MS1 at University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine

Jenny Cevallos

2 Gap Years

First in family to attend medical school

Disadvantaged and Underrepresented/Latinx student

TL;DR

I was initially a nursing major and switched to pre-med during my second year of undergrad
Both of my parents are Ecuadorian immigrants and I was the first born in the U.S.A.
Upward GPA trend in undergrad
Volunteered in Mexico building homes and conducting community health research
Interested in local and global community health

Update: Jan 2021

Starting medical school in the midst of a pandemic is not what I expected my first year of medical school to be. This was the first time I moved out from living with my family, whom I am very close to. The first week of medical school was an emotional rollercoaster for me, more so because I already missed my family, dog, and partner. The community I live in now takes COVID-19 very seriously, which led to about 95% of our classes having to be taken on zoom. Initially, I felt that I was missing out on meeting my classmates and getting the full experience of medical school. I felt disconnected, as if I was still in undergrad just taking online classes. We also were unable to have an in-person white coat ceremony which added to the disconnect. The white coat ceremony, for me, was really an event I wanted my family to experience since I would not have made it here without them.

There are some pros to not having to be in-person. I was able to spend more time focusing on classes while also taking care of my mental and physical health. While at home, during breaks between classes, I was able to quickly cook something for myself, clean up the house, and take a short walk. Fortunately, my family and partner are only a one-hour airplane ride away, which allowed them to visit bimonthly. There were even times I also surprised them with a quick visit over a three-day weekend. The few classmates that I have met are all supportive; I do feel a sense of community when I am able to interact with them. So far, medical school is not as difficult as I expected; but as others have mentioned, this was all possible with the continued support from my family, partner, and friends.

Background

Growing up as a child of parents who emigrated from Ecuador and attending primary and secondary school in a low-income and underprivileged area, I was given perspective and felt a draw towards serving disadvantaged communities locally and abroad. My mother is my number one role model. As a child, I did not notice all of the small and large sacrifices she made in order to have a fulfilling career taking care of her patients, while also coming home to take care of her kids. She modeled for me how rewarding it is to lead a life that is industrious and selfless, and I knew I wanted to find that for myself. In high school I was interested in healthcare and was deciding whether to pursue nursing with the end goal of becoming a Nurse Practitioner or biology with the end goal of pursuing an M.D. I remember making a pros and cons list, which resulted in equal pros and cons. I finally made the decision to pursue nursing, mainly based on the level of confidence that I had in myself at the time.

Undergraduate

Straight out of high school I was accepted to a competitive four-year BSN track with the end goal of becoming a nurse practitioner. I knew I wanted to be involved in direct patient care and diagnose similar to a doctor. At the time, I believed I could only achieve that diagnostic capacity as a nurse. I did not believe becoming a physician was in the cards for me, which stemmed from negative inner dialogue and faulty preconceived notions such as: most of my high school classmates did not attend college so medical school is unthinkable for me, most physicians are not Hispanic, maybe it is not a career fit for our culture, most physicians must have had an upper class and resourceful upbringing, rather than lived in a low-income environment like me.

After attending my college orientation, I learned about the opportunity to pursue research and became inspired. This led me to begin research during my second year of college which I continued for the next five years. Since medicine was still something I continued to consider, I worked and volunteered in a hospital to get a better understanding of the differences in responsibilities of the nurse and physician. I took it a step further by setting up a meeting with a Nurse Practitioner and a physician to convey my understanding of each profession and discuss my motivations for considering medicine. After speaking with the physician, he thought that my motivations aligned well with becoming a physician. When I shared my thoughts with others to pursue medicine, I was told: I should be grateful for admittance into a program that many biology majors seek to transfer into, I would be guaranteed a job without debt after graduating with a BSN, medical school is expensive and admission is not guaranteed, as a pre-medical student I would have to aim for straight A’s and take the 7-hour beast of an exam (MCAT), all while balancing work, extracurriculars, and family turbulence.

Rediscovery

Since I did not want to live with regret, I needed to at least try to get into medical school and became a pre-medical student. After a difficult pre-med year, I learned the power of patient-physician communication when I witnessed the repercussions of this aspect of medicine going awry in my own family. My initial desire for a career in healthcare coupled with this experience reinforced my conviction to become a premedical student and ultimately a doctor. I sought refuge from a turbulent family life by working and studying harder to one day be a health advocate for people and communities in need.

