I didn’t come into Cornell knowing I was pre-med. Actually, I wasn’t even sure I was allowed to say I was pre-med yet. I just knew I was curious about how the environment affects people. And somehow that slowly turned into medicine.

I Didn't Expect Cornell

I came to Cornell through the Pre-Collegiate Summer Scholars Program (PSSP), which is a summer transition program before your first year. About 200 of us were there. We took classes, explored campus, and tried to act like we weren’t nervous. I remember thinking: Okay… maybe I can actually do this. But two months earlier, I had no idea where I was going to college.

Ivy Day was rough. I opened decisions one by one. Rejection. Waitlist. Rejection. By the time I opened my Cornell decision, I didn’t really know what to expect anymore. Then I saw:

Congratulations.

My first reaction wasn’t excitement. It was honestly, wait… is this real? I stared at the screen. Refreshed it. Checked again. Called my sister. Called my mom. Checked the portal again. Only after all that did it start to sink in.

I was going to Cornell. I was excited. Also scared. Also wondering if I was ready. Then I thought about something my mom told me in 7th grade: "Now you have more education than your mom." Back then I didn’t really know what that meant. Now I think I do.

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Being a FGLI Can Feel Complicated

People always say being first-generation is something to be proud of. And it is. But sometimes it also just feels… uncomfortable. Like you walked into a place and forgot to check if you belonged first. Nobody told me I didn’t belong. That wasn’t it. It was just this quiet feeling of being different. I didn’t always talk about being low-income either. Not because I was told not to. Just because I didn’t know how people would react.  

That’s something people don’t really talk about. How you slowly decide what parts of yourself to share. Cornell actually helped with that more than I expected. Places like the Office of Academic Discovery and Impact (OADI), Educational Opportunity Program (EOP), and First-Generation and Low-Income Support gave me spaces where I didn’t have to explain everything. People just understood. That helped more than I expected.

How I Somehow Ended Up Pre-Med

I came in as an Environment & Sustainability major because I liked environmental science and education. That was it; no big master plan. But in my classes, whenever we talked about pollution or climate disasters, I kept paying attention to the same thing: What happens to people? Who gets sick? Who is most affected? Who gets help? Those questions kept coming back. I didn’t wake up one day and decide I wanted medicine. It was more like I kept following questions, and they led me there.

Feeling Behind

When I first started thinking about pre-med, I felt late. Like everyone else already knew the rules and I was just figuring out the game. First semester, I wasn’t even taking the main requirements yet. So, when people asked what I wanted to do I would say: "Maybe pre-med?" Which really meant: "I hope I'm not making this up."

I also worried people would think E&S wasn’t "serious enough" for pre-med. Over time, I realized something important, though. There isn’t a pre-med major, or just one type of pre-med student. Being interdisciplinary is probably one of my biggest strengths now.

What Changed

Nothing dramatic happened; I didn’t suddenly become confident. I just slowly stopped feeling like an imposter. Talking to advisors helped, programs, like P3 helped. Meeting other students who also didn’t have everything figured out helped the most.

I still sometimes wonder if I'm doing enough. I just don’t panic about it the same way anymore. A professor once told me something simple: "There's no universal timeline for medicine." That helped more than any motivational quote ever did.

What I Would Tell Incoming Students

If you come to Cornell and feel unsure what you're doing, you're normal. Nobody really talks about that part, but it's true. You are allowed to:

• Not know yet
• Change direction
• Take longer
• Try things and realize they aren't for you

You don’t have to be the most prepared person here; you just have to be willing to keep going. I still don’t have everything figured out. Not even close. But I’m not scared of that anymore because now I know that figuring things out is the process. And if you're coming here feeling unsure, too, you’re probably doing it right.