Building a Pre-Med and BSMD School List

Webinar Transcription

2023-03-08 – Building a Pre-Med and BS/MD School List

Anesha: Hi everyone, and welcome to tonight’s webinar. My name is Anesha Grant. I am a senior advisor at CollegeAdvisor, and I will be your moderator today. Tonight’s webinar is building a pre meds and BSMD school list. Before we get started, I just want to orient everyone with the webinar timing. Our presenter will share some guidance, anecdotes, and tips, and then we will open up the floor to respond to your questions in a live Q& A.

You can download our slides under the handouts tab, and you can start submitting questions. In the Q and a tab whenever you get ready. Now, let’s meet our panelist, Katie. Hey, Katie.

Katie: Hello. Hi, everyone. My name is Katie. Uh, and I am currently a second year medical student at Brown University. Um, I also went to Brown for undergrad as a BSMD Student, and I will be talking a lot more about all of that.

Anesha: Before we let Katie get started, we did want to start with a poll just to see if everyone is familiar with the topic today and what the status is. So please let us know, um, What your status is on applying to BSMD programs. Are you already set?

Are you still uncertain? Are you still deciding or do you not even know what they are? And thankfully, I know that will be one of the slides that Katie will talk about is defining what BSMD programs are, um, Katie, while you’re in medical school, what is maybe one of the most interesting Interesting things you’re learning about this year.

Katie: Yeah. Oh, that’s a good question. Um, so I’m starting my rotation soon So i’m going to be on surgery first, which is kind of a rough one to start off with first, but i’m excited Yeah, that’s a rough one a very rough one But I it’s like wild to me how many different like personalities like are associated with all the different surgery specialties but also like how different each one is as far as like What the atmosphere is.

So I’m trying to like preemptively learn about it. So when I don’t get startled when I get in there and people are like, you need to stand for five hours and also wear a 50 pound vest versus like some other specialties are like, yeah, you can sit. And we just sit here all day and pray and like,

Anesha: I

Katie: gotta know which one it is.

I gotta be prepared.

Anesha: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I have friends who went through medical school, and I remember a lot of the stories, and it’s always been fascinating to me, and stressful, um, but you know, they love it at the end of the day, and I learned a lot through them, but, um, I hope you’re enjoying yourself, and learning through the different surgeries, I think I never fully understood how complicated the different types of surgeries you could go through, um, until my friends kind of went through it, so, um, Thanks for sharing.

And I know you’ll share a bit more about your experience, but we’ll go ahead and close out the poll. And just as an FYI, about 50 percent of the folks, so 52 percent of the people in here said they are planning to apply to a pre med program to both traditional undergrad and BSMD. Um, 2 percent are saying no, 16 percent are still deciding and 31 percent honestly said, what is a BSMD program?

So we’ll be educating a few folks in this space. Um, all right, well, I will be back a little bit later for another poll, but I’ll hand it over to you, Katie.

Katie: Sounds good. All right, everyone. So starting off, I know that a lot of you already are self identifying as pre med interested in BSMD programs, but I thought we’d start from the very beginning because I want to dispel a couple of, I think like common misconceptions for folks who are applying and I’ve, um, for context, I’ve worked as an advisor for, I think, oh, like six, seven years now.

So I worked with a lot of pre med students. So I kind of know, I know the space and I know what, what, you know, Things are question questions are running through y’all’s minds. Um, so what does it mean to be pre med? I want to first start there What it all it means is that you are thinking about applying to med school and that applies for you now as a high school That applies for you later on as a college student You can self identify as a pre med for as long or as little as you want and it doesn’t actually You know Mean anything in terms of like a formal declaration at most most places Um, which is very different from how it’s done in other countries So what does it not mean?

It does not mean you have to apply as a biology or human biology or neuroscience or whatever any of those majors I want to make that very clear. Um what you apply as a major can really be anything and for some For some folks that I actually be to your benefit, even to apply to a different non biology major.

Um, I want to be also clear that at most of these schools, you don’t declare your major until you’re at the end of your sophomore year. So what you apply as really has no bearing on what you end up majoring in even. Um, so I want to make that very clear that it’s not like you have to do biology to be pre med.

What it means to be pre med is that you have to be doing the classes that a medical school is requiring So typically medical schools require for example biology calculus organic chemistry like those kinds of courses And as long as you’re doing those you can really do any major you want Um, so I want to make that starting kind of point clear I also does not mean that you have to indicate any sort of interest in medicine in your college application.

Now, I know a lot of you guys might want to do that, and I totally encourage that. What I’m trying to say is you do not have to declare in your application that you want to be a doctor in order to become a doctor. You can certainly change your mind later on, even like, You know your last year of college not ideally but you know You can even change your mind up till then like even later in life Um go have another career and then become a doctor, right?

So I want to make it very clear that it’s not about talking about you want to be a doctor And you don’t necessarily have to do that Um, if you work with a CollegeAdvisor, you might want to talk with them in terms of strategizing Based on your portfolio and your extracurriculars Do I want to talk about wanting to become a doctor or do I want to work on something else?

Do I want it to be part of my application? Which essays do I want it to be a part of? Certainly not all of them. Hopefully. Um, so You It’s definitely something that you want to strategically think about. Um, you do not need to know what specialty you need to go into. I know that’s like a common thing.

People will be like, oh, I want to go into medicine. The immediate response is, oh, what kind of doctor do you want to be? Um, most medical students, including myself, don’t know that officially until like the end of our third year of medical school. So it’s very much something that like you do not, you’re not expected to know, and you do not need to be on your application.

Be like, oh, yes, I know. I want to be a cardiovascular surgeon, and that’s the only way you can show your interest in medicine. It definitely does not. It does not appear that way. And in fact, someone telling me, Oh, as a high schooler. Oh, I want to be a cardiovascular surgeon does not make me think that they are more or less interested in medicine or that I trust that their judgment more or less to be totally honest.

I’m more just like, Oh, okay, interesting. fine. Um, I can’t honestly fathom that a high school necessarily would know what it means to be a cardiovascular surgeon. So in that, in that way, it does not place a lot of weight on that yet. Um, also you can’t change your mind. I think like 30 percent of students who entered premed to most colleges actually end up staying premed.

A lot of folks take these classes in their freshman year, you know, take a couple of biology, a couple of chemistry classes, and they end up saying it’s not for them. Um, Or they would prefer engineering or they would prefer going to something completely different. Um, so it’s definitely one of those things where you can always change your mind.

Like I said, pre med is not a formal declaration. It’s not like a thing where you have to sign away your life too. It’s not a binding kind of thing. You can always change your mind. Um, want to make that clear as well. Okay. So we’ll start off with what is a BSMD program? And I hope that’s for like the 30 percent or so people out there who might be wondering for that question.

Um, I was a part of once, which is why I can kind of speak a little bit more to them. And I also applied to a couple. So typically a BSMD program is a seven or eight year program where you have a conditional condition. Acceptance to a medical school. What that means is that you are applying as a senior in high school, you’re applying to both the undergrad and the medical school at the same time.

