I left the library at 10 p.m. the night before the last exam of my first year of med school. As I hopped on my bike, I took comfort in my typical pre-test refrain: I’m done studying. I did everything I could. Of course, I’m not really done studying: I still have three years of school […]
Category: Medical school
Is going to medical school a wise financial decision?
It is no secret that medical school is getting very expensive. Over the past 20 years, the cost of medical school has greatly outpaced the rate of inflation, and medical school debt is rapidly rising. The average medical student now graduates with over $192,000 in student loans, but with the cost of attendance for the most […]
Tips for fellowship applicants from a program administrator
The season has opened, and panic has spread among senior year residents, chief residents, and hospitalists out in the community. Fellowship applications are live and being viewed by the programs applicants think they want to rank one, two, and three. These incredibly intelligent physicians are refreshing student document network daily now and soon to be […]
Medical students: Welcome to the wards
Dear third-year medical students, Welcome to the wards. I remember this stage — basking in the glory of completing pre-clinicals, in the excitement of finally switching heavy textbooks for living, breathing people, in the realization that medical education now lies in the hands of those I wanted to heal. I would be sleeping less, but […]
Getting beyond the numbers in your medical school interview
Everyone knows that the process of applying and getting accepted into medical school is highly competitive. Last year, 51,680 people applied for seats in U.S. medical schools. Collectively, they submitted 816,153 applications — a whopping 16 applications per person on average. Only 21,338 applicants matriculated to a U.S. school last fall, or 41 percent of […]
Third year of medical school is like learning to ride a bike
I could see the excitement on my six-year-old daughter’s face as we pulled into the parking lot and unloaded her new bike from the car. She had been anxiously awaiting this moment for several weeks — she was going to learn to ride a bicycle. She watched with increasing interest as I unscrewed the training […]
What’s better: mentorship or sponsorship?
Literature coming from business and human resource management suggests that women are over-mentored and unders-ponsored. However, if you have been reading reports about women in medicine, then you likely have heard that women are both over-mentored and under-mentored. Where does the truth lie? That depends on various factors including the definitions of these terms. What […]
8 things I would tell my younger self
Young, aspiring doctors are the Iron Youth of this generation. In Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, young German soldiers are called the Iron Youth as part of a campaign to generate enthusiasm for fighting in the war; these soldiers soon realize the true horrors of war and its lasting impact on […]