The final days are upon me!

In little more than two weeks, I will have gotten some form of response from essentially every school that I am waiting on. Many school choose to wait until March to announce acceptances (or the bulk of them), and starting tomorrow the letters will begin going out. I am waiting on quite a few schools, and my top choices as well. I've tried not to get too committed to a single school, because it isn't worth the emotional devastation if I don't get in. Despite this, I have my fingers crossed for a big, fat packet in my mail box!  At least I am fortunate enough to have an acceptance in hand. I really feel for those who are still waiting for one!

Oh, I added some new questions. They appear to have been written on February 14th, but I just published them. Don't forget to take a look!

A useful Table

http://www.aamc.org/data/facts/2008/mcatgpa-grid-3yrs-app-accpt.htm

Just so you know, some of those lower end acceptances were MD/BA students. Nonetheless, it is a quick and easy way to gauge the competitiveness of your stats. Don't take it too literally though, because it doesn't tell you the whole story. With good or bad EC's your competitiveness drastically changed. This also doesn't tell you WHERE those accepted students went.

Question 14: Advice on letters of Recommendation

As I mentioned last time, personal statements are an evaluation of your professional life among professors, physicians, and employers. They are designed to evaluate you on your performance and your personality in a generally professional setting. To this end, there are a few ways to optimize the quality of your letters.

1) The Basics

Overall, I would recommend at least 2 letters from Science Professors, 1 letter from a non-science professor, and two personal letters. By personal I mean from a research PI, a boss, a coordinator, a dean, etc. Not your best friend Timmy! Make sure that you have a doctor letter on hand as one of your personal letters. Other medical staff are great for other letters, but you should ALWAYS send a doctor's letter. You can have more than these five that I recommend, but the minimum requirement that has been highest (to my knowledge) was five letters minimum. Feel free to pick and choose, and to have additional letters for a given school if you know someone with strong ties there (you would send these types of letters directly to them, not with your primary application). If you are applying to a research intense school, a letter from your PI should always be among the letters that you choose to send.

2) Use a letter sending service!

This is sooo much more convenient than having each letter writer send out dozens of letters, or for you to do it for them. The biggest plus of this is that you can bypass some of the "maximum" letter limits, because you only have a single letter packet and schools will accept all of your letters because of this. Whether it makes a difference, I do not know. Regardless, its really convenient because you don't have to worry about things being lost in the mail, as they are sent to schools electronically. You also get confirmations that the service got them, and can select which schools receive them. Many pre-med advising offices do this as a service to their students, check! Otherwise Interfolio is a common one to use.

3) Fresher is better

The ultimate goal of these letters is to evaluate you as you are when you apply, not who you were in your freshman year. Sure, it might be tempting to collect letters from professors early in the game, but it would be much better if you maintained relationships with those professors until your junior year, or alternatively got letters from professors that you were active with in your junior year. This is a much better evaluation of who you are when you apply, and it gives them much more information about your college career to draw upon (discussed in number 5). I know that some of my best experiences came during my late sophomore and early senior year, things that defined me. Furthermore, some of my letter writers had been acquainted with me for years by the time that I asked for letters, and were much more likely to be qualified to evaluate me. Another boon is that, by your junior year, most of your classes will be pretty small. This makes it easier to build relationships with mentors.

4) Fame is nice, familiarity is better

Sure its tempting to get that Nobel laureate to write you a letter of recommendation, but it does you little good if all they write is "Student X went to my class, likes dogs, and asked good questions." This is something that I was told by adcom members that is so often the case. The point of the letters is to evaluate you, not to try and grab as many big names as you can. What good does getting a letter from a professor that knows adcom members if he or she has nothing to say about you, especially if they call him or her up to ask! That being said, one large name might be nice to have, especially if it is someone related to your major, department, or university. The ideal situation is that this person knows you well, and I'd recommend that the "famous guy" be a personal letter than one of your professor letters, just because these are often weighted more heavily (or so I have heard, remember to keep your salt shaker with you!). Bottom line, familiarity is going to get you a better letter. They will be able to talk about you in depth, and give an honest (and hopefully good) estimation of you. This is what you want!

5) Make a info packet for all of your writers!

