St. George’s University School Of Medicine, Class of 2012

After Ross and AUC, I was finally accepted into St. George’s University School of Medicine in Grenada. I heard about my SGU acceptance the week before I was about to leave for Ross in Dominica. I am very happy and I will soon post a detailed account of my application process.

(Picture from www.sgu.edu)

Accepted! Ross University SOM, May 2008.

It has been a good month. I wish I could call it the end of a long journey, but it wasn’t long at all. Still I can finally breath easy about accomplishing a goal that had for so long escaped me. It has been two weeks since I found out about my acceptance and my emotions have tempered a bit. The happiness I feel though has not diminished a bit and I am continuously smiling and even able to joke with people around me.

The day after my application was complete, I received a call from a Ross interviewer to discuss interview options. With about a month and a half left for the start of the semester, I decided to agree to interview in two days. I knew I was taking a huge risk with so little time to prepare, but I didn’t want to risk delaying my decision. I figured that practicing medicine meant being ready for all situations. If I believed in myself I should take on this challenge. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t goto the interview unprepared. I just didn’t have the time to think about each and every answer or even conduct a mock interview. Instead i focused on preparing to the two questions that I knew would be asked of me. One was “Why did you choose to do medicine?”, and the other about my grades.

I knew if I could answer these questions, every other question would be easy to answer. Confidence plays a major role in an interview. By nature, I am usually able to appear confident in an interview type setting. The reason is, in high school I had an interview for an oppurtunity to study abroad and I totally blew the interview. After that experience I knew that I would always to able to handle any type of interview. I have two strategies to appear confident. First is having true confidence in your abilities and answers, something very few people pull off successfully every time. Second is to tell myself that it doesn’t matter what the outcome of the interview will be. When I don’t feel 100% prepared in an interview, or when I am interviewed for something that I dearly want, it is hard not to be nervous about it. Such nervousness can usually be seen by the interviewer and diminish chances of getting the position. By not caring on the outcome, I can eliminate my nervousness and worries, a sense of calm come over thus leading to a psuedo confidence. For me with my preparation of the major questions, this pseudo confidence was so powerful to carry me in the interview that I actually developed a full confidence in my answers. This happened 10 minuted into the 50 minute interview and I had a great feeling at the end.

Before the interview, I was invited to watch a promo video with the previous interviewee so that we may benefit from each others questions. I knew this possibility before hand and was really prepared for it, introducing myself, asking questions, and wishing him well. I felt that my interaction with a stranger was being assessed and i think I came strong in that respect for initiating all conversations. During the combined Q & A, I gave a chance to the other interviewer to ask a question after I had asked mine. This back and forth showed respect for another person even though I had tons of questions I had to ask by myself. Another thing was that I didn’t ask too many questions, being careful of the time it would of the other two people. After that I had my actual interview.

For those interested, here are the kind of questions I was asked.

Tell me about your background.
We discussed my youth and family.
Then we got into my grades ( I had sort of red flag with one class, multiple Ws) I explained all reasons honestly, even acknowledging my mistakes.
Talked about medicine, why? how? when?
Then we discussed my clinical experiences from high school to present, some details about each experience. I tried to show my passion for medicine and compassion when I talked about these experiences. I say tried but really these experiences were vital to me and I didn’t have to try to sound like anything.
Was asked about my MCAT (32O) and my preparations for it.
Because I grew up in a third world country we discussed my youth and the third world nature of Dominca (of course i had no problem with these set of questions). I would suggest be informed about the lifestyle of Dominica and what hardships and differences are expected.
I was asked to talk about anything else that had not been asked (I mentioned my research experience and where I see myself in the future with respect to research in medicine).
Lastly I was asked that how would I present myself to the admissions committee in three points. I discussed why medicine, my clinical experiences, and reenforcement of academic abilities (to offset bad grades).

The interview was more of a conversation and the interviewer and the environment was very relaxed. Goodluck to all future applicants. I hope this helped.

P.S. Did I mention that I also have been invited for interview with St. George’s University? Yes, it has been a good month.

T minus 27 hrs and holding!

Yep, holding my breath that is. The files to SGU, Ross, and AUC are finally complete. I was informed that the schools have received my recommendation letters and processed my files for the next stage, the interview. All I can do now wait hope and wait for an interview, then start preparing for it if I am granted one.

