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Showing posts from July, 2017

GRE - The Breakdown

The GRE. The wonderful standardized test that most graduate schools use to gauge a student. It may be a daunting task, but with a little organization and the correct study material/schedule, you will do just fine. Now take a deep breath. :) The following sections are various breakdowns that surrounds the GRE. If there is anything that you think I should add, let me know. You can tweet Grad Girl @_gradgirl_   Grad School Breakdown Most schools require the GRE. There are some schools that do not require it, but it is a rare occurrence (from my own research).  Some schools will require subject tests -  Link for the GRE subject tests page . I do not have experience with these, but check with the schools that you are interested in before going any further.  Schools have their own preferred score range -- pay close attention to these when studying/applying For example, to apply to University of Florida, I needed a combined score of 300 and they did not fully care for the analytical

Finding Your Foundation

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Having a solid foundation is important...which is why my second round of school was going to start with a good foundation and pacing on my own terms. Looking back on everything, I should have taken a gap year before going into undergrad. I felt as though I was not prepared for college and I rushed into everything. Understanding that, I knew I needed to take time off before I enter my second round of school. It is sort of like a second chance, or at least that is the way I am looking at it all... I bought my book from Barnes & Noble My first step in building my foundation was reading The Princeton Review's  The Best 167 Medical Schools 2015 edition. ( There is a 2016 edition and I am sure the two books are similar in content. Either book will do fine.) In the 2015 book, there are six chapters that are extremely informative. It is especially important to read the chapters that have to do with medical school itself, the different types of medical programs, nontraditional s

Congrats! You graduated! Now What?

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source:  Finding Nemo So...you just graduated. Not top of class. Not bottom of class. Just. graduated. Feel familiar? You are probably feeling like the tank gang in Finding Nemo...Now What? Well, you have a few options -- or at least options from my perspective. 1. Take the MCAT and go through the med school app process and hope for the best 2. Give up the possibility of medical school 3. Take an alternative route to medical school I thought it through and decided on door three. I knew I was not competitive for the medical school application process and I knew that my odds were totally not in my favor. I had to get creative and if you have read this far, you will too. My road has been interesting and complicated. I graduated from the Pennsylvania State University in 2015 with a degree in Neuroscience and a minor in Microbiology. Upon graduation, I knew I wanted to take a break from schooling before starting my long road ahead. My gap time included working, traveling,