Even if it's someone that has known you since a child, make sure to type up an extensive summary of who you are (with table of contents). Where you were born, what your parents do, siblings data, high school life and location, college life, jobs, awards, interests, grades, majors, minors, etc. Chances are, most of it won't be very useful to them, but there is always the chance that someone will be able to reference something that you did as part of their estimation, and it allows them to refresh themselves on the details of your life. Basically you want another AMCAS, except feel free to include interests and hobbies (such as traveling) that you didn't! This is why the table of contents is important, so that they don't have to wade through all of it looking for what they want.

6) You must pursue relationships

Want a good letter, you must take the initiative. Even if a professor likes you, chances are they aren't going to show up at your door to hang out. You must put in the time and effort to build connections with your letter writers, it isn't their job. Furthermore, never hesitate to ask someone that you feel might be helpful to be recommended by, for whatever reason. It won't hurt to ask! 

Question 13: Advice on Personal Statement?

The personal statement is enormously important (like everything else! :D). The personal statement is your first shot at being more than data. Everything else on your application is simply a description of what you have done, or a numerical evaluation of your academic performance. Your letters of recommendation are a representation of yourself in a professional setting, but your personal statement must include both your private and professional side. In addition, the personal statement is the one essay you are guaranteed that every school will see. Some medical schools do not have supplemental essays, so treat this always as your first and only shot to show them your stuff. Here are some tips:

1) Make it interesting

Adcoms read thousands of personal statements. Make yours a treat for the eyes.  You want to get your message across, but try and do it in a way that makes you seem interesting, as well as making the personal statement itself worth more than a casual glance. Chances are good that they speed read a good majority of personal statements, at least the first time through. There are plenty of ways to make it interesting. Talking about personal passions or meaningful experiences both tend to be good stuff. Don't feel that everything has to be directly related to a medical experience either. Say you have a passion for teaching and knowledge. If that is an important part of who you are and what is important to you, include it just like you would in your resume activities list (if you followed my advice!).

2)Don't Ramble

Length isn't everything. If you can get your message across just as well in a concise manner, do it. Using every last character allowed will ultimately have no effect. Furthermore, don't feel that you have to restrict yourself to a single topic. Going back to point 1, having multiple paragraphs discussing different aspects of yourself and your passions can be much more pleasurable to read than one, gigantic spiel about your great ant Ella. The more points you can make without seeming rushed the better. Look for filler information that isn't actually useful to the point you are trying to make. Does describing in depth the scene of the hospital the day you had a significant experience really increase the message when compared to simply writing "While volunteering in Trauma one day,"? Not likely! We will talk more about the benefit of having multiple topics to touch on later.

3) Getting it in early is good, make sure you have time for plenty of revisions.

Make no mistake, applying early is an enormous boon! However, your personal statement might be the most important essay in determining your interview potential. Make sure it is the best one you've ever written, and make sure that it is spotless. Grammatical errors are a huge negative to a lot of adcoms! Consider getting your personal statement proof read professionally, as well as taking it to as many proof readers as you can. When I wrote my PS, I wrote multiple paragraphs on things that I eventually didn't use. In fact, in some cases I condensed an entire paragraph into a single phrase by the end of my revisions. Write as much as you can and then piece the things that are best and flow well together. Have your advisers read it, your parents, your non-pre-med friends. Get as much commentary as you can, even if you choose to ignore it! Remember, this statement is about you. Just because you are given ideas from someone that you think have value doesn't mean that you should use them if they don't fit your message and who you are!

4) Your personal statement should fuse your application into something coherent.

In the end, your personal statement should make sense of all of the scores, classes, activities, and life experiences in the rest of your application. Show the adcom how the pieces come together, and how all of this combined makes you a great future doctor! This is the benefit of having multiple topics in your personal statement, rather than one long and grandiose one. You can relate the different parts of who you are together by discussing them and then synthesizing. Have a message, and make sure that each paragraph contributes to it. Tangents might sound interesting, but they are a waste of space if they don't add to the sum of your PS. Save them for interviews!

I won't publish my PS, but here is a general idea of how it flowed.

Introduction- childhood personality and how it lead to my desire to be a doctor.

Personal influence on my by someone I know that contributed to my desire to go into medicine.

What I learned from an experience in medicine, and how I have grown to prepare for it.

An event that strengthened my confidence in my ability to go into medicine.

