Sara Kullberg '15

Sara Kullberg '15

Name: Sara Kullberg                                              

Graduating Class: 2015

Major: Biology, Studio Art Minor

Your Story:

I grew up with family members that didn’t choose to pursue careers in healthcare or in science, though I knew by the time I had taken a Human Body Systems course at the end of high school that I wanted to eventually work in the sciences, most likely in some type of health profession. I used my time at Gustavus to really explore my options, and find what type of career I would be most interested in and most successful in, through independently shadowing and volunteering with different health providers, participating in the Pre-Health January Interim Career Exploration my Sophomore year, studying holistic health abroad, and conducting two years of research. I wanted to be certain that the decision I was making was one that I would be passionate and excited about throughout my entire life, and was something that was achievable for me. My Junior year at Gustavus, I decided that medical school was going to be what I would strive for. I wanted to take a gap year in order to have some time for myself prior to starting medical school, so I took my MCAT in January of my Senior year, and have been working as a Medical Scribe since June, shortly after I graduated. Being a Scribe has taught me so much more about my future profession, not only about medical terminology and EMR systems, but what type of provider I would like to be when I am finished with school, as I currently work with a different provider each day.

 

Top Five Activities/Experiences: (in no particular order)

  1. Studying abroad in India and Nepal for a January Interim
  2. Working as a Medical Scribe in the Emergency Department (Abbott Northwestern) and in Otorhinolaryngology clinics (ENT SpecialtyCare and Minneapolis Oto)
  3. Conducting Leukemia Genomics research alongside Dr. Sanjive Qazi, and independently presenting my research at the University of Chicago
  4. Gustavus Pre-Health January Interim Career Exploration
  5. Promoting and educating Suicide Awareness through the Tau Mau Tau Sorority

 

Advice:

  1. Participate in activities that you are passionate about. Not only will you enjoy your time more preparing for graduate school, interviewers and others that you will converse with will be able to sense how much that activity shaped your experience and how much you enjoyed what you participated in. Passion is critical when applying for medical school.
  2. Be a well-rounded applicant, yet still create meaningful and in depth experiences. The more diverse your portfolio is when you apply, particularly if your experiences were long term and showed commitment on your part, medical school admissions will be more likely to consider you beyond your statistics. They will recognize how much time and effort you have put in prior to applying, and your achievements beyond your MCAT score and GPA will be considered (although MCAT and GPA are still very important).
  3. Apply early, and wisely. Try to finished all of your primary applications and most, if not all, of your secondary applications before Labor Day the year you apply, and seriously consider each and every school that you are applying to. Make sure that you have a strong chance of getting accepted to each of the schools you choose, and that every school that you apply to you would attend if it were the only school you were accepted to. It may sound intuitive, though seriously considering each and every option will prevent you from applying to significantly more schools than necessary. I can not stress more that applying early is critical for having the best chance of acceptance!

 

Future Plans:  Attending University of Minnesota Duluth, start Fall 2016


                                                                                                                                                   Updated: 5/17/2016 HB