Student Spotlight: Utkarsh Sarup
Born and raised in New Delhi, Utkarsh Sarup’s journey to becoming a physician has taken him far beyond the borders of India, fueled by a deep-rooted passion for biology and a desire to practice evidence-based and patient-centered medicine. Now a 4th-year medical student at Trinity School of Medicine, Utkarsh is preparing for Step 2 while gearing up for elective rotations in Baltimore—a critical step toward his goal of matching into a highly competitive general surgery residency. His path to Trinity wasn’t linear; after completing his pre-med and initial medical training at another Caribbean school, Utkarsh realized the environment no longer aligned with his academic needs. Encouraged by trusted faculty and inspired by Trinity’s mission to prioritize quality over size, he made the switch—and hasn’t looked back. At Trinity, he’s found not only academic rigor and personalized support but also a vibrant, inclusive community that welcomed him from day one. From community events in Georgia to meaningful clinical experiences in Baltimore, Utkarsh credits Trinity’s mentorship, structure, and culture with empowering him to pursue his aspirations with confidence and clarity.
Where are you from? I was born and raised in New Delhi. I did all my schooling in New Delhi. My first thought about moving outside of India to study medicine was in grade 10.
What term are you at Trinity, and where are you located currently? I’m currently a 4th-year student studying for Step 2 before continuing my elective rotations in Baltimore.
How did you hear about Trinity, and what made you interested? I transferred from another Caribbean medical school where I completed pre-med and the first two years of medical school. After hitting a roadblock there, I realized the environment was no longer conducive to my growth. Several professors who had supported me suggested Trinity. I did my research and came across a video by then-president Steve Wilson, who said Trinity’s goal was to be the best—not the biggest. That resonated with me because my previous school had lost sight of student care in favor of enrollment numbers. I’m glad I made the switch.
What brought you into medicine? Ever since I was a kid, I have always been interested in Biology. It started off with an obsession to care for animals and wildlife. Growing up, I wanted to be a snake handler and then a vet. As I matured, I learned a lot more about human biology, and that intrigued me to create a realistic goal in building a career in biology. That’s how I came to medicine.
What made you consider studying medicine outside of India?
I believe it had to do with the culture behind medicine and the approach to it. One of the career paths India does very well is medicine. You get exposed to a lot of different pathologies that you’d never see in other countries, but the approach in American-based schools is more holistic. In India, your only motivation is to pass the exams and the terms, whereas in American-based schools, what is taught is integrated well with real-life scenarios. They teach you how to implement what you’re learning at every stage. The key term that they use is evidence-based medicine. I feel like that integration allows me to learn better. Even during residency training, even though India has made strides economically and infrastructurally, the training emphasis and the perspective with which the doctors are trained is very different. Of course, we have the responsibility of public health and treating the masses, but the patient-centered focus that is provided during rotations in America is significantly more. You treat from head to toe and make sure that when you’re discharging the patient, they’re checked in every way and they’re healthy. When someone comes in with a problem, you don’t just solve that particular problem and call it a day. The holistic and patient-centered approach in the U.S. is what motivated me to study medicine outside of India. I also knew that by attending a Caribbean med school, I would be able to reach my goal of attending residency in the U.S.
Did you find a sense of community on campus as an Indian student? Yes, the sense of community is one of my favorite things about Trinity. When I moved to Georgia for term 5, I didn’t know anyone because I came in as a transfer student. I was wondering how I was going to get acquainted with others since everyone knew each other already. My first exposure to other students was a meet-and-greet that Trinity hosts before the start of each term. My roommates helped me get acquainted with everybody, and I made great friends. The overall community and culture of the school are very positive. I never felt like I needed to have someone with a similar background to me or from the same place. Dr. Manahan, the dean of clinical sciences and curriculum, has played such an instrumental role in making sure that all the students coming in, whether a transfer student or a new student, are taken care of. That’s very rare in med school. There are so many med schools where, at the end of the day, you’re just a number, but being able to feel like more than just a number is what Trinity is great at, with the attention and the sense of belonging. I felt like that from day one. Trinity has been a great community to be a part of, and I’m glad that I can sit here and contribute to it.
