how i got into medical school & what i've done to apply to residency (first-gen college grad)

All right. Hello everyone. What is up? And welcome back to another video. I am so excited to be doing this video for you guys today because it's a huge synopsis of my academic career. Um, all the way through life. I feel like I've been in school my entire life and it is finally coming to an end where we'll no longer be a student. And although I feel like a professional student at this point, I'm very excited to move on to residency. My name is Rachel Southern. I'm a first generation college graduate and first person to attend medical school in my family. I'm a fourth year medical student and I will be graduating in a few months. I am so excited to become a physician. I applied into obstetrics and gynecology. And so I got this gift recently. I'm so excited to use it when I graduate, but Dr. Southern at your cervix. I am so excited you guys. Um, this has been a long time coming and I just can't believe that it's finally here. This is a very casual sit down video where I'm going to just talk about how I was as a high school student, how I did community college and undergrad, how I graduated and got prepared to apply to medical school. And then I want to also touch on what I've done as a medical student to get me to this point as a fourth year medical student. If you've been following my channel for a while now, you guys know that it's taken a lot to get to this point. And if you were to have told me that my life would have been in this point in my life at this time, when I was a high schooler or a community college student, I would have been like, there's no way that Rachel got that far. So I'm really excited for this video to maybe inspire you to help you believe that you can achieve and maximize your potential, even if you're coming from adversity, or if you feel like you have just so many obstacles in the way of your path to achieving your goal. I believe that the obstacle is the way this is a life changing book that I read by Ryan Holiday. I read it a long time ago. And that book really changed the way I think and my whole perception of life and how I see obstacles and really the obstacle is the way. So this video is going to offer you some inspiration and just insight of what I've done to get to this point in life. But what this video will not offer you is a cheat code or a hack to get to this point in life. If you know what I mean, there is no substitution for hard work. So it does take a lot of time, efforts, energy, charisma, passion, all of those things to achieve the goals in your life. Nothing worth having comes easy. So please keep that in mind. You guys can do this. If I can do it, you can do it. Okay, so let's talk about how Rachel was as a high schooler. Um, I hated high school. I feel like everyone else hates high school. I showed up and I existed and got by. I didn't read a single book in high school. Even if books were assigned to us. I never read anything. I just did what I could. I honestly BS my way through high school. I somehow managed to graduate with honors or whatever it is. To be completely honest with you guys, I didn't learn a single thing in high school. It really blows my mind when I have high school students watching me and you guys comment and talk about how you're a high school student. You want to be a physician and that makes me so happy that you guys know what you want at such a young age. But if you are a high school student watching this and you don't know what you're doing and you hate high school, then that's okay because you can still make it out and you're going to be fine. I didn't take the SAT or ACT, didn't know how to apply to college or anything like that. So I managed to figure out how to apply to community college and I ended up at a community college for three years. It was just a local college because I still wanted to work a lot. Once I started community college, this was the time where I actually started to figure out how to learn and how to study. This was the first time in my life that I actually started to apply myself and figure out how to learn because I never knew how to do that. So I realized how much I really enjoyed learning and the satisfaction it brought me to have more information in my brain. At that point in time, I was like, well, I need to kind of figure out what I'm going to do with this, all of this knowledge, like what am I going to do with my life? And so I figured, okay, I was an athlete forever, maybe we'll do physical therapy. And so I was like, let's just try physical therapy. I was like, okay, I'll declare my major in kinesiology. So that was like the goal for me. And I started to take those classes for the degree along with the other general ed courses that you have to take to get your degree. I did that and I managed to graduate community college with an AA in natural biology. It just happened to be like that. And then I transferred to San Francisco State University where I did another three years. So it took me six years to get through undergraduate. And I know it's usually like four for people, but it took me a little bit longer and that's totally fine. I managed to get three degrees out of that. I got the associates in natural biology. I got my bachelor's in kinesiology and I got a minor in chemistry. I got a lot out of it and I don't mind that it took me longer. I was working a lot throughout that entire time. So it was worth it for me to stay the six years. At the time as a college student, both community college and in undergrad, of course I had friends that I grew up with that were just, you know, they went to all of these huge universities and they were just, you know, doing everything so great and grand in four years. And that did take a hit on my self-esteem and I just kind of felt stupid. And it kind of had followed the trend of my whole life of feeling so much self-doubt, so much