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How to Have a Meaningful Volunteer Experience

There are a lot of reasons to volunteer your time. You can make a positive contribution to your community, help people who need it and learn about yourself and how to serve with others. However, too many people volunteer for the sake of making themselves a more “competitive” applicant. A lot of hospital volunteers do so only because it seems like everyone else is doing it. If you are one of these people, I would like you to consider NOT volunteering.

Now, I have previously talked about why people shouldn’t volunteer. Overall, I still believe volunteering is one of the most positive and beneficial activities a person can do. To make the best of your volunteering, there are some factors you should take into consideration, to make it enjoyable and rewarding.

  1. Find something you Enjoy Doing – If you’re going to give away your time without any monetary reward, you might as well choose an activity you enjoy doing. By choosing something you like, you will be less likely to think of it as a burden. You won’t feel as if you are wasting your time helping others. For example, if you like working with kids, volunteer with Big Brothers and Sisters instead of at an old folks home. If you like teaching, tutor someone instead of being a fundraiser organizer.
  2. Put your strengths and skills to use – If you’re good at public speaking, find an activity that takes advantage of that. If you are musically inclined, consider volunteering with music programs for disadvantaged or sick people. By finding a volunteer position that uses the talents you already have, you will find yourself to have a much more important role. Everyone likes to feel useful and that their actions matter. Choose an activity where your talents can be fully appreciated.
  3. Make it Fit with your Schedule – Volunteering is the giving away of your time and talents. Make sure you only give away the time you want to. If your evenings are your most productive study times, you will do a big disservice to your school work if you choose to volunteer at that time. Consider whether you would prefer volunteering in a large chunk of time once a week or several sessions of shorter periods. The secret is to pick something that works for you and is less likely to disrupt your regular routine. The more it fits with your schedule, the more you will stay committed and enjoy it.
  4. Location, Location, Location - The distance to your volunteering position matters. You don’t want to commute an hour just for a one hour volunteer session. Likewise, if you don’t have a car, an accessible venue is a must. A place that is convenient will make your volunteering sustainable for the long run. If you volunteer near where your parents work, you could catch a ride back home if the timing is correct.
  5. Work with Good People – A good supervisor can make such a big difference. It is the difference between doing mundane menial tasks and exciting, rewarding roles. If the organization is full of volunteers who are not friendly and open, it can make you dread your placement. Another suggestion, volunteer with friends that you know you can work and get along with or take the chance to meet new people. Almost all volunteer jobs work in teams. You might as well work in a good one.
  6. Choose a position where you can learn and grow - There’s nothing worse than being stuck in a repetitive and boring job. Pick something where there are things to learn, challenges to overcome and small variations. Whether that’s something where you talk to different people every time or a job where you constantly with changing responsibilities, new challenges and situations will keep you thinking and motivated. Really take advantage of volunteering to understand something you didn’t know before and pick up new skills.

And if you don’t enjoy, or even dread, your current volunteer position. Don’t do it. If you’ve made a minimum commitment, finish the end of your term and then drop it. I once applied for a research volunteering role which sounded good on paper. I was interviewed and accepted over several other candidates. However, when I showed up for my first shift,  it turned out I was doing data entry and filing paperwork. After my first 3 hour session, I dropped it immediately and never felt better. The hours weren’t flexible, their was no communication with the supervisor, it was out of the way, a monkey had the skills to do the job, and I was simply not interested in office work.

I went on to run teaching sessions with ESL international students and I loved it. The job was challenging, interactive and fun. I enjoyed preparing and running each weekly session. I was even kind of sad when the sessions ended.

Volunteer for the right reasons. Volunteer only when it works for you. If you feel like your current position is a drag, consider the factors above and see if you can change any of them to fit you better. After all, if you are going to give up your time and energy, you might as well do it on your terms.

Don't Choose a School Based on Prestige

It’s  a common mistake to think that going to the most prestigious university or medical school will lead to greatness. Often when we read the profiles of highly acclaimed scientists and doctors, it seems like an  Ivy League education or a degree at a top school is needed to achieve success. This idea of belonging to a prestigious and famous institution leads to success is in fact backwards. You won’t become a successful person just because you went to Harvard or the likes.

The reality is that these schools attract people who are already successful. Highly accomplished individuals will choose prestigious schools because it is often there that they will receive the resources and funding needed to continue their work. The faculty of the best universities don’t go there to become a successful person. They are there because they are already qualified and that happens to be the best environment for them.

