AMCAS 2014 - Submitted!

Boom. I am already having separation anxiety. I hope everything goes through smoothly!

Me from now until I (hopefully!!) get into medical school

AMCAS For Applicants: Welcome To Your Life For The Next 7 Months

I know I know, I haven't written a post in 47 million years. It's been so incredibly blissful to be done with the MCAT and my Physics class that I have completely neglected my poor blog in favor of catching up on Game of Thrones and taking excessively long naps. To be fair (to myself) I didn't really have a whole lot to say after hell week and needed the down time to rest my poor brain.
Unfortunately vacation can't last forever and I've been slowly gathering all needed materials to get ready to submit my AMCAS app next month (aka three weeks from now). If you don't know, AMCAS stands for American Medical College Application Service and anyone who wants to apply to medical school in the US has to go through them. The main application requires a thorough explanation of pretty much anything a med school admissions committee would ever want to know about an applicant.
So far I've been working on the letters of recommendation and the transcripts portion of the application because those are the two most time sensitive since they rely on someone else to send in official documents for me.
As I struggle to navigate my way through this hefty application I'm beginning to realize that this whole process is actually pretty difficult. I used the common app to apply for undergrad and thought that AMCAS would be similar but it isn't. There are very specific ways you need to enter information (like all of the classes on your transcript) and there are sometimes several confusing choices regarding sending in documents like recommendation letters (do I use the letter packet option or the individual letter?). If you enter something wrong, it can be difficult and time-consuming to fix and the explanation videos (which are a cool feature) aren't always that enlightening. It doesn't help that all the FAQ material is clearly written by a catastrophist who incessantly warns that a mistake in your application could lead to being barred from applying (which is terrifying and led to an unfortunate dream about getting pulled over and having a traffic violation which precluded me from going to medical school. Extremely upsetting).
Luckily, there are many helpful resources you can use to work your way through and make sure you're doing it right. Number one (at least for me) has been friends that have already applied/are currently in medical school. They've been through this whole rigmarole before and I've found are more than happy to help navigate. The second source I've come to really appreciate is my program director at Harvard Extension. I've sent countless emails asking what I'm sure are annoying/redundant/inane questions and he's been very prompt and helpful in his responses. This is probably a good time to give the Health Careers Program props for being so supportive of their students, the aid is greatly appreciated! Finally, the AMCAS website does offer a comprehensive help section and they have an entire instruction manual (which yes, I did read through!) with details on how to fill out the application.
Today I am sending off my transcript and rec letter requests and next week I'll be working through the extracurriculars/work experience/what have you done with your life since high school section (max 15 essays which is A LOT!). I am actually a bit more excited about this part because I do really love writing and this will be my opportunity to highlight a lot of the meaningful experiences that I've had either leading up to or as a result of my decision to apply to medical school. I know a lot of activities I will be including won't necessarily be ones you would expect to find on a medical school application - I've never been a part of a pre-med society, I didn't major in biology - but I think that maybe that will help me stand out. There's nothing wrong with any of the aforementioned things and that will probably be what gets many students into medical school but I'm excited to be applying as a non traditional student and hope that whoever reads my application will be able to appreciate my atypical background.
I also hope that one day I'll be be in a position to do the same. I would love to sit on an admissions committee and look for the students that I can identify with - ones that don't necessarily have a perfect GPA, who didn't know immediately that they wanted to be a doctor, who maybe seem a little too old or not impressive enough at first glance but who have a lot of other qualities that show their dedication and passion, who maybe just need to be given a chance because sometimes (not always) those are the ones who want it the most and are willing to try the hardest. Struggle is the fire that refines and, from what I've seen in my friends, parents, and everyone else I admire, struggling to get to where you want to be is what makes you appreciate it more; it's what makes you great.

DONE WITH PHYSICS!!!

