Chantal & JournalistDoingScience: The Return

Cryptic post title notwithstanding, I'm sure most of you are curious what this post will be about since it's been eons since I've written. Let's just insert my usual excuses here as to why that may be and move on quickly because I have much to share. Mainly, that I got into medical school.

Cue the deafening silence and then (I would hope), subsequent shattering applause.

I GOT INTO MEDICAL SCHOOL!!!

Shortly before the holidays, as a matter of fact, so it was a lovely holiday gift. 

I'm going to share more on this topic but for now I would just like to thank all of you dear readers for your wonderful support and faith in me. The large number of encouraging messages I've received on here or via Twitter have really helped to lift my spirits whenever I was feeling overwhelmed about the whole maddening process. 

Finally, I want to return that encouragement to the rest of you who are maybe still waiting with baited breath to hear back from schools. I know it's terrifying and demoralizing to sit there wondering if someone else will deem you worthy but you should know that you are and no matter what the admissions committees decide, your hard work and wonderful accomplishments are things to be incredibly proud of. 

That's all for now, I can't wait to tell you all the whole (still currently ongoing) story soon!

Improving My Application Part III

This is going to be a fairly short post because I've got a very busy schedule of applying to ALL THE RESEARCH JOBS IN CHICAGO today. Since I took time off to dedicate myself to MCAT studying I wasn't able to work and now I am looking very diligently for a new project to get involved with (so if anyone knows of anything and wants to throw some suggestions/recommendations my way please feel free to do so!).
ANYWAY, back to the subject at hand. The third thing I did in regards to improving my application was to ask one of my supervisors from my last job at Northwestern if he could write me a letter of recommendation. I'm applying to a lot of schools in the Chicago area and having a strong letter from a physician who not only works at Northwestern Memorial but is also a faculty member at the Feinberg School of Medicine seemed like it would be a definitely plus in the improvement category. I figured since I was applying again it would be good to shake things up a bit and include a new letter instead of just recycling all of my old ones. If you're in the same boat then I encourage you to do the same! Asking for a letter of rec can be a bit intimidating but just remember, your work should speak for itself and as long as you did your best, your teacher/supervisor/coworker will see that and, in most cases, be very happy to write you a letter that extolling your virtues and supporting you as a candidate for medical school.

this kitten has nothing to do with letters of rec but it's SO CUTE it deserves a spot in this post :)

AMCAS Verification: How To Get Those Apps in Early

Today I was thrilled to receive notification that my AMCAS (primary) application has gone out to all of my designated schools. This was extremely exciting mainly because last year it took over six weeks for my primary to be verified which was agonizing because during that time I had friends who were filling out secondaries and already getting interview invites. This year it took less than ten days! A reader recently asked what I did to improve my application as I apply for this second round and while I'm excited to share with you all the things that I improved and added to my resume I also want to stress the very real and deep importance of getting your applications in early.

Last year I wasn't quite as on the ball as I had wanted to be. I dawdled with my application and didn't send in my transcript requests quite early enough. I ended up submitting my primary a mere few weeks after it opened and somehow still ended up stuck in line behind thousands of other applications that were waiting to be verified. What I didn't think about was how this affected my chances for success. Although I believe that a large part of being accepted is a numbers game as well as a mixture of other factors (your readiness, how you come across in your application, your research hours etc.), I think there's also a strategy to applying. You won't receive any secondaries until schools have processed your primary so the sooner you get that in, the sooner you can finish your individual applications. For example, turning around a secondary within 1 or two days puts you ahead of all the students who decide to wait a week or so to submit theirs. This means that your application is put into a smaller pile to review. It's easier for you to stand out when you're being compared with ten other students versus one hundred other students. 

The upshot of this whole post is, if you haven't gotten your primary in yet then DO IT. NOW. Don't even finish reading this post just get cracking. Or maybe finish reading this post if you're stuck and aren't sure how to proceed.

I think the biggest thing that people struggle with is the personal statement and I'm going to let you in on a little secret. Don't listen to all the crazy people online who say contradictory things like "don't get too personal" or "do lie and say you've wanted to be a doctor since you exited the womb." All you need to do is be sincere. Be genuine and honest and adcoms will be able to tell when they read it. They'll get a better idea for the kind of person you are. Definitely don't just reiterate what you've already discussed in your activities section. Think about the meaningful experiences that have brought you to today and this application and weave a narrative. You don't have to be too rich in detail but make sure your essay flows. Have a friend or two read it. I say friend here and I mean friend, not some doctor that you shadowed or some fancy professor who you think will be able to give you some magical advice on how to edit your essay so that you'll definitely get in. Your friends and family know you the best of all and will be the most helpful when it comes to the one piece of writing that is supposed to encompass you as a person and explain your passion for medicine to medical schools.

