Applying to Pre-Med, Nursing, BSMD Programs

Webinar Transcription

2023-12-11 – Applying to Pre-Med,

Nursing, & BS/MD Programs

Like, medicine specifically, like, um, I don’t know how to say it. Specifically

med school. I don’t know what I’m going on about. Anyway, the point is, you

want to be applying both pre med as well as to a BSMD program, even if you’re

interested only in the BSMD programs, or if you’re primarily interested in the

BSMD programs.

I think this is something that comes up a lot for my students when I’m advising

them. Um, the BSMD programs are incredibly competitive, and so I want you

to broaden your thought. Now, a little bit of background also, when you’re

applying pre med, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you are committed to, um, It’s

committed to becoming a doctor and similarly in your applying to pre med

doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re applying to a pre med major.

It can be any major just with the kind of idea that you will complete the

coursework needed to be a pre med. Um, so my college admissions process, I’m

from California. So my, uh, state schools were really the top of my list,

obviously. So my mom, I know for example, really wanted me to go to UCLA

because that’s close to home for me.

Um, so those were kind of, uh, the baseline. Um, good. Like I had some great

state schools that I knew, not something that I would get into because they’re

very competitive state schools, but good state schools that I knew I could fall

back on if I needed to, especially some of the, um, Like the lower tier UC

schools, I felt like I had a good chance at.

Um, IBs, I also applied to in terms of the pre med side of things. And then a lot

of those like top tier reach schools, I applied pre med as far as private schools.

Um, and then I also apply to a good number of BSMD programs. And by good

number, I think I didn’t apply to, I applied to, I think, Maybe like five to ten.

And I would say that was something that I actually deprioritized. As I was going

through the process, I really realized that I wanted to prioritize having a full

undergrad experience, so having that full four years. And a lot of the BSMD

programs, for better or worse, are shortened programs, which means there’s a lot

of pros and cons to that.

And certainly do your research into those programs. But I would say for me, I

really wanted the full And that really paid off for me because I would say that Istudied something that’s completely unrelated to biology in undergrad. I

definitely grew as a student, but also I found a lot of interest in disciplines that I

never knew existed before.

And I think I would have felt like I had lost something if I had gone the more

traditional, like the more like combined. Um, the other thing was that I didn’t

necessarily visit all the schools that I applied to. Um, again, like I said, I was

from the West Coast. So, um, I was able to go to a lot of the schools in

California, but I actually never stepped foot on any of these East Coast

campuses until after I got it.

And that was something that my mom and I made a deal about because it was

so expensive to fly over and have to stay these 19 different places across the

country. She was like if you get in we’ll go if you don’t get in we’re not going

essentially Um, I ended up getting into a lot of great schools A lot of great ivies

like Yale and Princeton, for example as well as my UC state schools But I ended

up choosing brown I think primarily for the BSMD program And also because it

felt like a good fit.

One thing I was really looking at was do I like the city and the area that I would

end up in? And, um, I really, really love Providence. Having been here for

seven, six, seven years now, I really, really like the city. Um, and I can’t

emphasize that enough. I think that’s an important part of being at a school.

I also really like the size of Brown. I would say size of your university impacts

how you live your life as a college student much more than people would

expect. So that was a big difference for me in terms of choosing between the

state schools and some of the smaller private schools. Um, and I think the last

thing is that, and then I tell all my students, I did not get into every school I

applied to.

Um, I did not get into my early action school, for example, or my restrictive

early action. And that was something that. I remember at the time it was like a

really big, devastating blow. I don’t know if any of you seniors are out there, uh,

any seniors are here right now like going through that or have that coming up or

feeling really anxious about it, but I want to put out there on this like, cold

winter night that, um, it’s not the end of the world and sometimes good things

will come out of it, um, as they did for me, because clearly I Got into my

school, right?

Go decision and ended up here. And yeah, worked out. How did I choose my

major? So I kind of reference this a little earlier. Um, I applied as a cognitivescience major and this was primarily because and I really want to emphasize

this you do not Have to choose your major at most of these schools until the end

of your sophomore year By choose, I mean officially choose.

When you apply, you will put something as far as a ranking of usually three

majors that you are interested in. Now, if you’re interested specifically, I want to

say in like a college of nursing or a nursing specific major, you want to opt for

that right off the bat because it’s a separate school and a lot of them have

separate requirements and kind of a really, really rigorous headstart on this, like

on medicine education, if that makes sense.

Now for the pre med side of things, I think it’s a little different for pre med You

actually don’t get a lot of exposure to medicine if i’m being totally honest in

college It’s a lot of basic sciences. So it’s going to be like, you know, your your

physics your math your chemistry Organic chemistry and those things those

classes you can take as any major at any college camp on any college campus

Um, so I say that to really emphasize to all of you out there that what you are

putting down is your major If you’re thinking about applying Do your research

and see how it fits into your application.

So rewinding a little bit cognitive science I put with a focus in linguistics

because a lot of my application was centered around my interest in linguistics

and words and analyzing how words Kind of impacted or came from or was

related to our brain processes. Um, and you know, like kind of the science

behind linguistics.

I would say that once I got to college, I realized that wasn’t something that I was

necessarily interested in. So I didn’t actually stick with the cogsign, but again, I

had two years to explore a bunch of disciplines and figure out what exactly you

wanted to do. And I think that really helped support me.

So I ended up majoring. in science, technology, and society. It’s kind of a lesser

known major, or we call them concentrations at Brown, but it’s an

interdisciplinary major with, which means that it’s a combination exactly of

what you, what it looks like. It’s a combination of taking some science courses

as well as some society courses.

And by society, we mean some sort of discipline with which you are looking at

a particular area of interest. So for me, I chose medical anthropology as my

discipline. So I was using anthropological sort of principles of research, if you

will, um, to look at an area of interest, which for me was mental health.And as part of that, um, I did a lot of thinking about what. Why, for example,

medical school is structured the way it is. Like, why are white coats important?

Why are stethoscopes important? What are the kind of like human processes

behind medicine that really impact care? I thought a lot about racial disparities

in terms of care that’s given to different folks in the United States as well as

across the world.

