Standing Out to Admissions Officers as a Pre-Med College Applicant

Webinar Transcription

2025-10-09-Standing Out to Admissions Officers as a Pre-Med College Applicant

Lydia: [00:00:00] Hello everyone. Welcome to, “Standing out to Admissions Officers as a Pre-Med College Applicant.” My name is Lydia Hollon and I’m going to be your moderator tonight. I’m also a senior advisor here at CollegeAdvisor and I’ve been with the company for about four years now. And in addition to my work at CollegeAdvisor, I’m also an alum of New York University and an education consultant and former high school teacher.

Lydia: To orient everyone with a webinar timing for tonight, we’re going to start off with a presentation. Then answer your questions in a live q and a on the sidebar. You can download our slides and start submitting questions in the q and a tab. We’ll also be recording this session so that you can review the webinar again later.

Lydia: Now let’s meet our presenter.[00:01:00]

Pamela: Hi everyone. I’m Pam. Thank you so much for joining us tonight on, um, this webinar about how to be a pre-med in high school and how to best prepare. Um, I went to Harvard as an undergrad, and then I went on to get my PhD in neuroscience at Stanford. I did my postdoc at Stanford in neuroscience and pain management.

Pamela: I went on to become a clinical, um, associated faculty member in neuroscience and psychiatry. And, um, now I work with college advisor on advising students for the college process.

Lydia: Fantastic. All right, before we jump into the presentation, we’re gonna do a quick poll. So I’ll give you all a moment to figure, fill that out.

Lydia: I we’re just asking what grades you’re in and if you are a parent joining us tonight, feel free to just tick that other option While y’all are answering that question. Pamela, I just have a quick question for you, which is, what made you interested in pursuing pre-med when you were applying to college?[00:02:00]

Pamela: Actually, I always wanted to be a physician scientist, meaning, um, somebody who practices part of the time and then does research the rest of the time. And the reason was because I was in mental health or psychiatry and neuroscience and we really. I think we’re quite far behind, still probably are in the field in terms of treatments for those suffering with, um, neurological and mental disorders.

Pamela: So I wanted to be in the lab to try to come up with better, um, treatment plans and treatment solutions for patients. And I thought that the best way to do that was to combine both because I was hoping my practice would inform my research and vice versa, that the research could come into the clinic a lot sooner, um, than it already was.

Pamela: So I was in at the NIH for many years and, um, a lot of what’s coming out now as treatments for mental health were happening. Hmm, 20 years ago in the lab when we knew about them. So we’ve been testing ketamine for instance, a really, really long time ago, well before it made it to [00:03:00] the public consciousness.

Pamela: So, um, I know it’s a long answer, but, um, that was one of the reasons why I wanted to go be a med med student.

Lydia: I think that’s great. Um, yeah, I mean, uh, as I’m sure you’ll talk about later in this presentation, just having such a clear vision for what draws you to it beyond just the surface level of wanting to help people, like having a clear vision of the kind of impact that you wanna make in the field is so important.

Lydia: So it’s really impresses it. That’s something that you’ve known about yourself and what you want to do for so long. So looking at our responses, we. What seems like a good mix of people. So I’ll go ahead and pass it over to you, Pamela, to join, uh, to present. Um, we got 3% in eighth grade, 26% in ninth, 29% in 10th grade, 24% in 11th, 10% in 12th, and 7% in that other or parent category.

Lydia: [00:04:00] So really wide range of people joining us tonight. Lots of people interested in pre-med.

Pamela: Awesome. I can’t wait. And I see we already have a couple of questions too. Yeah. Um, so a lot of people asking you, what does it mean to be pre-med? So it’s not that it’s a major, um, it’s a path. So meaning in college, most schools don’t have a so-called pre-med major.

Pamela: You’d have to choose whatever it is. It could be art and history that you’re choosing to major in. It could be neuroscience, it could be biology, it could be chemistry, it could be history even. Um, but what it does refer to is that you are completing the basics of the coursework required for medical schools.

Pamela: So medical schools are very, um, strict about the things that they would like to see. And we call it the BCPM in terms of the sciences. So that’s biology, chemistry, physics and math. So they require a year of biology with lab, a year of chemistry with lab, both general and inorganic, and then physics also with lab, and [00:05:00] um.

Pamela: Biochemistry and then they added psychology and sociology. Um, and they would like to see math all the way to the level of calculus if possible. Um, so when I was in college, I actually would, I started college with a spreadsheet, planning out all of my pre-med requirements and when I was gonna do what?

Pamela: When? Um, because if you didn’t want to be a science major, you do have to do a bunch of planning to make sure that you get all of your prerequisites in, um, that you can for before you graduate, in addition to the, your, your regular major. Um, so that’s what I meant by pre-med as a major. It’s a path. So you could be an East Asia studies major and still be pre-med, um, and it’s really, really common.

Pamela: And also medical schools really love seeing that diversity. They don’t necessarily, I would say that the majority of students, um, applying to medical school are science or engineering, um, candidates. So they’re mostly biology majors. So actually to stand out, it helps to not be a bio or chem or, um, some kind of STEM [00:06:00] major.

Pamela: Sorry, Lydia, how do I, I can move forward. Right? Okay. So in addition to the coursework that I just mentioned, it also involves, um, clinical exposure. So medical schools really, really, really want you to know what you’re getting yourself into. So they want you to shadow and they want you to volunteer when they, when I say shadowing, that means, um, following or observing a clinician in any specialty at all.

Pamela: Um, and I would say if you’re a pre-med student, you wanna try to get this shadowing done out of the way as early as possible. So meaning, because shadowing is purely observational, it’s also very passive. Um, ideally you wanna do this early on in your pre-med years and then move on to more active roles where you’re taking action.

Pamela: Um, so that’s one, one aspect is the clinical exposure. The second thing that they would like to see depending on the school. So some medical schools are [00:07:00] very community oriented, meaning they exist to train physicians just to serve the community, meaning to go out and be doctors and to practice medicine.

Pamela: Um, other schools, for example, like the Stanford, Harvards, they very much value research experience because those are huge research institutions, so it’s very valuable to them. And almost all the students enter with some kind of research experience. Um, the path also involves a lot of service and leadership because medicine is, I would say, very much a profession of service.

Pamela: Um, so they would like you to, they would like to see that you have spent time with vulnerable populations because you don’t get to pick who you treat, at least not for a while, unless you’re in concierge medicine, maybe. Um, but for the most part, you’re serving the community, so they really wanna see those aspects on your file.

