3.3 GPA To MD School w/ Kelly

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Hey, welcome. This is Episode 14 and this episode I have the pleasure of interviewing Kelly. Kelly is a third year medical student and you can find her on Instagram where she has over eight thousand followers @kellytakesmedicine. Today we are going to get the chance to hear more about what scores got her into medical school and what her future may look like in terms of residency opportunities. Keep listening if you want to hear more about what path Kelly is planning on taking. Hi, Kelly. Thank you so much for joining me on today's podcast. How are you?

Hi, thanks for having me. I'm good. I'm excited for this podcast.

Yeah, I know. Me too. So tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? What do you do? What year are you in?

Sure. I'm from Southern California, more specifically I'm from Anaheim, which is where Disneyland is. It's about twenty five miles south of L.A. I went to UC Irvine. I wanted to stay pretty close to home. My major was biological sciences and I actually became the first in my family to attend and graduate from college. Currently, I'm in my third year of med school. I attend an M.D. program in Virginia.

That's awesome. So how many times did you go to Disneyland as a child?

Oh, man. I have like I held many Disneyland passes, so I would go all the time and I would just go for like an hour, which is like the nice thing about having a pass, because you can just come and go whenever you like.

I think I've been to Disneyland maybe twice.

Yeah, it's I can't imagine going there and spending like the entire day there is so tiring.

So my next question for you is about your GPA and your score. And the reason for that is I like for our listeners, if they're premed, especially to kind of know what scores got real people and rather than just the stats that they're seeing online. And so, Kelly, she is at an M.D. program and a lot of my following might be a little bit more geared towards Vios. It would be great to hear kind of what stats you had going into medical school, if you're willing to share that.

Yeah, of course, I have nothing to hide. So my science GPA was actually three point three and then my overall GPA was three point five. So I was pretty worried. I didn't think so. I was like pre farm for most of college. So I didn't I was scared that my stats weren't enough to get into medical school. And then on top of that, when I took the Mcat, I got a five or seven and I never re-took it because I just didn't have, like, the resources or like mental capacity to retake it. So with with these stats, I was low discouraged. But then I started hearing about DL programs and I'm actually interested in primary care and I knew that from the get go. So and I know a lot of these candidates do end up in primary care. So I actually applied to like 20 DL programs and then 20 for a new program. So I was like pretty split. So I think there's just like a misconception that, like one is better than the other. But like, really, I feel like it's just different missions. So when I applied, I just I read through like every MD program submission and whatever was primary care applied to those, you know, and of course, the program seemed like a good fit. So.

So what made you full disclosure? What made you choose M.D., an M.D. program over a DL program when you got your acceptance letters?

I feel like I OK, so I only got accepted to one MD program. And I mean, the reason yeah. The reason why I chose it was honestly because of logistics. I did not want to take two board exams because I know my dear friends like you, you have to probably take your own life and step one. But not everybody does, depending like what specialty they want to go into. What is it that was like the main reason why, like, I didn't I mean, it's a stressful exam. So, like, if I can only take one that would be best and then also use mission, like, still aligned with mine. So I was like, no, why not? Perfect.

So that's actually really there was some really good advice and what you were saying. So you chose schools, even though there were a lot of schools that you applied to, you did twenty and twenty four. You still chose schools that only corresponded with your specific mission of primary care. So do you think the one MD school that you did get accepted into, do you feel like you had better chances because you were so specific about what you wanted so that all of your essays maybe kind of lined up with exactly what the school had to offer?

Mm hmm. Yes, one hundred percent. I think that's like one of my one of the main things that I tell. It is like when you be very intentional about where you apply, because, like, for example, I probably would not get into any schools that were research and surgical focused. I probably wouldn't get into those schools because my avocation probably does not match up with what they're looking for. So, yes, I definitely think that that it does matter. And that's actually really that's great advice. So instead of research, what did you do for your extracurriculars instead?

I did lots of fun training, especially in underserved settings. That's sort of where I imagined myself practicing in the future. So I did like I was. Have you heard of fine? Sounds like this. Basically, it's like a student run clinic. And then we drive down to Mexico like every month or so and just provide free primary care to them. So I did that. And then I also did some volunteering, not really clinical related, just like volunteering in senior homes. I'm interested in geriatrics, so I thought it'd be nice to do that. And then I did work as a scribe for a little bit and then I worked as an MA for a little bit. Yeah, I think those were I did feel like I hate research, but only because I was doing benchwarmer in college and I just hated it. And I'm very impatient. So I can't like I don't know, research requires a lot of patience. You know, it takes a lot of time to see the effects.

