So I finally committed to a medical school. So I just wanted to share some of the things in this process that I was not prepared for. Here goes. We’re going in no particular order here, but I’d love to start with one of my favorites, which is the school that asked me to provide my chest circumference before considering me for an interview. And they say it’s for white coat sizing, but you don’t get that unless you’re accepted. And they accept like less than 5% of applicants at this point. So I don’t see why I need to essentially provide them my bra size. And I have talked with other people that apply to this school and maybe they didn’t read into it as much as I did. But I also think that if like a single woman was on the committee that made this portal, we wouldn’t have gotten this question. Also, I did get rejected from this school.
Next up, this financial aid application that makes me laugh every time I see it because it asks, what volunteer or community service work do you perform or have you perform? And can you imagine just saying, I did or I performed women’s issues or I performed LGBTQ I A plus or I performed helping elderly and those are like the only options besides wakathon type event. I feel like there are more community service categories that should be there.
Moving on to fun interview remarks. One wasn’t as bad. One person asked me how I could be a stand up comedian and also a Catholic. He wasn’t Catholic, so that was just a weird question to ask. Another fun thing that happened during my interviews was whenever I asked schools what their workflow was for patients with social needs, just cuz that’s something that’s important to me. I had an Ivy League interviewer who already, it was clear she already didn’t like me. But basically in response to that question, she said that 85% of their patients had no social needs. And I was an awful fit for their school if I went there and it’s a very well known medical school. So that made me sad.
I also had an interviewer who told me I didn’t have to worry about that because their school was in a majority White City, which is incorrect on a lot of levels also. The city was not a majority White City. I say that is someone that spent a lot of time there. This was a really fun experience, or I experience this at multiple schools. So on the interview day, they have like this diversity hour where you pick a breakout room based on what minority group you identify as and the options are always like black, Asian, Latino and Christian. And guess where all the white people end up for an hour? And it’s always kind, sometimes it’s kind of awkward cuz there’s not much to talk about. And I get that there are good intentions here, but boy, is it awkward.
I also had to sit through a lot of Dei presentations, including some for schools that didn’t even have Dei offices. Like one school did a whole presentation and then told us that all the information was irrelevant because they were closing, which was sad. And I was also doing it on like a nine hour time difference. So I just wanted to go to bed at that point. I didn’t save the best for last. But I also think it’s strange how technically most places you might not want to tell them you’re a sexuality or you’re religion. And usually medical schools don’t ask for that. But they find a way of finding out through like these pre interview questionnaires. And they’re kind of like asking what affinity groups you wanna be in, which I understand. But it also feels weird to like self disclose that to the admissions office. And I get that it’s coming from a good intention, but it definitely threw me off a little bit for a while. I was kind of like, where are you asking? But yeah, those were the things I wasn’t really prepared for. But best of luck to those applying this cycle.