In an overly dramatic post last week, I shared with you all that I am sc-ared of deferring money from aggressive student loan repayment to apply to medical school. I mean, I said some other stuff, all true, but at the end of the day, the immediate consideration is that every dollar I put toward the uncertain process of applying to medical school is a dollar I won’t be putting toward my very certain student loan debt. While this anxiety isn’t new to me and has kept me company for at least four years, the universe seemingly got sick of my belly aching and decided to call my bluff…

Yesterday, I received a notification from the payroll system of University B (my current employer) that my pay-stub for a direct deposit being made this Friday (10/15/2022) was now available for review. Assuming it was an error or a resend of my monthly pay-stub, I initially ignored it. However, after reconciling my financial books last evening, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to take a peek. I was immediately confused. While the amount seemed familiar, I was confused as to why I was receiving a deposit on a biweekly payroll cycle. As I didn’t want any problems with my future paychecks, I immediately reached out to human resources representative for my division and asked her about the odd payment. She surprised me by informing me that it was for a retroactive payment for an extra duty I performed in August and that the amount was correct. Well…okay.

However, before I could even begin to obsess over how much closer the $323.00 payment was going to put me towards my goal of getting under $90K in student loan debt this year, I received an email reminder from the Association of American Medical Colleges letting me know that registration for the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), for the 2022 test year, would be opening today at 12:00PM EST for Group A testing sites (East Coast and Midwest testing sites). Yea.

An 8-hour beast of an exam, the MCAT has felled many a hopeful premed. It also doesn’t come cheap at $325.00. Yea.

So…the universe seemingly called my bluff with this pot of “found” money and I decided it was time to put-up or shut-up. The above is my MCAT registration receipt for the March 25th test date. This is more than enough time to really study for the exam, giving it my best effort, and determine whether or not I have a competitive enough score to apply. In the medical school admissions process, especially for an older student, your MCAT score is often the determining factor as to whether or not you get admitted to medical school. You receive your score approximately one month after you take the exam. For me, one way or the other, whether or not I will continue to pursue admission to medical school will be determined in April of 2022.