This is the first time I'm going to probably say this word. But I did research right. Everyone knows I did research my college years and even my gap year. I worked for Sanofi as a scientist. And I think all the research experience I had is kind of help me get that position during my gap year. But I realized when I started working in farm at that company that I was not good at research, stressful. And I was just like, I just couldn't do it. I don't know if it was the math. It's very simple math, but there is certain procedures. And just like the concepts just didn't stick . It wasn't easy for me until many years later. So I, I think you're the first person that I'm meeting so far said that they hate research and it's great that you know that about yourself. And I wish I, I wish I knew that I had other options when I was a kid and I was building up my CV, I just thought, like, oh, I need research. I need I'm going to get it. And it completely wasn't true because I met so many people in my first year who had absolutely no research experience. And I remember being like, how did you get into medical school at all? And then I realized they did all this clinical stuff like you did. And honestly, they were way more prepared for med school than I was because they knew a lot of clinical scenarios that I just haven't been exposed to.

Right, right. And that's a really good point, because I think people I think it's more of like a checklist item than like an actual requirement. But it again, it depends on what school you apply to. If you're applying to Harvard or John Hopkins, then, yeah, you probably need some research and hopefully you like it to what you're doing.

Yeah. So my next question for you is, are you leaning towards any kind of specialty? You are a third year, so it's probably starting to kind of be on your mind. You're going to be applying next year. So what are you thinking about so far, especially after having done your rotations as a second year or third year?

Yeah, yeah. So I came into that school knowing that I wanted to go into geriatrics. And the path to that is you either do a residency in internal medicine or family medicine. So going into rotations, I was kind of in between those two and I still haven't had family medicine yet, but I've had so much exposure to it already.

But then my third rotation was internal medicine and I loved it. So that's that was my favorite. That is my favorite so far. But so now I'm leaning more towards internal medicine and hopefully I can do geriatrics fellowship after that. But then so I think internal medicine is similar to family. But you don't see kids and you don't you aren't trained in OBGYN. And so for me, if I want to take care of older patients, I feel like that part of the family medicine training may not be as helpful to me. So I think right now I'm more thinking about internal medicine.

What makes you love internal medicine and what experience or shadowing or whatever you've seen, what makes you like it?

I like it because so internal medicine is often referred to as just medicine, and I think there's a reason for that.

And part of it is because every physician needs to know, like the bread and butter of medicine. And before they move on to their specialty of choice, so, for example, I cannot say the same about Obgyn , that's not like not everybody needs to know. I had to, like, go into whatever specialty they want. But it's not that's before medicine is actually like you need to know a little bit of everything and you need to know well, and for me, like, I don't like one organ system in particular and I kind of like everything. So it's definitely for people who like kind of want to know everything and also want to take care of the patient and be their primary team. So like in the hospital, the medicine team takes care of the patient and then coordinates care, knows everything about the patient, and you have to take care of like all their health problems. So like in the plan, you'll see like of the problem list is like ten, ten problems and we have a plan for every single one. So, like, I just feel like we get to know the patient the best and kind of, you know, make sure that the specialists are taking care of them. Yeah.

So the question about that, so I think I have a little bit of a misunderstanding about it because I always thought, like, very generalized, obviously know patients care is different, but I was like, OK, if I go into internal med and I don't specialize, I know that you want to specialize or get a fellowship in geriatrics. And so if I just stay in internal med is all I'm doing, like seeing a patient and then referring them to a specialist is not going to be my primary job. And then right after I see them, so do you. Speaking a little bit to that, like, is that true or is that.

I don't think that's true. So I think it just depends on the provider too. For me personally, like the providers I've seen, we only refer patients or like requests a consult if we cannot ourselves take care of the patient. Like, is there something we cannot figure out, then of course we're going to call like the pulmonologist. So I think, yeah, that is a misconception. But it depends on the provider, too. Like, I know some doctors who, like, just don't want to think and don't want to deal with it. So they're just like, OK, I'm just going to refer you out, you know, so it just depends. But that's not been my experience. Like, we kind of do our best to take care of the patient and, like, figure out what's going on, fix the issue. Yeah. And then if we can, then that's when we call or refer patients, because that sense that sounds about right.

I think you hit it on the nail there. It depends on the physician themselves, kind of depends on how much they love their job and how much they love their patients right now. Yeah.

So my next question for you is you have an awesome Instagram page.I really like it. And I was wondering how you got kind of got into it and how you manage your time as a third year with running your page.

That is a great question. I ask myself that every day. Honestly, it is time consuming. I think the main thing is I just make time because it's something that's important to me, because when I think back as a female, I didn't really have a lot of resources or mentorship like med ig was not a thing back when I was a female. So I like kind of make time for it. And then I also had issues like I don't like letting people down. So like there is that pressure to like keep posting things and keep sharing advice. But I do try to limit my use to Instagram to like maybe one hour a day. And then honestly, sometimes like after like a full day in the hospital on rotations, like I have an open Instagram too much throughout the day. So it's nice to, like, come home of Instagram and then just kind of see what we were up to. So it's like a nice dress. And like I always like, see if you want stories, like kind of going through what I'm going through. So like sometimes is actually motivating to see, like, OK, other people are struggling to. So I feel better now, you know, like it's just like a way to destress and then like kind of even like connect with people you've never met like before. And then I always it's nice to like sometimes open up messages and see, like, you know, if you will, leaving little messages for you, like thank you so much. Your blogs helped me so like in a lot of ways it's positive. So I try to make time for that.

