The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ronaldi Is Proof Hard Work Pays Off
9/29/2011 | Soccer
Sept. 29, 2011
OXFORD, Miss. - As a goalkeeper, senior Alley Ronaldi has been in plenty of high-pressure situations during her career at Ole Miss but in mid-September, she was able to scratch another kind of high-pressure situation off her list - being accepted to medical school.
Ronaldi, who is on track to graduate in May, was accepted to medical school in Jackson on September 8.
She has been preparing for medical school since she stepped foot on campus as a freshman in 2008 - although she had a slight change of heart early in her academic career.
"I started taking prerequisite classes as a freshman and sophomore in order to be able to apply to medical school on time," Ronaldi said. "I changed my mind as a freshman I thought maybe I wanted to go to law school and then I changed my mind back again after taking a year of more law and business classes."
During her career at Ole Miss, her commitments to both her classes and soccer did get a bit stressful at times, trying to balance all of her responsibilities.
"It has been stressful at times," she said. "But it has been helpful having Jenna (Strother) on the team who is going through the same things to get ready for medical school."
During her time with the Rebels, Ronaldi, who is a team captain this season, has posted 14 shutouts including nine in 2009. She is ranked in the top-five in the career record book in GAA, goalkeeper wins and shutouts.
After completing her application to medical school, which can take upwards of 20 hours to complete, Ronaldi went on her medical school interview on September 7 which consisted of five-hours in Jackson being interviewed on anything from home life, to situational questions to her friends. She took a tour and got fingerprinted so they can complete a background check.
She was able to shadow her uncle who is a pulmonologist in Tupelo during December of 2010.
"I got a lot of great experience working with him," Ronaldi said. "I shadowed him and six other physicians in the Tupelo hospital for a total of 75 hours. I thought the most interesting things were in the ICU. That was a really cool experience."
While she doesn't know what kind of doctor she wants to be, right now she is looking at internal medicine because of the variety of it.
"I do four years of medical school then do a residency where you are matched depending on your grades and other factors and that is where you start working on a specialty," Ronaldi said. "After that you can do a fellowship and sub-specialize which adds more time but you are being paid."
