“So, we are only giving you until Friday to settle your balance. If you’re unable to make it, we cannot include your name on the official list of students in this semester.”
Today’s Thursday and I was only able to borrow 5,000 pesos to settle my 36k 1st semester balance. In less than 24 hours, things will change for me.
A few weeks ago, I wrote here that faith works. Yes, I still believe that it does. But what do people like us do when we are tested like this? I really don’t know. Me? since I received numerous blessings and miracles from God about this particular aspect, I still trust Him. I still know that He will help me get through this.
“I tend to rest while my world is in chaos because I believe God is with me.”
Merry Christmas to everyone! This is your future doktora, and I wish that you guys will treasure the time that you will be spending with your loved ones this Christmas eve. While some of you will be spending this evening alone or far from your family, I still hope that you’ll have something warm with you right now. Virtual hugs!
I guess it has been over a year since I last posted here. Well, like some of you, I had a tough no let me correct that. I still am going through something right now. Maybe time will allow me to share it here but for now, I just want to pour my heart out because I feel like exploding.
The pandemic transformed us one way or another. I bet you are not the same person as you were way back March. For me, something in this pandemic made me sadder and a little unmotivated. You know what guys, I feel tremendously blessed for having this foundation support me financially in my medschool journey even if they only cover a portion of my matriculation. Then to help me jumpstart my first semester, another generous person let me borrow around 30k just for me to have my down payment settled. Now here comes another challenge since the end of the semester is about to come (mid January) and I still owe the school 55k. Then after that, the enrollment for the 2nd sem will begin and there goes another 80k of balance. I am so dizzy in trying to find a job that can support my matriculation and other responsibilities. I am actually thinking of quitting med school for now. What stops me is time. My mother is 61 years old and I want her to see me graduate soon– while she’s still around. I want to provide her the experience of my MD graduation because that is priceless and I know it will greatly make her happy. If I quit medshcool now, I will have to wait another year and who knows what will happen, right?
What should I do? I mean I know what I want to do. But, it is really hard. I feel like breaking every single day. I guess what keeps me in pushing through is faith. Despite all of these that I carry, I am surprised that I am at peace. It is like I am just waiting for a miracle that I know will come. Have you ever felt that? I mean, God has always made ways for me, for this dream and at this rate I feel that He is doing something and I just need to stay still. I am not sure if I explained it properly to you. Faith for me is not just a 5-letter word. It is not an empty promise or an empty word but rather something hopeful springs from that word. Something that is greater than me or even greater than my dream.
That’s my very short answer for that disheartening question. But read on as how you can still get that MD dream despite of financial limitations.
Sure, having money enough to send you to medical school is a big factor for you and your family to decide if you’ll do it or not. But I want you to know that there are legal, possible, and attainable ways that you can do if money won’t smile back on you or you weren’t born with a silver spoon.
Get an admirable General Weighted Average (GWA) in College or PreMed I know grades won’t define one’s personality but hey! we are talking about medschool and having good grades will really become in handy in medschool. Most medical schools give out scholarships for those with LATIN HONORS. So if you are in college and planning to go to medical school? then study, study, study!
NMAT is a golden ticket! Connected to #1, pair your latin honors with a competitive NMAT percentile score. That would be 90 above. This pair would most likely give you a high chance of landing into a medical school with the least expenses. I blogged about tips in preparation for NMAT here.
Study in an SUC There are government schools or what we call State Universities and Colleges offering Doctor of Medicine Program here in the Philippines with FREE TUITION FEE. Yes, free matriculation for medical school. Excited already? An example is the West Visayas State University-College of Medicine in Ilo-ilo, you can read my blog about it here.
However, you need to know the terms incorporated with this. Some schools ask for a return service (but why not? SERVE THE PEOPLE!) for several years after passing the Physician Licensure Examination (PLE).