inadequacy and just feeling stupid, like I'm never going to do anything. And it took a while to get over that and just realize that, hey, I'm on my own timeline. I can do this as slow or as fast as I want. And these are the circumstances that I've been given and I'm going to just work within them and make what I want happen. Shortly after I transferred to San Francisco State, I had a conversation with my mom and I will never forget this conversation. We were in my room and we were talking about physical therapy, kinesiology, and I was kind of like, I don't think I want to do that. I want to do something in the medical field, but I think I want to take care of the patient as a whole and I want, I think I want to be a physician. And so I remember dropping that idea to my mom and she was like, you know, it's going to be a long journey, but we will support you in anything that you want to do. And so if you want to do that, like go ahead. My parents were never the type of people to push me into one career or the other. They supported everything that I have done and I love them so much for that, for letting me figure out what I wanted to do with my life and not putting those pressures on me. From that moment in that conversation, something clicked in my brain where I was like, I will become a physician. I don't care what it takes. I will do everything and I will not let anything in my path stop me from reaching that goal. I became incredibly dedicated and everything I did, every waking moment of time, I was like, I'm going to become a physician. I think that's a huge thing that you have to do to reach your goal and that's to just dedicate yourself to that goal and also tell yourself, I will become a physician. I am a pre- medical student and I will be a physician. I will be a med student. Some of you might disagree with this idea of identifying as a pre-med student or identifying as a med student, making it your entire life. Personally, I identify so much as a med student right now and I will identify so much as a physician just because I think that I was put on this earth to become a physician. That is why I'm here because I am so passionate about it and I don't mind that I identify so much as this thing or this idea. My role in life, just because I'm so passionate about it and it really, it makes me happy. It makes me tick. This is why I do the things that I do and why I've done the things that I've done for so many years now to get to this point in life. So although I did not always announce it to the world or tell my friends and family, to myself, I would tell myself, Rachel, you're a pre-med student. Rachel, you will be a medical student. Rachel, you will be a physician and I always told myself this. I identified and embodied everything that I possibly could and I think that helped me reach my goal because it just kept the passion there. It kept the drive and it was a constant reminder of my why and so if you believe that you are, you will be. I need a sip of coffee. So this was the origin of really me just trying to figure out how I was going to navigate all this stuff. So what I did at San Francisco State was I got involved with a health club. I was asking people questions in my classes because I knew that I was in this pre-med track of taking specific classes. I knew people around me were going to try to apply to medical school. So I would just ask so many questions to different people. I really just extracted information from people and I didn't care if I was asking silly questions or stuff that you should know because I didn't know anything. I didn't know how to navigate the academic realm. My parents didn't know. So I knew that okay I had to take these certain courses. I had to take the MCAT. I needed to shadow. I needed to do some volunteer stuff, some researching to make and check all these boxes off for this application so I can apply to medical school. So with that, the courses that I took, if you're interested, I don't know if they've changed since. I took like pre-cal and statistics. Those were my math requirements. I took gen chem one and two with the labs. I took o chem one and two with the labs. I did take a year of biochemistry and that was for my minor, but I think that you had to take one class of biochem. Anatomy and physiology was not a prerequisite at the time, but I think it is now and I really, it really should be if it's not. And then what were the extracurriculars that I took? I have a list here because it's been quite a while. Okay, so forgive me. So like I said, I don't know if the prerequisites have changed for med school, but I know that you probably still have to do some research and volunteer shadowing or whatever. So I'll share with you what I did for my research. I did very little research just because I honestly don't really like research that much or I didn't at the time. I kind of do now. So at the time, I did some research in an organic chemistry lab. Then I did a lot of research during my senior year with a lab on campus and we did a lot of work with mild traumatic brain injuries in women that are victims of intimate partner violence. So I did a few presentations and like poster thingies from that. Um, and so I got those under my belt, which was nice to have in terms of research for my med school application. In terms of volunteer experience, I did quite a few hours as a volunteer in the emergency department. It was not so much a very clinical experience just because I was providing like emotional support or like running things to the labs or, um, you know, helping families figure out whose bed that they were going to and stuff like that. Another position that I had was as a data processor where I inputted all of these like medications into this database that calculated if elderly people were at risk for falls based on the medications they were taking. And it was like a community project. You're probably wondering like, how do