A Non-Traditional Path To Medical School At LECOM

She didn’t grow up assuming college was possible. She didn’t start out aiming at medicine. And she definitely didn’t feel confident walking into medical school. Katie Raymer, a third-year LECOM medical student training at Mercy Jefferson in Festus, Missouri, joins us to share the real story behind a non-traditional path into osteopathic medicine.

We talk about growing up in an underserved, low-income community in Arizona, becoming a parent young, and finding the support to go back to school even when the roadmap wasn’t obvious. Katie explains how she discovered what a DO (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) actually is, why DO programs can feel more welcoming to non-traditional students, and how she landed at LECOM after a lot of searching and second-guessing. She also breaks down what the LECOM structure looks like from the first two years in Pennsylvania to clinical rotations, plus what problem-based learning at the Seton Hill campus demands from you week to week.

The most honest part of our conversation is about imposter syndrome in medical school: waiting for the “wrong person” phone call, comparing yourself to brilliant classmates, and learning to trust your own work. We end with what helped her most, community outreach, including LECOM’s Bridging the Gaps and her own program, Rounds, bringing health education to a homeless shelter and reminding future physicians why patients and service matter.

If you’re considering LECOM, researching DO vs MD, or wondering if a non-traditional medical school journey can really work, this one’s for you. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs the push, and leave a review with the biggest lesson you took from Katie’s story.

Transcript

Meet Katie And Her Roots

SPEAKER_01 0:00

By Katie Raymer, third year medical student with LeeCom and uh placed here in Festus, Missouri at Mercy Jefferson. Uh Katie, kind of tell us about your background.

SPEAKER_00 0:10

Yeah, so um, I mean, I've kind of lived all over the states, but I'm originally from Arizona and that's kind of you know my hometown. Shout out to Tucson. Um, Wildcats, let's go. Uh yeah, so um for me, like I I went to like a small school there. Um I really didn't think college was in the in the works for me um because I didn't know anybody that had gone to college. Um I was extremely like I was in a very underserved area, so very low income. Um, so I just yeah, I didn't ever think that college would be something for me. Um I ended up I actually have a son, so had him a little bit young. Um and then that kind of turned me around and I decided to go back to school. My husband was very, very encouraging. Um, and then I got a master's in art history, and now I'm here, yeah. Kind of all over the place.

Discovering DO And Finding LECOM

SPEAKER_01 1:03

So, how did you find out about Leecom?

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Yeah, um, so I actually had no idea what a DO was. I was like, I thought it was just MD. Um, I didn't even know that that existed. Then I found out that my PCP was a DO, and I was like, uh but actually while I was kind of looking at different medical schools, um I and I was also teaching. Um, I had a student that was also applying to medical schools. And she was the one that had told me about DO programs. Um, and so I started to look more into that. And I had spoken to a few individuals that um had really um they had definitely encouraged me to look at DO schools over MD schools just because they thought that DO would be a lot more, I guess, accepting of a non-traditional student like myself. Um, so I was just looking around, Googling a lot. Uh, and then I, you know, stumbled across LeeCom and it just seemed like a great fit. So I was really excited to get accepted.

SPEAKER_01 2:04

And what does DO stand for exactly?

SPEAKER_00 2:06

Doctor of osteopathy.

Prereqs MCAT And The Program Flow

SPEAKER_01 2:08

Okay, very good. So you uh you would be considered sort of a non-traditional student, okay. And so you did you have to do anything prior to going to LeeCom? You had what was your degree in? You you had an art master's?

SPEAKER_00 2:21

Yeah, so I had a master's in art history. Um, and so I, you know, I would I actually did take the MCAT um because I didn't even know that LeeCom didn't, you know, even need the MCAT.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

So that was a lot of fun. But uh I I think it was good that I took it um because it did prepare me a lot for the very hefty exams you will be taking in med school. Um, but uh I I did have to take a bunch of science classes, and because I was teaching at the time, I actually got them for free. So it was kind of nice, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:53

Good deal. And so then you transferred into LeeCom a couple years there, and now you're in your first, is this your first year away from LeeCom?

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah, so what we do is we go to Pennsylvania for two years. Um, we do our kind of out-of-clinic, you know, learning, and then we do our in-clinic rotations. And so we're still learning, we're still taking exams, we're still studying a lot. Gotcha. Um, but there's a lot more hands-on learning. And so we get assigned to a hospital, and so that's why we're out here.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Okay, very good. So you've got uh some some other what I call uh members of your cohort here today. Um do you got are you guys kind of on that same where you're working as a team and and studying together? And how's that all that all that work?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Uh I mean, we definitely study, like we bounce stuff off of each other all the time. Um and but I don't think we study as much together. We're like, I know for because we're all on different rotations um and we all take different exams at the end of our rotation, it's hard for us to study together as much.

