Help, I'm facing dismissal from a US med school. What are my options?

studentdrkat writes:

help, i'm facing dismissal from a US med school. what are my options?

Well, you could go the Caribbean route. I heard that both SGU and Ross accept former US students. But at this point, I'm not sure if I would recommend it.

I think you definitely want to contact other students who have been in your situation before and figure out what they did. I would start at The Student Doctor Network and post in the appropriate forum.

I'm flattered that you think I might be a "student who has been in your situation before," but failing out of a Caribbean school is much different than what you're going through. You want to contact students who have failed out of US schools specifically before doing anything else. I just think you have many more options at your disposal and have already proven that you probably have what it takes to graduate (depending on your particular situation).

I hope that helps.

Good luck.

Six Year Timeline & Introduction

Here's a full-page graphic I made a long time ago. It's going to appear in the book at the end of Part I:

(Click to enlarge.)

It's a timeline of the path that I took to build my resume as a premed. I'm assuming just about everyone else who gets accepted as a similar story to tell. But most people take 4-5 years and some people take longer than 6.

After my last post, I kept getting the feeling that I needed something more to explain exactly what the book was about. So took a lot of what I wrote last time and wrote up a short introduction and it goes something like this:

This book is broken into two equal parts. Each chapter begins with a personal anecdote followed by additional information relevant to the chapter. Part I takes place over the course of six years and I share what I found to be a core idea which followed me throughout the entire premed process: answering the question “Why?” I’ve never seen the admissions and resume building process described quite like the way I describe it here. Discovering this idea helped guide me in answering this question whenever it was asked by myself or others. And as you’ll see, the question “Why?” is asked early and often. In contrast, Part II picks up right where Part I left off and simply takes you along for a ride through some of my personal lows, a few highs, and a couple big mistakes. There is no great idea contained within the second half which demystifies all the mysteries of medical school. After all, if there were I wouldn’t have failed.

I have nothing but respect and admiration for all students able to make it through to graduation. They were each able to accomplish something that I’ll never be able to do. I hope the advice I give in this book will help you in achieving your own goals and I hope the rest will serve as an example for when things don’t go exactly according to plan. Good luck and I hope you enjoy my story.

So if someone would read the book, this is the first thing they would see immediately after the table of contents.

I may change the "Consider Your Source" section a little since I don't want to be too redundant.

Also, I don't know if this process of putting all the pieces together is remotely interesting to anybody. Right I'm in the very tedious step of going through the whole thing paragraph by paragraph.

Consider Your Source

I think some people have the wrong impression about what the book is really going to be. The following is the last sub-section of the entire book. It reads like a disclaimer and it's going to be titled, "Consider Your Source."

As a premed student, my undergraduate GPA of 3.0 was never going to be competitive for US medical schools. While I don’t think this has an impact on any non-GPA advice I’ve given, I never figured out what it took to get a 4.0 at the undergraduate level. I wouldn’t have any advice on how to increase the GPA of a 3.5 student other than “study harder.” On the other hand, ask me about practical clinical experience, interview skills, filling out the rest of your resume, or answering the question “Why?” and I’ll be happy to share what I think worked best for me—this is the type of advice I have to offer. In contrast, you’ll notice that Part II of this book is mostly filled with personal stories and factual information with very little advice. There is no sub-section titled, “How to Pass Biochemistry in 3 Easy Steps.” This is because I was the type of medical student who had to repeat his first semester and then failed out of the second. While I don’t think that has an impact on any premed advice I’ve given in Part I, I’m not the person who should be advising any medical students on how to ace their neuroscience final. There is a reason why this book is titled “Getting into and Failing Out of Medical School.” Part I might help you get there, but Part II is essentially a manual on what not to do once school begins. The last thing I want to do is misrepresent myself as a “shining example of the perfect premed and medical student.” I’m clearly not.

When listening to my stories and considering my advice, please take into account: who I am, everything I set out to accomplish, and everything I failed to do.

So if someone reads the book cover the cover, this is the last thing they'll read and walk away with. I think most of the people who are offended by the idea of me writing a book think I'm trying to misrepresent myself as a better student than I actually was. And I'm really not. I clearly failed and that's part of what the book is about.

For premeds, I've found that answering the question, "Why do you want to be a doctor?" comes up over and over again, almost every step of the way through the resume building and application process. On top of the stories I tell, it's this idea that drives the first half of the book.

There is no great idea that I've discovered for Part II. I hope to take the reader on a ride through some lows, a few highs, and a couple big mistakes. I give very little advice in the second half because I never figured out how to do it right.

You can kind of think of the book as a streamlined version of my blogs... sort of. It contains a lot of stories that I've already told, but it also includes a lot of things that I've never posted anywhere. To get a better idea of the overall flow, the new updated table of contents now looks like this:

Part I - Getting into Medical School
Chapter 1: So, you want to be a doctor!
Chapter 2: Medical Certifications
Chapter 3: Clinical Work Experience (Part 1 of 2)
Chapter 4: Clinical Work Experience (Part 2 of 2)
Chapter 5: Research Experience
Chapter 6: Volunteer Experience
Chapter 7: Physician Shadowing (Part 1 of 2)
Chapter 8: Physician Shadowing (Part 2 of 2)
Chapter 9: Emergency Medicine
Chapter 10: Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT)
Chapter 11: Letter of Recommendation
Chapter 12: Personal Statement
Chapter 13: The Medical School Interview (Part 1 of 3)
Chapter 14: The Medical School Interview (Part 2 of 3)
Chapter 15: Extracurricular Activities
Chapter 16: The Medical School Interview (Part 3 of 3)
Chapter 17: Grade Point Average (GPA)
Chapter 18: Acceptance

Part II - Failing Out of Medical School
Chapter 19: Packing List
Chapter 20: San Francisco to Dominica
Chapter 21: Orientation Week
Chapter 22: White Coat Ceremony
Chapter 23: Only in the Caribbean (Part 1 of 6)
Chapter 24: Student Organizations & Clubs
Chapter 25: Anatomy Lab
Chapter 26: Problem Based Learning (PBL)
Chapter 27: Only in the Caribbean (Part 2 of 6)
Chapter 28: Probation Status
Chapter 29: Only in the Caribbean (Part 3 of 6)
Chapter 30: Only in the Caribbean (Part 4 of 6)
Chapter 31: Standardized Patient
Chapter 32: Only in the Caribbean (Part 5 of 6)
Chapter 33: Only in the Caribbean (Part 6 of 6)
Chapter 34: Failure
Chapter 35: Dominica to San Francisco
Chapter 36: So, you're not going to be a doctor.

There are 36 chapters with 36 stories. One of the reasons why there are multiple parts to a few of the sections is because I have multiple stories to tell. (I hope it all works if anyone out there ever reads it.)

One more thing: Anybody can write a book. Sometimes I get the feeling that people are offended at the idea that anyone would translate their story into a book. I bet anybody who ever went to any medical school would have an equally interesting story to tell. I'm just another guy; it just happens that I enjoy writing... and now I have the time. That's the only difference.

Also, it's my birthday today. I need to get off the computer. #fml

>_<