Podcasts about college information book

Session 10 In this episode, I'm discussing whether or not you should reach out to the medical school admissions committees before you apply or while you're applying? Yes, you should. I'm not saying you shotgun email all of the, say, 50 schools you applied to. You shouldn't email every school on your list just because you wanted to say hello. [00:53] Which Schools Should You Send Email To Find the schools that you are most interested in. Find the ones that if you got acceptance to that school, you're going to be so excited. Whether it's because of location and education. Find those top few schools and look at their requirements, prereqs, letter of recommendation requirements, the MSAR (Medical School Admissions Requirement) or the College Information Book (for DO schools). Look at those resources and see if there's anything in there that you can ask a question about. [01:35] What Should Be in Your Email If for instance, you're a nontraditional student, and the school wants a letter of recommendation from two non-science professors and you've never had non-science in ten years. What are you going to do? So you call the school or email the school. Tell them you're a nontraditional student. You're applying next cycle and you're really interested in going to the school. Then explain your situation and ask if an exception can be made for you. Ask if you can instead, give a letter of recommendation from a volunteer supervisor or work supervisor, or research supervisor, or whatever it is. "You're opening a door to a conversation and you are asking them a very specific question that pertains to you." This being said, don't ask a question that you can easily go and find the information for. Ask a question that is going to allow you to reach out to that school and to ask a very pointed question. This will allow you to show them who you are. You can also ask other specific questions you have with the classes you're taking, with your grades or your GPA. etc. For instance, ask for their recommendations to helpfully make you more competitive. Again, this is very pointed. This is specific to your situation. [04:18] Start the Conversations Early "The key to all of this is you need to start these conversations early. You can't do them a month before you apply." There's really nothing you can do to fix things if they have certain recommendations that may require time. So you really need to start the conversations as early as a year to two years earlier. Ask for help because they are there to help you. Moreover, once you cross over into the applicant pool, then the help they can give you is completely different. Before you're an applicant, a lot of them will help you as much as they can. But once you're an applicant, they can't help you as much because you're now in the pool of students. They don't want to seem like they're helping some students who are applying. [05:34] Build Relationships Build those relationships. Relationships in this world are everything. Not by emailing those 50 schools general questions. But by emailing your top choice schools. Figure out where you want to go to school. Figure out how you can reach out to them and ask for help with whatever it is you need help with. Ask for help and they will be there to help you. By the way, the episodes in this podcast are recordings of our Facebook Live that we do at 3pm Eastern on most weekdays. Check out our Facebook page and like the page to be notified. Also, listen to our other podcasts on MedEd Media. If you have any questions, call me at 617-410-6747. Links: MSAR (Medical School Admissions Requirement) College Information Book MedEd Media Medical School HQ Facebook page Medical School HQ YouTube channel

