Ryan discusses a question from a premed who only applied to DO schools, got accepted, and is now thinking about waiting a year and applying to MD schools.

MSHQ 126 : #AskMSHQ - Should I turn down a DO Acceptance?

This is a special episode, recorded live at the AMSA PremedFest outside of Tampa, FL on Jan 30th 2016. I asked students what impact they want to make as docs.

169: What Impact Do You Want to Make? Live From AMSA PremedFest

Brad is a former PA, who is now a first year medical student. Hear him talk about the difference between a PA and an MD and why he's changing careers now.

PMY 170 : PA Turned MD Talks About Why He Made the Switch

&lt;h1&gt;Session 171&lt;/h1&gt;
In this episode, Ryan talks with Christine Crispen, the former Dean of Admissions at UC Irvine School of Medicine and is currently the Director, Office of Curriculum at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Ryan and Christine talk about reapplying to medical school through the eyes of someone who has been on the Admissions Committee. They also discuss the biggest reason applicants don't get into medical school and what you as an applicant should be thinking about when you need to reapply to medical school.
You have to realize that applying to medical school is a numbers game. There are good applicants that sadly don't get in the first time around because there are more applicants than there are spots. Out of thousands of applicants, only the top 8-10% will get the chance to be interviewed. Because applying to medical school is very expensive, not to mention all the hard work that goes along with it, you therefore need to put your best application the first time.&lt;h2&gt;Here are the highlights of the conversation with Christine&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;h3&gt;The number one mistake premed students make when they apply to medical school is having not enough clinical exposure or clinical experience!&lt;/h3&gt;There are many opportunities that give you more clinical experience than just shadowing:&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Scribing&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Clinical care extender programs (volunteering in hospital wards)&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Hospice volunteering&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2&gt;What you need to do to prepare yourself to reapply&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt; Assess your application.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;i&gt;Go from top to bottom.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Start off with your academics.&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Are you within the averages that are posted on the website?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;i&gt;Next is your clinical exposure.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Make sure to have some longevity in clinical exposure, doing it for a few years if possible. Have leadership experience within that exposure. Grow within the role.&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;For research-intensive schools, do you have research exposure? Do you have research experience or publications?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;i&gt;What else do you have in your application?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Extracurriculars&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Work&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Other activities that demonstrated who you are and what's the altruism that you're dedicating your life to&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;i&gt;What did you write in your personal statement?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;What did you say?&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;How did you say it?&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Were there typos or anything missing that you didn't answer something?&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;How did you write your secondaries?&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Did you answer the questions thoroughly?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;ol start="2"&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt; Seek advice from the premed office of the medical school you're interested in.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Ask somebody else to read your application. If you know a physician or someone on the admissions committee who has done this before, ask if they could review your application and see what areas can be improved upon.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;ol start="3"&gt; &lt;li&gt;&lt;b&gt;&lt;i&gt; If you know your academics is strong, when in doubt, always focus on the clinical area.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;h2&gt;Why you need to take a year off and fix whatever is wrong before you reapply&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;ol&gt; &lt;li&gt; Applying to medical school is very expensive. &lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt; If you just jump back in with the same application, why would you expect a different result?&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ol&gt;&lt;h2&gt;A re-applicant in...

