well, i don’t know how “inspirational” this is but it took me 5 times to get in. the first 4 times i only applied to my state school – interviewed all 4 years and got one waitlist and 3 rejections. year 5 i applied to more schools. got waitlisted at my state school and got into the other 4 places i interviewed. so looking back, who cares it took so long? life would have been different. i have a wife and 1 year old daughter now so my med school experience is much different than if i were to have gotten “in” at 22. hmmm… moral of the story? well, there are two morals – bad luck and perserverence. bad luck – some of us slip through the cracks. sometimes it’ll talk another year or two until you get a break. stick with it. perserverence – can’t stress how imp’t this skill is for med school and for medicine in general. if your powers to perservere hard times are built up a little bit while applying, it’ll only help you in the long run. after my experiences, i’m kinda like superman with an an extra human ability to stick it through anything!
Welcome to OPM “Colorado”!!! Very inspirational story about getting into medical school. Hopefully you’ll stick around and continue to give that same tenacity and inspiration to those of us in various stanges of the acceptance process. (Personally, I’ll be taking the MCAT in August, 2003) If you don’t mind me asking, where did you get accepted and feel free to post info on the med schools you interviewed at on our interview site if you feel like it. Again, welcome and look forward to your wisdom and advice!!!
Thanks for the post ‘colorado’. I think your post shows the two things that are key about older pre-meds - for one you only applied to your state school, which I think is true of a lot of older pre-meds as they need to fit their med school plans in with the rest of their ‘life’ and for two you never gave up. Keeping things in persepctive, doing things to fit our own priorities and persevering with good humor are things all of us have the challenge of doing. Thanks for the inspiration and keep us posted on how things progress for you!
Alex
ohio do – well i interviewed and was accepted at wayne state, osu com, dmu com, and suny buffalo (where i am.) i was waitlisted at colorado, where i had the problems, but by that point my wife and i (she’s from upstate ny and all of her family is here) were happy to head out here. where are you going to apply? i’ll tell you one thing i learned . . . wayne state and case western both have reps for “non-traditional applicants”. the interviews at all schools were excellent (well, not colorado, i never really fit in with their interview style . . . still don’t know what they were looking for. . . anyhow, good luck!
The following is pasted from the old-boards
ORIGINAL POSTER: gschimma
Welcome Colorado! I'm from Colorado and I'm a bit homesick for the clear blue skies…
Congrats on getting in! 5 times? Yikes…I just completed my first official application cycle…I applied 6 years ago when I graduated but it was a mess so I'm not really counting it. What did you do during the 5 years?