The Road to Residency: Pre-Med Planning for College Apps

Webinar Transcription

2025-08-04-The Road to Residency

Lonnie: [00:00:00] All right, so welcome all to CollegeAdvisor’s webinar, “The Road to Residency: Pre-Med Planning for College Apps”! To orient everyone with the webinar timing. We are first gonna begin with our presentation and we have some really great content in store for you all. And then for the second half of the presentation or the webinar, we’ll have the opportunity to answer your questions in a live q and a.

Lonnie: I just wanna give everyone a heads up that if you are ready to ask your question, feel free to place it in the public q and a and not privately to our presenter, as we wanna make sure that it’s not a distraction. But we wanna also ensure that we get to your question. Also, you’ll be able to download the handouts by visiting the handouts tab.

Lonnie: And so with that said, let’s now meet our presenter. 

Pam: So 

Lonnie: Dr. 

Pam: Pam, would you like to introduce yourself? Yes. Hi Lonnie. Thank you so much. Hi everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. Um, on this evening, [00:01:00] wherever you may be located, I’m super excited to speak to you about, um, how to plan for being a med student.

Pam: So, my background is that I went to Harvard as an undergrad. Um, I, I thought I was gonna be pre-med. Um, I came back to it in lady years, but um, I went on and got my PhD in neuroscience and then after that I went to med school. Um, so kind of a, a backwards way of getting into med school. Um, it took a long time coming.

Pam: And then along the way I was on the admissions committee. I’m an admissions interviewer for Stanford Medical School. I was also on the admissions committee for both Harvard and Stanford undergrad. Um, so that’s some of my admissions experience. 

Lonnie: Nice, nice. And you have hands-on experience in this topic that you’re presenting on.

Lonnie: So our audience is in store for some great information. So before we get into our actual webinar content, we would love to get a sense of what grade you all are in. So please let us know by submitting [00:02:00] your answers. And I will start to kind of see the responses. And Dr. Pam, I will share them with you. So I’m gonna just give it a few more seconds.

Lonnie: And for those who are waiting for the handouts, had a little technical glitch, so just give me one more minute and that handout will be readily available for you to follow along. All right, so we have 40% of our live audience are in the 11th grade, and then we have about 30% that are in the 12th grade. We have 26%, 10th grade, and then we have just a little bit under 5%, um, of eighth grade, ninth grade, and other, uh, so more upper class, uh, students for this webinar.

Lonnie: So with that, Dr. Pam, I will turn it over to you to share the big picture, the pathways to becoming a doctor. 

Pam: Awesome. Thank you so much, Lonnie. And I’m really happy to hear from, um, juniors and seniors because this will be super [00:03:00] relevant to you as you think about college, where you’re gonna be attending a lot of, you’re probably in the process of applying to or have already gotten into college.

Pam: Congratulations if that’s the case. Um, so there are many ways to becoming a doctor, um, and high school is a great time to start planning or thinking about it. So if you’re thinking about the more traditional path you might be considering, I’m going to do my four year undergrad and then go on and take the mcat.

Pam: Then apply to medical school and then do residency, and then become an attending. That’s the so-called traditional path, meaning you’re not entering medical school until after you’ve graduated from college. Um, there’s an alternate pathway where you get in, in high school. Um, so a lot of you are juniors and seniors.

Pam: Um, and that’ll be right now, as in you’re thinking about it or you’ve already applied or you’re in the process of applying. So these are called BSMD or BSDO programs. And it means that in high school you have, um, a conditional acceptance to medical school, um, as a junior or senior. [00:04:00] And it means that you, oftentimes it means that you get to skip the mcat, um, and then you go straight into medical school and residency and attending.

Pam: It’s a, in some cases a shortened path, meaning you get a year less. Of college and you go straight to medical school. Um, so the traditional route takes longer. Um, it’s four years of undergrad and then, um, medical school, so four years, another four years. And then depending on your residency and specialty, another three to seven years of residency.

Pam: The alternate route is, um, you skip a year of college and you go direct entry from high school. Um, you don’t have to take the mcat, I dunno if you guys have thought about or see the mcat, but it’s a beast. Um, many people take about three months to study for it and then to do well. Um, a lot of people have to redo it.

Pam: It’s a no joke exam. Like if you think the SAT is, you know, stressful, this thing is much, much, much longer and way more involved. Um, and then in the [00:05:00] alternate route where you are getting a direct. From high school, um, you have to maintain a certain GPA. That’s why I said that. It’s a conditional acceptance, meaning if you don’t do well in your, um, STEM classes, so this biology, chemistry, physics, uh, math, then they might take it away.

Pam: Um, you have to maintain a certain GPA, so meaning C’S or B’s and above. Um, however, you don’t have to take the mcat. So that’s a huge, um, stressor, um, removed altogether.

Pam: So there are also things called early assurance programs. Um, early assurance programs are wonderful if you know that the college that you are attending is also where you may wanna go to medical school. Um, there’s a lot of advantages of going through this early assurance program. Tufts, for example, has an early assurance program and you would be applying in your sophomore year of college, but they take 50% of Tufts undergrads into their early assurance programs.

Pam: So [00:06:00] meaning 50% of kids who apply in sophomore year get in to Tufts medical school. So to me, that’s like a huge win if that’s something that you’re interested in because you’re not having to go through the whole stress of traditional med school admissions. Um, we’re gonna talk more about what is involved in traditional med school admissions, but it’s very, very.

Pam: Long, um, ’cause apparently, you know, not apparently you were going through kind of like the college application process, but the med school all over again. But it’s a lot more involved. Um, the, the requirements and things that you have to do to get in are also more, I think, than, than or make applying to the common app and through high school look really simple compared to medical school.

Pam: So the early assurance program gets rid of all of that. The downside is that you would have to know whether or not that’s a med school that you really wanna go to when you, you’re committing. It’s kinda like early decision upfront. You can back out of it, but for the most part, um, they really don’t like it when you do that.

Pam: There are other examples beyond Tufts. So Union [00:07:00] College in Albany has, or Albany has a lot of partnerships with, um. Colleges. So these traditional BSMD programs tend to not be at schools like with the exception of Brown, but um, you know, there used to be one at Northwest and they got rid of it, but they tend to be schools like Albany.

