 If anybody's watching this with a low GPA and like withdraws, I just want you to know, yes, you can still get it. What's up, YouTube? So today we're gonna talk to Erin and discuss how she got into medical school. I was fortunate enough to work with her on her personal statement. So she's gonna share all of her kind of tips and tricks throughout her journey. And, but before that, please make sure to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss a video on personal statements and secondaries, which is my expertise. Okay, so let's get started. This is Erin and she's gonna tell you a little bit about her and her journey. But yeah, so talk to us about who you are, your major, did you take gap years, re-applicant, all that good stuff. Sure, okay. So like you said, my name is Erin. I just got accepted to medical school. So I'm an incoming MS-1. I'm gonna be starting in around July of this year. So I went to UC Berkeley and I graduated in 2017. So it's definitely been a while and I had several gap years at Berkeley. I majored in nutrition, metabolism, and physiology. And while I was there, I really struggled. So at my high school, I had graduated as valedictorian and I really thought going into college that I knew how to study and that I knew what I needed to do to be a successful pre-med. Totally did not, real world hit me. So I was definitely a low GPA applicant, but honestly, struggling at Berkeley is one of the best things that has ever happened to me. Were you a re-applicant and do you remember the day that you turned in your primary application this time around? Yeah, so both times around, I turned it in, like as soon as it opened, it might not have been the first day, it might have been the second day, just because somebody had told me like don't turn it in on the first day because there might be like errors because so many people are trying to submit. I don't know if that's true, but I just decided to submit it on the second day. So yeah, it was definitely as early as possible thing. So talk to us about your kind of experience, writing your personal statement and all that good stuff. Yeah, so when I wrote my personal statement the first time I applied, I was like, I have my GPA, I had done a post-bac, so things got a little better there. I had a great MCAT score, I had great activities and I was like, okay, I'm good to go. And I really thought the personal statement was just like, hello, yes, I'm interested in medicine and I want to help people. Again, for me, this really went back to not talking to enough people. And also in your personal statement, you're usually sharing some kind of vulnerable things and it can be scary to have other people read that. So I really struggled with that as well and I definitely didn't have enough people read my personal statement because I didn't realize how important it was. So then now you have even higher stakes because now you're reapplying, how did you approach the personal statement differently this time? Right, okay. So obviously I applied back to back and when you apply back to back, there's not much else that can change about your application. The activities, you probably already projected the hours. If you were starting an activity, you might've sent that as an update. So there's really not much else that changed besides my writing. And going into that, I just realized I needed a lot more feedback. I had to get over my fear of other people reading this. I had to get over like a fear of judgment and I just sent it to a ton of people that I trusted. So this was a couple of students in medical school who I trusted with their writing skills. Also you, who helped me a lot, definitely recommend using you as a resource. But I think what I realized is that a couple of things. One, it mattered more than I thought. So it really couldn't just be something generic. This might be the first thing that people see when they grab your application. So it really needs to stand out. And I always tell people now that I think they have two jobs with their personal statement. Number one is to explain your why medicine. And number two is to keep the reader's interest. Because I think people go into this thinking this is a pre-med application for medical school. It needs to be X, Y, Z way. And it doesn't because at the end of the day it's not robots on the other side. It's humans who are just as interested in stories and things like that as you are. And that's how they connect to you. So I didn't realize the importance of that before. I actually shout out to Shown, the pre-med because that's actually how I found you was, I noticed you're doing that again. That's how I found you last time. And so when I watched your Zoom session with her I realized everything that I had done wrong is everything that I needed to do going forward. But it was really just telling stories and especially sharing emotions because even if somebody can't connect to your personal experience they can probably connect to the things that you were feeling. So just realizing all of that and realizing that a personal statement is really the bow over your whole application because I had my activities. They can see the things I've done and now they wanna know why. Did you just do this to check off a box? No, so you need to show them why you did these things and really have that huge Y. And the reason the personal statement is so important with that Y is because when you're going on two hours of sleep and you don't wanna wake up and you have to study or you're already a doctor and you have to go see a patient you're not gonna wanna get up. But what is going to get you up is your Y. And I think that's why it's so important to them. They need to know that this is bigger than you that you have this huge reason that you need to go through this and that you can be someone's biggest advocate because your Y is so unique and that's the population of people you're gonna be able to help. Yeah, no, I love that, I