I applaud Farrah Mateen1 for critiquing, among other things, the money-paved road to medical school. Fees for my med school applications this year exceeded $1000. If I receive interviews for any of these applications, I will dry-clean my suit, take time off work, drop money for a flight, hotel, and food, and respond to questions about my lack of hobbies (sorry — I have 3 jobs and need to study frenetically because only those with the top 400 GPAs are considered). What makes the process so difficult isn't the money itself, but the fact that it is entirely a gamble. I can expend my life savings, work half a dozen jobs, study until my brain will absorb no more. I can live in a slum so that I can afford to write the MCATs, yet I would never have gotten interviews if another (wealthy) student hadn't generously lent me the (shockingly expensive) sample MCATs she bought off the Internet. I will trek to any of the 4 corners of this country if I'm blessed enough to receive a one-time 45-minute period of scrutiny (curiously, to work the line at a Toyota plant, there are no fewer than 5 interviews), but there's no guarantee that I won't just be left with large bills and no certain way of paying them off. Would the interviewers like to hear how I spent 72 hours a week in the summer mowing lawns, developing sunstroke (and potentially skin cancer) in the process, and was thrilled to get back to school because it involved sitting and only 20 hours a week of mowing? It's a truly fascinating story. What it isn't is a recipe for getting into medical school.
Reference
- 1.