At least until Saturday, that is! I feel so wonderfully relieved to have my physics final out of the way that it's actually making me less stressed out about the MCAT in two days. And surprisingly, the exam didn't go so terribly. I'm notoriously bad at physics, it takes me a long time to understand the concepts and when I do I struggle with applying them to problems, so I was pretty worried about how it would go last night. Luckily I had some great friends help me study and I felt much more prepared for this test than usual and for once I walked out of the Harvard Science Center feeling like I had maybe actually done OK on a final. Maybe didn't ace it, but don't think I totally bombed it either. I don't get my overall grade for the class back until the 29th but I'm hoping it will be a good one (that way I can go out with a bang, since physics was officially my last pre-med class!). End result is that I am in a fantastic mood and the good weather is only helping. Hope you are all enjoying this beautiful day!

pretty much sums up my mood for the day!

The MCAT is a Sea and I'm Drowning In It

I'm not sure if it's better or worse that I have so many other things in my life that I have to think about on a daily basis that aren't the MCAT. I'm still taking Physics and I have the final to study for, my job is giving me more and more projects and responsibility, my life in general needs maintenance because let's be honest, we all run out of underwear and have to do laundry at some point and who has time for that?
I can't tell if it helps me to keep my mind off the exam in a good way (can't fixate and stress on one thing) or if having all these other worries is just making it worse. I've typically done quite well on standardized tests, but never before have I had to take one that could determine my future. I take some offense to the idea that one test could decide my entry into medical school only because I know so many others who should have done well because they are intelligent and would make wonderful, kind, caring doctors but were disappointed by scores low enough to preclude them from applying.
Luckily, in the midst of feeling overwhelmed, something will inevitably happen to convince me to soldier on. Last week one of my coworkers sent me this article that was in the New England Journal of Medicine and it helped assuage so many fears. Basically it outlined how the trend of many med school admissions committees is towards a more holistic approach to evaluating candidates for the entering class. They consider much more than just MCAT scores and GPAs. They look at work successes and life experience among other things and treat them as equally important. I think this is huge and can only hope that the schools I'm applying to will implement this method of review when going through my application because my research looks much shinier on paper than my academic record.
I've always worked hard but when I was a communications major at BU, GPA just didn't matter. I was selected for a prestigious internship at the Boston Globe my junior year because my professor was impressed with my writing and effort, not because I got an A in her class (because I didn't). Much more stress was placed on your work speaking for itself rather than your grades, especially in a field where you often wrote up to 5 drafts of the same paper. Your first piece was a completely different animal from your final product and depending on the grading system, your professor could consider you to have done very well in his class and end up with a lowly B. When our engineering or pre-med classmates complained about BU's horrendous grade deflation the comm students were unconcerned. We knew that when we applied to work at magazines or journals or newspapers no one would even inquire about our GPA, it was unheard of.
Now I have to face the fact that having a less than ideal GPA is a huge detriment to my medical school application. Although I've had a lot of interesting and varied work and life experiences, the numbers just aren't pretty and that definitely scares me. It's one of the things that I stress out about when I can't immediately drop off to sleep, starting with the MCAT and ending with my low GPA, like a continuous loop in my head.
I was talking about this with my friend the other night and agonizing over whether or not I was even smart enough to be doing this when she said something really important: "you are smart enough to be doing this, otherwise you would never have gotten this far." That really stuck with me. I've gotten this far and there's no way I'm just giving up now. It's hard work, but I think this is the important part because if you can't handle this kind of stress then maybe you can't handle the stress of being in medical school, residency, being a doctor and holding someone's life in your hands (all of which I imagine is much more anxiety-inducing).
When I do feel like the stress is too much, I know I have people there to help me, to send me articles they know will bolster my resolve and encourage me to study harder, to tell me I can do it when I'm not sure I can anymore.
All I can say is that the MCAT might be a sea and I feel like I'm floundering, but I'm so, so thankful for my friends who are there to throw me a life jacket when I need a rest.

