Day 21: So it goes

“You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.” ― Harper Lee

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Mr. Squire walking us through the sample applications for the medical school

I think what always stressed me out the most about applying to medical school is what the admissions committee will think of my application. Will they like me? Are they going to throw me onto the waitlist / declined pile right after they see it? There certainly isn't a straightforward path to medical school but there are certainly some traits and activities of an applicant that are looked at more favourably than others. Our main sessions today consisted of this: looking at previous applicants to the GHS medical school and casting our votes as to whether or not they got in (which Mr. Squire told us the final outcome afterwards).

The mock admissions committee teams were interestingly divided up by our universities and then further grouped together by major. We'd walk through each applicant, deliberate, and then cast a vote but it was never as easy as I thought it would be. And boy, was there a wide variety of applicants. They all ranged from different backgrounds such as gang members, Navy Seals, geniuses with patnets, and a *poor boy* suffering from Affluenza that had showed up to his interview in a limo. My heart goes out to that last one.

I was certainly more divided on some applicants than others but interestingly enough the majority of the votes in the room usually sided with the decisions of the admissions committee. If anything, seeing how some people with lower GPA's or MCAT scores getting into medical school (and nut just GHS but also MUSC) made me feel less anxious about applying myself. I don't think that I'll ever not be nervous about the outcome this cycle will bring but coming to MedEx always makes me feel better about where my future is going. I just care for all of these people so much.

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Dear MedEx,

Im not the same girl that I was when I entered into this program four tiers ago. High school was a very different time and I thought that I wanted something completely differently than the goal that I am working towards now. If you asked the young girl entering Tier I that she would be applying to medical school one day she probably would have laughed and never dared to dream of it. Hopefully, I will achieve that dream very soon and enter medical school in the fall of next year. It has been a long and winding road to get here but I never could have done it without you. Through all of the confusion, the doubt, and the many other hardships I've had to hurdle in life throughout these past five years almost every summer MedEx was always there for me. The relationship not just between peers but with the interns and Uncle Al has saved me in more ways than one.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for all of the shadowing opportunities you gave me, for all of the resources to get me from point A to point B and for all of the laughter and the tears. I wouldn't have traded it for anything.

The Medical Experience Academy will always hold a special place in my heart.

Sincerely with love,

Claire Chabot

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Dear MedEx

If there's anything that you shouldn't forget its the heart of the program: the people.

Its the students who come each and every summer. The students that walk through the doors of the medical school and the hospital ready to learn and ready to fulfill their passions one day. They may be a little confused and a little lost but they want to try and are willing to learn. One day, they will give back to the community with everything that they've learned. Whether its here or its far far away, when the students themselves become teachers there are no limits to what they can do.

But its not just the students of each tier that are important to remember, its also the people who had a vision not just for this program but for the potential of the people in it. Mr. Squire has worked for years and years to help build this program into what it is today but to us he's more than that, he's Uncle Al. He's always there to listen, to help, to encourage and to believe in us when we don't even believe in ourselves. That means so much more than my words could ever express.

Most of all MedEx never forget that its not just a program, its a relationship.

Sincerely with love,

Claire Chabot