***End of 2018 Updates!***

Morning drop off with Mommy!

Friends...I cannot believe it is December. This last quarter of the year is not playing games. What in the world?!

Fellowship is still AH-MAZ-ING. 

Since my last post, I spent the month of October on Labor and Delivery. And although it was crazy busy - per usual, I managed to learn a ton and not surprisingly, loved being with the residents and other fellows (i.e. my friends xo)

Halloween 2018 on L&D

On October 14th My babies got baptized (!!!)

My co-fellow Annie and I went to an awesome conference in Chicago for all the first year MFM fellows around the country. I even got to sneak in some time with my parents and bros. 

And in October we even managed to make it to our first North Carolina State Fair! #FriedOreos

November was also quite a month for me and my crew...

At work, I completed my first ultrasound rotation of fellowship. A Maternal-Fetal Medicine doctor is responsible for making complicated fetal diagnosis and performing procedures by ultrasound (cordocensis, amniocentesis, and fetal reduction just to name a few), so these were the first steps in honing my craft. 🤓

Every Monday morning, I still had my regular continuity clinic with prenatal patients. And then in the afternoon, after our scheduled teaching, I was responsible for presenting complex fetal cases to the joint Maternal-Fetal Medicine + Neonatology conference. This was a huge change from my ultrasound rotation as an intern #GlowUp

Natey started hockey lessons (!!!) and presented in his first class culmination project on water quality last week. 

Isabelle is learning to read (!!!) 

Our family budget is well underway (we have been really diligent since July), and because things are going so well AND I had more than one day off around Thanksgiving, we were able to FLY home to my parents' in Indiana!! It was the best getaway I have had in a loooong time and it didn't involve the longest car ride ever :praise Him:

Speaking of the budget...in November we were also able to take the kids to go see Hamilton while it was in Durham! They love the soundtrack and are HUGE fans. This was something that I have been dreaming of doing for them since I saw it two years ago, but I never would have dreamed that we could afford it. Thanks to StubHub we got awesome seats at an awesome price. 

It was even more amazing to watch it with them #YoungScrappyAndHungry

But I also understand now why children usually aren't taken to Broadway plays...#IsabelleCouldntHang #TheKidsHadSoMuchCommentary

Isabelle couldn't hang by Act II -_-

So SO thankful for all of the wonderful blessings this year. 

Hope you all are able to take some time to slow down in this last month of 2018 in order to focus on what is most important. 

xo

Paying for Medical School **WITHOUT LOANS**

After my Insta post earlier this week, I got quite a few questions about how I managed to get a full tuition scholarship to medical school. I have been meaning to give a run down on how to pay for medical school for a long time, so this is the perfect reminder...

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Jasmine Johnson, MD (@mrsmommymd) on Dec 3, 2018 at 4:58am PST

Before I get started, I think that it is very important for those of you who are not yet familiar with the medical school process, who are interested in going to medical school, to know that YOU CANNOT WORK A JOB IN MEDICAL SCHOOL. 

I realize this is a really extreme statement, and I am a woman who prides herself in doing what others say she cannot do, but medical school requires a significant amount of time outside of class studying, and any non-related medical school job could potentially sabotage your performance. Your full time for job four years is to graduate (and maybe parent, but mostly graduate HA!). All that to say, planning to “pay as you go” is not a good plan...

Secondly, medical school is SO EXPENSIVE. Many times, students walk away with upwards of $100,000+ worth of loans. After graduation, we stare at that terrifying amount, and residency for most of us, causes us to kind of push it into the back of our minds to “deal with it later” when we think we have the mental bandwidth - usually not until we are done with training. 

Having been that resident that dealt with it later *read student loan deferment and compound interest 😩😭😰🥴😳* don’t be me. Deal with it now. Think about it now. You will thank yourself later.

Choose a school wisely (i.e. choosing in-state tuition or public institutions over private institutions).

As Indiana resident, I had significantly lower tuition than my out-of-state classmates. So, although many of apply broadly to medical schools, if you have the opportunity to receive in-state tuition, this is likely the smarter choice.

Also look for schools with amazing programs like NYU. NYU announced this past year that they were offering full tuition scholarships to all of their students...AMAZING!

Save as much money as you can BEFORE starting medical school.

I was not one of the smart ones to do this, but I frequently hear about people on the Dave Ramsey Podcast who are about to enter graduate school, and through sheer determination, were able to save a significant amount of their tuition beforehand. If you are non-traditional student with a previous career, take advantage of this!

Find Scholarships.

Scholarships to medical school are rare but they do exist! 

Scholarship sources include private companies (like insurance payers, pharmaceutical companies, organizations that tailor to special demographics), military, and the medical schools themselves. 

I was fortunate enough to be awarded two scholarships. One was from a fund established by a former  IUSM alumni whose mission was to train physicians for the underserved populations of Indiana. The second was from the general scholarship fund at IUSM. I was notified of this amazing blessing when I was offered admission to medical school. 

Finally, although this lifted a huge burden off of me as I entered medical school, I still needed to take out student loans to help cover our living expenses, so also keep that in mind. Applying for scholarships can be tedious but little by little it can make a big difference. 

Ask the schools that you are interested in about their scholarship opportunities, and here are some sites to help start your search: 

AAMC

HRSA

FastWeb

White Coat Investor
Physician on Fire

For those of you who have made the journey, how did you pay for medical school? Did you get any scholarships? If so, please share which scholarship and how someone can apply.