Conclusions and summing it all up.

Question 12: Do you have any advice on taking the MCAT or studying for it?

Absolutely. The MCAT is a wonderful exam. No, I haven't gone crazy and I haven't been overdosing on caffeine (today at least). It really is, because its ultimately fair. Think about med school applications without the MCAT. I guarantee that anyone not in a top private school would be ultimately excluded. It would just be assumed that the guy with a 3.4 at a top school was smarter than the 3.9 at a public school, because the top school guy had the standardized test scores to get in there! It would make admissions so much more subjective than it is now, because there would be no firm reference on the level of academic ability of the applicants. The MCAT is not necessarily an IQ test, except for perhaps the Verbal reasoning, because it requires a certain level of outside knowledge. Regardless, your score tells much about the combination of your work ethic and natural reasoning abilities. We are not the same people we were in high school. Maybe the public school guy, like me, decided to go for fit or finances instead of prestige when he chose his school. Maybe he or she was an underachiever in high school. Maybe the private school girl was a top notch student in high school, but lost her drive or chose activities over grades. The MCAT puts everyone on an equal playing level. The material covered is not super advanced really, so where you learned it isn't going to affect you (Seriously, does anyone think that a brilliant Nobel prize winning Chemist knows more about the concepts of a general chemistry class? That knowledge is so basic that anyone with a PhD has plenty of knowledge. That professors realm of knowledge is so far above that of a general chem or organic chem class, that they probably have to review the material just as much as anyone, nor does their knowledge make it any easier to teach that class (in fact, perhaps it is harder because of that knowledge). Ultimately, your teacher's skill at teaching is what determines that, not their innovativeness in the field). The MCAT is a unbiased way of looking at a students academic prowess without consideration to their school, major, etc. Its why you can go to any school and, with the right gumption and talent, go to any medical school. It also gives medical schools perspective on your GPA by averaging the MCAT scores and GPAs of other pre-meds from that institution. For example, lets say a school had an average MCAT score of 33, and GPA of 3.6. If a student showed up with a 4.0 from that school, that's pretty impressive, given the already high quality of their students (based on their MCAT). Anyways, enough talk about the MCAT:

1) The MCAT is ultimately a self study exam.

Medical school is primarily self study, and so is the MCAT. No matter what any of the test prep folk might hint at, only you can get yourself a good MCAT score. Expect somewhere between 300-600 hours of studying before you're prepared. Naturally, if its been a while since you last performed a backside attack on a bromine functional group, your learning curve is going to be higher. The lectures offered by Kaplan and Princeton Review will not shoot your score up 10 points without some out of class review. It would take far more hours of lecture than even PR gives for that to be the case. However, I'm not saying the lectures are worthless. They are a great way to synthesize what you are self studying, keep you at a good pace and give you a schedule, and reinforce strategies and tips that can actually be pretty helpful . However, its the bazillion and a half questions, pages of notes, and practice exams that are ultimately what is worth the price. With a little extra time an effort, you could find a TA or a help center on campus (if you're still in school) to answer any content related questions you might have, but the lecture add on to the Kaplan and PR material provides you with a competent, MCAT oriented teacher that you can email questions to any time you need to. They are also familiar with their own material that is given, so they are better suited to answering questions.

2) 3-4 months of 20-40 hours a week is enough

If you feel like you need more time, go for it, but studying for more than a year is ludicrous. If it takes you that long to get through all the content and strategy, you're going have forgotten what you began a year a go. Doing it in as few months as possible is the best strategy for retention when you combine this with occasional reviews of the material.

3) An August test before your application cycle begins can be useful

This is useful for two reasons. First, it gives you a chance to retake the MCAT before the start of your application cycle if you don't get the score that you are looking for. This prevents you from being tempted to retake the MCAT when the application cycle has begun, and thus putting you behind the curve in beginning your applications, which will hurt you. It also gives you the advantage of a lower curve to compete with. This assumes that you are well prepared, but if you are the MCAT average is approximately 1 point lower in August, compared to May. This is probably because so many underprepared people take it in the Fall, but you can use this to your advantage if you've been studying since the previous summer. A lower curve means it is easier to reach the top scores (slightly). This, of course, requires that you have completed your pre-reqs in the first two years of your undergrad, or potentially during the summer. Do NOT try and take the MCAT without all required classes. Get the score you want the first time around. Medical schools note how many times you have taken it.