Pamela: Um, and then there are the numbers that they’re looking for, um, meaning the MCAT and your GPA. And the reason why those numbers matter is because down the line, um, those numbers tend to correlate really well with how well, um, you’re going to be [00:08:00] doing in terms of passing U-S-M-L-E, step one, step two, and all the other exams that come further on in your career.

Pamela: So those are professional, um, multiple choice exams that you have to take in order to practice to become a physician and to be qualified, um, and certified to become a physician. So that’s why the MCAT and the GPA, they’re really not all that forgiving of it because they know that that means that, um, you might struggle down the line.

Pamela: And then of course, they really value and care about strong interpersonal and communication skills, um, because we’re not just scientists, um, but you’re communicating with the public about, you know, something that could potentially be very stressful.

Pamela: So how can you best prepare to be a pre-med student while you’re in high school? Um, I’m gonna give you three different medical schools and what they say that they’re looking for so that you guys can start to think about it now. And I don’t think it’s too early to begin. So you wanna [00:09:00] think of yourself as both a strong medical school candidate in college as well as a strong candidate, um, in high school.

Pamela: So the, the kinds of things that make you a strong physician or a strong physician candidate down the line are the habits and the skills that you pick up now. So these are things, for example, at NYU, they say, to successfully complete a medical school curriculum, students must possess all the abilities and characteristics listed in the following six categories.

Pamela: So, as I’d said before, behavioral and social attributes. So that’s where you’re volunteering, um, your service to the community, your leadership comes in, your, your communication skills. Um, and then ethics and professionalism. So obviously, um, there, that’s a huge part of medicine. Um, and then the intellectual, so can you actually do the, the work of being a doctor?

Pamela: ’cause there’s a lot of science. Um, so the conceptual, integrative, quantitative abilities as well as motors. So you have to be able to function and do [00:10:00] the real job itself, like physically. Um, and then, let’s see, for Michigan, they say they don’t, they don’t have a six point system the way that NYU does and neither does Stanford, but you’ll see that they, they’re all slightly different.

Pamela: And I want you to pay attention to the language that they use to tell you what kind of students they’re looking for. So at Michigan, they’re saying we seek out individuals who not only have the potential to excel academically, but also possess personal attributes and competencies that align with our commitment to train the leaders and best.

Pamela: The Casper test requirement is designed to assess these non-cognitive and interpersonal characteristics that we believe are important for success in our program and beyond. So I don’t go into the Casper very much right now here because it’s something that you encounter when you’re applying to medical school.

Pamela: But this is a, um, at, at Stanford, they call them mmis, the multiple mini interviews, and I used to administer them. Um, but the little, they [00:11:00] give you a scenario. You have to reason your way through the scenario. It’s not a scientific thing. It’s, it could be about any topic at all. It could be about why should we save this endangered animal versus another one.

Pamela: Um, they really just wanna hear how you are reasoning and communicating your ideas. Um, so if you’re thinking about going to management consulting, it’s kinda like being given a case interview where they ask you how many ping pong balls can fit into a 7 47. Um, so they wanna hear how you’re, you’re reasoning your way through the problem, and then they wanna hear how you communicate about that problem.

Pamela: Um, but if you see Michigan versus NYU, they do have similarities, but there are definitely differences. And then see what you think about what Stanford says. So they say, desirable candidates for admissions are academically ready to succeed in our curriculum. Right? So that’s the baseline for everyone.

Pamela: Everyone is saying you have to be able to excel academically, right? That’s the baseline. But then see what they say next. Have life experiences that will enrich our learning [00:12:00] environment and have personal qualities that will serve them, their colleagues. Their patients well in their professional lives. So there’s a little bit of a subtle difference.

Pamela: And in all three, I’m not gonna say what it is, but it’ll be interesting to kind of do that later on in the, in the q and a where you guys can tell me what you hear from what these three schools are saying that they’re looking for in their candidates. But it’s very much like college admissions in the sense that, um, when they tell you, this is who we’re looking for, pay really close attention to the language that they use.

Pamela: ’cause they drop hints about what they, what their institutional priorities are, as well as what their values are. And sometimes students say to me, but they all sound the same. I’m like, no, go back and look again. Because you’ll see that if you underline certain words and certain concepts that they’re talking about, they’re really quite different in what they’re seeking.

Pamela: So being a pre-med is not easy. I will say that. Um, it’s, it’s really difficult. One of the questions in the, um, chat and one of the early questions was [00:13:00] about picking a path that did involve stress. And we can talk a lot about stress, but, um, I think that’s a personal thing. Like meaning some things might be really stressful to you that are not stressful to others.

Pamela: Like, I didn’t find the MCAT stressful, but I like taking tests, right? Somebody else might say, oh my gosh, that was the most stressful part because I hate standardized tests. But that could be really tough because if you hate standardized tests, you kinda have to, to do them the entire time that you’re a doctor, even after you’re practicing.

Pamela: Um, in order to relicense, um, you still need to take multiple choice exams, um, pretty much your entire career and it doesn’t end. Um, however, I will say that I don’t wanna sugarcoat anything. There is really intense. Academic rigor. Um, you have heavy course loads in multiple lab sciences. So compared to my friends who were humanities majors in college, I was in lab until 8:00 PM most nights.

Pamela: Um, and they, you know, wrote one long paper twice a semester or something like that, and that’s what they had to do. Whereas I had problem [00:14:00] sets every single week that were due. Um, and so that was really different, right? The life of a pre-med is really different than, say, if you were to be just a humanities major.

Pamela: Not to say anything against humanities majors, but it’s just a different lifestyle. Um, there are a lot of grading curves and. There’s pretty much no grade inflation, I would say in the sciences, at least in the colleges that I was in. I dunno what the other colleges were like. And there are really, really high GPA expectations.

Pamela: So for the very, very best medical schools, they’re going to be expecting a three, seven and above. And a lot of people are gonna come in higher than that. Um, if you’re in an engineering or at like an MIT or something, they, they are a little bit more forgiving and they understand, but for the most part, they’re still.

Pamela: Expecting a three, seven and above. And then I would say one of the hallmarks of, um, being a pre-med is that there’s a lot of delayed gratification. So meaning it’s a really long road, you’re training for a long time, you’re training for eight to 10 years of, um, post high school. [00:15:00] Um, and you really, they care a lot.

Pamela: When medical schools are looking at candidates, they’re looking at how motivated you are because it can’t just be an external thing. There has to be something internally driving you with beyond just, you know, an accolade because this is a long road, right? You, you’re looking at the long game, not the short game in terms of medical school.

Pamela: Um, and then, you know, the, the public should be comforted knowing that, um, in order to be a doctor, you’re spending so much time, um, being trained to eventually be in front of a patient. And then there is a need to demon, like to excel not only in science, but service and research and leadership. Because the art of medicine is that you are, um, performing an active service to the public.

