I want to invite any listeners planning to apply to medical school this summer to check out our med webinar, The 5 Part Framework for a Successful Medical School Application. In the webinar I break down the complex med school application process into 5 essential goals that you must achieve if you are to be successful and start medical school in 2018. 

Our guest today can provide her own advice based her experience applying to and getting into medical school. She graduated from Arizona State in 2011. Later, she completed postbac studies at both Salt Lake Community College and UW in Seattle. Today Natalie Wall, of the Natalie Shoots People blog, is an M1 at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Welcome, Natalie!

Can you tell us about yourself? [1:55]

I grew up in Arizona, where I was really into dancing. Like you said, I went to ASU for college. I originally planned to go to law school, but I decided I didn’t want to sit behind a desk, so I changed plans. I moved to Utah, and here I am!

Why Utah? [2:20]

I had a thing with snowboarding… I decided I’d try to pursue that and maybe make a career of it, but a few hospital bills later, I realized it wasn’t for me.

How did you get from snowboarding to medicine? [2:45]

I come from a family of physicians, so medicine was something I was always exposed to from a young age. Partly because I’d pursued dance so seriously growing up, I wasn’t ready for the time commitment of medicine until I’d had a few more years to mature.

What else did you do during the time between college and med school? How long was that gap? [3:55]

I took two and a half years off from school. I did snowboarding (including time being injured), and also spent time coaching dance and gymnastics. And I ultimately went back to school.

Did you do a formal postbac program? Or more informal? [4:33]

It was pretty informal. I was a psych major in college, which I loved, but I hadn’t taken many hard sciences.

So I did all my core sciences in about two and a half years, going straight through the summer.

What was the hardest part of the application process for you? [5:30]

It’s pretty obvious I was a non-traditional applicant, so I think the struggle for me was trying to figure out my worth in this process that involved so many people who’d been working toward medical school since they graduated high school, and their entire resume was tailored to science and medicine.

How did you meet that challenge? [6:21]

I definitely had science experience, and exposure to hospitals, etc. I also tried to incorporate my life experiences. Those experiences have given me the confidence to interact with patients on a personal level.

What was the most memorable question you were asked at a medical school interview? [7:20]

One asked me what book I was reading. I happened to be reading a really awesome book, but I think if I hadn’t been reading a book at the moment it would have been harder.

Another that struck me as memorable, but not positive: the interviewer said,