4)Take a noon MCAT, or prepare well for an 8AM one.

It is hard to be awake for the MCAT at 8AM, especially since you won't sleep well the night before on your own. I really regret taking my MCAT at 8AM, though I ended up doing well enough for my purposes. The problem was that I had not practiced taking 8AM MCATs, because I had taken most of my exams at night or at noon. Practice taking MCATs at the time you are scheduling for, be it noon or 8AM. I personally think that, even if you didn't sleep well, you will be more awake and alert at noon. It is true that so will everyone else that is taking the exam, but I'd rather trust myself at 100% against everyone else's 100%.

5) 35 is the magic number

Shoot for a 45T, period. Setting your goals lower only limits your success. Sure, you probably won't get a 45T, I didn't. However, I had a friend who wanted a 36. When he started to score 36s, he stopped studying as hard. He ended up not getting a 36, and I really think that it was because he didn't push himself towards perfection. If he had kept going until he was peaking at a higher grade, he might have made his goal or higher. As they say, shoot for the moon, if you miss at least you'll be among the stars.

That being said, 35 is the magic number. At this point you have reached the 95th percentile of scorers, and the differences between points starts to shrink to a single question or two. The difference between a 40 and a 45 is basically 5 wrong answers. This means that higher scores become less and less important at this point, because you could go up or down a few points by luck and chance. Medical schools recognize this. Even if a 43 sounds impressive on paper, its really not statistically much higher than 39 (99.9th percentile versus 99.8th basically). Once you reach a 35, you are about average or higher at almost every medical school, and you are reasonably competitive at even the top schools. I would not retake the MCAT once you reach this score or higher. You might feel that you can do better, and quite possibly you could. However, why risk it? I think I should have done better on the MCAT, and if that is true I will have another shot to prove that on the Step 1. Why risk it though? You're in the top percentiles, and its the rest of your application that will ultimately determine where (and if) you go to medical school.

In addition, a 33 MCAT score is considered competitive at most schools. You might not get into a top 10 school, but most students don't anyways. The only people who really care all of that are pre-meds anyways. A doctor is always a prestigious profession. Also, it should be noted that a high MCAT can help compensate for a low GPA. Don't expect to get into school with less than a 3.0 though, unless its been years since your undergrad.

6) Consider a chemical method of going to sleep.

Just like interviews, you will not sleep well on your own the night before. Especially if you are taking a noon exam, serious consider chemically putting yourself to sleep, either via a sleeping pill (small dosage, just enough to relax you) or even a couple drinks. Your mind will be racing, if you want to be asleep you'll have to force it to stop thinking. I'm serious, I laid in bed for 5 hours before I finally fell asleep. As I said, make sure its a light dosage so you don't wake up still feeling the effects (or with a hangover!).

Question 11: Is a knowledge of sports necessary to be a good doctor?

In light of the wonderful Superbowl game that was just played (but what was with all of the punching from James Harrison, way to go woman beater), this is quite a fitting question, especially since it touches on, my favorite topic, the Art of Medicine. It is my personal belief that one of the biggest reasons why medical schools have started insisting on well rounded and diverse students comes from the idea of people treating people rather than doctors treating patients. This is the benefit of being diverse personally and having a diverse group of medical students. You grow from each other's experiences and interests, making it far easier to relate to a diverse patient population. To this end, sports is a very big part of many patients lives. I personally am not a big fan of watching sports on TV, though watching it in person is fun. However, I think that having some basic knowledge of the sporting world can be useful. Most of what I know is picked up from headlines I read on internet news pages, but it tends to be enough to hold a conversation with the average fan. I also think that following local teams (if your city has them) is probably most important. Those are the fans that you are most likely to treat, and being able to relate with a patient on any level is a good thing. If that happens to be talking about theSteelers , then great. The bottom line is that having diverse interests and knowledge will help you make that doctor patient connection. It builds trust in your abilities as a physician and in the idea that you see your patient as more than just a case of the flu. It doesn't matter whether or not that its true, what matters is the growing conviction among the population that has come to see physicians as detached and lacking in compassion.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, sometimes a little personal interest and caring is the only cure that a patient nervous about a rash needs. Furthermore, in the case of a patient with a serious condition, they are much more likely to trust your advice (and FOLLOW it!) to the letter if you prove that you have a genuine interest in their well being. For those who have to fake that genuine interest, you'll be happy to know that it also lowers your chances of being sued. Patients don't sue doctors they see as friends or as people who truly tried their hardest to help them. Patients sue doctors that don't seem to care, and then ascribe the negative effects of their treatment to this (regardless of the truth). My father has never been sued in 30 years as an ER doc. He attributes it to the fact he's always cared about his patients and taken the time to talk about the game last night.

