Alea Iacta Est

I apologize for my long absence the past few weeks. I’ve been working on the application for my committee letter and it’s taken the vast majority of my time over the past month. I probably put something like 150 hours into it since I started working on it in October.

For those that don’t know what a committee letter is, I’ll explain a little bit. Most large institutions, particularly those that are affiliated with a medical school (e.g., Duke University) have a committee that overseas advising and recommendations for the pre-health professions. Students are given the option to submit a single letter of recommendation from the committee in lieu of soliciting letters from individuals. This is important for a couple of reasons. First, a letter of recommendation from a committee can potentially carry more weight than individual letters because the perspective of the committee is likely to be more informed on how best to support an applicants candidacy. Another thing to keep in mind is that, if an applicant goes to an institution that offers a committee letter, but doesn’t attain one, that tends to raise some flags. Finally, the medical admissions world is not very big – gaining a committee letter from an institution that holds applicants to a high standard can set you apart. Of course, the opposite is also true. If you poison the well at your undergraduate or post-bacc institution, you’re probably screwed.

The institution I chose to do my post-bacc coursework at has a rather rigorous committee letter application process. Several months ago, I had to attend a seminar on the process and more or less sign up to start. The application consisted of a few dozen short essays about our life, goals, reasons for pursuing a career in medicine, and things like that. We also had to compile all of our grades, calculate yearly GPA, report scores, and all of that sort of thing. Essentially, the purpose is to force applicants to compile all of the necessary things for application prior to June, when AMCAS begins allowing applications to be submitted. A secondary purpose for all of the writing is to get students primed to work on their personal statements. I’ll start working on my personal statement next week, but I think that one of my essays will probably be the basis for it.

Once all of that stuff is finished, I’ll have a series of interviews to determine whether or not the committee will support my candidacy or not. If they choose to, I’ll have to submit my application before a certain date and then the committee chair will write a letter of recommendation from the committee, which will be uploaded to AMCAS.

As I’m sure I’ve mentioned before, right out of high school I was an awful student and had a terrible GPA. It wasn’t until a couple of days ago that I put all my grades together and figured out what my stats looked like. It turns out that my overall GPA is a 3.254 with an overall science GPA of 3.475. The picture improves quite a bit, when I look at my post-bacc grades: an overall GPA of 3.842 and a science GPA of 3.802. I have no idea how schools are going to look at this – hopefully they have the sense to see that I didn’t get serious about college until 2003 and that I’m actually serious about what I do today.

I’m set to start finalizing the list of schools that I’m going to be applying to. The Doctor Lady and I have had a lot of discussion on it and she’s gotten a lot more comfortable with some uncertainty about the future. I’m tired of being apart from her. I’m applying exclusively to MD / PhD programs and will probably pick around 15 schools – hopefully my lackluster GPA doesn’t hit the adcom too hard.

It’s interesting – writing nonstop for the past few weeks about my interests and goals in medicine has really helped me articulate it better. Things have come into focus for me a lot more than they would have been a couple of months ago. This is another of those hurdles along the way I suppose – it was an interesting experience, but I’m glad that all the writing is done.

My research project that I’ve been working on took a serious backseat about a month ago, so it’s time to dust it off and get back to work on it. Tonight though, I think I’ll crack a beer, cook up a steak, and play some Skyrim.

Oh. To all of you that helped me review my essays and writing, thanks so much. Couldn’t have done it wihout your help and I know you helped me improve a lot of things. Hopefully I did a decent enough job on it to convince the committee to strongly support my application. I’m going to try not to let myself get too worked up between now and my interview, since there isn’t much more I can do.

A Quick Update

It’s been so long since I posted, so I just wanted to let everyone know that I’m still alive.  I’ve just been insanely busy.  A major project at work decided to bite like a cobra, so I’ve been on the road a decent amount and have been working crazy hours for the past couple of months.  I’m also deep in work on my committee letter application and, by extension, my medical school application.  I’m trying to put in an hour or two a night writing essays, but I’m not necessarily getting that in every night.  I have another 7 weeks before my committee letter applictaion is due, then I can start working on assembly my personal statement.  One of the essays I’ve been asked to write is probably going to morph into my personal statement I think.