you get involved in these like research things or the volunteer stuff? Honestly, just ask, like talk to the hospital, like talk to hospital admin if they have like projects going on or community outreach things in terms of shadowing experiences. I actually never shadowed a DO. Um, I lived in the Bay Area and I don't know at the time, at least there's not a lot of DOs up there. I tried and I asked around, but a lot of them weren't taking students. And so I managed to shadow two MDs. Um, I shadowed a cardiothoracic surgeon and I also shadowed, um, an urgent care doc. A little fun fact, the urgent care doctor actually told me that I would never become a physician because I'm a woman. Boy, was that person wrong. Let's see. And then in terms of leadership positions, because I know that they're looking for points of leadership, I was a manager at a gym, like a high end gym. And, um, there's a lot of responsibility that comes with that and managing that and, um, the workplace and working with people and delegating and making sure the experience is great for our customers. So, um, that was my, one of my leadership experiences. And it was kind of a long-term one. I was there for quite a few years. And then, um, another position that I had was a president of the Pre-Health Honor Society at San Francisco State. And then of course I had my clinical experience. And I think this was the biggest part of my application that really helped me get into medical school as a physical therapy aid. And this is where I worked with patients directly. And I got this job after I graduated from, um, undergraduate, I, um, had my degree in kinesiology. That was the only, um, I guess requirement for this position. And I worked as a physical therapy aid. I helped with, um, patient ambulation. I also worked in a lymphedema clinic where I did a lot of like hospital admin stuff or like, um, you know, working with insurance companies and dealing with authorizations and like patient scheduling and doing all of that, um, desk work stuff, which actually I thought was really helpful to see the other side of healthcare. But what I primarily did as a physical therapy aid was, um, I was specially trained in the application of wound vac devices. It's a negative pressure wound therapy thing. Um, so I would work with patients and I would, we would have to work really quickly to close these huge gaping wounds from like post-surgical debridement and stuff like that. Definitely gained a lot of skills and experiences from that position. In terms of letters of recommendation, I honestly cannot tell you what I had at this point. I know that I made an old video and I said that I had five at that time. Um, sure. I don't really remember who they were from, but I know that there's a minimum of three to submit to medical school. My advice for you for letters of recommendation is to not go based on quantity, but rather than quality, it's good to have like three solid quality letters and to have like a bunch. And then in terms of scores and GPA, MCAT, all that stuff, personally, you should not be defined by your scores, but sadly it does play a huge part in your application. So my GPA overall between the community college in San Francisco state was a 3.89. My science GPA was a 3.93. In terms of my MCAT, which I did take twice, not a big deal, no shame in that. The first time I got a 4.99, the second time I got a 5.11. So if you're going to take the MCAT more than once, as long as you have an upward trend, you're fine. After getting through undergrad and then I took the MCAT twice, obviously, and I took that after I graduated from San Francisco state. Um, and then I got my application together, got my personal statement written, submitted those, um, during the first year that I had after graduation while I was still working a lot. And then, um, I waited for interviews. I applied to 22 schools. I think it was 11 MD, 11 DO. I got interviews for every single DO program I applied to. I did every single one of them. Um, for the MD schools, I think I got like four interviews or something like that. I didn't go to any of the MD interviews actually, just because I got my top DO school that I wanted. Um, and I did an interview for them and, uh, right off the bat, I was like, okay, well, this is where I want to go. They accepted me like a few days later. I have videos documenting this entire process, which was really awesome. So I'll link those down below. It's cool to look back on, but yeah, that was like a synopsis of my like undergraduate. And now we're going to start the med school point in time, what I've done as a med student, um, over the last four years. So let me get a sip of water and we will be right back. All right. And we're back. So, and we have a new camera battery cause my camera was going to die. So now I want to briefly touch on what I've done over the last four years as a medical student, um, in terms of like bulking up my application for residency. I'm not going to list everything that I put on my ERAS application, the residency app. So a lot of my experiences are probably a little bit different, uh, than like my classmates experiences or something like that, just because this platform has brought me so many opportunities that are very unique. Um, and I feel very grateful to have gotten the opportunities that I have, um, in the work experiences that I have put on my application. So one thing that I put on my application was YouTube. Um, I titled it as Google LLC cause it technically is under Google. And I just talked about what I've done on YouTube and this platform that I built, the community that we have here and, um, how I basically have shown my life as a medical student, um, navigating the upper academic realm. Another experience that's kind of like more unique for me, um, was working with Amboss and Sketchy and working with them long-term and, um, being behind the scenes, um, and working with them and their