On the Road to Medical School

It's been tough for me to get everything I've needed to do in applying for medical school done by the August 1st deadline for Quillen College of Medicine's early decision program because I am both a perfectionist and a procrastinator.  However, I was able to convince the wonderful members of Lipscomb's Health Professions Advisory Committee to give me an interview and write a letter of evaluation during the months of July and August, respectively.  I submitted my general application before the August 1st deadline and received a request for a supplemental application around August 3.  It took me a few weeks to get around to answering all of the questions to my liking, and then I proceeded to beg my HPAC adviser to mail the letter of evaluation to AMCAS as soon as possible.  The letter was mailed a little under a week before the August 24th deadline, but I realized that there was not enough time for the letter to be processed by AMCAS and made available to ETSU by the deadline.  HOWEVER, an AMCAS representative informed me that there was a way for the committee adviser to upload the letter of evaluation directly onto the AMCAS website, making the letter available to the designated medical school in about TEN MINUTES! Of course, I hauled myself over to Lipscomb's HPAC adviser's office, informed him of this fact, and pleaded with him to upload the letter as soon as possible (I was hoping that day, as it was the 23rd of August).  He told me that he had other things to do at that time but that he would try to upload it as soon as he could.  I thanked him and left a little worried about the possibilities of that happening.  A few hours later, though, I noticed an email from AMCAS informing me that my letter of evaluation had been processed and made available to ETSU.  I could have done a cartwheel had I had enough space.  I wondered why I had never heard of this LetterWriter program on AMCAS, the program that allows one to upload letters of evaluation/recommendation.  One would think that in this era, the ability to upload documents to websites would make mailing those same documents, which will be put on the same websites, obsolete, but who knows? Maybe there's a specific job for people at AMCAS who process those mailed documents, and they would be out of a job if uploading letters of evaluation became well known and widely used.  Well, I'm glad they have that option.  They must have been thinking of all those procrastinators out there who want to become physicians. 

Anyway, I received an invitation from Quillen College of Medicine to be interviewed by members of its admissions committee a few days after the August 24th deadline. I did a happy dance and thought about how quickly my supplementary application and letter of evaluation had been read and evaluated.  Then I remembered that I had applied for early decision, meaning that if ETSU wanted me as a medical student, it had to let me know by October 1st.  Yes, I was glad I applied early decision.  ETSU is where I want to go for medical school, and I am not the most patient person, so applying early to just ETSU and no other medical school was a good decision for me.  If I am not accepted for the 2012 year, I will apply to other medical schools as well, and if I have no luck there, then I will keep applying for the following years.  If I have to, I'll take the dreaded MCAT again.  Lord willing, I am going to be a physician!

My interview is in exactly one week.  If you read this, please pray for me!

~Shannon