love that. What are tips that you could share regarding MCAT studying? You know, I needed to do super well on it because of my low GPA. So I took that super seriously even though I procrastinated on it for a while I was really scared to take it because the stakes were so high. So I didn't take it until after I had graduated. I did take a Kaplan course just because I had purchased it my freshman year of college and got a super good deal because I had purchased it so early. I don't recommend taking a course just because for the most part I thought it was a waste of time. It's a lot of passive learning and you wanna be doing more active learning. What I did love was the access to all the practice tests and practice questions. Just something I learned while I was studying and why I also don't recommend taking a course is that for the MCAT, there's so much content and you're so tempted to spend all your time just studying content. But I feel like content is like 20% of the test and knowing the MCAT is the other 80% because I saw such a huge improvement in my test scores when I stopped focusing on just learning the material and I started focusing on, okay, what does the MCAT want from me and taking as many, many practice tests as possible. So my biggest thing would be to take as many practice tests as possible. Also, when you schedule your test date make sure you're not putting yourself in a tough position by scheduling it. Sure that you're giving yourself room to push back that date because you will not be unique if you push back your date. Many students push back their date. The MCAT is crazy. So it takes a while to figure out what it is and how you need to study for it and then you figure it out and you're like, oh, and usually once you figure it out you need like two or three months more to study and that's if you're going for a really high score. Yeah, let's say I'm a pre-med, I'm a sophomore and undergrad right now. I don't know even where to begin with volunteering, clinical exposure. How did you find the opportunities that you found and the activities that you kind of engaged with and what were they? Yeah, so probably the best way I found activities was by joining a pre-med sorority. I actually in college worked as a medical assistant for two years at a primary care office and I got that position through somebody I knew in that organization. So if you haven't learned this yet, I'm sure you'll continue to learn it but your network is your net worth. Like that's where you're gonna get everything, your advice, your positions, it's honestly so helpful. So that's where I got the majority of my clinical experiences from is just knowing those people. But if you don't have those people or you feel like you don't have an organization at your school that you feel comfortable reaching out to, I also discovered that if you just Google pre-med opportunities or pre-med internships, tons of stuff came up. I had no idea. I don't know if this was like it back then but at least now it's fairly easy to find opportunities just by doing a quick Google search. How many hours of shadowing did you do? I was kind of low on the shadowing and if I could go back in time, I think I would have done more shadowing just because I see people's experiences now and it just looks so cool and so fun. But I had probably like 200 or 300 hours and this was, I think even if it stood out for me probably or what made up for the fact that I feel like my hours were kind of low is that I had started this in high school just because I went to a really weird high school. I went to a medical high school. So I had some shadowing opportunities then and because of the sorority I was in, I was also able to make connections and get shadowing early. So it wasn't just like crammed into the last year or last two years of my journey. It was, you know, this person is clearly interested in being a physician. How did you strategize your secondary's application? Like how did you manage all those essays? Did you pre-write? It's so funny I was creeping in my room and preparing to move yesterday and I actually found one of my to-do list of secondaries and basically every day I had like different categories of, okay, I need to, today I'm turning these ones in. Today I'm editing these ones and sending it to this person and today I'm starting to write these ones. So in ideal world, you would pre-write a lot of them. I think if you Google most common secondaries you can get some good answers drafted. But the thing is even for the schools that have really similar questions, it's just enough different that you kind of have to rewrite the whole thing. So it's really inconvenient and frustrating. And I think the best piece of advice I can give with this is to take your time because I know it seems like you're in such a rush and you know, you wanna get these back early and I'm not saying to take like a month but for the school, my top choice school that I got into, I took two weeks to turn in that secondary because I was so scared and I had so many people editing it and you know, you never really feel done. You just have to like pull the plug at some point and turn it in and I was like, well, this is it. I waited two weeks, it's over for me. And then I got it. So, you know, I think timing does matter but you also wanna be putting your best foot forward. So don't turn something in that you don't feel good about because the odds of somebody feeling good about something that you don't feel good about, they're kind of low. And how did you prepare for interviews? I watched a lot of YouTube videos, first of all. I also used Dr. Gray's med school book and then a BMO book on the multiple mini interview. I'm actually doing a giveaway for those books on my Instagram. So, check that out. So, and it is MD downloading. Yes. Yes. So, rush over to Instagram right now, grab your phone. Really, we wanna be a part of your support system. That is awesome. Karen's constantly giving