decide on my list of schools because it's not going to be the same as last year. To send your application in to get verified*, you only need to specify one school at first and then you can add others later. So I'm going with the dream school for now, and if I still haven't been accepted off of the waitlist by late June, then I'll add the others.

Anywhos, after hating the second school at which I interviewed, I've reconsidered my criteria for choosing medical schools. Some have been cut, while others have been added. Since I wrote a lot of secondary essays last year, I can reuse most of the content from them this time around, with some editing and adding of sentences.

So new schools that I'm iffy about (not entirely excited about applying there, but there's something that makes me want to send in my application) have to have at least some overlap with the answers I've already written otherwise they get cut. I can't write too many brand new essays, as I found out last year, so I'm keeping the number to a minimum while still applying broadly.

Speaking of writing, once this AMCAS is submitted I'm going to start working on the secondaries** in anticipation of getting slammed with requests come early July. I need to get them in within a week of receiving the prompts otherwise I'll have the same results as this cycle, which were not so hot.

So in a week, the real writing begins.

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*For AMCAS you have to have all of your grades "verified" by the medical school admissions people. They make sure you've entered them correctly on the application and correct anything they feel is wrong. This takes anywhere from one day to 6+ weeks, depending on when you submit your application. Obviously, the earlier, the better, so I'm going to submit mine on the first day to get verified quickly and then I'll add other schools when I make up my mind about them.

Also, this application doesn't get passed on to medical schools until the last week of June, so I have time between now and then to add more schools to my list. Adding other schools doesn't slow down your application, nor does it require another verification. Even though I only have to fill out one primary application that goes to most schools, I have to pay for each school individually. So in order to save money on the off-chance that I get accepted off of the waitlist, I'm only going to pay for one school for now in order to get verified and add others when/if it becomes clear that I really do have to go through another application cycle.

**There's a sub-forum on SDN that has prompts for each school from previous cycles. Most schools don't change these prompts so I can pre-write my secondary answers before I even get invited to do so. Obviously, sometimes these change, but for the most part they remain the same year-to-year. So if I do have to completely rewrite my answers, there's only one or two additional essays required instead of the 25 I would normally have coming at me at once.

Exciting non-medical school news

The dream school is still stringing me along like a bad relationship so I have no news on that front. I've been avoiding the school-specific thread on SDN until I hear back from them, which should be any day now, because reading other people's results just stresses me out and gives me no information on my particular application. And I don't really need any more stress in my life.

Instead of thinking about medical school admissions, I've been getting on with my life. I have a ridiculous amount of things planned between now and July and I'm getting pretty excited about what the next few months have to offer. I've become more serious about refereeing (my first big match is tomorrow...I'm terrified) and I've started to take care of myself by learning new recipes and getting outside more often.

But most excitingly, the group with which I work is planning a deployment to northern Alaska this summer and my boss recently asked me if I'd like to go because they could really use my help on-site. Prior to getting this invitation, I had planned on quitting my job before this expedition and enjoying the summer on my own terms if I was matriculating in the fall, or providing remote support from our home office if I had to reapply and keep the job for another year.

Obviously the first option was more appealing on so many levels, but the opportunity to go on this trip throws a very interesting wrench in the plans. A deployment to Alaska is not something I can just pass up, so regardless of my medical school situation it looks like I'll be spending at least part of the summer in a hangar above the Arctic Circle.

The only pseudo-problem with this trip is that the dates could overlap with my hypothetical medical school orientation and I would only be able to make it for two weeks or so before having to get back to the real world. But everything is still up in the air so there's no reason to worry about things I can't control. For all I know, the dates could work out in my favor and I will have stressed for nothing. Or I could not go at all.

So, as with most things lately, I'm cautiously optimistic about this deployment. But if I don't get into medical school this cycle, there is a very fun silver lining to spending another year reapplying. So there's that.