Pamela: And a lot of your work is based on the latest research, like the treatments that you have and how you choose to treat a patient. You have to keep up with the literature. Good doctors spend a lot of time reading the literature to figure out what are the latest treatments, um, are there better options out there?

Pamela: Can we make our [00:16:00] patients more comfortable? Um, are they verified? Are they validated? How long have the, you know, what kind of results are, are out there? So. You need to have a little bit of research experience in order to, um, interpret those scientific findings that come out. And then, um, it’s really hard to find time for, um, authentic extracurriculars outside of your, um, really heavy course load and all the things.

Pamela: And a lot of times premed spent a lot of time in the lab, um, as an undergrad. So maybe hard, harder to find time to, I don’t know, go play ultimate Frisbee or something like that, um, with your friends. So you have to be a little bit more planned and conscious of the time, um, that you have in college. And then.

Pamela: There is a lot of resilience required for this path. Um, because you’re gonna be exposed to people on their worst days of their lives. Sometimes, um, you’re gonna be exposed to illness. So a lot of my friends got really sick during residency because you’re seeing it a lot, right? You’re, you’re being exposed to a lot of different illnesses, um, and suffering.

Pamela: And also in, in the beginning, [00:17:00] you end up failing a lot. Um, it’s, it is not an easy job. Um, so whether it’s a failure because you felt like you didn’t communicate something well, like bad news to a patient or something, um, you often feel like you’re not doing as well as you could. And then there’s a lot of pressure, right?

Pamela: There’s a pressure to appear perfect while, um, cultivating empathy and having humility. Um, and that’s a lifelong thing. Um. So these are all, and like I said, I don’t wanna say it’s, you know, I hope I’m not making it sound, um, undesirable. Like, I think it’s extremely rewarding. Um, and I will say this, like when I went to medical school, um, it was everything I thought it was going to be.

Pamela: I thought it was gonna be a lot of science. I love that part and I was really excited about the human aspect of it. And it was exactly all those things. So if you’re thinking that those things excite you, then this would be a great path. However, it is extremely competitive. Um, there are over 50,000 med school applicants yearly, and the average [00:18:00] acceptance rate is.

Pamela: Across the board at every single school is about three to 4%. Um, and then some of them have, you know, a 1% or one and a half percent acceptance rate. Um, so it’s, the numbers are kind of not the most forgiving. Um, and then a lot of people start out being pre-med, but only a fraction go on to apply because it is tough.

Pamela: And a lot of people, I mean, the reason why they call them WEDA classes is because when you hit that first, um, organic maybe, um, chemistry class, or maybe it’s a physics, for me it was physics. Um, I thought, oh my gosh, I’m not gonna be able to make kids to medical school because I’m so terrible at physics.

Pamela: Um, but only, you know, so I’m saying that a lot of people start out thinking that this is what they wanna do, but then they don’t always end up applying because it is a long, hard road.

Pamela: Um, and then what types of extracurriculars best demonstrate your interest in being a pre-med or maybe in medical studies? [00:19:00] I would say that this one, and I, I’m gonna say why I’m saying that this one’s important, hospital volunteering. So not just in general clinical volunteering, but med schools really want to see that you’re doing hospital volunteering.

Pamela: So when I was going through the process, I knew I wanted to be a, a psychiatrist or a neuroscientist, um, or a neurologist. And, um, I was working a suicide line at the time and my mentor said, um, you really ought to go volunteer in an ER or something like that. And I said, why? I’m pretty much doing the thing that you would be doing as a psychiatrist.

Pamela: And she said, because they really want you to understand what it’s like to be in medicine broadly, not just in psychiatry specifically. And so I said, so you want me to go stock? I don’t know. Um, gloves on a shelf in the er. She’s like, yes. Um, and I would say that to you too. That’s really, it really is truly what they want.

Pamela: They wanna see, um, they want you to get involved, um, because they want you to understand what it’s like to perform and to [00:20:00] observe people performing medical work in a variety of fields. Um, they want you to understand what it’s like to be a doctor. Um, so you’re gonna, and they want you to, to know what it’s like working with patients because it’s not always rosy, right?

Pamela: Um, because people come in stressed and they want you to be able to observe what it’s like when medical professionals work in teams. So this is what they want you to gain out of that. Um, hospital volunteering. Um. And then, you know, if you cannot do that because for example, during COVID, that was really, really difficult.

Pamela: And I’ve heard that since then. It hasn’t really gotten any better, like in terms of getting teens into the hospital setting. Um, and if that’s the case, then other options include a retirement home, homeless shelters, a school. So basically anywhere that you can interact with people regularly and can help you prepare for working with patients, like meaning in a stressful kind of a setting, um, are fine too.

Pamela: Okay. What are some things to avoid as a pre-med? I would say that over [00:21:00] specializing too early, kind of like I did. I was like, I’m gonna be a psychiatrist or a neurologist and that’s it. Um, you, but, you know, then I got into medical school and I was like, I think I wanna be a pathologist. It’s like super interesting.

Pamela: Um, so you don’t need to major in biology or talk about becoming a surgeon, um, when you are applying to college. Um, admissions offices actually prefer really open curious thinkers. Um, instead of saying, I wanna be a doctor, um, they care more about the way that you think and your curiosity rather than this is my future profession.

Pamela: Um, in fact, we prefer not to see that on the applications. Um. A lot of people treat being pre-med, like a personality, like meaning they list and check off a list of things that they’re doing, like the shadowing, the volunteering at the hospital. And we read so many essays about saving lives and wanting to help other people.

Pamela: Um, there’s nothing wrong with any of those things. It’s just that when you read it 50,000 times and it’s literally 50,000 times, um, it comes across as being a little cliched. [00:22:00] And we wonder, what do you mean when you say that? Like, how do you wanna help people? Um, so what matters, however, is why those experiences, um, affected you.

Pamela: I would say this is definitely the case to, as for any seniors on this call who are writing the college application essays right now, we really care about the why more than the what, um. And then what ends up happening a lot with being a pre-med is that people chase prestige over support. And this, this two things I want you to take away from today.

Pamela: Number one is like choosing a good college that supports you throughout your pre-med studies. And the second thing is about the state residency requirements. Um, so the best pre-med college is actually the one which has access to mentoring and access and room to grow. Um, so a lot of people are chasing things like, oh, I really wanna go to Ivy League, as opposed to thinking about, but is that school the best place to support me through my pre-medical coursework and career?

