Finally, use good judgment here. You’re trying to convey your enduring interest to the school. Don’t tell them you will accept an offer on the spot unless you are prepared to do so, and don’t make a pest of yourself. The line between reiterating interest and becoming annoying is a narrow one. Execute this play well.
In the meantime, you need to make plans to continue with your life. You should assume you ultimately will be rejected, and formulate a plan for the coming fall. Are you going to reapply? Are you going to continue in school? Are you going to look for work? Are you going to travel? Look for pursuits that are engaging, exciting, and continue to build your portfolio of experiences. As you make your plans, be sure to allow enough flexibility so that if you’re accepted, even at the eleventh hour in late August, you can matriculate on a moment’s notice. There are numerous stories of people being called as late as the second week of classes to come start the year. Don’t limit your options such that you would be unable to take such an offer should the chance arise.
COPING WITH REJECTION
Rejection isn’t easy to handle, particularly after you’ve invested years of work in the process. Remember, though, that one of every two med-school applicants fails on his or her first attempt—so you have lots of company. It’s okay to feel angry and frustrated with the process. Talk it out with your premed advisor, your friends, and your family, and take some time to work through the emotions. Then it’s time to pick yourself up and move on.
The first important realization to make is that you are more than just a premed student. You’ve invested a lot into preparing for medical school admissions, but along the way you’ve gotten a solid education in the sciences, excelled as a student, and volunteered in your community. These are all things to be tremendously proud of, and these things can form a solid foundation for any number of endeavors, including medicine.
The question that will inevitably haunt you, though, is “Should I reapply?” And you won’t be alone. The answer is simple. If you are truly committed to going to med school, you won’t be willing to take no for an answer.
As much as one-third of the med-school applicant pool in any given year is made up of people reapplying. Those students who are accepted the second time around, though, are the ones who put pride aside, carefully scrutinized their application, and sought advice on how to improve their chances.
How do you do this?
Contact each of the schools that rejected you and politely request a meeting or phone interview to discuss what you could do to improve your candidacy. Most schools are very familiar with these requests and are happy to help you identify the gaps in your record and craft a stronger application. Take these suggestions to heart and then make a plan on how to rectify these problems. If your Orgo grade was weak, take it again. If you lacked volunteer or clinical experience, jump in and start shadowing your doctor. Consider pouring your efforts into a master’s program that will simultaneously strengthen your application while creating additional credentials if med school ultimately doesn’t pan out.
“Make sure you rewrite your essay,” Adam adds. “Every school will keep a record of your old application, and it is looked upon poorly not to have changed it year to year. If it didn’t work the first time, figure out what is broken and fix it.”
Make it clear to all schools in the cover letter of your secondary applications that you are reapplying, and list the specific things you’ve done to strengthen your candidacy. The key to success on the second go-round is maintaining your enthusiasm and dedicating yourself to becoming a stronger candidate.
“The time between my first and second [applications] helped me grow personally,” Deb explains. “During my first round of applications I looked great on paper but was not mature enough to take on the stress of med school. I was nervous and scared interviewing. When I reapplied seven years later, I was much more relaxed and confident. I don’t think I looked more impressive on paper, but I had more confidence, which definitely showed in my interview. I knew I was prepared to handle the stresses of medical school.”
“Many of my classmates were accepted after their second attempt and they are just as strong, if not better, physicians than those who were accepted their first time,” Kate notes. “There are many qualified applicants, but there are limited slots.” You may also decide that you don’t wish to reapply.
Perhaps you’ve made several runs at it and have yet to meet with success. Perhaps your interest in medicine has waned, or along the way you’ve discovered a new and unexpected passion for a related field. Whatever the case, you should feel no shame in declaring that this is no longer the path for you. Have confidence in yourself and pursue your own horizons, wherever they may lead.
PART THREE
The Preclinical Years
CHAPTER 10
The Five Things to Do Before Classes Begin
In fair weather, prepare for foul.
—THOMAS FULLER
SO, YOU’VE RUN the gauntlet thus far. You’ve begun a life in medicine, pulled through the premed classes, and handled your applications and interviews. Now, the promised land looms on the horizon. Are you ready for landfall and the start of the real adventure?
STEP ONE: CELEBRATE AND RELAX
For many, the glory and relief of being accepted to medical school is quickly replaced by a growing sense of “Oh my God, what have I done? Now I have to go to medical school!”
Stave off the anxiety for a little while and take some time to recognize what you have achieved. You have already demonstrated tremendous dedication and drive, and shown the admissions committee that you have what it takes to be a future physician. Trust their judgment, and your own abilities.
