My story: In undergrad, I didn't care about grades â¦I know, everyone says they partied hard and didnât studyâ¦but I pulled off my share of Câs in UG. I didn't want to go to med school at this time, didn't care for it to be honest. I came out with a 3.3 gpa with a double major/minor (engineering/arts/science) â¦I took a crapload of engineering courses which knocked me to the floor, despite having taking honors organic chemistry. I want to take a second out and emphatically state that my engineering classes brought me to my knees while my premed classes didnât come closeâ¦honest. Maybe this was because I just wasnât good at engineering.
After UG, I worked at an engineering firm for some time (I was not an engineer, but a project manager)...I hated what I was doing and decided that I wanted to go to medical school. I quit my job, took the MCATs, got a 32, and then applied to med school. I was rejected by every school I applied to, and was told that I was rejected because of 1) my GPA despite having taken engineering courses and having published in an engineering journal and 2) lack of clinical experience. I fell into the downward spiral that is rejection, but I snapped out in ~2 monthsâ¦..âfine, that's life, just push harderâ. At this point, I was âoldâ. I didnât want to wait so I shipped my butt off to the Caribbean to start medical school.
Before I started in the Caribbean, I went in pretty much thinking I would be an internist. That was what being a doctor meant to me. For some reason, we are told to volunteer at a hospital before applying to medical school so we could get an idea of what being a doctor was aboutâ¦what a bunch of crap. Medicine is so diverse that everyone finds their niche. Anyways, during my first day of anatomy, my group was apprehensive and no one wanted to touch the cadaver. I volunteered to make the first incision (superficial back). Something happened. Now, to go back a little....before medical school, I worked as an auto mechanic for some time (my uncle was a mechanic). This was a hobby which I did on the side to help pay for modifying my turbocharged monster. I loved working on cars or doing anything mechanically oriented for that matter. I won a couple of races, was mentioned in a car magazine for racing my car, etc etc etc. So, back to my cadaver...as soon as I made my first incision, I immediately felt the tangible reward of working with my hands. I fell in love and transformed into a surgeon in training. I became that guy who was in anatomy lab late at night because I found a feeling of harmony while working with my instruments. Iloved it. As time went on, professors started telling me that I would become an orthopedist. I am not sure why, but I am sure that it was because I was either: studying, working out (I had the strongest bench press in my school at the time), or partying. I had no idea what orthopedics was at the time but I decided to shadow an orthopedic surgeon in the Caribbean (I worked with Cuban surgeons at the time). Again, something clicked and I became an orthopedist in training.
As I went on in the caribbean, many people told me that I wouldn't make ortho because I was a caribbean student. I decided that they were probably right, but I was different. I was going to make ortho no matter what. I busted my butt the first two years of med school because I was going to match ortho no matter what. I came out near the top of my school (though this was a caribbean) and then started to study for my step 1. I moved to a small town where cows outnumber people for one reason-I did not want to see people or socialize while studying for this exam. The gym and my books would be my only friends. For 1 month, I put in 12-14 hours of studying and managed to get a high 99. I knew at this point, I would get my ortho residency.
I started third year confident that I would match ortho. I worked my tail off...first one in, last one out, read every day, went to the gym 6x/week. As I went through third year, I made it very clear that I was going to be an orthopedic surgeon. To my dismay, nearly every orthopedic surgeon told me that it would be very difficult...no...near impossible to match at the types of programs I was looking into (university programs in the NYC area). I was pretty much told to either look elsewhere, or pick another residency despite my achievements. At this point, I was nearing the end of third year. I cannot tell you how much I busted my butt to get to where I wasâ¦I honored every single rotation of third year⦠I took a lot of abuse, never said a word. I didnât sleep muchâ¦never complained. I studied my butt off. I went to the gym. I made every sacrifice I could have for the sake of Orthopedic Surgery. At this point, I was nearing my end of third year and I was kicking butt. I was told by several attending physicians that I was at the top in terms of med students (I was rotating with med students from a top 20 US med school at this time). Again, despite this, they all told me the same thing: I was not going to match into the ortho programs I would want. I was left with very few options. At this point, I was >150,000 in debt, tired from 3 years of medical school and very upset about the fact that I wouldnât match where I would want. I started looking into transferring, but found that there are only about 10-20 spots for transfers each year. My school in the Caribbean had a class size of ~720 (yes, ~2880 medical students at any given time), and there were several other Caribbean schools with students looking to transfer. The chances were slim, but I took a chance. In May, I interviewed at an American medical school, and 2 weeks later I was told that I was accepted to their third year class. I nearly broke down in tears as I had done the impossible. To this day, I am thankful for this opportunity...for had it not been for a stroke of luck, I would have been another Caribbean graduate who was looked at after all the American grads were looked at.
So, I guess I should end with a question. I have sacrificed almost everything I know in order to get a solid ortho residency... would the fact that I started off in the Caribbean prevent me from getting accepted into an excellent university program....???...