In the long run, it’s much more important to find a school that will help you help you develop as a person. As Terence Tao, a world-famous mathematician, says “It is common to focus on the general prestige of the institution, but actually it is the specific strengths of an institution which should play a more important role in your decisions.”

At any institution, it’s much more important to find opportunities and positions that enrich yourself. The old cliche, “it’s better to a big fish in a small pond that a small fish in the ocean” should be in the back of your mind when you are choosing schools.  Everyone should find the place that fits them best, sometimes that happens to be a prestigious sounding university, but more often than not, it doesn’t have to be.

In medicine, you will get your prestige and respect regardless of where you graduate from. If you are a fully licensed doctor who is competent and good at what you do, patients won’t care where you did your training. A job well done is a job well done.

When you do end up choosing a school, the real factors you should consider are 1) location, 2) quality of program, 3) finances. Each school has a different fit for each person. A perfect school for you may not be for someone else.

If you understand the relative insignificance  fame and glory, and base your decisions on rational and personal reasons that matter, you will be much better off in the long run. After all, it’s not the credentials and degrees after your name that matters, but what you can do with what you have learned that matters.

The Road to Medical School [Video]

Getting into medical school is tough work. We often get so caught up with the whole rat race and the plethora of hoops to jump through that we forget to look at the humor and comedy involved. I came upon a video put on by the University of Alberta for their 2009 interview weekend.

The video is about the typical path a premed must journey through and the many types of people he will encounter along the way. I hope you enjoy it.

Links

U Alberta Medicine MMI Video 2009 (1/2)

U Alberta Medicine MMI Video 2009 (2/2)

How to Handle a Medical School Rejection Peacefully

Medical School Rejection

Every year, thousands of applicants are rejected from medical school. It may have been you or someone you know. I’m sure everyone can think of someone who had perfect grades, MCAT scores, great extracurriculars, plenty of research and a great personality that was rejected from medical school. This isn’t uncommon. In fact, not being accepted into medical school is the norm. It’s the expected statistical outcome; there are way too many applicants for too few seats. All applicants should have been aware of this.

However, it’s hard to believe that an admissions system run by smart and supposedly fair people can turn away amazing applicants year after year. We try to justify these seemingly arbitrary decisions in many ways. He must have bombed the interview and did poorly, she chose the wrong people to write her references, their grades just weren’t competitive enough. You application was poorly put together and there were just too many better candidates than you.

But that’s not true, you are still a good person.

Despite a rejection, I believe that if you worked hard during undergrad, maintained good grades and balanced activities, and know how to interact with people, you are still a good candidate. You would be just as good of a doctor as those who were admitted.

Obviously there will be applicants that did not stand a chance in the first place. These people usually know it; their grades are poor, they haven’t done anything to show their interest, they put together a sloppy application. But if your grades are above previous year’s admitted average and you have talked to medical students who have confirmed what you are doing is enough, you are still just as good as you were before.

It wasn’t your fault you were rejected

It truly isn’t. If you have done everything right and you were still rejected, don’t feel bad for yourself. There were factors that were out of your control that lead to that rejection. I know of friends with degrees from Harvard and Yale who were rejected from some medical schools.

Most medical students have rejections from medical schools.

If you sample any medical school, an overwhelming majority will have had at least one rejection letter. Only a very small number of people will have no rejections and all acceptances. A good number of medical students have applied more than once, some even twice or more. You are not alone.

Take advantage of setbacks, learn to grow stronger with them.

Realize that facing adversity and rebounding from failure in the long-term is good for you. Take the time you have from the rejection to re-evaluate your own personal goals and make yourself a better person. Don’t do it to improve your application, but do it for yourself. If you haven’t thought about your motivations for being a doctor seriously before, you have now been given one of the best times to do so.

Sooner or later, we will all encounter failure

And learning to deal with failures appropriately is the key to future success. Even if you get in on your first attempt, you will eventually make mistakes as a medical student. It is inevitable that you will slip up or make an error as a resident that might cost someone’s life. Your rejection now is just a glimpse of what is to come. Don’t feel dejected from it, it happens to everyone.

If you are dedicated and passionate enough, you will get it.