171: Reapplying to Med School - What You Need to Know to Improve

&lt;h1&gt;Session 177&lt;/h1&gt;
In today's episode, Ryan takes some questions posted on Google Voice caller line and Facebook Hangout and shed light on some topics where you may also be experiencing the same and can learn from.
&lt;b&gt;Q:&lt;/b&gt; From Ashley: An active duty midwife for the US Air Force and 1 year out from applying to USUHS (military medical school); with clinical experience, graduate GPA of 3.6, undergrad GPA 3.2, Science GPA of 2.9; no time to take additional coursework - would this be detrimental in her application to medical school? Would an exceptional MCAT score make up for poor undergraduate GPA?
&lt;b&gt;A:&lt;/b&gt; Your undergrad GPA is probably not strong enough for medical school at this point while your graduate GPA might not help a lot because it's not really related to your ultimate goal of becoming a physician. Ryan recommends looking at separating from the Air Force and taking some time off to take the courses that you need.
&lt;b&gt;Q: &lt;/b&gt;From Lung: Got accepted to UC Berkeley, UCLA, and UC Riverside. Does your undergraduate school make a difference? Is it worth going to a reputable college and risking getting a good GPA because it's more challenging versus focusing on UC Riverside which is a much less rigorous college although less reputable than UC Berkeley?
&lt;b&gt;A: &lt;/b&gt;No. Except if, for example, you graduate from a small Liberal Arts school in the middle of Montana (no offense) which graduates one premed student every couple of years, then that would make a difference. When applying to medical school, the admissions committee is going to look at your GPA as well as your undergraduate institution and balance those out. based on these three schools, go to whichever fits you the best. Be a great student. As Ryan always points it out, don't go to a great school, go to a school that will make you great.
&lt;b&gt;Q: &lt;/b&gt;Graduating senior from a small liberal arts school in Orange County and only graduate applying to medical school from the university with no premed advisor. Received secondaries from almost every school applied to but has been receiving rejections before even being interviewed. Why didn't he get an interview?
&lt;b&gt;A:&lt;/b&gt; Most schools send a secondary as a big money-making scheme for the schools. Students fill out secondary applications and pay the money. So just because you get secondaries doesn't mean that you have a chance at that school. Ryan recommends asking the schools that didn't give you an interview and ask them for an application review and what it was in your application that they didn't like. Don't reapply immediately. Figure out why you didn't get in this time and take time to fix it for next time.
&lt;b&gt;Q: &lt;/b&gt;Signed up for MCAT in June and hasn't started yet (mid April); retaking the test; should the test be pushed to a later date in June or July and apply this cycle or next cycle?
&lt;b&gt;A:&lt;/b&gt; If you're retaking the test, you're not going to get it back until the beginning of July which means that the medical schools aren't going to review your application until the beginning of July. That's not bad. Only take the test when you're prepared. Don't push the test back later either. If you need to reschedule the test to a later date, apply the next year.
&lt;h2 dir="ltr" style="text-align: justify;"&gt;Links and Other Resources&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;a href="http://medicalschoolhq.net/the-premed-years/"&gt;The Premed Years Podcast Session 171: Reapplying to Med School - What You Need to Know to Improve&lt;/a&gt;
&lt;a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/oldpremeds-podcast-medical/id1070377913?mt=2"&gt;OldPreMeds podcast Session 12&lt;/a&gt;
Any questions? Drop them here &lt;a href="http://www.medicalschoolhq.net/question"&gt;www.medicalschoolhq.net/question&lt;/a&gt;
For more great content, check out&nbsp;&lt;a href="http://www.mededmedia.com/"&gt;www.mededmedia.com&lt;/a&gt; for more of the shows...

177: When to Take the MCAT and More Premed Q&A

&lt;h1&gt;Session 178&lt;/h1&gt;&lt;img class="wp-image-6648 alignright" src="http://medicalschoolhq.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Session-178-300x157.png" alt="Session 178" width="400" height="214" /&gt;
In today's episode, Ryan reflects on last week's episode in &lt;a href="http://medicalschoolhq.net/pmy-177-take-mcat-premed-qa/"&gt;Session 177&lt;/a&gt; where Ashley was talking about her Science GPA and her Master's GPA and what she should do to move forward in the medical school application cycle.
Now, a lot of people were thrown off by Ryan's answer of taking some time off to go back to take more classes to improve the GPA instead of taking a graduate or Master's degree.
So Ryan decides to play &lt;a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/oldpremeds-podcast-medical/id1070377913?mt=2"&gt;Session 12 of the OldPreMeds&lt;/a&gt; podcast which answers the question about how medical school admissions committees are going to view a graduate school degree and the GPA that comes with it to help you understand the reasoning behind Ryan's take as well as help you decide if you have a similar question about your graduate school GPA and wondering if it's going to help you for the application cycle.
Before moving on, Ryan is launching a new podcast primarily on helping you how to crush your MCAT. Go to &lt;a href="http://www.mcatpodcast.com"&gt;MCATpodcast.com&lt;/a&gt; and sign up to be notified once we launch the newest addition to &lt;a href="http://mededmedia.com/"&gt;MedEdMedia&lt;/a&gt; here at Medical School Headquarters.&lt;h2&gt;&lt;b&gt;Here are the highlights of Session 12 of the OldPreMeds podcast:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;The question taken directly from the OldPreMeds.com forum about the grad school impact on application, thinking about the following options:&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Leaving a semester transcript blank to save money and increase tutoring hours for other things to make money&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Finish the semester and withdraw later if they're doing terrible (But W's on the transcript will denote quitting and confusion)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Finish the semester and have full grades on the transcript&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;b&gt;Here's our take:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Medical schools look at your undergrad GPA for admissions&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;The grad school grades do not have a major impact upon acceptance&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Having bad grades or withdrawals bring up negative impact to your application&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Med schools look for motivation, commitment, and achievement&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Generally, graduate programs do not enhance your application, with these exceptions:&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Special Master's programs&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Few traditional hardcore science Master's usually marketed and listed as Special Master's which are a form of postbac that are different than just taking the required classes (loosely designed to be an addition year into a medical school semester)&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;b&gt;Benefits of the Special Master's/postbac:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;Associated directly to medical school or have linkages to med schools&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Acts as a stepping stone for direct acceptance into medical school&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Different types for GPA enhancers, career changers, etc.&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;b&gt;Things to consider:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;&lt;ul&gt; &lt;li&gt;No standards across Special Master's programs&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Investigate what the program can do for you&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Investigate the cost&lt;/li&gt; &lt;li&gt;Investigate the program's success&lt;/li&gt;&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;h2&gt;&lt;b&gt;Some pieces of advice for premed students:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;Look at the entire picture of what your application is going to look like. Don't assume that just one part of your application is going to make your entire...