There were times when negative thoughts did come to mind as a pre-medical student: what if I cannot get mostly A’s, what if I am not smart enough to take the MCAT, what if I am not doing enough as a pre-medical student. I later graduated with honors and several awards for extracurricular activities, and I successfully took the MCAT. When applying, I asked a few previously admitted applicants for advice and I used an online applicant rating system to determine which schools and how many schools to apply to. Even then, I applied to 10 additional schools than was required thinking—just in case. This cycle, I received interviews at 60% of the schools I applied to, several acceptances, and I will be attending a school I was surprised to even receive a secondary from.

I could have stopped the pursuit at any point, believing in the negative inner dialogue. This goes to show that the ceiling of your potential is only as high as you believe it to be. Growing up in a low-income environment or with family turbulence—factors outside of your control—can trick your mind into accepting the hand you are dealt rather than pursuing deep fulfillment and joy. Do not ever accept anything less than what you imagine for yourself, in all aspects of your life!

ADvice

Pre-Medical Advice:

Pursue your own interests while keeping in mind what makes applicants competitive. Do not treat your undergraduate experience as filling checkboxes; admission committees will see right through that and you will not enjoy being a pre-medical student. Instead, devote yourself to what you like, even if your fellow pre-medical colleagues are pursuing other typical pre-med opportunities . When you follow your own passions, it will demonstrate dedication and it will be easier and genuine to talk about those experiences during your application cycle.

Personal Statement:

I think the personal statement is what made me stand out since interviewers liked talking about it. I made it very personal, talked about events and people in my life that influenced me to choose medicine. I also made sure to include goals that I want to carry out as a physician; I think this is important to write about for several reasons: it shows others that you are thinking about long term goals (rather than just getting into medical school), it gives you an opportunity to highlight what makes you unique, I do not think many people write about what their mission is when they become a physician (so again makes you stand out).

Applying to medical school:

Primary: When choosing how many schools and where to apply, I started with the WARS calculator. You input your stats and extracurriculars then it gives you a recommendation for how many schools you should apply to and of what tier. I found it to be very close to accurate. Like anything though I took it only as a consideration. Then I made myself an excel of schools with different tabs like weather, cost, Hispanics in the program, if they have a good global health program (my interest), and most importantly their MCAT and GPA average. About 25% of the schools I applied to had higher GPA and MCAT whereas 25% had lower, then 50% of the schools I applied to were within the median range. I made sure that my GPA and MCAT score was a bit about the entire average of the schools I applied to.
Secondaries: I did not really follow a system since they all come in at different times and some schools you may not even receive a secondary if you do not make the first cut. I did not pre-write because I did not have time or want to write secondaries for schools that I might not be given a secondary. I tried to do most with under a 1-week turnaround and for my top schools I believe I had a 1 or 2 day turnaround. A lot of schools will send you secondaries early June, so I prioritized my top schools and schools that based on stats I had a good chance of getting into.

Interviews Advice:

Try your best to get as much practice in as you can. I was fortunate enough to attend a practice MMI interview during undergrad; however, I would have benefited more from attending a few more. Take advantage of any opportunity to receive constructive feedback. I prepared for MMIs by looking online and YouTube for common questions and preparing my answers with another person. For the traditional one-on-one interview, I made sure to review my primary and secondary application for the particular school I was interviewing at to convey that I was a good fit for the school.

Application

While this information is important and part of the screening process for some schools, it is not the only aspect evaluated during your application. Along the application process, especially in the final stages, you will find the way that you convey your story and demonstrate your passion for medicine will outweigh stats.

2019 - Applied to 26 M.D. - verified on 6/14/2019
Secondaries to 25 schools (submitted most secondaries between July 2019- August 2019)
14 interviews September 2019 - January 2020 (only attended 10 interviews)
6 acceptances, 3 waitlists

Extracurriculars/Employment:

Admitting Representative – Garden Grove Emergency Room (3800 hrs)
Scribe – Garden Grove Emergency Room (1000 hrs)
Research Specialist – UCI, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior (1600 hrs)
Undergraduate Researcher, three publications and four poster presentations, four grants/awards - UCI, Department of Neurobiology and Behavior (600 hrs)
Five academic and service awards, four research awards
Global Medical Volunteer – Global Medical Training and Flying Samaritans (400 hrs)
Volunteer Mexico Staff – Baja Bound (1000 hrs)
Volunteer – Friends of Angels Autism Camp (150 hrs)
Volunteer/Shadowing – UCI Health Student Volunteer and various meetings with physicians (200 hrs)
Peer Tutor and Independent Tutor – UCI School of Biological Sciences (120 hrs)