Wisdom

Words of Wisdom from the “Been There, Done That Crowd”

• Take anything taught by David Presti - gifted teacher, easy material, inspiring content, LOTS OF FUN!  Jenny Cohen, UCSF Class of 2012
• Utilize CourseRank, RateMyProfessors, and other websites dedicated to “grading” a course or a professor. It helps with giving you an overview before you jump into a course. You can decide if a professor doesn’t seem like someone who can teach you the way you prefer, and take the same course taught by a different professor. If you must take a course (for example, it’s a prerequisite for your major) and it sounds absolutely dreadful, you can prepare yourself by choosing to take other courses during the same semester that are less difficult. That way, hard classes balance easy ones, and you can be sure to maintain that great GPA of yours!
• FOLLOW YOUR PASSIONS in terms of your major and activities. Don't do things just because you think it will look good on a premed resume. It's a little ridiculous to spend some of the more opportune years of your life working in a lab you are not interested in. Medicine has many sides and aspects that can be related to all sorts of activities. Being into what you are doing is more likely to lead to your excelling in it and that's what schools want to see. I can personally vouch that I did very NOT premed-y activities and ended up at UCSF.   FIND MENTORS whether they be administration, professors, doctors, more senior students, etc. It will help make the world of a difference.  And when in doubt, take some time off to explore if this is what you want to do. Medicine is an amazing field with endless prospect but some people jump into it prematurely sometimes. There are tons of way to "help people" and a lot of people wander into the medical path without being sure if it is what they want. It's amazing but also a long road to do what you want and you gotta like it if not love it. - Minh-Chi Tran, UCSF Class of 2012

• Im not a Golden Bear, but I can share what I did on interviews if you feel that will be helpful. I walked in thinking to myself that I need to sell me as a candidate. The best way to sell something is know that you're selling something your target demographic wants and also to know who they are, in this case admissions people. I looked at my language skills (english and spanish) for example. Its easy to say I speak spanish and that will help communicate with patients. I feel it sells you better as a candiate if you say ' the 2000 census data showed a 9% increase in the spanish speaking population in san francisco.' And then add in some blah blah blah about how you will help out. Follow that up with an estimate of how many spanish speaking people access UCSF or UCSF affiliated institutions and you have yourself a good start to selling the point that you may be a good candidate to add to the roster. Add in some other demographic stuff the school publishes online about the patients they see and create a thread that weaves this info that is institution specific to you as a candidate and you have something to work with. And if you have an idea of what you want to do in medicine, you can weave that conversation into the mix. Again basing most this on stuff the school puts online about their patients or departments. All this info is online. Just talkes a few hours to iron out the points you want to drive home. I also -and this may be bad advice- wanted to let them (the admissions people) talk the least. I didnt want them to ask too many questions, only the one's they felt were vital to thier process. So I came up with an outline of stuff that I'd say (the language example above is one thing I hammered home) and tried to sell myself for 40 minutes. I just changed some demographic stuff that you can find online from city to city or state to state. The new census data will be available at some point and then that can provide better info to use.... - Joseph Reza, UCSF Class of 2013

