r/premed

So excited to share my results, genuinely can't believe I am going to be a doctor!!! Thank you to this sub for being an invaluable source of information throughout this entire process. I remember alllll the way back in like 2018 looking at this sub for information...and now here we are!

Hopefully some of my story is helpful to folks in similiar situations.

My undergrad experience was SUPER rough, dealt with multiple deaths in the family including my father, had some serious health issues on my end, struggled with housing insecurity, and overall just struggled with my coursework. I also had been homeschooled and that left some major gaps in my knowledge that I covered up my first few years, but ultimately came out in the higher level coursework. I also worked over full time all 4 years, doing night shift as an ED scribe and training horses/giving horseback riding lessons. I graduated in 2020 with a gen bio major and a political science minor. My non-science GPA was actually great lol but obviously my science GPA was a bit of a nightmare. Being a physician had been my dream forever but at that point it was clear I was not going to be successful if I tried applying, let alone attempting the MCAT. When I graduated I was able to escape homelessness and begin working full time for a Public Health organization, alongside training horses part time. I did this for a few years and then pursued my MPH, and worked my full time job alongside a part time research role for both years. I continued to work both jobs once I graduated, moving into a homeless policy analytical role in my FT job. This is why my hours are so high, because beyond the gap years I also have always had a full time job and a part time job.

After my masters, I had originally planned on immediately taking the MCAT and applying but I was so insanely burnt out and could not really afford to take time off to study, after many tears, I decided to just take a break from pursuing med school. At the time it felt like a death knell, like I was giving up on the one thing that I had been chasing all these years. The one thing that kept me moving forward through all the terrible things. But it was ultimately the best decision I could have made. I spent 2 years just focusing on having a good life. I got to save, travel, spend time with friends, and just have fun. By taking this time, I also ended up developing an extremely strong narrative arc to my work, brough to fruition some genuinely impactful work (alongside a really amazing team!!!), and learned a lot about how the innards of the healthcare system works, as well as the realities of research. Although I am not greatly looking forward to being in insane debt at 40 years old, I would not go back and rush that time of my life.

Last year, I decided it was time to give this whole thing a try. I had set a deadline that if I did not get into med school by 30 that I was done. I was going to completely close that chapter on my life and simply pursue my public health career alone. I was only able to take a month off (which I was still extremely grateful for!) to study for my MCAT, so I spent the 6 months leading up to that period grinding every day, still working 60 hour weeks and then spending 4 hours every single day studying. Although 511 may not be that impressive to others, I am so proud of myself for grinding through that period and getting it done.

I developed all of my writing months in advance and worked through it, and my secondaries, with a tutor who was fantastic. If you can afford it, I would highly recommend. I also put a limit on myself that if I did not get in this year, I was not going to reapply. This was the universe's chance to tell me if this was the path for me, or not. I put everything I could into every aspect of my application, and I think it showed. I also only applied to schools in California and schools I would be truly willing to move for. You can see I withdrew from Loma Linda and Boston after submitting my primary. I did receive secondaries from these schools but I decided I was not willing to go to either of them for a number of reasons. My school list was extremely top heavy considering my stats but truthfully I was not willing to go through this arduous process and relocate my life to someplace I didn't care for.

I think what ultimately made me standout was my writing and my letters of recommendation. All five of my recommenders I consider close friends and colleagues, and all of them are extremely successful in their careers. I was able to read some of their letters and the genuinely made me sob, having their support on this journey really meant the world to me (and I think helped me get in!!!). I also think that I had a unique combination of experiences with the different jobs I have had, the policy centric activities, along with a ton of analytical/technical work. Also coming from a very low-income, rural upbringing to living through urban homelessness, all the way to serving people experiencing homelessness and wanting to be a physician doing street med was pretty compelling. My academic stats definitely did not help me lol.

All 4 of my interviews were MMI, which I feel are not my strongest interview format. I would have greatly preferred a more traditional interview style. This made me feel extremely rushed and also like I was giving a monologue rather than actually having a discussion. Both Tucson and Riverside were very early interviews, Tucson in August and Riverside in September. Both of my waitlists were not huge surprises to me. Davis I was sick for the interview and overall did not feel that I gave a strong performance. UCSD overall I was shocked they even interviewed me. I did not really enjoy the interview and there were quite a few questions I think they just did not like my answers lol. But I was unwilling at any point in this process to be inauthentic so its all for the best.

