A Med Student’s Path From High School To LECOM While Swimming And Dual Majoring

You can want medicine and still want a life. We sit down with Adidi Ayur, a third-year medical student currently training at Mercy Jefferson, to talk about how she found LECOM in high school, applied, and suddenly had a clearer path into the medical profession. That one shift changed everything: less time obsessing over the next application cycle, more time building skills, confidence, and a college experience that didn’t feel like constant sacrifice.

Adidi shares what it’s really like to be a student-athlete on a premed track, including swimming at Illinois Tech in Chicago, juggling early morning practices, classes, MCAT preparation, and weekend travel for meets. We also dig into why she pursued a dual major in biology and psychology and how that “human side” strengthens the way you think about patients, communication, and the day-to-day reality of becoming a physician. If you’re a high school sophomore, junior, or senior trying to map out your premed plan, this is a grounded look at time management, mentorship, and choosing programs that support you.

We end with practical advice on MCAT anxiety and study strategy, especially if brute memorization doesn’t work for you. Adidi explains how learning her own study style early, with visualization and real understanding, made medical school studying more effective. If you’re searching for LECOM admissions insights, early acceptance medical programs, MCAT tips, or a sustainable premed lifestyle, you’ll leave with a clearer picture of what’s possible. Subscribe, share this with a future doctor, and leave a review telling us what part of the medical school journey you want us to unpack next.

Transcript

Meet Adidi And The Goal

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm here with Adidi Ayur, is that right? Yes. Okay. And you are from the great state of Colorado. I didn't butcher at that time, so I'm kind of proud of myself. You're also in your third year of medical school doing your residency at Mercy Jefferson. Let's let's uh go to just the one general question here and kind of maybe your quick path into LeeCom. So if you're a high school, this is really geared to like high school sophomores and juniors or seniors looking to go into medical profession. Okay. Um and LeeCom kind of offers a different path. So what advice would you have for them looking back like if you're looking back kind of at your junior self to connecting to Leecom?

Balancing Swimming And Dual Majors

MCAT Pressure And Study Style

SPEAKER_01 0:37

So I found out about LeeCom my senior year. Um I a friend told me about it, and I applied, and within a month I heard back from LeeCom and I um went for an interview and everything. And I'm so happy that I did like figure this path out because it gave me the opportunity to do things outside of medicine. You know, I um was an athlete, I was a swimmer, and so I had the opportunity to um still swim in undergrad and everything, which is really tough um as a medical student to um do that on top of pre-med, pre-med courses and everything. And I wanted to do a dual major as well. Um, I I really love psychology and I wanted to do biology, get those like pre-med uh requirements in, but I love like the humanistic approach to medicine and everything. So I really wanted to get a psychology major as well. And doing that on top of swimming, on top of all the other pre-med like um activities, everything is really tough. And so it was just nice to have LeeCom that were really supportive of everything, and um, it was just like good to, you know, not stress too much about you know the next application cycle and everything. Um, I did my undergrad did require me to take the MCAT, um, but it wasn't too much of a stress um for me because there isn't that high of a requirement for the MCAT score. Um, so I still learned a lot. Honestly, it was good for me to take the MCAT because um I know it's really daunting. All standardized exams are very daunting. And so, um, but it was good for me to study, like learn how to study, figure out what works for me, you know, and I learn a little differently than a lot of other students. I really need to like visualize, you know, and um really understand the material. I can't just brute memorize. And so it was good for me to learn that like early on, because now, like in medical school, I know exactly what works for me and like how I need to study and everything. And so it was just good because I was able to do the things that I love while still, you know, pursuing what I'm interested in.

Division III Swimming Life In Chicago

SPEAKER_00 2:37

So I I have a feeling you're probably standard on the MCAT's a little different than mine. I'm sure I'd struggle with that thing. But no. What what college did you go swim at? Just because that's really that we have that has not been discussed to still kind of be a student too through the undergrad part. So what college do you go to?

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Um I swim for Illinois Tech. It's um a Division III school in Chicago. And so we would have I still can't believe like I'd wake up at 4 30 in the morning, go to practice, go to classes, and when I was during the when I was studying for the MCAT, I would be studying for the MCAT, and then I'd have afternoon practices and my weekends would go for like away meets. We'd go to Wisconsin, we'd go to um different, different states. I think actually um I had a I used to have a meet once a year that was right on the border of St. Louis. So um I've so I know about you know St. Louis bread and co that's instead of Fanera.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

And so um, but yeah, that's uh home and away.

Wrap Up And LECOM Contact

SPEAKER_01 3:30

Yeah, the home and away. So um, but yeah, it was it was an awesome opportunity, you know, and I'm so happy that like so real quick, you from Colorado to Chicago to Pennsylvania, and then now to Missouri. Awesome, very good. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

All over if you check out we'll do a longer podcast if we want to check out a bit more. What a great story, and kind of cool to hear about the extracurricular stuff too. And that's impressive. You could do all that and still get to medical school and do what you're doing. So thanks for being here today.

SPEAKER_01 3:57

Uh thank you.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

And again, if you're at home and you're kind of wondering, contact LeeCom for these opportunities.