Deserving it

Most people who apply to medical school have been working towards it pretty much their whole lives. Many have decided to do it in high school and apply to science undergrad degrees. They usually spend their undergrad studying like mad, spend all their spare time volunteering and their summers in research labs.

In short, they work damn hard for a long time to try and get the approximately 1 in 10 spots available for the number of people who apply. Unfortunately many won't get in - some will have GPAs that aren't good enough (for medicine - though probably good enough for anything else). Some many not do that well on the MCAT. Some may just bomb the interviews. Most try again - going back to school or getting graduate degrees.

So...what must they think of people like me? While yes, wanting to be a doctor did cross my mind in high school and even in university, I didn't spend the same number of hours in the library, all my spare time volunteering. I had a lot of fun! My summer jobs consisted of being a camp counselor and travelling around Europe (as well as some crap jobs).

I wonder sometimes, do I deserve it? If I get in, will I be taking the spot of someone who worked much harder than me whose dream it has been for much longer than its been mine? And the answer is, if I get in, I will be taking the spot of someone just as good as me and probably someone who worked much harder to get that spot.

The consultant I met with said that they always have way more deserving candidates than spots. They will often resort to methods such assessing whether the sexes are properly represented, if there enough minorities and even if there are enough people of certain ages. So someone may not get the spot simply because they filled their quota of men, Asian students or over 25 year olds. Its incredibly unfair, but it has to be done. The government decides how many medical school spots are available and there is nothing else that they can do.

Sometimes this frustrates me so much. I actually feel a bit guilty when I think about it, though at the end of the day, I know that if I get in I will deserve it. That is what I want to prove with this year.