Read About How People's Interviews Are Going!

My amazing Berkeley MCAT Prep Course teacher, Todd Bennett, sent me this link. For all of you that are currently interviewing at med schools and DO schools, this is a MUST-READ! And once you've completed an interview, please help fellow and future applicants by sharing your own experience on this SDN webpage!

http://share.studentdoctor.net/interview/school_pick.aspx


I have three interviews lined up! I'll let everyone know how they went!

Best of luck to us all,
Sara

Personal Statement Advice 2

One more tip on the personal statement...

Be careful with your 5300 character limit! When I typed my personal statement into the space provided on the AMCAS application, my 5290 character essay (5290 characters according to MS Word) ended up being 5300 characters exactly!

Good luck!
Sara

I put mine into Text Edit (on a mac) and then cut and pasted it into the AMCAS space. Mine was over by 11-12 characters, as well. Also, make sure a read it over and over and over, aloud...some of my punctuation changed. For example, my apostrophes became upside question marks!

:) Tanya

Accommodations for Interviews

Hello, everyone!

Interviews are coming up for this year's applicants! Because the cost of travel and accommodations for the interviews is high (especially for the Cali students that applied to the East Coast), we wanted to share SDN's forum thread about possible FREE places to stay. SDN users around the nation have offered their sofas to interviewees. Do note, however, that the list of potential couch-offerers is on a 'Use at Your Own Risk' basis. You probably will want to have a reservation at a local hotel just in case things don't pan out... Go to the last post on this forum thread to see the most updated list of potential couches to crash on!

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=410345&page=2

Here's to more interviews than you ever dreamed of! Good luck!

Personal Statement Advice

Hi, everyone! Sara here! Just wanted to post a quick note about writing your personal statement...

DON'T BURN OUT!

I'm in the midst of secondaries, and believe me, if you burn out writing your personal statement for the AMCAS app, you'll have very little energy to attack the secondaries. My first secondary arrived at my inbox 2 days after I submitted my AMCAS app. And in the past 9 days, I've received 8 secondaries in total. The secondary questions are specific to each school with some asking for 200 character-long answers and others asking for 5000 character-long answers. So be prepared to write almost daily to get your secondaries turned around quickly!

Best of luck to everyone!

Summer English Comp Class at UCLA

UCLA Summer Sessions ( http://www.summer.ucla.edu/ ) is offering English Composition 131C, a writing-intensive course that focuses on writing for medicine and public health. During the course, you write your personal statement and a research paper! It meets twice a week for 6 weeks and is offered twice over the summer. There are seats still open for the first session and wait-list spots available for the second session, but be prepared for the high cost of summer classes at UCLA...

Thanks to new club member Francis for the heads-up on this one!

Volunteer Position Available in Glendale, CA

Hello, everyone! Thanks to Club Member Ron for the following volunteer lead!

The Community Comprehensive Health Center (CCHC) in Glendale, CA, is looking for a volunteer to work with diabetic patients, tracking their progress. The position involves reviewing of charts of current and new diabetic patients, inputting data in the PECS software system, and generating reports. Training will be provided.

Please inquire only if you can commit to this position long-term. They would prefer a minimum of 20 hrs/wk through the summer.

Contact:
Linet Mirzakhanian
Sr. Executive Asst/Human Resources
Phone: (818) 265-2213
Fax: (818) 291-0291
Linet@cchc.cc

Upcoming Free Practice Test from Kaplan

MCAT:
www.kaptest.com/mcat
Events:
Sunday, June 17th, 5-8:30pm: MCAT CBT Practice Test, WW Kaplan Center

APPLICATIONS CAN NOW BE SUBMITTED!!

Most of you probably know, but just in case...

You may now SUBMIT your AMCAS med school applications! Applications were made available for submission yesterday!

The AACOMAS applications can also be submitted for DO schools!

BEST OF LUCK, EVERYONE!!
Sara & Tanya

SDN Forum Thread of Secondary Essay Prompts

Since many of you are applying to schools this summer, we wanted to pass along the link to SDN's forum thread of secondary essay prompts. The questions you get on your secondary apps could very well be the same questions you get asked at the interview!

