MS1 at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA

Eghosa Edogun

URM

Low-Income Student

2 Gap Years

First Generation

TL;DR

Realized passion for medicine during sophomore year
Joined mentorship program for minorities in STEM
Was a medical assistant and surgery coordinator for a ophthalmology clinic during gap year
Was a high school tutor during gap year
Wish to give back to his community and have impact on students through medicine

Update: Jan 2021

The beginning of medical school has been a rollercoaster of emotions. Becoming a doctor has always been my dream, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity. I have spent the last couple of months amazed by the complexities of the human body and learning from professionals who are at the top of their respective fields. However, much of my excitement has been shrouded by the current state of the world. Our country failed in its response to COVID-19 and the president of the United States added fuel to the flames of racism and bigotry on a global scale. Like many people around the world, I deplore the lack of repercussions our politicians face and mourn the lack of justice for Black lives. One of the most challenging aspects of medical school so far has been the incessant absence of justice and human decency on display for the past 6 months.At times I’ve felt an overwhelming state of grief. While the challenges of school continue to build, I’ve had to wonder about my safety as I jog around the affluent UCLA campus and surrounding area, as Ahmaud Arbery was not given the same freedom. My mind wanders when I attend histopathology labs and cardiology lectures. When I study, I find myself thinking about whether my family, friends, or even myself will share the fate of the countless Black lives lost to police brutality or COVID-19. Needless to say, medicine has not been the number one thing on my mind.

I have survived the first few months of medical school by relying on a phenomenal support system and a loving family. The friends I have known for years and the people I have met at UCLA are wonderful and have allowed me to vocalize my thoughts and my fears. I’ve relied on my younger sister as a source of inspiration and genuine laughter. In the past couple of months, I‘ve picked up playing the saxophone to calm my nerves and find a way to reset when studying starts to feel mundane. It has been a welcome distraction to fail in my attempts to sound like my favorite jazz musicians, and to interact with such brilliant and thoughtful individuals here at UCLA.

The past year has brought a great deal of heartache for far too many people. Here in America, we have consecutively experienced a series of major life-altering events. With that foresight, I am honestly just grateful to be here today. My heart goes out to everyone that is merely just trying to push through it all.

Background

I was born in Benin City, Nigeria and my family moved to Hayward, Ca when I was very young. Back in my home country my family tended farms with makeshift instruments and sold crops in the local market to make a living in Nigeria. My parents both believed in the importance of education and were fortunate enough to bring my siblings and me to America to obtain a better life. In America, we encountered a different set of challenges. My parents had difficulty securing housing and finding good-paying jobs. To my parent’s surprise, the social challenges were something they could not prepare for. I was taught that with hard work and dedication I could overcome any obstacle, but in America, my work ethic could never shield me from the reality of being a Black man. As a young adult, I was constantly followed around in stores and questioned by authority figures about my intentions. As a college student, I was stopped by campus police unjustifiably. I was frequently asked whether I got into college on a basketball scholarship as if I would not have pursued an education otherwise. I found out early in my life that people would try to convince me that I did not belong in the spaces I occupied, so I decided to apply to medical school.

It wasn’t until my sophomore year of undergrad that I realized I wanted to go into medicine. There was no one in my life at the time that had the blueprint for accomplishing this insurmountable goal. Luckily I found a position as a health coach and met a phenomenal Black doctor who gave me the confidence to pursue a career in medicine. Her mentorship and the mentors that I have gained along my journey have played pivotal roles in getting me to where I am now.

Undergrad

After high school I decided to go to UCSC to major in Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology. I picked UCSC because of its proximity to my famiIy and friends. Before I entered school I had a huge fear of failing, and it didn't help speaking to current undergrad students. I vividly remember a 2nd year student at UCSC telling me that I would most likely change majors after my first year because of how difficult the coursework could be. Motivated by fear, I sought out support early on. I joined a mentorship program that was geared towards increasing the number of minority students that graduated with STEM degrees. The program became vital to my success in undergrad and I flourished because of it. I became a mentor and tutor for the same program during my sophomore year. I held several leadership positions that were not tied to medicine. I highly recommend finding things that you genuinely enjoy that aren’t related to science. Some of the things I enjoyed the most was being the co-chair of the Black men’s alliance and coordinating overnight programs for high school students to become engrossed in higher education. During my third year, I got into research and made a lasting relationship with my PI. I began researching a spliceosome-associated protein, PRP5, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. My research hoped to explore PRP5’s role in spliceosome formation by controlling amounts of PRP5 in the cell. Minor errors in splicing cause a variety of diseases, and I hoped to elucidate more about the function of its human homology. Unfortunately, with a lot of basic science research, I had obtained nothing meaningful for the amount of work that I did, but I still would not trade the experience for anything.