The high demand of physicians and an increase in medicine propelled by TV shows such as ER, House, and Scrubs have led to a intensely competitive field of applicants even to Caribbean medical schools. One person with a 3.3 GPA and a 31 MCAT was rejected by SGU. Now these scores are good enough for admission to some medical schools in the US let alone the Caribbean schools, or at least that was what we thought. This gives an idea of the kind of competition for spots closer to the matriculation date. Yes this news is not comforting at all. I’ll keep hope that I’ll hear something in the next week. For that is all I can do, hold.

T minus 43 Hours and Counting

My recommendation letters have been mailed!

Now I don’t really expect an answer in 43 hours, the title actually refers to the traditional call for the initialization of shuttle countdown by NASA. Yes I live in Houston and we aren’t called Space City for no reason.

Now is one of the agonizing waiting periods where I hear if the schools received all documents, then another wait to hear if they will grant me an interview. All this waiting has made me extremely lazy and unproductive. To give me some motivation I scour the internet for useful medical student blogs, specifically of students in the Caribbean. I have linked them on the side.

I am just starting to explore the medical blogosphere, and I am just astounded at the number of medical blogs, specifically medical student blogs. Reading through a few of them, its quite humbling to read the quality of their writing and the depth of their thought. I hope to be at least be somewhere close to their level. I guess I should not shortchange myself. Accomplishing things we think impossible are usually achieved by driven people. If I ever want to be a well read and thoughtful writer I need to hope that I exceed or be at the level of these writers. I have to use my writing capabilities not settle with them, but rather exceed them.

I hope that soon I will hear some good news on the admission front. Then I can devote my energy to writing and thinking. Its hard to be driven while waiting. As it stands, we are at T-43hrs and checking our equipment. Once everything is in order it will be time for take off.

Paging SM, Props AUC.

On Friday my advisor from AUC called me to give and update on my application. Wow, how many times does that happen. If this is the kind of support they give during the admission process, I am quite sure they give students the academic support during school just as well.

Well so my recommendation letters still haven’t been sent out although they should have reached my undergrad institution. On Monday I plan to camp outside the pre-med office until my letters are forwarded to the university. Our pre-med office used to be really efficient and great, but they haven’t responded to my calls or emails recently. Its surprising because its not the application season for US schools yet.

Its good news that many people are reporting open seats at all three schools at this time. I learned from valuemd that in the past years classes for the may term usually start filling up around end of March. But I’d like to hear from the schools soon, and it was a great boost to get this call from my AUC advisor.

Oh My Quote!

“I want what I have, so I get what I want.”

Intro continued

Man I am tired today. I volunteered at this business conference with about 2000 participants trying to register or check-in ten minutes before the the start of the conference. I now know what a human stampede sounds like. To top off there was a false alarm right in the middle, which led to another muted shuffling stampede. It was quite an experience.

Anyhow, to pick up where I left off. So my stats from undergrad. My cGPA is 3.1 and my science GPA is 3.4 (yeah in know, quite a difference). My MCAT is my strength its 32O, physical science= 10, verbal=08, biological science=14(yeah baby.) Now you may wonder, those stats ae probably good enough for a couple of Medical schools in the US so why am I applying to the Caribbean? Well because my MCAT score is 4 years old. Most US medical schools require the MCAT to be at most 3 years old at the time of matriculation, not application. So folks, remember to take the MCAT when you are ready to apply, because you may get a good score and it would be risky to retake it.

So here I am applying to Carribean medical schools, but without regrets. This is extremely important to surviving the roadblocks that caribbean students have to overcome. Make sure you have no regrets coming to the caribbean because you need acceptance, happy acceptance, to survive the environment in the medical school. This acceptance will motivate you to work harder in classes, study harder for USMLE step 1, and eventually allow you to get into a good residency placement after medical school. This would bring you back on par with US medical graduates in most cases. Can’t wait to get started.

Introduction

So this is where I start.

Why am I doing this? Well after reading lots of extremely helpful blogs about getting into medical school and surviving medical school, I decided to blog my own experiences. They may one day be helpful to somebody or they maybe ignored by the masses (more likely). But what the heck, it allows me to follow my own process.

You see I have a tendency to slack. Well lets just say I have mastered the art of slacking. I need to make sure I keep up with my plan. So this blog will keep me in on the path to medical school. Lets see if it works.

Well getting into medical school isn’t easy. Without going into too much background, lets say I have exhausted my options for US medical schools. Therefore the next best thing comes in form of Caribbean Medical schools. The Big Three: SGU, Ross and AUC.

Yes, I have applied to all three. Applications and materials are in as of now except LORs. So its more of a waiting game for interviews now.

I also realized that successful blogging means not writing everything at one time. My stats and other stuff next time.