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=293395&page=7

And don't forget! The How I Got Into Med School meeting with Cristina Barolet has been moved to Sunday, June 3rd at 11:30am! Location to be announced!

Guest Speaker - Having Babies During Med School

Hello, everyone!

As older pre-med students, you may be asking yourselves if it's at all possible to have babies during med school. Well, we found an amazing MD that did it! Dr. Bonnie Moura, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Keck School of Medicine (better known as USC Med School) had a baby AND got pregnant with her second baby DURING MED SCHOOL! She'll be sharing her experience with the club on May 31st at 7:30pm at a Downtown L.A. location (to be announced soon).

Significant others are welcome! Please RSVP to nontradpremeds@gmail.com as soon as you can!

Guest Speaker - How I Got Into Med School-DATE CHANGE!!!

Hello, members!

We're extremely excited to announce an important info session with guest speaker and fellow non-trad, Cristina Barolet! With her pre-reqs completed at UCLA Extension, Cristina got accepted into Albany, Loyola-Chicago, Chicago Medical School (Rosalind Franklin), and Northwestern. She begins her med school education this fall.

Send an RSVP to nontradpremeds@gmail.com and come join us on SUNDAY, June 3nd at 11:30am to find out how she did it! We'll get back to you on the location.

Upcoming Event and Free Practice Test from Kaplan

Event: “Insider Secrets to Med School Admissions”
Keynote Speaker: Houman Hemmati, M.D., Ph.D.
When: Wednesday, May 16th, 7-8:30pm
Where: UCLA, Geology 3656
Details: Dr. Hemmati went to the David Geffen School of Medicine and worked with the Admissions Committee for over three years. He’s reviewed thousands of applications and can tell you what it takes to get into Med School from an insider's perspective. He’s also worked with many UCLA undergraduates on research and is famous for assisting with the separation of conjoined twins in Guatemala. Just Google his name to see his many accomplishments!
Register: www.kaptest.com/enroll

Event: Free MCAT Practice Test!
When: Saturday, May 19th, 9:30am-2:00pm
Where: UCLA, Kinsey Pavilion 1240B
Details: See how you’d score with or without preparation on the MCAT. This is the perfect chance to get a detailed analysis of your strengths and weaknesses and to familiarize yourself with the content of the exam.
Register: www.kaptest.com/practice

UCLA Extension Registration Opens May 9th!

Hello, folks!

The summer quarter catalogue for UCLA Extension becomes available on May 9th.
The online catalogue will be available at 12:00am, May 9th, which also means that online registration for summer quarter classes opens at 12:00am, May 9th! Happy Enrolling, everyone!

http://www.uclaextension.edu/

AMCAS Application 2008 is OPEN!

Thank you to Club Member Kris for reminding us that the 2008 AMCAS Application for med schools is now available!

Go to:
https://services.aamc.org/AMCAS2_2008/

Club Meeting

Come join us for our first club meeting! It's this Saturday, May 5th, at 1:15pm in the Physics & Astronomy Bldg, Rm 1434, just after the Chem XL14C class at UCLA! We want to meet you in person! See you there!

Financial Assistance/Scholarship Programs

Most of us are about to go into an enormous amount of debt in medical school. Being a non-traditional student (read "older"), it's tough thinking about how we're going to climb out of it. Most of us will be at least 40 before we are out of residencies and making decent salaries (ouch and ouch). Many have, or will have, families and mortgages...and choice of specialty will also make a difference into how quickly this debt will go away. What I am getting at, if you're still with me, is that there are some options available to us.
There are financial assistance and scholarship programs that will pay for one-four years of school in exchange for your newly acquired skills as a physician.

