How I Refused to Give Up on My Dreams of Pursuing Medical School

MY UNCONVENTIONAL JOURNEY INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL

As I look back at my 1st term of medical school, I am truly grateful on getting where I am today. I had a long and difficult journey even getting to this point, but I also realize how much I've truly learned from my experience and how it's made me grow to who I am today! Last year, I wouldn't have even imagined being in Medical School in the first place! I remember how stressed I was on even applying, let alone being accepted! If you are struggling with applying to medical school and are afraid on even applying as I was, I hope my story gives you some inspiration to submit your application and not let the hurdles prevent you from chasing after your dreams! Everyone faces hurdles and the importance is how you overcome them and not let them bring you down!

A little bit about my background- I had struggled during my undergrad with my mental health as I was challenged with issues and drama in my personal life which in return caused my grades to suffer! I was unable to truly focus on my course work resulting in very poor grades! During the time, I attempted the MCAT and got a score that met the minimum requirements (494), definitely not a competitive score! I struggled with my issues from 1st year until the beginning of my 3rd year when I was finally able to get back up and recover. I had been retaking courses, especially Physics which I failed, and I didn't know who to reach out to for help! It took a lot of support from my friends and family to finally get my mental health back on track and to get my life back to normal.

At this point, when I recovered, I was more than halfway done my undergrad degree and when I spoke to my department of science/medical science guidance counsellor about my ambitions to pursue medicine, she straight up told me to consider an alternative career. My counsellor explained how competitive medical school is and how I had very little chances of even being considered due to my grades. After hearing this, I lost my confidence, and I was disappointed in myself as it had been my dream since I was a child! I had been so confident on medical school as my only pathway that I hadn't even considered any alternative careers! Even as I began to research alternative careers, I kept thinking of medicine and how I only wanted to be a doctor! I couldn't even picture myself being anything else (maybe a Bollywood actress but that was extremely unrealistic)!

During this time, I spent days researching and figuring out ways to get into medical school even with my poor grades and MCAT score. I read endless Reddit pages and forums of other students who had struggled as me and were still able to get into medical school which gave me some hope. Since I was in 3rd year, I decided that I would do as much as possible to compensate for my poor GPA in my first two years by joining more clubs and organizations at my university to improve my extracurriculars as I hadn't participated in any yet! I was fortunate to get an opportunity to become a VP of Communications from a newly founded club focused on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy as I had connections to the person who began the club. This was crazy as I was literally handed the position and I felt as if it was meant to be! Further, I was a general member of two cultural clubs to allow myself to socialize more and form new connections and have more fun as I had not participated in anything during my first two years! At the time, I also decided to attempt to pursue a Honors Specialization in Genetics to allow me to have a backup career in genetics such as a genetic counsellor or researcher as I doubted I would get into medical school. Although I had worked hard to improve my grades during my third year, they still were not where I wanted them to be as I got low 80s and high 70s. However, during this year, I grew as a person, as I formed deep friendships, made new memories, and actually enjoyed my undergrad life! I was still disappointed with my grades, but it was still progress.

I was in my 4th year and extremely stressed about my future, as I still lacked the high grades I wanted and needed to further improve my extracurriculars. I also did not achieve the average I needed to pursue a Honors Specialization in Genetics which was a major setback for me as I felt like a complete failure! Although I was discouraged, I still wanted to try to apply to medical school, as I couldn't give up that easily and live with the regret of not even trying! I looked at alternative degree options and decided to not give up on an Honours degree and pursued an Honours Specialization in Biology (which I already met the requirements). Further, to enhance my degree, I added a Major in Cell Biology and Anatomy which also meant I had to pursue a 5th year of undergrad to meet the requirements. I once again spoke to my guidance counsellor about my decision and the possibilities of it helping me get into medical school. Once again, she actually tried to scare me out of adding on the additional major as she judged my previous academic performance and doubted that I would be able to handle the more difficult courses required for the major! She tried to scare me by telling me how students often perform poorly in the courses that I was to take and how she did not encourage that I should take it. This time, instead of losing my confidence again and giving up, I took it as a challenge to prove that I was not this failure she assumed I was just because I had done poorly in the past and that I was better than that and that I was more than capable of completing all the requirements I needed!