Pam: They’re not typically the Ivy Leagues or things like that that will have A-B-S-M-D or BSDO program. So Albany has a program with Union College, it’s eight years. There’s an accelerated path through RPI, which is Rochester. Um, and that’s an accelerated seven year. It’s very STEM focused because our RPI is the Rochester, um, Institute of Technology.

Pam: Um, sorry. And, and, uh, and then Sienna is a totally different program that emphasizes the ethics and humanities. So you have to get a minor outside of stem, and that’s something that’s really different about these three programs, but through one medical school. Um, so there are lots of benefits of starting early.

Pam: So the idea that you may not get in. [00:08:00] That uncertainty goes away. Um, there’s no MCAT or there’s a lower pressure mcat. Um, you’re not going through the whole application grind for those of you who are seniors have gone through it, I think, you know what I mean? Imagine that. But a lot more intense. Um, you have a lot more time to devote to things that you actually wanna be doing, whether it’s research or volunteering or even getting a minor.

Pam: Um, so early assurance isn’t just about speed though. It’s about having your, the peace of mind and building a medical foundation from day one.

Pam: So what ecologist looking for in future pre-meds, um, let’s say that it was a BSMD program. They’re looking for a lot of things. So if you think about what a BSMD program is, you are getting into. Medical school really, really early. Um, and so what they’re searching for or seeking is looking for people who are very mature, who really know that that’s something that they wanna do, who are certain that this [00:09:00] is their plan.

Pam: And they are also making a bet that in the next, you know, seven or four years, they’re not gonna find better candidates to enter the medical school than you in high school. So you really need to stand out for these, these BSMD programs, um, in terms of what a traditional college may be looking for. That’s gonna be very different because that process is not necessarily relevant to you being a pre-med, um, because most colleges don’t have a pre-med major.

Pam: So really a lot of what I’m saying here has to do with BSMD programs or BSDR programs. So they’re gonna be scrutinizing your academic rigor and performance. So meaning, um, just like for med school admissions, looking at your high GPAs in science and math. Um, they’re looking for evidence of AP or, or IB coursework if it’s available to you.

Pam: Like did you take the APs or did you take the IB? Um, they like dual enrollment because it’s all higher level coursework, um, or college level classes. It is really important to show colleges that um, you [00:10:00] care about people in the community and that you’ve done some community impact, um, because you don’t get to choose who you get to treat later on.

Pam: So they really wanna see that you’ve got some evidence of service and empathy. So whether it’s, um, volunteering in health in the community or caregiving settings or wanna see that you’ve done that. Um, and obviously the focus will be on, you know, do you have empathetic skills? Um, the indirectly trying to assess for bedside manner and, um, you know, the softer qualities, um, and helping others.

Pam: And then of course they wanna see that you’ve got an authentic interest in medicine because they wanna see, they wanna, they want you to understand what you’re getting yourself into. So that means looking at shadowing, hospital internships, um, health related research, even things like caregiving through your family, um, whether it’s formal or informal can count.

Pam: And then, because, you know, if you think about it, a doctor down the line is the leader of a team of, um, allied health professionals. [00:11:00] So they wanna see leadership and initiative and resilience and maturity. So medicine is a long road, as we saw from the first slide. They wanna make sure that you’re a gritty individual, that you’re going to be able to persevere and be really resilient, but it’s also really science focused.

Pam: So they want curiosity and then, and awareness of yourself because you’re going to be interacting. A very direct personal way with patients. Um, and in terms of maturity, the way that they’re assessing it is, do you have the ability to reflect on your challenges that you’ve had and how have you grown through those challenges?

Pam: It helps you become a more empathetic, um, humane provided down the line. And then because you have to be, um, explaining really complex things to the public or lay people, sometimes they wanna know that you’ve got good communication skills. So whether it’s through public speaking or mentoring, or community organizing or even, you know, tutoring or advocacy or peer [00:12:00] support, they wanna see that you have some evidence of that.

Pam: Okay. A lot of people ask me about choosing the right college as a pre-med, or a lot of times when my students get into college, they say, which one do you think would be the best one if I decide I want a future in medicine? So I always say. You really wanna think about, um, your GPA really, that’s, that’s a, a big part of it in terms of thinking about medical school down the line.

Pam: You want schools that have a strong science department, so whether it’s biochem, physics, material science, whatever it is, um, and really you wanna try to protect your GPA. Um, so if a school is really tough and has a notorious reputation for grade deflation, that’s gonna hit your GPA. Medical schools do take it into context.

Pam: If you come out of a school like that where the typical or the average person graduating has a low lower GPA, um, they will take that into, into consideration. But honestly, the, um, applicant pool is so competitive [00:13:00] that it’s not that that affords you a ton of, you know, buffer. Um, and then you wanna see if there are schools that offer you a lot of opportunities or research where you’re not having to fight with a lot of other people, um, and shadowing or clinical work.

Pam: So I guess I’m thinking about my, my students who are at the really large public schools, sometimes they have to fight to get into research labs, um, or get shadowing opportunities or clinical work because there are a lot of people wanting to do it versus that say, smaller private colleges where you’re not having to.

Pam: Compete with a lot of other people to get those opportunities. Um, and then I’ve seen this a lot in students I’ve worked with. Applying to medical school, the pre-health or the pre-med support office, um, can be a huge, huge, huge support for your application. Um, I’ll give you an example. So I went to Harvard.

Pam: I applied to med school really late. Um, I was, I think a decade outta school at that point. Um, and even then I could go back to Harvard and my, at Harvard, we live in [00:14:00] houses. Um, so I went back to my housing committee and they were able to set me up with a, an academic dean, um, in the school of medicine who knew me really, really well and got to know me, um, and what I’ve been up to for the last 10 years.

Pam: And they ended up writing a committee letter. So a committee letter is when they look at all of your letters of recommendation and they write a, a summary and an impression of you. And a lot of med schools like, like this letter. Um, and they, they also set up a lot of mock interviews with me. Um, and this was way after I graduated.

Pam: Um, so the, the pre-med advising was really, really strong at Harvard. So you wanna think about, um, some colleges where they’re really dedicated, um, they have a lot of resources for you, they take the time to get to know you. And, um, I think that that ends up, you know, with that school having really high med school acceptance rates.

Pam: Um, whereas at other colleges where I’ve advised students sometimes they don’t even have, um, people that are dedicated to getting to know you really well. And the [00:15:00] committee letter could come from a committee that you’ve never met or spoken to, and they’re just looking at your materials and coming up with a letter based on the letter’s recommendation that you submit to them.