Sell stuff No kidding here! you can sell stuff while in medschool, earn from it, save your earnings, and pay your tuition. Believe me, you can. Sell something of your interest. Sell something that’s time saver when it comes to preparation. In my case, I sold puto pao and became a supplier in our school canteen. Some people I know, sell medschool stuff like highlighters, muji notebooks and pens, reprinted books, transes, notes, or even snacks of all kinds. You can even sell yellow paper hahahaha
Try a part time job suitable in your schedule Before I started medicine last year, I researched if a regular medical student can apply for a part time job and most answers I got was “NO”. I thought I can teach (I’m a teacher by profession hehe) in nearby schools. However, I realized that the salary for a part-time teacher is not really that sufficient for my case. You can also try to be a tutor and peg for at least 350 per hour.
So you might want to try looking for different part-time jobs in sites such as upwork.
Life is unfair. This is true. You might have classmates who doesn’t even need to experience things that you are experiencing just to pursue your dream. It might pain you to see them have all the things they have, have a good time, buy different things, and have a less stressed medschool life. But please see this hardship as a way of character formation because what you are going to achieve is something big and grandiose, you have to know and understand how to walk in a life with all sacrifices, inequality, and different shades of poorness to humble you and to value this life that you are given and the lives that YOU ARE GOING TO SAVE. Don’t give up with achieving your dream 🙂 Don’t give up on yourself and remember that above all, God is gracious and faithful ❤
PS Just to give you a background 🙂 I don’t have a latin honor nor with an NMAT percentile score of 90 above (but I do have decent grades and NMAT score). I’m a daughter of a former janitress. My father died when I was 5. I don’t have siblings to help me and my relatives have their own daily life burdens to carry. So if you ask me, “We are not rich, can I still go to medschool?” my answer is “YES! YOU CAN!”
Sincerely, Christine 2nd Year Medical Student (Batch 2022) Metropolitan Medical Center- CAST
Hello future docs! This time I’ll be highlighting my Medschool experience from the admission, interview, and the whole 1st year journey in METROPOLITAN MEDICAL CENTER-CAST COLLEGE OF MEDICINE.
I learned about MMC when the Dean (Dean Habacon) sent us an email (yes, this is how hands-on our Dean was and still is) inviting us to see what MMC has to offer. Despite being a “baby medschool” (cause MMC College of Medicine started 2015), I think MMC-CM provides its students astute physician professors to ensure that the students will really be equipped oh and plus the facilities here are sufficient for us. During this time, the 1st batch of Medstudents are already in CLERKSHIP in the school’s HOSPITAL (Yup, we have our own hotel-looking hospital). I told myself to give it a try. So I went to the school (Masangkay St. near Bambang or Divisoria) and submitted my requirements (which are listed here) I think the admission fee was about 1,000 or 1,400 per student. I also applied for scholarship because that is the only chance that I have to pursue Medschool.
Before my interview, the Dean was about to leave but still entertained me and ask me the basic questions for medschool applicants. I got accepted and was a given a partial Go-Tong scholarship. At this point, I was thinking about how happy my mother will be ’cause heeeeyy! I got a scholarship! hahaha MMC offers scholarship to deserving students so check their website from this link.
After that day, I prepared the things that I need since the class will start on August 3, 2018. Thankfully, a very generous Dra. Ables already gave me all her medschool books!
forever thankful for your kindness, Dra. Ables!
Fast forward to August and the school conducted the FRESHMEN ORIENTATION.. ghaadd I was so excited!!!
look at that! I got my lanyard already! ❤ I learned that we are almost 70 in our batch and hahahahaha I’m one of the oldest students like ahaha I was 27 when I started medschool haha my classmates were fresh grads or some just had a gap year.
Few weeks from this phase, I experienced battery of exams which appeared to be unbelievable.. it was hard 😦 our passing rate is 75% in each shifting (exam or quiz= shifting). I learned how to make a TRANS (like a reviewer that your class will make for everybody, got a chance to meet with PATIENTS (ahuh! we already meet with patients for our practical exams, we are just 1st year students) more of like the basics of how should we talk to the patients, get their bp, rr, hr, etc., But I think my favorite would be every cadaver day (hihihi) I get to see what’s really in a human body like how smooth the surface of the liver should be, how spongy the lungs are, how squishy the intestines are, how sturdy the heart should be, how complicated identifying the muscles -_-, nerves, and vessels, and how amazingly gorgeous the brain is.