Pamela: Um, you really wanna look for a school that has a very strong pre-health advising system, [00:23:00] um, that can often outweigh the brand name. For example, a school like Franklin and Marshall, they have an amazing pre-med program. They send a lot of school, uh, students to medical school. So if your goal really is to.

Pamela: Practice medicine, it doesn’t matter. Um, you know which undergrad brand name you come from. It matters what you do with the experiences that you have as a, as an undergrad. Um, the other thing that you know, to, to speak to stress, because that was one of the questions that I saw. Um, you really want to try to balance burnout, um, as well as having a life outside of just your career.

Pamela: Because my students, I’m advising college students right now who are going through the pre-med, um, pathway too. Um, they don’t. Spend time, um, looking after themselves or having fun. And I keep telling them, you need to balance all of this empathy, um, that you’re having for other people with empathy for yourself and taking care of yourself, not just, you know, grinding away the whole time.

Pamela: Um, because if you spread yourself too thin, you lose the reflection and the curiosity that [00:24:00] makes you stand out. And it also becomes a process that’s not so much fun, right? It feels more like a grind rather than a rewarding process where you’re learning a lot about yourself and you’re growing and, and changing as an individual.

Pamela: The hope is that, you know, these medical schools put all these requirements together. It was hard for me to see it until I had gone into medical school, but I saw why I needed to take the physics and the, um, all the requirements that they had. I was like, oh, this makes so much sense now. But it’s not so obvious when you’re an undergrad going through and just checking the boxes.

Pamela: Um, also another thing that. We see a lot in the applications is writing what we call a OneNote application. So they only focus on saying that they really wanna help people or I’ve always loved science, um, and that’s not what we really wanna see. Being a pre-med or being a good medical applicant is being well-rounded across the board, meaning you love the science, but you also love the aspect where you’re communicating with and interacting with people.[00:25:00]

Pamela: So, like I said, the, the two things I wanna emphasize are about choosing the best college for you as a pre-med as you think about this, since a lot of you are in high school right now. Um, so where you go matters less than how the school supports you. So you, you’re looking for what we call a strong pre-health advising infrastructure.

Pamela: I’m gonna tell you why, and I’m gonna give you an example, a personal one. So you, you’re looking for a school which has a very dedicated pre-health or pre-med advising office, not just general advisors. You wanna go and ask about the advisor to student ratio? You wanted to ask about, you know, do they do mock interviews?

Pamela: Are there workshops? Do they do mc a, um, guidance or prep? Um, ask them about data transparency. A lot of them are not gonna reveal it, but what are, what are their acceptance rates like to medical school? For example, Swarthmore, another great pre-med college. Um, I think 98% of their pre-meds end up getting accepted, um, to medical school.

Pamela: Ask about the average GPA, so then you’ll know, okay, how competitive and hard is it going to [00:26:00] be? Um, because you’ll wanna be at the top of that GPA range. And then I’m gonna talk a lot about the committee letter. But a committee letter is basically if your college has it, and not every single one does is a composite letter.

Pamela: So think right now about your high school guidance counselor. Um, they’re gonna be writing a general letter for you to get into college. So there’ll be two from your teachers, one counselor letter, um, and oftentimes. Sometimes, right? That counselor will have read the letters that your teachers wrote. Um, so the committee letter is there to work as a composite letter.

Pamela: So meaning they read all of your faculty letters, um, and then they take bits and pieces from the, the faculty letters and, um, they put into their composite letter and they compare you, um, across the board for the other candidates that are applying outta your class. Um, so it’s actually really important to get on the good side of that committee letter writer.

Pamela: Like it’s usually one person or there may be more than one person. Um, and I’m also going to give you a lot of [00:27:00] examples of, um, what this committee letter process is like across a bunch of different colleges because I’ve advised a lot of students, like say at a really public universities like the ucs versus private schools, and then within the private schools it varies a lot too.

Pamela: Um, other things that you wanna be aware of? Um. Is access to research and clinical opportunities. So, um, like at a school like Harvard, when I was there, they gave out spreadsheets of all the teaching hospitals. So the. The Harvard system has Brigham and Women’s and Mass General and this huge network of teaching hospitals.

Pamela: So as a pre-med student, you can go to any of them and you can shadow anyone. Um, and there are a list of people to contact and who to go to. I’ve heard from my students, um, who go to other schools and who I advise as pre-med candidates right now, that is not the case. Like they have to go hunt for it themselves.

Pamela: They have to find the people. Um, and it’s a really tough process, especially if you’re in a really, really large city like Los Angeles. Um, there are two [00:28:00] colleges, like really good colleges in the area, and all the students are competing for the same slots to go and shadow and volunteer and get into the er.

Pamela: Um, so that could be really tough. Um, and then you wanna see, do they have any, you know, any other public health or biotech companies or something that can give you some exposure to clinical medicine. And then at some colleges, right, again, at the public schools, it may be harder. I’m thinking about the ucs again, where, um, it’s hard for the undergrads to join labs.

Pamela: Whereas at Stanford, if you wanna join a lab, you just. Join a lab, like there’s no competition for it. Um, it’s not difficult. Same thing at Harvard was very easy. Um, and you can pursue independent research really easily and quickly at those schools. So you wanna think about all these things as you’re evaluating, um, college options.

Pamela: Okay, so let’s talk about the, um, the committee letter because it, it is important and I think most pre-meds are not thinking about this, but I think that maybe you should, um, so many medical schools require or would like [00:29:00] to have a committee letter if your school, if your college has a committee, um.

Pamela: Letter, meaning they offer it, but you don’t get one. Sometimes it’s seen as a red flag. You would have to figure out a way to explain why you didn’t get one when your college did have one. Um, so like I said, these people, the committee people, they’re summarizing your readiness for medical school. Um, some schools will only write for students that meet a certain GPA or MCAT threshold, so be careful about that because it means that you have to meet that threshold.

Pamela: Otherwise they say, we’re not gonna write you a letter. Um, so that can limit your options, obviously. Um, you want to choose a college with very clear, inclusive and supportive policies if at all possible. Um, and obviously find a school that’s the right sized environment for you. Um, so while huge universities offer a lot of breadth, it’s tons of research opportunities.

Pamela: Um, a lot of networks, it may feel a little impersonal. Um, [00:30:00] whereas liberal arts colleges could provide really close mentorship and higher community lateral rates, but you may not have access to all of the exciting research and funding that a larger university, um, would allow for. So the best fit, the best fit really depends on how you learn and how much individual attention you’ll need.

Pamela: Um, I’m gonna give you a couple examples of what I’ve seen of committee letter processes. Um, so when I was going through the process, I was 20 years out. I’d already gotten my PhD, and then I went back to medical school. Um, but I went back to Harvard because the med schools I was applying to required a committee letter.

