Session 326 Amanda had to apply to med school twice. We talk about her premed path, her first application, her struggles, and how she succeeded and received three acceptances. Check out all our other podcasts on MedEd Media Network. [02:01] Drinking From a Fire Hose Amanda agrees with the analogy of drinking from a fire hose with all the information coming in and the exams they've got to prepare for. [02:38] Being a First-Generation College Student Being a first-generation college student, she was just focused on getting into a school. Once she got there, she was just trying to adjust and did research on her own. But it was really her interest in science that got it all started. She likes working one on one with people. She likes learning about the body. She recalls shadowing for the first time and seeing the atmosphere, it gave her that seed to really want to do it although there were moments she'd question whether she could do it, which is pretty normal. As a first-generation college student and she didn't have her parents to lean onto for academic support, she reached out to programs in her school and joining clubs and reaching out to others. She even sought the advise from her high school counselor. But she considers the internet as a huge help which led her to this podcast later on in her college years. "Educating myself as much as I could to prepare myself and learning from each mistake instead of dwelling on it." [05:28] The Biggest Mistakes During Undergrad Amanda just got so bogged down into her grades and classes that she didn't see the bigger picture. So she ended up applying just two schools because she realized it wasn't working. She did end up going to one of the top schools she wanted to go to. However, looking back, she was just not seeing the bigger picture and instead, she was focusing on that quiz she was going to have on a Friday. She was in her honors program when she started undergrad where she went to a liberal arts school. When she attended an advisory premed meeting, she realized there were so much more to do. She went to the internet and came across this podcast. She believes the liberal arts school was able to help her as there were so many discussions that got her to engage in small conversations which she thought benefitted her science classes. Her biggest science class in organic chemistry consisted of 38 people. They didn't have any teaching assistants. She also met incredible people and felt being in a tight-knit family. [08:45] Finding a Physician to Shadow and Being the Resource Queen Amanda was struggling hard to get there having no one in the family who's in the medical field. But she reached out to people such as her college roommate, who connected her to an internist, who also gave her name to different specialties. Due to her diligent research on everything that needs to be done as a premed or med school, she was even named by her colleagues as the resource queen. Now, she's braver to reach out to people, even physicians. What made her successful as a medical school applicant and she wants other students to know that you have to do things because you want to do them. Don't do them because you feel that you need to do them. She did struggle with this back in high school doing sports she didn't really like. Then in college, she felt she need to do research and do this and that. But when she graduated, she wondered what things she needed to do and ended up being a behavioral therapist for kids with autism. It was clinical but it was something she really wanted to do and experience. "Do things because you want to do them. Don't do them because you feel that you need to do them." [12:30] Preparing for the MCAT the First Time Amanda actually took the MCAT twice. In fact, this came up in a few of her interviews because she had an 8-point jump between her two scores. She was doing research at a nearby hospital in Chicago while studying for the MCAT with no defined schedule. She took it in the fir