From First-Gen College Student to UC Davis Med School

Undergraduate: UC Davis 
Major: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology 
Track: Research Track 
Future Health Profession: MD 
Health Profession School: UC Davis School of Medicine 

Since childhood, Andre Brown has wanted to work in medicine. Interested in someday being able to serve his community as a practicing physician, Andre set his sights on his dream school, the UC Davis School of Medicine. “My main draw was to be a part of the change to improve my family's, friends’ and community’s relationships with healthcare professionals,” he said. 

As a first-generation college student, Andre’s path to achieving his dream has not been without some unique challenges. “I was learning as I go,” he said of navigating college and pursuing an education in medicine. Lacking financial support and not having family members with personal experience in higher education meant that Andre had to be fully self-supporting. “I worked full time or more throughout my entire undergraduate career, often having at least two jobs while trying to balance my coursework and extracurriculars,” he said. “This made it challenging to balance all of my commitments and get everything that I wanted done before applying to medical school.” 

Andre decided that a post-baccalaureate program would help him gain the experiences he felt he lacked for a successful application, including tackling the MCAT. Andre has since completed the UC Davis Health Professions Post-Bac Program and has been accepted into the Transforming Education and Community Health for Medical Students (TEACH-MS) M.D. program at the UC Davis School of Medicine. 

Becoming Medical School Ready 

Andre was recommended to the Health Professions Post-Bac Program at UC Davis because of the year-long test prep support and the research opportunity, which was something he didn’t get a chance to do in undergrad. “Davis was my alma mater, so if the post-bac was anything like undergrad, I knew that the classes and the advising staff would prepare me for medical school,” he said. “It felt like exactly where I needed to be.” 

In the post-bac program, Andre got the support and guidance he needed. “I wanted to make my grades as competitive as possible and I excelled academically in the post-bac. I wanted to finally take my MCAT, and the post-bac got me my first set of MCAT study resources, gave me a plan to follow and helped me sign up and finally take my MCAT,” he explained. 

Through the post-bac program, he was also able to get research experience in a lab. “I was lucky enough to get connected with research in ophthalmology, a field that interests me. I learned a lot from the experience and built a bond with my PI that I highly value.” 

Looking back, Andre said that there was a lot about applying to medical school that he didn’t know. “The advisors in the post-bac were integral to my success in navigating the application cycle,” shared Andre. “It was a blessing to have access to all of the advisors from the post-bac and different professional eyes on my application making it the best that it could be.” 

Building Community and Enhancing Competence 

One of the things Andre appreciated most about the UC Davis Health Professions Post-Bac Program was the relationships he gained because of it. “Being in the post-bac connected me with a large group of people who were working towards a similar goal in pursuing a health profession. It gave me the peer support I didn't know I needed,” he said. “It allowed me to have an MCAT study group both during and after the post-bac and friends to go through the application process with whose situations I could relate to.” 

Andre also valued the program’s emphasis on test preparation and advising. “I appreciated having access to three advisors with different perspectives who could target the different weaknesses in my application and writing,” he said. “The test prep was the push I needed to get my test preparation going at a good pace, and the committee letter allowed me to highlight my strengths better than just my letters of rec alone could have.” 

According to Andre, the resources and support he got from the program were invaluable. “I would highly recommend the UC Davis Health Professions Post-bac Program because I have friends who have done other post-bacs and they did not receive the kind of support that I did from this program. The program stuck with me the entire way until I got my acceptance.” 

Making a Commitment to Community Health 

Because primary care is a strong interest of Andre’s, he was drawn to apply for medical school programs that would allow him to give back to his community and help nurture that bond with health professionals that he’s dreamed of since he was a kid. He applied to two Community Health Scholars programs at UC Davis School of Medicine: Transforming Education and Community Health for Medical Students (TEACH) and Reimagining Education to Advance central California Health (REACH). Andre was accepted into both. 

Coming from Fresno, California, Andre was initially drawn to the REACH program because it would allow him to serve the

 community he grew up in. However, he accepted the offer for TEACH-MS, so that he can serve his new community. 

“The program focuses on primary care for urban and underserved in the Sacramento area where I now live and have built a life,” he said. “It was a hard decision for me. In the end, I decided that I was just starting to get to know the community of Sacramento and wanted to learn more by serving this area and I saw value in the experience and knowledge that I can gain by being a part of TEACH-MS,” he added.