Whether it’s this year, next year, three years down the road or more, if medicine is something you truly want to do, you will eventually get it. If you are one of those stellar applicants who are in shock because they were missed this cycle, it’s only a matter of time before you get in. If you feel like you should have got in, you most likely will sooner or later. Take this rejection from medical school as fuel for your future endeavors.

Over the last few years, I have kept every acceptance and rejection letter I have received. All my university, scholarship, and job application letters are stored away in a box. From time to time, I empty out its contents and look over the successes and rejections I have accumulated. And time and time again, I realize it’s my missed attempts and failures and how I dealt with and overcame them that fill me with pride.

Why I chose Med School over Grad School

Credit: slight clutter

There was a time during undergrad when I wanted to pursue both medical school and graduate school. Both pathways appealed to me and I did not know what I wanted to do. As a biology and physics major, I was a devout science follower.  The chance of discovery new science and expanding the boundaries of human knowledge made a graduate degree in the sciences convincing. Similarly, I was equally excited over the idea that as a doctor, I could care for patients and help people during profound moments in life.

However, what made the decision easier for me was the significant overlap between the two choices and some special aspects that medicine had that pushed me to pursue med school.

Science – If I pursued grad school, I would have done scientific research. As a medical student, I would learn the science of physiology, pathology, pharmacology and the applied science of medicine. I love science, so either way worked for me because I knew I would find intellectually challenging work.

Research – For research, both pathways offered plenty of chances to do basic bench work or clinical research. The advantage of being a grad student is that you would have dedicated time to concentrate and become proficient at conducting research. You would have specified mentors that would train, teach and help you along the way. Yet, I knew that as a medical student, there were just as many opportunities to do research. In fact, the scope of scientific research might be enriched with the clinical aspect. Furthermore, with an MD, I could use it as leverage for better projects and funding.

Teaching – Another aspect that was important to me was the opportunity to teach. As a graduate student, you would start off as a TA or an assistant teaching undergraduates. With persistence and some luck, you might get an faculty position and begin to co-teach classes. And if you hopefully get tenured, you might be able to finally teach the classes you like in the way you like. On the other hand, as a medical doctor you get to teach all the time. Whether it’s through advising patients on their health or teaching new residents and medical students, the teaching opportunities are there. Furthermore, if you wanted to, you could always pursue academic medicine and have the chance to teach in the classroom.

Duration – The education time line for both were more or less equal. As a graduate student, you would spend around 3-6 years working your post-graduate degree while being paid peanuts. As a med student, you first spend 3-4 more years in med school followed with a 3-7 year residency where you are paid peanuts and a bit more. Both choices involved more schooling. To me, this was not the deciding factor. And if medicine didn’t work out, I could always get a PhD afterwards…

The reason why I chose a life of medicine over that of a scientist is the patient. Practicing medicine involves treating and helping people not diseases and I knew I wanted to work with people. The doctor-patient relationship is truly a special and unique partnership. I think that’s why a lot of med students and doctors are drawn to the profession in the first place. As a grad student, I wouldn’t have that same interaction. There’s something rewarding about being responsible for and caring for someone when they are vulnerable and need help the most.

Medicine exposes you to many of life’s most profound moments: Birth, Sickness, Death.

The chance for work with and serve patients, the sick and weak, is why I chose medicine. Besides, many of the other factors like science, research, teaching are also an important and integral part of medicine.

Playing the Admissions Game

I’ve almost forgotten how neurotic premed students can get. The first year of medical school has its own challenges that make you soon forget about last year’s worries. But with the Canadian medical school interview season in full throttle, the swarms of applicants have begun to show their stress and worry.

Talking to friends who have applied this year, applicants who have shown up at information sessions and posters in online forums, there are definitely a lot of misconceptions about the whole admissions process. There is a lot of guessing and speculation about how the admissions committee works. Absurd theories and weight formulas are postulated by premeds without any evidence. Almost any specific criteria that you find on the internet regarding the whole process turns out to be false.

As a few of you may or may not know, I am currently sitting on the admissions and interview committees for my medical school. Now due to confidentiality, I can’t reveal any of the behind the scene “magic” that is medical school admissions nor would I want to.

However, I want to say that your applications are in good hands and that each person is evaluated as fairly as possible. The old adages of having good grades, test scores, extracurricular activities, references and essays hold true. We aren’t lying to you when we give you the breakdowns. Every medical school has an assembly of dedicated adcoms that look at your applications carefully and thoroughly. We are all aware of how important an acceptance decision can be for someone. We take our job seriously.

