Advice from an Alumnus: Meet Alyssa Krautbauer!

SD Mines has a reputation for excellence that reverberates through our students long after they leave campus with their degrees in hand. Today, we are featuring on of our alumni, Alyssa Krautbauer, who earned her degree in Mechanical Engineering in 2017. She has just been accepted into the Midwestern University Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine in Glendale, Arizona, where she will soon be starting her training to become a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. We caught up with Alyssa to ask her about her time at SD Mines and how it helped to prepare her for a career in healthcare.

Hey, Alyssa! How are you using your degree from SD Mines in your current career path?

Currently, I don’t believe that I am fully utilizing my engineering degree in my career path. However, there are some valuable skills I learned in engineering that will apply in the short term to medical school, such as problem solving. In the future, there will be more opportunities to take advantage of my background to potentially assist in medical instrument design/or help tackle very complex diagnoses. To be perfectly honest, I don’t know what the future holds, but I am eager to utilize my mechanical engineering background to help people in any way that I can.

How did your time at SD Mines prepare you for going to medical school?

In my opinion, there are three main areas in which SD Mines did a great job in preparing me for medical school (Note: I was not involved in any SD Mines pre-med programs at the time). First, I would say the mechanical engineering curriculum forced me to greatly improve my studying discipline. Secondly, the small class sizes allowed me to get to know my professors who not only could answer my questions on course material, but also were eager to help and support me in applying to medical school. Finally, there were many opportunities in each class to work as a team solving problems or collaborating on a project. Medicine is a team sport, so I found this experience invaluable.

What kind of shadowing did you do to get a better feel for careers in healthcare while you were a student?

I primarily shadowed and interned in ophthalmology clinics during the summers because of a personal interest in the field. I also shadowed in general surgery, dermatology, family medicine, and ENT.

What kinds of healthcare experiences did you do as a student to prepare for medical school?

I interned at ophthalmology clinics during two summers of undergrad. Not only did I get to be involved in patient care, I developed greater insight into the field of medicine.

What kinds of volunteering did you do during your undergraduate?

My volunteering during undergrad consisted of assistant coaching an elementary school girls basketball team, Caring Hands at Rapid City Regional Hospital, Mines Buddies, and also volunteering at my church.

Did you do any undergraduate research at SD Mines? 

I did not participate in any undergraduate research at SD Mines. However, during my semester abroad, I participated in some research on hands-free image manipulation for the operating room as well as some research in ophthalmology during a summer internship. Looking back, I wish I would have participated in a longer research project at SD Mines, because the research process is very important to learn and medical schools are looking for that experience.

In what other ways did you prepare for a career in healthcare? 

I have worked at a medical instrument company during my time until I start medical school. While working, I have had the opportunity to learn medical marketing skills and attend annual conferences where I can sit in on lectures and meet physicians. Since graduating, I have also volunteered at a local hospital in the Phoenix area helping in the nephrology department as well as in patient transport.

How did you prepare for the MCAT?

I used the Kaplan books to review/learn the material that would be on the test. I purchased all of the practice tests from the AAMC as well as each section question pack they offered. I went through each practice test and question bank, and for each question I answered incorrectly (or guessed correctly), I learned the reasoning behind it. I also looked up everything I needed to have memorized on test day (e.g. amino acids) and made sure to do that.

Additionally, I discovered UWorld two weeks before I took the MCAT, and I believe this resource brought my Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS) section up dramatically on test day. They have a huge bank of questions, and the real benefit of UWorld was the thorough explanation of the answers to each of the questions. I wish I had learned about UWorld earlier.

How did you balance studying, attending classes, other student commitments, and doing all of these extracurriculars to prepare for medical school with your personal life?

If I’m being completely honest, I didn’t manage it well at the time. Perhaps I’m the wrong person to answer this question. I put way too much pressure on myself to earn a 4.0 GPA, and in doing so, that took a lot away from my college experience. I think it is important to do well, but looking back I would have studied less and been more involved in research and getting more experience in the medical field, with the caveat of only doing them if I was genuinely interested. It is so much easier to talk during an interview or write a personal statement about experiences you are passionate about.

What techniques do you use to manage your time and stress levels?

For time management, I’ve learned to take a deep, introspective look at my Google calendar before making any commitment. I have the tendency to take on too much at one time and then I become unable to maintain my commitments with a sound mind.

For stress levels, I’m learning to mend the root of the issue in addition to finding an enjoyable way to cope with the stress. If I’m stressed about a work issue, I talk with colleague(s) and work through it until it is resolved or at least better than it was.

Cooking happens to be random stressor for me because it takes up so much time and I don’t particularly enjoy it, so what I’ve ended up doing is improving my meal prep skills at the beginning of the week as well as cooking easier, quicker recipes.

What were some of the major challenges you faced at SD Mines and how did you overcome those challenges?

Test anxiety has historically been an issue for me. A good thing about SD Mines is that it forces you to confront this issue by providing ample practice opportunities to test out different coping techniques. Going for a run the morning before the test, reminding myself that I did my best, and framing the test as a “challenge” rather than a “threat” all seemed to help me manage my test anxiety. By the end of my time at SD Mines I found myself significantly less anxious going into an exam.

What advice do you have for pre-health students at SD Mines?

1.  My advice to pre-health students would be to study hard and excel in your classes, but try and avoid perfectionism - it takes the joy out of studying. Give yourself grace to enjoy your courses and the people you are studying with.

2.   Get to know your professors and the pre-med department. SDSM&T has so many wonderful professors, and I have experienced great support from them in the medical school application process. I literally could not have gotten into medical school without them.

3. Take it with a grain of salt when people say how incredibly difficult something is. I think it is human nature to overemphasize difficulty level; things usually aren’t as hard as people say they are, including O-Chem, Biochemistry, the MCAT, or even getting into medical school. Sure these are all challenging, but I found that peoples’ horror stories scared me out of doing what I wanted to do.

4. Involve yourself in activities that you both genuinely enjoy, and that help give you insight into the medical field. Research is a valuable asset for a career in medicine, but if there aren’t any research opportunities on campus that genuinely interest you, ask a professor if they would help you start your own.

5. Get involved in different groups both on and off campus. You get to meet a lot of different people with differing backgrounds, and by doing so I believe that you would be more effective at treating the myriad patients you will encounter in medicine. Not only that, networking very often opens doors to new opportunities.

6. Try to study abroad! The cultural competence you gain from studying abroad will serve you well in understanding people better in medicine. If possible, center your study abroad experience around something related to medicine. I worked on an engineering project relating to medicine in Oslo, Norway, and many of my interviewers asked to hear about this experience. There was a significant scholarship at SDSM&T back when I was considering studying abroad, so if money is a concern there may be help. There are also more affordable exchange opportunities where you just pay for your tuition as usual and living expenses.