NATIONAL HEALTH SERVICE CORPS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM
This program is through the US Department of Health & Human Services.

http://12.46.245.173/pls/portal30/CATALOG.SEARCH_PGM_TXT_DYN.SHOW?p_arg_names=prog_nbr_in&p_arg_values=93.288&p_arg_names=keyword_in&p_arg_values=medical%20school&p_arg_names=_title&p_arg_values=

also here.... http://www.hrsa.gov/help/healthprofessions.htm

INDIAN HEALTH SERVICE
Here's a way to help pay back your med school loans AND help the communities on Native American reservations. The Indian Health Service of the US Dept of Health and Human Services has a Loan Repayment Program, where a doctor can live and work on a Native American reservation in exchange for a set amount of annual pay towards medical school loans.

http://www.ihs.gov/JobsCareerDevelop/DHPS/LRP/index.asp

HEALTH PROFESSIONS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMS through the military.
The Army, Navy and Air Force are the only three branches that have this program.

Air Force: http://www.airforce.com/education/healthcare/moneyForSchool.php

Army: http://www.goarmy.com/amedd/medical/corps_benefits.jsp#hpsp

Navy: http://www.navy.com/healthcareopportunities/

Funny Blogs about the MCAT and Applying

If you need a little break from studying for the hardest standardized test in the nation, check out this blog. It's got some funny stuff about the MCAT experience!

http://medschoolpath.blogspot.com/


And here's the blog we mentioned at the first club meeting. It's got good info on the admissions process!

http://ahyesmedschool.blogspot.com/2005/08/ask-fake-doctor.html

Best of luck!

Volunteer Programs

Here are two Volunteer Programs available to us:

1) This came through the Biochem classes' list-serve.

Collegiate Medical Volunteer Program at County Hospital Downtown

If you are interested in:
--pursing a career as a health professional
--gaining valuable experience in a major metropolitan hospital
--shadowing a team of physicians and residents
--rotating through 3 different departments in the course of one year
(Internal Medicine, OB-GYN, and Pediatrics)

Application/Information Sessions
Two information sessions held (choose one):
--Monday, 4-30-07 at 7 pm
--Tuesday, 5-1-07 at 7 pm

Where?
Los Angeles County + USC Medical Center
General Auditorium 1645
1200 N. State Street
Los Angeles, CA 90033

*Mandatory if accepted*
Orientation/Training on May 12, 2007, 8:30 am to 3 pm
Department Specific Training: TBA

All majors are welcome.

You must attend one of the two information sessions to apply. You must be a college student, 18+, and have a GPA of 3.0 or better. For more information, please call 323-226-6945.


2) Clinical Care Extender Volunteer Program

√ Interested in medicine or the health care field?
√ Looking for a way to give back to your community?
√ Want hands-on experience in hospital departments?

Join the hospital’s patient care team as a Clinical Care Extender intern:
Maternal Child Health- Rotate through Labor & Delivery, Pediatrics, the Mother Baby Care Unit & NICU
Emergency Medicine- Develop your skills in one of the busiest Emergency Rooms in Van Nuys.
Surgery- Observe different procedures in the Operating Room, Gastro-Intestinal Services, and Labor & Delivery

Take advantage of other opportunities as a Clinical Care Extender Intern:
♦ Pre-Nursing- Scholarships to nursing schools are available.
♦ Pre-Physical Therapy- Interact with Physical Therapists.
♦ Pre-Med- Take a free mini MCAT Prep Course by Berkeley Review, interact with MDs, etc.
♦ CCE Internships tailored to Pre-Physician’s Assistant, Pre-Allied Health, Hospital Administration, Public Health, and other healthcare fields are available

More information at:
http://copehealthsolutions.org/services/hwt/CCE%20Program/Hospitals/ValleyPres/register.html

Reservations are required for all Interviews. They will be held May 9th– June 30th. To sign up for an interview, please visit:
https://instant-scheduling.com/sch.php?kn=9543
and click on “2007C VPH CCE Interviews (1h).”

For additional information, contact:
Matt Landon at vphapdrt@copepartnershwt.org

PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS

Immunizations:
Hepatitis B Series: Must have completed the series of three shots or be in the process of completing the series by the time you start the first shift.
MMR: Must have two by the time you start your first shift.
TB Test: Must have been taken within the last six months (if positive, must provide the results of a chest x-ray).
CPR: Must have American Heart Association (AHA) CPR certification that covers adults, infants, and children.