Pam: And then they, they put together a summary, but it’s not so personalized. So ideally, if you can look for schools where you get a lot of dedicated support. And then in terms of opportunities outside the classroom, like I said, so Boston was a city which had a lot of teaching hospitals, so clinics nearby.

Pam: All the opportunities to me as an undergrad were not competitive, meaning they gave us a huge list of internships and opportunities and alumni that we could go shadow and talk to and um, it was pretty easy and straightforward. Whereas at other schools, like if, let’s say you go to school at L in la I’ve had a lot of people at UCLA and USC say that it’s actually really competitive to get into a hospital or to shadow or to do clinical experience because so many people are trying to do it.

Pam: And there are a lot of colleges in the area. Um, other things that you can do, again, [00:16:00] involved with pre-med clubs or mentoring programs, sometimes they have opportunities. And then as much as possible, you know, med schools, like we’re gonna talk about research and why it matters, but they really like seeing research, um, and internships or global health, um, access that you’ve done in your undergrad years.

Pam: And then we need to talk about afford affordability because med school’s really expensive. Um, there are a couple schools now that you can just go through med school and they pay for the entire thing. There’s a new one called Alice Walton. Um, they just came out and that one’s completely tuition fee free for the first couple years.

Pam: NYU is now completely tuition free. However, those that are exceptions. Um, so a lot of times you wanna think about, um, you know, one thing that students think about when they’re going to college and then medical school, they think, well, should I go to a public school in my undergrad years because that will save me money versus going to a private school and then a private med school.

Pam: So you wanna try to save money for med school tuition later. Um, there are some [00:17:00] scholarships, but not a ton. And then some med schools will give full rides as well. Um, and then, you know, in state versus out of state will also matter. Um, so really you wanna try to think about if you’re really certain that this path is for you, you don’t wanna try to overpay for undergrad unless there’s a huge advantage to it.

Pam: When I think about huge advantages, I’m thinking. Of the class at Harvard and Stanford came from Harvard and Stanford. So if that’s something that you really care about and that’s something that you wanna do, you might wanna think about that. Like, is that worth it to me? Um, and then you really wanna think about like, flexibility and having a plan B, because what if you change your mind, your goal shift, and you decide, you know what, I don’t really wanna be pre-med anymore.

Pam: Um, so that will play into, well, what college did I pick? Um, and does this still support, you know, my goals if I change my mind? Um, so I always like having students apply to schools where regardless of whether or not they continue to be pre-med, um, that school is strong all across, all across the board in areas that they might be interested in.[00:18:00] 

Pam: Um, and then you might wanna think about, well, if I’m gonna med school, but I’m not sure that I wanna, you know, study pre-med from, from day one, um, then dual majoring or having a pre-med or pre-health in humanities. It’s also really encouraged. Okay, so how can you plan for your classes starting in high school?

Pam: So you wanna take the most challenging classes that you can do well in. Um, and I’d said that previously we care a lot. We care a lot about rigor. So you wanna aim for Honors, AP, IB, science and math if it’s offered. Those can also often, um, get you out of beginner science classes when you get to college so that you can go to higher level coursework immediately.

Pam: Um, you wanna prioritize your GPA though over overloading. Um, that’s, that’s really key. So they call it BCP, which is the biology, chemistry, physics and math. But the foundation really, really matters. They wanna see the grades in all those areas. Those four, they, they scrutinize them. Um, there’s a whole GPA separately for that that they’re [00:19:00] looking at.

Pam: Um, so things like, I’ve had students take microbiology anatomy, biotech psychology, sociology, things like that. They’re nice extras, but they’re not substitutes for the B CCP M grades. Um, and then you wanna try to get into as higher math lane as possible. Um, ideally calculus. And then I’ve had students say, well, can I swap out, you know, not like Calc BC for statistics, for AP stats.

Pam: And I would say it’s helpful, but it doesn’t replace the calculus rigor. Um, and then you do not wanna skip the humanities. Actually, that’s a really big part of, um, a lot of med school curriculum, uh, curriculum right now. So the stronger your reading and writing skills are, it correlates with the stronger MCAT performance down the line.

Pam: And med schools, we’re gonna talk a lot more about this, um, in a few slides, but they really value, well-rounded, articulate applicants, not just, um, STEM kids. Um, and then. If you have foreign language and social science, [00:20:00] that shows a lot of awareness. And also, like a lot of times you might have to be speaking in a different language, uh, depending on the patient population.

Pam: So that can be something that med schools really like as well. Like I’ve had students take medical Spanish, um, in college so that they’re prepared when they, um, get into medical school. Um, so ideally, this is in the bottom right, are all the classes that you should be focusing on, biochem, physics, math, ideally through calculus, um, English, so, so social science and humanities.

Pam: And then if it’s available to you, taking it at the AP or IB level.

Lonnie: Okay, so we’re gonna run a poll. Yes. Thank you so much, Dr. Pam. So we are now gonna move into our poll. Speaking of applications, we wanna get a sense of where you are in the application process. So we know that we have all grade ranges that are represented in our live [00:21:00] presentation. So let us know where you are and I am going to share out the responses.

Lonnie: So I’m gonna give it a. A couple of more seconds. So maybe you are in the phase where you haven’t started, but think about this. Being here tonight is actually a part of starting the process. Uh, maybe you are in your research phase, you’re looking up different schools. Perhaps you’re working on your essays, maybe you’re getting your application material together, or you could be almost done, which is a great place to be in.

Lonnie: Alrighty. So. I’m going to share the responses. So we have 46% of our live audience are currently researching their schools, followed by 23%. Haven’t started, but I know after tonight’s webinar, they’re gonna be ready to start and we have 17% working on their essays, 12% getting application material together and 1% almost done.

Lonnie: So congratulations to those [00:22:00] who are almost done and good luck to those who are getting ready to start the process. Alright, so with that, we will now go back to our presentation to learn about extracurriculars and why they matter.

Lonnie: Uh oh. Let’s see. Dr. Pam, I cannot hear you.

Lonnie: Let’s see.

Lonnie: It might have changed over. Um, it may have changed over. Let’s see.

Lonnie: Let’s see. Maybe try going to your settings and then [00:23:00] seeing what audio comes up, if it’s linked to a different audio.

