Supplementary Applications

So, I have been filling out supplementary applications for a while now. Some of them I have delayed in filling out way too long and hope to remedy that soon. Others I filled out right away. Mostly the difference is in the detail they require such as extra essays. Some of the essays asked are quite ridiculous and many a phrased in such a way that they do not make sense.

I have also started my new job as an ER Scribe which I believe will be very great experience. I will be working with some DOs and hope to be able to get a letter of recommendation from one of them for Virginia Tech. However, I am going to go ahead and finish that supplementary (one of the ones with an essay I really didn't want to sit down and write immediately but have put off too long) and have the doctor send in the LOR separately when it is completed.

I recommend that completeing supplementary applications is not put off. You may be passed over for an interview that you otherwise would have gotten if you had just turned in your supplementary a bit earlier.

I hope this is not the case with George Washington. I actually filled out that supplementary the day I received it and mailed it in immediately. I have only received one thing from them since which states that they have received all of my information and will keep me posted on my status, but that has been a while and I and getting egar.

Good things come to those who wait, but I have never been a patient waiter. I guess this will just be one of those things - like so many others - that I will truely have to put all of my trust and faith in God and know that what He has planned for me is perfect and He will reveal that to me in His perfect time. I know these things with my heart, but my head is slow to learn and accept.

For now I am trusting in the Lord and praying hard!!

Lesson Learned

Well, I learned a lesson - always ask questions if you are not completely sure of the answer.

I found out just a few days ago that GWU has an Early Decision Program (EDP) also. I thought I might be too late to apply in this method because it stated that the AMCAS application had to be reviewed and received by Aug 1 and Secondary by Sept 1. However, that was all it said. There was no information about how to designate this. I only had experience with VCOM about how their EDP worked so I assumed it might be similar.

I was afraid not to go ahead and sumbit my application to AMCAS because if I was going to make the deadline - which I still was unsure of - I had to submit ASAP. I called the GWU today to ask how I designate EDP and was told that it is done completely through AMCAS. I looked again on the AMCAS site and saw nothing about designating EDP. So, I called AMCAS and was told that once you submit this cannot be changed. I told them that I saw no where to designate it which is why I went ahead and submitted. I asked how I was supposed to go about doing this and was told that I had to have prior permission from the school and if I had this permission the school would be able to open up a space on my application for me to indicate EDP.

Now, again I was probably not going to make the deadline, so I did not argue - and the rules are pretty strict so I don't think I could have made them change it anyway; however, I just got off the phone with GWU before I called AMCAS and was not told even after asking about it that I needed their permission.

How was I supposed to know about this? It was not indicated on any website, form, etc.

Well, now I am in the process of completing my GWU and VCOM secondary applications and will begin to submit applications to other schools as well - early decision is now out of the question.

I still have to contact DOs to find someone willing to write me a letter of recommendation; however, this is not quite as urgent because I am no longer applying for early decision.

I am about to schedule a trip to Iowa to visit Iowa University in the next few weeks and will have many more secondary applications to fill out. Hopefully, interviews will start popping up as well.

As for my EMT stuff - I had a meeting Monday night at Cary to discuss time commitment if I was voted onto the crew. Then I stayed for the business meeting where they did the voting and was accepted, conditional on becoming certified.
I also received my scores for the certification test and I passed! Which means I am just waiting for them to complete the background check and to receive the certification card in the mail. Then I will start volunteering at Cary!

I also just signed up to take the pharmacy technician certification exam, so I plan on taking that in the next month. I am very excited about all of these opportunities, but I am feeling very overwhelmed right now with everything.

On top of all that, I am getting ready to move to a new apartment which means my room and apartment are a mess and make my productivity decrease greatly.

More Visits bring more Decisions

Over the past week and a half, I have been traveling from Raleigh, NC to Portland, ME and back again. I visited several schools - UNECOM, PCOM, and GWU. We also had the opportunity to visit many old family homes and museums along the way.

