Secondaries: Trick or Treat?

Earlier this week I had food poisoning, and then I topped that off with a nice lovely flu. So its been quite a ride: I've been sleeping 16 hours a day and when I'm not sleeping I'm wandering around in a dazed stupor looking for my chicken noodle soup. Very exciting. Needless to say I haven't gotten any secondaries done.

Sometimes I stop and wonder why I am putting myself through this hell. Don't you? If I ruled the world, everytime someone said "I want to dedicate my life to the service of others", the whole world would stop in its tracks and throw a party. Unfortunately, I don't rule the world and we are left to jump through hoop after hoop, essay after essay. Truthfully, I think becoming a doctor is a decreasingly lucrative choice of profession. Today there are more risks, obstacles, and sacrifices to be made than there ever were before. For me, if there were any other way out I'd take it! But alas, I know that there is no other profession on this earth that would complete me the way medicine does. Awww......that sounds sappy doesn't it? But it's true.

The complicated web of factors that brought me to medicine is just that: complicated as hell. Being a doctor is the last thing I ever thought I would be. However, the right combination of an interest in science, exposure as a volunteer, and the community of medicine itself, led me to become pre-med at the beginning of my junior year. To simplify the story, let me tell you that I was a psychology major, and on my way to becoming a clinical psychologist when suddenly it wasn't enough. I became fascinated with the use of psychotropic medications to treat mental disorders, and immediately wanted to become a psychiatrist. (Admit it, you're way cooler if you can write prescriptions).

Anyways, the initial desire to become a psychiatrist led to exposure to many different fields of medicine and to may different kinds of people within the medicinal community. To be frank, I fell in love with all of it. Something clicked inside me and I was alive in a way I had never been before. Is this sounding familiar yet? I hope so, because a true love and passion for medicine is the only justifiable excuse for getting into it.

Now, back to secondaries. I know you all want to know my stats, so here goes: I have a 3.82 science GPA and a 3.85 overall. And I got a..........drumroll please........ big fat 27 on my MCAT.
All I can say about that is DONT TAKE THE MCAT AT SDSU UNLESS YOU GO THERE.
The very first practice test I ever took I got a 26, and by the end of my prep class I was scoring between 33 and 35 on my diagnostics. So what happened? Maybe I was having a bad day, but truthfully I believe that it happened because I went outside of my comfort zone to SDSU. I had never been there before in my life, while I had spent a good twelve hours of my day, every day for the last three years, at UCSD. Just a theory. I'm not a bad test taker either, so I know it wasn't that. Next question: Why didn't I decide to retake it in August? Well, after thinking long and hard about it I decided that I am comfortable with myself as an applicant regardless. An MCAT score doesn't define me or anybody else as a person. Besides, I think that five years worth of grades like mine show a lot more stability and predictive reliability than a score from one freakin test.

So far, I have not regretted my decision. Out of thirty-three schools that I applied to, I was only rejected pre-secondary by two. Whats more, I received a secondary from the oh so prestigious UCSF, when they had rejected a good friend of mine who had scored a 33 on her MCAT. The lesson of the day then, is never try to second guess admissions committees. What on earth could possibly make some random school like Wake Forest reject me right off the bat when UCSF deemed me worthy? You just never know, so don't waste your time trying to figure out whats wrong with you. They're all looking for certain things, and definitely different things, that make people a great fit (or not) with their school. So in other words: Don't take it personally.

Well kids, thats all for now. I hope to be up and running again by next week, churning out those secondaries ( I HATE ESSAYS!!!). Oh, and cross your fingers for me that I get invitied to interview at UCSD next week. I should be finding out any day now...........