Advice from alumni: Ana Otamas

Ana Otamas from Russia graduated in 2013 from EF Academy Oxford and earned an IB Diploma.  She is currently studying Medicine at Birmingham University and wants to become a cardiologist in the future. Last month, she sat in the audience of the EF Academy Oxford graduation ceremony with her best friend and fellow alumna Alina Shapovalenko. While she was back at her former high school, many aspiring medicine students had the chance to ask their questions about applying to med school and what the program was like. Read some of her advice in the Q&A below:

How did you hear about us and why did you decide to attend EF Academy?

I had never planned to come to Oxford or study abroad but then I saw a flyer on the plane and Oxford looked so beautiful and charming. I made the decision quite quickly, I needed to finish school in Russia first so that I could attend EF Academy and that school allowed me to skip a grade so that I could study abroad.

What university did you go to afterwards? What did you study and why?

I attend Birmingham University and I’m studying Medicine. I could have applied for anything I wanted, but I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. My plan is to become a cardiologist. What’s interesting in my medicine program is that after the second, third or fourth year of the medicine degree, you can take a year off and earn a degree in anything else related to medicine. This September, I’m going to Leeds to study cardiovascular medicine.  I just finished my third year and I have two years left. It’s a long course so it’s nice to take a year off and do something else.

What do you want to do after university?

I’d like to start working as a doctor right away, but I want to get some experience somewhere else like Australia or New Zealand. I’d like to be a doctor in the UK, which is why I came here for an education in the first place.

Tips for current students who want to apply to medicine school?

I’ve been contacted by a few students already and a lot of them sounded quite frightened because people have told them that medical school is hard and that you have to work a lot. But if you are ambitious and have a spark for medicine, medical school admissions officers will see that. They also love when you do co-curricular activities, so get involved in something else, like sports or volunteering – don’t just study.

The application depends on the school you are applying to – sometimes you have to undertake special tests (the BMAT or UKCAT) in addition to a personal statement and an interview. For Birmingham, there weren’t any tests but I did have to go through a multi-stage interview. There were four different rooms/interviews with two people in each room and a whistle would sound every time I could enter a new room for an interview and when the interview was done. I had to stop talking when I heard the whistle, even if I was in the middle of an answer. The stages of the interview were all different, for example, for one part, I had to give a presentation to convince a student to attend the school (here they were looking for communication skills). None of the interviews were related to medicine actually. Cy [my university guidance counselor] helped me a lot in preparing for the interviews – we downloaded 200 possible questions that they could ask and I wrote answers to the ones I thought were the most important. Cy asked me other questions in person to help me prepare for answering in front of others. In the end, they only asked one question that I had prepared for but the practice helped me feel more confident talking in front of admission officers.

For the first two years of the Medicine degree, we weren’t at the hospital but for the third year, we just had hospital practice and occasional hospital-based lectures. It was quite scary at the beginning because we now had contact with real patients and doctors, but it was funny as well because we realized how different people are – some patients were patient with us and let us talk to them and take their history, and some didn’t trust us at all. But once we were into it, we realized it was completely normal. For the most part, people are nice and encourage us to work in the hospital.

Do you keep in touch with your EF Academy classmates?

Alina and I are best friends so we see each other often; I keep in touch with a few others but not with everyone.

What’s your favorite memory from EF Academy?

We went to Alton Towers with our class, it had been cold for weeks before but on the actual day it was so warm, sunny and beautiful and we spent the whole day together as a class.

What do you miss the most?

The atmosphere of classes because it’s really different at the university – we have 350 people in the course and I don’t know every single person in the lecture hall and the lecturers don’t know our names. But at EF Academy, the classes were small so we felt like we were friends from the start. It was just a really friendly atmosphere.

What is one thing that you learned from EF Academy that you found valuable for university? For work life? For your personal life?

I learned that it’s okay to ask any questions that come to your mind. At EF Academy, they encouraged us to be independent thinkers and approach the information that you are given with a bit of doubt and not just accept it. I’m not afraid to ask questions to consultants when I have trainings in the hospitals.

What final tips would you give to current students?

If you have a heart for something and you really wish to do something, it shouldn’t matter what people tell you about how hard it is, you should still go for it. It’s better to go for it rather than regret that you didn’t. And for first-year students at university, just have fun! As soon as you graduate from EF Academy and you go to university, for those overachievers (and there are many of us), you will want to succeed from the first day, but I wouldn’t say that that’s the most important thing as a first-year university student. You don’t want to be locked in your room reading lecture notes, you want to explore and meet the people who you will be friends with for the rest of your life!

Short questions:

Name: Ana Otamas

Age: 21

Nationality: Russia

EF Academy campus: EF Academy Oxford

Graduation year: 2013

Program: IB

Residence or host family: Host family – I’m still in touch with them, they’re lovely. My first year at university I arrived at Heathrow and my host mom brought all my stuff and helped me get settled in. She still phones me to ask if I need anything. I was really lucky. That’s something that made my experience even better.

Favorite subject: Economics & chemistry

Favorite teacher:

Cy Webber, University Guidance Counselor

Tim Lewis, Science Teacher

Which is the next country you want to visit? Brazil

Shout outs to:

Alina Shapovalenko – alumni speaker at graduation

Cy Webber – it was wonderful to see him again at the EF Academy Oxford graduation ceremony in April