Um, so typically your application will have additional essays, you’ll have additional, um, like forms you have to fill out. You might have an interview as well for the medical school, and that’s completely separate from. You getting into the undergrad university, obviously, you have to get into the undergrad university in order to get into the med school.

It’s a kind of, you know, it’s like part of the process, but, um, it’s like there too. It’s almost like they give them as like two different applications because usually at most schools, two different groups of people are reading them and admitting you. So this is also different for early assurance program.

I’ve gotten that question a lot. Um, an early assurance program is typically offered at particular schools. And what it means is that in your sophomore year, usually at the beginning of your sophomore and a sophomore year in college, you’re applying again for conditional acceptance into a medical school.

So pretty famously, I think Mount Sinai has one as well as a couple of schools for their own undergrads. Where you can get accepted to medical school based off just your undergrad, first and second year grades. Um, but this is different because you are getting accepted without attending any college, without having any college classes at all.

Um, so in terms of the BSMD programs, there are a couple of different kinds. Um, obviously there’s like the one that I went to, for example, which is at Brown. Um, I also applied to ones at, you know, University of Rochester, at Rice, at Wash U has one, um, Northwestern. These are all Um, you know, there are a lot of great universities where you know, you go, you go to Brown for undergrad, then you go to Brown Medical School.

There are also state programs. Um, there were none in, I think, in California where I think that’s gonna be a new one in California, but that’s where I’m from. But typically they are state programs, um, that prefer their own in state candidates. So University of Connecticut, for example, at least when I applied, had a BSMD program and I know like on the website, they say, you know, prefer in state students, but typically they will accept out of state students, or they might say, we do not accept out of state applicants.

And so those are things to pay attention to because they’re program by program specific. Um, there’s also certain types of BSMD programs that prefer students who want to enter primary care. So I think the one at least I remember when I was applying was University of Akron, I believe, I think in, Oklahoma or Ohio.

I can’t remember. Um, where they said, you know, we’ll, we’ll accept you, give you a conditional acceptance to medical school. The only requirement is that we ask that you go into primary care when you finish medicine. And this is because there is a sore lack of primary care physicians in the U. S. and we desperately need more of them.

And so we’re trying to make the pathway easier for those who want to go into primary care. And finally, some information to note, these programs are small, and they’re also very competitive. So, they’re typically 10 to 20 students, so if you imagine, right, like, you know, a couple thousand students are applying to a program on average, and they only accept 10 to 20 students, like, it’s gonna be a pretty competitive environment.

Um, the biggest one that I know of is honestly, the one that I’m at, which is Pliny, the program, the role, medical education at Brown, and that we are 60 students per class. So we are like the biggest that I know of. I think we’re like by far the largest of BSMD program and still yet I think our acceptance program or acceptance rate is that like to, it hovers around like two, 2.5 percent every year. That’s something to note. If you’re applying to a BSMD program, I certainly would not only apply to BSMD programs and hedge your bet on only getting into these and like going to these because I, the numbers typically are not in your favor. I highly encourage students to also apply pre med as well, which is what I did as well.

So most programs also importantly have a pretty typical undergrad experience. Um, like I said, there are seven year programs. So for those, you would have three years of undergrad, four years of medical school. Uh, typically none of these programs cut short the medical school part. It’s, it’s pretty hard to have a medical school experience that’s any shorter than four years.

Um, so that’s, you know, the undergrad is what is, you know, Shorten typically. Okay. So what is the best way to evaluate these pre med programs? Um, so I have a couple of things I think separately to pay attention to. What the first thing is with the BSMD programs, um, please make sure you are paying attention to the programs individually because each of them are very different, um, and they’re all like individually run.

It’s not one of those things where like, It’s like across all the Ivy Leagues, they all have this certain set of standards. It’s very much like individual programs run their programs their own way. So a couple things to pay attention to as you’re evaluating, applying to these programs, thinking about these programs.

Do they require an MCAT? Do they have an MCAT minimum score? Score. Um, so I think the one that I know pretty famously is Wash u. Wash U does require an mcat, and I think they do have a minimum MCAT score. So what that means is you go there for, you go to Wash U for undergrad, and as you have a conditional acceptance to medical school, as long as you take the MCAT and get the minimum MCAT score, um, you will be able to matriculate into the med school and you, you.

Go on become a doctor. Um, same thing with GPA requirement, right? So a lot of these schools will have like for example, uh, 3.5 in science classes, for example, GPA minimum So as long as you meet that 3.5 You have you you match those conditions for that acceptance and you will go matriculate to that medical school that you’ve already been accepted to Um, another thing to think about is how many required classes do I have do I have to take classes over the summer?

So for some of these BSMD programs, they’re a little bit shorter. Um, so, you know, there’s six, seven year programs. And if you think about it, you still have to take a good amount of STEM classes within that, like two or three year undergrad experience. And so for some of these programs, you might have to take classes over the summer, for example, to be able to match that accelerated pace.

Um, they’ll also have different requirements for what, Like medical school required classes you have to take. So, for example, at Brown, um, we were required to take the first semester of organic chemistry, but not the second semester. Typically for the, like, you know, more typical premed journey, you do have to take the second semester of Orgo.

So there’s kind of like different divisions in terms of what requirements there are, um, what you are exempt from. So, for example, I got out of taking physics because of, like, uh, credits that I had, and most, Pre med students are definitely like, you have to take physics in undergrad in order to be pre med.

Um, so it’s one of those things where different programs give you different flexibility. I think Brown as an, as like an institution is, is famous for its flexibility. And so that’s probably why I had that so many options and, you know, got away with taking all the classes that I really loved and then exempted out of the classes I did not love.

Really love to take. Um, you also want to pay attention to if you can leave the program. Um, by that, I mean two different things. One, can you leave the program entirely? So let’s say you go to, you know, you get into a BSEMT program, you go, you’re like, I actually don’t want to become a doctor anymore. Can you drop out?

And I have several classmates who do that. Certainly, like they, you know, they find that they’re a different dream that they didn’t realize they had and follow that instead. Um, Or for gap years. So how many gap years are you allowed? Are you allowed any gap years at all, right? Maybe for a lot of students, they want to take a year off or two years off in between undergrad and medical school just to go out and experience life, have a job, you know, make some money to pay for medical school.

All those are very valid things to do. And so, and it’s actually becoming more and more common. So it’s one of those things where what kind of flexibility, again, does the program offer you in terms of that? And then finally, Can you apply out? So what does applying out mean? Applying out means that, so typically you have a conditional acceptance.

At Brown, that would be to the Brown Medical School. At Northwestern, that would be to Feinberg, Northwestern Medical School. Um, programs have different rules as to if you can apply to other medical schools, um, outside of that medical school you’ve been conditionally accepted to. So I’ll give Brown’s example again because I know it the best because I know like the policies here.