Pamela: And I was a non-traditional student, meaning I wasn’t in college anymore. I didn’t have, um, uh, like faculty members who could. Speak about me from classwork because it’d been a long time since I’ve been in class. Um, but Harvard was willing to do that, um, even though I was many years out. So what they did was they assigned a, a dean from the medical school who was a neuroscientist, and, um, I climb a lot.

Pamela: So, and they found this dean who climbed and this person, um, got on regular Zoom calls with [00:31:00] me, um, and got to know me really, really well and understood all my motivations for why at the stage of my career, um, I was willing to go back to medical school and what I was hoping to gain from it. And they did that for everybody, um, who were many years out of school and, um, you know, who were applying.

Pamela: And I asked them, why are you doing this? Because, you know, I’ve been 20 years out. Um, and they said, well, when you do well, we do well. So meaning if their graduates do well, then they as a university, um, also do well. And then I’ve advised pre-med students from schools where, um, the committee is a nameless, faceless, um.

Pamela: It’s just an email address and you send all of your material to this email address and they never meet with you, but they put together this letter without really getting to know you. Um, so there’s some colleges like that. Um, so there’s, and then there’s everything in between. So I’m saying I think this is not something that most high schools think about, but you may want to think about that as you’re heading into, um, into, into the [00:32:00] college process in terms if you’re truly sure that this is something that you want.

Pamela: And then other things that I think people don’t think about, um, are geographic and residency considerations. So public medical schools often give preference to in-state. So for example, in California, because that’s where I live, um. Like uc, Riverside, uc, meed, they take more than half, um, of their medical school class from uc, Riverside undergrad or meed undergrad.

Pamela: And that’s because they truly wanna train doctors who will go out to, um, serve the community. Um, you don’t have to say in the area, there’s no requirement or anything like that, but they figured that if you are willing to spend four years staying there, you know, the commu, the community well. Now you wanna go to medical school there, so you’ll likely stay in the area and practice.

Pamela: Um, and that’s what they want because that’s their goal as a medical school. Stanford, on the other hand, could not care less whether or not you end up going on to practice medicine. Um, I think a third of the class ends up doing other [00:33:00] things. Like they go into vc, they go venture capital, they go into research, they go into academia, they decide they want to start their own biotech, they start other companies doing other things that have nothing to do with medicine.

Pamela: And Stanford is totally fine with that. Like they figure it’s fine. Um, it’s fine if, you know, a third of the class doesn’t even end up ever practicing medicine because we know they go on to do other things in the field that will impact it in some way. So if you plan to practice or attend medical school, um, say in California or a state, attending an in-state school could actually help you.

Pamela: Um, it’s, it could be easier too. In terms of the emissions numbers. Um, and then you want to build ties to local health systems for the same reason, right? So show commitment to serving, um, your community, whatever that is. Um, so the caveat here is that not all medical schools weigh residency equally. For example, at uc, Irvine, their statement or their policies that all [00:34:00] applicants are reviewed using the same criteria, um, and in-state residency doesn’t, um, count more, uh, for them.

Pamela: Whereas it’s not the same for the other ucs, so you wanna go verify the policies directly. Um, I would say, you know, one of the fun parts for me about being a pre-med was, um, I found a pre-med environment that was really collaborative and it wasn’t competitive. I thought about, um, going to Hopkins, not to throw Hopkins under the bus for any reason, but they’re super competitive.

Pamela: Um, and that was not something that I found. I mean, think about stress, you know, you have to go know yourself. Well, that’s stressful to me. Like I’d rather be in an environment where everybody’s kind of in the weeds together. Um, so you wanna seek an environment if this is you, right? Where students support each other.

Pamela: Not one that, like, some of them really focus on this weeding out culture, and that was really stressful to me. So that was not something that I was looking for. Um, and then finding people who collaborate with you and finding mentors and your emotional [00:35:00] wellbeing correlate strongly with, um, your long-term stress.

Pamela: I mean, success in the field.

Pamela: So how can you assess what kind of program might be right for you? So when comparing colleges for pre-med, your checklist should be something like, how strong and hands-on is their pre-health advising infrastructure? Do they have one? Because some schools don’t really, um, what real research or clinical access exists locally?

Pamela: So, like I said, do they have a lot of teaching hospitals? Stanford has a free student run clinic, like all the pre-med students run that clinic. Um, and so, you know, are there, are there opportunities like that where you can get hands-on, um, experience right away? And then what are the med med school policies in your desired geography?

Pamela: So what, is there a residency preference or is there not? And then how many students actually succeed in the med path from that campus? Um, not just enroll their names. So if they have [00:36:00] an office that does this and is willing to share the numbers, um, and they should go find out what those numbers look like.

Lydia: Okay. Alright. Thank you so much Pamela. Um, be, uh, that was a lot of really helpful information. I know we have a ton of questions in the chat as well. Um, so that concludes the presentation portion of our webinar. Um, but we are gonna continue for the next 25 minutes that we have left of the session, moving into the live q and a where I’m gonna read questions that you all have submitted in the q and a tab and Pamela will get an opportunity to answer them.

Lydia: Continue to feel free to submit questions in that q and a tab and if for some reason you’re not able to submit questions, you can just double check that you joined the webinar through the custom link in your email and not from the webinar landing page. We’ll be trying to get through as many of these questions that you

Lydia: are very active, so [00:37:00] we may not be able to answer every single question that you all submit, but we’ll try our very best. So the first question that I have for you, Pamela, is one that I saw pop up a lot in the q and a, which is what are the best ways that high school students can find opportunities to pursue shadowing and research opportunities while they’re still minors?

Pamela: Um, so luckily, and I guess unluckily in some ways, um, because of the pandemic, there’s actually virtual shadowing that exists. Um, a lot of it’s free. So during the pandemic, nobody was allowed to go into the hospital for good reason. Um, so they moved it virtual, um, which was, and then I had other students who did things like, um, help to transcribe.

Pamela: That’s another thing that you can help doctors do. They don’t need that as much anymore. Um, but it was something like. You know, in the, at that time, the doctors’ wearing glasses and you could be there the whole time in that interaction and you were helping them to take notes like offline, um, kind of thing.

Pamela: But that’s another way to [00:38:00] get into the system without, um, hitting that age requirement. And then most hospitals, I’d say, unfortunately, otherwise I think you have to be 15 or 16 in my area to get into the hospitals to do, um, some kind of shadowing of volunteering. It could be really tough at first. Like you might have to go be a greeter and do nothing clinical in the beginning.

