 With a low MCAT score, he was debating not applying. What's up, YouTube? Today we're going to do one of my favorite type of videos, which is to talk with students directly, the ones who I've worked with so they can speak directly to you on their experience. I'm Dr. Josie. If you're new, this is right, your acceptance. I work with pre-med and pre-dental students on how to elevate their writing, be clear on how to translate their values and experiences so they stand out for the application. So let's get started. Let's hear from Ali. He's going to share his stats, a little glimpse of his application and his journey. Thank you, Ali. This is Ali, by the way. Hello, hello. Thank you so much for meeting me today and sharing your journey so far. Thank you so much. No, no, really, I know how busy you are. So to kind of give your time is much appreciated. So you just updated me. Give us your kind of current where you are right now. So this is my first year of applying to med school. This is my first cycle. And I applied to pretty much all of the O schools. And so far, it's not even the month of December of 2023 yet. And I've received seven interviews and four acceptances as of now. And it's kind of the unique situation because before I even applied, I didn't really think I was competitive enough when it came to stats or extracurriculars or anything like that. But being a part of this program, being part of this journey, it really has given me an ability to flesh out my application and be as competitive as possible and have these numerous acceptances. And I really can't thank you enough for this journey and everything. So a leading question, but how do you feel now versus how you felt before you started applying? Well, when I first started applying, I didn't think I was good enough to become a doctor, to be honest with you. I was a little bit hesitant. I was a little bit worried. And I was even, currently I'm in my gap year. So even though I've been accepted to medical school, it's still the, you know, the cycle is like a marathon and it's not over yet. And along the way, I was taking even more classes, science classes and fleshing out my application even more just in case if I had to reapply because we see a lot of people who don't get in the first cycle, who have to reapply. And I didn't think, I don't know, I had this sort of anxious mindset that, oh my God, maybe not this year, maybe some other time. But even though I've made areas of improvement along the way, I think truly what shined the most was actually expressing my desire and passion of wanting to become a physician. And while I was anxious in the beginning, I truly moved on from that. And I'm in a much better place today than I was when I started. Amazing. And so what advice would you give pre-med students kind of about to start this process, this cycle? Well, one thing I would definitely say is try to gain the most meaningful interactions as best as possible because, you know, I graduated from the University of Michigan and I think the pre-med atmosphere, it's not just University of Michigan certainly, but most schools in general, when it comes to the pre-med is that we sort of tend to compartmentalize and isolate ourselves and just solely focus on our grades or our MCAT scores. But in reality, the interactions that we can garner from our peers, our classmates, our professors and our clinical experiences and interactions, they truly shape who we are as applicants and as pre-med students. And those interactions that I've had early on, I'm so grateful. And I truly attribute those interactions the most compared to just my academics and stats to begin with. So that's the reason why always cherish the precious moments you have with other people because it truly can shape your experience to becoming a quote unquote competitive applicant or, you know, a future physician. And so this is kind of totally off the cuff, but how did you know what experiences you wanted to kind of seek out for clinical for volunteering? How did you know? It was really shaped by my curiosity being a first-gen. It was not something that I came into college right away knowing what I wanted to do. I truly had to discuss with other people, pre-med advisors, other peers of mine who are successful applicants and, you know, just my professors and other people surrounding me because I am not that kind of person to just say I know what to do because in reality, I think, I don't think any of us are perfect in this life. We always have to find a way to seek guidance and seek some mentorship. And along that way, when I first started pre-med, I was like, what will make me look like a great applicant? What do I have to do to get into medical school? That mindset shifted. What do I want to do? What do I want to do to be as spontaneous and outgoing and actually enjoying and learning this process rather than saying what will make me look like a good applicant? That mindset completely evaporated, I guess you can say from my first year pre-med to my fourth year undergrad. And it's funny, it's ironic, right? That when you kind of let yourself, kind of liberate yourself from those kind of mental shackles is when you will mostly like impress because you are really kind of being guided through your passions and kind of commitment and genuine curiosity and giving yourself that space for discovery and what you kind of really find interesting is kind of then what translates better. Exactly. And, you know, unfortunately the interactions that we may have with some of our peers closest to us as pre-med may not be the best interactions possible. I've learned that the hard way. But don't let other people define your marathon, you know, as a pre-med marathon. Let yourself, I'll