So at Brown you are allowed to apply, apply out. So for example, if I wanted to I could have applied to um, let’s say my home state like a UCLA’s medical school. Um, however, Brown’s policy is that if you apply out, if you apply to other medical schools, you automatically forfeit your seat at Brown’s medical school.

So that means is that if I wanted to still come to Brown medical school, I would have to reapply formally and I would have to get it informally through, you know, Brown’s pathway. Um, so that’s one way if you decide like, you know, for whatever reason you don’t want to attend that institution. BSD institution.

You can apply out and if different programs have different rules on this again, so make sure you pay attention for all of these questions, every program has their own rules. So be sure to do your research before you apply or as you’re applying. What is the best way to evaluate premed programs? Now, I think there’s also a good question.

Pre med programs, you might have a question. slightly different subset of criteria. So this is because you do not have that conditional acceptance, which means that you know for certainty that you will be applying to med school, so everything should be done with that applying to med school kind of Uh, a facet in mind if you are like really set on the premed mindset.

So, um, some things to look for are what kind of advising is available for premed students. Um, so different schools will have very, very different policies. Um, some schools will have, uh, like premed advisors specifically. Some schools will have like only generally graduate advisors. So they help premed and law school and, you know, other graduate programs, for example.

Um, some schools will have advising that’s like, You know, very on hand, starting from freshman year, some schools, you mostly reach out to them junior year for some schools, they will offer like resume help with how to write your resume, how to write your application, how to write your essays. And so different schools very much have different levels of, I guess, like.

Um, closeness with their student population as far as applying to the pre med program. What you should know is that applying to med school, everyone who’s applying to med school has to get a letter of rec, I think at least, from their pre med advisor, like at their undergrad institution. And so it’s important that You know that something is available to help you out because it’s good.

It’s kind of a rough journey. And so it’s very important that you have some support. The second thing you want to keep in mind is how the grading is at this university. Um, so is it notoriously kind of, you know, curves up, curves down, notoriously has weeder classes. So a lot of a lot of institutions will have really difficult, you know, Like intro chemistry classes, for example, it’s a pretty typical like known leader class and as a pre med student, your grades are very important.

And I think the best way I can use to illustrate that is using example of a school that I got into and ultimately like assessed again. So I got into a really good tech school, um, and it was very STEM heavy. But most of the students there, it was like a very good, well known school and all the students who went there got into great PhD programs.

So most of these students were interested in PhD, not in the MD. I think that’s important to know. In a PhD pathway, um, it’s more about the research you’ve done, the connections you have, the professors you know, and you know, just like, you know, what institution you come from. More so than is about the actual just like plain grades itself.

So you could have like a, like a, like a, Like a good amount of bees, like a 2 and based on like, you know, what the work you’ve done, how you’ve shown your intelligence, how you’ve shown your passion, you can still get into a great, amazing PhD program that is much harder for medical school. Medical school puts a lot of weight on the numerical GPA, and so it might be, you know, For me, I was waiting.

That was like, I don’t think I could survive in the class where or in a school where the classes inherently are hard. I’m learning a lot because the problem is that I have to get a good grade versus my classmates were interested in. PhDs are not so like, you know, they’re, they’re kind of trying to learn the material and do the research more than they care about the actual numerical grade.

Um, so something to know, right? Like, it’s unfortunate, but it’s true. I’m just thinking about it. Telling you cold hard facts is that medical school, your GPA number matters. And so what school you go to can impact that, that number and how easy it is to get that like closest as close as possible to that 4.0. So something to keep in mind. Um, okay. What other factors should I consider when building a school list? I think something that people always kind of, um, I guess ignore, don’t pay attention to or overlook is how big the school population is. I know that seems like, oh, it’s like not that important. Why does it matter?

I think it like that’s like the when it comes to the feel of the school. That’s like the biggest difference that I’ve noticed across all the schools. So the way I think about it is at a small school, When you walk across the campus, you will be close friends or good friends with at least one or two people that you cross on your way to class in a medium school.

Typically, like a brown, I walk across campus to class. I’ll probably recognize like one or two people. Um, I might under them personally, but they were my classes, for example. So I like smile, wave, whatever. A large school. Typically, when you walk across campus to class, you will not run to a single person that you know.

Um, and when I think larger kind of think of, like public schools, for example, like again, going back to where I’m from, you see I would think of us like a larger school. So it’s a social scene. You also want to think about the pre med scene, right? Um, so with the pre med scene, you want to think about extracurricular clubs.

So at a larger school, you will have much more options as far as extracurricular clubs. There will be a lot more options as far as like just things to get involved with because there’s more students. Um, but on the downside, It might be harder to get into those clubs, right? You might have to apply. It might be competitive to get into clubs.

Um, and that the opposite is true to small school, right? So it might, there might be less options, but you know, maybe the clubs that are there, you will be able to join much easier. You can start your own club. Things to think about as far as the small medium large Um, you also want to ask is this school nearby a hospital or a research center or something like that where?

It’ll just make your life easier to be totally honest to be able to be like hey I could just pop downtown for example go volunteer at the hospital and it’s not like a whole Endeavor to do that and that also means typically There will be clubs or extracurriculars already set up for you that are involved with those hospitals research centers So that you have an easier way of getting into those things and you don’t have to create your own path You also want to think about what the school is matriculation rate to medical schools is so what matriculation means the amount of students who?

Apply to medical school and then go so typically for you know for pretty good school You’ll see somewhere like 95 like 90 said like it’s like very high numbers But you want to pay attention to that And then find location. Um, I think, you know, that’s important for everyone, like where it is, if it’s close to family, if it’s on the east coast, west coast, the middle of the country, all things to keep in mind that really can impact your university experience, I would say, as well as if it’s a big city, if it’s in a small city, that kind of stuff.

Anesha: We have another poll, um, so you were talking about size, and I think this is where it came up. So folks, let us know if you’re considering a large school, a medium sized school or a small school, and there’s some definitions there. So, larger being that more diverse population, medium being a mix and small being a close knit community.

While folks are doing the survey, one question came up that was relevant to school sizes. Is it better to go to a small school and get a 4.0 or go to a big competitive school where you might have a bit more of a challenge, I guess? And I think this is leading up to the application for medical school.

Katie: Yeah, I think it’s important to balance it, right? Because going to a small school Easy school I put in parentheses like will does that impact your opportunities for example because extracurriculars I’m, not gonna lie are like our big factor now as you are high schooler But they’re also a big factor for when you’re applying to medical school So it’s it’s what are you are you what are you going to be sacrificing for that small?

Uh school and i’m also saying like small schools don’t necessarily mean you get easy like a 4. 0. I think Um that probably is like a mistake to think about. Um, but on the other side of things right the large school if you know that You know, I guess it’s like thinking about yourself as well. Like, what are some of the strengths that you have?

Do you feel confident that you can do really well in a large school? Do you feel confident? It’s a good environment you can thrive in, or do you feel like you might need a little bit more like, you know, one on one nurturing or something? So you might be thinking more like the art school, for example. Um, so definitely things to balance.