Not only did I add the major, but a very close friend convinced me to choose an Honours Specialization with a Thesis Project even though I desperately wanted to avoid it since it seemed challenging- but it ended up being one of my best decisions! This was my next challenge- finding a supervisor for my thesis project! I was worried about finding a potential supervisor as many supervisors expected students to have high GPAs. Once again, as if it was destiny, I was able to approach a guest speaker and professor from one of the clubs I had joined. She was super kind and had even allowed me to volunteer at her lab over the summer and she later also agreed to be my supervisor (without even looking at my GPA)! I was thankful for this opportunity, both as a volunteer at her lab to gain more hands-on experience but also for the opportunity to test the field of research and complete my own project! The thesis project was rewarding as I was able to work on a project on Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy in the field of medicine, gain experience and develop a variety of skills applicable to both my personal and academic life! I was further able to use this experience as a strong reference and highlight on my application for medical school! (This is why forming connections is critical! I truly had to push myself to approach others especially professors)! During my 4th year, I was excelling, my grades significantly improved to mid-80s to low-90s, but it still was not enough to improve my overall GPA and the damage from my previous years of undergrad. Plus, with the pandemic halfway through the second semester of my fourth year, it made extracurriculars impossible!

As I went back to researching and finding ways to improve my Medical School application, I realized that with my application by the end of 4th year, my 5th year was necessary and I needed to use my 5th year more wisely by joining more extracurriculars and improving my GPA by taking more courses! To add to the stress, I needed references as well which I was desperately lacking, and the pandemic made it difficult to make connections. I continued to work hard during my 5th year while trying to find professors to get references which I was eventually lucky to get from a very kind professor. I also began to volunteer in my community at home to not only help strengthen my application but also to serve to give back to my community and make a difference locally. During this time, I was also working for Amazon as a delivery person as a side hustle job to earn some extra cash on the weekends and some evenings! (Definitely recommend this if you want a little extra money + you can chose which days/times you want to work)!

To further make things difficult, I was facing a major decision of whether to pursue a Master’s degree in hopes of applying to medical school after my masters, pursue Physiotherapy OR apply to a medical school abroad. I had preferred to go to medical school in Canada so a Masters was my first choice but then I also realized how big of a risk that truly was as it would mean spending another two years completing research for my Masters and retaking my MCAT in hopes of it improving my application for medical school afterwards. If this plan failed, my backup career would be research which was something I did not want as a career as I preferred being able to interact with patients rather than being stuck in a lab all day! Again, even if it did work, many Universities still weighed an undergrad GPA as a major factor for acceptance which meant my chances were still quite slim. As if by destiny, I missed the deadline for my physiotherapy application and I lacked shadowing experience which was required before applying which crossed that option off. My last option of going to a medical school abroad seemed more appealing to me as acceptance was much simpler and I would be able to start medical school right away (which would save me time)! I had missed the deadline for medical schools in the UK which were also a bit more complicated in terms of their applications. When I tried to learn more about the UK medical schools, I was extremely confused, and it felt very risky as well as I didn't even know anyone at those medical schools. This led me to consider Caribbean medical schools due to the simplicity of the application process and the flexibility of 3 different start dates. As I was still unsure of my decision, I decided to apply to SGU as it was the most reputed medical school in the Caribbean which made me more confident with my decision. Additionally, I knew a few people who were studying at SGU and had very positive experiences and were able to be matched into a Residency! I then applied to SGU and was accepted conditionally! Due to my poor undergrad GPA, I was required to complete the MSAP program at SGU (blog about this coming soon) during the summer before medical school and after successful completion, I was finally fully accepted!

And that, my friends, is my journey to Medical School! I hope this helped you gain some confidence on applying to medical school and not giving up on your dreams of becoming a doctor (or achieving whatever your dreams are)! There are multiple ways to become a doctor (or your dream career), there isn't just one set pathway! Everyone has a different pathway and it's important to understand that there are multiple ways to reach the same destination. What matters is that you find the right pathway for you and that you make the first step to actually take your pathway and not give up on reaching the end of it!

Please reach out to me if you have any questions and concerns on my email: Tania-5022@hotmail.com or follow me on Instagram @LifewithTania. I'd love to help!

Tania <3