be honest, I was not any better than other people. I'm not perfect by any means necessarily when it comes to academics or when it came to MCAT or any other clinical experiences. But I ran my own race. I did what I truly was passionate about and that's what matters at the end of the day. I love that. I love that. So I've had the privilege of working with you basically the entire way, right? We've done the PSRX, my program, which is more than the personal statement. You go from personal statement all the way to interview prep. How was your experience working together? And I know I'm in the, so like you got to tell me the truth. It was phenomenal because the thing about it was that I knew that I was the first person in my family to ever want to pursue this career in medicine. My mom actually happens to be a doctor but her experience is much different than I am. My mom, she went to medical school in Iran where my family is from. And it's much different as what we have to go through, you know? After high school, she takes a sort of like an MCAT or SAT and then right after high school, you go to medical school. And that's not the experience that you have here. You know, it's much different. And I was like, I'm the first person in my family to ever, you know, seek this journey. I don't really have that much guidance and tools and resources. I had great books, you know, from either Dr. Ryan Gray and I had great mentors and advisors along the way but they're not the ones to necessarily find a way to flesh out the application as best as possible because their times are limited, certainly. So, you know, to have you as my mentor, to have you as my guide for when it came to not just the personal statement, but the secondaries, the activities and all these other components when it came to the application. I knew that you had great background and you've helped so many applicants along the way that I wanted to be a part of it. And I was so grateful that I invested. I was a part of it. And I mean, it's been such a joy, right? And we continue, we continue to chat about interviews. We're still kind of in the throes of it. I do record these videos like really early just because I start to get busy. And then I kind of like, you know, then I forget them. But yeah, it's the multi-month, like we really get to know each other. We really get to know your process and your why medicine. So it's been, yeah, I mean, thank you so much for working with me. And it's been such a privilege to get to know you and to get to know just kind of a glimpse of the beginning of your career. So, so it's been great. Are we ready for the application? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, okay. So really quick, if you are watching this and you're starting to think about you're writing your personal statement, starting to feel kind of that, you know, overwhelmed that lays ahead, definitely schedule your free call to chat with me to learn more about how I worked with Ali and how I worked with so many other students on this process. The link is in the description. All right, so let's go through your stats first. Talk us through kind of like your MKAD GPA, major, all that good stuff. Absolutely, so I had a good background before I came to college and when I was in high school and when I came to college, I still kept that mindset but I also found ways to interact with people who were successful within the college setting. So I attended tutoring sessions for, you know, difficult courses like organic chemistry and biology and physics and whatnot because I was like, I'm the first person in my family to do this and I really needed that mentorship. And you know, I'm not perfect by any means. I did not have a 4.0 GPA and I was all A's. No, I had some A's and B's along the way but overall it fleshed out to be a 3.86 cumulative GPA and a overall 3.74 science GPA but one of the biggest deficiencies for me, I think stats-wise was my MKAD score. My MKAD, you know, I came from a household where we were speaking Farsi, the Persian language and I would attend public school in here in the United States and we would speak and I would have to speak English and that dual perspective, that dual cultural perspective definitely gave me a little bit of difficulty when it came to the English component, the car section. And when I was studying for the MKAD, I was reading something where if the car section is the weakest section, it really does affect your other sections because all those other sections, they're passage-based and you really need to analyze and dissect every paragraph, every sentence that you read and I struggled. I'll be honest, I struggled. My first MKAD score was not good at all, 495. And the second time I took it, I came in with a different mindset approach. I tried my best to approach cars as possible, although cars was not my biggest improvement but luckily that I overcame from 495 to 500. And like I said, they're not competitive at all. I think that MKAD by itself, a lot of pre-men's, if they were in my shoes, they would just drop the whole career completely. They wouldn't want to do it anymore. They would have low confidence, low self-esteem. And I definitely struggled, I think initially, when I had that, I was like, oh my God, my chances of becoming a doctor, they're over, it's over. But I decided to run my own race. I did not just base it off of my emotions. I base it off of my gut. And I was like, my gut says that this is your chance to become a doctor, let's work on it. And I'm glad I did that. I'm glad I did not look at just the MKAD, look at my stats itself. I looked at everything else. It makes the other pieces of your application that much more important. It makes telling your story and