Do you have questions for me?

I am more than happy to answer any questions that I have yet to cover. I am always looking for good ones, so if you have one or more, feel free!

Question 10: What is some advice that you can give me about interviews?

1) Waiting time is exploration time.



I can not stress how important this can be. A lot of medical schools give you an hour or more where you have nothing to do but wait for your next appointment. Get out of the admissions office and explore! If you have 10-15 minutes before your appointment, that's one thing. However, sitting around comparing applications with a bunch of applicants is not going to help you get in or help you judge a school. True, a lot of medical students will pop in and out while you are hanging out in the office, but these are students who are going to tell you mainly the positive stuff about their school. Go find some disgruntled students! This is potentially the school you will have to study at for the next four or more years. You will have plenty of time to ask questions and talk to some students/applicants during the tour and meal periods. You will NOT have another opportunity to wander around and see things off the beaten path like research facilities and other things that you might be interested in. Further more, you might have the luck of learning something that could help you explain your interest in the school you are interviewing at , or something that you will be able to otherwise connect to your application. Learn as much about the school as you can, wander! Even better, you have the wonderful opportunity to possibly meet someone who could seriously help you get accepted. I once got stuck in an elevator for 10 minutes with on of the Associate Deans, and on another occasion I happened to stumble upon the Dean of Admissions, something that lead to an hour and a half friendly chat.



2) Staying an extra night has its advantages.



Interviews are all about showing the admissions committee that you are a good fit. Your stats and application gets you an interview, but your interview is, in general, essential for an acceptance. Staying an extra night, either before or after your interview, provides you with excellent opportunities. For one, you have another opportunity to wander around and meet people/learn things, as I mentioned above. For two, you have an enormous opportunity to socialize with students, especially if you happen to be spending Friday night there. While I suppose there is the very unlikely opportunity of meeting a student member of the admissions committee, the bigger benefit is you get to interact with students on a completely social level. This is a great insight into how students really feel and if you fit with their style. In addition, once I had a couple students actually plug for me with the admissions committee. I was extremely flattered, regardless of if it changed anyone's opinion of me.



3) Know something about your interviewer.



Generally, you are given the names of your interviewer at the start of the day, when you arrive. Naturally, you will attempt to be early anyways, so use that time to go find a computer. If you have an internet friendly phone, that'd work too. I have never had a problem using a medical school's library, simply explain that you are interviewing and it should be all right. So how does this advantage you? I'm not saying you should walk into your interview and say "I know where you went to school and where you live." A little too forward. Rather, you can use it to your advantage by steering your responses to reflect mutual interests and realms of knowledge. For example, say you are interested in public health and your interviewer is actively publishing on the topic. You would be able to have an in depth discussion on this topic. Also, it can be useful for when you are inevitably asked if you have any questions. If your interviewer is a cancer researcher and you have an interested in opportunities in the field, or just general questions about their research, feel free to bring it up. Highlighting mutual interests can never hurt you, but it certainly can help you. Adcoms are looking for students that fit with their philosophy, and your interviewer is a part of that philosophy. You want to be able to relate to your interviewer, because it will certainly make the interview less stressful if nothing else, even if the connection is that you were both from the same State and you contrast your State with where the medical school is. If you are asked how you know something, simply admit that you asked or looked something up on them. I've actually been complimented several times for taking the initiative of looking something up.



4) Dress conservatively, but don't hesitate to be fashionable or to stand out a little.


You definitely want to be professional at interviews, but don't hesitate to drop the white button downs for a shade of blue or the color that best suits you. I noticed at my first interview that I was the only one out of 20 students to wear something besides a white button down. I was consistently selected out of the group throughout by those leading conversations, demonstrations, etc. By my last interview, more than half of the interviewees were wearing something besides white. Coincidence?



