JTC 24: From Perfect GPA to Acing the MCAT

When Wake Monroe reviewed his 2023 Medical College Admissions Test results, his heart skipped a beat.

Had there been a mistake?

"I had done a lot of practice, but it was still even a little better than I was expecting," said Monroe, who graduates from the University of Mississippi this month with degrees in biochemistry and international studies.

He scored a 524, putting him in the elite 100th percentile for the exam.

"It was definitely a game changer because the MCAT is a beast, of course, but once you get a score like that, it can really open doors – and it did" he said.

He was flooded with acceptance letters from prestigious medical schools, including Harvard University, the universities of North Carolina and Virginia, the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Tulane University.

He declined those offers.

Monroe, a Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College student graduating with a perfect 4.0 GPA, accepted an offer to New York University's Grossman Medical School.

"When I turned down Harvard, my mom was supportive, but she had some thoughts," the Jackson native joked.

"Harvard is fantastic, but NYU is right there with them. In the medical world, I think NYU is better. That's why I chose it."

Beyond its notoriety, there's a bonus to attending NYU in the fall. His fiancee, Kallen Mitchell, is also headed there for a museum studies graduate program. She graduates from UM in May with degrees in anthropology and psychology.

Similar to his fiancee, anthropology is part of his studies too. He declared it as one of his minors in addition to Spanish and biology.

Juggling two majors and three minors, he also studied abroad twice. He left for Colombia two days after completing his MCAT.

"I was the first student to go to Colombia in a long time, but my thesis was on drug war policy and the effects on citizens and health care outcomes," he said.

I did learn just a lot about the world, about the realities that a lot of families face and what it really means to have privilege."

That spring semester was a transformative experience in several ways. Monroe's host mother died suddenly two weeks after he arrived, and a plumbing issue later forced the family to move further from his university.

"I didn't want to leave, despite other housing options, because the family really needed the money they received from hosting students," he said.

"It was difficult, but I did learn just a lot about the world, about the realities that a lot of families face and what it really means to have privilege." 

Kate McGurn Centellas, Monroe's thesis adviser and a UM associate professor of anthropology and international studies in the Croft Institute for International Studies, has witnessed his understanding of privilege and hunger for learning.

Monroe took her online medical anthropology class while studying nearly 2,000 miles away in Barranquilla, Colombia.

"This was a pretty intense class, especially for an online class, where I'm asking students to deal with a lot of really difficult issues around who has access to health care and why, what are the impacts of war, famine and inequality – issues that are not necessarily easy to sit and think with," Centellas said.

"Not only did he excel, including finishing theoretical readings while studying abroad in Baranquilla; he started writing these long, beautifully written ethnographic observations around what he was seeing and experiencing as a way of making sense of the world and understanding what he was doing as part of these broader social processes."

Last summer, Monroe also conducted research in Bolivia with Centellas, learning about everything from the country's use of native herbs as medicine to lack of access to proper health care. The trip helped Centellas create a new hands-on field work experience for future students.

"He's been a joy to work with," she said. "He's super impressive. The sky is the limit."

However, Monroe's undergraduate experience wasn't all work and no play.

He joined Delta Psi fraternity as a freshman, participated in Ole Miss student government and has countless memories with friends on the Grove.

"Honestly, there were a few times I had to pass up on going out with friends, but not as much as you would honestly expect," he said.

Monroe will become the first person in his family to pursue a career in medicine. He plans to train in a surgical specialty.

"Probably, one that is more trauma-adjacent," he explained. "The 10- to 20-year plan is to become an academic surgeon and help inspire future students. I am also hoping to help increase global surgical capacity.

"Croft helped inspire me and give me the tools to accomplish that goal."

He realized his passion for science as a young boy. Then, when he was 14, his father suffered a heart attack.

Monroe was inspired by the emergency room doctor who saved his father's life.

"That moment helped crystallize these nebulous ideas in my mind as to exactly what I want to do," he said.

It's nearly impossible to share all his undergraduate accomplishments, but Monroe is quick to share that he didn't do it alone. His fiancee and family were motivating forces behind his continued success.

"Especially, my grandmother," he said. "She grew up in the Delta as a sharecropper with 13 siblings. My grandfather passed at the age of 54.

"She has been a genuine source of strength and a role model I want to emulate. She came all this way to give me these opportunities."

Besides family, he credits St. Andrews Episcopal School as the sturdy foundation where he built his successful secondary education.

"(St. Andrew's) is partially why I've been so successful," he said. "They taught me more than just how to succeed. They taught me the desire to succeed."

See more photos from Wake Monroe's Journey to Commencement