My favorite school of these three is most definitely George Washington University right in the heart of Washington, DC. The hospital has been newly built (opened in 2005 - I believe) across the street from its original location. It is the only hospital in the area to be built to Secret Service specifications which means it is where the President and everyone comes for treatment. It also has a great Emergency Medicine program and because it is in the heart of DC, a wonderful opportunity to learn how to deal with different religions and ethnicities and what they think about health care.

The BIGGEST downfall is that the area is extremely expensive for living, and it doesn't get much better as you move further from downtown.

Now, I have to make the decision - and I have to make it fast - whether I am going to submit to Virginia Tech for early decision. I had made this decision and was DEFINITELY going to do this until I visited GW, and now I am torn.

The average MCAT score for GW is higher than the score I have; however, my GPA is slightly higher than their average. Also, they place great emphasis on volunteer clinical time and I don't have a whole lot of that. All I have comes from Honduras, and they might count the time I spent with Dr. Moran this past summer.

However, I did just take my certification exam for my EMT this morning, and I have an interview Monday for a volunteer position at Cary Area EMS. If all goes well, I will be a regular on the schedule within the next two months (my acceptance will be pending the score of this exam - which I am told takes about a month to process).

Then, if I don't just do early decision to VTech then I have to decide what other schools I am going to apply to, because I don't want to take for granted that I might get into either GW or VT. At this point, I am not really interested in any other schools. I will of course apply to the in state schools, but beyond that I don't know.

If I do early decision at VT, I have to find an Osteopathic doctor in the next week and a half or so who is willing to write me a letter of recommendation to medical school even though they will be meeting me for the first time. It is not that I have been putting this part off - I knew that it was necessary. I just have not been able to find anyone in the Raleigh area who has returned my call/request to shadow. I have, however, probably not been as active about this as I should have been, so I definitely suggest that if you want to go to an Osteopathic school, you should start pursuing this very early on in the process. Also, my secondary application is due by August 12 if I decide to do early decision.

There are some DO schools which do not REQUIRE letters from an osteopath; however, even those strongly recommend it. (UNECOM, PCOM - for example)

The downfall of VT is that there is not really an emphasis on emergency medicine at all. However, there is more of an emphasis on overseas and stateside missions of all sorts.

Well, that is about all for now. I have sumbitted my application to AACOMAS for VT, I have completed my application on AAMCAS as well, but will not hit submit until I make the above decisions. And that WILL be soon!!!

Almost done with Apps!

I am finished filling out my medical school applications except for two things. Figuring out which schools I am going to apply to first (am I doing early decision somewhere or not) and including my personal statement.

I have written my personal statement, but I sent it to my friend's mother for review (and she is very busy). So, as soon as I hear from her I can make the necessary changes and hit submit!

I am very excited about this.

The next step is writing my intent to do the Early Decsion Program (if that is what I decide to do) at Virginia Tech.

This past weekend I visited West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine and Wake Forest University School of Medicine. I like both programs, but was more impressed by Wake Forest. However, in order to have a more competitive application at Wake Forest I should retake the MCAT (I really don't want to do this at this point.) If I do not get in to any medical school, then I will retake the MCATs and reapply for the following year. If I can get into medical school without having to retake the MCATs then I will be very happy.

I do not like the PBL (small group learning) ciriculum at WVSOM, but I might be interested in their normal lecture based learning program. I think the small group method is a good idea, but they have set it up so you are almost completely on your own learning everything you need to know in your first two years of medical school.

Wake Forest has a similar program; however, theirs is integrated with lecture, and the "clinical sessions" are only one week long. So you have the advantage of the program WVSOM is using, as well as professor interaction and your success is not quite as dependent on you.

I am excited about my next trip to visit UNECOM, PCOM, and George Washington Univ School of Medicine and Health Sciences mid July. However, I will have already submitted applications by that point, so it will just help me to know if I am interested in filling out the secondaries if I receive them.

