Hey everyone, my name is Jamie and I am currently a first year emergency medicine resident.
Today’s video has been very highly requested and it’s been long overdue and it’s all
about how I got into medical school.
I did the first part of this video few years ago where I described my journey through high
school.
If you haven’t seen that video yet, you can check it out by clicking over here.
You can hear about my move from Korea to how I did in high school and my general experience
of getting into.
For today's video I'll talk a little about my college experience and my medical school
application process.
I initially attended a Liberal Arts College called the New School here in NYC.
The reason why I ended up at New School was because at that time I thought I maybe wanted
to major in either pychology or music therapy-- so going to a liberal arts college made sense
to me
It took me a while to get used to college courses but eventually I started to get the
hang of things.
I took a neuroscience class during my sophomore year and taking that class was what gave me
the idea and inspiration to go to med school.
Having this goal made a big difference in my DRIVE.
It motivated me to do better in classes and really strive to get the best grade possible.
Growing up, my parents were never pushy in terms of academics-- they never cared about
what grade I got BUT having a purpose of going to medical school brought everything to a
different level.
My grades started to improve and I became more active within the university.
I participated in activities like Student Activities Board, Peer Health Advocate, went
on a trip for Habitat for Humanity after Hurricane Katrina, tutored math on the side.
I was even the orientation leader which is funny considering I have zero school spirit.
I also worked as a research assistant to my neuroscience professor.
After 2 years at New School I decided to transfer to Barnard College.
The reason why I wanted to transfer out of the New school was because they didn’t offer
any traditional science classes.
For example, I took a class called “Genes, Environment, & Behavior” which was basically
an intro level genetics class but with a twist.
The classes were super interesting but they didn’t count towards pre-requisite classes
for med school application.
My first couple years at Barnard were TOUGH.
Not all my credits from the New School transferred over and I was going to have to stay extra
3 semesters to fulfill all my requirements for graduation.
On top of that, the whole environment was very different.
Everyone seemed more academically driven.
Everyone worked really hard and seemed really smart compared to me.
I felt crushed when I saw that I had gotten Cs on some of my classes my first semester.
I know that Cs aren’t terrible but I knew I had to do better to get into medical school.
That first year it really felt like I wasn’t smart enough.
But I kept trying- I talked to upperclassmen who took the classes before me and asked for
tips on how to well in the class.
I attended all the TA sessions and office hours-- especially for classes I struggled
with like general chemistry, orgo, and physics.
By the time I graduated, my GPA went from 2.81 in first semester to 3.91 my last semester.
More so than increase in GPA, doing well at a difficult school like Barnard gave me CONFIDENCE.
I felt like if I can become a “good student” here then I can do anything I put my mind
to.
It made me feel like I was smart enough and that my hard work really does pay off in the
end.
After college, I still felt like my cumulative GPA wasn’t competitive enough for med schools.
So I took some extra science classes at a local university and I made sure, MADE SURE
I got As in those classes because 1) I was paying for these classes per credit and 2)
getting a B or lower would have hurt my GPA instead of helping my GPA.
My eventual total GPA for applying to med school was 3.53.
My science GPA was 3.59 and my non-science GPA was 3.45.
In preparation for MCAT, I think most test prep courses offer good way to learn about
the exam and test taking strategies but ultimately I felt that I needed to strengthen my knowledge
base for the exam.
I took classes at THINKMCAT in New York City which focused more on the exam content.
I took the course and did everything I was told to do including all the extra question
sets and the practice exams.
One thing I knew was I didn’t want to take the MCAT more than once.
I prepared as much as I could and dedicated the last month before my exam to doing questions
and practice exams.
I took the exam in January because I wanted the score to come back before applying in
the summer.
I took the older version of the test so the scoring was out of 45.
So I scored 33 which is equivalent to about 513-514 on the new MCAT.
I want to make a quick note here about extracurricular activities.
I felt that the bulk of my activities should reflect my interest in medicine- so some of
these activities included working in a medical office, volunteering for hospice and different
hospital floors, physician shadowing, and research experiences.
But I also tried to show that I had a wide variety of interests outside of medicine by
including activities that I genuinely enjoyed like music, event planning, and working out.
Initially, I felt like I wanted to apply everywhere but once the secondary applications started
rolling in, it really made me consider which schools I wanted to go to and where I wanted
to live.
In the end I completed about 20 applications and received 5 interviews.
Out of those 5 interviews, I got waitlisted at 3, and I got accepted to ONE medical school.
In the beginning I felt a little insecure about it- like I felt like everyone else had
so many options they chose from.
But now it doesn’t bother me.
All you really need for your MD is one school and that’s what I had.
The school I got accepted to is Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical school.
Honestly I feel like everything worked out perfectly because I had the in-state tuition,
I had a fantastic education, and I formed some really close friendships in that school
that REALLY helped me through the ups and downs of medical school.
I really liked that my med school had pass/fail system for the first two years which fostered
more cooperative learning and the competition was less cut throat.
It also had a good mix of lectures and small groups.
I was super lucky in that the only school I got into had the perfect curriculum and
the environment I was able to thrive in.
So that’s pretty much it for my process from college to medical school.
Now it feels like forever ago and a part of me is grateful that I didn’t quite realize
just how long and difficult of a journey it was going to be.
For me, some level of ignorance was bliss and it kept me from being too scared to try.
I hope this story is helpful to some of you out there trying to go to medical school or
into any other healthcare profession.
Let me know if any part of my story resonates with you- I’d love to hear about it.
That’s it for today’s video.
Thank you guys so much for watching and letting me share with you basically how I spent my
entire 20s.
Hope you guys enjoyed it and I’ll see you guys in the next video!