OK NOW you guys can get to it. Good luck! It's not as hard as you think and trust me, the feeling when you hit that submit button will last you all day :)

"BOOM!" or "What Happened to JournalistDoingScience?"

The above gif (which is hilarious because I'm pretty sure this has happened to me multiple times) is the perfect embodiment of my feelings regarding the last application cycle: first, I was excited (delicious diet coke!) then I was overwhelmed (OMG THIS IS SO STRESSFUL) then the bottle fell off the table and exploded everywhere and made a mess and I don't know where I'm going with this metaphor anymore.  I joke, I joke, but real talk - last year was tough. After finding out that I didn't get into UVM I was very low. I felt like a failure and it was really difficult for me to share with all of you guys what had happened. Then there were a million other things going on that quickly took over my attention until the idea of writing a "What I've Been Doing Lately" post seemed really daunting and I couldn't get started. BUT I realized over the past few weeks how much I miss writing and how nice it was to feel connected to the pre-med community online and I'm really excited to be back on the wagon!

I'm happy to relate that I bounced back pretty quickly after not getting in. Probably because I had told myself all along that there was a possibility I would have to apply again and also because I realized that just because I didn't get accepted didn't mean I didn't have an amazing list of accomplishments to be really proud of. So very soon after the bad news I got my  head back into the game and started brainstorming what I could do to improve my application. I'm going to save the actual list of things I did for another day but suffice it to say I was really busy! I will tell you that one of the biggest things I decided to do this time around was apply as early as possible. This is why I got up at an ungodly hour on Tuesday to review my entire application before submitting it at 8:30 AM on the dot. Unfortunately I ended up submitting it about half an hour later than originally planned because I lost my credit card (typical me) and was running around trying to find it for a good 30 minutes but I'm very happy to say that I got my AMCAS app in on the first day and am just waiting for it to be verified! 

Anyway, I'll keep this short and sweet but it feels so good to be back :) I want to thank everyone who emailed, tweeted at or commented to tell me how much they like my blog and appreciate what I have to say. I really can't tell you how nice it is and how much I love to hear from you all! I wish you all good luck on your applications (if you're applying this year) and promise that I'll be writing a lot more regularly from now on!!

Love,

Chantal

Interview Invitation #2: University of Vermont College of Medicine!

I checked my online applicant center for UVM today to see if there had been any updates since they "small pooled*" me and when I signed in a page popped up telling me my interview had been scheduled! I was incredibly surprised because I never received an email so I didn't even have an inkling that there was a change in my status. Needless to say, I am absolutely thrilled to be flying to Vermont in early December to interview at such a wonderful school (in my home state!). My parents are pretty excited too. Let's hope interview day #2 is as pleasant as interview day #1!

*For those of you who may not know what this term is referring to: at UVM, after a preliminary review of their AMCAS and secondary, most applicants are placed into a small pool of individuals to which an interview may be extended. It's better than being "in review" or outright rejected but doesn't mean you have a guaranteed interview so you are still waiting/hoping for an official invitation.

lovely vermont mountains

Interview Day At RMC

Today I had my interview at Rush Medical College in Chicago and surprisingly, it was a wonderfully positive experience. The people that I met, the students that I was interviewing along with, the program and hospital itself - all of it was truly wonderful.

I'm getting a bit ahead of myself though. Before I began writing this post I was thinking about how I wanted to recount my personal experience but also, hopefully, answer some of the common questions pre-meds have about interviewing and give you all a better understanding of how the day will work. With that in mind, I'll go through the day chronologically and try to be as thorough as possible.

The first thing I want to stress is GIVE YOURSELF SO MUCH TIME TO GET THERE IN THE MORNING. I live in the Wicker Park area of the city which is about 15 minutes by bus to the Rush Med campus. I knew I needed to be checked in by 8:30 AM so I figured I'd leave at 7:45, giving myself 45 minutes to make the commute. Unfortunately, I took a little longer than I had expected to get ready and ended up in a panic because my bus was almost half an hour late and I blew my "cushion time." Luckily I was able to get there right at 8:30 so I was OK but I realized that I probably should have given myself a full hour to make the trip. Even though I usually don't like getting anywhere more than 15 minutes early, I think in this case (and for my own peace of mind) it would have been a good idea to have given myself extra time. 