And also if you get the chance to visit these schools and kind of figure out the vibe, that can be really helpful. I know, like for me, I grew up around UCLA and then, you know, Going to a smaller like going to Brown is like a medium size school. I was like, oh, this much more feels like my wavelength. And so I’m, I’m very glad.

I’m very happy that the size of the school ended up at. I guess that makes sense. Um, yeah, I’m sorry.

Anesha: Yeah, well, I was going to say, I just, I have some students who’ve gone to small schools that are competitive and the benefit of going to some of the small schools is that you’re not competing with graduate students for research opportunities or yes.

Uh, internships are just different types of exposure. So small definitely doesn’t mean easy. Um, but you have to kind of decide. I love, you know, what you shared. Yeah, the context that you want to go back to. But, um, we’ll answer more questions. But while we had some time, he also answered the other question that was up there of should, uh, how important are extracurriculars extracurriculars are still very important, even in college in preparation for medical school.

So thank you for attacking that one as well. We’ll go ahead and close our poll and just for context. The majority of folks have said they’re looking for that medium size. Um, so looking for that mix of opportunities and a strong sense of community, um, 16 percent uh, said they don’t know and are looking for some advice on how to decide.

So, um, the majority of folks looking for medium, uh, we kind of split the difference with large and small, and then the next group kind of saying that they do not

Katie: Great. All right. So common question that I get, what can I do to highlight my strengths when pursuing a career in the medical field? Um, Yes, probably the most common question I get. Um, the first thing I always say is to utilize your storytelling. Um, and so what I mean by that is, I’m specifically addressing if you want to be talking specifically about medicine.

For example, um, if you’re applying to a BSMD program. Um, something to keep in mind is, right, you’re writing these essays. I think these essays are very, very tough. Key point to highlight, especially as a high school student, right? Why you’re interested in medicine because There were a lot of pre med students out there I guess there’s no like really easy way to put this a lot of medical There’s a lot of pre med students out there who are interested in medicine coming from high school into college How can you show that?

You have really thought this through that you’ve put critical thinking into it And you also know what it means to be a physician as you’re embarking on this this like 13-15 year pathway. Um, that will ultimately lead you to becoming a doctor, but it’s a very, very long path. I’m not gonna take a lot of like dedication.

Also we also want to make sure that you’re really sure you want to do this to yourself. Um and so it’s one of those things were using your storytelling. If you have like shadowing experiences if you have volunteering experiences. If you experiences with like patient care, for example, these are all ways that you can tell stories to both tell us something about yourself.

But also show that you know, you’re you’re good at observation. You have maturity, right? You can think about like the things that you tell us about what you see in this patient encounter can also tell us a lot about you. Um, so these are different things that you can show. I just kind of put some examples here.

The other tip I have is to pick a specific light with which to portray your interest in medicine. So this is the biggest tip that I have for most of my students. It’s Very vague to say I want to go into medicine because I want to help people. Um, I think because mostly because everyone says that and also everyone can say that and I would hope that’s true for everyone.

Um, so it’s much easier and also it’s gonna be much more specific to you and you can pull in your background a lot better if you can pick a specific light with which to portray your interest in medicine. So one that I commonly give as an example for is A physician as an advocate or physician in policy So there’s a lot of physicians out there right now that are like, you know in congress that are testifying They’re they’re constantly giving testimonials the state house the local county house That you know in dc and they’re advocating typically for policies that impact whoever their population is So I happen to know mostly like pediatricians and psychiatrists and they’re constantly advocating for different things that apply to kids and um, you know This is like a big deal.

This is like a big part of what it means to be a physician if you care about this kind of thing and so that’s something that you could potentially talk about if you have an interest in policy, but that doesn’t have to be the only thing you talk like that doesn’t have to be the bed that you choose.

You can also choose like teaching, for example, which is what I talked about. I talked a lot about, um, you know, I brought in like my tutoring experience, for example, the fact that I enjoy education and that was backed up by my teacher recommendations. Um, But you can also be specific and be like, Hey, um, I know that being a doctor is a lot about patient education and specifically in primary care.

It really is. It’s a thought teaching a lot about like diabetes care, like what that means. Um, hypertension. So it’s important to pick like these specific facets of being a physician and they’re different across all the specialties. Like I was talking earlier that they’re really diverse in terms of what skills you should have and what you do in your day to day life as a physician.

And it’s really, It’s it’s much more effective if you are able to pick one of those and hone in on that than to try to cover everything broadly. Finally, extracurriculars are a huge way you can highlight your strengths and interests in medicine. Um, so I listed a couple here, right? Shadowing, volunteering, research are all great things.

Indicating interest in STEM or like, uh, you know, biology, chemistry, those kinds of things are a great way to, um, you know, show in the way that you can as a high schooler that you’re interested in medicine.

So this is a question more about me personally in my application. What strategies did I used to stand out and I I will preface this by saying this was quite a few years ago. It’s like six years ago now. Um, but to describe my application again, I applied both pre med as well as to the BSMD programs. Some of the things that I really highlighted, my personal statement was about one of my volunteering opportunities.

So nothing right, like nothing too out there. It was very much like a very classic college essay. And it was about the time that I worked at this place called T Line, which was a suicide crisis hotline. And I think for me, this was incredibly instrumental, I mean, for me now, as I’m interested in going to psychiatry, but specifically, I was able to put a particular, I think, like, way that I view things, a way that I, like, center my application in my personal statement, a central theme, if you will, and then expand upon it.

So in my Suicide Hotline essay, I was able to touch on a couple of things that I kept wrapping back to and that would be my interest in words and the importance of words and reading between the lines. Um, I was on the phone with a lot of these kids and so, um, you know, Being very in tune with tone and, and vocal changes and, and background noises and, and how things were said was very, very important to my work.

And I was able to get that across in my essay. And that fit well with the major that I declared, which I did not major in by the way. Um, but I declared my major or I wanted my major to be cognitive science for the focus in linguistics. And I thought that fit really well because I, here I am showing an interest again, in language and words and read and like, kind of like, Analyzing words if that makes sense and specifically as I worked the suicide hotline Um, I think I recounted like a couple of stories, but one of the stories was about child abuse And so even today I want to I kind of I am still interested in going into that field But back then and I was able to again loop that back to my teen line experience loop that back into like the In linguistics, right?

I talked about, I think, interest in, like, how the brain develops and how that differs in a young child, um, who, you know, has, is, has a lot of aces or is going through a lot of trouble at home. And I was able to back up that interest up with language in terms of, like, writing competitions, like magazine, like, I was very much, like, interested in the humanities and English and that kind of stuff.

And I got that across, I think, very well in my application, despite the fact that I didn’t have anything that was, like, stand out. Like, I didn’t have one of those, like, I won a national competition and this is why I deserve to be in an Ivy League university type of things. Um, it was very much just a route about painting a picture and making very clear what I was interested in, what I would contribute, I think, to the Brown community, and also specifically what I would be, like, chasing what I would be exploring here at Brown.