The summer before medical school begins will be the last period of real freedom you will have for many years. Let the stress and strain of the premed process fall by the wayside and take some time to enjoy yourself. True, the next several sections of this chapter will give advice on some specific concepts to consider and tasks to accomplish before classes begin. But even as you undertake these, make sure you take the time to relax and to get excited about achieving a major life goal. “I think it is incredibly important to relax and try to spend as much time as you can with any significant others you hope to keep around you during medical school,” Chris notes. “I was engaged at the time and knew my fianc裠was going to be disappointed at how little free time we were going to have together for the next several years.”
“I went on vacation before medical school,” Deb says. “If I had done anything differently I would have gone on a longer vacation! Enjoy all the free time you can before you start, because it really is a time-consuming and life-altering course you’re setting out on.”
STEP TWO: FAMILIARIZE YOURSELF WITH THE ROAD AHEAD
The first and most logical impulse you’ll experience is to try and get a jump on your studies. Everyone knows med school is a daunting undertaking, and somehow you have this feeling that all that premed course work that you mastered during the past few years isn’t going to matter much.
Sadly, your instincts are largely correct. Orgo, Calculus, and their equally unpalatable cousins are a distant memory for most by the time classes start. But take heart! While those classes provided the foundation in the basics that is at some level the necessary base for your clinical knowledge, a continuing fluency in those subjects is unnecessary to get a good start in med school. Do not waste your time reviewing old notes, old texts, MCAT prep books, or basic science concepts. You already know what you need to know.
So what should you do, then?
The best thing you can do is to prepare yourself to study. It is often said that studying in medical school is like drinking from a fire hose. It won’t be the intricate complexity of the information that gets you—it will be the sheer volume and the relentless flow of information that will keep you gasping for breath in the first few years of your training. And it will quickly become apparent that the students who are best able to rapidly and
efficiently organize and assimilate large quantities of information will be the fastest swimmers in the group.
So you don’t have a photographic memory? You can’t memorize a three-item shopping list for your trip to the grocery store, let alone an entire medical textbook? Relax. Few people can. But this is where a little bit of prep work and awareness can give you a real head start on day one.
Take some time to reflect on your sixteen years of schooling and consider the ways in which you learned most efficiently and most thoroughly. Think about the tricks and techniques that you used in the past that got you through your tougher academic course work.
What worked best for you?
Group study?
Flash cards?
Drawing diagrams and flowcharts?
Uninterrupted reading?
Creating outlines?
We all learn best in different ways. Think about how you learn best, then decide on the study system that you intend to use to organize and process the information once the fire hose gets turned on in a few weeks. Arm yourself with a mental list of study tools to apply to those impenetrable textbooks you’ll soon be prying open.
The next preparatory step you can take is to familiarize yourself with the road ahead. Learn what your first semester classes will be and, if you can, what books you’ll be using. Go to the campus bookstore and take a few minutes to peruse those texts. If there’s an outline or syllabus required for the class, see if you can get a copy of last year’s version to get a sense of the nightly reading load. Forget the details for now. What you’re looking for is a basic understanding of the road map for the first year.
Once your head is buried in the books, it will be very difficult to maintain the all-important broader perspective. Understanding how the information you are painstakingly memorizing at the moment fits into the broader medical universe will help you reference and index newly acquired substantive knowledge and allow you to recognize the interconnectedness of your classes and your studies.
Whatever you do, do not begin memorizing information. It will be tempting to wade in and start learning.
Don’t!
You won’t yet know what’s important or where to begin, so wait for the first few days of class to get that orientation. For now, just breeze through the chapter headings and get a sense of how the medical textbooks are organized and how the information fits together. You may find reading through the course descriptions in chapter 13 helpful at this introductory phase.
Finally, if you know any students in the class ahead of you, buy them a cup of coffee and ask them a few questions. Thoroughly debrief them on all aspects of the first year—the perils, the pitfalls, the high and low points, and the systems and strategies that worked for them. Remember that their studying and coping mechanisms may be vastly different from your own. Just try to get a general sense of where the biggest challenges are and what, by contrast, may be more quickly breezed through to help you manage your time and priorities.
In the end, remember this: you’ve been selected from an elite set of applicants to study medicine because you’ve already proven you’ve got the academic mettle to handle the task. You’ll have your share of tough days, but you’ll ultimately chart your own course through the material and come out the other side as an educated and experienced clinician.
STEP THREE: GET MENTALLY, EMOTIONALLY, AND PHYSICALLY FIT
So now that we’ve crossed studying off your summer to-do list, what can you do to prepare?