Shadowing in the OR

This week I shadowed an orthopedic surgeon in the operating room and watched him do two cases. At first, I was a bit grossed out by seeing the surgical fellow pull on stuff inside the dude's knee, mostly because I was imagining how much it would hurt to have my tendons stretched like that. But then I remembered the patient had a nerve block, was under general anesthesia, and was prescribed some serious pain killers for recovery, and the feeling of empathetic pain went away.

For the first procedure, I had some decent questions to ask the surgeon because I have a bit of background with that injury and knew generally what to ask. So it wasn't so awkward. But the second procedure consisted of me standing quietly in the corner not saying a word, until the surgeon mentioned he had lived in Italy and I inquired where because I, too, had lived in Italy recently. Other than that, I kept my mouth shut, which is not the way to go apparently.

My interactions didn't get any better after that, and instead I managed to communicate the fact that my undergrad GPA was crap and that I don't like evening classes, which resulted in the surgeon chuckling a bit under his breath. Oops. Way to make a good impression. Not! I should just learn to keep my mouth shut.

One of the biggest issues I had with shadowing was not knowing when it was ok to ask questions. The surgeon also had a fellow doing most of the work so he was teaching a fair amount of the time, and I didn't want to interrupt that. He was also doing a lot of shop talk with the biomedical sales reps so that didn't seem like a good time to interject with a question. But there was also a lot of silence, so I can't use all that as an excuse.

My other problems included not being prepared for the second procedure, and being too afraid to ask "stupid" questions. The thing is, as a pre-med, I'm not expected to know anything so unless I'm asking things like "What the heck is a shoulder?", my questions most likely aren't perceived as idiotic.

I'm generally a very curious person, so why do I have such difficulty being around doctors? Why am I so quiet and insecure about medicine? These are the questions to answer.

And since this was supposed to be a learning opportunity, here are some lessons learned:

1. Being prepared is always a good thing.
   I should have looked up the second procedure before I observed one because then maybe I could've asked some decently intelligent questions.
2. I don't have to come off as awesome all the time.
   I need to stop being afraid to ask seemingly stupid questions. Usually, they're not stupid and I have a right not to know the answer.
3. Better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
   I need to learn to paint myself in the best possible light and stay away from the self-deprecating talk. I shouldn't lay out my flaws for everyone to see.
4. Doctors usually like teaching.
   This especially applies to those at teaching hospitals and those who take on fellows, so I should not be too intimidated to ask questions. They are most likely more than happy to answer them. At least that has been my experience with all the doctors I've encountered. They've been pretty awesome.

I may ask to shadow this same surgeon again over the summer to see a joint replacement. The two procedures I had yesterday were mostly arthroscopic so replacements would be a nice change. And it would give me a shot at redemption.

Mostly, I want a re-do because if I get into the local medical school, I will most likely be asking to do research with this surgeon. So I need to make a better impression of preparedness than I did this time.

Oh, I almost forgot to add...I posted a thread about this to SDN and this was one of the replies:

Physicians will know that a college student won't know much medicine/surgery, so don't be afraid to ask basic questions. It would be strange to NOT ask questions at your stage.

I guess I was the strange kid in the corner then. Oops.

The good part was that I was fairly animated outside of the operating room, except by that point, I had verbal diarrhea. Here I go with the self-deprecation again. It's a vicious cycle, I tell ya!

Regret

From a thread about being angry with yourself for being a non-trad...this is exactly how I feel about my life:

That great anger you're experiencing is called regret, and it's probably one of the worst things to ever cope with in life. However, when there's a will, there's a way - channel that anger into something that will help you achieve your goal.

Next semester

I'm registered for 9 credits next semester, which is a huge step down from the 19 I took in the fall. But even with only three classes, I just realized I'm going to be super busy with work, MCAT studying, and AMCAS application writing.