away kind of materials and paying it forward to the pre-med community. So you definitely wanna be following her. And if it's not this giveaway, you're gonna have another one. Yeah, I have tons of giveaways. So definitely check them out. But anyways, I also did tons of mock interviews. And of course I got really, well, you know, lucky last cycle and that the interviews were all over Zoom. And what's nice about that is when I was doing the mock interviews through Zoom, I was preparing for the exact situation I was going into. So a ton of mock interviews. And then the best advice I can give for interviews is that you wanna be prepared, but not over-prepared. So you wanna have some bullet points for questions of things you wanna bring up, but you don't want to have your answer memorized because it's not gonna come off as genuine. And really they're just looking to have a conversation. Again, I know it's surprising to hear, but it's not robots on the other side. They're just people that, you know, maybe have already interviewed 20, 30 other people. And they just wanna have a conversation. They wanna be entertained to some extent. And you're never gonna be able to prepare for every question. So just know that and just as nervous as you are, just try to feel confident. Yeah. What was the weirdest question you got? Do you remember? I think two of them, one was like asking me what kind of fruit I wanted to be. And it's just, if one of those questions where you're not exactly sure how to answer it because you're not sure what they're looking for. And sometimes they're not looking for anything, you know? And that's what you have to realize. They're just looking for a conversation. The other one that caught me off guard for some reason is they were asking if I had siblings and I was talking about that. And they asked me what my siblings would say about me. For some reason, I had never thought about that in my life. That was a question I really struggled with. So one thing to prepare for is some version of what would so and so say about you? Along with the giveaways, Erin's gonna do a quick reveal eventually of the substances, weight list, right? So you definitely wanna kind of go on to her Instagram so that you can learn everything. But basically it was a back-to-back, right? It was a back-to-back application, not very different except the way you crafted your storytelling, right? Cause your story basically stayed the same. So I mean, biggest takeaway I think is just how you tell your story is so, so impactful to kind of how it's received and to how it can move the needle for you. Any last tips that you wanna share? So pre-med, anything you loved, hated about, pre-med, anything you wouldn't do? Yeah, okay. So I'll just say real fast that that's why I love your Instagram name, write your acceptance because I felt like that's literally what I did is I wrote my acceptance. Cause like I said, my writing is the only thing that changed. The one other thing I wanna say before I go into the love hate about pre-med world is that I didn't just have a low GPA. I had multiple withdrawals and like repeats in classes, multiple. And I remember around this time when I was applying I was trying to find somebody on YouTube or Reddit or anywhere who had a similar experience that was like me to give me some semblance of hope that I could still get in. So if anybody's watching this with a low GPA and like withdrawals, I just want you to know, yes, you can still get it. Oh, love it. So anyways, pre-med world. So what I don't like about the pre-med world is the glorifying of the overworking. And I don't like that there can be gunners and that can kind of shape your experience. So if you are around those people or if you see those people, just know it's not everyone. And honestly, that's why Instagram has been so great for me because you just meet so many supportive people. I had no idea this existed. I wish that I had had this as a pre-med. So I'm really grateful for the community I have right now and how they're gonna be able to help me get through med school also. And at the end of the day, just the application cycle and being pre-med in general is super stressful. There's a lot of anxiety involved. And my own personal journey through mental health has told me that a lot of this is mind over matter. So I just hope that people remember that everything happens for a reason. And I truly believe that you're gonna be exactly where you need to be, when you need to be there. So however you think about that, whether that's a faith in like something spiritual or religious or just the universe or whatever it is, like hold on to that because I believe it's so much and it's going to help you relax and you need to relax. Like don't kill yourself over applying, don't kill yourself over being pre-med. If this is what you want, you are going to get in eventually. It might not be the first cycle you pie. It might not be the second cycle, but you're gonna get in. So just don't waste your time worrying and stressing. Live your life, have fun and do your best. Yeah, and I love that. Find joy and this is what you wanna do. It's scary to think, but med school is not the end goal. It's just the beginning of an entire kind of calling and a profession that's a lifestyle. So yeah, you need to find that joy in kind of every moment, right? Thank you so much, Erin. Thank you for jumping on our channel and just kind of dropping some major, major wisdom. Definitely check her out on Instagram. I will link her kind of like handle in the description so you can have that there. And yeah, give us a like, subscribe, and we'll see you soon. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for watching. And if you want more guidance on your personal statement, please make sure you check out the free personal statement guide in the description below. And you can always schedule a call with me to chat about how I work with students. I'll see you soon. Thank you.