really fine-tuning that message, clear, compelling, but also really translating your values as to who you are beyond medicine, who you are as a person, so much more important. But you did, I mean, you kept going. You knew that was gonna be a red flag that you wanted to kind of remedy and really kind of talk through so that the AdComs knew who you were beyond the numbers. I don't really wanna do that, even for students who have very high GPA and MCATs. Like you really wanna tell your story because that's where they care about you. That's where they get to know you. That's where they care. Yeah, yeah, because at the end of the day, the patients are not gonna just basically assess you based on your knowledge. They're gonna assess you, how you communicate. And I've actually had that experience firsthand when I was shadowing physicians and even seeing how my mom handled patients as a physician herself, that at the end of the day, you're not defined based on your numbers. You're defined actually based on your actions, based on what you value, what you truly wanna bring to the table. And I didn't let that define who I was, the MCAT or anything like that. It's more than that. Yeah, I love that, absolutely. And it's so important to have other kind of students like hear that, right? It's so important to have other students hear this because it's not, I don't wanna give false hope. Not everyone with a 500 will get in, absolutely. I mean, it is an uphill climb, but you do wanna make sure that everything else is as strong as possible. And that's where your story kind of is super key because then you get the inverse too. You get students with very high MCAT scores who don't get interviews. And then you wonder why? You wonder what they kind of did it, what they missed or what you kind of don't get from your application that's qualitative and it kind of, it's like values driven and personal. So yeah, no, awesome. And kudos to you for putting on those blinders and just kind of running your own race, right? Like silencing that external noise, taking in mentorship and taking in guidance, but silencing kind of the, you know, negative fear driven kind of discussion. Exactly, yeah. Cause they make it, I'm telling you what, sometimes peers, they'll make it out to be like it's the end of the world. And it's not really the end of the world. The beauty of this, I guess you could say country almost is that there's so much resources to pursue your path into medicine and don't let a single thing define you, let everything holistically define you. And that is what I'm so grateful for. Just, you know, canceling out the noise and just doing what I could possibly do. Absolutely, no, awesome, awesome. So let's go through your activity section a little bit. I am of the mind and not everyone kind of, not every professional colleague in this space kind of agrees, which is okay in my opinion. I'm of the mind that you can do kind of very strategic anecdote, description, kind of sensory driven language sometimes in your activity section, like that it shouldn't only be very dry resume language, right? You want to kind of engage, you want to shift in voice and change kind of the perspective a little bit. Any favorite activity section that you kind of have that we can read through? Well, yeah, certainly. The thing about activity section was I almost initially approached it like it's just a basic job description of like, what was my role? What did I do? And that's so cookie cutter if you think about it because all of us have that same role. If we are doing, if we are all hospice volunteers, let's say, all of us are gonna go into people's homes or nursing homes and see patients. But what we gained out of that experience is what matters so much. That's what truly defines our journey as a pre-med because those interactions that you had were so meaningful. And that is what you take in as what you swallow and that's what you say. This is big green flag for why I want to become a physician. And hospice volunteering is like my, it's the activity that truly has defined who I am as a person, not even just as an applicant, just as a person because you are put in that scenario or put in that situation where you see people who are dealing with terminal illness and you see not just how their lives are being affected but their families' lives are being affected as well. And obviously I'm not a physician so I can't cure their ailments. I can't do anything out of that ordinary. But what I could do is just offer social and emotional support and just listen to them. And that's who I am as a person. I just like to listen. I like to take in and hear what people have to say and to sit there amongst not just patients but their families and hear their stories, their journey of like how their family even started where they were from, where they grew up. And all that truly was an eye-opening thing because I am first gen. If you ask my parents like historical figures or historical things in this country, they don't know. Yeah, I am learning history basically through them. They had such a unique journey, such a unique lifestyle. And I was so thankful that I got to hear from them, learn from them. That itself was a journey. And I don't only attribute that to helping my application, I truly attribute it to helping me as a person. And I love that, right? Like if you are really intentional about the experiences that you kind of seek, you are shaping not only your medical kind of candidacy and application, but you're shaping your values. You're shaping who you are. And they should be kind of not everything, right? Is going to change you kind of transform you into like a different person. But there should be these core kind of value-driven