Transcript Submitted

Yesterday, I turned in the transcript request form to Registrations and Records and they printed it and sealed the envelope while I was there. It was supposed to go out in the mail today, so hopefully that will be checked off very soon.

I think this process would be going much more quickly if I were not taking the EMT class right now, and if I were not constantly at work. However, I am glad I am doing both of these things because it is great experience.

This weekend I will be going to visit WVSOM and Wake Forest University School of Medicine. I am very exciting about being able to speak with representatives of both of these schools.


I also recently contacted one of the members of the HealthPAC review committee about how to write the letter of intent (for the Early Decision Program) that I am most likely going to be sending to VCOM. Hopefully, I will hear back about that very shortly.

That's all for now. I have to study for my final EMT test that I am taking tomorrow morning, then the certification test and everything will be official. (Stay clear of the Raleigh/Cary area for a while. LOL)

one step down.... so many more to go...

Wow, I really am bad about keeping up with this.

Well, I have finished and turned in all of the components that were due to HealthPAC and all of my recommendation letters were turned sumbitted on time! I felt like I was pestering the people a bit, but I had to make sure everything was completed.

I am still working on editing my personal statement though. I talked with Mrs. Hartwell about it and she had a lot of great suggestions. I plan on trying to finish that Wednesday and sending it to her again.

I have begun the application process with AMCAS and ACOMAS, but have been busy the last several days, and because I have not completed my personal statement I did not make my goal of submitting on June 1 (the first possible day). However, my new goal is June 21 (though I hope to sumbit sooner) and it will be met.

I am also in the process of planning several trips to visit schools. I am going to WVSOM Open House on June 20 and will go to Wake Forest that following Monday if I can get it arranged. Also, I am planning a trip to UNECOM, PCOM, Georgetown, and George Washington sometime in July (though, Georgetown and George Washington might make it with the WVSOM trip). Finally, I am going to Iowa with Rebecca and Joel to visit University of Iowa. I don't have a date for that yet, but I should know by the end of the week I hope.

The next thing is to find an Osteopathic Doctor so that I can have a letter of recommendation from him or her (a necessity if I want to become a DO). And I also have to decide if I definitely want to do the early decision program at VCOM. If I do not want to do this, then I have to refine my list of schools to which I plan to apply.

This is all very exciting, but extremely nerve-racking at the same time. I really am beginning to feel like I have no idea what I am doing and there is no way I am going to figure it out on my own.

Lord, please help me to make the right decisions so that I can follow in the path you have planned for me. I need your strength and support.



As for my EMT class, I am almost finished with that. I am beginning to become more confident as I have time again to study properly and work on patient assessment. Hopefully, I will be able to do a ride-along soon. I am excited about the possibilities this will give me, too.

Update...

So, I am not very good at keeping up with this blog thing, but I will try to update with important medical school application advances. LOL.

Anyway, a few weeks ago now, I got confirmation that everyone I had asked was definitely going to write letters of recommendation for me. This is awesome. I just have to find one more contact, a DO (Doctor of Osteopathy) to write me a letter for Osteopathic medical school applications. Trouble is... I don't know any DOs.

Other than that, my next big step is to write my personal statement. At the very least, I need my first, rough draft to be completed before May 23, and I would like to have it completed before I go to the beach with my family. I would start working on it now, but my time is being completely occupied with senior design and my EMT class.

As for where I am thinking about going to school...
Well, this past Saturday (April 12) I visited Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine. I fell in love with the school; however, I have a feeling that I will feel this way about several of the schools I am planning to visit over the next couple of months. One of the physicians who spoke to us at the Open House is, from what he shared, the doctor that I want to be. He is an ED doc with a huge focus on missions. And one of the things that really attracts me to the school is that they have a very big and successful missions program that the school itself helps to organize and keep running!
They have an Early Decision Program which could allow me to know by November if I am going to medical school there. Of course there are also disadvantages to this if I was not to get in there. But I will speak in more detail on this if I decide to take advantage of it, or later on if I have time.