That's the perfect answer. I definitely relate to everything you said there and it's so nice connecting with people.

And, you know, that's something I feel like I've only just started doing. And it's really this podcast that has helped me do that because I get shy responding to people. I'm like, Oh, I followed you because I like your page, but how do I start a conversation that was part of Instagram for me? Like, I'm starting to learn how to do that more and ask more questions and talk more. And I'm right there with you with seeing people's stories. And like a lot of people are getting those remotes now. I'm seeing that, yes, there's learned things are like, oh, I didn't even know that existed. I don't know how many because I don't think I actually I don't know if I live on a. I get that maybe I don't, so you don't you shouldn't feel bad? No, I don't think it's so bad. I was just like, maybe I could do it from, like, a distance and just put my thumb on the spacebar the whole time. Yeah, right.

All right. So my last question for you is, what's one piece of advice that has changed your life in a way that you would want to share with everyone on this broadcast?

Well, this is a great question. I feel like there's so many things that got me to where I am. But if I were to choose, I would say to learn to be your own advocate because there's no one who will advocate for yourself other than yourself. Like, of course, like like have a support system and like have people in your life to remind you when you can remind yourself of your potential and capability. And it's always nice to have people advocate for you, too, but sometimes they're not going to be there. And it's important to know how to be proactive, take initiative and kind of advocate for yourself. I think one example for me is like as the first gen, I feel like this part of my identity has always like to find my path is being a first where I didn't really have mentors.

I didn't really have like resources. Like when I was early on in my premed journey. So I really had to be my own mentor and be my own advocate and like figure out what pre wrecks I need and like kind of do a heavy Google search and try to reach out to as many people as I can. Like there's nobody holding my hand, you know, like my family didn't know what sat was. I didn't know what it was. They just saw me study. So it's not like I had my parents, like, hovering over me because I know my friends, their parents are very intense and like always like pushing them about so many apps and all that. So I feel like that's really important to just kind of advocate for yourself.

Now, that's awesome. You have a lot of strong willpower to get yourself through all of those standardized exams. And this is actually kind of going back to that second question. I asked you about stats, but did you take a gap year after college to work on your application since especially you have to advocate for yourself on that?

Yeah, I did. I took two years and I was very nervous about that because I thought I would be behind. But then I didn't know until I got to school that most people take a gap year. So it's actually where if you didn't know, like maybe one or two people who went straight from college to med school, I thought I was pretty uncomfortable about the idea as well.

And I kind of regret everything. I rushed a lot. That's why I took them three times. I was just in a rush. I was like, okay, the first four wasn't good. I'm going to book my second date and take it again, OK? That's not where I want it either. I want to take it again one more time. It was completely rushed and it was because I was trying not to take those gap years. But I agree with you. I got to med school and everyone that had taken a gap year, I felt jealous.

I was like, oh my God, I want to I wish I took my things and see if anyone's out here listening and feeling the same way about it. Definitely no one has regretted their gap years. Nobody. Yeah, I know. That's something I had pressure from my family to not take the gap year because, like, I'll get distracted from my path. But that might not be a bad thing for some people either. If they decide medicine's not for them, which is completely fine, you know, because you're going to be in medicine for the rest of your life. And if you don't love it, you know, maybe you should figure that out during your gap year. So it could be very positive in so many ways. There's nothing negative that comes out of it.

And I agree, and I'm so glad that you're doing this. And, you know, we're we're here talking about it because it's crazy, just like see how many people don't know this. So I'm just glad that you're doing this.

Yeah, no, I definitely didn't have a huge social influence for, like, the medical community either.

And I only applied it's like two years now, two years. And I don't remember there being a huge community on IG either. Maybe I hadn't discovered it yet. So that's definitely grown a lot in the past two or three years, which I'm really happy to see. There's so much help out there now within social media. Yeah. So thank you for all that you do. Thank you for your blog on Instagram and for helping other people. If you guys have any questions or want to talk to Kelly more, you can reach her on Instagram again. Her handle is at @Kellytakesmedicine. So thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Thanks for having me out. Of course, if you guys have enjoyed the podcast, make sure you hit subscribe to make sure you don't miss any new episodes released every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Also, if you've learnt one thing from the show, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a rating and review, it means a lot to me. And I read them all. I'll see you guys in the next one.