Backup

In a prior post of mine last month I mentioned that I have a new thing on my plate. Well here it is...with mixed feelings.

 So for the last few years I've been really concerned what my backup would be if I'm finished my first bachelor's degree and haven't been accepted into a Canadian medical school after 1-3 years, or potentially longer. My understanding is that a lot of jobs that just require a bachelor's degree can be hard to get, especially in BC where there are a high number of job seeking applicants that want to move to Vancouver. My worst fear would be if I was unemployed for a long time and accumulating interest and becoming late on my student loan payments. I also don't think it would be a good use of my time to work a near minimum wage job either. The main problem becomes paying for my 2nd bachelor's degree. Student loans don't cover the full cost of all of my education, in my experience. I'm already getting a little bit of family support and it's been like this for over 6 years now, and while my family said they would continue to support whatever I do, I think they are getting skeptical that I will never get in to medical school. It's this pressure that made me look at other options I can do to make a decent wage, but at the same time to pursue my dream of going to medical school. At first I thought I could switch into biomedical engineering, which would fulfill my medical school requirements and still give me more options to pursue a fantastic career in engineering. But then I found out it would take me 5 years to get my biomedical engineering degree at UBC. I thought about going to the University of Washington where it would only take me 3.25 years but tuition is significantly higher and the program is ultra competitive to get into as it is one of the best of its kind in North America. Plus I would have to move to somewhere in Washington where I would have to take community college classes for two semesters. This would be a tough sell to my family if I was going to invest everything into doing community college courses for a year in the U.S. just so that I have a tiny chance at getting into a really expensive school. My mom is alone because my dad passed away when I was young and so I didn't want to leave her alone. Plus I actually love spending time with my mom lol, as lame as that might sound to some. So unless I get a decent paying job somewhere else so that my mom can move with me, we are stuck on Vancouver Island or potentially Vancouver.

What started to make more and more sense was looking into medical technologist programs at BCIT. The reasons are that I want to work in healthcare before I get into medicine and those programs generally give their graduates a good chance at finding a job. The cardiology technology and EEG technology programs sounded the most interesting to me. It seemed like there were more jobs in EEG, but I'd have to do two years of full time studies, where I would likely be unable to do very many undergraduate courses for medical school. UBC Medicine does not use grades from diploma programs in their GPA calculation, which was a serious blow to me optimizing my time. But I looked at Cardiology Technology, and it is 3 years part time (or 2 years full-time), and it is online. That sounded great because I would love to do an online program that would give me a good job one day AND also have the flexibility for me to pursue undergraduate courses for medical school admissions. Plus I love the cardiovascular system and this career has room for advancement into invasive procedures with more schooling. So long story short, I applied for the program at BCIT and I got accepted just the other day to start the program this January.

While I don't think doing the Cardiology Technology Diploma program is going to give me any advantage in seeking medical school admissions, I do think it is important that I start paying back my debt and become self-sustaining. I could be debt free after 1 year of working as a cardiology technologist, however it would take me 3 years if I worked minimum wage. What I love about the program is two-fold; firstly, it's great that it is online which means I can live with my mom, and secondly it is really convenient that it can be done part time which means I can still do undergraduate courses at the same time. I'm going to be doing most of my undergraduate courses through TRU Open Learning. However this will be my greatest challenge to date, as I will have to do everything a normal premed does ( ECs and maintaining a high  university GPA) while also doing the BCIT program part time, which doesn't really count for anything in my application process. It frustrates me because I could be using that time for ECs like research, but instead I'm spending all of that effort to complete the Cardiology Technology program, which I don't think will help my application. The only way it'll help me is that I will be making money so that I can eventually go back to univeristy to get a second bachelor's and/or a master's. Anything that will improve my chances of getting into medicine.


I have to admit that at the beginning of me writing this post, I wasn't sure if I was going to do the Cardiology Technology program full-time in 2 years or part-time in 3 years. But I've managed to convince myself that I need to dedicate most of my time to getting into medical school. This is because of ideal and practical reasons. Ideally, I would rather be a doctor than any other career. And practically speaking, in the long run, every year that I am not a doctor, I am losing out on hundreds of thousands of dollars that I would otherwise be making as a physician. These years of income lost affect my bottom line a whole lot more than a few tens of thousands of dollars right now. But all in all my the money is a lot less important to me than the job I would be doing, which is saving people's lives. That is what I want to do for the rest of my life is save people's lives as a doctor.