So I'm thinking of dropping one of my classes because it won't really change my GPA significantly any more but taking it might prevent me from keeping my sanity. In such a case, I would like to audit Biochem II because I heard the professor is a really hard grader, but given the fact that I got a B last semester in Biochem I, I don't think it would look good on my application. So that leaves me with dropping Biology of the Cancer Cell, which I've heard really good things about and kind of want to take. Hmm. Decisions, decisions.

In bullet-point form, one thing has got to give this semester out of the following:

• Work
• Three classes
• MCAT studying
• AMCAS application writing
• Rugby

And I really don't want it to be rugby. I tried that this semester and I was miserable. I need some sort of social interaction, but it would be the easiest to cut (again). The other option is to go back to racquetball instead, which is still physical exercise on a team with a much shorter commute but also a little less fun.

I think for now I've decided on sticking with my three classes for the first two weeks of the semester to feel them out and see how the course load will be for me, and make the decision then. If I do have to drop a class, then it'll have to be the Cancer Cell because it's the one I don't necessarily NEED, but would like to have to increase my GPA.

Oh, and even though I swear I'm over that B from biochem, I'm still kind of worried about not having straight As, considering my undergrad grades. But LizzyM somewhat allayed my fears with this comment:

Quote:

Originally Posted by p Hey LizzyM, thanks for doing this! If I'm shooting for a top-tier med school, how concerning would a B in biochem 1 look to an adcom when my overall GPA is a 3.80 and sGPA is a 3.75+ and I've earned A's in both genetics and cell biology? Will an A in biochem 2 make up for this?

It makes you look human. No worries.

Granted, I'm not even close to his GPA and I should be perfect from now on, but one B won't kill me. That, and there's nothing I can do about it now, so I need to STOP FRETTING!!!

Reminder to write to LizzyM, and her response

On SDN (Student Doctor Network) there's a thread going around where LizzyM, an adcom at a top tier private university, is answering anyone and everyone's questions. Unfortunately, she's gone for the holidays just as I was about to ask her a question, so I'm posting it here so I don't forget to email her when she comes back.

In response to this:

Quote:

Originally Posted by h What is your opinion about applicants addressing weaknesses in their apps without being questioned during their interview?

If you address weaknesses in your application, you might not get an interview. You might get an interview and be asked about your weaknesses or you might not be asked about your weaknesses.

Frankly, I think that weaknesses are like zits. Almost everyone has one at one time or another. You can call attention to it or you can do something to take attention away from it. The reader/interviewer can see it and might be curious about it and might mention it or might look to see if it is addressed in your LOR.

I want to write this:

It seems like you stated that weaknesses shouldn't be addressed in the application because they are so common, but shouldn't a very spotty undergrad GPA that was somewhat fixed a few years later by an almost-perfect post-bacc be addressed since it's the elephant in the room? Should I not mention it in the app at all and explain myself in interviews if it comes up? If addressed, should that be in the personal statement or elsewhere? I have no good explanation for my bad grades except I wasn't mature enough to take school seriously and didn't consider my future at the time, choosing to live in the moment instead. No extenuating circumstances or anything. So addressing it would be limited to that comment.

And here is her response:

A small blemish is what I call a zit. Awhile back I got a PM from an applicant who had a college gpa <3.0 and post bac of 4.0 and MCAT >38. Here's what I wrote in response:

Your situation is not a zit, it is a scar that runs from your earlobe to your chin. The adcom will be begging to know what happened and how you survived.

The story is not so much how you got slashed but how you turned things around and came back against overwhelming odds and triumphed. It could be a great story and I hope you'll write it.

Congrats on the great performance on the MCAT and in the post-bac. Some post-bac schools will send great committee letters that will tell your story in a very sympathetic way (based on your interview with your advisor).

I recently got a nice thank you note from the applicant to tell me of great success this cycle.

While I no longer have the 4.0, I do expect to score about this high on the MCAT so I think I should be OK. I'm aiming for a 3.93 for the whole post-bacc experience, which is high enough according to another member of an admissions committee board (anything 3.8 or higher is awesome). Phew!