Wanna do Medicine? Then be Focused!

Being a medical student requires dedication. Its best to make up your mind that you want to be a doctor before venturing into this path. Why? Its very simple; you’ll be focused. The benefit of this is that you wont be distracted by trying to apply to other universities like NED, GIK, LUMS, MIT, Stanford, etc. Hence, not only will you be able to focus more on your Alevel/Inter studies and ace those exams, you will naturally have more time to
prepare for the AKU admission test as well. It simplifies matters for you and can enable you to be active in more extra-curricular activities and community services, all of which will help paint a better picture of your personality for the medical college admission officers.

Unfortunately in my case, I was undecided for a very long time. I was made to apply to 4 US universities (namely Stanford, Princeton, BU, and UCSD). Yea, i was MADE to apply. I really did not want to because i had realized that its pointless. If one wants to do medicine, he would rather save his time and money by studying in Pakistan (MBBS in US takes about 7 years and can get you under a mountain of debt. $45000 per year is no joke.). MBBS in Pakistan takes 5 years and is relatively much cheaper. So when i applied to those 4 US universities, I applied for engineering courses instead. Oh and applying abroad is not easy. You've got to fill killer CommonApp forms and their supplements. Essays upon essays. You have to give tests like SAT (ACT in my case because SAT centers no longer had available seats!), SAT 2, and TOEFL. Its a big hassle, simply put.

But what i feared most came to pass. All these efforts were wasted. I knew beforehand that US universities want you to confirm admission by 1st May. Alhumdulillah, i got admission in BU and UCSD, but me and my family also wanted to try for AKU. And AKU doesn't release its result until late October. So we tried to defer admission in BU and UCSD to the next semester so that i could first see if I get into AKU or not. UCSD did not comply and BU found that I was unable to pay the college fees anyway (it gives no aid to intentional students). So the plan was dropped and my race to the US came to an end. After that of course  I had no choice but to be focused towards medicine. Consequently, i didn't apply to LUMS and later found that this deadline problem exists with LUMS and IBA as well. Their admissions are complete long before AKU and other medical colleges release their final admission letters.

As far as international admissions are concerned, i could speak alot more, but that would just be a digression  If you have any questions regarding it, just give a shout in the comments box and ill try to answer to the best of my knowledge. But to look on the bright side, the whole process of applying abroad was a mind-boggling yet mind-opening experience. Writing the essays was annoying but at the end of the day, it helped organize my thoughts and discover myself. I even got the experience of failing a Princeton Skype interview which did help me in the long run. Always be positive and make dua for the best.

To conclude  if you’re gonna do medicine, try not to waste your time on other universities in Pakistan and abroad. You could give it a try, but chances are, you'll regret wasting your time because medical admission results in Pakistan come in late October; much later than probably any university you could apply to.