There’s a lot of cross cultural aspects and the cross cultural especially came into

play with Thinking about mental health. So thinking about the ways in which

Western ideas of mental health and a medical model has really spread through

out the world. That makes sense. Um, so, yes, that was sort of the summary of

how I chose my major and kind of giving you all tips along the way.

So it’s not just for myself. Extra curricular activities. I get asked this a lot. Um,

again, there are no extra curricular activities that are going to guarantee you to

get into a top 30 school as a premed. That does not exist. Just like there is not a

GPA that will guarantee you and there’s not an SAT score that will get you in.

That being said, I think extracurricular activities, it is wise there to if you are

going to be applying pre med or to a science major, actually more specifically,

um, to show some interest in science, right? To make sure that it matches the

story once again. So my main activities, I was a cap, my cap, a captain of the

science Olympiad team.

So that on the outset, I think doesn’t sound very impressive and I would

completely agree. Science Olympiad is. a school team, right? It’s like very

regional. We placed well at regional, but we’ve never actually made it to

nationals because we’re from California and they were just other high schools

that were that beat us out every single time.

That being said, um, I came from a pretty underfunded school. As captain, I was

able to speak about the things that were under my responsibility. And a lot of

those things were taking on a lot more responsibility looking back in normal 18

year old does as far as how teams go. So I did a lot of admin work.

I did a lot of organization field trips. For example, I did all the field trip slips. I

organized hotels. Like I did a lot of, I think, work. And one of my essays

actually talked about how I felt like I really failed as a leader, um, because it

was, I remember, really, really at the time, again, something that was really,

really heavy on my shoulders, and I talked about that in my essays, and I

remember that actually came up in Feedback that I got back from missions

officer at Princeton.So once again, they are reading your essays and writing a good essay can really

go a long way. Even if it’s about something as mundane as, you know, an

extracurricular activity that I did. If you have something to say, um, don’t be

afraid of saying it. I guess. Um, my second one was team line. I think this one is

a little bit more interesting to a lot of you folks out there.

I’ve noticed is working in a suicide hotline. So basically I was a teen, I was on

the phone with people who were, actively in crisis. So a lot of times what that

meant was listening to people at the very base of it, but it was also doing crisis

assessments, right? It was thinking about how I was using my words to help, I

guess, metaphorically and literally walk people off the ledge.

And that was something that I talked about in my personal statement and was

something that has really stuck with me. Like I was talking about earlier, um, to

this day in terms of what career I’ve chosen and also in terms of figuring out

where my strengths lie and where I find Again joy in terms of thinking about

this path forward And it’s something that I really want all of you to think about

if you are interested in anything in the health care field There are so many

things so many like Jobs and careers that people don’t talk about that that exists

in the health care industry like public health For example, um, we were just

talking about and and what does that even mean?

Like I think those are things that Hopefully you get to talk to people older than

you, mentors, like, keep your eyes open and, um, certainly explore other

pathways that exist because there really are so many and there are some that are,

um, better and more suited to everyone out there. Final thing, um, I was editor

in chief of the school literary magazine.

Again, this was me talking about, like, I was showing my, my love of humor.

English writing humanities. Um, that was a prominent part of my application.

Awesome. Thanks so much, Katie. So now we’re going to move to a second

poll. I’m just going to ask where are you at in the application process? So while

we’re getting those polls, Um, I guess I was just just received this question and I

was just about to respond, but how about I send it over to you, Katie?

What exactly is a BSMD program? Yes, perfect question. And I forgot that it’s

not, um, I didn’t write it out in these slides because usually I talk it over a little

more. So a BSMD program is essentially exactly what it sounds like. You get a,

it’s a BS, so a Bachelor of Science and an MD, like the doctorate.Um. Combined in one, if that makes sense. So if you’re applying to a BSMD

program, there’s a ton of them. There’s some, um, for example, there’s one at

Brown, there’s one at Northwestern, but there’s also some that are more

regional. So University of Connecticut has one, I believe Rutgers has one. Um,

there’s like, uh, University of Oklahoma has one, I believe.

So all over the place again. Um, but essentially it’s a conditional acceptance into

medical school. The conditions are very different across all these programs and

I highly recommend if you’re interested in applying to do your research. Um,

the conditions could be anything from a GPA minimum to an MCAT minimum,

which is the test that you take to get into medical school, or it can be just taking

certain classes, which is what I had.

But again, it’s a conditional acceptance. Meaning if you met, if you meet all

these conditions, they have a seat waiting for you at that medical school. Um,

it’s associated with that program.

Fantastic. Thanks, Katie. So I’m going to go ahead and close that poll. It looks

like a really vast majority of the folks in the room today Really haven’t started

yet and are in the researching schools part. Um, so definitely early in their

application process. And like I said, I think this is the perfect time to be, uh,

kind of connecting with our, our team and learning more about, um, you know,

applying pre-med nursing or BSMD.

So, um, I’ll go ahead and bring it back over to y’all to keep going. Thanks for

everything.

Leticia. Yes, I’m here . Hi. So, um. So I focus more on the nursing side of

things. And so when I was a junior in college, in college, a junior in high

school, uh, I was an NJROTC, which is, you know, um, naval JROTC. And so

my focus was getting into the naval core scholarship and getting that full ride

covering all of my education and be able to join the Naval Nurse Corps, um,

right after I graduated.

So, um, I was applying pretty early, probably similar to Katie as well. Like you

start really early with your applications, your, whether it’s working your essays,

working on your letter recommendations, um, researching what schools you

want to go to and finalizing that list and then, you know, starting the actual

application.

So with this particular scholarship, it opens. In May or June, and then schools

usually open their applications between, you know, August, September. And so,I had applied, finished it by August. I was, I received the scholarship by

October. Um, because I received the scholarship, I pretty much got to pick and

choose what schools I wanted to go to that were on the list.