Lonnie: No, not working. You wanna try to like log off and then log back in? We can do that. Yeah, that works. So everyone just give us a short pause. So in the meantime, while we wait for Dr. Pam to join us, you all can already start to see the topic that is at hand. So we’re getting ready to talk about extracurriculars that matter.

Lonnie: And so Dr. Pam’s gonna give you all a little bit more insight into thinking about what experiences or what are the things that you should be doing now as a high school student to get you ready to apply for these pre-med applications. And so I’ll kind of just continue until Dr. Pam joins in. So some of the areas you wanna think about is.

Lonnie: Clinical [00:24:00] exposure, trying to get exposure so that you can get that hands-on experience to allow you to see, you know, hey, what are the areas within medicine that I actually like? So some of those thing things can include shadowing doctors, um, hospital volunteers, maybe volunteering at a hospice are also being as ascribed, scribing, different medical notes, all of those different things just to get those hands-on.

Lonnie: Opportunities for those who are. Okay. Dr. Pam, you’re here. I was just talking about clinical exposure. I can hear you. Awesome. 

Pam: You can hear me? 

Lonnie: Yes, I can hear you. So I was just talking about clinical exposure, so please 

Pam: do 

Lonnie: you wanna add a little bit more in there because I re I remember my time of volunteering at a hospital and how that gave you great insight into what type of area within medicine I was interested in.

Lonnie: So I will turn it back over to you. 

Pam: Awesome. I was gonna ask you like, how did you find it? What was your experience? Oh, what was your favorite 

Lonnie: [00:25:00] specialty? Yeah, so it was, you know, long time ago I had found out about this opportunity to, um, volunteer actually be a fellow at a local hospital. Um, it was a six week program where we had the opportunity to work directly with.

Lonnie: The residents that were working in this hospital. Wow. And we were placed primarily in emergency medicine. And so got to see, wow. A lot of the, the, it was a trauma center, so I got to see a lot of things coming in, a lot of quick surgeries. And then we got the opportunity to just make our rounds in the different, um, areas in the hospital.

Lonnie: One area I wanted to see, I wanted to see a birth. Um, but the times that we were on, unfortunately no one was having a baby. Um, so it was, it was a great experience. I got to learn a little bit about what residency means, what that looks like, um, for those who are in that program. And it just helped me decide, you know, was that an area for me?

Lonnie: Um, so. 

Pam: Wait, how [00:26:00] did you get, um, the six week, um, opportunity? Was it through college or how did you find this thing? It was, it was 

Lonnie: in high school, so my high school counselor Wow. Was promoting it. And it was a pretty competitive program. And I applied, I interviewed and, um, I was selected. So I did it for, for six weeks.

Lonnie: Yeah. Wow, amazing. That’s so cool. Yeah, it was really cool. Um, I ended up taking a different route, so I actually ended up going more in the social science area, but it was definitely a experience that I, I really do appreciate. 

Pam: Awesome. Thank you so much for that. Yeah. And thank you for, um, stepping in. 

Lonnie: Yeah, no problem.

Lonnie: No problem. I’ll turn it back over to you. 

Pam: Okay, thank you. So, um, the, the reason why med schools care about clinical exposure is, like I said, they very much want you to know what you’re getting yourself into. Because I think we all have an idea before we start shadowing what being a doctor is like, either from media or otherwise.

Pam: Um, I definitely had a lot of ideas about that, but it wasn’t [00:27:00] until I was at the NIH, um, doing shadowing and. Every single specialty, endocrinology, otolaryngology. That was actually my favorite. Um, and then even in neuroscience, um, when I was in, um, pain medicine, I didn’t know that within pain medicine there were so many different types of, um, pain specialists that you could shadow, but it’s really, um, the formative for you.

Pam: It helps you to grow and figure out what it is that you wanna do and also the lifestyle that you wanna have and whether that’s something that you know, will fit with you. Um, other things that you can do are scribing. I did a lot of that as well. Um, going to medical school or taking on medical internships.

Pam: I had a student this, um, this COD one at Stanford in the sterile processing unit, which I thought was super cool. Um, I don’t think many people do that. And, um, it was very unique, um, the things that he was able to see and shadow. Um, and then, like I said before. Med schools really, really like it when you do research, not because, um, it’s necessarily [00:28:00] always going to be well for a number of reasons.

Pam: One, as a doctor, you should be reading literature, um, and be updated on the medical literature and the latest developments and, um, studies in the field, but also in terms of skills that you develop. Um, doing research in high school or even in college. It trains you to ask better questions. Um, it shows that you can handle a lot of ambiguity and failure and data, um, because a lot of times in research we don’t have answers.

Pam: Um, so throughout my PhD a lot of it was trying to finances to things that we just had no idea. So I did my PhD in neuroscience. Um, the brain has a lot of areas and questions that are still open. Um, so going through that process helped to demonstrate this intellectual vitality or curiosity beyond the classroom.

Pam: And then in terms of community service and leadership, the reason why it’s so important for med schools is that they really want you to know, I mean, a lot of medicine is, is impacting the community. They’re working within the community. Um, so service to the [00:29:00] community in many ways. But they don’t just want you to join clubs or to, um, show up.

Pam: They want you to take responsibility. So whether that’s leading a CPR training drive, I had a student who came up with a, a song to teach people. How to do cpr, which I thought was really unique and interesting. Um, or whether you’re redesigning a school health curriculum like in your own high school or building a blood, a better blood drive process.

Pam: Um, they really want you to show that you’re taking responsibility. You’re not just doing things like joining trophy clubs like HOSA or something like that. Um, so what stands out is in the number of clubs is what you did within the club that matters. Um, and then, you know, you wanna question traditions, like why, why doesn’t your school’s mental health or counseling, um, office, you know, serve the students that are supposedly using it or not?

Pam: Or why aren’t students using it and then fix it, you know, like, try to come up with solutions for why and how you can make things better. So that demonstrates a lot more initiative and impact [00:30:00] than just joining a club or being a leader of a club. And then in terms of creativity or personal passions, um, this is actually really important to med schools.

Pam: And the reason why it’s important is because whatever science cannot be your entire life, um, and whatever energizes you outside of science matters a whole lot as well. Um, it helps you to build your identity, to understand well, this is who I am. And to communicate and to connect with patients better. It also builds resilience and discipline and communication.

