Many candidates find medicine at different stages of their careers. While Alex had always considered being a doctor and had completed pre-med classes in college, he gravitated towards a computer science major and ultimately took a programming job after graduating. Two years later, he realized he wanted to come back to medicine, but was fearful medical schools would never accept him because of his “non-traditional” background. Indeed, as Alex had spent such a great deal committed to tech career, he had not really completed much shadowing or research, which also worried him.
Alex’s story is not uncommon in the world of medicine. Many candidates apply from non-traditional backgrounds. After exploring with his team at Inspira, Alex realized he had many unique skills to offer medical schools that most other candidates did not. However, with limited time before his application, he needed to show he was committed to a new profession and not just burnt out from his old one.
We started by creating a plan for Alex to expand his clinical network and experiences by bringing his much needed skills as a programmer to academic physicians. Alex quickly gained shadowing hours, insights in medical practice through new projects, and mentors to write his letters of recommendations. Most importantly, he was able to effectively show medical schools that he was deeply committed to a career transition.
When In Doubt, Lean In
Alex eventually became passionate about using skills as a programmer to improve the quality of care provided in hospitals in an ever-growing age of electronic health records. Inspira was able to use this perspective to help Alex create a nuanced and insightful application that shone through the competition.
We were also able to guide Alex as to how this career trajectory could be aided through a dual degree MD/MBA program. Alex was able to lean into this dual degree vision to help show top medical schools his commitment to these ambitious career goals.
Alex had applied to 30 medical schools two years after graduating college. He was accepted into 7 medical schools and 4 MD/MBA programs, including Stanford, Tufts, UMiami, and Johns Hopkins. He chose to attend Stanford.
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