And so I, instead of applying to like 15 different schools, I just applied to the

ones that I was really interested in. And the only one I was really interested in

was Georgia State. So, um, I don’t recommend a lot of students applying to one

school. Um, please, you should apply to, you know, at least four or five schools

is a good, um, minimum start, you know, having 10 on your list is really great.

because you want to have options. Um, and I say that because then, uh, as

someone who did get a full ride scholarship and then with the Navy and military

in general, they’re very strict about health. And so I unfortunately have a peanut

allergy, so I ended up not getting that scholarship. And so, uh, for me, uh, when

you’re military living overseas in state is where you get Your parents own

property.

So Texas was in state. I didn’t know what schools existed in Texas because I

grew up on the East Coast. I’m from Rhode Island myself. Um, I’m from, yeah,

uh, Rhode Island. I grew up in Virginia. And so to me, it was like, what’s in

Texas? And so I applied to A&M Corpus Christi. And so, uh, that’s how my

crazy story happened.

So I’m a big advocate for students understanding the importance of having

backups and understanding it’s okay to have. safety schools, target schools, and,

and, um, you know, reach schools because you never know where you’re going

to end up. You know, you have a plan beginning of the year and by the end of

your senior year, like me, it can completely change.

Um, so that’s my little push there. Um, and then, so I kind of spoke of it earlier.

My passion is always helping people and, um, I have a passion for, um, sexual

reproductive health and maternal child health and women’s health. And so, um,

um, When I was pretty much about a freshman in high school, I really started

looking around at what aligned with those areas and nursing just fell in my lap

and fell, I fell hard in love with, um, nursing, it’s principals and, you know, um,

the teamwork they get to do, you know, they work alongside other nurses, but

they also work alongside, you know, doctors and midwives and, and, you know,

other health professionals.

professionals. And so midwifery was my big passion and focus. And so I, my

university was a pre nursing major. And then you apply for nursing school and

you do your last two years in nursing. Um, and so with that, um, with nursingprograms, You do have, it’s kind of similar, it’s like a faster paced version of

getting into med school and that it’s same thing.

You do more of your basic sciences, anatomy, biology, chemistry, physics, and

then you apply for nursing school in your last two years of nursing school, or

sorry, last years in college, it’s nursing school focused. So you’re doing your

clinicals and your rotations, you’re taking classes that are focused in the, um, the

medical field, and then you sit for your exam at the end and do that.

You, you know, uh, hopefully become a nurse by the end of that. And so, um, I

ended up switching out and doing health sciences and fell more in love with

public health. So I really, when I was thinking of nursing, I was thinking more

of the community outreach aspect of it. That’s what I wanted to do with nursing.

I, I didn’t really want to work in the hospital. I wanted to work more out in the

field, so to speak, of, um, being out in the community, working with people one

on one. Getting them to understand the importance of change in their life, um,

to help better their, their health, help better their, um, their livelihood around

them.

And so that’s when I switched to health sciences and then went on to, um, Do

public health as my master’s,

um, uh, but as far as what I did while I was in high school, um, I kind of was a

little all over the place. I, uh, I was in our, in JROTC. I was the third highest

ranking, uh, member of ROTC. I was in choir. I didn’t listen there, but I was

also in theater. I did national honor society. I did future business leaders in

America.

I did part time jobs and babysitting. I did track cross country basketball. So

there was no particular area I focused on. I actually didn’t do a lot of science

heavy, um, courses and I think that’s something that sometimes students get so

wrapped up and is that they have to have their entire portfolio aligned with

science because that’s what they’re trying to do.

eventually in college, you know, for medicine or nursing or anything that’s in

the medical field. And the thing is, is that, um, you know, medicine and science

field in general, it’s interdisciplinary, you know, you’re touching on multiple

different areas. That’s not just science. And so they want to see students that

have multiple interests, passions, and how are you going to take that, um, those

passions into Your degree, uh, because again, you know, being inquired, you

have to be a leader.You have to speak up and work and have teamwork. You need teamwork in in

the medical field as well, you know, having a part time job, understanding how

to balance multiple responsibilities as needed when you’re in the medical field.

So even if it doesn’t sound. Science focus or medicine focus. It doesn’t mean

that you can’t see the carrier characteristics of those, um, extracurriculars and

how they could be applied to, you know, your, um, your eventual career goals.

So just keep that in mind, you know, don’t, don’t overdo it with the sciences. It’s

okay to have a passion in music. It’s okay to have a passion in drawing and, and,

um, and things that are just so not related to. Nursing and medicine. So,

yeah,

I’m sorry. My camera was taking a little while to undo itself, but thank you so

much. Leticia and Katie for giving a little more background about, um,

yourselves. Um, so now we’re moving on to the live Q and a part of tonight’s

webinars where I will read through the questions you submit in the Q and a tab.

so much. Paste them into the public chat so you can see them and then read

them out loud before our panelists give you an answer. Just as a heads up, we do

have a large amount of folks in the room today. We’re looking at around 800

attendees. And so that means a lot of questions are being submitted. If we don’t

get to your question tonight, know that we saw it, um, but just didn’t have

enough time.

Not that we’re, you know, uh, You know, we’re going to try our best to get to as

many as possible. Um, I’ll also be sharing more info at the end about our one on

one consultations that we offer at CollegeAdvisor, where you can kind of get

that one on one time to ask specific questions and any questions that are missed.

So let’s dive in. I know that Letitia, myself, and Katie have already started

answering some questions as they come in. Um, So, uh, first question I see here

is, um, and I, I’d say this for both of you, if you can answer like, uh, you know,

from a, from the nursing standpoint, but also from the, you know, MD medicine

standpoint, you know, what are specific qualities or characteristics that stand out

in successful applicants?

Oh,

go for it. Sorry. Okay, you’re fine. Yeah, I think, um, I think for any applicant,

um, especially if you’re looking for, like, a direct entry program, whether it’s

direct entry nursing or, or BSNB program, um, I think having, um, a diversebackground and I say diverse in that, like, You don’t necessarily have to check

boxes of like, um, you know, certain gender or, or ethnicity, but more of like

having multiple interests.

