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Hear Christina’s Motivational Premed Story
Today we have an episode full of motivation for premed students on their journey to medical school. I talk with 32-year-old, soon-to-be medical student Christina.
You could probably say all cards were practically stacked against Christina. She was a first-generation college student with a poor undergrad GPA. She went to a community college and defaulted on her student loans. She got her bachelor’s degree pretty late and struggled with a not-so-good MCAT score.
She was a perfect example of a nontraditional premed. But her story can provide motivation for all premed and medical students. This is a very inspiring episode, as you will learn all about Christina’s crazy path to medical school.
Listen to this podcast episode with the player above, or keep reading for the highlights and takeaway points.
Highlights from Christina’s Motivational Path to Medical School:
What Christina is currently doing:
- Works as a clinical research coordinator at Biopharma Services, where she heads the clinical trials for human pharmaceutical research.
- She also gets their principal investigators who are physicians
- She is starting medical school soon
Christina’s crazy and inspiring path to medical school:
- Cristina being a first-generation college student
- Feeling she was “too dumb” all her life that she didn’t tell anybody about her decision to apply to medical school
- Not finishing her Bachelor’s until 2011 after graduating from high school in 2002
- Going to a community college taking general requirements
- Christina’s story could give a lot of premed and med students the motivation they need to know they can do this.
The challenges:
- Doing great in the first semester at the 2-year college and going downhill from there
- Working full time and driving two hours to get to school
- Defaulting on her student private loans
- Deciding to enter the workforce due to money issues
Getting the motivation to be premed and apply to medical school:
- Having a son has put them on a whole new category where she was able to get government loans
- Having the support of her husband and kid
What she did differently to do better in a 4-year university:
- Learning how to study and figuring out what works for her
- Focusing on just her studies since she’s already had a vast clinical experience since high school working at a nursing home, rehabilitation center, group home, and laboratory research
- Shadowing in the last two semesters
Her shadowing experience:
- Shadowing with physicians of different specialties and seeing the different aspects of it
- Using people she knew (personal physician and her family’s physician) and calling the hospital’s HR department to apply for shadowing
- Reaching out to doctors and not hearing from them
- Persistence is key.
Choosing which medicals schools to apply to:
- Location (anywhere 2 hours within range)
- Near family
- Medical school grade requirements
- Leaving her with four schools to apply to (3 MD and 1 DO)
A mention on Mizzou MedPrep program:
- Introduction to the whole application process
- Personal statement
- Mock interviews
Factors she believes has helped her on her path to medical school:
- Experiences
- Personal statement
- Age
The interview process:
Before the interview, the school reached out to her telling her to get more shadowing experience with a DO
Is it important to shadow a DO?
Shadow a DO that does DO things such as manipulation. As with Cristina’s case, she was able to shadow a DO but not seeing any aspects of manipulation. So she proved to the admissions committee that she did her homework, doing research, and watching videos to show that she understood what it was without witnessing it.
DO vs. MD: Debunking the DO Philosophy
- There is no difference, they can always cross over
- A matter of individual preference
Deferring a year before medical school:
- Being waitlisted for 2016 but guaranteed for 2017
- Deciding to defer a year mostly as a family decision
- Working in her position to save up and go on a vacation
Some Motivation for Premed and Medical Students
Don’t let yourself be your biggest barrier. If this is what you want to do, then do it. Show that you are passionate about it. Fight and do everything you can to get to it. Don’t give up.
Gap Medics: Show Sponsor
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Head to Gap Medics to learn more!
Links and Other Resources:
Missouri University MedPrep program
Listen to Session 113 to learn more about Gap Medics
Session 005 – Interview with OldPreMeds Publisher Richard Levy
Are you a nontraditional student? Go check out oldpremeds.org.
For more great content, check out www.mededmedia.com for more of the shows produced by the Medical School Headquarters including the OldPremeds Podcast and watch out for more shows in the future!
Free MCAT Gift: Free 30+ page guide with tips to help you maximize your MCAT score and which includes discount codes for MCAT prep as well.
Hang out with us over at medicalschoolhq.net/group. Click join and we’ll add you up to our private Facebook group. Share your successes and miseries with the rest of us.
Blueprint MCAT (formerly Next Step Test Prep): Get one-on-one tutoring for the MCAT and maximize your score. Get $50 off their tutoring program when you mention that you heard about this on the podcast or through the MSHQ website.