First MedWeek Experience after the prelims! We had bunch of activities lined up such as zumba, Mr. and Ms. Medicine, basketball, volleyball, and medicine night.
We also had our NAME PLATE ceremony arranged by our student council as a reminder that no matter how hard Medschool can get, if this is your dream, you will do everything to finish this.
As months go by, we finished our midterms, and finals exams. These were the hardest months of my life so far because I know that things will get really tough soon.
Second semester came and I guess few highlights are:
We had a Tuli Mission spearheaded by the student council, their friends from UST Med, and Dr. Desiderio (our Anats prof), Biochem Research Symposium which was a culminating activity of our Biochem class, and Anatomy-Physiology AVP and Research Conference also like a culminating activity. In Medschool you will be doing studies or researches aside from the academic part of the subjects.
In Metro, you will be exposed to many things that can hone you to become the doctor that you dream to be. Imagine that’s just 1st year in a nutshell, what more in 2nd year? I’m really praying that our batch will make it through the promoboards.
Till next time (of oversharing) hahaha If you have questions, please feel free to comment and I’ll get back to you 🙂
Hello! For this blog, I’ll be sharing to you few important experiences that I had before and during my medical school interiewssss, quite a lot of “s” there because I applied to West Visayas State University College of Medicine (click the link to read my full blog about WVSU), Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (ASMPH), Our Lady of Fatima University (OLFU), De La Salle Medical and Health Science Institute (DLSMHSI), and Metropolitan Medical Center (MMC) in hopes that I can finallly pursue my Medschool dream.
I’ll be including a brief description of the NMAT requirement percentile score, admission fee, the contact number or email where you can further be familiarized with each school’s FAQs, and a little personal experience on the process ❤
Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health (ASMPH)
NMAT Requirement: at least 90 percentile
Admission Fee: 3,000 php for local (Filipino) applicants and 15, 956 php for foreign applicants
Personal take: ASMPH offers a peaceful campus located in Pasig. The campus is just adjacent to the Medical City where the clerks and PGI’s can have their training. It is really a bright and warm (figuratively) environment. Before I decided to apply for the scholarship in ASMPH, I joined the open house event that the then-incoming 2nd yr students prepared (they are already in 4th yr now 🙂 ). It made me excited to enter medschool because of the caring environment that ASMPH cultivates. And they offer an MD-MBA program that you’ll just take for 5 years. During the interview, I was with two doctors ( a male and a female) and they asked common medschool interview questions like “Why do you want to become a doctor?”, “Are there doctors in your family”, or “who will support your education?” and “What do you think about integrity?”. After the interview, you will be instructed on when to expect the date of release of the list of accepted students. So always update and check your email.
Admission Fee: 500 php for local (Filipino) applicants
Personal take: Though I got accepted here, what I’m really after for is their scholarship because we really cannot afford paying the matriculation. The interview will be easy in a way that the Doctors that will interview you will scrutinize your grades in undergrad and asked you what happened but in the end will give you a ray of light that in medschool you have the chance to renew yourself (at least that’s what I heard from the applicant before I had my turn). They will give you few tips during your 1st year stay in OLFU. If you have an NMAT percentile lower that what they require, there’s a good chance that they will accept you PROVIDED that you will sign a paper stating that you will retake NMAT until you get a 40 percentile.
It’s best to call them and ask for update regarding your applicatoin 🙂
3. De La Salle Medical and Health Science Institute (DLSMHSI)
NMAT Requirement: at least 80 percentile
Admission Fee: 2,000 php for local (Filipino) applicants
Personal Take: The campus is located in Dasmarinas, Cavite (far from the noises of Manila). During the application process, you be having quite a tour in the campus and it’s very wiiiiddee, a lot of trees, fresh fresh fresh air, and spaces for you to unwind. The campus is BEAUTIFUL! I got a chance to walk around the hospital and I felt like I will be soon there studying. hahahaha but then again, I only applied to see if I can have a scholarship. During my interview, the Dean together with 2 other doctors asked me basic medschool interview questions, but I think what highlighted in the interview was when the Dean asked me “who will support your studies?” and I admittedly told them that I’m looking for a scholarship and cannot pursue medschool in DLSMHSI without it. They cut the interview short and I guess it made me realize that I have to have a sturdy financial support while in Medschool.