• Definitely do medically related things (homeless clinic, volunteer somewhere where you get to interact with patients, be in hospital setting), but it's also nice (and equally important) to do something you're passionate about, just for fun, if medicine is not your only love.  for example,  i love teaching kids of all ages so i taught science to elementary & middle schoolers all 4 years at cal and this gave me insight into why i wanted to be a doctor.  i also did some work for amnesty international - be involved in causes that you are passionate about. - Vivian Jiang, UCSF Class of 2013
• My advice to pre-meds would be to take time off before starting med school! I wasn't a traditional pre-med, and went back to do a post-bac, and found my time between graduating from college and starting medical school to be essential to developing broad views of the world that may or may not have to do with medicine. In any case, I'm sure if you've wanted to do medicine throughout college, it may be daunting or less attractive to take time off, but as I've progressed through medical school I realize how little time off you get once you start! Even if for just that reason, I think it's such a great idea to take some time and do something interesting (or nothing at all!) before embarking on the great adventure of medicine. - Arul Thangavel, UCSF Class of 2011
• The most important thing is to prioritize studying and getting good grades. All the extracurriculars in the world won't make up for a low GPA. Especially coming from a large university, it's important to make an extra effort get to know professors. These are the people who will write letters and advocate for you. I suggest becoming a regular at office hours. Also, if there is an opportunity to do research in one of your professor's labs, grab it! When doing extracurriculars, instead of trying to get involved in everything.. only do things you actually love doing! Pour time into these activities and do these things well. Develop a specific passion. Become a leader. Don't spread yourself too thinly.  Try to find a mentor or friend currently in medical school. When completing your application, ask them to read your essays and activity blurbs and give you their thoughts and advice. - Solmaz Poorsattar, UCSF Class of 2011
• -Why did you want to be a physician? The simplest reason is that I have always had a great interest in biology and working in an environment where I get to interact with people and build meaningful relationships while working to improve their quality of life. Medicine is a great field in which to combine all of these aspirations because it allows you to serve those in need while still exploring the field of biology and satisfying my intellectual curiosity. In my particular case I’m looking to go into medical research so I can help scientists and doctors understand more about human diseases and ultimately develop more efficatious treatments for them.
• -In your opinion, what makes a strong pre-med candidate?  Passion. There are many different roads that one can take in order to explore their interest in medicine and regardless of which aspects of medicine appeal to you, the most important thing in the application process is to demonstrate passion for your work. Med schools want to see demonstrated commitment to the field you’re about to enter and they want to see that you know what you’re getting into, and that you’re still just as excited to become a doctor and do great things in that capacity.  In terms of stats, the applicant pool is obviously quite competitive so try to guard your GPA and balance your coursework so you can excel in your classes and do well on the MCAT. This will probably mean setting aside time for a prep course, etc.
• -When did you begin planning your pre-med path? I knew I wanted to be an MCB major before I made a firm commitment to being pre-med. Since all the lower divs of MCB overlap with the pre-med requirements I didn’t need to decide until late in my soph. year that I really wanted to push forward with medicine.
• -What resources did you use to develop your plan (books, websites, advising services)? When I was at Cal the career services web site was not very useful so I often turned to the career websites of other private schools such as Harvard. I also found a lot of great information through the Pre-med 101 decal course.
• -If you have questions about the application, who can you ask? (before the application opens and during the process). The AMCAS application is complex in itself so many times you’ll have to call them directly for answers. Other questions might be better directed towards admissions officers at various med schools. Personally I always tried to get in touch with a few friends of mine in med school who were a few years ahead of me and could give me advice about my application having recently been through the process and now in the position to have some perspective.
• -A lot of students worry about how to secure letters of recommendation. What would your advice be? It’s pretty tough to get letters from professors who really know you well because of the large class sizes. Fortunately most med schools are aware of this and do not look down upon letters written by GSI’s. It would be best to get letters written by a GSI and perhaps co-signed by the professor. In terms of getting a professor letter, the best approach within MCB is to pick someone who you’ve taken more than one class with and spoken with several times in office hours over the course of a long period of time. The more you’ve worked with someone, the more they can speak to who you are. The last thing you want is a letter stating your class rank and how many times you showed up in office hours, so try to build meaningful relationships with your professors. Some other ideas are professors who teach your lab courses or professors who are advisors and have also taught you in a course. Some upper divs have small class sizes so these might be great places to meet professors too.
• What if you didn’t do research?  It’s okay if you don’t do research, but the assumption here is that you dedicated your time to other valuable experiences which influenced your desire to become a physician.
• -What would you recommend to someone who doesn’t have a stellar GPA? Two things here. 1) Take more coursework to improve your GPA. There are several approaches here- some people take lots of IB/Public Health/Language courses while others simply take more MCB elective courses. You have to know yourself to decide if this is best for you because the caveat is that if you don’t do well in additional coursework you will only hurt your GPA further. Some students also look into post-bac programs designed to give you a large number of upper div science courses to boost your overall science GPA.  2) When applying to medical school you have to be realistic with your expectations. Many people have the stats to get into medical school but do not apply to enough schools in their competitive range. You can use the MSAR book at the career center to figure out average GPA and MCAT ranges for every medical school and figure out at which schools your stats are competitive. You should apply to a healthy number of schools where your stats are competitive and then add in some schools that are a reach or your dream schools.
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• -What kind of volunteer experiences did you have, and would you recommend other students do something similar? I loved working at the suitcase clinic because it was a great community service activity which allowed me to work directly with clients in need of services. I didn’t gain much clinical experience here and that was expected since the clinical is focused on social services. For clinical experience I would look into shadowing opportunities either on your own or through formal programs like the Field Studies Internship offered by the HMAP program. I wouldn’t recommend the Alta Bates ER, they will have you folding sheets in the ER.
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• -What were your interviews like? Most of my interviews were pretty straightforward. My interviewers would look over my application and pick out things they found interesting and ask me to tell them more about the experience. I found that my interviewers genuinely wanted to get to know me better and were not trying to stump me. Many times they will try to sell you the school so be ready to ask lots of questions.