Pam: And it shows a balance. You know, it shows that you understand yourself. Self-awareness is a big part of the process. Um, and some schools really, really love the humanities angle. So a sample, we have something called Medicine and the Muse, um, which is a humanities and art based part of the curriculum. And actually, um, this brand new school, um, called the Alice Walton School of Medicine, which is in, um, isn’t, it’s the Alice Walton is the heir to the Walmart Fortune.

Pam: So it’s actually in Arkansas. Um, but they got Stanford to come in to teach them, [00:31:00] um, how to build this. Medical arts and humanities, um, curriculum for them because they feel very much that medical students need to learn about humanities in the arts in order to be a more empathetic and aware physician. Um, so some schools are really into that whole area, um, beyond science.

Pam: So in terms of demonstrating interest in medicine on the application, you really wanna reflect on your experiences. Especially right now I’m working with high schoolers on their college applications and they’re doing a lot of resume dumping in their essays. So they’ll say, I did this and I did this and I did this.

Pam: And I can always tell. The moment in the essay when that begins and I’m like, oh, here we go. Here comes the CV or the resume dump. Um, so instead of doing that, you wanna reflect on how they shaped your thinking or your values. You’re writing about the why, not just the what. Like why did you do this? What is the motivation behind it?

Pam: How did you get here? Um, you don’t need to prove in your essays that you’re ready to be a doctor. I mean, you’re 17 or 16, or even 18. Um, you just need to be [00:32:00] serious about learning what that life really means and that you understand what a life in medicine looks like. ’cause it’s a lot of sacrifices. Um, and then your activity descriptions should tell a story.

Pam: So you wanna highlight all the initiative, the consistency, because me, remember, med school’s a long game. You’re not playing the short game here and depth, so you wanna use really active verbs like, you know, I designed a patient intake process. Um, I helped to launch this new sexual health, um, curriculum in, in my county.

Pam: Something like that. And then you wanna use your sums to help build your narrative and to come up with the evidence for demonstrating interest in medicine. So that is seen through things like medical, volunteering, internships, research, public health work, um, even caregiving, like I said, or translating for a family member can show insight into patient care.

Pam: I had a student who, um, literally does have to translate for her family members, um, at medical appointments and otherwise. And one of her essays is all about how beyond [00:33:00] the language translation, there are many other ways in which she always has been the translator, um, amongst her friends and her family.

Pam: So meaning whether it’s providing peer counseling or, um, walking someone through a decision, right? She’s translating a lot of really difficult com complex topics into simpler things. Um, so those are all different acts of translation. Um. In your interviews, you’re supplementals. What we’re looking for is that your interest is thoughtful.

Pam: Um, a lot of kids say to me, but doesn’t it count that I’ve been doing this for five years or 10 years? And I would say none of you’re doing it for the sake of doing it just to say that you did it for five years. Um, we care very much about, well, what does it mean to you? Like, why does it matter to you? Um, so you really need to connect the medicine to who you are, not just what you wanna be doing.

Pam: Like I find a lot of students, they say, well, I did that because of college, or I did that because, um, you know, I thought that would help me get in. But that’s really not, we want what we wanna see. We really wanna hear about, well, but how did it change you? How did you evolve? So. [00:34:00] On that note, let’s talk about crafting your personal narrative.

Pam: ’cause I know there are a lot of juniors on this call and they’re probably doing that right now. So again, it’s more than a list. So the heart of any strong application is to help connect the dots between your experiences and your why. So a lot of times as admissions officers we’re looking at a file and if you haven’t done a good job, we’re trying to figure out what’s the story here?

Pam: What’s this person all about? And if it’s scattered, meaning a lot of students tend to just say, oh, I’m just gonna put this, I’m gonna put that there, but I’m not gonna bother connecting the dots for them. It’s easier for us because we get so few minutes to read an entire application. If you connect the dots for us, if you say, here’s the through line, you make it really clear.

Pam: Make it clear in terms of how you, um, present your activities list, um, how you write about your activities as well as your essays. So a lot of students think they need this huge hook, like a life-changing moment or something where they save someone’s life or discover a cure. But that’s not true at all.

Pam: We just wanna see that you understand clearly. Why are you’re doing this? [00:35:00] And show us reflection that you understand. So your narrative isn’t what you’ve done, right? It’s not, I joined this club and then I started this campaign, da dah dah. It’s how you think about what you’ve done. Why did you do it? You know, when you were doing it, what was your intention?

Pam: Um, what were you hoping was going to happen and did it happen? Um, so ask yourself what question or problem keeps coming up in my life? Um, so like I said, I used the translation thing before, but um, from whether it was tutoring refugee kids or translating at the pharmacy of her mom, a lot of her work was about translation.

Pam: So that’s how you find your through line and that becomes the most compelling part of the application. Um, so actually the, the best applicants are not the ones who always knew they wanted to be doctors, is the ones who were, um, did other things. Like, you know, they went up and did professional dance, they were Olympic athletes or they were actors or whatever.

Pam: Um, so the ones with who wrestled with doubt or changed their course, um, and found their interest unexpectedly, I would say that’s really. That’s often some of the best [00:36:00] essays to read. Um, one student wrote about being really squeamish around blood until, um, he shadowed and found, you know, it was really not just about medicine’s.

Pam: A lot of being uncomfortable and having a lot of courage. Um, so, you know, demonstrating your your traits in those ways is really helps you to stand out in the process. Um, so you wanna try to put together your activities, your academics, and your personal story, and show us how you’re thinking about all of these things.

Pam: So, admission readers really wanna watch the way that you think, um, because you’re, you’re very young at this stage, so we’re just wondering, we don’t care about what you did per se, but what did it mean to you? How did it challenge you? How did it change your understanding of people? So, if you volunteered in hospice, for instance, what did you learn about time, um, about silence?

Pam: About dignity. Those are the kinds of reflections that stick with us when we’re done reading an application. So oftentimes, I, I say to students, you know, we may not remember all of the details of what we read about in [00:37:00] your application that we skimmed in seven minutes, but we’ll remember if it made us feel differently or think differently at the end of it.

Pam: Um, and that’s the, those are the students that end up getting admitted. So med schools and colleges are looking for, um, you know, what lights you up, what settles you, what do you want to fix or understand or protect in the world. Um, we’re not asking that you should be really certain that you wanna be a doctor at 17, but they’re asking to show that you’re paying attention to the world and to others and to yourself.

Pam: Okay. This is one of my, my favorite things to talk about because I think everybody ignores the activities list, but it’s actually super important, um, part of the application. So you get 150 characters. I say to my students, it’s like a tweet. So think about what you would tweet. You would never tweet boring things.

