It is Monday morning, the day after Halloween and my first ever medical school interview! I had my interview last Friday, October 30th 2015 at UNMC and it was quite an experience to say the least. The day before the interviewed, I went over the agenda that they had e-mailed me to make sure I showed up at the appropriate time and location. After that, I decided to read a little to get motivated and inspired, I am currently reading Pathologies of Power: Health, Human Rights and the New War on the Poor by Dr. Paul Farmer. This book is a must read for all those wanting to understand how social inequality affects the health outcomes of people. I am half-way through the book and I love it! Dr. Farmer talks about his experiences as a physician in Haiti, Mexico and Russia and even though these places are thousands of miles apart, have different languages and cultures, they are all plagued by a common threat-poverty. Reading this book just enforces my desire to go into medicine, be a primary care provider and serve those people who have been marginalized by society for so long. After my reading, I finally went to bed around 11:30PM.
I woke up Friday around 6:00AM, my usual wake up time during the week. I brewed some delicious fair trade coffee from Chiapas, Mexico. I showered, got dressed with your typical black suit, white shirt and black tie, got a cup of coffee to go and headed out the door around 8:10AM. Traffic was not as bad at this time and I arrived at UNMC's parking garage around 8:35AM and headed towards the Sorrel Center which was a good 5 minute walk. As I was walking, I saw another person heading towards my same direction wearing a black suit as well and thought-- another prospect student, this should be interesting. He stopped at the lights and I eventually caught up to him, he was friendly which surprised me as I was expecting prospect medical students to see one another as their rivals, their competitions as this is a wolf race and only the best and more fierce make it to the top. We talked for several minutes and eventually arrived to our destination--Sorrel Center 4th floor. We got our name tags, interview times and went inside a big conference room where there were a lot more students. I counted 29 students total, 30 with me. While sitting down, I heard my name, one of my friends/acquaintance was in the room. I sat right behind her and we were excited to have one another for moral support. Gigi Rogers, the coordinator, finally started speaking around 9:00AM. She introduced herself and went over the agenda. The financial dept. director was up next, she talked to us about how affordable medical school is...NOT... for UNMC, the total cost of tuition, interest, plus whatever else they add (sometimes I think they would even charge for the oxygen we breath if they could...capitalism at its finest) adds up to a whooping $50,000/year. I am not going to lie, it sounds a little scary. I come from a family where if you don't have the cash for pay for things upfront then don't buy it because you can't afford it so $50,000/year x 4 on student loans do not seem very appealing right now. The presentation went on, I kept listening but could not avoid to wonder what it would be like to be almost a quarter of a million dollars in debt. I could not grasp that idea, it was out of my reach.
After the few speakers, it was time for our school tour. Fourth year medical students were the chosen ones, the ones who would sell the school to us-- or to them as I already knew that UNMC is where I needed and wanted to be. The tour lasted about a good 30 minutes, the student we had made the right decision to go into medicine because his tour guide skills were off but that's okay because I know that he had other things to worry about--he is preparing for his residency interviews, he wants to be an orthopedic surgeon. We got back to the conference room, I had 30 minutes to spare--my interview was scheduled for noon.
This piece of art and pure genius named "Healing" sits in front of the Sorrel Center. Such a beauty!
I saw this tall, slim person, wearing a lab coat entered the room, he looked intimidating and I was praying that he wouldn't be my interviewer. He looked down at his piece of paper, it took him a few seconds to gain confidence before he could yell out that name. From previous experiences, this was a clear sign for me that the name written on his paper was mine and in fact, it was. I thought to myself--why him?-- but I took a deep breath and made my way where he was standing. We shook hands firmly and introduced himself, we went down the hall where we entered a smaller conference room. He again introduced himself, told me a little bit about his professional and personal life and told me about the close-file interview process. Dr. R (as we will call him) was young, maybe around mid to late thirties and is an anesthesiologist. After a few minutes, we got down to business. "Tell me about yourself", those were the words that came out of his mouth and luckily for me, I had heard them before. I kept silent for a moment, I was nervous but I thought to myself, "This is it, you are the best that my Latino community has to offer, you have to make an impression and represent, don't let them down, don't let yourself down." Dr. R noticed that I was silent and perhaps that I was nervous so he reassured me that he wasn't here to put more pressure on me and said, "...tell me where you come from, where you grew up." I took a deep breath in front him, he smiled almost as if he had found my action a little unusual but then I began to speak. My words were coming out very eloquent and I seemed genuine, my nervousness had gone a way. I was that person, that confident, powerful, genuine but well rounded person who had a flame inside, a flame that has been lit for quite some time but never had the space or opportunity to expand, to increase its intensity so at that moment when it was finally given the opportunity to breathe, I let it all out. My passion, my drive, my life experiences all came out to light after been hidden in the darkness for so long. I kept going , I was non-stop but my words were not boring him, he was intrigued, he was engaged and he had the look of a person lost in thought--almost as if he was wondering how this Mexican kid who grew up alone in the U.S.A., with no parents, with no social support, low income and with no academic guidance made it all the way to being the first one in his family to graduate from high school, go on to college and graduate with honors and now to being the first one to pursue a professional career in medicine. After twenty minutes I finally had answered his first question. The interview kept going for several more minutes, he asked me what my hobbies were and his last question was, "Are there any yellow flags that I should be aware of on your application?." As far as yellow flags, the only thing that really concerns me is my MCAT score which I have already shared with you guys but asides from that everything in my entire application is as good as it can be at this point in time. I may not be your typical pre-medical student with a 4.0 GPA and a 36MCAT but I have the heart, the determination, the work ethic, the passion and I am proud of my life and what I have accomplished. These qualities are what got me through college and it is because of them, along with the support from my fiancée and mentors at work that I have made it this far so if one is doubting if I have what it takes to be a doctor, have no doubt, the fire is still lit in me and will keep burning until I fulfill not just my dream but the dream of others--the dream of those who are hungry for dignity, hungry for social justice and I made sure Dr. R would remember me, remember my journey. We went over time, the interview is supposed to last 30 minutes only but we went 5 minutes over-- I guess I am just too passionate about medicine and the underserved populations.
Overall, I feel like the interview went very well. I am 100% confident that I would be accepted if admissions was solely based on the interview...but it's not. The waiting game begins again, Gigi said that the earliest date we could hear from admissions is mid November but from what I have been reading from previous threads on Student Doctor Network, it looks like we will be waiting until mid December at least. In the meantime, I will just stay positive and see if I get an interview invites from the other schools.
Next time you guys hear from me will be when I have the good or bad news so it may be next month, unless I have an update on one of my medical schools. Feel free to send me any questions!