I’m still working on that research project with a local physician and I’m hoping to have a draft ready by the end of February.  Quite a steep learning curve figuring out some of the statistics.  SAS / JMP works really well, once you know what to ask it for.  If you don’t, then you can stare at the screen for a while and not have a clue.  Luckily, the doctor I’m working with is really knowledgeable of statistics and very patient.

Anyway, hope you all are well.  I check in here every day and I can see that, from my search summary, a lot of visitors are getting started studying for the MCAT.  Best of luck to you all.  I’m also better about checking email these days.  Thanks again for reading guys.  It’s nice to know others are out there swimming against the current as well.

And now, back to work.

An Update on the School Search

Hi everyone – hope you all had a great holiday. Happy Thanksgiving!

I’ve spent the majority of the past 3-4 days researching schools and have whittled the list down to these.  I don’t think I could give numerical ranks to them, so I’ve grouped them into three different tiers.  Some of you have contacted me through email or have left comments and I really appreciate it.  Location is sort of a big deal for me, so if any of you have lived in any of these cities, I’d love to hear what your experience has been.  Here they are in no particular order.

Top Tier:

Stanford University School of Medicine
University of Colorado School of Medicine
University of Washington School of Medicine
University of Minnesota Medical School
Duke University School of Medicine
Oregon Health & Science University School of Medicine

Middle:

University of Michigan Medical School
Mayo Medical School
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine
University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
University of Virginia School of Medicine
Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth
Baylor College of Medicine

Bottom:

University of Arizona College of Medicine
University of Kansas School of Medicine
University of Nebraska College of Medicine
University of Utah School of Medicine
Medical College of Wisconsin
Yale University School of Medicine

More Search Terms..

The search terms for today were rather humorous, so I figured that I would share.

undergrade majors for med school

There are many. If you’re going to spend four years in college studying something, you should study something that you actually enjoy. Just a thought

average engineering mcat

Not as high as physics.

organic chemistry medical school

Probably important to biochemistry, but the applicability of things like the Diels-Alder reaction are somewhat limited in medical school. But you never know…if I’m ever an attending, I totally intend to pimp my residents on the finer points of acid-base chemistry.

how hard is it to get into medical school

If I’m accepted into medical school the first year I apply, it will have taken me longer to get into medical school than it will take me to complete medical school. So, yeah. It’s hard to get into medical school.

medical school is not hard

How nice for you. I’m sure others do not share your sentiment.

why is medical school so hard

Probably because you don’t study the right way.

who gets into stanford medical school

Interesting question. I have a friend that is attending Stanford right now and had below average MCAT and GPA, but was accepted there and many other places. You spend five minutes in a room with the guy and you can’t help but wish he was your physician. He’s the proof that grades and MCAT are not the only things important in the med school journey.

And my personal favorite….

address of edward cullen residency

Seriously?!?  This linked you to my site?  How on earth could I possibly be related to a bunch of loser vamps drenched in sparkles?!?

I’m deeply offended that this somehow linked you to my website. Go watch some Buffy or Angel. If you really want to scratch the vampire itch, try watching Supernatural. This Edward Cullen business makes no sense to me.

Anyway, I’ve got a bunch of work-related stuff to take care of this week, but I’d like to post something about MCAT preparations this weekend.  Stay tuned.

Back in the Saddle Again

The fall semester started a couple of weeks ago.  I’m taking physiology this semester as well as the first half of a two-semester biochemistry course.  The first two weeks in both classes were largely review – transport through membranes, polarity of water,and things like that.  The last week saw a bit of a ramp up in both classes and now it’s become clear that it is time to go back to work.  I have an exam on Thursday in biochemistry and another the following week in physiology.

Weekend with the girlfriend was awesome – she took me to see Les Miserables which was really cool and then we stayed in and cooked together a bunch.

One last thing – if you follow OldMDGirl’s blog, make sure to check out her latest post.  Congrats!