Pam: You probably have some big, you know, takeaway moment, right? So get rid of all the fluff. Use action verbs and outcomes and be specific. Don’t say, I learned about medical procedures, or I taught kids [00:38:00] how to do art. Um, say, you know, I observed 12 surgeries. I created these post-op patient guides to reduce like confusion during discharge.

Pam: You wanna frame for impact, not just the hours of the time spent. So ask yourself, well, as a result of me doing this, what changed because I was there. So give us some numbers around it. You let a team of five, you served 300 patients, you raised $4,000. Um, at certain schools like the ucs, when they’re, um, ranking and rating students, they’re looking for those numbers.

Pam: So they rank and rate you. Let’s say it’s on a scale of one through to five. So if you say, well, I raised some money, they’re trained to just give you the lowest score of possible. But if you said, okay, I raised, you know, $4,000, then you get scored higher because now they know the scope of the context. And then you wanna use pre-med language without sounding really robotic.

Pam: So pre-med language are things like, I shadowed, I triaged, I charted, I synthesized, analyzed, facilitated, mentored. Collaborated [00:39:00] instead of saying, I learned this, I experienced this, I did this, I helped, or I did, or I worked doing X. Um, and then you wanna put together all the related experiences so they’re not scattered in the 10, the 10 activities.

Pam: You should tell a story. Um, and you think of, you wanna think of the first three or four activities as a hook, you know, so the reader’s looking at it going, um, here are hopefully where the most important things are. Can I tell what the student’s all about in the first three to four activities? And if I can’t, then I’m gonna have to work harder.

Pam: And that takes longer. And they don’t have that long. So now you’re losing precious minutes of their attention. So in the real estate that you have, I would say try to capture their attention and come up with a theme. So if your theme is health access, that let it show up in the clinical service, even in the research entries.

Pam: So you wanna think of each activity as a puzzle piece of your why. So again, don’t focus on what you did. Focus on what you contributed, contributed how you learned, and how you led. Um, [00:40:00] small experiences can count. They don’t all have to be, I started a club, I raised $25,000. Um, they can count if you show a lot of thought and specificity.

Pam: Um, so the best entries feel really lived in, um, meaning if anyone could write it, it’s not strong enough.

Pam: Okay. A lot of people ask me, what are the most common mistakes, um, for pre-meds in the college admissions process? I would say that again, you’re trying to protect your GPA, so you wanna think about schools where they’re not gonna be GPA Deflators. I’ll call out MIT as a school, which is notoriously hard, and the GPA are a little bit lower for students graduating from there.

Pam: Um, so a lot of times students choose brand name colleges without thinking about what are the advising and research access, um, resources like, so harder doesn’t always mean better for pre-med success. And then you wanna use your essay to prove that you’re ready to be a doctor. So you’re not [00:41:00] writing a med school statement at 17.

Pam: You’re focusing on your curiosity, your learning, and why you’re drawn to care, not your qualifications. Um, and then I would say that, you know, a lot of people do things like focus on, um, shadowing and volunteering in hospitals, um, which is great, but then they ignore the other parts of who they’re, we wanna see that you’ve got creativity and leadership and curiosity across all different disciplines.

Pam: And then I would say the, the other big pitfall is that, um, there’s too much science and not enough story. So people think that, oh, if I do lots and lots and lots of aps in stem, then that equals a stronger application. But that just clears the bar in terms of your academics. But then it doesn’t leave you a whole lot more to write about in terms of who are you as a person and what will you be like as a physician.

Pam: So med schools care just as much about the writing and the reflection as they do about the numbers. So you wanna have a really coherent narrative, um, a scattered resume. Like I said, if the activity list is all over the place, it centrally makes signals. But, you know, think about a theme and [00:42:00] start to tell us that theme.

Pam: And then I would say that, you know, I guess illustrating the first slide, med school’s a really long road. Um, you don’t wanna start sprinting in high school and then burnout by the time you get to college or burn before you even get to med school. Um, so you wanna try to sustain your passions, uh, versus trying to over commit.

Pam: I have a lot of students right now in college applying to med schools, and I, I would say that they’re really panic driven. They’re like, I have to do all these things to go to med school. And I say, you know, slow down. Right? Slow down and enjoy the process a little bit more. It, it’ll make for a much more successful application.

Pam: Okay. And another thing that students ignore a lot of the letters of recommendation, um, your academic letters matter the most. So you wanna try to pick science teachers who can talk to your grit, your work ethic, the way that you can analytically and critically think, um, that you impress them.

Pam: Intellectually, that’s really importantly, um, you want them to highlight your bedside manner without the [00:43:00] bedside. So this could mean that you’re a good roommate or would be a good community member, um, or somebody you wanna live with in the future. So go find recommendeds who can speak to how you listen, adapt, or show up for others.

Pam: Um, so this could be a service supervisor, an internship mentor, even a coach. Um, they saw a lot of emotional growth. Um, you want to give your recommended context. So the letters should bring out a part of your personality or growth stories that your essays don’t fully capture. The best letters are really personal.

Pam: They’re not perfect. Um, they, they really help us to get to know you as a person. And then I know this isn’t very much in your control, but we don’t love letters that say, oh, this is such a nice kid. Um, and that’s a good student because it’s quite generic. Um, we want really, we want specifics. So you can help your letter of recommender by coming up with examples to share in their letters.

Pam: So, you know, you stayed after class to debate vaccine, um, ethics, or, you know, this student, um, turned a re [00:44:00] research mistake into a new experiment. So the best letters show us all these really, really specific anecdotes about you. Um, so missions offices, when we’re doing this, you know, again, we’ve got seven minutes to read a file.

Pam: So we’re skimming the letters, but when they’re great, we really, we stop reading, we highlight the, the parts that we wanna call out in committee or that we wanna write a note about, and then we say, wow, that was, that was an amazing letter. Um, and that can often change the decision on the file as well. Um, a lot of students end up highlighting their STEM strengths, um, and so you can do that, but don’t try to overdo it.

Pam: They want you to have STEM skills eventually, but they don’t want you to. Just have that as your entire identity. So a lot of kids on the all Ofpi ad teams, the science fair winners, um, a lot of times that’s their entire identity and there’s not much else. So remember that colleges are building communities, not just applicant pools.

Pam: And so they wanna show how your interest intersects with things like justice, ethics, [00:45:00] culture, or communication.

