High school drop out to surgeon...

My username says it all.
I was one sad and lonely little girl. Mom left when I was three; Dad was an out of control alcoholic. Had a pretty wild childhood with no supervision. Dropped out of school after the 9th grade. After about a decade of doing my own thing, supporting myself with various low paying jobs - bartender, sales, etc. - I went back to a Junior College. Took the high school equivilency degree (GED), transferred to a 4 year state university, majored in philosophy, and applied to med school. Accepted immediately at a progressive school where my non-traditional background intrigued rather than frightened them. Now beginning my final year as Chief Resident in General Surgery.
Lots of great, supportive folks along the way. Lots of nay sayers too - people who told me “medical schools don’t take older students/high school dropouts/non-science majors…” etc, etc. <DON’T LISTEN TO THEM>
Love being a doctor; love being a surgeon even more.
Chase your dreams…

Great success story!!
Would you mind sharing where you went to school?

Thanks.
I’m proud to have graduated from THE Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. The Dean at the time was an extremely liberal psychologist who was very supportive of alternative students (older, gay, single parents, non-traditional, etc.) and also of minority recruitment. I can’t attest to the environment there today - might be different.

Way to go GED2MD,
I am in a very similar position! Messed up family life, Sophomore HS drop-out, worked for years in the aviation industry, then “remembered” (at 32 years old) that I really wanted to be a doctor. Been plugging away at the pre-reqs ever since. I just graduated from a CC with my very first diploma/degree. That little piece of paper seemed like a rather small feat along the road to greater things, but somehow I got pretty misty when I realized that I had finally finished high school, gotten a degree, and was really on my way to achieving my dream!
It’s so good to hear from you that it CAN be done~
Thanks, Val

Way to go Val!
Some tacts that worked for me:
Keep the nearest goals in sight and don’t worry about the distant future.
I used to tell myself: “to become a doctor I have to…make an ‘A’ on this test”…or “finish this paper”…or “understand these physics equations…” etc.
Whatever was in front of me at the moment. You can only travel a journey one step at a time. And you find as you arrive at each new doorstep that it’s not nearly as esoteric and intimidating as it seemed from a distance. You CAN do these tasks; you DO fit in.
I think it was Woody Allen who said, “Ninety percent of success in in showing up; and the other 10% is in having the right tie on”. Whoever said it - it’s entirely true. Just show up. Take the class, take the test, do the volunteer stuff… Just DO IT. Every semester, every week, every day, no matter what you feel like. Everything else will just naturally follow.
I wish you well, my friend.

Great advice GED2MD…
What an inspiration to me,
I also come from a tough family backround, and right now the journey seems so long. I was just telling myself last night that I need to take it one step at a time, this one test, this one class, this one term…
thanks so much for sharing your story
Angel
(I’ll do an intro of myself soon, I am new here…Hi all!)

Concerning obstacles and tough families what do you do with a family that is competing with you and interfering. I mean my father who is the alcoholic kept showing up three weeks for a family stay at my sisters before I took an MCAT even when I begged him not to. Mother keeps trying to talk me out of going to med school. She even said to me that this is not reality because of my age when she tried to go at fifty. Sister has been I little better. Any of you experience this and what should I do about this? I mean it seems that everytime I get close or ready to apply I have to fight them First and then the grades.

Hi BigBill,
My husband is in the Navy and we just learned that we are “probably” transferring to Italy next Spring…a month before I was going to take the MCAT. I have decided that if it happens, it’s what’s supposed to be. I will have to finish my undergrad online, end up majoring in Technical Writing (I think) and delay my MCAT for a year…Then apply the summer before our return to the states. NOT the way I had it planned, but I have decided that it is going to be a great experience and I will just have to live with the delay. I am hoping that learning a new language and expanding my life experiences will look good on an application.
So anyway, I guess what I am saying is that life sometimes throws curves that change the best-laid plans…You have to roll with it and DECIDE that it’s going to be okay.
Good luck to you, if you work hard enough, you can accomplish anything despite every hardship.
~Val

Navy family… so was mine. Father was naval officer and spent 30 yrs in. I know what it means to move. Some good has come out of it, I have become closer to my sister and I may get PHD before I apply.
I guess when I look back I get upset that since I started taking classes I could have been in now, yet I realize god may have a different plan. I mean the last people you would have to fight should be your family. Yet no family is perfect and this experience may help down the road.
Its just I didnt evision being this old and thinking about getting in by the time Im forty. My plans were to get in and be in residency by the time I was forty. Its frustrating to schedule an MCAT and pay for it then plead with your father to come another time and he act like I was crazy. then when he comes in he tells you to quit and be a teacher. Or your mother tells you that your to old when she was fifty when she tried to get in then celebrate when you tell her your thinking of a PHD.
I know Im venting yet it is frustrating. I hope no one has to go through that.
anyway thanx for the peptalk.