Once I arrived, sweating and out of breath, I was handed a schedule with my name on it and ushered into a spacious room with chairs set around tables placed into a U shape. There were drinks and refreshments and I immediately drank a huge glass of iced water which helped me to calm myself (at this point my nerves were a little frayed and I was feeling a bit dehydrated). I was surrounded by 23 students, most dressed in dark suits which made me glad I had chosen to wear black but also happy that I decided to wear a print top that kind of stood out from the typical white/light blue shirts in the room. It was kind of funny actually because several of the professors that spoke to us joked about how serious we all looked in our identical suits so I was glad that I decided to deviate a bit with the top that I chose. There were one or two students who wore lighter/different colored suits and they still fit right in so it was nice to feel like there was a bit of leeway to express yourself.  I know this might sound silly or mundane to some of you but I was really concerned about what image I would project based on my clothes and I had read everything from "don't look like everyone else" to "interviews are not the time to experiment" so hopefully this will calm those of you who want to change up your look a bit without going too crazy.

After we all settled in, Jill Volk, the director of recruitment and special programs, walked in and the mood went from slightly strained to pretty relaxed in about five minutes. Jill was funny, energetic, and reassuring. She made it very clear from the outset that they wanted to make the day as stress-free as possible and that, while we were there to be interviewed by Rush, this was also Rush's opportunity to show us why we should choose them. I really liked this approach and felt like it made everyone so much more comfortable than they would have been otherwise. It especially helped me to focus better because I wasn't wasting mind-space being worried about how intense my interviews were going to be. 

We found out that each of our schedules were personalized and that no two schedules were exactly the same. Everyone would be present for the welcome and financial aid talks but then roughly half of the group would be up for their first interview while the remaining half stayed behind and got to know each other. One of the nice things that I appreciated about the organization of the day was that you were brought to and from each interview (which was held down the hall from the room we were all in). This took the onus off of us to worry about timing and was a huge relief to me because I had read about people being late for their second interviews because their first interviewer went over their time. Luckily this wasn't a problem because Rush was responsible for getting you to everything on time so if you were late, it was their problem not yours. Again, it was just a small way they were able to help make the day smoother for us and I really appreciated it and felt like it really showed how much they cared. 

In addition to Jill Volk, we were welcomed by the Assistant Dean and the Associate Dean of Admissions as well as a representative from the Financial Aid Office. I liked that we were greeted by some of the higher ups in the College because it showed that they were intimately involved with the interviewing process, which I think is important. They were also so excited, friendly and eager to talk to us that the general mood was considerably lightened.

I was in the first group of interviewees so promptly at 9:30 I was whisked off to meet with Dr. Rebecca Hoban. Rush's interview day includes two 1:1 interviews which can be with a faculty members or students. I got two faculty but some others had people had a professor and a student. Dr. Hoban was a neonatologist which was really exciting for me because I have been interested in neonatology/pediatrics ever since I decided I wanted to pursue medicine. Our interview was "closed," which meant that my interviewer had only seen my basic information but I liked that because I felt like it made everything a bit more relaxed. We had no problem getting to know each other and our time actually flew by. We had to get two warning knocks on the door before we were finished and I left the room feeling pretty good. This may be an attribute of Rush in particular but the questions were pretty basic and Dr. H seemed really interested in just getting to know me as a person instead of interrogating me so the experience was much more pleasant than I had expected it to be.

When our interviews were over we were picked up and returned to home base where we had a few minutes before people were called for the second group of interviews, leaving the rest of us to sit and chat among ourselves. It was great to have a bit of down time and we were able to get to know each other and also ask Jill some questions about the school. She was incredibly knowledgeable and super laid-back which encouraged a friendly dialogue. We were able to learn a little bit about the process that occurs after interview day and how the selection committee functions, which was helpful. 

Everyone reconvened after the second wave of interviews and we were introduced to three M4s who took us on a tour of Rush Hospital and Cook County/Stroger Hospital, which is partnered with Rush and the location where Rush students have many of their rotations. At this point I was having a bit of trouble because I had a blister but I had asked for bandaids earlier and everyone was so nice they just went and grabbed me a few from somewhere so it wasn't too bad. Keep this in mind ladies...pre-emptively bandaid if you're wearing shoes that aren't super comfortable!

Touring the hospital was awesome because walking the halls made the idea of being a doctor one day SO REAL. It was also not my absolute favorite part of the day because it was difficult for all of us to keep up and sometimes hard to hear our tour guide. I couldn't listen the whole time because it was impossible to understand what was being said so for the most part I just soaked everything in. After the tour we were escorted back to the room for lunchtime (thank goodness, at this point I was so hungry!). 

This is getting to be a crazy long post so I'm going to postpone the lunch-and-after half until tomorrow (also that way I can build suspense about my next interview...). Keep tuned for PART II!

Fancy!

