Pursuing an MD at Duke School of Medicine, entering class of 2023

Major: English with a certificate in Creative Writing

Significant college activities: Member of Princeton Women’s Swimming and Diving Team, Trenton Arts Fellow, Lewis Center Peer Arts Advisor, Poetry@Princeton Social Media Manager, Summer internship at the Los Angeles Review of Books through the John C. Bogle Fellowship, Summer senior thesis research through the A. Scott Berg Fellowship

Words of wisdom about being prehealth at Princeton: I would encourage all premed students to take advantage of their time at Princeton to explore their passions and interests beyond medical school prerequisites. There is no other time in your life when so many diverse and enriching opportunities will be available to you. Everyone’s premed path is different, and pursuing something outside of your comfort zone can expose you to new ways of thinking and problem-solving. Studying things you find fun and interesting will keep you energized on the long road to medical school and beyond; opportunities do not have to be directly related to medicine to help you understand what motivates you to become a physician.

As a freshman, I wasn’t sure if I was going to pursue medicine. I balanced my premed coursework with humanities classes and decided to major in English. Though it was often challenging, I loved being a premed in the English department and writing a creative thesis. Broadly exploring writing and medicine helped me understand how the two could be integrated into my future career. Further, having exposure to other fields made me confident (and you want to be completely confident) in my decision to apply to medical school when the time came.

My other advice is to build your support network. Make time to connect with your peers and professors and to check in with HPA (if you’re following my advice above, definitely work with HPA to make sure you’re still meeting all of the medical school requirements). This process is difficult and confusing and can often feel isolating, but it doesn’t have to be. Being able to reach out to my friends and mentors when I needed encouragement or another pair of eyes on my personal statement was incredibly helpful during my application cycle.

Please feel free to reach out to me as well with any questions: [email protected]!