GED2MD,
You have made me feel a little more hopeful with your story. I too have my GED and am in a community college now trying to get my pre-reqs out of the way. I love school and look forward to all the years to come. I am just always so worried that when its time to get to med school, they wont want me b/c i have a ged and a went to a community college.
I would love to hear advice from you about this…
thanks,
KalkiDear

Hi Kalki,
Comments like yours mean a great deal to me. I’m proud and glad to know that my story is motivational for you.
The truth is, the beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Many people will view such a ‘comeback story’ as inspirational, and indicative of how your strong underlying talents have enabled you to overcome adversity in your life.
Other people will view you as damaged goods. In almost a fraternity/sorority type paradigm, they seek to restrict medical school enlistment to young ultra-achievers who are physically fit, attractive, and well connected. Often folks with this thinking are from affluent backgrounds, often from a long line of physicians, and have never experienced the terror and stresses of poverty, or how substance abuse can consume a family from the inside out, or how the culteral inertia behind class differences, or race, or age, or gender can vastly multiply the efforts needed to achieve personal progress.
Seek out the people who are empathetic and supportive. Do well at your community college classes; then you will need to transfer to a four-year university to complete your bachelors and fulfill your pre-med requirments. Figure out what you enjoy and find a department which embraces you, then major in that subject. I was a philosophy major, and my small department welcomed my unusual background and supported my efforts.
You do have to prove your stuff. You’ll need consistent high grades in your pre-med subjects, and you’ll be competing against the best and the brightest. My Bio 101 class had over 700 people at the start of the year. By finals week of Bio 103, the class was less than 200 people. With a few exceptions, the difference between those who drop out and those who succeed was not intelligence, but rather work ethic.
When I applied to medical school, my personal statement read like a rags-to-riches story. In keeping with my earlier statements regarding the mindset of admission committees, I experienced a gamut of reactions. There were little no-name schools which refused to send me secondaries, while prestigious schools granted me interviews, and everything in-between.
When I attended my first interview at the Ohio State University, my interviewers were intensely interested in knowing more about my background. They smiled at each other and exclaimed with delight when I detailed my successes. They proudly related the schools aggressive efforts at recruiting a diverse class, and profiled current students and recent graduates with wonderful stories of unexpected accomplishment.
At the conclusion of the inteview, a dear, sweet woman who was a freshman embryology professor, reached across the table, took my hand and said with shining eyes, “welcome to the Ohio State University College of Medicine”.
It was one of the happiest moments of my life.
Not to say that my path since that time has been without difficulty. The same blind stubborness and ambition which allowed me to plow past people seeking to pidgeon-hole me with their predjudices, also cause me to be at times inflexible and hotly opinionated - traits which conform poorly with the structured heirarchical system of surgery training, for example. But truth be told, I wouldn’t be here today without those very qualities; I would have succumbed long ago to the negative influences of those seeking to preserve the status quo.
So, get to work Kalki, and make us proud. I look foward to celebrating your successes with you.

GED2MD,Aug. 03 2002 9:40 am wrote:

Quote
Other people will view you as damaged goods. In almost a fraternity/sorority type paradigm, they seek to restrict medical school enlistment to young ultra-achievers who are physically fit, attractive, and well connected. Often folks with this thinking are from affluent backgrounds, often from a long line of physicians, and have never experienced the terror and stresses of poverty, or how substance abuse can consume a family from the inside out, or how the culteral inertia behind class differences, or race, or age, or gender can vastly multiply the efforts needed to achieve personal progress.

Truer words have never been spoken!
-JmE-

GED,
I just want to let you know what an inspiration your story has been. I am finally on the right track towards my journey into someday being a doctor. I came from a rocky background myself and have had some personal issues to deal with. I am sure that I'm gonna make my dream come true and stories like yours will help keep me going when I get down. Thanks for sharing your story.
Kristen

Not to plug another web site, but there are some folks with absolutely phenomenal stories of overcoming obstacles on MomMD.
(I think people are starting to come out of the closet…)
http://www.mommd.com/cgi-bin…=000029
GED

Wow…I could almost cry. What a great story, GED2MD! It is nice to know that there are schools out there who are willing to look at candidates objectively.The cookie cutter mentality is on the way out, hopefully.
Good for you!