experiences that you do that really make you reflective as to kind of who you are and who you wanna be. Yeah, so let's see where that is. Okay, so this is page 11 of the application. Although I had assumed the hospice took place within healthcare settings, I quickly realized that these resources are not accessible to all. Though I was not responsible for easing the physical burdens of patients, the intimate role of listening and interacting with patients immersed me into the perspective of individuals receiving care. Mary, having been confined to in her home, shared the heartbreak of losing family members, but also the happy moments she treasured. I commit to finding the time to get to know patients beyond their diagnoses and treatments. So I really liked the way that you kind of wrote this experience because it accomplishes three things, right? So it kind of gives a realization that you had at the beginning kind of, it shows that you've really learned the context of hospice and kind of like the cross-currents, political and kind of economic cross-currents right now. Very, very brief, but that those two lines are very loaded, right? I love that you bring in Mary because you have that kind of patient-centric. And it's, when I see an anecdote, sometimes students are like, oh, but I only have 600, I only have 700 characters. That's just a sentence, right? Yeah, yeah. A sentence and a half, but it anchors this image and it anchors a patient in front of you in a way that just brings this humanistic level to the experience, which is what you want to accomplish with this one. Exactly, exactly. And here's the one thing about Ecoma's application specifically. It's so difficult to flesh out your activities because they don't offer that much opportunity to delve deep into your activities, certainly about the bulk of your experience and all that stuff. By working with you, I was able to do that because I've looked at those brief interactions that I've had, whether it be patients such as Mary. And I tried my best to say, this is what I've gained so far. This is what has led me to this value-driven identity and passion. And that's what I hope to bring to the table in the foreseeable future. And I wish Ecoma's could have fleshed out more and even AirCast certainly, they have that meaningful experience. We always want more. Yeah, we always want more, but it really helped transform everything, just working with you when it came to the activities. And then I didn't, I mean, I didn't go easy on you, right? Like we went back and forth a few times. This is not where it's getting there, but it's not there yet. And it's, you want that kind of conversation that meta analysis of your writing to really feel one, like you're not so isolated in this process, right? A lot of times students will know what's wrong, quote unquote, wrong with their essay or with their activity section, but they don't know how to do what they need to do to bridge that and improve it. So it's kind of like that back and forth that's super important. So let's go to page 12. It's not always stories, right? We don't always want to kind of bring in narrative. I like this page in particular because you have two activities. One is, oh, as a lifeguard. So you do start with a story. One afternoon, a child slipped on the pool deck and landed arm for sustaining a bleeding injury in an instant, I blew the whistle. So we see the child, we hear the whistle. It's a very sensory driven, but then right after it, you have the research assistant position, right? And that's more telling phrases. So it really is learning the strategy to know where you want to tell a story and bring in the reader and where you want to kind of explain what you did, how you made an impact and kind of more academic resume type language, right? Exactly, exactly. So let's see. I collaborated with sociology undergraduates conducting literature reviews regarding nursing home care within the United States. Love the fact. You had very intentional experiences where it's like your hospice care then went into research about home care. So like you really deepened in different avenues of inquiry. Which really shows intentionality. Go ahead. The one thing that sociology experience that I had as a research assistant for one year during my sophomore year actually was the guiding light to my experience as a hospice volunteer because we did learn about the systemic issues when it came to certainly not everybody being able to necessarily afford quality nursing home care for their elderly family members or just any facility care to begin with for their family members. And that experience truly shaped my exploration of wanting to learn about hospice care because without that research assistant position that I had, then I was like, oh, I wouldn't have known about hospice. I wouldn't have known about that. And then that truly helped transition that moment. So everything truly happened for a reason. That's what I say. And that's why that free med journey, it was not something I walked into knowing what I was gonna do. I really had to learn. I really had to grasp different information from others. And yeah, I'm glad that I talked about that research assistant position the way I did to help garner that idea and that understanding of hospice. And so walk us through your decision to pursue sociology as your major versus like biology or neuro or something. Yeah. So when I came into college initially, I didn't really have an idea of necessarily what I wanted to major in, but I knew that I wanted to major in something that was absolutely meaningful to me and also help give me an idea and passion and understanding of people. The one thing, I'm not saying I don't like sciences, I certainly