And I think I, Pretty much accomplished that as I majored in medical anthropology. So I brought in a lot of culture of mental health. So I kind of, uh, brought in a lot of culture, but also medicine, but also reading and writing into my analysis of, of mental health and science. Cool. What is the best way to prepare for interviews?

Um, and I mentioned interviews earlier. Um, they are really important on the BSMD circuit, but I want to be clear to differentiate. So there are interviews for the undergraduate school. So when you apply to, I’m going to keep using Brown because I go here and I’m also here right now. Um, When you apply to school like Brown, for example, you will be offered an alumni interview and everyone has offered this.

This is not one of those things where if you’re offered an interview, um, you’re more likely to get into the school. It’s very much based on your location. So if there’s an interviewer available, they will get you an interview as much as possible. And this is, I would say this is a pretty minimal part of your, like, of the weight in your application getting in.

It’s just kind of a part of it, but it’s certainly not going to, you know, massively, I would say, change, like, the direction your application is going in terms of acceptance versus, like, waitlist versus rejection. That being said, an interview for a BSMD program is going to be separate. Typically, you have to fly out to the school.

These days it might be done on Zoom, but it’s like a whole day endeavor, a whole day interview, and usually it’s comprised of multiple interviews, actually. And for these programs, these interviews are incredibly vital to getting in. In fact, this is probably one of the only ways that you can get into programs that are like 10 to 20 students big.

Because it’s the only way that you can set yourself apart from other people with like, great stats, great extracurriculars. Um, so I remember when I interviewed, I think it was like, 30 35 students, and you had to set yourself apart from that 35 students in your interviews, and that was kind of like the final stage before you were either accepted or rejected.

So very, very important. Either way, I would say, always practice your interviews, right? Get used to talking about yourself, get used to, you know, what are the things that you want to hit on in terms of illustrating something about yourself as well as about what you’ve accomplished thus far. Um, some of these interviews include scenarios for the medicine portion, so there might be ethics questions, for example.

You wanna make sure you familiarize if you, you familiarize, familiarize yourself with them so that you are not like nervous on the spot and like, oh my God, I don’t know how to answer this question. I would also say to take some time to read good responses, and this is me speaking as like someone who’s helped my friends who are, you know, more typical pre-med, go through this process.

Because I studied med anthro, I have a lot of exposure to talking about. ethical and clinical quandaries in the medical field. Um, so that’s kind of like what I love. I can talk for hours about different things, and I can really do that well. And that’s something that, like, if you do a more typical premed pathway with your STEM classes, you might not get as much of an exposure to that.

So it’s very helpful to talk to other people and see You know, what are some things that they’re learning in their classes or things that you can read online, like good responses that can really contribute to making your answer a better response. And this is especially true as a high school student. Um, you have a very limited, I mean, from like pure age, like you have a limited, probably like, uh, range of knowledge just from, you know, Being younger than the rest of us.

And, um, you want to make sure you’re trying to like specifically go out there and read some of these like things that you can bring into your interview responses to show that you’re taking into account different cultural and epilogical ethical perspectives in these answers. Um, and also a lot of these mostly going to be talking about yourself.

So make sure you practice talking about yourself. Like that’s a really big thing. Most of these interviews are not going to be ethical. They’re going to be like, tell me about yourself. And you got to pull something out. Um, yes, so here kind of it is. Um, so try to be friendly, right? They’re going to remember you for things that will help you stand out.

And I remember one of my friends, for example, talked about really loving puns. And that was something i’m sure like everyone’s like, oh, yeah, that’s the pun girl, right? Yeah, so it’s like one of those things where It’s if you have something that like, you know is memorable about yourself, like try to mention it in your interviews But otherwise, it’s really much it’s really just like about making a connection.

So that’s kind of the tip. Most interviews, um, prepare questions for the end. They will always ask you, do you have any questions for me? Make sure you have some questions pre prepared. So you’re not scrambling on the spot.

My last piece of advice for all of you who are now building your school list. I understand it’s really, really stressful. I want to make sure to make it clear that it’s not like the end. I’ll be all like making your school list. Um, I don’t, I sometimes have students who are like, Oh, maybe I shouldn’t start yet because I don’t know what schools I’m applying to.

I shouldn’t start on the application because I’m not a hundred percent sure. Don’t do that. Start as early as you can. It’s okay if your school list shifts around as you go. Um, it does not have to be a hundred percent set in stone for you to start applying. You can start applying to schools like right from the get go.

You can start writing essays that you know are going to be used at different schools. Like your personal statement, it’s going to be used somewhere. Um, an extracurricular essay, it’s going to be used somewhere, right? There’s a lot of essays involved. And so, Don’t worry so much about getting the perfect school list.

Um, you can kind of figure things out as you go and still add and subtract school lists. Um, so I think a good example of that I had for me was, I remember two schools that were on my list were UChicago and Columbia. And I was like, oh yeah, I’ll just, you know, I kind of, when I made my school list, I kind of just added a bunch of schools and I was like, yeah, I’ll just, you know, I’ll figure it out as I go, um, did not put too much thought into it, maybe, maybe I should have put a little bit more thought, but that was definitely like my mentality at the beginning, because I was like, I don’t know what I’m doing.

Um, as I went along, I remember it was like December 26th or something, and I was like, I just do not have the time and commitment to write this book. Like the, at the time it was like a lot of essays that were required for Chicago and a lot of essays required for Columbia. Um, I think it was like eight essays for Columbia when I was applying.

I probably, it’s not that a lot anymore, but, um, I was like, I do not have it in me to write those essays. And as I researched the schools, these were kind of falling lower and lower in terms of the schools that I was personally interested in because of the way the curricula was developed. And so, ultimately, I did not apply to either of these schools.

And that’s okay. Like, I still applied to many other great schools and, you know, got in. Did not get in whatever like there was a good mix make sure that you have a good balance of reach and target and safety schools. Um, I think a lot of people go in and they’re thinking that oh, I can definitely get into these schools.

Um, I never want my students to not get into a school just because they either over underestimated something like I want you to apply to the schools You know, that you want to go to and I want you to be excited about every school in your school list. And I also want to make sure that you get into schools.

So please be sure to make a good balance. That’s like, I think a mistake that sometimes I see students make. And that’s like where I, as an advisor, have come and been like, put my foot down and been like, no, you need to add, you know, some of these schools, like on the lower tier list to your, to your list.

Anesha: All right. Thanks so much, Katie. Um, Chat a list, a resource that I’ve shared with my students, which is a college mind list on the SMD programs. It has the variety. So if you are interested in exploring, just want to use drop that list because 1 of some of the questions we got during registration where what should I, what, what are some schools that I could, I could apply to?

Yeah. Um, here are some schools that have BSMD programs that you could look into. This is not a definitive end all be all list, but just wanted to share that as a resource for some folks. All right. To get started with the question. Thank you so much. Katie for all of your thoughtfulness and advice just before we get started, just make sure that if you are not able to submit questions in the live Q and a, you may have to log out, log back in and make sure you are logging in via the link.

