Recently, we hosted an event called “Google Map to Medical School” about different students’ paths to medical school. Panelist Marian Younge, a Child Development and Community Health alumna who graduated in 2013, shares that route that she took:
I came into Tufts thinking I would follow the traditional path to going to medical school: majoring in Biology, taking all my pre-med pre-requisites by mid-junior year and applying to med school during my senior year.
I soon found that this was not the right path for me. While I still enjoyed taking Biology, I decided that a major in the social sciences would give me a unique lens into my career as a physician.
I focused on gaining non-academic experiences that would expose me to the field and at the time, give me some much-needed affirmation that this was the right path for me. I served as president of the Tufts Minority Association of Pre-health Students, a group aimed at highlighting disparities in health and the importance of diversity in the health professions. I was also actively involved in the Tufts African Students Organization and was engaged in a variety of service projects.
After graduating from Tufts, I decided to work for two years to strengthen my application. I took a job as an AmeriCorps member for Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program where I work as a case manager for patients at high risk for opioid overdose death. In addition, I took additional science courses and prepared for the MCAT.
In my spare time, I volunteered as a college access counselor with Bruce Wells Scholars Upward Bound, a program aimed at helping first-generation, low-income students get into college. These service opportunities provided me an in-depth understanding of the challenges that face underserved communities and strengthened my resolve to work with this population as a physician.
I applied to medical school this past year and received some interview invitations as well as some rejections. But I was accepted to medical school and will matriculate this fall. Though my path to medical school was different from what I originally planned, it has allowed me to achieve my goal of becoming a physician.
One piece of advice I have for pre-med students is to be flexible and not to stress out too much. I spent a lot of time during my undergraduate years worrying about every single exam and grade. In the end, each one was only minuscule in comparison to my entire application package.
There are a lot of ways to get into medical school. There are always ways to strengthen your application and enhance elements that will make you an overall strong applicant.
Marian Younge, ’13