do like sciences, but the one thing about sciences is that they're great to learn about the mechanisms that fluctuate our bodies and important factors and important facets of our life. But it really didn't just speak to me of wanting to actually get to know people. I'm a people person. I like to get to know different places, different communities. And I think it has something to do with my curiosity of being first gen. And when I took my first sociology class, my second semester freshman year, I was absolutely floored by the struggles at certain groups of individual space, whether it be in this country or around the world when it comes to systemic issues, whether it be pay within the workplace, how individuals survive working on minimum wage and how it actually has led to health inequities where they would be deficient in vitamins or essentials that us, the people who come from privilege, we take for granted, we were grateful for it, but others, they deal with that struggle. And I was like, wow, this was truly my calling. It was not my intention initially, but it was my calling. And I was like, if I'm gonna be here within the four years, I have to do something that I'm truly passionate and interested about while also being pre-med, which is to take all those rigorous science classes and that's where sociology came into my life. And I'm so grateful that I did that because it's always been that topic of every interview I've had of like, oh, your sociology made you. Tell us why you chose sociology. And I never thought that was gonna happen. I was like, oh, sociology was just for me. But then they asked me like, oh, you chose sociology instead of biology. Tell us why. It was cool. It was interesting. And I was really grateful that I did do that. Yeah, and it's funny, right? Like to fast forward to the interview, I mean, we've practiced a bunch of times. We've had mocks. We've kind of gone back and forth on content, on how to kind of like use what you have in your personal statement and secondaries to kind of mirror that, but in an oral delivery that's different, right? Strategic in a different way. And I do have, I mean, we have so much to talk about when it comes to like interview. And I'll kind of link a couple videos here on how me about yourself because we don't talk about really your major in your tell me about yourself when we're practicing your interview, but you never know what's gonna land. So it's always about making that connection. You wanna make a connection and really kind of foster that interest in who you are. So they root for you on the page in the primary and secondary application, you wanna make that connection when like you're interviewing, right? And sociology peaks. So, I mean, where are you right now? Like seven interview invites when you've done six and that's basically a fan favorite question. Yeah, out of all the interviews that I've got, the first thing they ask is like, oh, we noticed your sociology, tell us why. And they kind of bypassed a little bit of like, tell me about yourself and returning to pre-medicine or medicine and all that stuff. They completely ignored that and then just looked at sociology. And then eventually they built off of that about like, oh, why did you pursue osteopathic medicine or why did you pursue medicine in general? So I'm really grateful that I did do that. I chose sociology as my major. But like I said, everybody's experience is different. And if you truly are passionate, whether it be within the sciences or in the humanities or in social sciences, like I was, do that, but enjoy it, absolutely enjoy it. Don't do it just because what will make me look like a competitive applicant? No, no, no, do it because what do you want to do for yourself? What do you want to learn? And like I said, I'm a people person. So I have to learn about people. I can't, I couldn't see myself just sitting there and doing a lab and doing like the experiments or anything like that. I would do them for a class but I don't think I would ever enjoy and see myself within the four years of doing that. But everybody's taste is different. So definitely choose something. Okay, so let's kind of fast forward on your application to the personal statement. Thank you again. Allie's gonna be gracious enough to lend me his entire personal statement. So in the next video, so like in next week's video, I will break down his entire essay and you'll see every kind of like, you know, line and how we built it and how kind of like he goes from one point to the next. But any section in particular that you want to kind of focus on today or that gave you trouble or that you love? Well, one section that truly stood out to me was a third paragraph because I really had a difficult time starting with came to the planting the seed about my family lies experience with healthcare in that setting where my father, you know gravely fell ill when it came to H. Pylori. That was my seed. And I knew that my parents journey from Iran to here that truly shaped, you know a lot of what is my culture upbringing in my background but certainly the third paragraph about actually, you know, fleshing out what did I learn from my clinical experience interactions that was so difficult because I recall you and I we've talked many times about how that was a challenge because I felt like I was writing a giant list of what I was doing and just the activities of like oh hospice has helped me do this and hospice has helped me do that but it didn't really show any meaning to it until I brought in an actual story that I was able to journal and write down from that interaction that I had with the patient named Jane who, you know, she had such a remarkable journey from you know, she lived for