And, um, and so I, I kind of pointed out earlier that you don’t necessarily have

to have everything be so science heavy. Um, I think it’s important to, um, show

off your personality and show off, um, attributes that, um, are important in that

field. So again, like compassion, empathy, um, um, being able to multitask, uh,

being able to think outside the box, like innovator or, or, um, you know, go get

her.

Those are things that we’re looking for. So I think if you find those traits in your

extracurriculars, that’s how it can shine out. So if you especially if you’re a

school that doesn’t offer a lot of I didn’t go to school that had a lot of science

heavy things to begin with. Um, and then, uh, Also, just because of my

passions, I didn’t want to really go into those areas.

But, um, you know, sometimes you’re not able to go on summer opportunities.

Sometimes you’re not able to, um, go across the country and, and get, take

advantage of certain, um, you know, pre med or nursing, um, activities. So the

way you do it is through, well, how do you show these attributes in other ways?

And so you find those particular areas or those, um, Descriptions, then you can

find how to apply those to your extracurriculars.

I would certainly second that and say the biggest mistake that I think I see when

I’m reading through my lovely pre med, pre biology, those applicants is a one

note applicant. Um, sometimes when I read essays, all of your essays about how

you wanted to go into medical school. You can imagine, right? Like I’m reading

five essays for for Brown’s program.

It’s I think it’s like seven or eight essays total. If I have to read eight essays or

like just rehashing why you want to go into medicine, I’m going to get bored.

And you never want the admissions officer to be bored. That is a no, no. Um, so

I think the biggest thing is to be very, very thoughtful about your essays.

And I think this, I think, I mean, you would explain that like super well, but like

the essays, like make sure you’re taking the time, right. To explain all those

qualities that we were just talking about, like. Have them show empathy, have,

like, show that you are compassionate, like, don’t, also don’t just, like, be like, I

am empathetic, that is also part of, oh, no, no, um, but those are the, yeah, I

think, I think you kind of hit all of them already, but the big things are those,

and then showing, like, do show your interest in, in medicine, if that’s whatyou’re doing, if you’re applying into a direct, um, entry, like, medic, medicine or

nursing program, like, do show your interest Um, in those fields specifically, but

please, please have essays that also do other things and kind of elaborate more

on you as a person, because you can certainly illustrate a lot of those qualities

that we want to see in other areas of your life.

Thank you both for that. Um, as a quick anecdote, I have a friend who went to

Northwestern for medical school and is now a successful emergency medicine

doctor, and he studied theater as an undergrad. and did all his pre med, uh,

work. And so, you know, it really is, it’s all about, you know, ensuring you get

those core science classes in, but showing, you know, focusing on what excites

you and that will make you an even better, uh, medical professional down the

line.

So I definitely agree with what Katie and Letitia said. So, um, real quick before

I ask the next question, I do ask that folks do not vote for your own questions. It

kind of messes up the order of the, uh, list. And I like to try to go in order of

submitted questions as much as possible. So please in the future do not, um, like

your own question.

Thank you so much. So another question that I got that I thought was really

interesting, um, and I know everybody’s thinking about it is how do you best,

um, you know, handle all the different things in high school that you need to

navigate with extracurriculars classes and, um, you know, college admissions,

how to best, you know, organize yourselves and make, you know, time for

everything.

Yeah, I always thought like back when I was in college, I remember looking

back at high school, I always thought I was so much busier and more tired and

more exhausted in high school than I was in college. Um, and I also wanted to

add on that. I know my major said science in it, but I really took a total of like 3

science classes and all of undergrad.

And no math and no physics. So I just want to add, like, I know I majored

something in science, but I actually don’t. Anyways, um, in terms of balancing it

all, I honestly, I, it was really about priorities. This is going to sound. Sort of

good and bad, but it’s like the fact that I lived pretty far from my school It was

like an half an hour to an hour bus ride every day And so I remember when my

mom was able to pick me up I would like eat dinner in the car when I was

coming back from like school clubs And that never bothered me personally like

we weren’t really like a family dinner table type of family So it never bothered

me never changed anything.That was one way in which I like Condense my time and like got things done

better again the huge priority things like if you know that you are really strong

in English for example, so for me, I didn’t stress too much about english

specifically And my stressor was all like always chemistry or physics or math

And so those are the things I spent a lot of time on and kind of Like, you know,

like balancing the times that you spend on things as well, making sure you give

yourself time to like decompress, relax.

Um, and the other thing, which I know I’m saying a bunch of teenagers out

there, so take this however you will, but I have always been actually pretty good

about not procrastinating. So I remember with like college essays, what I did

was like, I just think this also helps because I was like, I liked writing, but in my

like hour long again, bus rides where I was going, for example, to a summer

program.

I know there’s one at UCLA. That, um, UCLA was like an hour bus ride for me,

so I took the same bus every single day there, and every single day back, and on

that bus ride, like, I would just jot down things that I was thinking about, trying

to be contemplative, thinking about essay ideas, and that was one way where I

Honestly, after that, I’ve never, I went back to that document over and over.

It’s still in my Apple notes and, um, it saved me a lot of time from just sitting

there and being like, I can’t think of a thing to write my essays. Um, so I think

that was something that I did pretty well was just like condense and then also

like focusing only on my weaknesses a lot. Um, that’s what got me through the

tough times of high school.

Um, I’m a little bit older in that I graduated in 2011, so, uh, from high school.

And so, um, I was military. So every year was a new year for me. I went to four

different high schools, um, from freshman year to senior year of high school. So

it was like, you know, you get into a groove, you get into a routine and it’s like,

oh, okay, new place, new, new, um, demographics, new opportunities.

And so. I had so much that I did in high school because literally every year

there were some times I couldn’t do it. So my freshman year I was in track, I

was in cross country, I was in basketball, but then my sophomore year I was

only in theater and FBLA because I couldn’t do sports. Um, and then my junior

year was split half and half, so I spent half of it in Georgia and then the other

half I started in college.

