Keep Your Online Persona Clean!

by Brittany Warrick
SDN Staff Writer

The online world has evolved substantially over the past decade. Today it is commonplace for students to have a presence on social sites such as Facebook, Xanga, LiveJournal, or MySpace. But what most students do not appreciate is the fact that potential employers and schools may use these sites to evaluate their applicants.  They use them to weed out candidates for their positions and to decide if a potential employee is the type of person that would make a good “fit”.  Thus, our pages on Facebook and MySpace have become additions to our resumes and personal statements. One survey conducted by ExecuNet in 2007 found that 83% of recruiters use the Internet to evaluate their candidates and 43% of those have turned down a candidate based on what they saw online. The burning question is: how can students protect their personas on the Internet?  Read more »

Forum Flashback: “Should I become an EMT?”

by Michael Barnum, M.D. and Michael O’Brien, M.A., NREMT-P
SDN Staff Writers

Often in the Pre-Hospital and Pre-Allopathic forums, we encounter questions that interest many users. Many such inquiries come from users wanting to know if getting involved in Emergency Medical Services (EMS) — as either an Emergency Medical Technician or Paramedic — will help their applications for medical school.

Yes, it will.

But…

Read more »

Staying the Course: A Guide to Messing Up

by Mark Stam
SDN Contributor

As I peruse the SDN pre-professional forums, I routinely come across threads of a similar theme: “My GPA is shot; is my chance at a career in ________ lost?” While I don’t want to give anyone false hope, since GPA is certainly a major indicator of admissibility, I’m here to tell you that it can be done. In fact, I did it.

In the Fall of 1998 (yes, I’m that old!), I left my home town and enrolled as a full-time student at a Big 10 university, ready to start pursuing my career as a physician. I’d always done well in school without having to put forth much effort. It seemed as though I retained enough material just sitting in class that I didn’t need to apply myself much at home in order to do well on exams. Assuming I could do the same in college, I didn’t go to class much, hardly ever did homework, and just showed up for exams. Read more »

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