For now, I should probably head to bed as Senior Design is running my life and I have another project on top of that which basically needs to be finished tomorrow. And I am going to Cheraw again this weekend (that makes three weekends in a row).

Recommenders

So, this week I talked with two professors who are writing letters for me. It was great to have a chance to talk to them about what I want to do and the reasons for my passion. I found it really easy to talk to them about these things, even though I was nervous about it at first. Of course, there was nothing to be nervous about because I can talk about my passion for medical school all day long, especially now that I have some experiences to back things up, such as working at the pharmacy, shadowing in the OR last summer, going to Honduras, and taking an EMT class.

It really made me feel more confident about upcoming interviews. I know that talking to my professors is not the same as being in an interview, but it was a confidence booster none the less.

I am still waiting to hear back from one person regarding writing a letter of recommendation for me, but hopefully I will hear back soon.

Prayers Requested! Big Praise!

Over the last few days I have been reading a blog about a family on a journey of their own. Tricia has Cystic Fibrosis (CF), she and husband Nate have recently had a baby Gwyneth Rose. Tricia is now awaiting a double lung transplant and today they got the call! They don't know yet (according to the latest post) if it is a good enough match, but if it is she should be having surgery early tomorrow.

This is wonderful news! Please pray from Tricia, Nate, and Gwyneth, for the transplant team, and of course, for the family who lost someone who was willing to donate their organs in order to give renewed life to another person.

Also, pray for Gwyneth as she is a premie and has medical needs of her own right now.

If you want to read more about this family, check out Nate's blog. They have a wonderful story, and strong faith.

New Purpose

I have a new purpose for this blog - to document my journey through the medical school application process.

I thought the name "The Round, Red Puzzle" still fit because putting together all the pieces of applying to medical school is like a puzzle in itself, and seemingly never-ending (like a circle).

As, many of you know, being a doctor is what I have felt called to be for many years. I was always interested in medicine, but I knew for sure that I was supposed to become a doctor when my Aunt Andi became sick with a very rare type of cancer. I believe that it began in her liver, but it spread, consuming all her organs. This was when I was in the sixth grade.

Two years later, a friend of mine from church, Rebecca Sneeden passed away at the age of 12 from Cistic Fibrosis. I once again felt God calling me to the medical profession. I could not imagine the pain that Rebecca's father, brother, and twin sister, Edie were going through. I wanted to do everything I could to one day help others from feeling the same pain.

In my 22 years, I have been to my fair share of funerals for people I love, and I greatly miss each and every one of them. However, I have learned so much from each of these people, and I know that have helped to shape the doctor I will become.

I have changed a lot since the sixth grade, but my desire and calling has never changed. Don't get me wrong. There have been times, especially in the last four years, when I have questioned myself and God. I wanted to be sure that I was doing this because God wanted me to. I wanted to be sure I was following his plan for my life and that I had not just decided to become a doctor because... and become stuck in a rut. I also wanted to be positive that I was doing this for me, God, and the people I would help, and NOT for my friends and family who I had always told I was going to become a doctor. In other words, I didn't want to be a doctor just so that I wouldn't disappointed everyone else, especially if it wasn't the life God had planned for me.

Well, now I am a senior at NC State, ready to graduate on May 10 and beginning my medical school application process. If all goes well, I will be beginning medical school in Fall of 2009. Location, yet to be decided!

I have updated most of my online portfolio for the NC State Health Professions Review Committee, and have sent out requests for Letters of Recommendation. This is an odd feeling for me. I am extremely excited that this time has come, but it still feels surreal. Tomorrow and Wednesday, I am meeting with two professors who will be writing recommendations for me to talk to them a little more about my goals and help them to know me better so they can write awesome letters.