I finished in Japan and finished my senior year in Japan. So it was, you know, it

was kind of like, okay, whatever opportunities are available to me, I’m justgoing to take it and just try and see what’s new. Um, but I agree with Katie. It’s,

it’s a matter of just kind of trying to figure out what are your strengths, what are

your weaknesses and, and what do you like to do?

So. For me, I like to challenge myself. And so, um, I tried an AP course. I tried

honors courses. Um, if there was a course I didn’t, I wasn’t comfortable in, I

didn’t take it in honors. Um, I had to take physics because I was sore at a

science class. So it was a chance to try physics. Didn’t do so well on it. Uh, but

you know, it was cool to at least challenge myself in that way.

Um, And so I think knowing your, knowing your boundaries and knowing like,

where are you comfortable challenging yourself and where you’re not

comfortable challenging yourself, that’s totally fine. And, you know, I wouldn’t,

if you know science is not the area that you want to, that you’re not strong in,

and I know it sounds crazy because we’re all here for nursing and med and pre

med, but like he said, she only had to take a couple.

Science courses. Don’t push yourself to take honors or AP or higher level

sciences if they’re not your strong suit. You know, you don’t want to challenge

or, or, or sacrifice your GPA just to show, Oh, look, I took all these challenging

courses, right? Um, and, and also just know how you balance. I’m, I’m a big

procrastinator.

Um, so I would not put too much on myself than I could. So it was the same

way in college as well. My freshman year, I just focused on being in school and

then I added extra curriculars as I went. So, um, It’s okay that you don’t have 15

different things that you’re doing right now as a freshman or as a sophomore,

you know, it’s okay that you don’t have 15 different leadership positions, um,

you know, take on those as they come, uh, and you’ll be able to shine through

with what you have.

Because you have the personality and the experience, regardless if you have 15

things or just 2 or 3 things. Um, but, but yeah, and, and also yeah, take time for

yourself. I think that was. the biggest thing that if we can say, put away, um,

take time for yourself. And, and when you start to put that portion away, it’s

good to be, you can start doing with yourself in, in college, in medical school, in

nursing school, and in your.

Your future career. Um, because if you don’t understand or plan or set that as a

portion of your life now, it’s really hard to start incorporating it later on because

it’s going to get a little bit tougher and tougher and tougher. And so those are.Areas I wish I had started a little bit more in high school and I learned it really

hard in college.

Um, but now I’m a little bit better right now. So thank you both. So I have 1

question 1st for Katie and then a question specific for Letitia after that. So 1st

question is. Um, Katie, while the benefits are often highlighted for BSMD

programs, can you talk a little more about the challenges of BSMD versus

undergrad and then applying for the medical school route?

Um, and then also, how did you figure out so early on in high school, you

wanted to go straight into a BSMD program? Those are all very very good

questions And i’m seeing a lot in the in the chat or in the q about like which one

is the better option Like which which one should I do and that’s kind of asking a

little bit of I want to start there.

It’s asking a little bit of the wrong question because BSM, whether you do

PSMD or you go the Prima route, it’s exact same either way. It’s not going to

impact whether you’re a surgeon or whether you’re a pediatrician, right? That’s

at the end of the day, you’re going to med school. And once you go to med

school, the rest of that stuff was erased.

Like the, how you got here no longer really matters. It’s the fact that you’re here

at medical school. I want to first start by saying that now, as far as I think the

challenges I do, that’s a, that’s a really good question. Um, of a BSMD program,

one thing I want to start with is that some of these programs are accelerated.

And so if you think about it, a lot of these six or seven year programs, what

they’re condensing is the undergrad. So that means you’re doing either two or

three years of undergrad. And so that means you must be taking all these

medical school science requirements. So think about like all the biology, the

chemistry, the orgo, the physics, right?

The math, you’re taking all of that in a lesson. A shorter amount of time, which

means you also on top of that have less time for classes outside of those things

So it’s it’s double fold in terms of like you are having a more intense more

rigorous schedule You might have to take winter or summer courses even so it is

really intense, especially those six year programs And the third thing, which is

maybe this is a me speaking from my heart thing, is missing out on those

classes that I was really excited about would have been a huge, I think, uh, hurt

to my heart because I, I was really, really pumped about taking a lot of the

classes that were offered here at Brown.Um, very excited about like, About what courses were being offered. Okay. So

that’s kind of like one of the, the accelerated challenges. The other thing is as far

as like selection and freedom, right? Um, so one thing I will say, some programs

you can drop out. So Brown, for example, because we are a four plus four,

meaning we are exactly the same as if you went to college and then applied to

medical school, it’s still four plus four, right?

I could have dropped out of medical, like the medical pathway at any time in

undergrad and also at any time in medical school. But with loans. So like, but

theoretically, like I could have left the program at any point in time, um, and

decided on who do medicine. And many of my classmates did that. Some of

them went into CS, some of them went into engineering, some of them went

into finance, even some of them just like went into the arts, like, like everyone,

you are allowed to diverge at Brown’s program.

That might not be possible. is true for all other programs. I want you to keep

that in mind. The other thing is that I have a conditional acceptance to Brown’s

medical school. So that means if I decided I wanted to, um, try my chances at a

different medical school, I would have to, first of all, uh, apply as a typical

premed student.

So I would have applied with all the same requirements as a premed student

instead of like the shortened requirements that I had as a BSMD student. And I

would have to do the MCAT and I would have to basically go through the

system again. But I would have been able to have my pick or, you know,

theoretically, if I was good enough, I would have had the pick of all the medical

school I could have applied to.

So I could have gone back home to LA, for example. Um, I could have gone to

a different, um, like a higher tier medical school, for example, right? If those are

things that you wanted to prioritize. So you do get less freedom, right? Like I

am, I am committed to being at Brown essentially for the full eight years.

Um, So those I think are two of the major, I think, challenges. And the other

thing is the cost. Uh, Brown is not cheap. Uh, medical school is definitely not

cheap. Brown has much better financial aid for its undergrad. But for those of

you who hopefully you don’t know yet, I would hope you don’t know, but

medical school does not offer financial aid.

