Thursday, April 28, 2011

MCAT Date Change 2.0

Ok. The MCAT is definitively schedule for September 10th now, at the same spot and time as it was previously. That gives me just over four months, which should be just enough time to get a hold of physics, as well as brush up on everything else (knocks on wood).

I'm also giving serious consideration to taking a prep course for the exam now. The biggest problem there is that I'd have to sign up for it soon, and I don't know if I'll get my job yet (or what it's schedule would be if I did.)

Speaking of my job, I called the people in charge of hiring medical scribes at a set of local hospitals to ask a few questions. It sounds like a /few/ positions will be opening up in June/July, and I should apply now for a shot at one of those. If they like my app I'll have a little phone interview, and if they think I'm a decent person there then I'll have a set of panel interviews at the hospital.

I wish it were occurring a bit sooner than June/July, largely because of MCAT prep course scheduling issues. Also, a lot of other things I'm looking at take 2 year commitments as well, and if I spend my time waiting on this, I'm pushing the window shut on those other possibilities.

But still, it seems like a really neat job I'd enjoy having for 18 to 24 months, and I plan on still giving it a try as my first choice. Besides. June's not /that/ far off.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Good News; Bad News

Well, it looks like I'm going to get to drag out my premed adventure after all, for better or worse.

I've spent a lot of time thinking about what to do with myself now, and have had a chance to talk to my advisers to get their thoughts as well. The good news is that based on my GPA alone, they think I have a reasonable shot at getting into a medical school somewhere. So based on that it doesn't seem to make much sense for me to up and quit.

The bad news is that medical schools (in general) won't look at only my highest MCAT score. Different schools have different ways of dealing with applicants who have multiple MCAT scores, but the most common is to take an average of the scores. So if I take the MCAT now as scheduled and do badly, it becomes something that's very hard (perhaps impossible) to really fix.

Further bad news, obviously, is that if I don't take the MCAT now I'm applying next year, and not this one. More postponement makes for a frustrating situation.

Further good news though - I'm able to take the MCAT in September or so if I want, I don't have to wait a whole year to take it. I'll still not get to apply this year, but at least that would give me a solid score much much sooner, and would let me have a good idea of if I could get into a school much much sooner (once I have my combined GPA and MCAT score, it largely turns into a statistical exercise; interviews and essays are important too, but I think I have a pretty good motivation/story and am convinced those would only help me).

Taking the exam in September gives me a respectable four to five months to study. If that's not enough time, it's a safe bet that spending a whole year wouldn't get the job done either. Plus, if it was in a year it would be easier to procrastinate. It's harder for me to get concerned about events that distant.

So I'm going to think another day or so, but it looks like this is the current plan. I'll try to get an interesting/medically relevant job as well, to boost my resume some more too. Hopefully a paying job. My first shot is to try working as a medical scribe somewhere again. It seems like a really neat job, and pays, and is different from what I've been doing to date. It didn't work last time, but this time I have a bit of a better resume, and I can commit a solid amount of time to it if I know I'm not running off to medical school next year. Other choices are less interesting to me, or unpaid, or seem difficult to get without knowing people. I'll give this a shot first and see what happens.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

What's To Do With a B+

Status update~ we got our last exam back. It went better for me than the first, although I still just got a C+. Which was pretty much the average score. I wouldn't call it good, cause it's not, but.... a lot of people apparently did worse so I shouldn't complain. By some mystical magic and vodoo invoked to keep the paying students (customers) of a university happy, my average grade for the semester is now a B+ between this exam and the last one.

On the surface it's good news. My grade is definitely high enough to go to nursing school if I'm so inclined (although I'll have to take a few more prereqs, etc). Options are nice. Options are also cruel.

I have a really borderline set of grades for getting into medical school. I did well in /most/ everything, and there's a very reasonable chance that I can place as worst of the best and make it in somewhere. If I do that, I have to apply. If apply I have to choose between taking the MCAT now (and almost certainly doing badly.... 1 month isn't enough prep time for basically relearning physics), taking the MCAT a year from now (ok if it worked out.... if it doesn't work out... another extra year wasted.... I think I'd break), or taking it both times (and letting schools see my bad first score, on the 5% chance I manage to get an acceptable first score instead).