Deciding between Tucson and Riverside was actually a huge challenge for me. I live 45 minutes from Riverside and my entire network, personal and professional is in SoCal. I also do a specific hobby that I am extremely passionate about which would not be accessible in Tucson during med school. HOWEVER, Tucson has a lot of resources that I felt would be extremely helpful, including a really supportive program. Ultimately, I decided to go with Riverside because I plan to stay in California long term (and their match rates in CA are crazy high), I did not want to give up my hobbies, and I wanted to stay close to my community. I think perhaps if I was in a different stage of my life, I would have chosen differently but this was the right choice for me.

Happy to answer any questions!!! I am just so excited to be starting this next step in my journey and appreciate all of you who have paved the way.

Hi all! I was told to return when I got my score back, so here I am!
(Indiana resident (promised Kansas Interview as a 4 year grad in KS
Stats:
CGPA: 3.27 (Accounting)
SGPA: 3.84
Postbacc: 3.97 in 46 credits (at a large state school)
Postbacc science: 3.97 in 40 of the 46
MCAT: 522 (132/128/131/131)
Casper exam: 4th Q

EC:
Athletics: 4550 Hours (P5 conference D1, cape cod/ NECBL)
Clinical: 412 hours
Non clinical volunteer: 775 hours
Research: 980 hours, 1st auth pub, solo poster at regional conference and 1st auth abstract (created a new combinatorial cancer drug (chemo + IR dye) then put it in a liposome carrier).
Shadowing: 55 Hours (3 specialties)
Hobby lifting: 650 Hours

Awards: 1X preseason all american, 1X all-region, 1X comeback player of the year, 3X academic all region

LOR’s: 2MD (1 Duke, 1 UC), 3 PROFS, D1 head baseball coach

PS/OIE: overcoming 3 major surgeries while both parents had stage 3/4 cancers in undergrad.

People often discuss fit in a very abstract term. Often, it comes in as "Oh, you probably just didn't fit the school's mission" when discussing why you got rejected. However, that isn't particularly clear or productive advice IMO, and I'm hoping to help clarify that a bit through this post.

How do we know what a school's mission is?

Often times, the mission is not particularly evident from a cursory google search. Most schools have a very generic statement as their mission; take Northwestern's for example:

>Advancing collaborative research and education that improves health and well-being for all individuals and communities.

Granted, they have some other values on their mission page, but all of those are highly generic as well.

>Impact: We aspire to having impact beyond academia, to the benefit of practice, policy, culture, community, and the health and well-being of all people and society

>Health Equity: We commit to improve and preserve the health for all people, and to identify and address conditions that prevent optimal health

>Collaboration: We regard collaboration as essential for maximizing innovation and impact

>Respect: We support a culture of honesty, transparency, and respect, where all individuals feel valued, safe, and comfortable expressing themselves

>Scientific Inquiry: We stand for exceptional and ethical science as essential for guiding decisions and practice

>Teaching & Learning: We seek to learn from one another and to teach and prepare the next generation of public and population health practitioners, scientists, and leaders

>Sharing Knowledge and Benefits: We value the sharing of what we know and learn with all collaborators and stakeholders

Do you get my point? Every med school's mission statement page is going to look incredibly similar, because at their core, they are all medical institutions. But that doesn't mean they don't have their own internal missions. Often, they'll describe these, in part, on interview days, but that's obviously far too late for any essay purposes.

So, how do we find a school's "mission"? It's difficult to tell a lot of the time, but here are my tips for finding a school's actual mission:

Location, Location, Location

The location of a med school is often a huge indicator of who they aim to serve. These define the primary patient population of the school. Consequently, the people who work are generally the people interested in those those populations, otherwise they would've taken a different job somewhere else.

So, look at the general location of where a school is located. If it's located in some random mid-sized city 200 miles away from the nearest urban center, it's most likely going to focus on rural and primary care! Conversely, if a school is in the middle of a large urban center, one of their foci is likely going to be working with the urban underserved population for their city.