178: The MCAT Podcast and More on GPAs and Masters Degrees

&lt;h1&gt;Session&nbsp;179&lt;img class=" wp-image-6899
alignright"
src="http://medicalschoolhq.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Session-179-300x157.png"
alt="Session 179" width="400" height="211" /&gt;&lt;/h1&gt;
Ryan talks with Elizabeth, who now has an acceptance to medical
school. The more interesting thing is that she took her experience
studying for the MCAT and is now helping other premed students on
their journey as she teamed up with an MCAT prep company where they
now offer great MCAT services.
Listen in to learn about Elizabeth’s journey to medical school,
preparing for the MCAT, juggling her time working full time and
taking classes at night, and more about the MCAT prep course that
she co-created which you might get great help from as you’re
preparing for the MCAT.
&lt;h2&gt;&lt;b&gt;Here are the highlights of the conversation with
Elizabeth&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h2&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;b&gt;Elizabeth's journey to medical
school&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Started her college at a music conservatory but suffered
from an arm injury&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Discovering her love of science accidentally and majored
in neuroscience&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Not being premed but having interest in health policy and
science writing and doing it for five years&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Getting turned off by the competitive "premed" life in
Columbia and wanting to explore different
interests&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;b&gt;Resources she tapped into to figure out the
first steps&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Internet research on the different
requirements&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Making spreadsheets of classes she needed to
take&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Planning and having a strict schedule of what she needed
to do&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;b&gt;Her thought process to go about the medical
school applicatio&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Community college options (being able to take night
classes)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Working full time and study at the same
time&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Suspending her course schedule while studying for the
MCAT&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Take leave at work when studying for
exams&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;b&gt;Juggling her time studying and working full
time&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Effective planning&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Being flexible - allowing yourself to have time being a
human being&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Being motivated and staying on top of it&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Making time for yourself and for the things you need to
do&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Fitting in her shadowing experience a few hours a
week&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;b&gt;How her science policy work helped the
application process
&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Being able talk about healthcare trends and health policy
issues&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Being able to connect with the
interviewer&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Being able to draw a line back to medical school and why
she wanted to apply&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;b&gt;Considerations in choosing which medical school
to go to&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Geography&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Interdisciplinary education&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Looking from multiple perspectives&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;More integrated program with focus on practical
issues&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;With a curriculum that matched how she wanted to
learn&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Right kind of culture and education&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;b&gt;How she researched for school
&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Looking at the school's website and checking their values
and the opportunities offered&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Touring schools and talking to current students or
applicants at school&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;h3&gt;&lt;b&gt;Preparing for the
MCAT&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/h3&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Transitioning from work + course classes to work + MCAT
preparation&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Her classes prepared her for studying...

179: Why this Nontrad Helped Make a new MCAT Course

We believe that competition amongst your premed and medical student peers is detrimental to becoming a great physician. In this podcast we show you how collaboration, hard work and honesty are critical to becoming a superior physician in today's healthcare environment.

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