More Than the Numbers
The numbers. Everyone loves to talk about them. What was your GPA? MCAT? What about your science GPA? How many hours of volunteering did you put on your application? Publications?
For years, I put so much weight into my academic performance. I thought that my entire chances of getting into medical school were solely dependent on how well I did in organic chemistry. I stressed over the MCAT day in and day out, assuming that my score directly correlated with my chances of getting into medical school. When I had to retake it, I figured any chance I had was gone. Don’t get me wrong, doing well in your undergraduate courses and succeeding on the MCAT are key pieces to the puzzle that is getting into medical school. So many of the foundations of these topics are put into place so that we can succeed in medical school and as physicians. But, as someone who put a lot of pressure on herself to be a perfect student while balancing the demands of college athletics, I’m here to tell you that it’s ok to not be perfect and that a few “bad” grades or an average score on the MCAT aren’t going to be the end of your chances of getting into medical school.
For most pre-med student-athletes, the concept of pushing ourselves is nothing new. On and off the field, we’re high performers and expect nothing short of perfection from ourselves. While it’s no secret that many of these traits make some really incredible humans and physicians, I found a lot of pressure and self-doubt creep in over the years. If you’d ask most of my friends who are current medical students, they’d assure you that I contemplated applying to medical school this year because of how “average” my grades/MCAT were. There were so many days where I looked at my application and wondered if I could really do it. Yet, I am now writing this in November, with a medical school acceptance while I await more decisions over the next few months. I share this, along with my story, for those of you that don’t always feel like you’re always the smartest person in the room. I think that many of us are told that to be a physician, you have to have the perfect 4.0 GPA and not an ounce of failure on your application.
The imposter syndrome at Stanford is real. For those of us who are pre-med student-athletes, it can feel even more debilitating, or at least it did for me at times. For me, becoming a physician and applying to medical school has always been about so much more than my academics, and is the primary reason I continued down this path. Helping get AIMS off the ground with fellow student-athletes back in 2020 allowed me to learn from and meet some incredible human beings. Playing a sport that requires consistent teamwork showed me just how badly I wanted to be a leader of a healthcare team. Balancing academics, athletics, and the rest of what makes you who you are is a feat that should always be celebrated and recognized. If you want to become a physician, I truly believe with an unrelenting determination and resiliency, you can make it happen. And if you ever need a reminder, you know the person to reach out to.
- Emily Schultz, Human Biology ‘22/’23