Um, that you received via email and not on the webinar landing page. Also, just another reminder that you can submit the questions. You can download our slides under the handouts tab and you can submit questions at any time through the Q& A tab. Apologies. Um, all right, so the first question I wanted to ask you and I think it came up as you were talking about extracurriculars or just preparation, but as a high school student what should they be doing now in order to get into a career?

Pre med program. What, how should students be trying to prepare themselves?

Katie: Yeah. Um, and I think that answer might differ depending on where you are in your high school journey. I would say important things to pay attention to are your sophomore summer and your junior summer, the summer after both of those years.

It’s important that you are doing extracurriculars meaningful to you and also doing something ideally that, uh, Um, we’ll show it doesn’t have to actually be in medicine. It could be interested in anything, but something that I hear from a lot of my like my classmates or students were interested in premed is, you know, doing some shattering during those times or doing a research program or, you know, making sure that you were spending that time productively and, you know, kind of using it to explore something.

So from one of my summers, for example, I did a So, yeah, like bioengineering research program. It was not as fancy as it sounds at UCLA, which was local to me. And through that experience, I was like, you know, I actually don’t like bioengineering, and I actually don’t love working in this kind of research.

And so that’s still meaningful, even though it wasn’t in medicine, and it wasn’t like something that I was like, Oh, I now I don’t want to go into this. It was still meaningful to be be like, Oh, I have this experience. I can eliminate it. This is not My forte, that’s not my thing.

Anesha: Are there any, I guess, classes or things like that, that students should be mindful of when they’re thinking about being eligible for pre med classes or pre med admissions?

Katie: Yeah, um, I would say some priorities to keep in mind are gonna be biology. So like whatever the advanced version of biology is at your school. At my school, that’s like AP bio, as well as chemistry, I think is a really big one. And chemistry, I think is the, is a big one because That typically is one of the harder classes for pre med students.

So it’s important to get a good foundation in chemistry. And ideally colleges can also use it to assess a little bit like, you know, like that you will be able to survive in the pre med atmosphere of college. Um, I know at BSMD programs, for example, we look pretty heavily at, uh, those like AP, like scores, like, you know, your grades as far as like the STEM classes, uh, especially chemistry.

Anesha: Thank you. A lot of questions around extracurriculars. So, um, I’m sure you’ll touch on it, but the question I’ll ask is, should I revolve all of my extracurriculars around medicine, or does it look better to explore other things and not have tunnel vision? So, advice on how folks should try to be strategic around their extracurricular activities.

Katie: Yeah, I think that’s a great question. I will say, I think it’s, I mean, I don’t know, I think it’s almost impossible to revolve every single one of your extracurriculars around medicine. But, um, First of all, I would say the answer is no. I would not revolve every single extracurricular around medicine. I think that makes you have a very one note application, and you can only talk about one thing, which is your interest in medicine.

That being said, what I mean by that is, like, don’t only have, like, ten different shadowing opportunities that you had, like, on your, on your application. That was kind of wonky, to be totally honest. Um, Even for med school wise, you’re applying to med school. You’re supposed to have like different categories of things.

Even as now I’m applying to residency. I have to save two spaces for hobbies. Um, and that’s like, you know, they want to know who you are as a person. It’s a very important thing. Your extracurriculars, you’re getting that across, even if it’s just like, what are your passions? Like, what are your interests?

And so. Um, for some students, for example, I’ve had students who were like really, really incredibly amazing at research, for example, and so that might be a more like stem oriented, like more center around like science and medicine application. I think that’s the most I’ve I’ve seen is like someone who’s done a couple of different research opportunities have done like really, really well in those.

And that might be like, that’s that’s kind of like your career. Okay. You know, your standout theme so that that works for you. But for most students, I would say I, I, I would encourage to see other, other things. And that could be like, especially involvement in the community. Like I would ideally like to know what are some things that you care, what are some causes that you care about?

What are some things that you do to kind of better your community? Those are things that I think are very important when I’m looking at an application. Um, and that goes for pre med as well as for med school. So definitely important to kind of expand into those categories.

Anesha: So a few more questions specific to extracurriculars.

Can you put things that you’re certified? To do on applications i’m assuming maybe i’ve had some students that have like a CPR certification or medical assistance Things like that.

Katie: Yeah, I I want to say there’s definitely a spot in common application where you can get that included If not, there’s an additional information section, especially if you are like EMS or like, you know Like like paramedic trained that can be a really really big like a really great certification to have I know it’s not possible for most students because I think it’s like, you know Sometimes they have age minimums, but that’s a great thing to include

Anesha: Um, you mentioned shadowing internships.

And so some folks are just asking for advice. Who should they reach out to? How should they reach out to is paid research? Okay. Should they only be looking for volunteer research? So any more context you can give on the research identifying opportunities and one of the most ideal opportunities around research and shadowing?

Katie: Yeah, that’s a really great question. Um, and I think, uh, more and more, there’s a lot of like, Predatory programs out there that are asking you to pay a lot of money to do something and the something turns out to be like not Particularly helpful to you or to applying to schools. So in research programs are a couple things that I look for I look for a program where typically they will match you with a lab Which means they will match you with a PhD candidate.

They’ll match you with the postdoc They’ll match you with you know, the like the Principal investigator the PI of the lab. Um, so I’m looking for that that they’ll kind of match you with you know Some lab second thing I’m looking for is going to be You know a good amount of time it takes a good amount of time Really it takes years, but you don’t have years So i’m looking for at least ideally a four week program where you are in a lab You are, you know assigned to a little project of your own And the third thing you’re looking for then is the output, right?

So ideally they’re asking you to make a research poster where you present at the end for the entire summer conference or you know An abstract or something like that Where you are getting some sort of something out of it. And it’s not just sitting there and taking classes, for example. Not that classes are bad, they’re just something completely different.

I would not categorize that as a research program. Um, now a lot of these research programs are paid. I completely understand that. Especially a lot of them, if they’re boarding, like you, you know, you go to a college and you live there. For the summer, um, they will definitely charge you some sort of dormitory fee and that’s totally fine.

Um, I those things are very very expensive and most of these programs Especially if they’re good offer some sort of financial aid and so I encourage people to apply to them If you can find a program that’s free. Um, typically those are regarded as like the Best programs because they’re going to be competitive to get into.

Clearly they have great funding and they probably have great resources, um, for students who are there. So like free is the best here. Um, yes, sometimes you have to pay. I’m not going to lie. And please see financial aid. If that’s something that is feasible for you, if that’s something that’s not feasible for you.

And then barring that, like you do not have to do a research program. You do not have to pay to do an extracurricular. You can absolutely reach out to like local, you know, like professors, professors, whatever. Uh, research centers and see if there’s opportunities they can offer for you does not have to be through a program where you’re paying thousands of dollars.