As we noted, the last few weeks or months before school starts are a rare and precious interlude. If you have the opportunity to be creative with the time, do so.
“I drove cross-country from my job in San Francisco to school in Massachusetts via British Columbia, the Cascades, and the northern Rockies, camping and hiking the whole way,” Peter recalls. “Rest and relaxation are paramount, yes, but so are adventure and fitness, introspection and contemplation.”
However you spend your time, make getting in shape a priority. As you are about to learn, body and mind complement each other. There is ample evidence that physical fitness leads to higher energy levels, greater satisfaction in life, and better stamina—the very things you will need most as classes get started. The rigors of med school make maintaining any sort of fitness regimen tricky at best, so you should at least start off in good shape. Ideally, you will also discover a basic exercise routine that is convenient and flexible enough to be slipped into your schedule as time allows. All mentors reported regular exercise as one of their key stress relievers during school. Remember, you will need several weeks of regular exercise to effectively make this a comfortable component of your routine, so if you’re not already doing so, a regular exercise program is something you should start now.
Finally, spend some time this summer taking stock. You’re about to go through a major life transformation. Take some time to consider where you are in life, what you’ve achieved, and what your hopes and goals are in the near and distant future. Consider your relationships with family, friends, and loved ones. Talk to those close to you about what med school may mean for you. Consider sharing parts of this book, especially part seven, with those you count on as your support network. Tie up loose ends where you can, and seek some inner peace. Starting off calm, confident, and centered will be a great asset when things get tough.
STEP FOUR: FIND HOUSING AND SET UP SHOP
As opening day nears, the competition for local housing becomes intense. Doing some field work up front, either in person or on the phone, will help you assess the market and find the right headquarters for your new life.
Where to live
As with all real estate, start with the essentials: location, location, and location. There is usually an area of town near the medical school and/or major teaching hospitals where modest apartments or small houses are available. Check in with other med students and the registrar’s office or the dean’s office to find out where most med students live. If you have independent transportation, a larger budget, or requirements not met by these places, you may want to consider places farther afield—but beware. Once classes are underway, time is at a huge premium, so wasted time spent in transit can be a source of major frustration. On the other hand, a little distance can also provide a welcome separation between school and the refuge of home.
“Usually the admissions office of your new school will have some sort of housing folder to get you started,” Adam notes. “I was very glad to be located within walking distance of the library and the school for my first two years; this greatly aided my ability to have a variety of places to study. Third and fourth year this was not as important.”
Once you’ve identified a target area, consider your budget limitations. The first decision will be renting versus buying. If you’re in a financial position to purchase a home or an apartment at the start of medical school, it may be to your long-term advantage to do so. This is particularly true if you can buy a home or apartment and rent out a room or two to other medical students to help cover the mortgage. The added stress of home ownership and the pressure of a hefty mortgage payment each month, however, may make a purchase less appealing. You should also consider that the real estate market four years from now may or may not allow you to easily or profitably liquidate your investment when it comes time to move across the country for residency. Finally, you should never forget that with home ownership comes maintenance—when the pipes freeze in January on the night before your major neuroanatomy exam, there’s no landlord to call. It will be you on the phone trying to arrange for a plumber to come out, and you stuck with figuring out how to pay for it.
The roommate issue
Your next decision will be whether to live alone or find one or more roommates. Think very carefully about this one.
While you may secretly long for the good old college days of keg stands and Wednesday night “It’s almost the weekend” parties, these activities won’t be conducive to your life in med school. Don’t sign up
for a living arrangement where your roommates are likely to present you with enticing or unwelcome distractions from your studies. On the other hand, the long hours of solitary study can be very isolating, and some people are aided by the ability to discuss and commiserate with roommates going through a similar experience. As such, some students opt for on-campus dormlike living, which often provides less value for your money in terms of square footage and luxury amenities, but makes up for it in convenience and camaraderie.
If you want to find a roommate but don’t know anyone in the new class or the area where you’ll be living, your med-school dean’s office usually maintains a list of people looking for roommates. As with all roommate situations, be sure to confirm compatibility and carefully discuss how much you’re willing to spend and what features you’re looking for in a place before signing a lease. Remember to include utilities, phone, renter’s insurance, and cable TV (if you opt for that tempting distraction) in your calculations.
“I called the student affairs office and the secretary helped me find other incoming students who were looking for roommates,” Carrie notes. “The same secretary also had a list of available apartments in the area. I also thought living within walking distance of school was great, especially during the long Vermont winters when it was nice not to have to worry about shoveling out your car to get to class. I also had fellow students as roommates, which I found comforting.”
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