Or merit scholarships. Really? Um, it’s like a very, like, it’s a case by case basis,

but a lot of the times it’s loans you’re taking out from the government. I’m beingtotally honest. And it’s a lot of loans. Um, I think the average medical student

graduates with like 200 K or something like that in loans.

It’s not like a small amount. And so that is definitely something to. Keep your

eye out on, um, as far as how I figured out in high school, I think part of it I will

say was that I had the freedom to drop out if I’m being totally blunt. Um, I think

if I had gone to a different path that wasn’t BSMD, I think you would be looking

at someone who is probably not a doctor right now.

I probably would have gone down a different path if I’m being totally honest,

because I really did love anthropology and I really, I could have become a

clinical psychologist or a social worker or whatever, um, and still, I think,

accomplished a lot of what I enjoy and had less. Especially with the

competitiveness of applying to medical school.

I’m not sure I would have survived that to be totally honest I don’t like science

very much or math. Um So that being said that’s why this program exists. It’s

for people sort of like me with um, If if from the medical school perspective, I

fall into that diverse, uh, like background in that sense in in one small way in

that I am not a STEM major, and that actually is diversity, part of diversity, if

you think about it, um, when it comes to medicine.

Um, so, sorry, long story short, just to say, I’m very happy to be where I am

now, now that I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, now that I’ve done my

rotation on Child Psych, and I’m like, I really, really am so excited to be a

doctor. But if you had asked me as a senior in undergrad, I think I would have

told you, especially during COVID, I would have told you I would have gone

somewhere else.

And so me knowing as a high schooler, I think no matter what, for any 18 year

old, that is somewhat of a falsehood because you could not possibly have

experienced all the disciplines out there in college. And if you’re applying to be

SMD program, I want you to make sure no matter what you keep your mind

open.

I always say, if you want to be a doctor or anything in healthcare, check with

yourself frequently. If you still want to be in healthcare as you go along the

path, like literally every month, Even every day I, I pretty much do. I check it

with myself and say, is this still the right path for me? It’s a long path.

Thanks so much, Katie. I know that, um, it is a long and challenging, um, but

often rewarding if you, you know, it is the right fit for you and you find, uh, thespecialty that you love. So, um, I really appreciate the candor and, uh, some of

the insight into kind of how you, you made your decision. So, Katie, not Katie,

Letitia, before I go on to your question, I’m going to do a quick pitch for our

CollegeAdvisor programs, if you don’t mind.

Um, so, uh, you know, for anybody in the room who isn’t already working with

us, um, You know, as you can see through this webinar, it is very overwhelming

to apply to college and figure out how to take the next step to a medical career.

So, a CollegeAdvisor, we have a team of over 300 former admissions officers

and admissions experts who are ready to help you and your family.

Navigate it all in one on one advising session. So if you want to take the next

step in your admissions journey, sign up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy

session with an admission specialist on our team using the QR code on the

screen. During that session, um, our specialists will review your current

extracurricular list.

your application strategy, discuss how they align with your college list. And if

you are targeting the SMD programs as well as outline the tools that you may

need to stand out in what is a very competitive admissions world. So I highly

recommend you scan this QR code and sign up for a free consultation.

It’s a really great. opportunity to connect with an admission expert and get a

sense of, you know, the type of, uh, knowledge and expertise our team can

provide you. So back to the Q& A, I’ll keep this QR code up. Um, so Letitia,

can you explain what a pre nursing major is?

Yeah, it always says it’s me. Okay, so pre nursing major is actually what

majority of students are going in as. There are schools that have direct entry

nursing programs, and I’ll kind of explain the difference between the two, but

for the most part, you’re usually going into college as a pre nursing major, kind

of similar to how you go in as a pre med major, right?

So you’re going in, you’re taking usually like biology, microbiology,

pathophysiology, anatomy. Um, something that, you know, psychology courses

and in your general, like, you know, English and history, wherever you have to

for every other school. Um, and then you, you will then around the middle of

your sophomore year apply for nursing school.

And so it’s kind of, like I said, it’s like a shortened version of how you apply for

med school and that, you know, you. You know, just because you attended this

school, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll get into that nursing program. Soyou should always apply to like multiple nursing programs, just like you would

apply to like multiple medical schools when you’re eventually going off to med

school, if you did the traditional, you know, pre med route.

Um, And so then, you know, you usually take either like, there’s a nursing

entrance exam, it’s usually like the Kaplan, Tees, HESI, um, those are like the

top three ones. There’s a couple other ones, but those are the ones that usually

you hear the most about. Uh, and then, uh, you obviously, obviously have to

have a certain GPA.

So those test scores, and then of course the right classes. And then you spend

your last two years, Pursuing nursing school. So you’ll be doing geriatrics, peds,

OB, um, or sorry, L and D, psychiatric, uh, and then towards the end of that,

you’ll sit for the NCLEX and then you, hopefully you’ll graduate with your BSN

and you’ll be a nurse.

Um, now a direct entry nursing program, uh, They vary from school to school.

Sometimes it’s, you know, you get in and you’re automatically accepted into the

school’s nursing program. So after, like, your first year, you’ll be immediately

going into nursing school. Some other programs is more like a guaranteed

admissions, kind of like the BSMD program where, like, you do your first two

years and instead of applying, as long as you took the nursing entrance exam

and you got the classes completely needed to, You are, you are guaranteed a

spot already in the nursing program once you go into your junior year.

So you don’t have to do a separate application. You are guaranteed admissions

when you apply as a high school senior. So there’s like the two biggest

differences as far as direct and guaranteed admissions. And so, um, so yeah, so

that’s pretty much what a pre nursing major is. It’s just someone who, who

wants to be a nurse.

Um, but they’re not in the actual nursing program yet, so they have to complete

all the prerequisites to then become a nursing student.

Thank you so much. So another question we received and I’ll present it to both

of you is, um, how else can I stand out as a pre, um, Pre med, nursing, um,

BSMD, prospective students. Besides, you know, not majoring in STEM, like,

what are ways to stand out since it is so competitive and a lot of folks have

many of the same, um, experiences and backgrounds?