Additionally, look at the specific locations of where a school is located within a large city, because typically in large urban environments, there are multiple institutions with different missions. For example, UChicago is located in the South Side of Chicago, which is the less well-off part of Chicago, meaning that the patient base is going to be generally more underserved. In comparison, Northwestern is located in the Streeterville neighborhood, generally well off and close to the heart of downtown. As a result, even though both of these institutions are located in a large urban city with a large contingent of underserved populations, UChicago is more invested in serving the urban underserved than Northwestern. That's not to say that Northwestern doesn't have a focus on the urban underserved, but it does mean that it focuses more on other aspects besides the urban underserved.

Ranking

Before I say anything, I want to preface this with the fact that rankings have flaws, and they measure schools based on a specific set of criteria that you may not necessarily value. But, what a spot in the rankings will tell you, at least generally, is a school's focus on research. Typically, rankings are in part constructed on the basis of research output. So, the schools that are producing more research are the ones who get ranked higher.

For our purposes of fit; it's pretty evident, then, that if you are a research heavy applicant and you apply to a school that isn't as highly ranked (likely less research-intensive), then the school has no reason to believe that you will enjoy the environment, and its highly unlikely that you will enjoy that environment as well. That's why a lot of research intensive applicants may get rejected from "lower-tier" schools, because those are typically the ones with the least research.

Now, that's not to say that you should only apply to T20s because those are the most research intensive, but it does help contextualize why a lot of stellar applicants may not find success in their cycle.

Major Institutes

Another thing to look out for is the major institutes at the school. Some of these will be common to all schools, but you should really look at how detailed those sections are for one school vs another. An example of this is Northwestern's Havey Institute for Global Health:

https://www.feinberg.northwestern.edu/centers/index.html

You can see that compared to some other Global Health Departments (ie UChicago, https://cgh.uchicago.edu ), Northwestern has much more dedication and specificity to studying global health. It shows in the number of students who choose global health as their specific area of study at UChicago; only 3% of students chose to focus on global health, while many more (don't remember the percentage off the top of my head) focus on community health (remember what I mentioned earlier regarding the urban underserved and UChicago?)

Additional named institutes can be present on studying specific conditions, indicating that they are foci of the university. An example of this is the Tufts Stuart B. Levy Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance (with many faculty studying antimicrobial resistance).

So, how does this relate to your secondary essays?

Well, for your why us essays, it's fairly straightforward. that means you should mention these opportunities in terms of patient population, research, and specific conditions you are interested in.

But, another layer to this is strategically using your other essays to implicitly show this fit as well. Obviously don't force something if it doesn't fit your actual experiences, but it can help add an indirect support that you will thrive in this environment.

That means for a unique perspective essay, for a school focused on global health, you may want to incorporate something that shows you are interested in being a "global student," ie being well-traveled around the globe, immigrant to the US/child of immigrants, know 4+ languages, etc.

Even if you don't have something directly related, you can use one of your unique perspectives/life experiences to show a value/skill you have gained that will help you in these contexts. For example, for a school located in a highly diverse area, you can mention how something has given you a value to be adaptable.

For example, I wrote about how I've played chess from a very young age, and the quickly changing positions as a result of the different opponents/ openings/ moves you play meant that no plan ever set in stone, which helped me be quick on my feet and change when working with people who were different than me in my extracurricular experiences.

These perspectives can implicitly show how you are already prepared to thrive in the environment that this med school provides, and can really show that you are ready to excel.

For challenge essays, This can be an opportunity to show resilience in the context of the populations they serve. For example, if you’re applying to a school with a rural medicine emphasis, you could talk about adapting when you were working in an environment with few resources, because rural medicine typically entails being in a less-resourced environment.

To make it clear, you don't need to be a perfect alignment with the mission of every school you apply to and you definitely don't need to show this alignment in every single essay, but ideally you should be showing that you have the capability and experience to function and thrive in the school's environment. Fit is still an abstract quality, and ultimately we don't know how an individual adcom will judge our applications. However, if you can show that you can thrive in the school's environment explicitly and implicitly, then it will most likely put you at a huge advantage to the average applicant, who is copy pasting essays with absolutely no regard to the school whatsoever. Happy writing!