Session 63 Our poster today is a former student interested in optometry but is now trying to pursue medicine. A poor MCAT score is holding him back though plus his premed advisor told him he had zero percent chance of getting into medical school due to lack of research experience. Is research really necessary? How else can you improve your application given these circumstances? The OldPreMeds community has been around for a long time helping nontraditional students like yourself on their journey to and through medical school. If you haven’t yet, sign up for an account today and if you have any questions, ask away. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: Today’s post is one from Louis Gonzalez. "I am 27 years old. I have put off going to medical school for the last five years due to personal and family reasons. I’ve been taking care of my sister who developed a form of psychosis back in the spring of 2013 and I was my grandmother’s caretaker during her fatal bout with liver cancer in 2014. I was trying for optometry school but after shadowing several optometrists, I just don’t think that it was the correct field for me. I graduated in 2011 with a 3.4 science GPA and a 3.7 accumulative GPA. I, at this time, only have 450 hours of volunteering and three years worth of science tutoring biology, microbiology, chemistry and organic chemistry. Tutoring at the local community college near my home, I can’t travel that far due to my sister’s health. I did have shadowing experience but the doctor I shadowed back in 2011 doesn’t have an office in this state anymore. I know I’ll have to start shadowing and taking my MCAT. I got 23 on the 2012 MCAT, but what else should I do to prepare my application? I’m taking my MCAT in mid-August. So is it a good idea to get letters of recommendation right now and apply late? Or wait until next year and ask those professors in early 2018 to write letters of recommendation? Also, is research necessary? I went back to talk to an advisor at my university about applying to medical school in December, but she told me that I had a 0% chance of getting into medical school at this point due to my lack of research. Overall,any advice would be most helpful." Here are my insights: [03:15] Zero Percent Chance and Research Experience First of all, as much as I love premed advisors, I just have to disagree with "0% chance" of getting into medical school because zero percent chance is never the answer. Anyway, do you have to have research? No. It’s a tricky thing because when you’re applying to medical schools and you’re looking at the MSAR and the College Information Book, you'd see various breakdowns of students that were accepted including what percentage of them had research. And it’s a large majority. But the bottom line is that you do not have to have research. If you’re interested in research, great and go seek it out. I highly recommend you go and get research because it’s interesting and just to see if you might like it or not. It's very easy just like any other experience of shadowing or getting clinical experience.You could either do laboratory research or clinical research wherein you’re helping a physician do some data analysis on their patients. Again, you don’t have to have research but I would recommend you get it or at least "dip your toes" in it for a little bit to see if you like it. [04:45] Older Prereqs and Preparing for the MCAT Your GPA scores, volunteering experience, and science tutoring are great. Your prerequisites are a little bit older (take a listen to OPM 62) but it's probably still okay. I recommend you check in with each of the schools you're interested in applying to just to make sure they're okay with having some older prereqs. Just as I talked about last week, you got a 23 on the MCAT so it may help you on the new MCAT to take some more courses to help solidify your knowledge of the sciences that are going to be tested on the MCAT. But it comes down to you just not understanding what the MCAT is all about. For this reason, I would highly recommend looking into a Next Step Test Prep or another one-on-one tutoring company. If you decide to go with Next Step Test Prep, use the code MSHQ to save some money on their tutoring programs. You really need to understand how to take the MCAT to do well on it. [06:02] Application Timeline & Letters of Recommendation If you plan to apply this year (2017) and take the test in August, I would recommend that you don't apply this year. August is too late to apply this year. It’s not a 0% chance but I would never recommend to anybody that’s applying in 2017 to take the MCAT in August of 2017 because your application is not going to be complete until a month after that. By that time, you’re several months behind and most medical schools are going to have the people they want to interview already lined up and ready to go. They're just waiting for those last few really top notch applications to come through before the deadline, which is usually at the end of October. So if you have to take the MCAT in August or mid-August, I would delay applying until 2018. Regarding letters of recommendation, start asking for them around February and have your letter writers submit their letters for 2018, applying in June of 2018. [07:22] Shadowing and Clinical Experience Look into some more shadowing and more clinical experience since admissions committees want to see sustained engagement in the medical field. While you had a volunteering a while ago, you didn't mention what type of volunteering it is so I'm going to assume it's not medically related. Get some clinical experience being around patients just to make sure this is really what you want to do. Lastly, I'm glad that you pointed out that you decided not to apply for optometry after shadowing optometrists. This is the very reason medical schools want to see some shadowing experience from students in order to get that same feel and that gut feeling whether to go for it or not. Links: The Short Coat Podcast MedEd Media Network MSAR College Information Book OPM 62: What Should I Focus on With Old Prereqs and ECs? Next Step Test Prep (Use the code MSHQ to save some money on their tutoring programs.)

Session 47 In this episode, Ryan and Rick tackle a question about shadowing experiences and whether it matters that you're shadowing a DO (osteopathic) when interested in going to an MD (allopathic) school. Ryan and Rich also take a step further and talk about how most DO schools stress the importance of shadowing a DO when applying to a DO school. Once again, Ryan and Rich digged into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: The poster, Matt, said that every DO school requires that you shadow a DO. How do allopathic schools view shadowing a DO versus an MD? Matt is applying to both schools. Here are the insights from Ryan: and Rich: What  medical schools look for is "healthcare experience" which could be in multiple ways: Shadowing Volunteering in clinical or hospital setting or employment Community/social service is close to that Shadowing MD vs. DO: An MD or DO is your degree from school. Most doctors look at your residency and what you did a residency in. That said, having an MD or DO is essentially meaningless in the practice of medicine. If you're applying to MD school and shadowing a family practice but have a DO, have him write a letter of recommendation as a practice doc. DO is in the title but Rich doesn't think medical schools really care or think of it as less worthy than it would with MD. Some points to consider: Shadowing is just observing. In itself, it's not as valuable to medical school as some of the healthcare experiences can be. Letters from doctors you shadowed are not really important as you don't usually have an in-depth relationship. Most schools are not that impressed by a shadowing letter as being all that valuable. The College Information Book for most schools would say that a letter of recommendation from a DO is strongly recommended. Ryan recommends to take this as a requirement if they say so. DO schools care that you understand the DO philosophy and have shadowed a DO. Major takeaway from this episode: Go find somebody to shadow that is going to interest you. Spend quality time with him/her and get a good letter of recommendation after spending some quality time. The letters after their name don't matter. Doctors are doctors. The only difference is that when you're applying to DO school, it's recommended that you shadow a DO so you can observe their OM (Osteopathic Manipulative) medicine or therapy. Links and Other Resources: www.mededmedia.com College Information Book

