Brief Profile:
25 year old paramedic, business-grad turned pre-med. Graduated with a BBA in Management from Texas A&M University at age 20. I have worked full-time as a paramedic ever since.
Education: -BBA in Management, Texas A&M University
Leadership: -Lead medic position (non-paid) with a campus-based EMS department, mentored and supervised new first responders in prehospital emergency medical care. -Advisor (non-paid) for an EMS Explorer Post, mentoring/training/supervising high school students interested in a career in emergency medical services. -Student Preceptor at my EMS agency, training, supervising, and evaluating student paramedics during their internships which are several months long.
Medical Work Experience (Paid): -3 years full-time experience as a Licensed Paramedic for two 911 EMS agencies, approximately 12,500 hours. -1 year part-time experience as an EMT-Intermediate for a private, non-emergency ambulance company, approximately 800 hours. -1 year part-time EMT-Intermediate experience as a first responder at a campus EMS agency, approximately 1,500 hours.
Volunteering: -2 years volunteering for two campus-based EMS systems, approximately 2,400 hours.
Shadowing: -Emergency medicine physician (MD), approximately 100 hours. -Orthopedic surgeon (DO), approximately 20 hours.
Memberships and Certifications: -Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity -Texas Department of State Health Services - Licensed Paramedic -National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians - Nationally Registered Paramedic
I was a business major at Texas A&M, at that time in my life I had no idea what I wanted to do. I tossed around the idea of transferring to a more pre-med-appropriate degree but my grades weren\'t good enough and I wanted to just graduate (I already had 90 hours). After graduating, I started working as a paramedic and tossed around the idea of medical school but didn\'t fully commit until around 2010. I\'m happy to have been admitted to five D.O. schools on my first try. I\'m matriculating at UNTHSC-TCOM for the Class of 2016.
If your grades are similar to mine (low GPA, decent MCAT) my advice is to: 1. Have a lot of extracurriculars to add to your application. Volunteer, shadow, research, do something. What helped me was several years of work experience and a ton of volunteer hours, along with physician shadowing. 2. Apply BROADLY. It shocked me to find out how many students in my TCOM interview group that didn\'t apply out of state AT ALL. TCOM was their only interview. If they didn\'t get in, they were finished. I applied to a lot of programs. I got a lot of flak from my family and other pre-meds, but I knew it was what I had to do because of my grades. I received 6 interview invites, attended 5, and was accepted at all 5 of those schools. 4 out of 5 were out of state. If I hadn\'t applied out of state I would have been in the same boat. If you have low grades, be realistic about your chances of getting into a competitive in-state school.
Summary of Experience:
I was one hour short in biology. I didn\'t realize that you couldn\'t count the three hour genetics requirement towards your biology hours requirement.
Summary of Experience:
Very nice school with a great reputation. I was just more interested in living in the Denver, CO metro area than Miami. Nothing bad to say about the school, I was very impressed.
Summary of Experience:
First interview and first acceptance of the season. I should have read more about PBL before I interviewed. I do best with structure, so an all-PBL curriculum probably wouldn\'t have been the best for me. The area the school is in is also pretty sleepy. However, LECOM-B\'s results attest to the quality of education that it\'s students receive.
Summary of Experience:
Solid school, but the campus felt a bit \"soul-less\". If you visit, you\'ll know what I mean. I know I would have received a great education but I wasn\'t in love with the school, and it\'s super expensive.
Summary of Experience:
I was set to go here until I got into TCOM. I\'m in love with Colorado and I hope to get into a residency program there. The school is so similar to TCOM it\'s scary. Financially and from a family standpoint, it just made more sense to go to TCOM.