I’ll

Anesha: ask one last question related to extracurriculars and someone’s talking about sports. So is it does it look good to have sports and how the sports fit into? Um, extracurriculars when trying to be evaluated for these types of programs.

Katie: Absolutely sports are definitely on your extracurricular list.

Um, and even if you’re not going for recruitment They can be a huge deal. My best friend I know like was on her hockey team all through High school and she like was the captain of it and that can show a lot of things like leadership Especially if your sports team does well, especially Um, also what tells me where you spend your time because I know a lot of these sports teams Things like you spend a lot of hours after school on it.

So it’s like, Oh, I totally know where you were for like three hours for school every day you were in baseball or something. So it definitely, um, is an extracurricular and can be added to it.

Anesha: All right. We’re going to pivot to a different subject, but before we do, I just want to do a quick PSA for those in the room who aren’t already working with us.

We know how overwhelming the process is. Some of you have asked some very personal, specific questions. And so I want to encourage you to reach out to our team of over 300 former admissions officers. Services and admissions experts who are help who are available to help you and your family navigate the process through one on one advising sessions.

You can use the QR code that is on the screen to take the next step and sign up for a free 45 to 60 minute strategy session where we’ll talk about your curriculars. We’ll talk about application strategy will help you think about your college list and make sure you have the tools you need to stand out in the competitive process.

And we also have started using a premed specialization advisor in addition to your. primary advisor. So there’s a lot of support for folks who are thinking about this space. We’ll leave the QR code up on the screen and then gonna switch. Please stop chatting me questions and drop your questions in the Q and A.

It’s a little distracting when you do that. Um, so please keep the questions in the Q and A tab. The next question I wanted to ask was, so some leading into the admissions situation. So if I don’t get accepted to a prestigious college, will that my chances of getting into a good medical school?

Katie: I think That is actually a great question, because I know that people are thinking about that already and how to balance it.

So, you can get into medical school from a non prestigious college, period. Like, that can absolutely, like a, like a, I’m going to put prestigious in quotations. It does not have to be, like, an Ivy League, like a well known public school get into med school. In fact, um, I think a lot of med schools try to diversify their acceptances in that way, so that they are accepting students from all across the board.

That being said, um, I’m not going to lie into the procedures not helpful and that is through whether it’s through connections or whether it’s through, you know, like name recognition for schools like I’m not going to lie and say that Brown does not accept a good amount of students from other like, you know, top well known school names that I recognize immediately off the bat, including top liberal arts schools.

We actually have a good amount of like liberal arts representation here at Brown, especially. Um, so, um, It’s one of those things I think to balance, but it does not, it absolutely does not ruin your chances to not get into a prestigious undergrad university. I think that’s like a very much a miss, um, like a, like a common myth or something.

Anesha: Um, a quick admissions questions. Does visiting schools matter in the admissions process?

Katie: Yeah, I think so. Even if it does matter, it matters for a little bit, but only some schools keep track of this. So for example, I remember I heard from admissions officer from like Northwestern, I think, um, they have like the section on their common app where it will be like, how did you hear about or what are some connections you have Northwestern?

That’s a place where you can put like, Oh, if you’re if a family member went there, if you visited there, if you went to an admissions talk from one of their like admissions officers. So, like, it, it, it’s a Benefits like maybe a tiny bit in terms of like showing interest in the school I certainly did not visit schools when I was applying.

I just want to put that out there Like my mom was like you’re absolutely not flying to the east coast to visit schools If you haven’t even gotten in and something else that you can do instead is to show up to those admission officer talks when they you Know that sometimes they come to your school and they’ll do like a little talk Those things count like write your name down on those things like that also can be helpful Um, but I would say again, like, I did not visit any of the schools that I applied to and got into.

So, um, it definitely is not the end of the world. If, like, do not spend thousands of dollars to visit a school, like, you do not have to do that to get in.

Anesha: I would say visit to, once you are in, to see if you want to stay, but definitely not. A lot of schools aren’t tracking demonstrated interest. It’s too much.

It’s too many kids to track. It’s too much. It’s too many people. Yeah. Um, one question that’s kind of specific, but I think it’s interesting. Do you have any advice for a transferring sophomore student who’s interested in pre med?

Katie: Yeah. Um, I would say I don’t, I don’t find it to be like, I’ve, I’ve had a lot of classmates who are transfer students, like in, in their sophomore year of college.

I don’t think it necessarily hindered their application to pre like medical school. If anything, it’s more just like, make sure that all of your Requirements transfer make sure that you’re keeping track of all the things that you have to get done Because I don’t want that to get mixed up But as far as like applying to med school It sometimes is a little bit of a pain to get transcripts like sent in from everywhere But everyone has to do that If someone studies abroad if someone takes classes at a local community college after graduating from med school Even like you have to get those transcripts together anyway, so it’s not something that’s gonna be like Oh like this is like this is gonna be a red flower tonight.

It’s definitely not It’s pretty common for students to have multiple transcripts Like in their application from different schools as they’re applying to med school.

Anesha: Can you speak to your school life balance, um, as a pre med student?

Katie: As a pre-med student. Okay. Um, I wish I could answer that question better.

Um, so I, I majored in anthropology, right? So I did more of like a social science. social science humanities major. So I had a really great time in undergrad in the sense that I did not feel pressured to take a lot of the science classes that a lot of my pre med classmates were taking because it was not required by my program.

So I had a great time exploring, but when I was taking those STEM classes, and that was like freshman, sophomore year, a lot of it was about balancing the STEM with the science. Non stem classes. So for me, I found the humanity class to be easier. Not everyone feels that way. Um, but certainly balancing like fun classes, what I call them and like tougher costs like stem.

I typically don’t recommend students to take like anything more than two stem classes in a semester. I think that’s when. Life becomes a little bit tough, especially when those like exams line up with each other, and then you’re just like very, very stressed about two exams that are right after each other.

I really liked having that balance of like, for some of my classes, I was writing essays. For some of my classes, I was taking tests. And having that different different like mode of, of assessing my, my learning was very, very helpful in balancing like, Ooh, like how my school schedule is going. And then also in college, you’ll find you have a, like you live here, like you have a lot of time to explore, join clubs, like do extracurriculars, like meet new people.

And I would highly, highly encourage that.

Anesha: Someone asked, can you study abroad, um, help you with, oh, sorry. Can study abroad options help with your medical school applications and developing your experience? And also, I think if you could speak to the balance of trying to study abroad when you are pre med.

Katie: Yeah. Um, yes. So does it help your med school application?

I don’t think it either helps or hurts you. It’s one of those things where, like, I think it’s more for your own personal growth, to be totally honest. Um, in terms of being able to study abroad. Um, so for a lot of pre med students, You have a good number of requirements you have to get done and so it’s gonna take some planning like I’m not gonna lie Like if you want to study abroad I would plan for that starting like early on like freshman year second semester just to make sure that Whatever classes you’re taking when you’re studying abroad either they transfer over and it works for medical school Or if it doesn’t transfer over that you still have the time to take the other prerequisites and you’ll be able to finish in time Um, but yeah That’s the one thing.