Sorry, was it, um, how to stand out to the medical school, or the nursing school

application, is that the question? Yeah, just how to stand out as a pre healthcare,um, student. Okay, got it. Um, I think, this is going to sound repetitive, but one

of the biggest ways as a high schooler you can stand out is, um, if you can have,

if you have extracurriculars where you can show an interest in medicine, that

can be something like volunteering at the hospital, um, shadowing

opportunities.

I would, I would put out there because I think everyone is very, very stuck on

the shadowing thing. Um, I never shadowed a single hour in my life in high

school. Um, and majority of my time in the hospital was me right now. So I will

say it’s like people get really stuck on it. It’s not like one of those things where

it’s gonna make or break your application.

It’s really gonna come down to, like, think of your application as an argument.

You’re making an argument for why they should trust this 18 year old is going is

like, No, they want to go into healthcare profession, right? Like I have to

convince them like, this is not just like a, um, like a dream that came to you one

day.

Or your parents were like, be a doctor and you’re like, I’m going to be a doctor.

Um, like it’s truly convincing them as an argument as part of it. Um, convincing

them that you have the qualities, right? The, The empathy the maturity like all

those things for them to essentially take a risk on you or take a take a chance on

you As a phrase take a chance on you as an 18 year old This is for a lot of those

like pre med bsmd programs now in general how to stand out I think across

medical school and across high school is going to be The same things

repetitively it’s gonna be having really good essays that are convincing to a

human because a human is reading your essays And the best way I think of it is

to get into college I don’t know how many of you out there know this but there’s

an admissions officer who’s a Essentially championing for you to get it like

there’s someone assigned to your area Who’s like, I really want this kid to get

into my school or my program.

And so if you think of it that way, which is how I thought of it, which really,

really helped, it’s all about, like, you have to make that human appeal. Um, and

so to stand out, like what stands out to me as someone who reads applications is

like truly good, thoughtful essays that have clearly shown that they thought

through why they want to go into this field and have evidence of that.

Whether it be like exposure to health care or able to pick out certain stories

where they’re able to show, Oh, here’s how I’ve observed. And here’s why I

think this is a good fit for me. So introspection, the word of the day.Yeah, I don’t, I’m like trying to think I really add to that. I think we kind of

touched on it a lot in, in that, you know, having being well rounded, that’s all we

can just drill into your head, drill into your head, drill into your head. Nope.

Being well rounded. And I think this also connects. I think a lot of you ask

questions about like essay tips and things like that.

And so I’m going to kind of drag that in here a little bit in that, um, when you

have so much, not so much, but when you have a variety in your application, it

makes it easier for you to kind of talk about things in your essays because You

know, especially if you’re applying to like highly selected schools, like your

Ivy’s and your top 50 schools, they’re going to, they’re going to have a lot of

essays.

I think Stanford, for example, has 11 supplemental essays, you know, some of

these schools have 7, 10, you know, plus essays to write with. And if you’re only

writing about 1 thing over and over and over again, it’s going to get boring for

you for sure. But even more for the admissions officer who’s reading it, they’re

like.

Well, who else are you? You seem very one dimensional. So, um, you know,

just being willing to have multiple parts of your personality and letting them

shine. I have students right now that are writing about baking and I have

students that are writing about, um, how they started their own little business

selling, um, their own art on the side and they wanted to go, they were trying to

be a business major.

So, you know, and that particular student is now going off to Boston College on

a full ride scholarship. So it’s like, you know, it doesn’t have to be everything

about. Um, this major, so if I’m business, I have to be all things. This is from

science. I’m all science. Um, just I think if there’s nothing else you can take

away from this presentation in this, um, you know, Q and a is.

Is, um, being open to other things and doesn’t have to be always research. It

doesn’t always have to be. I’m shadowing same thing. A lot of times, majority of

students who are applying didn’t do shadowing and I think in a post code world

is a little harder to find shadowing opportunities anyway. So, um.

Find other ways to, to be, um, in, in your community. I think that’s another thing

being involved in your community in some way or aspect is, is great. So, um, I

think I’ve covered a little bit, everything else.Fantastic. Thank you. So with our last five minutes, Katie and Letitia, would

you both be willing to pick, you know, one question that’s standing out to you in

the chat right now and answering that? We’ve

been relying on you too, too much,

just wanted to give you an opportunity to, uh, answer a question that you are

very excited about.

I can answer, I think the first one that I saw that’s. Um, a little more general, um,

in terms of picking a, like a specialty within, I think this is actually within

healthcare. So like between medicine, nursing, I also want to put a plug out

there for, uh, physician’s assistance. PAs, um, actually are very, very, like they

do a lot, especially, and I’ve only, I’ve seen them a lot in the ER setting as well

as on the, Neurology setting personally, and they do a lot like you have the

oversight of a of an MD doctor typically, but it’s it’s like it.

Please don’t overlook that as like a potential career course. Um, I will also put a

plug out there for the fact that there are MD schools, like. I don’t actually know

what MD stands for. I’ll give up on that. And then there’s the osteopathic

schools. You get a DO degree. So also plugging that out there. Um, but finally

what I wanted to get out and hopefully maybe let you should come on this too,

in terms of medicine versus nursing.

I think They end up being two actually very different jobs and this was

something that I also was very confused about and we are taught very not well

about this in medical school I will say until I was in the hospital. We’re doing

very different things. Um, some doctors don’t get like a lot of face time with

patients when being totally honest.

A lot of sitting there like depending on the kind of doctor you are, some doctors

you’re like thinking a lot. All the time like i’m looking at this basically table of

numbers that indicate to me all your electrolytes And i’m thinking and i’m

thinking and i’m trying to figure out your problem and that might take me

multiple hours It also involves me calling families a lot.

Um, I spend a lot of hours calling families I spend a lot of hours like making

sure your medication orders are in there’s a lot of admin stuff, too Like I have to

every time I talk to someone I have to document what we talked about Um, we

do a lot more physical exam stuff. I would say You Um, and nurses are like on

the ground, they’re administering the medications.They’re doing a lot of like the stuff that doctors honestly could not do and never

get to do. We did a course on this, uh, actually, it was like a practice course that

was like, what are the common errors that you could fix? And a lot of doctors

couldn’t fix them because a lot of them were like nursing things, like putting in

an IV, for example, a doctor.

