Ahhh the wonderful question of, do you have what it takes to be a doctor...
One thing I always hated was to hear from the "all-knowing" medical students and residents telling me that I did not have what it takes to be a doctor...let me tell each and every one of you...don't listen to what MOST of them say...they are usually just bitter kids who do not know much about anything and are not one to offer any encouragement...
I have the answer to becoming a doctor...pay attention to what I am about to say...pay very close attention...
Becoming a doctor has NOTHING to do with how "smart" someone is...NOTHING...it has ALL to do with busting your butt and working EXTREMELY hard...that's it..plain and simple :-)
While I was applying to medical schooling and thus shadowing a TON of doctors (I think more than 12) I met a LOT of people (mostly M3, M4, and residents) tell me how crappy medicine is and that I shouldn't go into it...some even went so far as to tell me that I may not be smart enough to become a doctor...these guys usually enter medicine with very little passion and lose that passion very quickly...
Med school is all about working your tail off...in order to be successful in medical school you have to (yes, once again) work your butt off...now at times it will be very difficult to find the motivation and drive to work so hard...but that's where your sincere, modest, and burning passion to help people (and not to make good money -- which is a myth) takes over...
work hard...and you will succeed...you all can do it..there is no doubt in my mind that you can...stay positive and whenever things get too stressed or hectic...take a step back and relax...
feel free to leave some comments or contact me if any of the readers have any questions...
Monday, July 30, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Getting into medical school
Like many people out there I have been trying and trying and trying to get into medical school. The first year that I applied, I didn't get in. Instead of letting this get to me, I decided to work my butt off even harder and do whatever it took to get into medical school. That meant spending an entire summer, when my buddies were out having a good time, studying for the dreaded MCAT once again. But this time, taking the MCAT (for the third freaking time) paid off and I started to hear back from some top osteopathic schools. I interviewed at a few schools (AZCOM, CCOM, NSU-COM, MSUCOM, and TOURO-NY).
From these schools, I got waitlisted at AZCOM, CCOM, NSU-COM, MSUCOM and got accepted to TOURO NY. Since Touro was a brand new school (the campus wasn't even done and the staff wasn't fully hired either) I decided against attending. My first choice was CCOM (since I live across the street) and then NSU-COM (I absolutely LOVED the campus). Now, I know many people are on waitlists and they don't really know what to do to increase their chances of getting in. Here is what I did (and it got me accepted into NSU-COM and eventually my first choice, CCOM).
1) Send letters of intent/interest every 2 weeks to the school. It's important to sound humble, sincere, and passionate about attending the school that you're writing to. You want to show the school that you are extremely interested in their school but you do not want to annoy them. Also, you don't want to repeat the SAME thing in all of your letters.
2) Have more letters of recommendation to be sent in on your behalf. It would be key if you could find people who are linked to the school (i.e. alumni) to write a LOR for you. Some people say that you shouldn't send too many in, but to CCOM I believe I sent in an additional 8 or 9 LORs, hehe so yeah :-)
3) Make sure to update of the admissions committee of ANYTHING positive in your life. Whether it is work-related, school related, or maybe one day you were sitting on a bench people watching and all of a sudden you realized another reason to why you wanted to become a physician. Let the know. It may seem odd to you, but you'll definitely stand out...
Anyways I wanted to start this blog to kind of type out my thoughts about medical school and maybe any advice to those of you who want to start or will be starting soon. I start in a little more than week. Ha, I wonder if anyone is even reading this. Please feel free to drop me comments and if anyone needs help on writing a personal statement, proof reading one, or anything at all hit me up...I'll be more than happy to do whatever I can...
-peace-
From these schools, I got waitlisted at AZCOM, CCOM, NSU-COM, MSUCOM and got accepted to TOURO NY. Since Touro was a brand new school (the campus wasn't even done and the staff wasn't fully hired either) I decided against attending. My first choice was CCOM (since I live across the street) and then NSU-COM (I absolutely LOVED the campus). Now, I know many people are on waitlists and they don't really know what to do to increase their chances of getting in. Here is what I did (and it got me accepted into NSU-COM and eventually my first choice, CCOM).
1) Send letters of intent/interest every 2 weeks to the school. It's important to sound humble, sincere, and passionate about attending the school that you're writing to. You want to show the school that you are extremely interested in their school but you do not want to annoy them. Also, you don't want to repeat the SAME thing in all of your letters.
2) Have more letters of recommendation to be sent in on your behalf. It would be key if you could find people who are linked to the school (i.e. alumni) to write a LOR for you. Some people say that you shouldn't send too many in, but to CCOM I believe I sent in an additional 8 or 9 LORs, hehe so yeah :-)
3) Make sure to update of the admissions committee of ANYTHING positive in your life. Whether it is work-related, school related, or maybe one day you were sitting on a bench people watching and all of a sudden you realized another reason to why you wanted to become a physician. Let the know. It may seem odd to you, but you'll definitely stand out...
Anyways I wanted to start this blog to kind of type out my thoughts about medical school and maybe any advice to those of you who want to start or will be starting soon. I start in a little more than week. Ha, I wonder if anyone is even reading this. Please feel free to drop me comments and if anyone needs help on writing a personal statement, proof reading one, or anything at all hit me up...I'll be more than happy to do whatever I can...
-peace-
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