You must be 18 years or older to participate.
You must be enrolled in, accepted to, or graduated from an accredited college or university.
You must have an active e-mail account (checked at least twice weekly).
You must be able to volunteer 4 hours per week.

If accepted, you must attend the 3-day mandatory training dates:
Saturday, July 28th
Sunday, July 29th
Sunday, August 5th


Additionally:
♦ Leadership Opportunities are available
♦ Clinical Care Extender’s who complete at least 240 hours and graduate from the program are eligible for a Letter of Recommendation!

Thank You to Dr. Nassar and Dr. Doucette!

We just wanted to give a big Thank You to Dr. Antonio Nassar, prof of the Physics Series at UCLA Extension and to Dr. Pete Doucette, prof of the Biochem Series at UCLA Extension and Chem courses at SMC. These two excellent educators have been instrumental in spreading the word about the club! THANK YOU!!

Tanya & Sara

My Experience Taking the MCAT

Hi, everyone! Sara here! I took the April 16th MCAT at the Culver City location and I am still decompressing...but I wanted to give you details on what it was like.

There are two or three rooms of about 16 computer stations each. We have no control of which room we take the MCAT in, and unfortunately, one of the rooms has cubicles where the test-takers can see the person across from them. Luckily, I wasn't in that room.

I arrived at 10:40am, put my snacks and keys in the locker, got my picture taken, had my fingerprints recorded, and went into the testing room to start the 12pm MCAT at 10:55am. They're really lax about letting you go in whenever you're ready. There were two people already in the room, finishing some other standardized test. I was the first MCAT-er to enter and was seated in the back corner which meant that no one would walk past me during the test.

Unfortunately, my computer monitor was a flickering, glass-covered antique, so I was distracted at first. I could have moved seats, but I opted to stay because I'd be more distracted by people walking past me during their breaks.

I put in the ear plugs and put on the orange sound-reducing headphones. I couldn't hear a thing past the bizarre vacuum sound that comes with the headphones. Happily, I got used to it very quickly.

You cannot take a jacket or sweater off inside the testing room, but you CAN take it off outside of the room. I ended up leaving my jacket in the locker after the first section. The room was kept at a very even temperature.

I had a booklet of pink scratch paper. I believe it was 3 or 4 pages total. You could get a new booklet for each section if you wanted. Two sharp pencils were sitting at the computer station.

Starting the MCAT, I was thrown a bit by the format. It isn't like the AAMC online practice tests. Take a look at the following links:
http://www.aamc.org/students/mcat/differences.htm
http://www.prometric.com/demos/mcat/index.htm

My nerves got the best of me during the first section (Physical Sciences) and I was wasting time re-reading questions and second-guessing myself even when I knew the answers. There were a lot more conceptual questions than I had expected. I calmed down for the second section (Verbal) and even more for the Writing Section. The Biological Sciences section was a combination of Bio/O.Chem and Verbal. One passage in particular felt like in should have been in the Verbal Section.

I took about eight minutes of the ten provided between each section, even if I didn't need the break. I grabbed my water and granola bars from my locker and noshed a bit, hit the bathroom, and then returned to the testing room and just sat there until I was ready to hit END BREAK.

A note of caution: DO NOT PULL YOUR CELL PHONES OR NOTES OUT DURING BREAKS. It's in the AAMC MCAT Rules that we cannot study in between sections, and the people who run the testing centers know this. If they see you with notes or with cell phones, they may write you up, and your scores will have some note attached to them for all med school adcoms to see.

After the test was over, all I could focus on were the questions I didn't know. I felt awful. I was happy to discover that this was the normal reaction for most MCAT-ers. It's still another few weeks until I get my scores, and until then, I'll just try not to think about how I did.