In fact, the adcom members – if you can believe it – are even more neurotic then premeds applying. We hold long meetings to figure out the best weighting system, necessary prerequisites, and how even slight wording in the application form will affect you. Every conceivable situation, application, scenario has been brought up and discussed. Afterall, when you have a group of doctors, deans, admissions staff, and students who have been doing this for years nothing gets missed.

So relax. Don’t stress about how we do our job and instead focus on doing your own responsibilities well. So what if you know how we select applicants, does that make a difference? Probably not. Admissions is much like a game. We try to make this game as good as possible. There will be flaws and it won’t be perfect but we do care about the process and the people playing. And we are always trying to make it better.

So play the game to the best of your abilities.  The rules and ways we evaluate the players are simple and clear. Like most  good games, there is some luck involved. We (as admission committee members) are also playing the game too.  We trust our applicants, so hopefully you can trust us that we are doing our best too.

On the Other Side of the Fence

It’s medical school interview season yet again and I remember how nervous I felt preparing for my interviews last year. This year, after helping with the admissions and interviews process, I am glad and relieved to be on the other side.

Recently while helping some prospective students practice interview questions, I recalled the anxious and indefinite feelings I experienced while going through the entire process. I’m not going to sugar-coat it, being IN medical school has definitely been better than being OUT. The class material is challenging and the work can get grueling, but I love what I am doing and I couldn’t be more excited. We’ll see if my optimism and idealist sentiments last throughout the clinical years.

Some of this relief may be from the pass/fail grading system that discourages competitiveness in our class. Another factor is the amazing classmates and teachers we have or the fact that as medical students, we are well supported and funded.

However, I think I have singled down my relief to a simple fact. It is easier to get out of medical school, than it is to get in. What I mean by that is that getting into medicine is a chances game. You try your best to compete against others, you present yourself as best as possible and you hope for the best. There is no guarantee that any school will accept you. You may get in this year, be waitlisted or rejected. You may have to wait a year, rewrite the mcat, and apply again.

On the other side, the graduation rate for medical classes is unanimous. Very few students drop out due to  academic problems or financial reasons. The students who do not complete their degrees usually choose so for personal reasons. Sure, it may be a chances game when it comes to the residency match and getting your choice of specialty. But regardless, you will be graduating as a doctor and career path is fairly certain.

After you get in, there are many new questions to be answered. What kind of doctor do I want to be? Where will I do my residency? How will I balance my life style with my career?  But what you do know is that you’re going to be a doctor. If you study hard, work hard and get along with others, you will finish. Because of the enormous time and resources spent on each medical student, it is in all school’s best interest to graduate you; it’s a solid guarantee.  However, as a premedical student there are no guarantees or entitlements. You do your best and lady luck does the rest.

The feeling of uncertainty (which is pervasive through medicine) is unsettling. And eliminating that unneeded stress, makes being accepted that much sweeter.

Shotgun-Sequencing Learning

Throughout the first half of medical school, my learning style has changed tremendously. When I compare how I studied in undergrad to how I study now, I am quite surprised with the changes.

Before medical school, I would go over each concept taught in class thoroughly. I would read over the material slowly until I understood it and would take detailed notes. This proved to be effective as the bulk of my courses were in the physical sciences (physics and chem) and maths. I would only go through the materials once or twice and be prepared for the test.

However in medical school information is presented in a different way and with that  my studying habits have also undergone a radical paradigm shift. The main difference I find is the volume of knowledge you have to cover. For each disease or medical condition, you have to understand the physiology, pathology, pathophysiology basic sciences, clinical signs, treatments, prognosis and epidemiology. And if you decide to use my old method of thorough meticulous notes, you would never be able to cover all the material.

Furthermore, there is a lot of uncertainty in medicine. The answers aren’t always clear cut like they were in physics. There are tons of questions where there are no good answers.

To handle all this information, I have taken a “shotgun-sequencing” approach to learning. I find this metaphor extremely relevant to the difference between my old way of learning and my new way. Much like the actual shotgun sequencing of DNA, instead of going through a piece of DNA sequentially and thoroughly (which is a slow approach), you learn in random snippets and fragments which is assembled together afterward.

