The four year pathway: Doomed?

So my recent string of waitlists has gotten me to think about something that had popped into my mind during medical school interview season. It seemed to me that the really top schools that I interviewed at were predominantly filled with older interviewers. I know that at a few interviews that I was the youngest person there, and I'm 22. I checked up on this, and it turns out that almost half of all students accepted to the Top 10 medical schools were non-traditional, meaning that they took some significant time off. Whether this includes people who took a year off, I'm not entirely sure, but either way this is a very significant number. It basically says that in order to be truly competitive at the very best schools you have to have MORE than an undergraduate experience. This makes a great deal of sense to me. As much as we pre-meds like to think that we are all the best, most unique candidate, I acknowledge that I simply can't compete with some of these applicants at this time. I've got the grades and the scores, and I've managed to smash more interesting EC's into my four years than I thought possible, but ultimately my two years of part time work in research is no match for someone with a two year full-time fellowship at the NIH, and my teaching and tutoring experiences simply don't match up with someone who did a stint with Teach for America. There just isn't enough time in four years to fit things of that magnitude, though some people may come close. 

So the question that I ask and have asked is if this is a trend? Will this slowly trickle down to all schools until basically every applicant applies after a year of post-graduate work. Not likely, in my opinion, but it is clear to me by looking up the data that the barriers to the very top schools are growing higher for those who wish to make it there in four years. Everyone will tell you that medical school admissions is growing in competition, and the very top is definitely keeping ahead of pace. So, should I have considered waiting and done Teach for America like I wanted? Maybe knowing what I do now I would have, because I honestly didn't even think that I would be competitive at this level until the interviews starting coming in. At this point though, I wouldn't give up what I have to try again. Who knows, maybe in the coming months it will turn out that I did manage to jump those towering walls.

And so the dust settles

Well decisions are out, and I'm a tad disappointed. Mostly waitlists and a few rejections mixed in from some of the Ivy's that I interviewed at. Nonetheless, I'm still pretty happy with how I did. I got rejected from the school that I dreamt of when I was younger, but honestly I almost didn't even apply because I had fallen out of love with it (In fact, I applied to it three months after everywhere else because I had a change of heart). The school I am currently matriculating in is highly ranked in both research and clinical, and has the special programs for Medical History that I am very interested in. While it doesn't have the glamour of, say, Yale, it has more respect from the medical community than any other single school that I have talked to physicians about. In fact, my father ( a physician) regards this school more than a lot of the dozen or so schools ranked above it. It's also the only school that none have ever had negative comments about either. It wasn't my top choice, but I did really find myself liking it. Honestly, if it had more "bang" in terms of name brand prestige I would probably list it as my top choice. That sounds a tad superficial, and I'm sure in a few years I'll look back and laugh at myself, but in my experience it seems like getting into Academic Medicine has a lot to do with the being from a highly ranked medical school. That being said, the $20,000 merit scholarship, with room for more, "eases my pain". I sent a letter off to my top choice, but I'm already preparing myself for matriculation. Great city, though not New York like I hoped. Great facilities, great medical history department, great honor to be going.

Well that's all for now. I'm in the process of preparing my undergraduate "graduate level" thesis for defense. I'll keep you all updated when I hear yay or name from my 5ish waitlists that I care about on May 16th. I've also standardized my labels for easier searching through relevant posts.

The final days are upon me!

In little more than two weeks, I will have gotten some form of response from essentially every school that I am waiting on. Many school choose to wait until March to announce acceptances (or the bulk of them), and starting tomorrow the letters will begin going out. I am waiting on quite a few schools, and my top choices as well. I've tried not to get too committed to a single school, because it isn't worth the emotional devastation if I don't get in. Despite this, I have my fingers crossed for a big, fat packet in my mail box!  At least I am fortunate enough to have an acceptance in hand. I really feel for those who are still waiting for one!

Oh, I added some new questions. They appear to have been written on February 14th, but I just published them. Don't forget to take a look!