About Me

I'm Jason Spears, your premed expert providing you with all the advice, strategies, and tips to help you achieve your goal of getting admitted to medical school.

My logic for starting DoctorPremed is very simple, "As the president of the premedical society I was privileged to make some extraordinary contacts and gain insight on what it takes to become a physician. Also, many of my peers would ask me for advice in one-on-one settings (which I didn't mind), but it proved to be time consuming.

I figured I could reach more premeds by having a website which can be accessible anytime, anywhere."

If you want the inside scoop on me, read on. I’ve also included my contact information at the bottom of this page.

Applying to College

I’ve known for a long time that I wanted to be a doctor and spent a lot of time since junior high school working with an anesthesiologist mentor of mine either conducting research or shadowing.

As a senior in high school I only applied to one college, Northwestern University using their early decision process and I was accepted (thank goodness).

Before college started I was invited to participate in Northwestern’s Undergraduate Success in the Sciences program to gain early research experience. There, I met the president of One Step Before (premedical society) and I made a rather bold statement, “I’m going to take your position!”

Freshman Year

I soon realized college was not like high school. In high school, academics came rather easy, but Northwestern was an entirely different ball game. I had to work a lot harder than I ever did in my life.

Becoming involved with the premed society early in my career at Northwestern was probably one of the smartest things I did, and I encourage all premeds to become familiar with their college’s premed society. They have a lot of resources and plus the upper-classmen can give you the inside scoop on things.

During winter quarter, the program director from my summer research program had some great news for me - Dr. Godwin, was nominating me for a research experience through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Also, the Admissions Committee wanted to feature me in their recruiting video for perspective students to Northwestern University.

One Step Before

Managing money and taking care of finances is pretty much second-nature to me, so when elections were held for the Executive Board of the premed society, I knew running for Treasurer would be great for me.

Everyone else thought the same because as a sophomore I was now the Treasurer of One Step Before and held an Executive Board position where I could learn the ins-and-outs of the premed society.

To make a long story short, the next year I would run for President and sure enough I would be elected.

Premed President

At Northwestern, I was the President for both my Junior and Senior years and this is where I would learn so much about what it takes to be a successful premedical student. As the President, one of my jobs was to bring a prominent physician to campus, and some past speakers have included:

David Satcher, M.D., Ph.D., 16th Surgeon General of the United States
Mae Jemison, M.D. and former NASA Astronaut (Space Shuttle Endeavor)
Alexa Canady, M.D., 1st Woman & 1st African-American to become a Neurosurgeon
Ian Smith, M.D., appearance’s on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club and author, “Fat Smash Diet”

Each spring quarter One Step Before hosts, “Annual Medical School Day,” where we invite representatives from all of the allopathic medical schools in the U.S. to share about their programs and the opportunities available as a medical student.

As you can see, I know a lot about being a premed and getting into medical school, but I didn’t do it alone, I have a lot of friends in the medical community, which include:

deans of medical schools
premed advisors
admissions officers
physicians
post-bac program directors
medical students

Academic Professional Credentials

Master of Arts in Medical Sciences Boston Univ. School of Medicine, Boston, MA - 2011
Bachelor of Arts in Political Science Northwestern University, Evanston, IL - 2007
Premedical Coursework Harvard University Summer School, Cambridge, MA – 2005-2006

Relevant Experience

Sports Medicine Aide – Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 2003-2006
Research Assistant – HHMI at Mass General Hospital, Boston, MA 2004
Research Participant – USS Northwestern University 2003
CPR/AED & 1st Aid Certified - current

Medical School

You may be wondering why I’m not in medical school and here’s where my rather personal story.

I completed all of my premedical requirements, did very well on the MCAT, and applied to medical school during the 2008 application cycle. Midway through the application cycle I began to get concerned because I wasn’t getting any positive responses from the medical schools.

I thought perhaps, too many Ivy League schools so I began to apply to lower tier schools. Ultimately, I wouldn’t get admitted or invited on an interview anywhere, so I needed to resort to plan B.

This meant applying to a post baccalaureate program, figuring that as a political science major it wouldn’t hurt to have more science credits on my transcripts. Things became very grave when some of these programs were saying no too. I could only think, this doesn’t make sense because I had all the premed requirements completed and even Harvard Medical School had sent me a recruitment letter based on my MCAT score.

What Went Wrong

It would be a full year later when I found out what went wrong. One of the programs which I applied to was kind enough to inform me that when they put my AMCAS application into their computer system, it was reporting I was not meeting minimum entrance requirements.

Therefore, they suggested I contact AMCAS where I would learn, “Your 2008 application was verified incorrectly. AMCAS made an error by giving you zero semester hours for your Harvard courses.” This was HUGE.

I completed both Biology and Organic Chemistry at Harvard. Hence, all the medical schools received my application and they assumed these courses were never taken for credit. Therefore, no matter how many schools I applied to the result would’ve been the same, rejection.

Today

Obviously, this was a huge set back in my aspirations towards becoming a doctor. But I am now on a new course of action. I am pursuing my Master of Arts in Medical Sciences at Boston University and at the conclusion of the program will be reapplying to medical school.

To be honest, this website would not exist or be as comprehensive as it is today if everything had gone well with my medical school applications because I would never have found the time to create DoctorPremed for you.