Some Encouragement For Your Tuesday

Hello lovely people, I hope you are all having the most wonderful Tuesday. I wanted to write a brief post specifically for those of you who are in the middle of the current application cycle because honestly, filling out secondaries can be an absolute nightmare. Most of you are probably faced with 10-30 apps that all require at least one essay (or five, depending on the school) on various topics ranging from typical (Please discuss a recent volunteer experience) to difficult (Write about how you would handle a bioethical issue as a physician) to downright strange (If you could re-name yourself, what name would you choose and why?). Writing well-thought out essays that are tailored to the individual school's values and mission can be exhausting and it's easy to get bogged down under the enormity of the task ahead. 

This is the important part of the post so pay attention - no matter how stressful it feels, you have to remember that your first priority is getting those apps out as soon as possible. Unfortunately, this isn't the message that most of you will hear. I was given terrible advice when I was filling out applications including the suggestion that a month or more was a perfectly acceptable time to sit on an app. Luckily, I listened to the one person who told me that if I could manage a short turnaround (days rather than weeks) I would be in good shape. Their logic was this: the earlier you send in your application, the less competition you will have to get an interview. It makes sense. It also shows the school that you are eager and excited to be applying. If the admissions committee member who reads your application has only read 50 or so others, that gives you a much better chance of standing out than if you are one of 500 and they will be impressed at how quickly you were able to put everything together. While not necessarily prominent, there is feedback out there highlighting the importance of good timing - check out this well-written and informative piece on why applicants fail to get into medical school and you'll see "submitting a late application" on the list. 

I'm not saying all of this to scare you, quite the opposite. I wanted to offer some words of encouragement because you CAN do this! For me, what really helped was setting a strict goal. I gave myself a week from receipt of an invitation email to fill out a secondary to submit it and I took this deadline very seriously. For the most part, I was able to submit before the week was up but there were one or two apps that took a little longer and that was OK, I refused to penalize myself, I just determined to try harder and do better. Overall though, I treated that deadline like it was set in stone. I didn't go out, watch TV, or relax until I was sure that I was up-to-date on sending things in. And you know what? It was awful, for a few weeks, but then I was done. In a very short amount of time I was completely free and it felt like a breath of fresh air. 

I really hope this helps anyone who might be lagging behind a bit or losing steam! As always, feel free to comment below with your own suggestions or if you have any questions for me.

PS I am still working on getting advice from current med students (and medical  professionals involved in the admissions process) on LOIs and I'm also doing a little experiment on my own so stay tuned for a post on that coming soon!

Interview On Accepted.com

Another day, another interview, only this time I was the one answering questions! Check out my interview on the blog for Accepted.com, a website with professional advice and information on all things admissions related from school stats to personal statements to what you should wear on interview day. The Accepted blog is authored by an number of impressive admissions consultants who have had extensive experience in the field and are well-qualified to share their expertise.  I was very excited to share my story with them and I hope people enjoy reading about my journey to medical school as much as I enjoyed telling about it!

Letters of Interest - Tell Me What You Think!

As you all know from my last post I am incredibly excited to have received an interview invitation from Rush Medical College(!), but that doesn't mean that I'm not still constantly checking the status of all my other applications online and wondering what the next step is for all the schools that I haven't yet heard from. After I finished the long and arduous process of submitting all of my secondaries I realized that I don't know a whole lot about what to do next. As in, what happens after your submit your apps? I feel like there are really two ways you can go - you can breathe a huge sigh of relief and immediately take a brain-vacation from thinking about anything medical school related until you start getting interiew invitations/rejections or you can be an "active" applicant. Basically it's like when you apply to a job - some people just send out apps and then never follow up. I've always belonged to the school of thought that you should at least email or call the hiring manager of the company where you applied because this helps you to stand out and might give you a better chance of getting the job. This approach has always worked well for me and I'm wondering if it's something that applies to med school as well. Of course, this is entirely a theory I've developed on my own but I feel like it's something I've applied everywhere else in my life with relative degrees of success. Applying to medical school is a competition to show the admissions committees not only WHY you are well-suited to become a successful student at their school but also HOW MUCH you want to attend their specific school. With this in mind, I wonder how important it is to send out letters of interest. I know it is recommended to send updates to schools you are waiting on and there are definitely those people who feel that sending out an LOI was what got them an interview or off a wait list but then there are many others who feel that they don't help at all. So this post is to ask all of you - what do you think? I'd love to hear of any experiences writing letters to admissions during the application process - positive or negative! Please feel free to comment, tweet at me or message me on Google+. I hope to gather some advice and later share what I find in a Part II post. Thanks in advance, all of you wonderful readers (and current applicants/med students). And if you're still filling out apps, keep slogging, it'll feel amazing to be done!