5) Send thank you letters, assume they won't help you.


Don't fret about whether or not that a letter is going to help you or hurt you. Unless there is a specific request for letters, it will not affect your application negatively. They receive a bajillion of them, you will not seem pretentious or trying to brown nose. Most likely, by the time your have sent your letter and it is received, any notations on your application by your interviewer will have been submitted. There is a slight possibility of it helping you during later evaluations, I suppose, but don't count on it. Not sending them is not going to affect you for the same reasons. However, if you end up going to that school and you did not send a thank you letter, you might feel a bit guilty for not thanking them. After all, they were probably instrumental in getting you accepted. I know I do, and I fully intend to apologize if I went to one of the several schools I chose not to send thank you letters to, several of which I've been accepted to.


6) If given the option, schedule interviews as late as possible in the day.


For one, you will be more awake and alert than you would be for that 8:00 AM check in after tossing and turning all night. More importantly, you will have had hours to experience and learn about the school, quite possibly having done the tour and info sessions. This is an enormous advantage in tailoring your "Why this school" questions, which is sometimes a bit hard when you've only read about it.


7) Consider a chemical method of putting yourself to sleep the night before.


It can be really hard falling asleep for a variety of reasons. Jet lag, large time difference, staying with a noisy student, etc. All of this could seriously hurt you the next day. I know that at one particular interview, I was so exhausted that my picture they took is terrible (I had a lazy eye from being so tired), and I did very poorly at the interview. I also asked some pretty dumb questions, because I just couldn't sleep straight. Think about taking a light dosage of sleeping pills, or even a tad of ethanol (make sure you shower in the morning. A beer or two shouldn't leave an odor, but why risk it!).

8) Other little things

Smile, especially when meeting your interviewer
Don't try and smile the entire interview, it will look fake if it isn't natural
Learn to be humble and still get your message across
Thank them for any praise, be humble about it
I grew up on military bases, so I have always chosen to address my interviewers as Ma'am or Sir. Yes sir, etc. It seems like a lot of my interviewers were ex-military, as well.
Ask good questions. Even if they are standard, the best questions are the one's you didn't read on a list of "good questions." They come from yourself
Don't be afraid to pause before answering, especially if it is a new question.

It's an odd feeling

I had a uncomfortable experience recently, and its the first time that it has ever happened to me. I was dancing with a girl in one of my dance classes, and we were covering a style of dance that I had never done before. She was getting a little frustrated and clearly hoping for a new partner by the time we took a break, but we got to talking about medical school. She told me that she was a pre-med (year younger than me by the way), and was applying next year. I then told her that I had been accepted to medical school and how my interview process had been going. Her attitude towards me instantly shift 180 degrees. She was suddenly more friendly, enthusiastic, and forgiving of my mistakes. In fact, SHE started apologizing, even though it was clearly my lack of experience rather than hers. I was shocked, and I realize that this is probably only the first of many times in my life that my career in medicine is going to alter people's behavior and opinion of me. This kind of prestige is supposed to be a good thing, right? It's what a lot of people want when they apply for medical school.

It really bothered me.

"Commandments" of SDN

So SDN has the potential to be a great resource for pre-meds. Alas, the forums of the student doctor network are full of eccentricities and neuroticism. Here's a joking list of commandments for those who dare to venture into this abyss. 

1) Thou shall not troll

2) Thou shall not discuss MD vs DO

3) Thou shall not say MCATs

4) Thou shall not start the same stupid threads

4.5) Thou shall make liberal use of the search function

5) Thou shall not discuss under represented minorities

6) Thou shall wait till August to change thy title to medical student

7) Thou shall not post in class threads until thy art a member of said class

8) Thou shall consume great quantities of salt when partaking of SDN

9) He that speaketh of Prestige shall be stoned

10) Thou shall not seek to identify LizzyM

11) Thou shall not fret over one C+

12) He that speaketh of money or lifestyle shall be stoned

13) Thou shall limit thy post to 1500 characters.

14) Thou shall send thank you letters

14.5) Thou shall not send thank you letters

15) Thou shall limit thyself to one utterance of "We're going to be doctors"

16) Thou shall not ask if medical school is hard