A Brief Update

If you’ve been following my blog posts over the summer, you’re no doubt aware that I was intending to take the MCAT on September 10.  About three weeks ago, I began reviewing physiology but started getting really stuck, since my general biology classes had largely ignored physiology.  It started to become apparent to me that I was learning for the MCAT rather than reviewing.  This wound up taking a lot more time than I had thought that it would and I began to fall a lot further behind.  So, after a good deal of internal debate and thought, I decided that I would postpone the MCAT until the end of next summer.  Unfortunately, this is going to require postponing my application yet another year, so I’ll be applying in June 2013.  Not really a fan of this, but I don’t have much of a choice.

In the interim, I’m registered for a year-long biochemistry course this year as well as a physiology class.  I think that with both of these under my belt, particularly physiology, I should be much more prepared for the exam next summer.  I’ll probably feel a lot more confident about it as well.  Overall, I’m a little disappointed, but I think that I’ll do better on the exam and will probably have a chance to do other things to strengthen my application as well.

Farming for Application Advice

Most of my classmates and friends are applying to medical school this cycle and after watching them stress out for the past six months, I realized I didn’t want that to be me this time next year.  So, to that end, I figured that I would ask the 100 or so people that visit here every day for advice on what I should be doing between now and next June.  I figure that my chances to get candid advice from intelligent people are a lot better here than somewhere like SDN.

Here is the story thus far:

My post-bacc. institution, which is closely allied with a large, well-ranked mid-western school medical school, uses the pre-med committee letter process.  An application is available in October and due by March sometime.  It requires a couple of interviews, about 15-20 short-answer, secondary-style essays, as well as 5 letters of recommendation: three from academic sources, and two non-academic.  The department also requires us to collect our academic history, grades, etc. and submit those to the committee as well.  When all is finished, we interview with one or two pre-med committee members and then the committee chair decides whether to write a letter of recommendation for us, which then gets attached to all the others and submitted to our schools of interest once we apply.

So far, I have one letter from an undergrad professor at another institution that knew me really well and another from a current professor at the university that I TA’d for last semester and has known me pretty well for about a year and a half.  I think he was also a member of the pre-med committee at some point as well, but I’ve never really asked.  My organic chemistry professor from the fall will probably be willing to write me a letter, but I’m going to wait until after the summer to ask him.  I’m going to be doing a review over the summer for some of the students that are going to be taking his class in the fall and I figure that waiting until after that’s finished would give him something specific to write about.

My non-academic letters will probably come from my manager at work, since he can speak to some rather significant things like my role in the group and the research I’ve done since hiring on with the company.  I feel like at least one of my letters should come from an MD of some sort, so hopefully over the next year or so I’ll find a way to make this happen.

Here are the salient points of my plan between now and application season during June 2012:

• Taking the year-long biochemistry section this year, followed by genetics and physiology during application year
• Plan to have at least two papers published for work-related research (non-medical) between now and next year.
• Tutoring math and science at a local high school – have been doing this for a while and really like it, so I intend to continue until I matriculate, which will hopefully be Fall 2013.
• Volunteer on the weekends in the emergency department at a large hospital downtown.  I finished an EMT course about a year ago and started volunteering there about 5 months ago.  Volunteers don’t do a lot, but we get to interact with patients and the rest of the staff there, which I really enjoy.  The more time I spent in the ED, the more interested in emergency medicine I get – if I’m accepted to medical school, it will be definitely start as my top choice of specialty until something else knocks it off.
• Summer plan is to study for the MCAT – I’m registered to take it September 10 and will start doing content review early in June, once I’ve rested for a week or two after finals.  Starting with mostly just content review and timed passages, but the last 6-8 weeks primarily timed full-length exams, reviewing the answers, and more timed practice passages.
• Once I get my MCAT score back, I’ll start researching for schools that I want to apply to – probably in October.

One gaping hole in this so far is that I don’t have a letter of recommendation from a physician, which I would really like to have.  Aside from my weekends in the hospital, I don’t have any other real opportunities to interact with doctors.  This definitely needs some attention prior to application.

So, with all that said, my questions are pretty simple:

1. Is there anything that I should be doing between now and application season?
2. Is there anything that I will need to do during application season that I can do earlier?

One last thing to mention – even though applications aren’t due until later, my goal is to be prepared to submit at the earliest possible time.  This is part of the appeal of the committee letter process; most of the essay questions they ask are present on secondary applications for a lot of schools.

So….advice?  Thoughts?  Comments?