Using this shotgun approach, I can now cover more material in less time. However, to maintain the same precision and thoroughness of knowledge as before, I have to cover the material several more times to make sure I really know my stuff. I find that magic number to be somewhere near five to six times. Because of the time needed to go over the material several more times, there is not really a speed advantage. I still spend about the same amount of time studying.

The true advantage of this learning approach, at least for medicine, is the integrative nature. Medicine is all about making connections between the basic sciences and clinical practices. It’s about understanding the many interactions between the body, disease and treatment. After going over the materials 5-6x, knowledge begins to integrate in a very strong and cohesive way. Instead of a linear mode of thinking, you start to understand things laterally, forwards and backwards.

For example: Not only do you understand the causes of syncope (fainting), but you can also come up with a differential diagnosis of what causes it, what drugs can treat it, what other symptoms would be present. By shotgunning your learning, you build a complex web of knowledge that is characteristic of medicine.

Canadian Medical Schools – MMI vs Traditional Interviews

Sourced from the members on premed101.com forums is a list of what interview format, whether MMI or traditional interview format, each Canadian Medical School uses for the 2008-2009 cycle.The current trend is to adopt the MMI as the main interview format. All the medical schools in the west have already adopted the new stationed format. However, most of these schools have made their own tweaks and changes to McMaster’s format.


School Name
Interview Style
Additional Comments

Memorial University

Traditional
2-on-1, closed file

Dalhousie University

MMI

Université Laval

Université de Sherbrooke

Université de Montréal

MMI
Joint School MMI

McGill University

MMI + Traditional
20 minute traditional interview

University of Ottawa

Traditional

 3-on-1 interview (one med student, one physician, one professional)

Queen’s University

Traditional
3-on-1 interview

University of Toronto (UofT)

Traditional
1 Faculty, 1 Student

McMaster University

MMI

University of Western Ontario (UWO)

Traditional
3-on-1 Interview

Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM)

MMI

University of Manitoba (UofM)

MMI

University of Saskatchewan (UofS)

MMI

University of Alberta (UofA)

MMI

University of Calgary (UofC)

MMI

University of British Columbia (UBC)

MMI

My prediction is that more schools will adopt the MMI format in the future both in Canada and the States. The MMI has less interviewer bias andhas been shown to be a better indicator of future OSCE performance. However, it will be interesting to see each school will incorporate the MMI with traditional interviews. Especially since traditional interviews help schools to really know the applicants and are able to see if they are good fits.

Preparing for Med School Interviews

Over the next few days I will be writing posts for everyone with a medical school interview coming up who needs preparation. Med school interviews are not different from any other job interviews. However, you must prepare for it properly just like how anyone would prepare for a high-paying competitive and prestigious job.

First, you must take time to learn about the profession, understand yourself and demonstrate why you are the best applicant. If you have gotten an interview, your chances are already good. No one is invited without the possibility of being accepted. In order to make sure you do well on the day of, there are three steps you have to follow

(1) Prepare, (2) Practice, (3) Presentation

1) Preparation

Before you begin practicing typical interview questions, you must first know yourself and know the school you are applying to. Take the time to learn about what makes each medical school different from each other. What is it in their curriculum that you like, what are the pros/cons of each school, if you were given a choice, which would be your ideal school and why?

Getting to know the school is an important step in your preparations. Not only will it be beneficial for you on the interview day to know what qualities and characteristics the schools are looking for, but you will also get a feel for what kind of school you want. For instance, some schools are more research intensive while some have you in a clinical setting within the first week.

Knowing yourself is probably one of the hardest things in life to do. Take the time to really go questions that will help you understand yourself. Think, reflect, write things down. I have attached a few files with the most commonly asked questions that you MUST know how to answer. Especially for traditional interviews (not stationed MMI’s) your interviewers will ask you about your motivations, your accomplishments and your reasons why you would be a good physician.

U-Colorado Questions

U-Chicago Questions

I’m sure if you look online you will find hundreds including questions from past interviewers. The point is not to drill over all the questions over and over, but to think about them clearly and to find answers that are sincerely yours.

Approach each question your own way. Don’t look elsewhere to see what others have said before you have answered the question yourself. Write it down. Answer the important questions (Why Medicine?) multiple times, until you feel like you have a good answer that represents you. Each person is different; there are no right answer for almost all of the questions.

After you have prepared answers for these questions, find someone you can trust to practice with.

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