Why I Love Khan Academy

I'm a huge fan of anything that helps me understand science in a visual way and +Khan Academy is probably one of the best tools I've found for studying a variety of subjects (most notably the dreaded chemistry & physics).
I have a really hard time understanding concepts just by reading the textbook and taking notes in lecture but having someone draw out a picture or a diagram helps me absorb the information so much better. For me, using Khan Academy is like that part in the Matrix where Neo gets plugged in and starts downloading information directly into his brain and five seconds later he's like...I KNOW KUNG FU. Literally, that is how I feel when I watch these videos because suddenly I get nucleophilic aromatic substitution or the steps of the glycolytic pathway or whatever it is I'm trying desperately to figure out and I understand it in a way I never did before. I'm like a cartoon character with a bright lightbulb suddenly going off above my head (can you tell I'm a science nerd?).
Khan Academy is great because the videos go very slowly and everything is written out so you can see exactly what they're talking about. They break everything down, begin with the smallest, easiest concepts and build up to the harder parts. You can stop and pause or rewind as you wish so you can learn at your own pace. Also, and this might just be me, the instructor has an incredibly friendly/calming voice so I get less frustrated when I don't understand simple harmonic motion (ugh physics).
Because I won't do as good a job explaining the genius behind the system, here is a Ted Talk featuring Salman Khan, the founder of Khan Academy. It's really interesting to hear him talk about designing teaching to better mesh with an individual student's learning style. He's such a proponent of new and innovative ways to teach and because everyone processes information differently I think it's vital to develop new methods of education instead of just taking a traditional approach and funneling everyone into the same curriculum.
If you're interested in using the videos for yourself check them out here, they're FREE to the public (!) and there are thousands of videos on 25+different subjects.
*Just a note - while I find that they're incredibly helpful, they are not necessarily comprehensive so it's better to use them as a study aid instead of as a replacement for textbooks/lectures if you are taking a college-level course.

So you're doing a postbaccalaureate...what is that?

It’s kind of funny; a lot of people have no idea what I’m talking about when I say I’m doing a post-bac. It seems to be one of those things that everyone has heard about but is fuzzy on the details and since I have first-hand experience I’m always happy to explain how it works.
Basically a post-baccalaureate is a non-degree seeking program that prepares you for graduate school. Because I was a journalism major I didn’t have to take any science classes in undergrad which left me at a huge disadvantage when I decided I wanted to go to med school. All schools require that you’ve had a year, or two semesters each, of Physics, Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, and Biology and I had taken none of these.
Several schools in Boston have post-bac type programs but I ended up choosing the Health Careers Program (HCP) offered through the Extension School at Harvard. The qualifications are pretty simple; you must have a bachelor’s degree and you can’t have taken any of the classes in the curriculum previously. If you don’t fit the requirements (i.e. have already taken biology or chemistry in undergrad) you still have the option of enrolling in classes individually.
The perks of being a program participant are that you get an official "Diploma in Premedical Studies" when you finish and you can apply for a sponsorship letter from Harvard. They are pretty strict about sponsorship and I unfortunately didn’t qualify for this cycle because I hadn’t taken all of my classes yet (I’m currently taking Physics). If I don't get into school on this try though I’ll be able to apply for sponsorship next time around. Hopefully I won't have to but it’s nice to know I’ll have the option!
Part of why I chose Harvard Extension is because it gives you the opportunity to take classes with actual Harvard professors at a very reasonable cost. Tuition is about $1,200 per four-credit class ($10,000 total if you take all of the required classes) whereas a post-bac at Tufts or BU cost upwards of $27K. Summer classes are slightly more expensive because they are eight credits instead of four and they're technically offered through Harvard College.
The only downside to the HCP is that the quality of the classes varies. I loved my summer chemistry class (even though 8 hours of chemistry a day was like being waterboarded) because our professor was so fantastic, class materials were well organized and the TFs were incredibly helpful. But my biology class was less than ideal – the lectures were confusing, we never really knew what we were being tested on and the TFs didn't offer a lot of aid. I actually love the subject though so I took Biochemistry just for fun and it ended up being my favorite class.
The bottom line: not every class will wow you but I’ve had some great teachers and would definitely recommend the program if you’re looking to finish up some requirements for medical school, vet school, dental school, or any science-related degree program. If you want more information regarding the HCP check out this link or email the program director, Dr. William Fixsen: fixsen@fas.harvard.edu. If you have any questions for me or want to know more about my experience please feel free to post a comment!