I walked into her office thinking, “Ok! I have no clue what I’m doing, so I’ll ask her to help me.” By the time I left, I was discouraged and crying. Meeting with my pre-med advisor didn’t quite go as planned.
I had always been a good student, even graduating salutatorian of my high school class. College was much more challenging than I had expected. I entered as a chemistry major because I really enjoyed the subject in high school. However, after only one semester, I knew I was overwhelmed.
She asked, “What do you ultimately want to do.” “I want to go to medical school. I want to be a doctor,” I answered. Without asking me any other questions, she said, “Hmmm… Maybe you should go to dental school.” Then she paused. “But that’s hard to get into, too. Maybe you should go to graduate school and do something else.” Needless to say, she was not helpful.
I never did go back to see her, but I also didn’t know what I needed to do to get into medical school. Scared to fail, I avoided taking chemistry classes towards my major. By my third year, a fellow student handed me a booklet which included the medical school requirements. Realizing that I was so off track, I sat on my dorm room floor crying my eyes out. Crying wouldn’t get me where I needed to go, so I decided to ask the Assistant Dean for help.
Finally, I felt like I had a plan. She helped me realize that I had enough biology electives to change my major to biology, but I would have to stay an extra year in college to complete my degree. It was a tough pill to swallow; however, I was more in control than I had ever been. After graduating from college, I worked and took post-baccalaureate classes for four additional years. In that time, I took the MCAT twice, improving my score significantly the second time around. When I finally applied to medical school, I felt ready and confident! On the first try, I was accepted into both allopathic and osteopathic schools. I decided to attend an osteopathic school because it was the best fit for me. MIssion accomplished!
Along this journey, I learned so much more than just medicine. During my post-bac days, I was president of my local MAPS (Minority Association of Pre-medical Students) chapter. MAPS is the pre-med arm of a larger organization, SNMA (Student National Medical Association), in which I continued to participate while in medical school. The SNMA is the largest minority medical student organization.
SNMA opened my eyes to racial and health disparities in medicine. Being a Black woman, these disparities were especially noticeable to me. My medical school had less than 10 Black students in a class of over 200 students, a trend that is seen nationwide. Having met my mentor in the SNMA, we started to help pre-meds with their applications to medical school. Unfortunately, other minority pre-meds shared similar negative experiences with their pre-med advisors. I wondered if this trend contributed to existing disparities. Hearing their stories jumpstarted my mission to help pre-med students.
In my third year of medical school, I was elected SNMA’s National Pre-med Board Member, and in my fourth year I became the Chairperson of the Board of Directors. There’s much more to my journey, so I’ll sum it up. Not only did I graduate from medical school, I graduated with a MBA degree (I guess I did take my advisor’s advice to go to grad school, after all!) and am now a practicing OB/GYN. I’ve completed and directed a health policy fellowship under a former US Surgeon General, done international medical missions in Haiti and Ghana, and written health articles for online newspapers and blogs. Despite all of this, I continue to help pre-meds on their journeys to med school because it’s important to me to contribute to diversity in medicine.
My advice to pre-meds is to know that this process is not one that is meant to be done alone. Reach out to someone for mentoring. There are some great pre-med advisors out there. If you’re not getting what you need, reach out to a professor, medical student, or doctor for advice. Also, there is no one path to a medical career. It’s not an easy road. You will face challenges and even discouragement, perhaps even more so as a minority student. It’s important to surround yourself with others who share similar goals. Join organizations like SNMA/MAPS, your campus pre-med club, or create one if it does not exist. In short, be persistent and innovative, two characteristics we all want in a doctor. Why not start now?
*This post was written by Dr. Darko herself.*
Dr. Renée Volny Darko is the founder of Pre-med Strategies, Inc. (www.premedstrategies.com) and is dedicated to helping pre-med overcome challenges of getting into medical school.
I had always been a good student, even graduating salutatorian of my high school class. College was much more challenging than I had expected. I entered as a chemistry major because I really enjoyed the subject in high school. However, after only one semester, I knew I was overwhelmed.
She asked, “What do you ultimately want to do.” “I want to go to medical school. I want to be a doctor,” I answered. Without asking me any other questions, she said, “Hmmm… Maybe you should go to dental school.” Then she paused. “But that’s hard to get into, too. Maybe you should go to graduate school and do something else.” Needless to say, she was not helpful.
I never did go back to see her, but I also didn’t know what I needed to do to get into medical school. Scared to fail, I avoided taking chemistry classes towards my major. By my third year, a fellow student handed me a booklet which included the medical school requirements. Realizing that I was so off track, I sat on my dorm room floor crying my eyes out. Crying wouldn’t get me where I needed to go, so I decided to ask the Assistant Dean for help.
Finally, I felt like I had a plan. She helped me realize that I had enough biology electives to change my major to biology, but I would have to stay an extra year in college to complete my degree. It was a tough pill to swallow; however, I was more in control than I had ever been. After graduating from college, I worked and took post-baccalaureate classes for four additional years. In that time, I took the MCAT twice, improving my score significantly the second time around. When I finally applied to medical school, I felt ready and confident! On the first try, I was accepted into both allopathic and osteopathic schools. I decided to attend an osteopathic school because it was the best fit for me. MIssion accomplished!
Along this journey, I learned so much more than just medicine. During my post-bac days, I was president of my local MAPS (Minority Association of Pre-medical Students) chapter. MAPS is the pre-med arm of a larger organization, SNMA (Student National Medical Association), in which I continued to participate while in medical school. The SNMA is the largest minority medical student organization.
SNMA opened my eyes to racial and health disparities in medicine. Being a Black woman, these disparities were especially noticeable to me. My medical school had less than 10 Black students in a class of over 200 students, a trend that is seen nationwide. Having met my mentor in the SNMA, we started to help pre-meds with their applications to medical school. Unfortunately, other minority pre-meds shared similar negative experiences with their pre-med advisors. I wondered if this trend contributed to existing disparities. Hearing their stories jumpstarted my mission to help pre-med students.
In my third year of medical school, I was elected SNMA’s National Pre-med Board Member, and in my fourth year I became the Chairperson of the Board of Directors. There’s much more to my journey, so I’ll sum it up. Not only did I graduate from medical school, I graduated with a MBA degree (I guess I did take my advisor’s advice to go to grad school, after all!) and am now a practicing OB/GYN. I’ve completed and directed a health policy fellowship under a former US Surgeon General, done international medical missions in Haiti and Ghana, and written health articles for online newspapers and blogs. Despite all of this, I continue to help pre-meds on their journeys to med school because it’s important to me to contribute to diversity in medicine.
My advice to pre-meds is to know that this process is not one that is meant to be done alone. Reach out to someone for mentoring. There are some great pre-med advisors out there. If you’re not getting what you need, reach out to a professor, medical student, or doctor for advice. Also, there is no one path to a medical career. It’s not an easy road. You will face challenges and even discouragement, perhaps even more so as a minority student. It’s important to surround yourself with others who share similar goals. Join organizations like SNMA/MAPS, your campus pre-med club, or create one if it does not exist. In short, be persistent and innovative, two characteristics we all want in a doctor. Why not start now?
*This post was written by Dr. Darko herself.*
Dr. Renée Volny Darko is the founder of Pre-med Strategies, Inc. (www.premedstrategies.com) and is dedicated to helping pre-med overcome challenges of getting into medical school.