Pamela: Or I had a student who was running, um, blood work from one area of the hospitals for another, and she said, it’s so boring. I said, please stick with it. So she did it for a year and then she moved on to other more involved things. Um, so you might have to spend a year doing something like greeting patients or something at the door before they allow you to move on to other more exciting clinical.

Pamela: Opportunities. Um, in terms of research, I would say that’s really tough. Um, but you know, there are research companies out there meaning who put you in touch with, um, like mentors and they, you know, it is a paid service though I know we have one, um, like college advisor that we put, that we pair students with, um, research [00:39:00] mentors, but other ways to do it are to cold email professors.

Pamela: I used to get a lot of cold emails when I was, um, in the research game and, um, you could also ask people if they know someone. Um, some faculty members are more willing and open to it than others. Um, so there’s no real easy way. But Lydia, if you know of any other tips and tricks, please chime in.

Lydia: Yeah. Uh, I would say, you know, a lot of students that I know when it comes to research will either, um, do like a program like you mentioned where they’re partnered with some sort of mentor and they can pursue their own research question.

Lydia: Um, yes. Call emailing professors and,

Anna: Hmm, looks like Lydia may be having some technical issues. Hi everyone. My name’s Anna. Um, I’m here as a backup in case something like that happens. Um, so [00:40:00] Pam, I think we’re just gonna go to another question. Um, yeah, sure. Could you describe, again, we have a few questions about committee letters. Could you describe again, oh, yeah.

Anna: do students need to go out of their way to request them? Or like how does that whole process work?

Pamela: Yes. So it is when you’re, when you’re getting ready to apply to medical school, um, just like you guys are getting ready to apply to college, um, your counselor at school will write a counselor letter.

Pamela: So committee letter is a composite letter, so meaning they will read all of your teacher letters recommendation and, and your case when you get to the medical school, it’ll be your faculty, uh, letters of recommendation. They can do things like my committee read the letters for me and they said, okay, out of the five letters that you have, um, these four are the best.

Pamela: That last one not so great. Um, so I wouldn’t use that one, but use these other four or go find me. Or they might have read it and said, go find me another person, because this third letter [00:41:00] is really not great. Um, so that’s one of the ways that the committee functions, but basically it’s a composite letter from your college, um, to the medical schools about where you stand and how you stand out compared to other candidates applying from your college.

Pamela: And they’ll contain snippets, um, from your faculty letters as well as, you know, some details about you.

Anna: Thank you. And then what advice do you have for students when writing their essays? Anything they definitely should mention? Anything they should avoid.

Pamela: Oh my, we could do a whole webinar on that too. Um, like I said, we read a, there’s no, there’s no bad, um, topic or anything, but we read a lot of, I really wanna help people.

Pamela: And I would say, um, maybe don’t say that like, not so directly. Um, we do want you to help people, but, um, just like in, in the high school college process, there’s a lot of cliched, um, things [00:42:00] that we tell students to avoid. Um, so I would say there’s no bad or taboo topics or anything like that, but we want to see your motivation for medicine, um, beyond just, I wanna help people.

Anna: Thank you. Looks like Lydia was back for a second and, and maybe is gone again. Um, what advice do you have for students who think they will want to go to med school but aren’t totally sure? What should they be looking for in their undergrad?

Pamela: Mm-hmm. I think that’s why the shadowing is so important, um, and shadowing many, many, many different specialties.

Pamela: Um, so when I was doing it, I was actually in that at the NIH and that was really, um, amazing because it was so easy to find every single specialty, um, that. I had access to, I had an access to an endocrinology otolaryngology, I can never say that word. Um, and, you know, [00:43:00] beyond the, the standard kind of primary care physicians or general medicine.

Pamela: Um, and it was really interesting because I thought that everybody would look the same like in terms of their specialty in their job. But when I joined the pain clinic at Stanford and I was shadowing there, what a surgeon, a pain surgeon might be doing or a spinal cord surgeon might be doing, versus what a, um, a shadowed someone who only focused on.

Pamela: Migraines or headaches. And I thought, how can you spend your entire day just doing headaches? Like how boring is that? But in, that was actually one of the most incredibly fascinating specialties that I spent time with. I spent a week with, um, with that individual, um, shouting them, and it was really, really, really cool.

Pamela: Um, you’re, you’re looking for things like, you know, I looked at their lifestyles, like, when do they start the day? When do they and do they, like the surgeons never got to eat lunch. Um, so I was like, well, that’s not for me. I, I want to eat. They, it was hard to go find time to run to the bathroom, like when you’re a surgeon too.

Pamela: Um, whereas the, the people in the clinic, they had a more standard nine to five kind of [00:44:00] schedule. Um, they. Could eat. Not, not for long, but they could. Um, so these are all things you wanna ask yourself, you know, what kinda lifestyle do I wanna have? Um, what do I want my patient interactions to be like? Um, is it very minimal or is it, this is my entire day is just talking to people about their life and their lifestyles.

Pamela: Um, and asking yourself like, how do I feel about keeping up with the science, you know, at the end of all of that, right? You need to find time at some point to keep up with the latest in the fields that you know, that you’re treating your patients with the latest science available.

Anna: Thank you. Beyond what we’ve already discussed, the shadowing, the volunteering, the research, what do you think are good maybe unique extracurricular activities, uh, for students interested in pre-med? Hmm.

Pamela: So a lot of my students do things like, um, they, they show care for vulnerable population. So whether it’s a homeless.

Pamela: Or [00:45:00] L-G-B-T-Q or Trans Health or whatever it is. Um, so whatever it is that you care about in med school, they also wanna see that you are spending time with vulnerable populations because like I said, you don’t get to choose who you treat. So for the most part, you have to treat everybody. Um, which means that you should demonstrate that no matter who walks in, whether it’s a former inmate or someone who’s CU currently incarcerated, if that’s what’s going on, that you are treating everybody the same.

Pamela: Um, so they wanna see that you have interacted with and have experience working with a broad swath of the population.

Anna: That makes sense. Um, great question here. Could you say, could you share what is a residency and what happens during it?

Pamela: So medical school you wanna think of as like the, the coursework portion of your training, um, and residencies where you get to put all of that coursework, um, and theoretical [00:46:00] learning into action.

Pamela: Um, so, and then you’re also preparing for a specialty. So medical school is your general, um, education, kinda like high school. And then you think of like college as like centering in on a major residency is you’re picking a major and you’re going deep into that major at that point. Um, and you’re specializing in all the area or the area that you choose.

Anna: Thank you. It looks like Lydia’s back. Lydia, I’ll, I’ll do one more question and then if you wanna hop back in. Okay. Great. Thank you. Of course, Pam. Does dentistry fall into the pre-med pathway?

