Applying to Medical School: My Journey

My decision to apply to medicine was definitely not a spontaneous one, but neither was it something I’d set my heart on since elementary school or after a life-changing experience. Although my story is anything but exciting, I can definitely say it’s the most important decision I have ever had to make, and I could not be happier with it.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Throughout my years from pre-school to middle school, my answer to this question must have shifted about forty times from ‘a teacher’ to ‘a writer’ to ‘a ballerina’ to ‘Hermione Granger’.

However, it was really when I was in around the 9th grade when I started to seriously think about a career that was right for me. Knowing that my strong suite had always been Biology (And knowing that I could never be a Math-person) definitely helped narrow things down a little for me. Over time (and many weeks of research, long conversations with my parents and trips to career fairs), I finally came to realize that my heart lied towards a fairly scientific field, but one that would also come with lots of communication and people skills and that’s when I knew that medicine was what I wanted; the perfect blend between a science and an art, not to mention all the incredible things I could do to really make a difference in people’s lives as a doctor (Apologies if this is already beginning to sound like a personal statement.)

When I finally made up my mind on Medicine as a career, it was time for all the research and planning. (So let’s just say longer conversations, excel sheets and loads of university research.)

I was lucky enough to have made up my mind on Medicine early enough, leaving me with a fair amount of time to attain volunteering and work experience opportunities. I’ve always been an active volunteer wherever I could get the opportunity even before deciding on a career in Medicine and made sure to stay committed to the causes I’d signed up for. I also signed up for placement opportunities in two different hospitals and they were both wonderful eye-opening experiences that just further helped confirm to me that I was making the right choice. I won’t be dwelling into all the details of things like my work experience, UCAT and interviews in this post because I don’t think anyone wants a whole novella here but I assure you I’ll be posting more in-depth blog posts about those very soon!

After managing to receive my recommendation letters and getting my predicted grades as a result of tons of sleepless nights of revision (a big shout-out to all my procrastination for this one), I registered for the UCAT in the summer before my senior year, set to do the exam in late-August 2019. I started my preparation two months in advance but mostly did about one month of full-time active revision and received a score within the 90th percentile and a band 1 on the SJT, which thankfully opened up my opportunity to apply to all four of the universities I’d shortlisted.

It was only after sitting my UCAT when time really began to fly by, and as it would be for any other medicine applicant, it turned into the busiest time of my entire application journey. My weeks became wrapped up in finalizing my personal statement (on which I finally settled after my eight draft), submitting my UCAS application, receiving interview invites and beginning on preparation for those, and managing revision for mocks whenever I could find the time. But it really wasn’t all as awful as it sounds and if there’s any aspiring medic reading this the last thing I would want to do is get you worried, I certainly did perfectly fine with balancing my academics and my social life and as long as you’re organized and have a plan well in advance, you’ve got nothing to stress about.

As interview-season passed and the offers finally started to roll in, all the hard work was finally worth it! I can still vividly remember the overwhelming feeling I felt when I received my first offer. I was thrilled in the best way possible.

The entire application journey certainly wasn’t easy, there was a lot of hard work, sacrifice and there were definitely a few tears involved (not my proudest moment but I was even actively considering applying for different courses at one point, filled with self- doubt and wondering whether becoming a doctor was really for me) but I am so glad that I chose not to give up and kept going to accomplish my dream of getting into medical school.

I’m a strong believer of that fact that if you really set your heart to something and work towards it, sooner or later, it will all pay off and there is nothing that can keep you from achieving it and if anything, this entire experience has just helped me strengthen that belief.

I hope you have a wonderful day and keep striving towards whatever it is that you’re after, you’ve got this!