If I just give up and go with nursing I'll actually end up with a career sooner despite needing a few more undergrad courses, but I'll always be a bit bitter about just giving up probably ... the million dollar question is whether I'd be more bitter than I would be spending another year studying for the MCAT and ending up nowhere.

Not that I wouldn't enjoy nursing. I think I really would. But I'd be second guessing myself for a long time.

In some ways I'd hoped more for an A- or a flat F. That would have made choosing what to do easier.

Well, I've scheduled (or am trying to, more specifically) an appointment with the premed advisor here. I might try to call my old one from Vanderbilt again as well and see what his thoughts on the matter are, the more informed opinions the better. I have an instinct to take the "wait one year, study for the MCAT, work as a paramedic or something, and then apply" approach, but part of me is worried that that's just me procrastinating. Maybe I would have a chance if I spend the next month studying, but I just don't want to admit it to myself for some weird reason.

... that's probably unlikely.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Realistic Assessments

So. Things look bad. Very. The second organic test is tomorrow and I have every reason to believe I won't get above a 60 on this one either. I'll quite possibly do worse, in fact. So... my best grade possible for the course (non curved) - working on the absolutely unrealistic assumption that I take the cumulative final in two weeks which would have about three times as much material as this test and manage to get a perfect score - is about a C. Which can be bumped up to a B by the curve. But, like I said, that's a completely unrealistic assumption.

It's annoying to have on class throw off my whole plan. It's tragic that it happened to be the very last semester of the very last course though. I'd even gone out of my way to make the course I thought would throw things off (Calculus) get taken first, so I could just change things up after a few months rather than a few years of classes. Here I am though and.... well.... tough luck.

I don't know what I'll do next.

If I take the optional final and manage to work my way out of this course with a C, then maybe the option of going to nursing school will be open since that doesn't require a year of organic chemistry. If I take the final and it lowers my grade (quite possible, since it would be harder), then I'm not so sure I'll find a nursing school willing to let me in with D's (or worse, an F..... which would be a pretty shocking turn around from the A I got first semester. Go figure).

I can go back to law school always. The problem is finding a job after though, since I won't have had any of the internships, and I'll have tough luck getting a second year internship after having quit law school for 2 years. That will be tough to explain away in an interview.

Other jobs I have some interest in, like working with the State Department, generally have requirements I should have been busy fulfilling over the last 6 years instead of going to law school and medical school. Experience in "X,Y,Z required, along with a degree in political science or...". I have the degree, but I never got that experience since I was doing completely different things. So it looks like it'll be hard to get hired for a spot like this too. At least, for any meaningful position.

Well, that's it for now. I'll see if I can go find a new background for the blog, although it looks like it might be coming to a premature end.

Monday, April 4, 2011

And Now For Something Completely Different....

It seems I have, finally, actually, shockingly managed to overachieve by accident.

The personal statement I've been obsessive over lately was actually meant to be a 5200 character essay, and not the 5200 word mini-thesis I put together. The larger essay isn't actually due for two months (and even then I'll have to cut it down a bit in size I believe). So... that's actually done. In advance. Almost.

The downside is that while I spent the last week frantically working on my 16 page explanation of why I should be accepted into a medical school, I wasn't studying my organic chemistry for the upcoming exam on the 12th. I was never happy about that, but I thought I was facing a deadline and had no choice.... so it looks like I've wasted a lot of perfectly good time that could have been much, much, much better used studying chemistry.

I have a strong feeling that this chemistry test will go badly again, in large part because of this. I'll be able to start studying for it this Wednesday, and will do that frantically until the day of the test. I'm somewhat helped out by the fact that the NMR at work is still down, so I get some days off since work can't be done without it. But still, less than one week probably isn't enough time to get me ready. I'm not entirely down and out, but that means everything will be riding on the optional final. That's not a pretty situation to face.

Other good news though - I've finally finished securing all of my letters of recommendation. I have one from my biology teacher, am going to get one from my physics teacher after meeting with him this week, and got one from the nurse who was supervising me at the hospital. I also got one from a physician today, although I was sadly unable to get in touch with my neurologist for that.

Well, that's it for updates - I'm off to go work on my very last lab report of the semester. I suppose I should change the background to something more Spring-Like again.... imagine I'll do that next time I drop by.