Section A · Page 6
The University Daily Kansan
Tuesday, April 27, 1999
Missing out on medical school: Dealing with the heartache and disappointment of rejection
Continued from page 1A
"There was no bright side." Pursley said. "It's hard to understand what a person in that situation feels. No condolences seemed to help."
And that's not too difficult to understand.
The competition
The race to get into medical school follows no easy course, said Paul Crosby, premed adviser at the University of Kansas.
"When we have a deep need — whether physical or spiritual — we have such an appreciation for those who help us," she said. "We automatically feel that much respect is owed to that person."
McCurdy compared the physician's place in society to that of ministers and other spiritual figures.
During the years of preparation, premed students tell parents and friends about their aspirations. Ears perk up when family members hear of their boys' and girls' plans to enter such a prestigious field.
First of all, the race is packed. Thousands of students aspire to be doctors for a number of reasons, Crosby said. Some want to help. Some like science. Some are interested in health care. Others are looking for high income or the high status our culture awards physicians.
"Physicians, in some respects, are the last heroes we have," said Crosby, explaining the profession's popularity.
So it's hard to hide rejection when it comes.
So it's hard to hide rejection when it comes. "Parents and family carry a lot of pride in what their kids do," McCurdy said. "When they apply for medical school, an extra burden is shouldered that can compound the heartbreak of not being accepted."
Jaime Wendel is a senior at the University of Kansas studying microbiology. Although she still plans on attending medical school, after seeing her friends suffer through the application process, she decided that she didn't want to balance school and the application process during her senior year.
Although she's not completely sure what she'll do next year, she hopes to find a job and take a couple classes so her brain doesn't turn to mush.
"There is an extreme amount of pressure
you put on yourself and sometimes even from your family to get excellent grades in the hard prerequisite courses," she said. "I've seen friends spend their entire spring breaks and weekends studying for the MCAT Your dream
becomes so close that you do everything in your power to make sure that you don't screw up somewhere along the line. Anything less than an A on your grade card makes you wonder if you should rethink your future plans. Like any dream, it becomes your sole focus, and other aspects of your life don't seem to matter as much. It is entirely too easy to wear yourself thin both physically and mentally."
The med school application process only adds to the anxiety.
The grueling process
First, applicants must subscribe to an application service such as the American Medical College Application Service. Applicants send the service a computer disk full of biographical information, personal comments and a transcript including their MCAT scores. The Medical College Admission Test is a standardized test divided up into three sections: verbal reasoning, physical science and biological science. Each section is graded on a scale of 1 to 15. The average for the KU med school is in the low nines. A school like Harvard averages scores in the low eleve-
As for GPAS, a 3.4 is "OK," said Crosby, but improvement over time, the rigor of the undergraduate degree and near-graduation slumps are factored into admission decisions.
The application service verifies the information and then sends it to the schools that applicants wish to enter. Schools make a broad cut by deciding whether to interview the applicant. For most schools, the applicant must pay a fee just to apply.
McCurdy said that about 1,500 students applied to the KU School of Medicine every year and that about 375 of those were interviewed. Of those 375, about 210 to 225 are admitted. The class is eventually made up of 175 students after some choose other med
schools. Any shortfall is made up through the first 25 to 30 alternates on the waiting list.
For the interview, students schedule two conversations with either one or two physicians, clinical workers or senior med school students.
Each interviewer attends an orientation on how to put aside personal preferences, but some subjectivity is bound to creep in.
Weighing the interview
Adviser Crosby is critical of the process, or at least how the medical schools portray the interview.
"Interviews have more weight than they really deserve," he said. "I wonder if it wouldn't be better for the med schools to be more honest about it being arbitrary."
Although MCAT scores and grade point averages are the primary determiners on the road to getting into medical school, the interview plays an important role — especially for those in the middle range of grades and MCAT scores.
Crosby said that when med school applicants with decent scores weren't accepted, it was the interview that they often blamed.
McCurdy, who gets more than her fair share of telephone calls from disappointed med school applicants, said that students had some false notions about the interview process.
"Applicants think that when they're invited to interview, MCAT's and GPA's aren't a very big factor anymore," she said. "The interview can overshadow some things, but you shouldn't bank on that happening. They're looking for an applicant who is pretty much stellar across the board."
The doctors who interviewed him asked Pursley questions like what he thought the role of a doctor was, the characteristics he had that would make him a good doctor and where he saw himself in 10 years.
And with questions like that, it was difficult. Pursley said
A magic eight ball, dice and lottery tickets lay on adviser Paul Crosby's desk. He calls the collection a "shrine of uncertainty" and uses it to show students the role of chance involved in getting into medical school. Photo by Magnus Andersson/KANSAN
McCurdy admitted that the interviews couldn't be 100 percent objective.
"It's humans who are making the selections and making subjective decisions about other human beings." she said.
Although the interviews are scored on a numerical scale, McCurdy said the med school refused to provide students with their scores because different interviewers were likely to have their own interpretation of the scale.
"These premed students are so used to converting numbers into the meaning of life and that doesn't necessarily measure learning," she said.
Heffley said the interviews never produced complete pictures of med school candidates.
"It's just four people that decide in 30 minutes whether or not a person is good enough to enter medical school," she said. "What if the interviewers don't do a good job in representing you?"
Missing the cut, moving on
Paul Crosby's desk holds constant reminders of the pain of the med school application process. On his left, he keeps a box of tissues for premised students who cry during conferences. On his right, is a jumble of objects used to remind students that getting into medical school is never black or white. This "shrine of uncertainty," as he calls it, consists of losing lottery tickets, a giant eight ball and an assortment of dice.
"I don't know if anyone can be prepared."
"The way you get rated out seems subjective," Pursley said. "It seems odd that things you did such a long time ago matter so much. Also, I've always been envious of other majors that don't have as much pressure as far as numbers go. You have to get A's. Suc-
Pursley wasn't.
"I don't know if anyone can be prepared," Crowshy said.
graphics by Rachel Kesselman/KANSAN
cess is not judged on how much you learn, but how you rate out."
But Pursley doesn't want to come off as a whiner.
"I didn't go looking for media to complain to," he said. "I'm not real bitter at the process. I just wish it would have worked out in my favor."
Heffley feels the same. Although she received her rejection letter months ago, the disappointment still stilings in her mind.
Now she's looking for a summer job at a hospital or maybe a pharmacy.
"I'll be looking through the classifieds, and it will all sink in again," she said. "It's always there, in my mind."
Pursley will graduate this spring from Kansas State University but is undecided as to what the next year holds for him. He wants to work at a pharmacy or other health-related job and perhaps take a few classes while he waits to reapply to medical school.
As for his No. 52 place on the waiting list, he doesn't give it much regard.
"I'm not going to medical school," he said. "That's the bottom line. My place on the waiting list is not a consolation prize."
— Designed by Tony Vinh
— Edited by Liz Wristen and Kelli Raybern
"I was so sad that I had not succeeded in exactly what I'd been trying to do for so long."
Ryan Pursley med school applicant
“It's just four people that decide in 30 minutes whether or not a person is good enough to enter medical school. What if the interviewers don't do a good job in representing you?"
Hilary Heffley med school applicant
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