Pam: And then a lot of times, you know, people ask me, how do you show softer qualities like compassion and curiosity? Um, you can do that by asking better questions. So you could say things like, you know, I kept wondering why some patients miss follow-up appointments. And it wasn’t until I talked to the clinic staff that I realized that transportation and time off work were really big barriers in medicine itself.

Pam: Lonnie, do you wanna.

Lonnie: Yes, yes, yes. Um, I know that we’re getting close to the end time. Is there anything, Dr. Pam, you wanted to like, kind of wrap up or do you wanna just jump right into the questions and answers? Let’s jump into the questions. Let’s see what people are thinking. Okay, cool. Because we got, we got a few questions that’s been coming up.

Lonnie: Um, but one thing Awesome. For this content, ’cause this is great, great information. And so there’s been a few questions, questions surfacing around age requirements. And [00:46:00] so I know we speak about clinical exposure, trying to participate in shadow experiences, but there’s some age restrictions for, um, students who are under the age of 18.

Lonnie: You know, some students are 15, 16, 17, and they’re not able to find those opportunities. So what recommendations do you have for them? Mm-hmm. Their clinical exposure. 

Pam: You can still do, um, virtual shadowing. I don’t know if a lot of people are thinking about or doing that, but that often doesn’t have a, have an age require.

Lonnie: Okay, great, great, great. Um, so someone asked, would getting A-C-C-M-A certification before high school graduation be a good application boost as well as taking community college classes? 

Pam: Is CCMA, um, is that like a certified nursing assistant or something, or, 

Lonnie: mm, they won’t be able to probably clarify as quick, as quickly as, okay.

Lonnie: Can we come back to that question? Then we can come back to that part. But what [00:47:00] about, just even, you know, if a student is taking, uh, dual enrollment, so doing community college classes, um, in area psychology and physics, does that give them a boost on their application? 

Pam: Um, it can, it does show initiative and it does show higher level, um, college level work.

Pam: So it can, but it also depends on what the rest of the transcript looks like. If you don’t have a lot of APs, but then you took some dual enrollment, um, you know, you’d have to explain was there a reason why? Because APS are preferable over dual enrollment, for instance. 

Lonnie: Okay. Um, thank you. So next question says, um, what if a college doesn’t consider demonstrated interest?

Lonnie: Wanna add your insight into that? 

Pam: Um, that’s okay. Some colleges don’t. Um, but the ones that do, you should pay attention because they’re the ones who are, um, hoping that you love them as much as they love you. [00:48:00] 

Lonnie: Okay. So this one is, um, a little more specific. So this student has started a passion project on mental health, and they’ve been launching it on social media.

Lonnie: So they have posters, graphics, videos, um, and a following of over two thousands. That’s really awesome. Love that. Wow. What, what are some ways I can work with healthcare providers to expand my ideas?

Pam: Um, sorry. So they want to share their social media with healthcare providers? Yes. And the social media is around, sorry, can I, mental health? 

Mm-hmm.

Pam: So it’s 

Lonnie: question 40. Mm-hmm. 

Pam: And what would the providers be doing with the social media stuff that they’re sharing? [00:49:00] 

Lonnie: Yeah. So maybe that’s a, maybe that’s a question, you know, for the, the student to kind of consider as they are wanting to maybe expand their ideas around like mental health and the work that they’re doing on their social media.

Lonnie: Okay. Um, so someone ask this question, ask someone who is also interested in neuroscience and psychiatry. What attracted you to those areas? Oh boy. 

Pam: So many things. Um, I think a lot of neuroscience and psychiatry starts with yourself. Um, and I studied anger, actually I’m angry person. Um, when I was in, when I was in graduate school, um, and I studied psychopathy, um, which are psychopaths.

Pam: I’m not a psychopath, I heard. But, um, it was a, it was a unique population that I had access to. And, um, in the, from the realm of neuroscience, when you have people who are very different, um, their brains can show you how [00:50:00] things go wrong, I guess, or awry in the brain. Um, and that leads to this condition. So I find that really fascinating.

Pam: And also because I felt that, um, mental health is, it needs a lot of help. I think in terms of like the medical specialties, it could do with a lot more evidence-based and, um, better treatments. So that was part of the motivation for going into the field was how can we do better? 

Lonnie: Okay. Thanks for sharing that personal insight.

Lonnie: Um, so someone asked, could you describe the strategies or approaches you found most effective in managing the demands of your personal life alongside the challenging academic workloads? 

Pam: I’m still trying to figure that one out. Um, not so much the, not so much the, the academics anymore, but my work-life balance.

Pam: So I was told when I went to graduate school, um, what are your, you know, my, my mentor asked me, what are your three top three things? And, um, she said to me, [00:51:00] you will definitely, you, you probably have time for number one. You won’t have time for number two or number three, so you need to get rid of them now.

Pam: And I cried because, um, I didn’t think that I would have to give up and sacrifice so much, but that was kind of the truth. Um, it was hard. It’s a long road. Um, and you, you probably get to make time for one major thing, which is why I’m saying, you know, I have a friend who decided to go into being a physician’s assistant as opposed to going to medical school for that reason because she has a lot of passions outside of, um, work.

Pam: So that’s something that, you know, you wanna think about for yourself, like, is this worth it to you? And for me it was like, I’m very driven in that way and it fills me up in, you know, lots of different ways. So it was a sacrifice that I didn’t think was a sacrifice. 

Lonnie: Nice. Nice. I love that. So you gotta be really connected to that.

Lonnie: Why? Um, and that kind of supports you when the, when the going gets tough and you feel a little overwhelmed. Very tough. Yes. [00:52:00] Um, so is it important to know your specific field that you wanna go into medicine while you’re a high school student? 

Pam: Definitely not. Um, ’cause you probably won’t have even heard about some of.

Pam: The specialties, um, when you are in high school, um, you may have, but you won’t be exposed to all of them. Mm-hmm. Um, so it’s, they definitely don’t, even when you’re applying to medical school, they don’t look at what specialty you’re considering or expect you to know, because a lot of people change, end up 

Lonnie: changing their minds.

Mm-hmm. Okay. 

Lonnie: Um, how important are SAT scores for pre-med college admissions compared to GPA and APs? 