This site is fantastic. Sometimes I can only see the “normies” around me at my school. Those who are here at the ripe age of 22, no financial hardships, groomed as children to end up here.
I grew up on welfare, in a trailer park; my father left before I was born, so I was raised by a single mom. I’m not trying to play the numbers here or have a pity party. But I did let my personal statements to medical school reflect my reality.
I am the first person in my family to attend college after high school; none of my family understands why I want to take out loans and go to medical school instead of getting a good-paying job at a mill or factory…or answering telephones. While there’s nothing wrong with any of those jobs, they’re just not for me. My situation growing up was less than ideal…there are many addicts and alcoholics in my family. I have several years of recovery myself.
I was a liberal arts major in college (I could only attend college Because we were so poor), traveled abroad in Africa my junior year, came back to the US and decided I wanted to go to medical school. I have had a job since I was 13, always supporting myself (when I was 15 my mom told me she wasn’t going to buy food for me anymore since I wanted to be a vegetarian). So I worked through pre-med classes, kept my liberal arts major, graduated with a B.A. in a total of six years. Applied to six M.D. schools the first time, no dice. Applied to a million M.D. and D.O. schools the second time (after re-taking the MCAT). Decided on a D.O. school. Because I still work, I have taken the option to spread the first two years over three years. My life is much more manageable this way.
I am getting married in a few months, and I am looking forward to my future. I plan to have a small family, whether we have children or adopt. I have lived my life one day at a time, and I can’t worry about living in tomorrow or next week or next year. The balancing act won’t be easy, but difficult doesn’t scare me.
The tag on one of my tea bags once said “Obstacles are things a man (sic) sees when he takes his eyes of his goal.” Obstacles will always be there. What has carried (pushed, fought, sweated) me to this point is my persistance. I am stubborn in that way, but it is what I have had to do. It’s how I’ve had to be. And I wouldn’t trade my life for the experiences of others…those who don’t know what it’s like to not only not have something you wanted, but to not have something you needed.
I just hope everyone can be competent and caring physicians, despite their background. There are certainly some nasty, overpriviledged people in my class, people to whom I would never send a loved one for care. I have seen students carry their prejudices into clinical care with them. I must remember to stop expecting others to be the type of physician I think they should be…Luckily for everyone involved, I am not the judge and jury of medicine!
rolleyes.gif
No one expected me to get this far in life, and from the posts I’ve read, many of you have had the same experience. But I am very clear on the fact that I am a priviledged person to have had many opportunities in my life. It took living in the armpit of Africa for a year to open my eyes to all the opportunities I actually had…rather than thinking of myself as poor white trash from Hicktown, Midwest. Becoming a physician was the best way I could see to utilize the opportunities in my life. So now I participate with my school in the free clinics in my new town of 4 million people for Head Start kids ('cuz I was one of them once), poor high school kids that need physicals, the People of Color Health Fair, etc. Plus the free office visits at a homeless shelter…and I hope to start working with migrant farm workers. I can’t see myself doing anything else but this…I couldn’t work at a mill and be happy! I love the autonomy and the responsibility and the science. I learn so much from patients.
Anyway, I’ve babbled enough. I’ve got studying to do!
But good luck to all you hopefuls out there. When I was applying to schools, physicians would sort of whisper to me “Keep applying, keep applying if you don’t get in.” I worked as a CNA in a hospital, and I couldn’t believe how few docs told me they got in on their first try! Most people said it was their second time that did it, some their third, some their fourth!! So keep applying!

Bravo!
Thanks for sharing your story.

Strong work!! You, my friend, are an inspiration! You are proof positive that no matter the circumstances you're born into – make the right decisions, work hard and keep your eye on the grail and you can make it!
Please keep in touch with the members of OPM…there a lot of folks out there who deeply desire to follow the dream that you & I are living. However, they lack one thing that you & I enjoy – we believe in ourselves! You & your story can serve as a motivator to others to take that plunge…commit to pursuing their dreams.
Thank you for sharing!

QUOTE (ealoro @ Sep 12 2002, 05:55 AM)
Big Snip:
But good luck to all you hopefuls out there. When I was applying to schools, physicians would sort of whisper to me "Keep applying, keep applying if you don't get in." I worked as a CNA in a hospital, and I couldn't believe how few docs told me they got in on their first try! Most people said it was their second time that did it, some their third, some their fourth!! So keep applying!

Hi there,
Your story was great to read. You said some important stuff but put it at the end for a kicker. For all of those folks out there who don't make it in on the first try, keep applying. If medicine is your dream, don't give up on it. There are too many stories of folks who applied five and six times but they finally achieved what they wanted.
They key is to do something that will improve your application and get back into the fray. It is still fairly early in the process for this year so to those folks who haven't heard anything, don't worry. There is still plenty of time. In the meantime, work on your Plan B but above all, don't give up on your dream.
Nat

Got my GED at 16, started my CC associates degree and became the lucky pedestrian in a vehicle vs. ped case that was flown out 35 miles to the closest thing to a trauma center in the area. The car got totaled… I just got real messed up. That was 21 years ago.


I later went back and picked up my AA degree, got a BA in anthro, and now I’m picking up a few postgrad courses to round out the package with a touch more detailed work in PCR based DNA fingerprinting and determining PMI on subjects based on everthing from lividity to percentage of body converted to mush while under varying degrees weather and amount of soil coverage.


Not much chance of making surgeon, but I might well get the option for a internal med community practice to service my community and stop working on people as a volunteer in my local fire department.