till 101 years old at the time I met her and her journey was just fantastic, you know growing up from Jim Crow segregation in Mississippi till eventually living her remainder of her life in Detroit and I was so humbled by that opportunity that I actually had to gain interaction not just with her but with her family and what I could, you know, do in the foreseeable future as a future physician of wanting to listen to people and hear from them and also guide them through not just only their health outcomes but certainly their whole lifestyle and, you know, I built off of that and it was really hard at first because that third paragraph and leading on if initially when I was doing my draft I felt like it was a giant box giant activities checklist but you don't want to make it like that you actually want to flesh out what did you gain from this insight? What did you learn from it to apply in the foreseeable future as a physician? Yeah, I love that. I love the way you explain it because it truly is a balance and kind of between what you kind of want to explain and what you want to show, right? And it's the showing versus telling and it's something that it's very easy for me to say oh, show, don't tell but really it's a dance and so a lot of times students will fall in two buckets especially early on in the earlier drafts you'll have a student who naturally is kind of a more flowery writer they'll write a beautiful paragraph that's an entire story but then they won't evaluate that experience they won't express what were the takeaways? How did this impact me? How did this advance my why medicine? And then the flip side will have almost no story but we'll have only those telling examples Hospice changed my life Hospice transformed my outlook on that side manner like you'll have like that box, right? Like you're saying like that activity section kind of lists and it's really marrying the two they kind of find that right balance between showing and then not telling so much as like evaluating what this experience or the experiences like that really kind of how it advanced your why. Exactly, because you can't just write down and you can't list that it has made me compassionate it has made me do this you actually have to show what was your effort of compassion you just cannot have that giant list of reflections you have to actually have a meaningful reflection of saying like how did this shape you not just as a pre-med or not just as an applicant but as a person in general and that paragraph was a struggle because I remember your comments and your edits on that draft and we were going back and forth we were it was all of my I was kicking myself almost in the head like how the heck am I gonna flesh out what did I learn from hospice instead of right oh I gained compassion and I gained understanding no no no you have to show it and I'm thankful that I was a part of that. Yeah, it's that beautiful kind of tug of war right kind of like conversation and going back and forth and really kind of like helping like our back and forth it goes beyond editing in so many ways right it's not just moving paragraphs around or lines or this is a fragment it really is kind of a crafting your message and building that together and stitching those those reasons this has been amazing any last minute kind of piece of advice for pre-meds that you would give I would say like I said in the beginning before but don't let anybody define your journey actually gain an insight gain an understanding of medicine to begin with and actually have a reasoning why you want to be a physician and then build off into that point and actually explore different opportunities and don't compartmentalize but rather communicate and do as many things that your passion as best as possible if you look at my application completely it was not just clinical experiences or research or just scientific exploration or anything it was actually some things that I wanted to do some things like I joined club swimming even though I was a swimmer in high school I love swimming why not why not do that I joined Persian Student Association although I am Iranian I didn't necessarily have to do that it's not a research experience it's not a clinical experience but it was something I wanted to do so I always tell every pre-med do whatever you like to do don't let it define like don't keep saying to yourself what will make me look a good applicant no, no, no what am I passionate about doing because it will show it will show in interviews in admissions committee they will find reasonings why you want to do it and I wish everybody had that mind you know when I initially came in I didn't even have that mindset and it's so sad that sometimes we see pre-meds be persistent with that mindset and you want to tell people to begin with don't have that mindset don't do that find something that you can enjoy and do it and I'm so grateful that I I initially didn't start off that way but I built off that way right, right you know four years of undergrad even with the pandemic it was definitely a journey but I'm so grateful for that journey yeah Ali this has been amazing thank you so much and so thank you YouTube friends for watching I hope you took away some real inspiration I mean it's been such a privilege to work together and really one of my takeaways for these types of videos is for students to get inspired and energized about their journey right and that not everyone's journey is going to look the same I mean and you kind of painted that picture beautifully for us guys if you want to chat with me to learn about kind of how I work with students like Ali my Cali Lee link is below and I'll see you soon thank you guys thank you Ali thank you, thank you so much