Everything about the MCAT is stressful, from creating a study plan to fine-tuning your test strategies. And then there’s the day of reckoning when you take the exam. If that’s not enough, perhaps the most stressful day is score report day. After working so hard for so many months towards the exciting and honorable goal of attending medical school, it can be crushing to score lower than expected. If that’s the case, you may be asking yourself: “Is this enough? Should I take it again?”

Whether it is for a personal statement, medical school interviews, or networking events, you will undoubtedly be asked: “Why medicine?” Though a seemingly simple question, coming up with a unique and comprehensive answer can be challenging. In this post, I outline how I approached this question by breaking it down into specific components. Use these steps as a guide for brainstorming a personal answer to a very common question.

Clinical clerkships can be some of the most exciting times of medical school, but they can also be some of the most frustrating. Academic medicine can be very hierarchical, making it difficult for students to advocate for their own learning. Residents are often busy and stressed. Asking questions is often disincentivized – shouldn’t you just look it up on your own? Ultimately, every successful medical student learns how to navigate this quagmire over time. Here are some of the tips and tricks I used to be successful as a third-year medical student:

Here are some helpful tips that can make you stand out from other interviewing applicants:

The purpose of this post is to update a previous I had written about MCAT practice tests. Since that post, my recommendation for practice tests has remained the same. AAMC tests (sample test, practice 1-3, in total 4 tests, practice 1-3 are scored) are still your best resource. After that, the next best thing would be the Examkracker tests for the c/p, b/b and psych/soc sections but not necessarily for the CARS. Generally, if I have a student take an EK test, I tell them to skip the CARS.

“Medicine is a social science, and politics is nothing else but medicine on a large scale.” Rudolph Virchow, the father of modern pathology, devoted an equally large portion of his life (when he wasn’t classifying thrombosis risk factors into a triad) to social medicine. Medical history is filled with countless examples of physicians serving as activists, and much of the advances made in public health are through the political advocacy of healthcare professionals that noticed a problem in their community.

This week, we interview Logan for another look at Harvard Medical School.  Logan grew up on a horse ranch in Issaquah, Washington. His love for swimming and for the outdoors brought him to Dartmouth College, where he captained his varsity swim team and led Dartmouth’s hunting and fishing club. His research on sleep disorders and hypertension named him a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar. After graduation, Logan traveled to Nepal, where he worked on several medical service projects. Logan is currently an MD candidate at Harvard Medical School and president of Harvard’s Global Surgery Student Association. As such, you will most often find him chained to a desk in Harvard’s medical library, studying.

Applying to medical school while abroad can be a wonderful and challenging experience, and will take careful planning to be completed correctly. There are many important factors, but two of the most important factors will be successfully filling out your AMCAS application and navigating interviews. Outlined below are some important features to consider for each. 

This month, we interview Graham, who gives us a brief tour of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Graham is an MD MBA student at Vanderbilt University and Harvard University. He graduated from Harvard Business School in May 2018 and will be applying for a medical Residency this fall. Prior to his postgraduate studies, Graham graduated from MIT in 2012 as member of the Tau Beta Pi Honor Society (the Engineering Equivalent of Phi Beta Kappa) with a degree in Materials Science and Engineering. While at MIT, Graham was selected to be a Burchard Scholar (30 MIT students who have demonstrated excellence in the humanities, arts, or social sciences) and worked in the lab of Professors Michael Cima and Robert Langer developing microelectromechanical systems for drug delivery. In addition to his time in the classroom and at the lab bench, Graham completed multiple internships with boutique investment banking firms, the United Bank of Switzerland (UBS), International Business Machines (IBM), and most recently McKinsey and Company.

Almost every day during the medical school application process, I thought to myself ‘I wish I had considered X earlier’ or ‘It would have been nice if someone had told me to do Y beforehand’. The process can be long, exhausting, and can seem like a daunting prospect to future applicants. Below, I have listed 5 things that I believe can enhance and destress an application experience if executed possibly.  Some things may seem obvious and others unconventional, but I think this (non-exhaustive) list will help you assemble an application the most fully represents your merits as a future physician.