How well do you think Trinity is preparing you for the Match? What specialty are you hoping to match into? I think it lies a lot on how much attention you get from the school. With Trinity, because of how intimate the community is, I’m able to have a meeting with Dr. Manahan every 20 days. She’s extremely experienced and motivated to make sure all Trinity students who applied for residency have a great shot at it. I’m someone who’s going to be applying for a very competitive residency in general surgery, and all she has done for the last six or seven months is help me create a plan and goals to ensure a strong application that will allow me to apply to general surgery. A lot of other schools will look at my choice of general surgery and tell me it’s not for Caribbean medical students and deny me from aspiring to do that. Overall, I feel like I’ve been very well prepared. Trinity’s deans are very systematic in how to approach the application. Halfway through core rotations, they tell you to declare your first-choice specialty, and according to that, they help you create an elective plan and set realistic targets of what you need to do on Step 2, which today is one of the most important factors for matching. As students, we hear a lot of realism and how general surgery is too competitive, but I know that. I don’t need to hear that from my dean constantly. There has to be a sense of realism, of course, but I love how Trinity has been very supportive of me in wanting to reach those aspirational goals.
General surgery, child neurology, and anesthesiology…these are specialties that, if you’re a Caribbean med student, people usually tell you not to think about them because you won’t be able to match into them, but that’s not true, as Trinity has proven. I think a lot of that credit goes to the school. Of course, as students, we’re doing our best, and it’s our application at the end of the day, but it’s also about how the school supports us. All these matches, they’re from great students, and that’s why they were able to get that, but Trinity has been such a conduit for them to be able to aspire for that. You can’t aspire for that unless you have a good foundation and a supporting community. That’s why Trinity shines against these bigger schools that focus more on having more students.
Was Trinity a good choice for you? I feel like I’m one of the best people to answer this question because I’m someone who has had an experience beyond Trinity. Trinity was not my first choice when starting med school. Retrospectively, when comparing the two schools, Trinity has definitely been the better choice, and I think it comes down to the intimacy that we have with the administration and the faculty. There is nothing that can replace that in education. The fact that my dean can meet with me every 20 days is what really makes a difference. Back in my previous med school, I only spoke with the dean once, and I was one of the proactive students; that’s not how it’s supposed to be. That defines the quality of education, and there’s nothing that can compete with what Trinity provides.
What advice would you give to other Indian students considering Trinity? I feel like a lot of Indian medical students who are studying back home have the aspiration to do their residency in America because of the training quality. That’s another reason why I chose the Caribbean, because my goal was to get a residency in the U.S. The Caribbean pathway is the best way to do that if you’re a foreign student. It gives you a much more realistic chance, and the fact that we get U.S. clinical experience is unmatched. There is a reason program directors look out for that, because they want to ensure you know how medicine works in America, and so they see how much time you spent in U.S. hospitals and clinics. It’s not just about reproducing what you learned in an exam. Medicine is a field that is relatively uniform around the world, so a doctor in India probably knows the exact method that I do, but the way that we treat patients here and the way we go about medicine on a daily basis is very different. I chose this Caribbean route to get into the system, and that’s exactly what it’s doing. My advice to Indian students who are aspiring to do that is to make that leap and be part of a Caribbean medical school to improve the chances of reaching that goal. I believe a lot of Indian students are hesitant to do that, mainly because of the cost and the fact that it’s very challenging to move across the sea and live on an island. For most people, these are places they’ve never heard of–Antigua, St. Vincent, Barbados–until they move there for medical school. In my experience, for a lot of people I know who have taken that leap, it has worked out. Of course, it depends on the amount of effort the student puts in and their consistency, but the Caribbean pathway, and Trinity specifically, is a good choice.
What has been your favorite experience so far at Trinity? Community-wise, I feel like the first six months I spent in Georgia were absolutely great, from the meet-and-greet to community-based events, like the Cherry Blossom festival in Macon. That was such a great experience. There were a lot of Trinity students who went, and that was actually one of my favorite days associated with Trinity.
On the other hand, the quality of rotations in Baltimore has also been great. I rotated at St. Agnes and Northwest Hospital, and those educational and rotation experiences have been unparalleled. The interaction that we have with residents who work with us as a team has been wonderful. At the end of the day, getting a residency is getting a job. So, you’re able to impress someone who can give you a job. These clerkship locations in Baltimore have residency programs. Establishing your presence there, making those connections, and putting your name there for the future is very important because the goal is to get a residency and become a physician.
If you’re interested in learning how Trinity can support your dream of becoming a doctor, we invite you to reach out to our admissions team today! Contact us here.
