I have spent the morning (since about 6:50 AM today) working on various application processes, ranging from the stuff required for UMBC’s Health Professions Evaluations Committee (basically the gateway to the med school applications) to scholarships. I’m getting increasingly frustrated with this whole system as I continue to try and force myself into paper in a kind of reverse origami whereupon the crane is actually compressed into the paper, rather than being extracted from it.
I’m tired of having to know the financial information of my divorced parents in order to apply for a merit-based scholarship. I’m tired of asking my mom to file her taxes three months early so I can meet the FAFSA deadline, only to be told I can’t get even merit-based awards thanks to her income.
Who comes up with these processes? Who decides how much money a parent is expected to contribute and then opts to not factor in the costs incurred by your sibling? Apparently having a parent with a steady job means you’re literally bleeding money for your higher education.
The medical school stuff is related through some mysterious speciation event. Throughout your undergraduate career advisers are telling you how important it is to be a well-rounded individual for your medical school application. Then, when the time comes to start itemizing what you’ve done, what are the primary areas they expect you to fill? Clinical, research, and volunteer experience. A pox upon them! These forms make it appear as if there is absolutely no credit given to working throughout your undergraduate years to pay for your personal expenses, because that job was retail sales as opposed to mopping floors in a hospital. They say you need to make yourself stand out and be different, and then they tell you that you have no chance because others around you who are applying have 3+ semesters of research experience.
Make up your mind! Do you want me to be just another kid who lived his life for a medical school application since beginning high school, or somebody whose life experiences have shown him that becoming a doctor is the path for him? Apparently it’s the former and the only way to be competitive is not to be different, but to be exactly the same.
4 responses to “Application Processes”
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hey steelwolf,
I feel your pain with the FAFSA applications and the scholarships and the like. My parents dread the time of year when I come asking for all their information to fill out all the lovely forms, only to be told that because we’re living above the poverty line, we don’t get any money from the gov’t because its being handed out freely to those who choose to spend their lives mooching off the gov’t instead of making something of themselves. Best of luck with that and the med school apps.
Hey, at least they send their bills and grades on time and notify you when they arrive… …OH WAIT, No they don’t!
– Tim
@pyrodancer89:
Thanks for the comment. As my good friend once said, “I am just dumb enough and my parents are just rich enough that nobody will give me money.”
@Tim:
So true.