It just takes a little bit more planning, but it can certainly be done. And second, um, I mean, I, I mean, I had COVID during my time, but I really wanted to study abroad. I was going to study abroad minus COVID and I was really excited about doing it and getting kind of like those different experiences. I will say something that I did was, um, my, my, one of my school programs actually sent us to China slash Taiwan.

Um, To shadow doctors and learn about like Chinese medicine over there or traditional Chinese medicine And that’s something that has come up like here and there in medical school I’m sure comes up will come from my interviews and so that can be something that’s really helpful in terms of At least being able to talk a little bit about like different cultural contexts

Anesha: Yeah, I, um, again, speaking for friends, I had friends and you mentioned anthropology.

So I had friends who did medical anthropology and were able to travel abroad because they were anthro majors. And obviously there’s, um, and one of them is now a doctor in the ER. And the other one is a research researcher. So there, you know, I think you have to just be strategic about it and make sure that, um, Um, if you can’t align your your study abroad with research that you’re working on or topics that you’re interested in in order to deepen your knowledge.

And this was yeah, this is traveling that needed an undergrad before they even got into medical school. So there are a lot of questions about different types of classes. So, um, some one student asked, I’ll ask a bunch of them and you can. Fill in as you can. But one student asked about they’re debating between Orgo versus neuroscience.

Um, in senior year, which should they take? One student was asking about is it too late to take AP Chem in senior year? Or should they try to do a sophomore or junior year? Um, so just any guidance you can give about the variety of classes that are open to students in high school and how they should try to structure it.

Katie: Yeah. Um, So for the orgo versus neuroscience questions, like, first of all, kudos to your school for having either of those classes. I certainly did not have either of those classes. So I would say like either of them are going to be a plus to your application, right? Like there’s like there’s no downside to it.

Um taking organic chemistry might help you prepare for organic chemistry in Like in college, but at the same time if you really love neuroscience and you might just get more out of it Just like out of like, you know having a passion for it and and you know Maybe it helps you like get a research position down the line.

I don’t know in college So really there’s no way you can go wrong with that I think it’s just gonna be about like which ones are you more excited about which one, you know? You want to pull off in your senior year? I think either way like you can only win there As far as the AP Chemistry question, um, I would say, if I’m being tough, I would say, like, I would try to prior I took my AP Chem my junior year.

So the reason why I say junior year is mostly because colleges see your grades from, obviously, freshman to junior year, and they typically will see your freshman year senior grades if you apply regular decision. But it might be nice like if you know that you can show off like that. You got, you know, A’s both semesters and AP chem and you got a five on the AP chem test like that, you know, as far as like med school, like a pre med goes like, that’ll be like, okay, good.

You’re solid in chemistry. You’re just taking it senior year. We will never get to see your AP test scores. But at the end of the day, like really not the end of the world either way. Like it’s not gonna. be like the reason why you don’t get into college or get in as pre med. Do

Anesha: you have any context for a homeschool student who’s interested in pre med, um, because they have limited access to extracurriculars?

Katie: Yeah, um, I want to first say I, I keep using the word extracurriculars, but I want to make clear that extracurriculars does not necessarily refer to just like clubs at school. I know I’ve been using clubs as like a, Catch all for everything. I would say most of the extracurriculars I did actually I think were not necessarily like in school And so please like feel like make sure that you are taking the time to find opportunities that you care about like Maybe outside of your home, but also just like in the community It could be also at home like you could be like I’m really into gardening for example, I could be in your backyard um But does not have to be school related, um, and also, I would say like a lot of these opportunities that people are talking about right now in terms of like the pre med, uh, bent, like shadowing at a hospital, volunteering at a hospital, none of those things are things that you have to be like enrolled in a high school to, like a, in a, like a So like I mentioned, there are a lot of opportunities for you to go every day for more high school to go to, you can actually be home schooled and do those things too.

So I would, um, keep your eyes and opportunities open, I guess.

Anesha: And just a second that I think, especially for students who, if you are home schooled, it means that you might have more versatility in your curriculum. So that could be more independent research projects that you’re looking into. Um, and more things that you’re just trying to do on your own.

Volunteering is an extracurricular that you can count that’s not structured at your school. So I think putting yourself out there. In your community to echo what Katie just shared. I’m trying to find our last question. Trying to make it, uh, an engaging one, if I can.

Oh, okay. Just around volunteering. So does volunteering as a senior, um, count heavily as research? So what’s the difference between volunteering and researching or experiences?

Katie: Yeah, that’s a great question. So volunteering typically refers to a whole bunch of things. So you can volunteer on a political campaign, for example, so you can be calling people or knocking people’s doors, you can volunteer at the hospital, which typically means like, for the most of the time, to be honest, you’re kind of sitting there and you’re like, whatever the nurses need you to do, like, if they need you to discharge a patient, they need you to bring a patient water, like you’re kind of like the go to person for those, like, Little menial tasks.

That’s fine. Like you’re still you’re still adding to something So volunteer at the library. These are all volunteering experiences Research specifically and I want to be clear because I think some people think that like researching means going online Googling and then writing like blog posts about it.

That’s also an extracurricular, but that’s something completely different That is not research research specifically means that you are affiliated with an institution of some sort you are working with Definitely someone who’s like much more like higher up in the education Ladder than you are and you are thinking about abstracts.

You’re doing research posters You can go to conferences and present you can um publish in a paper That’s great Certainly not a requirement for high school, or not even me, but like research papers, like in a peer reviewed research journal is specifically what we’re talking about when we talk about research.

Um, yeah. Wanna be clear that it’s not like you writing a paper about like GABA in the brain or so like GABA in the brain and being, oh, that’s research. It’s not research. It has to be like peer reviewed, published and it has to be like novel in some way.

Anesha: So the volunteering, if that’s more hands-on experience would probably count.

More strongly than you kind of doing your own kind of independent research. Um, all right. Thank you for that We will leave it there. Thank you so much katie. That is the end of our webinar apologies that we could not get to all of your questions Um, but we appreciate you for joining us We hope that you did take away some great tips and strategies for crafting your college list as a pre med bsmd applicant Also, we do hope you’ll join us for our future webinars this month tomorrow.

Some folks were asking about Admissions overall so march 9th. We’ll stop we’ll talk about standing out in a holistic admissions process on March 13. Some folks were asking about essays. We’re gonna have a session on strategies for essay brainstorming. On March 20th, we’ll talk about the A. C. T. And S. A. T.

There were also some questions on that in the in the chat that we didn’t get a chance to get to, and we will close out the month on talking about how to stay organized, um, and managing all of your college applications. And if you’re planning so high to be a S. M. D. Program, the organization will be critical.

So join us on March 22nd for that session. We hope to see you soon. But until then, take care and have a great evening. And thanks again so much, Katie. Appreciate you.