platform. Another thing I did as a med student, um, I think it was during or before my second year, I was a TA for this summer course, um, that we have on campus for incoming first years for like all of the programs that we have at our school. Um, and I taught high yield anatomy lectures. So, um, that was a good opportunity, um, being a TA shows like that you like teaching and that you can be a leader. And so that was really fun to do. Another thing I was involved in on campus was, um, this community health action team. Essentially what we did was go out into the community and we did physicals for people. Um, and it was just free. It was like sports physicals and stuff like that. Another thing that I did was work with a domestic violence shelter, and that was a really special opportunity. And then another thing that I did, like I said, this is not an exhaustive list of things. I'm just trying to give you an idea of what you can do as a med students. And I know time is so limited, but there are opportunities for you to do other things outside of school. But I work for this company, Tiana health technologies, and I filmed their rehab videos for, um, their like stroke survivors, um, people with upper extremity impairments, and it goes onto an app. And, um, we're hoping to get that to be like globally accessible. It's a lot to talk about, but, um, that's another thing that I do in terms of research. Um, as a med student, you don't really need to do research your first year, even your second year. I think that you can save it for like all in your third year. But, um, if you're a huge research buff, then go ahead, go for it. But I did most of my research, I think during my, during second and third year. So I'm involved with a research project right now. I'm not going to like talk about the title or anything, but, um, we're like in the process of like submitting everything to the IRB. Um, another thing that I did, sorry, I'm like reading off my laptop. I'm just going to put it up here so you guys can see that I'm reading from here. Another research project that I did, I ended up doing a presentation at the OMED conference for this one. And you guys might've actually participated in it because I put it out there for you guys to take the survey if you qualify, but it was for, um, like the perceived stress and your perceptions of your vaginal health in female medical students in the United States during COVID-19. So, um, that was another project that I did. Like I said, I got to, um, I did the research, but then we also got a poster presentation out of that one. More research that I've been doing has actually been with abortion access in the 20th century. And that's been ongoing for a few years now. I also got a publication, which was really exciting. Um, one of you actually reached out to me and said that you cited this in your paper, which is crazy. There was a survey that we sent out and it was for like all healthcare profession students to assess how prepared they felt to manage, uh, patients that were victims of intimate partner violence and how to, um, like give them the proper resources and tools. And I don't know just how they felt as students, um, going into the healthcare field and how prepared they felt. So that was a publication that I got, which was awesome. So in my application for residency, I managed to have a few poster presentations. I included the ones from undergraduate, um, and then the one that I had for during med school. And then I talked about all my research that I did. And then I also had the publication. So that was awesome for research. Then something else that I've done over the last four years as a med student was maintain really great grades during the first two years, like the preclinicals, you can be on the Dean's list. And so, um, I was on the Dean's list for those two years. And then during my clinical years, during years three and four, I've done really great on all my shelf exams and, um, during my rotations. So getting honors, um, it looks really nice on your application. So, um, that's also something that I did. It was just maintain really good grades. I also recently requested the high rank in my class. And we have a class of like 200 something students. And, um, I'm pretty high up in the rank, which feels good. And I'm not telling you this to like brag or show off or be narcissistic or conceited or anything like that. You guys, I'm just trying to show you that you can wear so many hats. You guys, I have so many different hats that I wear every single day. And I try and give 110% of my effort and passion and charisma into everything that I do. So I can Excel and succeed in all of these different parts of my life. You're hearing this from someone who thought so little of themselves when they were in high school, when they were growing up, even in community college, you're hearing this from someone who has experienced so much self doubt, so much inadequacy feelings in their life and felt like they would never get anywhere. And now I feel like, I feel like I've gotten to do so many things and I've gotten so many opportunities in my life. I promise you that today, that tomorrow, that next week or next year or 50 years from now, you can do anything that you want if you, if you work hard and put your mind to it. And if you have the passion, really, you can do absolutely anything. And I don't want you guys to let little obstacles, even no matter how big they seem, if they get in your way, then you just take it head on, right? Because the only way out is through. But yes, I hope that you guys found this video helpful. It was really fun to film and join our herd. We're happy in a great time. We would love to have you follow me on Instagram, all that stuff. We've got merch shop rictosouthern.com. I love you guys so much. And until next time, take care of yourselves, be kind to yourselves, continue to work hard and all that good stuff. Okay, bye.