As always, colleges are flooded with students that claim to be "pre-med" with aims to go to medical school at some point. A majority of these students will most likely stray from the path. And then the rest will be likely be like me: still pushing hard to the finish line with goals to go to the medical school we have been dreaming about since we were kids.
Preparing yourself for medical school is time consuming, and frankly, a lot of stress. I always tell my friends that being a pre-med student is always as stressful as you hear, just not in the way you think. There seems to be this myth that the academic endeavors of the Pre-med track, in terms of content difficulty, is one for the ages, but it is just not true--at least not here at Sewanee. However, it is stressful because you’re trying to set yourself at this pre-conceived standard of what medical schools say you need to be.
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Medical schools typically say you need to research until you want to die, you have to complete a strenuous list of classes both for the school and that prepare you for the MCAT, and you need to take advantage of every clinical opportunity you get. To pile it on even more, they want you to do all of this at a reputable place.
I am here, as a pre-med student, to tell you that you’re only this young once! College is only this “easy” once! Medical school might possibly change everything you’ve ever known. Sleepless nights, clinical rotations with long hours, and residency are only a few of the things to expect in your medical school experience. Of course, I haven't been yet, but I can imagine.
I’m also here to tell you to be you! I have talked to two medical school admissions officers and my advisor at Sewanee, and everyone says that while these predetermined benchmarks are most definitely achievements you must have to get into medical school, the thing medical schools favor most is things that set you apart from other candidates. Most of the time this can be as simple as being yourself!
Let me tell you about the pre-medical student I’m going to be. Sewanee offers this amazing VSURE program where 3 Sewanee students are chosen from each sophomore class to do research in Vanderbilt’s wonderful laboratory spaces in Nashville for two summers in a row. I have repeatedly been told that I would be a prime candidate for this, and it creates a research base second-to-none that looks outstanding on a medical schools application. I AM NOT DOING THIS PROGRAM!
If I were to do VSURE, I would be spending all summer in Nashville, probably doing some beneficial research, but not being fully happy. Instead, I am applying to do internships at Maine Medical Center, the local hospital near my hometown, and I hope to work on infant neuroscience or infectious disease.
I am doing this because I love ultimate frisbee. By being in Maine for the summer, I am able to be a coach for Maine Ultimate’s national U-16 team, a position extended to me at the end of the previous Maine Ultimate summer season. I love ultimate frisbee, and there is nothing I would rather be doing. By sacrificing VSURE and researching in Maine, I get to do an activity that I love and do research I love.
Next, I am going to do what makes me the happiest. I am considering transferring to the University of Georgia in order to have even better research opportunities, along with the ability to play ultimate frisbee, while taking biology classes that I never dreamed possible as an undergraduate! If you talk to your university advisors, they say that transferring sometimes looks suspicious on medical schools applications, but I am confident it won’t because it is what’s in my best interest.
Finally, I am applying to places I want to go to medical school, not that I feel like I need to. This includes the University of Washington in Seattle and Harvard Medical School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Some kids apply to Tier 1 schools because they feel like they HAVE to, that an M.D. isn’t an M.D. from anywhere else besides these places. I am applying these specific schools and research centers because I want to.
What I’m trying to show you here is not that I am a try-hard--even though I am. What I’m trying to tell you is that you should be you! Don’t fall into a rhythm where you’re doing things that you feel like you have to do because you’re told that they’re the best opportunities for you! Grow yourself as a person, and a student, in the way that makes you happiest, and at the end of the day you will be happier with yourself! On top of that, you’ll set yourself apart from everyone else applying to medical school by being different than the other applicants that have the same transcripts and bullet points.
Individuality makes us who we are - show medical schools who you are, not who you think you need to be.
