My “Informal Postbac” year is also known as year 1 after graduating from UC Davis--also known as the former half of my “pre-med journey!”
I talked about some of it on my very first post, but I figured I’d go into a little more detail. Since most of my posts only ever seem to revolve around food, I feel like I’ve never really gone into any background on the rest of what actually encompasses my life most of the time (med school).
The first thing I decided to do was to retake all the classes I’d done shittily in (aka general chemistry and organic chemistry). In short, it was a terrible idea because it was monumentally difficult to fight my way into said classes and made me hate my life like no other. (You get no priority whatsoever in community colleges if you already have two degrees.)
I was also studying for my MCAT during this time, so life was a real picnic and I was a joy to be around (not at all). The only saving grace[s] during my fall semester were the following:
- Getting my license
- Anatomy lab
- Discovering Twirly Girls
I also ran my very first and only race–the Nike Women’s Marathon in San Francisco!
I spent a day and night tearing apart and rewriting my personal statement, and also put together LOR (letter of recommendation) packets consisting of:
- A personal thank you letter that mentioned specific memories/experiences I had with said physician/professor
- My personal statement
- My resume
- My transcript.
I asked about 7 professors and/or physicians I’d worked with that I knew would be able to write something awesome for me, and spent some time writing up mini essays for secondaries.
The community college + UCB extension courses I was taking ended in mid-December and I had the longest winter break in all of my educational history. It was wonderful and also a little terrible. Wonderful because hello, free time! Terrible because my MCAT was looming at the end of it. For the record, I had a really unconventional way of studying for this test that pretty much happened because of this conversation:
MF: Do you want to go on a 12-day cruise to the Mediterranean? You’d get to stop in Greece and Egypt and it’s only $390 to add you to our cabin.
F: In what universe could I possibly say no to this!? (Greece was on my bucket list.)
LIbrary in Alexandria.
Thus, my luggage consisted of some clothes, my laptop, and all my MCAT study material. My days on the ship pretty trmuch went like this: wake up, work out, eat, study, eat, work out, study, eat, see pretty places, sleep.
Rinse and repeat.
I guess it worked, because I got into medical school, but I probably would not recommend this as a study method, because it was pretty risky and I also got struck down by the plague (probably some horrible strain of Norovirus).
Malta.
Spring semester was a lot better because I was done taking my MCAT and also saw the light and decided that mayhaps it would be a better idea to take other science courses that I didn’t hate (aka almost all the kinesiology classes the school had to offer! :D :D!).
I ended up being only 2 courses away from getting an Associate’s in Athletic Training (so close, yet so far :'( ) and got my first 4.0 ever. (At long last!) It’s amazing how much your grades can skyrocket when you actually like what you’re studying!