Imposter Syndrome In Med School

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Very good. I was just you've kind of gone over some of your challenges. So, what was the greatest challenge that you had in this process? Was it just deciding this is the path to go?

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Uh, yeah. Well, honestly, my biggest challenge was um imposter syndrome. Like that's so real. And um, I really didn't think, I mean, I swear, for the first year of medical school, I kept waiting for like the call for Lee Comm to be like, we actually accepted the wrong Katie Raymer. My bad. Um, so I mean, lots of uh just crying, and which is just normal for medical school, I think, uh, for your first couple of years, uh, because there's just so much information to retain. And I had come from such a different background that I felt like I didn't belong there. Okay. Um, and so I think that was something that was really, really difficult to just know that that's I what I did belong there. I did deserve to be there, and I was working hard and it was okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

How long did that take for you to kind of overcome that?

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Like a year.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

A year?

SPEAKER_00 4:52

Yeah, I mean, I think uh I I mean, I still definitely have those moments of like, am I am I smart enough to be here? Um, because you're just surrounded by such brilliant people, you know, that just, I mean, they could take some concept and like overnight they just got it. And I'm like, I'm spending 60 hours a week and I'm barely passing. What is happening? Sure. Um, but you just kind of get into the groove and you learn that you're gonna be good at some things and then other people are gonna be good at other things. So good.

SPEAKER_01 5:24

Um, so if you're a student at home looking at it, what is a what does a day or week or semester look like for you, really in the LeeCom program? So let's say you are at Lake Erie and you're there for the two years. How does that look semester to semester, week to week?

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Yeah, so I actually went to the Seton Hill location, which is oh, that's okay. It's right outside of Pittsburgh. Um and so I did the problem-based learning uh rotation or uh pathway. So I know that my pathway looks a little bit different from other students, um, but basically, you know, we'd go in and the uh the first couple of months it was all lecture because they wanted to do anatomy and certain, you know, kind of foundational um classes. And then after that, we actually learn based on um cases. So we would meet with a few other students and a preceptor, and then they would present a case to us and we would actually learn through the case. Uh, we would go home and do a lot of independent studying. There's a ton of independent studying, and um us working together and trying to figure out um together like these different concepts. Um, yeah, so that was it's hard to say. I feel like every day is different and each month, even now during rotations, each month is totally different. I can't even say, like, oh, this is how I study for this. Like, no, it's it's just you just buy it.

Outreach That Reset Her Purpose

SPEAKER_01 6:42

It sounds like the whole lee com process, the more I listen to it, is about supporting different learning styles, um, providing that opportunity. Um, and in your situation, just it's just like never give up, right? I mean, that's uh and then maybe just make sure you're open to a career maybe you weren't even thinking about.

Final Reflections And Thanks

SPEAKER_00 7:00

Is that yeah, absolutely? Um, that was definitely the case for me. Um it just it it fit. And I think one thing that helped me even overcome everything is uh LeeCom also offers some really cool summer stuff. Like um, I I was involved in what's called Bridging the Gaps. It's an outreach program over the summer, and I gotta do that and I gotta work in the community, and I think that helped me get through a lot of it as well. It helped me kind of refresh, realize why I was doing what I was doing, um, and really who I was doing it for. So coming back in the second year, I just I felt amazing. And I, you know, I just I really the first year was so incredibly difficult. And then the second year going in, I was just like, I got this. Um so I think that that was something for me was just having that kind of community outreach and remembering like why you're doing something. And then I was even allowed to kind of continue that into the second year. Um, I started a program, I call it Rounds, it's reaching out, understanding needs, delivering support, where we actually uh went to like I would gather other second years and we would go to a homeless shelter once a month and we would um do these like health lectures for them and do like hands-on learning and like really help them advocate for their own health. And I think it helped a lot of students like get out of their shell, get out of just you know, these textbooks and where you're just studying, studying, studying, and going out into the community and showing kind of what you know and really applying it and seeing, you know, how much it can impact other people's lives. That was uh that was a huge thing for me to and it helped me overcome a lot of those fears and a lot of that pressure was taken away.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

So I'm gonna get thanks for sharing your story. Is there anything that you'd want to share just in general as a summary that I didn't ask today?

SPEAKER_00 8:55

Um no, I mean I think I think we covered a lot.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

I think your story is pretty unique, uh non-traditional, coming from uh maybe an environment as a as a high school that's maybe a little bit limited, and maybe the mentality that you can you do these things, and yet here you are. So we appreciate you sharing your story. And again, I think we've got a great thing going on here in Jefferson County.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Yeah, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 9:15

Thank you.