Pamela: Um, no, but that’s a pre-dent and they have really similar, um, requirements. So I, I used to do some of my pre pre-med requirements with pre-dent and pre od, which is, um, optometry as well as do, which is, um, still medical school, but a different [00:47:00] osteopathic medicine.

Pamela: Um, so we share really similar, um, basic science requirements, so it’s not exactly the same, um, because I don’t think pretenses need to take psychology and sociology and things like that, but it’s really similar.

Lydia: Right. I’ll ask one more que uh, one more question before we take a quick pause, which is, I saw in the q and a that a lot of students were asking questions about how to improve their communication skills. ’cause they were hearing that in your presentation that that’s a really important part of pursuing medicine is knowing how to interact with people.

Lydia: And do you have any suggestions for extracurriculars or things that students can do to develop those skills while in high school?

Pamela: Ooh, that’s such a good question. That’s something I’m still working on, so I’m like, I should throw it to someone else and then I, I can improve my community. I mean, honestly, I found out that was the hardest part about medical school was how to deliver tough news and to [00:48:00] have difficult conversations with people about their health, especially around motivation to change because, you know, so behavior change is so tough.

Pamela: Um, and I used to practice that a lot with my. Faculty members like role playing and I still found it so hard. Um, let’s see. Lydia and Anna, if you guys have good suggestions for how to improve, um, how to have difficult conversations, please let me know. That’s a really good question.

Lydia: Yeah, I mean, I think, well, well, something that I suggested for communication in general is, um, you know, doing volunteer work can be a great way to do it.

Lydia: Any opportunity that you have or extracurricular that you pursue where you’re interacting with different groups of people, um, and having to be face to face with, with various groups, I think can be a great way to develop your communication skills if you’re already doing shadowing. I think, you know, watching doctors interact with patients and seeing what [00:49:00] their bedside manner can be a great example.

Lydia: Um. And outside of, you know, communication when it comes to serving patients, I think talking about, uh, doing things like speech and debate or mock trial or model in and those kinds of things can be great ways to develop, uh, communication skills as well. Because you’re not only having to think about how to express your ideas and defend them, but also developing those public speaking skills.

Lydia: And I think if you’re learning how to speak confidently in front of a group of people, it can help you kind of figure out how to hold your composure when you’re having difficult conversations with patients down the line. Um, but there are tons of great ways to develop communication skills. I think anytime that you’re pushing yourself to interact with new people and speak with them and hold a conversation, um, can be a great way.

Lydia: So we’re gonna take just a quick pause here from the q and a, which we will be getting back to, to talk a bit about CollegeAdvisor. So for those in the room who aren’t already [00:50:00] working with us, we know how overwhelming the admissions process can be. CollegeAdvisor’s team of over 300 former admissions officers and admissions experts is ready to help you and your family navigate the college admissions process through one-on-one advising sessions and essay editing through our digital platform. CollegeAdvisor has had

Lydia: 10,000 total lifetime clients and a 4.8 out of five rating on Trustpilot. With over 750 reviews and after analyzing our 2023 to 2025 data, we found that clients working with CollegeAdvisor who have, who have a strong academic and testing record are 2.6 times more likely to get into an Ivy League school around three times more likely to get into a top 20 college and around five times more likely to get into Johns Hopkins, UCLA and NYU when compared to national acceptance rates.

Lydia: So increase your odds and take the next step in your college admissions journey by signing up for free 60 minute strategy session with an admissions specialist on our team using [00:51:00] the QR code on the screen. During this meeting, you’ll receive a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, along with some initial recommendations of what you can do to stand out.

Lydia: At the end, you also learn more about the premium packages we offer that pair you with an expert who can support you in building your college list, editing your essays, and much more. We’re here for the whole process. Now we’re gonna get back to the q and a. So, um, another question that we have is, what traits do you see in students who navigate the pre-med process successfully without burning out?

Pamela: Hmm. Such a good question. I think that they, it is all about balance. I would say that’s the word. Um, they’re very resilient and they actually find it fun. Like, um, if, you know, I know it might not seem like a lot of fun, but. If you enjoy the things that you’re doing to get to medical school, I would say you’re probably on the right path.[00:52:00]

Pamela: Like, I really enjoyed taking, aside from physics, um, all of the classes that I had to do, um, in order to get to medical school, I thought it was really fun. I was like, oh, this is really cool. These are the best kinds of, um, things that I could be learning about. I loved all the volunteering and like other kinds of, um, not things, but like I, I did things my own way.

Pamela: Um, that was very, very much the case. Like I taught in prison, um, and I did healthcare work in prison, which a lot of people weren’t doing, so I definitely did it. The way I wanted to, but it wasn’t with an eye towards medical school. It was, I care about this issue and this is something that I really wanna make a dent in.

Pamela: And that alone helps me kind of stand out. So I would say don’t think as much about, well, what will look good, but think about, but what do I care about and what do I really want to do? Um, I know it sounds really cliche because we, we always say that on the college side, like, go pursue what you actually care about.

Pamela: But it is true because then you’re not following somebody else’s playbook. You’re just doing things because you care about it and you feel like this is truly what I [00:53:00] think should get done.

Lydia: Yeah, I completely agree. As someone who pursued pre-med and decided not to go to medical school, um, I think having a genuine passion for medicine and what it is that you’re going, going toward, but regardless of if you’re doing pre-med or any other major is really critical to be successful in it.

Lydia: I mean, having some level of. Affinity in terms of talent and skill is also helpful. Um, but really being passionate about it, I think can get you a long way because to some extent pre-med and then also medical school and just being a doctor in general, it is a grinding path to take. There are gonna be a lot of challenges and so there has to be a certain level of intrinsic motivation.

Lydia: And I can say for me, the students that I’ve seen be successful pursuing that path had a motivation beyond the prestige, beyond the money, beyond, you know, that being the path that their parents wanted for them. It was something that they really wanted. Um, and in terms [00:54:00] of traits outside of that, you know, assuming that everyone on this call does have that passion, uh, I think having a certain level of discipline within yourself, being able to hold yourself accountable for things, because a big transition from high school to college is that, you know, there.

Lydia: When you’re in college, your parents can’t go on to, you know, dean’s list or whatever, parent portal and see what your grades are and see if you’ve been going to class. I mean, they, they might try to, but they technically can’t. Um, and so you have to be good at holding yourself accountable if you’re showing up to class and being there and taking the notes that you need to take and doing the homework on time.

