The following story is true.



The female in the following story is an actual person I actually know. She is actually starting med school in the fall. She could actually be your doctor in 8-10 years....and you'd never know.

(Some minor details may have been altered to protect the ignorant)





***





So I'm sitting at my favorite subway enjoying a ham-on-wheat (extra mustard) when I am interrupted by a perky voice calling my name. "Spinach? How are you?"



"Oh, good."



She invites herself to sit across from me. We did some prereqs together, but I haven't seen her for a year or so. We're both applying to med school, so you know where the conversation goes first. Numbers. GPA. MCAT. sGPA. etc. We have similar LizzyM scores. ~75. She has a higher GPA, I have a higher MCAT.



Then comes the question nobody wants to ask or answer (sans those looking to gloat). "Have you got in?"



I wince. "Well, not yet. Ive got a few interviews, waitlists, y'know. Now I'm just waiting."



I know exactly what is coming next and she does not hesitate. "Well I got into 3 schools so far and I'm SO STRESSED trying to decide. I mean, school X is close to home, but school Y offered me a small scholarship, and school Z has the most amazing campus."



"Congrats on the first-world problems," I mutter behind my sandwich.



"What?"



"Oh. Nothing."



"So what about you?" She asks. "Why haven't you gotten in?"



"Oh, a combination of factors. My low-ish GPA. The fact that I changed my major several times. My lack of a commitment to the underserved throughout undergrad. I never went on a foreign mission trip...and, of course, one of my transcripts got lost in the mail so my AMCAS primary was officially complete something like 2 months after I submitted it..."



"Why didn't you go on any mission trips? They really impress med schools."



"Couldn't afford them. My parents could hardly afford rent and groceries when I started school. They're in better shape now, but still can't afford to give me a couple grand just so I can do something which 'might impress med schools'."



"Oh, well that's unfortunate," she says blandly, like someone who doesn't have any concept what she is talking about. "Say, don't you have a minor in writing?"



"Yes I do. We first met in that Book Editing class."



"Oh that's right!" She laughs. "Well, there's your answer."



"What answer?"



"You're a writer! So what you need to do is write a personal statement that convinces all the adcoms that they NEED to accept you!"



"And how do I do that?"



"Write about your trials and difficulties. Write about how being a doctor has ALWAYS been your dream. Make the adcoms believe that this is your destiny and that they would be making a horrible choice to turn you down! You like novels, so write your personal statement like it's the novel about your life."



"No one would want to read that novel," I mutter. "I haven't done anything novel-worthy."



"Adcoms want to read it! You just have to make it interesting."



"But... I haven't done ANYTHING worthy of a novel. Adcoms are reading thousands of these--how do I make mine stand out?"



"Well, if you haven't done anything interesting... MAKE IT UP."



"I... what?"



"That's what I did." She sort of shrugs and looks at the ceiling. Afraid to make eye contact? "Freshman year I went to Mexico for spring break. Got completely ****-faced drunk. Best spring break ever...I stayed with my aunt. She's a doctor down there. One day, I got to put on some scrubs and look around her clinic. I got this great picture, too." She pulls out her brand-new iPhone and swishes her finger across the screen until she comes across a picture of herself in plain blue scrubs. She has a net over her hair and a surgical mask pulled down to her chin so the camera could catch her wide smile. Behind her is an old wall-mounted blood pressure cuff. "I told the adcoms that I spent the week checking blood pressures and giving vitamins to homeless people. They loved it."



I can only stare. I wonder why she's telling me this. Is she bragging? Or does she have a guilty conscience and feel the need to confess?



She puts the iPhone away. "Same thing the next couple years. I went to Peru, and some hell-hole in Africa. Hated Africa. Got some good pictures at least... Adcoms loved every minute of it. Fourth year was a little different... my mom went to Rome and took me along. I told the Adcoms that I helped at some soup kitchens in Rome, but didn't have any pictures. They loved that, too."



"Haha." I laugh uncomfortably. "So, you straight-up lied to their faces?"



She shrugs. Again refuses to make eye contact. "I told them what they wanted to hear."



"But it was a lie."



"Everyone lies." She shrugs again. "That's how you get into med school."



"I didn't," I say, a little too harshly. "Not once. I didn't make up any experiences or exaggerate any of my volunteer hours."



She glares at me, now looking sour. "Well, maybe that's why you haven't been accepted yet!"



"Uhmmm...." I have no response.



She stands up. The sour look is gone in an instant. "Well, good luck Spinach. I hope you get in somewhere."







***





An open letter to Adcoms:



Men and women of the adcoms in this country, PLEASE take a step back for a moment and look at the culture you have created.



By expecting every single applicant to have volunteer, shadowing, leadership, research, and community service experiences, you have inadvertently created a filter which selects primarily for those premeds who either A) have done these things solely to check off boxes on their way to applying to medical school, or B) are willing to blatantly lie about their own experiences solely to impress you. Either way, the goal behind the creation of these requirements--selecting for students with a little bit of drive, humility, and compassion--has been lost to those who are willing and able to game the system.



Either way, by expecting pre-meds to be super-human, you have put at a disadvantage all those who ARE human and have a conscience.



I did not lie once on my application. I was as honest as I could be. Yet, my (potential) spot is being given to those who will straight up fabricate experiences because they think such things are what you WANT to hear. Think about that for a moment.



Further, by giving any advantage to those who have traveled the country/world to assist the less fortunate, you tilt the game in favor of those who were lucky enough to be born to wealthy parents.



You have created an arms race in which the wealthiest and most dishonest are at an advantage.







So, what can be done? I'm not in your shoes, so I don't know everything that goes through your mind. I can make suggestions, but the decisions and implementation are not mine. The following list is me brainstorming over the internet.



1. Stop giving credence to anything which can be fabricated.



2. I understand the desire for physician shadowing/clinical volunteering, as all students starting medical school should have some concept of what they're getting into. But judging applicants on how many of these experiences they have/how many hours they have is flawed because someone can learn more shadowing in the ER for 50 hours than they can stocking shelves in the ED and fetching water for 500. Then again, someone might shadow in the ER for 500 hours and learn nothing if they are not engaged in what is happening.



3. Start giving more value to things like double majors, minors, and skills which cannot be fabricated (such as speaking other languages or the ability to play an instrument).



4. To summarize my ideas in a nutshell:



A. Start with LizzyM score (or whatever variant you prefer).



B. Add points for things which cannot be fabricated, like:

--speaking foreign languages

--playing instruments

--employment

--peer-reviewed research

--poster presentations

--double majors

--minors

--advanced degrees (MS, PhD, etc)



C. Add (far less) points for things which might be fabricated, or may have been done solely to impress you, like:

--mission trips

--community volunteering

--joining the university pre-med club (or being an officer thereof)

--physician shadowing

--hospital volunteering



D. And the following should have NO bearing on an application:

--major (French Lit or Cell Bio? No difference)

--university (State school or Ivy league)

--community college credit (If I can show I know physics on the MCAT, why does it matter where I took it?)

--what is worn to interviews (Are you going to judge my abilities as a med student by the condition of my shoes?)



E. Highest scores get interviews.









Anyway, a million thanks to those of you who read all of this, and I hope I have given you something to think about.



For those of you who are dizzy and need a tl,dr... Next time I'm sick, I don't want a doctor who got into med school on a lie. Get the liars and gamers out of this process.



Thanks for reading.