Session 17 Your questions, answered here on the OldPreMeds Podcast. Ryan and Rich again dive into the forums over at OldPreMeds.org where they pull a question and deliver the answers right on to you. Today, they cover tips you need to know when making your school list in narrowing down which medical schools to apply to. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: How do you sort through the 150+ medical schools out there and pick the ones that you apply to? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Tips in creating your med school list: Get a copy of the MSAR (Medical School Admissions Requirement) published by AAMC) which summarizes each school of their class, their setup, requirements, and their average GPA and MCAT score. For the osteopathic schools, check the College Information Book to get the same information. Take a realistic look at your grades and see if you're going to fit within the range of the medical schools you're applying to. For nontraditional students consider to increase your overall GPA even though the actual may be a little bit lower. Consider all the schools in your state, both state schools and the private schools. Consider it a part of your normal broad application process. State schools look at the factor of being in-state or out of state. States will look at in-state applicants closer than out of state applicants. Some things you need to consider: Most students apply between 12 and 24 schools. City or more rural Specialty of the school you want to be associated with. Weather Major takeaway from this episode: Pick your schools wisely because it's a big part in the application process and a great deal of money is involved too. Links and Other Resources If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including The Premed Years and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@medicalschoolhq.net or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.

Session 6 Ryan and Rich answer your questions over at the OldPreMeds.orghere on the OldPreMeds Podcast. In today's episode, they will touch on letters of recommendation - what the admissions committee is looking for, how to get strong ones, and when is the best time to get them. OldPreMeds Question of the Week: How do you get a good letters of recommendation? Do you need to take more upper division science course work to get a good letter of recommendation? Does the letter of recommendation need to come from a professor you interacted recently? Here are the insights from Ryan & Rich: Many medical schools require 2 science professors and 1 non-science professor for a letter of recommendation What the admissions committee wants to see from the letter of recommendation: How you're evaluated in a class setting in recent history Ways to get good letters of recommendation: Take another course or two and make an attempt to network and get a letter written. Get a committee letter which takes away the need for specific individual letter requirements and get one overall evaluation from your undergraduate school. Some schools have recommendations for nontraditional students SUNY Upstate Medical School- Students who graduated more than 5 years ago and are currently employed may submit one letter of recommendation from a current supervisor or someone form a science faculty they took a course from a while ago Weill Cornell Medicine (Cornell University)- Supervisor at work or research professor; students working in career fields like nursing or other medical fields can get a letter of recommendation from a supervisor from a physician you work with that may be useful General Note:Students (nontraditional especially) should think about networking when they start going back to medical school because they need to get good letters of recommendation. When is the time to get letters of recommendation? Don't wait until application season to ask for letters of recommendation.  You can have your letters sent to Interfolio.com and they will hold on to the letters until you're ready to apply to medical school. If you feel that a person is going to write you a strong letter of recommendation, ask for it even if you're applying next year. Major takeaways from this episode: Make an effort to network and even as you go into medical school, network early because you will need letters of recommendation again when you apply for residency. Schools have different specific requirements for letters of recommendation so check out the MSAR and go through the College Information Book to find out what each school wants for letters. Links and Other Resources If you have questions you want answered here on the OldPremeds Podcast, go to oldpremeds.org and register for an account. Go into the forums and ask a question. Listen to our first episode at OPMPodcast.com/1 to find out more about who we are. Also check out the Premed Years Podcast at www.medicalschoolhq.net. Find us on iTunes and go to opmpodcast.com/itunes and leave us a rating and review. Check out MedEdMedia.com for all the shows that we produce including the Medical School Headquarters and the OldPreMeds Podcast. We will soon be launching a medical school podcast as well so stay tuned! Email Dr. Ryan Gray at ryan@oldpremeds.org or connect with him on Twitter @medicalschoolhq.