Mandie Wallinger
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Mentoring, Advising
In Person
I am a non-traditional student that changed careers from the legal field. Currently an MS1 at Loyola SSOM.
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I graduated from Northeastern University in Boston, MA in 2009 with a BA in political science. At the time, I was strongly considering law school and worked for a few years as a paralegal after I graduated.
While working full-time in the legal field, I engaged in a lot of community service work. Eventually, I started volunteering for a suicide hotline and my life-changing service experience was the impetus for a career change.
Once I decided to go into medicine, I started working as a crisis counselor for the suicide hotline while also taking post-bacc courses at Harvard Extension School. (This was the first time I took the science pre-req's for medical school). I also worked for 2.5 years as a health coach working with patients struggling with substance abuse. Though I did some clinical research, volunteering with underserved populations was really the crux of my experience and passion.
When I made the decision to attend medical school, I took my time to build the strongest application possible so that I only had to apply once, applying to both MD/DO schools. I also needed to rebuild earlier academic missteps and overcome a low undergraduate GPA (<3.5).
