I participated in a panel for pre-med students at the local university where the pre-meds could ask accepted students anything they wanted about the application process. I figured as a non-traditional reapplicant, I would have a unique viewpoint on the whole process.
Little did I know that my story is not that uncommon. Of the first 5 people who introduced themselves, 4 were non-traditional reapplicants, though none as old as me. The rest of the 15-20 panelists were either traditional students or kids (yes, they're young) who had taken a gap year to screw around. Not many of the pre-med attendees were non-traditionals so I didn't really help anyone out too much, but I like to believe that my more mature (ha!) attitude about the whole process calmed their nerves a bit.
Most of the questions were about the MCAT: How did you study? Did you get any sleep the night before? When is the best time to take it? There were also questions about choosing medical schools, the incredible debt we're about to incur, and terrible interview questions.
I was one of the few who had studied for the MCAT on my own and had also chosen my list of schools based on geography, among other things. Everyone else had cookie-cutter applications, which I guess is more in line with what the people attending the panel would look like on paper.
The "worst interview question" brought me back to that terrible experience back in November when I completely failed an ethical question. By the time I was able to get a word in (these panelists really liked to talk!) the answers had changed from anecdotes to general interview advice.
Instead of recounting the ethical scenario from hell, I talked about how my interviewer had pointed out every single bad grade I had ever gotten to start off the interview ("To say you did poorly in undergrad is an understatement. A C- in bio, a D+ in ochem, and a D- in anthropology, among other things..."). I then discussed how it made me feel really low even though I'm not ashamed of those grades. It's a part of my past that I freely discuss with others. But the way he put it was very accusatory and I had not experienced being attacked for my GPA before so it caught me off-guard.
The moral of that story was to tell the applicants to do a mock interview with someone they don't know who will grill them on any part of the application that is even a tiny bit weak, or something they are insecure about. The chances of getting such an asshole for an interviewer are very small, but it does happen and you want to be prepared for it.
Some panelists were saying that studying for the MCAT was an all-encompassing ordeal where you have to think and study for the test all the time. I completely disagree with that and made sure to say that although you definitely need to make time for school, you also need an outlet as well as a motivator. The road to becoming a physician is long and overwhelming, so having a reminder of why you're doing this is incredibly important, as is having some sort of work-life balance.
For me, the outlet was rugby. Every Saturday morning was my rugby time and school was not even on my mind for those few hours. Volunteering in the hospital, on the other hand, was the thing that reminded me of my ultimate goal in all this, and kept my eye on the prize when having my nose in a book for months at a time seemed so depressing and pointless. This definitely hit home with at least one person who was completely defeated about the process of getting into medical school, so I'm glad I interjected.
The rest of the panel was rather uneventful. Answers dragged on way too long and were repetitive because everyone wanted to get a word in. I wish we could've led the discussion in that we could focus attention on the most important and stressful aspects of the application cycle, like writing bunches of secondary essays in a months' time, dealing with waiting and the unknown, and how to tailor interview answers to the schools' mission statements.
Instead, the pre-med students asked questions about things that to them seemed like a big deal (as they did to me when I was in their shoes) but in fact were less significant for people who had gone through the whole application process. On the other hand, I'm sure there are presentations during other times of the year for those things and pre-med students rarely get to ask their peers any question they want in an informal setting. So this panel appears to have served its purpose.
As for the panelists, of course there was the kid who showed up in scrubs, wouldn't stop giving terrible advice, and didn't hesitate to announce that he graduated 1.5 years early. Congrats, buddy! You think you know everything, but you haven't lived.
The non-trads in the corner (because of course we showed up last) had a peanut gallery going every time he spoke and towards the end of the panel we'd just talk over him to negate whatever bad answer he had given without even waiting for him to finish. I love how all of us older folk can see through the bullshit and have no qualms about offering an unpopular perspective on things. We're just trying to be real.
It was really weird to be on the other side of the whole medical school application process. It's taken me so long to get accepted, with the two-year post-bacc and two application cycles, that it still doesn't seem real that I'll be starting school in less than three months. Things like this, though, hammer it home. I'm so incredibly excited!