Gap Years

After graduating in the spring of 2018, I wanted to learn more about medicine and earn enough money to finance my medical school applications. I also did not feel as if I was ready to apply to medical school yet. I knew little about what I was getting myself into and wanted to take some time to enjoy graduating undergrad. I found a position in an ophthalmology clinic that allowed me to accomplish that and that also allowed me to gain mentorship from a practicing physician. As a medical assistant and surgery coordinator for the clinic, I was able to learn a great deal about how private practices are run. I learned firsthand the frustrations of communicating with insurance companies and how to authorize procedures and office visits. I answered phone calls, ran diagnostic tests, and took patient histories. Performing these tasks allowed me to develop my knowledge of medical terminology and learn about the patients in my community. As a surgery coordinator, I informed patients of the risks and benefits of their procedures, helped navigate their insurance plans, and laid out their pre-op and post-op instructions.

Though this experience had a plethora of opportunities for me to build my skills and knowledge of medicine, it was some of the most stressful work I have done in my life. It was very fast paced and the physician I worked for demanded perfection to the point that the experience could feel robotic and toxic. It is common for a lot of premed students to have these stressful gap year jobs, but truly try to find something that interests you. Luckily, I loved the patients that were in the community and I was able to build rapport with many of them.

Some of the most important work that I did during my gap years was actually as an in-classroom high school tutor in Hayward, Ca. Before Covid started I was able to sit in different math and biology classrooms and assist students who needed a little bit more help digesting the information that was being taught to them. I was able to develop study plans with my students and give them resources to help get them on pace with the class. It was an extremely fulfilling experience. To be able to go back into my community and have some type of impact on students is something I hope to accomplish in my future career in medicine.

Mcat/Grades

Though I enjoyed my gap years, I was unfortunately forced to start working 3 days after graduation. My position at the ophthalmologist office was eager to hire someone and I could not pass up the opportunity. So I decided to postpone my MCAT from the summer of 2018 to January 2019. I was given a month off of work to study and honestly, I don’t recommend using that small amount of time. Everyone starts from a different place, but with such an important exam I believe it’s important to take the test once you’ve put your everything into preparing for it. I got a 511(128/125/128/130) on the MCAT and because I financed my study resources, MCAT test, and the application cycle I decided to not retake the exam and highlight other aspects of my application. My cumulative GPA was 3.88 and my science GPA was 3.86.

Application Cycle

The application cycle was exciting, stressful, and expensive. I developed an unhealthy relationship with my email notifications after I submitted my application on June 9th, 2019. It was riveting to be able to explore a new city and meet phenomenal people from across the country. I used every interview as a networking opportunity and made some good friends along the away. In total, I spent close to 3500+ dollars on the entire application process. This includes primary applications, secondary fees, flights, and hotels.

When the application cycle was done for me I had narrowed down my choices to UCLA, UC Davis and UCSF. I felt very fortunate to be able to have these options for attending medical school. In the end I decided on UCLA because of the financial package that UCLA offered.

Schools applied: 29

Secondaries submitted: 18

Interview invites: 12

Interviews Attended: 9

Acceptances: 8

Waitlisted 1

Extracurricular/Employment

Teaching Assistant UC Berkeley School of Public Health
Koret Scholars Research Symposium presentation
Surgery Coordinator at Ophthalmologist office
Reseach Assistant- MCD Biology
Academic Excellence Program Mentor/Tutor
Health Career Connections- Health coach/student mentor
Destination Higher Education coordinator
Best Buy Inventory Specialist
Black Men’s Alliance Co-Chair
Intramural Sports Referee
Koret Scholarship Awardee
iCare4vision grant writer
Assistant Basketball coach
External Outreach Health Guardians of America