So, okay, not all doctors are not equal, but some doctors are unable to do. Um,

so I’ll start there. And then as far as, as far as specialty within medicine, I think

this is definitely like a Future you problem for sure. Most of my classmates

that’s in third year medical school are not like me and are definitely not set on a

specialty as of yet And are really figuring it out as they go.

That being said, um, There are some more competitive specialties out there.

Surgery, for example, is one of them. Um, and if you feel like you’re someone

who might be interested in surgery certainly something to um, When you get to

college, you’ll have a lot more opportunity to I think shadow doctors, especially

even in high school I don’t know if maybe some of you have family friends or

something that you can shadow typically not a surgeon But anyways, maybe

you do um, but in college or in medical school You’ll have that opportunity and

you’ll be able to see if this is really the right lifestyle for you is a big one I think

People call it lifestyle specialties for a reason, right?

Like if you consistently really hate mornings, surgery might not be for you. I

think I woke up at 4 30 AM every morning when I was on surgery rotation, it

was dark out and think about the winter. I was there during the summer. So

there are things that you should definitely take into account, but it’s a later

problem.

And for right now, I want you guys all same, same story though. Focus on

again, what is going to bring you fulfillment if you have to do this every single

day and, um, Yeah, that’ll hopefully help you decide a little bit more. Um, one

that stuck out to me, and I, because I get this asked a lot, is, um, how much of

an impact does what, I guess they’re saying, what undergrad school you go to

have a chance to get into med school, or I guess even like, nursing too, um, It

has somewhat of an impact, but not as much as a lot of students think.

Because a lot of students think, Oh, I have to go, I have to go to this school to

get into this school. And that is not true. Uh, not only do I work for

CollegeAdvisor, I also work for UT health here in, in the medical center here in

Houston. And so, um, I work with students who are pursuing dual degrees in.both an MD and an MPH as well as other degrees as well. And so when you see

where these students who are going to med school are coming from, so you’re

going to UT Health, they’re going to, we work with Baylor, we work with a lot

of different medical schools here in Texas. And so, um, these students are

literally coming from everywhere.

Yes, you have students coming from Ivy League schools, but then you have

students coming from my little small 12,000 student alma mater in small Corpus

Christi, Texas. So it’s literally from everywhere. The most important thing is

again, just like in high school, taking advantage of the most of what’s offered to

you in your environment, you know, so for y’all who are in rural areas, you

know, that’s why a lot of schools ask for school reports.

I’m sorry, a lot of colleges ask for school reports because they want to know

what’s available at your school. So if there’s only five APs and you’re taking all

five, you’re doing great compared to a student that has 50 AP classes and they

only took two. So I think sometimes we get so wrapped up in our head about

like, oh, I’m going to a small town or I live somewhere where I don’t have a lot

of opportunities.

How am I going to stand out? You are that big fish in the small pond. And it’s

the same kind of thought process that happens in college as well. You know,

maybe you aren’t going to thrive at a huge state school. Maybe you will thrive

better at some of the smaller Ivies, or maybe you’ll thrive at some of the smaller

state schools, um, or vice versa.

Maybe, uh, wherever you end up thriving. take advantage of what’s there. And,

and then, um, every school has like pre health advisors. They have a committee

to help you apply. They usually have like MCAT or, or HESI or TEAS or some

kind of, you know, classes to take to get you prepared for your entry exams. So,

um, and in another thing too, if you’re really focused on the finances of it, I

went to a private school for my master’s and, you know, where my degree is on

the same level as like medical schools, as far as like how much.

They give you so yeah, I’m sitting at a really high number for student loans for

my master. And so if finance is another aspect, that’s why we incorporate the

importance of having multiple options because Yes, great if you’re able to go to

these schools, but if you can’t afford it, it’s okay if you go to your state school

where you can afford it and then you’ll go to, you know, Brown for medical

school or Harvard for medical school or wherever, John Hopkins, things like

that, you know, because at the end of the day, you know, you’re going to have a

big ticket price.So it’s okay to go to a smaller school and enjoy your time there. I think if you,

and I think that’s another thing too, if you enjoy your four years in, in

undergrad, it’s going to show when you start applying to med school. If you’re

just like trying to, you’re struggling through the finances of it, you can’t, can’t

really afford to then take advantage of other things.

And what was the point of going to that, you know, top school if it didn’t work

out for you financially or mentally or emotionally, you know, so, Oh my gosh,

thank you both for such thoughtful answers to both of their questions. Um, I

think End of our webinar. Um, while I close this out, I just wanted to respond to

this question of how can I help myself not get discouraged easily when it comes

to applying to college and pre med programs.

As you heard from both of our experts today, it is a very competitive process

going into the health field and there are a lot of considerations. Um, but I think

what, you know, drives A lot of folks in medicine is the passion and the

excitement to, um, you know, continue to learn and, you know, work and help

folks.

And so I highly recommend to just, you know, remind yourself of what you’re

passionate about, um, and focus on that throughout your, your time applying.

And also in, you know, in undergrad and medical school, um, your passions are

what should, uh, kind of, you know, Help you with on your path. Um, and know

that the team here at CollegeAdvisor is really excited to help support you If you

are feeling really overwhelmed Um, so again, that is the end of our webinar.

Um, I really hope that you enjoyed it I know it was a lot of information Um, I

hope that you will join us for future webinars. Thank you to Katie and Latisha

Um, we have a few different webinars coming up this time December, as well as

we’re in the process of confirming our January webinar. We’re always doing,

um, wherever the webinars related to, um, you know, healthcare and, um,

identifying colleges to apply to.

I know Katie’s even done deep dives into BSMD programs that we’ll probably

redo sometime soon. So definitely a lot of opportunities to learn even more, um,

and get the support that you need. So thanks again for joining. Um, and we hope

to see you soon. Bye everyone.