Fast Forward

It may sound premature to think about residency when you’re not even in medical school yet, but I have a quick tip, and you will thank me later.

Save, save, and resave your medical school application materials. AMCAS information, personal statement, Secondaries – all of it. This will come in very handy when you are applying to residency and trying to remember which action verbs you used to describe the organizations with which you were involved in college! The past employment history will also come in handy. Moreover, you will likely never be a better writer than you are now, and you will be amazed at how many nicely written sentences you may want to pluck right out of your personal statement for medical school and drop into your residency application.

If you’re not already familiar, dropbox.com is a great place to store things like this given that the computer you’re using now will probably not be the one you’re using 4-5+ years from now.

(And of course, saving your materials is also a good idea in the short-term in case you are a re-applicant in the future.)

Phone a Friend

Well folks, to say I feel your pain is probably an understatement. Applying to residency is exhausting and excruciating.
 
But, my application is finished! Letters of recommendation – mailed; transcripts – submitted; USMLE scores – sent; personal statement – written, rewritten, edited, trashed, written again, and finalized.
 
It will take me another week or so to dig out from the “life” things I have been putting off. However, I have missed blogging, and I have received tremendous feedback from readers about the blog, so I wanted to say, “Howdy, I’ve missed you!”
 
One of the biggest lessons I learned in the final week of obsessing over my application is the significance of another set of eyes. Allowing other people to read your application – personal statement, Secondaries, activities lists, whatever – may make you feel extremely vulnerable, and admittedly, it’s scary. But, it’s one of the single best things you can do to improve the quality of your work.
 
Don’t go nuts. I think it’s important to select only a handful of people with certain purposes in mind. If too many people make suggestions and edit, you will lose your voice. Here are my suggestions:  

• One person with a quasi-medical or health background who can confirm that you’re saying things about medicine that make sense. We all understand that “medicine” is another language, so using it properly is important.
  

• A person who knows you really, really well and can bring out your accomplishments, strengths, etc. and also enhance your ability to use important anecdotes about personal experiences.

• Someone with a gift for the English language. Proofread, proofread, proofread. This person can make sure you aren’t missing something just because you’ve read your whole application 10,000 times.

Of course, you’ll have to make adjustments if you don’t know people who meet these categories. Also, it can’t help to have your advisor take a look if you have that kind of relationship.

Love Letter

Conquering the “Why This School” essay may feel like writing a love letter to the Admissions Committee. It's tough, particularly because it is easy to become bogged down as you craft and adjust the essay for each school.

Be Brief. Most schools ask that you limit this response to about 200 words, and they’re serious. Keep yourself to two paragraphs. The first should focus on ONE (and only one) aspect of the school that makes it a good fit for you. You can tastefully tie in other points, but be judicious. The second paragraph is for special circumstances, discussed below.

Focus on You. Do not be fooled into thinking this is an essay about how fabulous the school is or how much you want to go there. Admissions Committees already know their school is terrific; do not waste words telling them (see “Be Brief”). At heart, this is an essay about you!

Don’t be a Broken Record. Secondaries are a place to tell Admissions Committee things they do not already know about you after having read your AMCAS. Try not to reiterate too many things you have already driven home elsewhere.

Demonstrate Commitment. Often, applications make applicants appear a little lost – a bit of community service here, some laboratory research there, a brief tutoring experience, etc. This essay is a place to demonstrate commitment, an attribute schools seek in applicants. For example, if you wrote for the school paper, you might explain, “During undergrad, I demonstrated my interest in journalism by taking relevant coursework, serving as a writer on the university paper, and ultimately being selected as Chief Editor. I look forward to attending ___ because of the unique opportunity to write for and help publish the medical student literary journal.” You get the point. 

Special Circumstances. The second paragraph is where you can mention that every person in your family has attended this medical school since before DaVinci, and you cannot imagine the shame of coming home for Thanksgiving if you do not get it. Not all special circumstances need to be “special.” You might mention your interest in practicing rural or urban medicine and thus wanting to train in that type of environment. My caution is to be careful about geography. Schools do not want to hear that you are interested in their program because you want to be in New York City, for example. Admissions Committees prefer to think that their curriculum and facilities are so wonderful that you would apply even if they were in Antarctica.

Say my Name. Everyone likes to hear his or her own name. Include each school's name in the essay. But, be sure to proofread and change the name before sending the "Harvard" essay to "Yale." I hear that's bad for business.

Forbidden Fruit

Among Secondary Application questions, the “ethical dilemma” is by far the most challenging. It is easy to feel overwhelmed by tackling this question, and many applicants struggle to choose a topic. My list of cautions is below.

1. Brevity is the soul of wit. Your response should not be long. Character or word limits are exactly that: limits. Do not interpret them as guidelines or suggestions about length. Admissions committees are simply assessing your ability to first identify an ethical dilemma and then behave appropriately in the face of it. The less you say, the less likely you are to dig a deep, deep hole.

2. Avoid “overshare.” Admissions committees do not want to know intimately personal details about you. This is a balancing act. If you depersonify the essay entirely, it becomes less interesting because it is no longer about you. That said, use care. Essay readers will be rightly skeptical if they find you positioning yourself smack-dab in the middle of a questionable situation. Similarly, avoid overtly controversial topics, particularly lifestyle decisions.

3. Do not be the hero. The essay does not need to be a story about your intervening in an unethical act. Enough said.

4. Do not attempt profundity. Your essay is not a philosophy dissertation. You do not need to be profound; you simply need to demonstrate good judgment.

5. Finally, do not choose academic dishonesty as your topic. This topic is so worn out that some schools will even forbid it in their instructions to the applicant. If they do not, assume they thought you would know better. Everyone has seen cheating, and studies show that most students themselves have probably done it at some time. If this is the only topic that comes to mind, it suggests to Admissions Committees that you may not be observant enough to identify the ethical dilemmas that occur daily in your life, and if you’re not observant, you won’t be a good physician. See Point 4. You do not need to be profound. It is better to choose a small, insignificant dilemma than to choose cheating, plagiarism, etc.

For inspiration, try reading a few entries from the collection of Ethicist columns from the New York Times Magazine. Times Magazine columnists also answer ethical questions on this free podcast: NYT: The Ethicist Podcast.

Then, re-read Point 5: do not plagiarize.

Go Forth and Excel

Although receiving and submitting Secondaries may seem stressful, interview season is likely to be even more hectic.  Now is the time to plan ahead to make interview season much easier: Create a spreadsheet.  

A well-made spreadsheet will streamline the process and help to make important details – like where you’ll be sleeping, and whether you’ve thanked your interviews – easily accessible and less forgettable.  You may prefer to put dates into the empty cells or simply check marks.  More on thanking your interviews in a future entry.