for Metropolitan Medical Center (MMC), I’ll be saving and sharing it to you in another blog because it is where i’m studying at and will include few highlights during my 1st year stay there 🙂
If you have questions and hopefully I can answer them just leave a comment. Don’t lose hope with your MD dream 🙂 There will always be a school waiting for you ❤
**photos in the featured image are from the school websites and google images**
Sana alam ng mga classmates ko kung paano pahalagahan yung chance na binigay ng parents nila para makapag medicine sila. Kasi sa totoo lang? Naiinggit ako dahil baka isang sem lang ako. Takot na takot akong magstop at bumalik sa dati kong buhay. Kahit may scholarship ako ay di pa rin sapat para mabayaran ng buo yung tuition fee ko for four years. Kaya sana alam nila na may mga kagaya ko na gustong gusto mag aral ng medisina pero di namin kaya. Kung pwede lang at kung gusto na nila himinto ay ako na lang oag aralin ng parents nila eh. Aba! Wala na yatang mas sasaya pa sa balitang yan. Lord, praying pa rin po ako sa provision at yung person na mag ssponsor ng tuition ko. Alam niyo po kung gaano ko kagusto itong ginagawa at gagawin ko pero di ko maiwasan na matakot kahit konti dahil pag walang pera walang tuition tapos po wala na sa medschool. Nakakaiyak. Nakakalumo.
Sana naappreciate nila yung daily allowance nila na di sila namomroblema kung kulang na ba o hindi dahip andiyan si Mom at Dad. Ako kasi kailangan ko mag benta ng puto pao sa canteen para may extra budget. Lord, dumadaing na ako sayo please po. Sana naappreciate nila lahat ng meron sila. Di patas ang buhay.
When things should be over between that job that kills your potential to be that best employee that you can be, remember how hard you prayed for the employers to set you an interview and hire you. Remember how good it feels to tick off your to-do list while aiming for that career growth. If it is really what you want as a career then give a good sigh and then go on.
When things should be over with that over weight body of yours, then you should be motivated enought to be healthy. Healthy in all aspects of your life. You will be committed in the beauty of discipline in keeping your calorie intake balanced, exercising, avoiding vices, and in choosing healthy thoughts over desastrous ones.
When things should be over with that toxic friend, then cut it off. You don’t need that source of drama in your life. If all he/she sees are issues that are way too petty to begin with then run far away. This is on top of advices if the friendship involves financial dependency. If that “friend” uses you for him/her to borrow money from you and forgets the payment details? Then cut some strings.
Finally,
When things should be over with the one you love, then think again if being apart from him/her would be the best solution. Like if this involves cheating honey, R U N! Or if this is on the verge of physical abuse and other red flags. But if you have issues that you keep on fighting about to the point that all you see is the ugly phase of your love, think quite long. Assess if the issues are worth the time. If you feel that love is the only thing that keeps you together then stay. I personally believe that love is such a powerful drive to change people for the better. That love is a force apart from the wonders of Science that shapes an indivudal to be an infectious source of encouragement, belief, inspiration, forgiveness, and resilience. If choosing that person over and over again is the best part of the day, then hold on. If you lose the illusion of that person to be the perfect-the-one and all you see are fragments of broken self, then be gentle in picking him/her beacuse you might get wounded too. Help in rebuilding. Nurture in healing. Stretch every ounce of patience that you have because one day, it will all make sense. One day, that person will thank you for staying and for being his/her best support through all the things you both went through . Stay. Please stay and always choose the proper action for the ‘I love you’ that always tell him/her about.
I’m tired, that’s it. No more longer things to say. Just tired. And this is the usual times that I am reconsidering to do it again. To end the pain and crying again. To end it and not to feel anything at all because it is done.
T
YourFutureMD90 