PreHealth Spotlight: Christian Pineda

Class year: 2019
Major: Biology

I believe my medical school application was strengthened by the fact that I had 3 activities that I was passionate about and committed to, rather than 10+ activities that I was half-way in about. 

Vitals

• First year at UMass Medical School
• Volunteered for 2 years at Hospice of the Fisher Home
• Volunteered in dementia unit at the Elaine Center (with Neuroscience Club)
• Research Assistant in Hazen lab
• Spent gap year working as a Medical Scribe

During my time at UMass, two experiences come to mind that have continued to help me in medical school. One was being a restaurant server for 4 years, as it made me more comfortable talking to people and those who may be in the worst of moods (hungry). The other experience was taking on leadership roles in some interest groups/clubs at UMass. Leadership roles require students to take an active role in their groups, which can teach you a lot of great skills for furthering your education and future career. Being a leader stems from taking initiative, and that quality is priceless.

I definitely recommend taking a gap year for several reasons. It allows recent graduates to take a step away from school and focus on themselves. Do you really want to go to school again? Medical school? Do you know what it entails? During my gap year I worked as a scribe and had the opportunity to see what physician life was like. It also allowed me engage with doctors (both residents and attendings) to get a sense of what to expect in the career path I was choosing. I also learned some medicine (albeit very minimal). Most importantly, I got to see first-hand amazing patient-physician interactions – and not-so-amazing interactions. Additionally, physician burnout is very real so I personally felt the need to step away from school. I felt re-energerized and ready to take whatever medical school was going to throw at me.

My main clinical experience was being a hospice volunteer for two years. It made me more comfortable talking to patients with illnesses that will inevitably lead to their passing. Being a doctor is not always finding a cure or solution but being a caring physician in times of need.

For the MCAT, I believe students need to realize that it is only one of the many (harder) exams that will be given. Knowing that it was essentially the first medical school standardized test motivated me to try my best. I always recommend taking one Full-Length AAMC before starting to prepare for the MCAT. It is useful to know how much you need to study and identify areas of weakness to work on. Off that, students should try to flip from the mindset of studying like it is a regular college exam to preparing for it like the 7-hour long beast it can be. I encourage all students to use practice exams and other question bank material to help them as much as possible. There is a positive correlation of students doing well on the MCAT and the amount of practice tests they took. Overall, it is imperative that students realize you don’t study for the MCAT, you prepare for it.

Another thing that students should try to focus on is staying in their own lane and not worrying about how other people are doing when it comes to applying for school. If you see things are working for you, do it; if you see something is working for others, try it but don’t force it.

I believe my medical school application was strengthened by the fact that I had three activities that I was passionate about and committed to, rather than 10+ activities that I was half-way in about. Of course not to say don’t do all the activities you are interested in, but try to find a few things you can talk all day about. I was a restaurant server for years and could talk about it all day. I also did several miscellaneous activities I used on my application, but it will become apparent which activities are most meaningful and why (spoiler: this is a huge component in the application process).

Lastly, medical school is a completely different culture (socially and academically) than most undergraduate institutions. Know that medical school requires you to study with no real break once you start. But if anyone is interested in the more gritty details (and by that I mean non-formal, rated-R description) please feel free to email me at christian [dot] pineda [at] umassmed [dot] edu (christian[dot]pineda[at]umassmed[dot]edu). I go by He/His and look at emails all the time (unfortunately). Do great!

Published September 2020