Pam: Um, so it depends on the college, but they all matter. So if they’re, if they’re schools that tests optional will matter a little bit less. But for the schools that require it, they’re going to be looking, and I would say they’re probably looking harder at, um, depending on if you’re a STEM kid, then they’re gonna be looking at the, the math score.

Pam: Um, but med [00:53:00] schools care about birth because, like I said, a lot of writing and engaging with, um, the social sciences in medicine. 

Lonnie: Okay. Um, someone asked, is it okay to take breaks or gap years on the path to medicine? Absolutely. 

Pam: It’s actually really encouraged because they think it helps you to be more mature and you are usually, if you take a gap year, you know better and your reasons are more, um, succinct and clear for why you decided to pursue medicine.

Pam: So if you take a gap year and went and did public health abroad or something, that can also deepen your experiences and help you put together a more unique, compelling application. So it’s actually very encouraged. 

Lonnie: Okay. Um, is neuroscience a good specialty for someone? Curious about the nervous system and also showing an interest in neurosurgery?

Pam: Definitely. I would say that’s probably the only one that you probably wanna be considering, but yes. 

Lonnie: Mm-hmm. [00:54:00] Uh, let’s see. These are great, great questions that are coming in. How do you know which college is the right is right for you to do for pre-med and what factors should I consider? 

Pam: Hmm. You wanna think about, like I said in one of the previous slides, academic fit.

Pam: Um, can you protect your GPA? Right. And do they have the resources and the advising that I need? So small liberal arts colleges like a Swarthmore Wesleyan, um, even the Claremont Mechanical Colleges, they’re undergrad students, so you get a lot of interaction with faculty and close mentorship. So a lot of times students going to those cancer schools have a really strong, um, pre-med advising experience because it’s so much smaller versus going to a larger school, let’s say like, let’s say UCLA LY or um, USCM and in California.

Pam: So I’m referencing California schools. Um. So it matters a lot. You might be a student who, um, thrives in really large [00:55:00] settings and can be a real go-getter and find resources and then that, then that wouldn’t stop you. But if you don’t thrive in that kind of setting, again, it’s a very individual answer in terms of what works best for me.

Pam: I didn’t wanna be in a really large school. Um, but I also didn’t wanna be in a really small, small school, so having sort of medium sized, um, and they were really personalized in their advising, like I said. 

Lonnie: Okay. Um, what are some challenges you face while becoming a doctor and having stress and how did you overcome them while in med school or undergrad?

Pam: Wow. People have a lot of questions about stress. 

Lonnie: Yeah. Yeah, 

Pam: I agree. Um, there’s a few that’s in here. Yeah. Um. I think by the time I did med school, because remember I’d already gotten my PhD. Um, I’d learned to manage my time really well. I did a lot of other things in med school aside from medicine, like I climbed a lot.

Pam: I’m a [00:56:00] big climber. And, um, I think it was because I was able to do that because I, a PhD going through graduate school and getting a PhD was also a huge, um, exercise and discipline and managing your time and having really nebulous goals that may be many years off, but you need to kind of stay on track, like internally, um, and set up systems to keep yourself on track and in place.

Pam: So, um, I would say, I mean, even now, you know, pick a time where you just put it aside for you, whether it’s self-care or a moment to just pause. I think that’s really important, um, in managing stress. Like if every day on your calendar you’re like, okay, whether it’s 10 30 or 11 or whenever your day ends or even at the beginning, um, if you can do that for yourself, I would say that helps you set the day off a lot better.

Pam: Lonnie, I don’t know if you have, if you have good tips for that, but, 

Lonnie: oh yeah. I mean, just as it relates to just like self care and just managing stress, because once you get done with school, you, you [00:57:00] have another layer of things that you have to like stress out. Mm-hmm. Practical self-care techniques. You know, every college campus has those resources that are available to help keep you grounded mentally and physically.

Lonnie: And so whether that’s participating in extracurriculars, whether that’s going to your, your campus gym, whether that’s even utilizing the mental health resources that are on campus, like all of those things are available to you, um, to help you with minimizing the stress. Yes, absolutely. Thank you for, for asking me.

Lonnie: Um, the, this will be the last question that we are gonna answer for tonight. Is there any advice you would give to students who know they’re interested in pre-med but aren’t very knowledgeable about the different specialties? 

Pam: Oh, you don’t need to know that, uh, right now at all. But there are many, many ways, like I said, virtual shadowing.

Pam: You can, um, find that [00:58:00] online. You can talk to your own doctor and ask them if they’re willing to let you, you know, observe them or talk to ’em about their specialty. If your family knows physicians or your physician knows physicians, you can also go and talk to them about what it’s like in the day, in the life of, um, I have a lot of students who meet, um, physicians through a lot of their internships, and they are offered chances to go.

Pam: Shadow or like talk to them. 

Lonnie: Nice. Nice. Okay. So everyone, I just wanna do a quick little spiel about the work that we do here within CollegeAdvisors. So for those who aren’t already working with us, we know how, um, just overwhelming this admission process can be. So, our team of over 300 plus advisors and admission officers, we are ready to help you and guide you through this process.

Lonnie: We actually have milestone teams and we have, uh, individuals on our team that are able to speak to you primarily about your majors of interest. So whether you are interested in pre-med, whether you’re [00:59:00] interested in BSMD or anything just related to the STEM fields. We have people on our team that can provide that guidance to you.

Lonnie: So learn a little bit more about our program by scanning this QR code and signing up for a free strategy session where you’ll be able to get a preliminary assessment of your academic profile, discuss your interest, and we’ll be able to talk to you about our packages that we have available to you.

Lonnie: So I just wanna make sure I share that. Also, if you don’t scan the QR code, there will also be another popup screen that will appear. And so Dr. Pam, is there just any final advice you wanna offer to our audience as it relates to applying pre-med in that whole application process? Any final words? 

Pam: Um, I think it’s amazing that you guys are all con contemplating and considering this, and I would say lean into your interests and your curiosities and, uh, [01:00:00] you know, see where they go.

Lonnie: Absolutely. Lean into the curiosity. I love, I love that. Um, so to everyone I know, I’ve got a few questions in regards to, is this available After this, this presentation will be available on our website by visiting our webinars tab, and we hope to see you at a upcoming webinar all geared towards supporting you through the college application process.

Lonnie: So thank you so much, Dr. Pam, for all of this great content. Thank you. And answering these questions and thank you live audience. So with that, we are now going to end the webinar. Have a great day everyone. Thanks Lonnie. Have a good night everyone.