Perspective: I Want to Be a Doctor

Perspective: I Want to Be a Doctor

I am Chinese. My dad is a surgeon at a prestigious university medical center, and yes – I want to be a doctor.

Surprise Surprise! Another high school Asian who has been brought up…trained…indoctrinated to follow in the footsteps of his all mighty doctor-dad.

I will graduate near the very top of my class having taken 11 AP classes, spent summers in labs and clinics, not to mention hundreds of hours of community service. I will go on to a top university and graduate with a major in Molecular Biology and apply to only the top medical schools in the country.

Oh wait. No I won’t.

In fact, I didn’t do most of that and I’m not in high school – I’m 24.

While I did take 11 AP classes in high school, do lab/clinic work, and go to a highly selective university, I didn’t major in Biology. Quite the opposite, I majored in English Literature. Don’t get me wrong, I also took all the pre-med requirements, but I graduated with a 2.7 science GPA as opposed to my 3.9 English GPA.

If you didn’t know, applying to medical school with a 2.7 science GPA is about equivalent to sending in an application with nothing on it except: “I watch House on TV and its cool.”

Forget top schools, even the least competitive schools laugh at applicants with 2.7’s.

I loved my work in clinics, and loved the science; I just wasn’t that good at it. In college, I began studying for tests weeks in advance, putting in (and I say this quite literally) 30 hours of study time for a big test. I found myself teaching my roommate concepts the few days before the test (when he started studying) only to find my scores 15% lower than his. If I was lucky, I got a C.

So after college, I went on to do a few other things. I did some tutoring in high school and college so I got a Master’s in Education from UC Davis and a California State Teaching Credential. I taught high school for a year and loved it. I was so young and short that on my first day, my students refused to believe I could be their teacher. It was one of the best experiences I’d had in my life.

But when funding got cut and schools had to fire the younger (and often better) teachers to save the tenured teachers, I decided I needed some job security. So I followed another passion of mine, technology.

I started working in start-ups. For those of you who haven’t worked or heard about working in a start-up let me explain what it is. Start-ups are companies that receive millions in funding on the hopes they will hit it big on the next amazing technology and/or product. Facebook is a great example, along with Yelp, Groupon, Google, even Ebay was once a start-up.

But before they became giants, they all started out the same: some young, hopeful people with an idea and buckets of money that some big wig investors have bestowed upon them. Most often, a dozen engineers are hired, some sales and marketing folks, and in a few years, the company goes under or does alright. Once in a while, one hits it big like Facebook.

Now having experience working at a few of these, I can personally say that it’s a blast. They put you in a room with a bunch of other young people and provide you with a nice chair, desk, computer, etc. and ask what amounts to very little of you. You don’t make much, but it’s better than most other jobs that you’d qualify for and because the environment is so great, you do good work, and have fun doing it.

To me, the work I do each week at the start-up is not even half as hard as a single day of studying for my college science classes. Eventually (or so you hope), you work your way up and after 15 years or so, you’re a VP of something and you’re set.

But the thing about this kind of work is that it’s not that fulfilling. Maybe it’s just me, but my work teaching and even in clinics felt more valuable. In the end, start-ups are about money. When you’re company makes it big, everyone gets a huge check and promotions. I wanted more than that…

Which brings me back to today. I am still working at a start-up but spend 6 hours a week taking private MCAT tutoring lessons. (The MCAT is the equivalent of the SAT for medical schools) I got lucky and found someone who charges only $80/hr and I spend almost half my paycheck each month on the lessons. In April or May, I’ll take the test and apply to international medical schools. These are schools outside the US with vastly lower standards that won’t use my 2.7 GPA application as toilet or scratch paper. If I don’t get in, I’ll try again next year, and again the year after that. And if I still get rejected, I still have the start-ups. Wish me luck.

I’m Chinese. My dad is a surgeon at a prestigious university and yes – I want to be a doctor.

Advice:

There are those that fit the model minority stereotype and those that don't. To each their own. My advice, Do what feels right. If you want to follow your parents suggestions, do it. Even if you don't love the path they want for you, its probably a safe and secure route. They only want the best for you. IF you want to take more time and do your own thing, that's fine too. Just remember that the life of a starving artist isn't as glamorous at it may seem. Whether I end up a doctor or a startup employee or even a teacher, I'll know that it was worth the experience and hopefully I will be where I belong.  

With a perspective, I'm GSo