• -Is medical school anything like you thought it would be?  Coming from an MCB background and hoping to continue in medical research, I found medical school to be very clinically focused and lacking in basic science. Many times the basic science was skipped altogether since the faculty didn’t feel it was necessary to know in detail, while other times the material was covered very quickly and it was assumed that students knew the basic science. As an MCB major you already know more than enough basic science and physiology to get through the medical school curriculum, but the challenge is lining it up with the clinical picture and this includes epidemiology, anatomy, pharmacology, etc. Most of medicine is also about learning a large volume of information and learning how to retain it all in an organized fashion. In contrast, MCB’s focus was usually on understanding a smaller number of core principles and applying it to new situations. That being said, I have really been enjoying the clinically focused curriculum because I’ve already had the MCB coursework to fill in the details of the basic science.
• Do something you love - have a passion for something, a unique point of view.  I majored in a social science, and did extra-curricular work in the visual and literary arts.  It might even be an advantage to stay away from the typical pre-med stuff - except for pre-reqs of course.  What will you contribute to your medical school class?  I don't think "Pre-Med honor society" qualifies as a unique point of view. - Chris Bautista, UCSF Class of 2011
• Did research for a couple years at UCSF and on campus at Berkeley.  Found that it didn’t really help my application that much.  What did was the extra-curricular activity I was most passionate about, spent the most time participating in, and had the least to do with medicine: Habitat for Humanity.  Since it was a service based organization, I was able to spin it in the vein of “I like helping people.”  But like others have said above, find an extra curricular activity that you genuinely find enjoyable and try hard to become a leader in that organization.  Passion comes through in an essay but it really shines during the interview.  Having something that invigorates you and being able to show it to an interviewer will definitely make you stand out.
• Also, once you’re applying, do NOT give up on a school that you really want to get into simply because they reject you at first.  Write an appeal letter, explaining what has changed about you and why you’re a stronger applicant than when you sent in your primary.  Have one of your letter writers, or another person entirely, write an additional letter or email to that school advocating on your behalf.  And if it doesn’t work out, you’re absolutely no worse off.
• Some specifics: (1) try to volunteer at the Tang center - despite it not being a shining example of how health care should run, it’s a good opportunity for exposure to basic outpatient clinical medicine.  (2) if you’re wavering about the choice to double major, DON’T DO IT.  Pick and choose interesting classes and just take those without worrying if they’ll qualify you for an additional major or minor.  College is too short (and expensive) to take classes you’re not really interested in.  (3) E-mail UCSF physicians who do work you think could be interesting and ask if you can shadow them once a month.  Most will be agreeable to it.  You will likely get some good teaching, just don’t expect to actually do anything/be able to touch anything.  And it will be a good chance to see if you’re actually excited by the hospital environment or if you’re just interested in life as portrayed on Scrubs.  (4) Take advantage of office hours.  My statistics GSI saved my life.  But if you go to a professor’s office hours and they don’t really pay much attention to you, don’t go back.  It’s not worth the extra “face time.”  (5) You don’t need to be part of PMHS.  Or HMAP.  Unless you really want to be.  Then go for it.  (6) Don’t take more than 13 units your senior year.  Go live it up.  Buy season passes to a ski resort.  Go hug a redwood in Big Basin.  Find a “100 things to do in Berkeley before you die” kind of list and get to work.  --Abbas Kothari, UCSF 2011
• I say all of the following with the caveat that you shouldn't do anything just because it looks good on a resume or med school app, but if you do find something you're passionate about, these things will not only look good but will also enrich your experiences. 
  
  
  • Travel. Especially internationally.
  • Leadership / initiative. How do you actually demonstrate these qualities? Start something or expand something that already exists, like a community health program or an advocacy group for something you're passionate about. Expanding existing programs is often more sustainable and you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
  • Take time off after you graduate. Work in business or government or NGOs. It's really important to understand what the world is like outside of academia and medicine, and I guarantee this knowledge will enrich your career within medicine.
  • Submit your applications as early as you can manage. It's just way better odds. - Amanda Angelotti, UCSF Class of 2013