Lydia: And so having that discipline’s really important. Knowing how you motivate yourself to stay on top of things, understanding how you learn so that you can retain the information and creating a really detailed, um, or regimented schedule for how, for how you’ll stay on top of all the things that you need to do, I think is really [00:55:00] important.

Lydia: Um, and yes, there are students that can succeed in this path who are procrastinators or, or not type A, but even for students like that, you need to know how to kind of work around that because. Medical school and pre-med is not the kind of path that you can take if you’re the kind of student that has gotten used to just cramming the night before For every single test, you have to know how to pace yourself, and that’s also how you allow yourself to have balance and enjoy other things, which I know is a question that some students are asking you as well, which is, can you pursue pre-med while also having other hobbies and having a social life?

Lydia: Is that true? Can you.

Pamela: Absolutely. You should. I also see there, um, there were questions there. One of the last ones is about, um, activities like marching band and music. And that’s actually a really big part of, um, of medicine. So there’s a new school whose acronym is awesome. It’s the Alice Walton School of Medicine.

Pamela: Um, so [00:56:00] Alice Walton is of the, um. The Walmart fame. Um, and so she created a medical school and the whole thing is about medicine and, and the arts. Um, and at Stanford we have a program, program called Medicine and the Muse. Um, so having, and then Yale has this thing called Yale, I mean, law and the arts. Um, so they’re trying to show that there’s a humanistic side to all of these professions, um, because that’s how you become balanced is to make sure that you do have time to hang out with your friends.

Pamela: Like with all my pre-med students who are in the lab all the time, and, uh. You know, really anxious that they’re not doing enough. I say, please go hang out with your friends. Like this is the only time in your life, these four years where you get to meet lots of people, be in the dining halls, um, hang out with your friends, like, please hang out with your friends.

Pamela: Like, don’t spend the whole time, you know, in the lab trying to publish or do something just to get them to medical school. Like, you have to have that balance. Like some of the things that you’ll remember at your reunions are not going to be, oh, I spent all those hours in the lab. It’s really [00:57:00] going to be that one time we went to the went and got pizza at three in the morning because whatever, whatever was happening, you know?

Pamela: So I would say that’s what we mean by balance. Like make sure you have time for, for fun.

Lydia: Definitely. Definitely. Um, any, do you have any suggestions for classes or extracurriculars that you would recommend to most high school students that are interested in pursuing pre-med? Like taking this class or doing this extracurricular?

Lydia: Generally is gonna be a good thing in terms of preparing you for that path.

Pamela: I would say actually, like it used to be when I was applying to medical school, I thought, oh, why do I have to do all of these STEM classes? But getting a really strong foundation in all of those is hugely important. So you know how like in high school they, the way that they teach you science is not the most interesting sometimes, but when you get to med school, it’s, everything is applied.

Pamela: So meaning they give it to you in cases they say, this thing happened and all the stuff, all the basic [00:58:00] biology loans, like about gram positive versus negative, um, bacteria. It all comes into. Clinical cases. Um, so getting that basic foundation so that on day one you can hit the ground running in terms of applying it clinically, I would say is actually really, really important.

Pamela: Like, I kind of lost sight of that. Like, ugh, this is such a chore. Like why do I have to do this? But then once I got there, even the physics right, that I, I thought I was gonna fail, um, came out a lot in terms of blood volume. Um, so there are a lot of like things that get applied when you get there. And I would say getting a really, really strong, solid foundation in the sciences and mathematical and like scientific thinking is really important, um, before you get into medical school.

Pamela: Awesome.

Lydia: And the last question I have for you, which is really related to the title of tonight’s session and something that I saw so many times in the q and a is if you are the quote unquote traditional pre-med applicant. You wanna major in [00:59:00] biology, you’ve been doing all these STEM things, taking a bunch of STEM classes.

Lydia: Um, what should you be thinking about to make yourself stand out even though your interests in the things that you’ve done are pretty similar to a lot of people that wanna study pre-med?

Pamela: So biology is a big field. So I would say is there a particular brand of biology or subspecialty or a question that you were focused on?

Pamela: If so, why? I mean, I loved biology too, and I also majored in it, so it, but it doesn’t mean that that’s, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t have branded myself. And we had another webinar together where we talked about personal branding, um, but I wouldn’t have branded myself that way because I knew it wouldn’t, it would’ve been too broad and too general.

Pamela: So I would say. What is it about the biology that you were studying that you were interested in? For me, it was a brand of biology. It was neurobiology, and then I had questions within neurobiology that I was interested in, and that’s what I went in with. Um, so that’s how, even though it may look like you’re doing, I mean, remember right, the majority of people who get [01:00:00] in are biology majors, so there’s nothing wrong with being a biology major, but their stories were not.

Pamela: I’m just a. Generic biology major, um, they found a way to kind of brand themselves. And you can go find, I think that other webinar that we did somewhere in our archives. Yeah, I’m

Lydia: sure it’s there. Uh, um, I think that’s fantastic advice and, uh, that, yeah, I think it almost aligns with the answer that you were giving right before this one, which is, you know.

Lydia: When you first start learning science, it feels very textbook and very this plus this equals this, this chain reaction. But when you get to medical school, it’s much more applied. And it sounds like what you’re saying here is that to make yourself stand out as a pre-med applicant, you have to think beyond, oh, I like biology, because it’s really cool to learn about the human body.

Lydia: I mean, yes, that’s true, or how the human body works, but think more so about the [01:01:00] application and what you’re interested in. Applying related to biology or what are, what are you interested in terms of the applications of chemistry? What kind of real world questions or um, problems do you have that you wanna solve?

Lydia: Um, and that is what can make it unique rather than just being like, oh, I am a really good student and I really enjoyed my biology class. It was so interesting to learn about, I don’t know, the Krebs cycle or something like that. But think more so about, well, what does that, what does that actually mean?

Lydia: Why are you interested in that? What kind of question do you wanna answer because of that specific thing that you learned in that science class? Alright, well, thank you so much Pamela, for another amazing webinar. I always love hosting these with you because you share so much insight about the pre-med track and what it means to be pre-med and what it means to really think deeply about why you wanna pursue that path.

Lydia: So thank you so much for yet again sharing all of your [01:02:00] wisdom. Tonight.

Pamela: Thanks Lydia. Thanks everyone for joining and all your amazing, amazing questions and hopefully we’ll get around to answering a lot of them. Yes. All

Lydia: right. Thank you all so much for joining us and as I said earlier, we will be having this, uh, recording of the webinar available on our site shortly.

Lydia: And if you haven’t gotten a chance to the link or, or the download to the slides that we’ve used for tonight is available in that handouts tab. So feel free to download it. Um, but we will see you all again later. Thank you for joining us and have a great night.