While most students dream of getting an acceptance letter from just one medical school, others find themselves in the enviable position of having to choose between two or more schools to which they’ve been accepted. If you are deciding between schools, Second Look days can help you determine where you’ll commit. Second Look days are offered by most medical schools, usually after their application cycles are complete and acceptances have been extended to candidates. They are meant to give potential students an idea of what attending that particular school will be like. While many students attend Second Look days with the intention of getting to know potential classmates and to see what the academic environment “feels like,” others may want to head into these days prepared with a few specific questions aimed toward helping them gather the information they need to make a final decision. If you’re getting ready to travel to some potential medical schools this spring, keep these questions in mind:
Confessions of a Former Mediocre Premed Student
By Yoo Jung Kim, MD Candidate, Stanford University
Many students start college gung-ho about going into medicine, and many end up falling short of their goals. Their reasons are varied. Some discover new careers that better appeal to their interests; others realize that they can’t stomach the long commitment required in medicine. However, the saddest group of people are those who come to believe that they aren’t cut out for becoming a physician because of their performance in science courses. I was very close in becoming one of them.
10 Things To Do If You Did Not Match Into A Residency Position
By Monya De, MD MPH Medical students who did not match into a residency position … Read more
Q&A with Dr. Harris Eyre, Psychiatry Trainee, Pharmacogeneticist
By Gloria Onwneme, Medical Student, University of Nottingham, UK
Dr. Harris Eyre, MD, PhD, Fulbright Scholar (WG Walker) is a psychiatry trainee, and Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of CNSDose, a company which has developed and deployed a world-leading genetic test to aid the antidepressant selection process for primary care physicians, psychiatrists, and people with depression. He is also an executive-in-residence at the Texas Medical Center in Houston, the world’s largest medical complex.
Lack of Empathy: A Med School Dealbreaker?
Everyone knows: doctors have to have empathy…right?
Listener Mo wrote to us at [email protected] to ask us if a lack of interest in dealing with the foibles of patients–with their anti-vaccine beliefs, their non-compliance with treatment, and reliance on the latest internet fads–means he should reconsider his med school dreams. Lucky for Mo, Kaci McCleary, Irisa Mahaparn, and newbs Melissa Chan and Dabin Choi were on hand to propose some paths forward for non-empathetic med school applicants, as well as outlining some of the less obvious areas empathy comes in handy they might want to think about. There isn’t a lot of wiggle room in this area…but there’s a little, and maybe Mo can squeeze into those cracks and come out with an MD on the other side.
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Do you recognize this adverse drug reaction?
A 58-year-old male with a history of rosacea presents with blue-black discoloration on his neck and face that worsens after sun exposure. What drug is the most likely cause of this reaction?
Q&A with Javier La Fontaine, DPM, MS, Limb Salvage Specialist
Javier La Fontaine, DPM, MS, is a professor in the Plastic Surgery Department at UT … Read more
Med Student Resources: Q&A With Mr. Rich Ronnestad, Director of Financial Education
Ask any doctor, in any specialty and of any age, and they will remember their training in medical school. It is full of learning, new experiences, new friends, and major strides in both personal and professional development. With so many changes, dozens of obstacles in each student’s life must be confronted and overcome. Fortunately, medical schools have extraordinary people who devote their time and talent to guiding and supporting medical students through their four years. This column interviews these people at medical schools around the country to help students learn more about the resources they have available during their years in school.
So You Didn’t Match. Now What?
Last year, over a thousand American senior medical students, failed to Match into a residency … Read more
What Really Matters When Choosing Your Medical School
Many students don’t realize that the residency match should be top of mind when choosing … Read more
Another Student Fights Mental Illness Stigma
More and more students are speaking up about their mental illness struggles
One of the things we Short Coats agree on is that the stigma medical students and physicians face when dealing with mental illness must end. We are people, too, and thus are subject to the full range of human maladies. So when listener Kate reached out to [email protected] to tell us of her University of Michigan classmate Rahael Gupta’s JAMA article addressing her own struggles, Matt Wilson, Marisa Evers, and Gabe Conley could only respond with sympathy and admiration.
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Quiz: How would you treat this tumor?
A 21-year-old female presents with a six-month history of irregular menses, decreased libido, impaired vision, and galactorrhea. An MRI is completed.Based on this imaging and the patient’s clinical findings, which of the following should be recommended as a first-line treatment?
Q&A with Dr. James Doty, Neurosurgeon, CCARE Director
James R. Doty M.D., is a Professor of Neurosurgery and the founder and director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE) at Stanford University.
He is also a philanthropist serving on the board of a number of non-profits; an investor and consultant to a number of medical device and biomedical companies; a venture partner in the medical device industry; and an entrepreneur. He is the former CEO of Accuray, manufacturer of the CyberKnife, that went public in 2007 with a valuation of $1.3 billion.
How To Manage A Cross-Country Move
The medical journey offers many opportunities to make some big moves, whether it’s to start medical school, residency, fellowship, or for that first “real” job. A move, especially one across the country, requires a good deal of planning. You will undoubtedly have many questions. How do I move my stuff? How do I find a place to live? What about my cars? The list goes on and on.
How to Choose the Best Income Driven Repayment Plan
If you are having difficulty making your federal student loan payments, the worst thing you can do is ignore the problem. Help is available. For many borrowers, payments may be reduced under one of the Income Driven Repayment Plans (IDR Plans) offered by the Department of Education. The lower your income, the lower your payments will be.
A Beginner’s Guide to Paying For Medical School
You got into medical school! Now how do you pay for it? You already sold … Read more
Looking at Other Specialties
This column has been focused on providing clinical snapshots while exploring the factors that affect … Read more
Do You Recognize This Blistering Pruritic Rash?
A 4-year-old boy with known G6PD deficiency is brought to the pediatrician by his mother with a blistering pruritic rash. On examination, numerous tense vesicles and bullae are seen on his neck, lower abdomen, and extremities. Ulcerative lesions on his buccal mucosa are also noted. Direct immunofluorescence of a skin biopsy later reveals linear deposits of immunoglobulin A (IgA) at the dermoepidermal junction. Which of the following treatments is recommended for this patient?
Recess Rehash: Bropocalypse 2017
[Dave had the flu on recording day, so we’re posting this awesome episode from the recent past. Enjoy!]
Dave found himself hosting with another group of women, so what better time to talk about #MeToo and the powerful people being taken down by their sexual harassment and abuse of their less-powerful victims? Erin Pazaski, Hillary O’Brien, Laura Quast, and Liza Mann weigh in on why this seems to have staying power in the news cycle, and why it seems to destroy some powerful men and not others. Plus, since this is a group of friends who, through med school, have come to know each other well, Dave challenges each to answer questions as their friends would.
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Q&A with Dr. Priya A. Rajdev, Grey’s Anatomy Communications Fellow
When did you first decide to become a physician? Why?
I was a little late to the game, honestly—I only made up my mind a year after I had graduated college, and, if I’m being perfectly honest, I went medicine on the gut feeling that I’d enjoy it. I always was kind of a science nerd, but had majored in government in college and spent all my extra time playing music and being a cartoonist. After college, I decided to take a couple of years to explore a career in art and entertainment. By the end of my two years off, I was a production assistant at The Onion News Network. It was incredibly fun, but I missed the world of science and academia. I’m lucky enough to have several family members who are doctors, so it felt natural that medical school could fulfill that missing piece.