What I would have done differently:

1) more practice tests to make it feel more routine...of course, I don't know if that would have helped...
2) practice tests on many different computer screens, so that I wouldn't be as thrown as when I started the real MCAT. I got so used to taking the practice tests on my computer screen with my font and font size...
3) more time on preparing for the NERVES aspect before taking the test
4) read and practiced more essay prompts. One of the prompts I got was almost identical to one that I did as practice, so I was all set. The other one threw me because I had never practiced an essay from that topic area or had even checked out any prompts from that topic area.
5) more practice at rounding numbers
6) concentrated more on concepts and trends across the disciplines
7) been prepared to comment on the testing experience. They give you a survey after the MCAT and I typed in a short comment about my flickering monitor, but I wish I had taken the time to really write all my issues down about the experience. This being the first year of all CBT MCATs, it's important for AAMC to know the differences from facility to facility, monitor to monitor...

If you have any questions, ask away!
Good luck,
Sara

Complementary and Alternative Med (CAM)

Many of you know that I am a firm believer in studying all the healing arts available to us. Allopathic, Osteopathic, Homeopathic, Naturopathic, Eastern, Ayurvedic, Chiropractic--you name it, I want to learn it. Luckily for me and those of you that share this view, many allopathic (aka M.D.) schools in the US have incorporated complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) courses into their curricula as requirements or electives. Some schools that have done so for years (and some for decades) include Harvard, Georgetown, UCLA (and in fact, most of the UCs), U of Miami, Mt. Sinai, Brown, UMass, Tufts, UNebraska...the list goes on and on.

My hunting-and-gathering brought me to these links:

http://www.amsa.org/humed/CAM/CAM_search.cfm
This is a search engine for MD/DO/Eastern med schools that teach CAM courses. Unfortunately, it's not very up-to-date, so if you're interested in specific schools, search their websites.


All of these links below present info on the current relationship between CAM and US healthcare today.
http://nccam.nih.gov/health/whatiscam/
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/alternative-medicine/CM99999
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/therapy/CAM
http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmccomplementalternmed/
http://www.kidshealth.org/teen/your_body/medical_care/alternative_medicine.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/altmed/interviews/eisenberg.html


Enjoy!
Sara

Websites We Know and Love

If you don't know these websites yet, check them out! You'll need them!

The Homepage for AAMC:
http://www.aamc.org/

The link to AMCAS' Online Application for med schools:
http://www.aamc.org/audienceamcas.htm

The AAMC online practice MCATs and MCAT info:
http://www.e-mcat.com/


The following are websites that we frequent to find info for and from non-trads!

The Student Doctor Network which has a specific forum for Non-Traditionals:
http://www.studentdoctor.net/

The Mom MD website:
http://www.mommd.com/premed.shtml

The online medical community Tiromed:
http://www.tiromed.com/index.php?promo=2518

www.oldpremeds.org
-The name speaks for itself! They are having a conference outside of Chicago this June. I (Tanya) went to the one in DC last year and it was very beneficial to me. I met my advisor there, several non-trad. MD and DO's, fellow students, heard from great speakers, met recruiters from MD/DO schools, Kaplan/TPR, etc...if you can make it this year, it's worth it. Check the website for more details and the speaker line up.

www.judycolwell.com
-Amazing pre-med advisor, especially for non-trad.'s. I (Tanya again) hired her and she has been a big help to me. She used to be on the adcom @ Stanford.

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/medicine/education-faq/part1/
http://www.faqs.org/faqs/medicine/education-faq/part2/

Thanks to Kris for the following...

Application process (MD and DO)
http://www.osteopathic.org/
http://career.ucla.edu/GraduateSchool&PreProfessionalServices/ApplicationProcess.asp
http://web.princeton.edu/sites/hpa/index.html
http://www.mdapplicants.com/selectschool.php
http://www.aamc.org/students/cim/specialties.htm

DO info
http://www.osteopathic.org/index.cfm?PageID=ado_whatis
http://career.ucla.edu/GraduateSchool&PreProfessionalServices/Osteopathic.asp

Foreign medical school guide
http://www.sunysb.edu/healthed/foreign.html

Summer research/pre-medical programs
http://www.smdep.org/
http://www.cityofhope.org/SummerStudent
http://www.training.nih.gov/student/sip/
http://ssrp.stanford.edu/
http://saa.ucsf.edu/summerprogram/applicants/index.html
http://www.rit.edu/~gtfsbi/Symp/premed.htm
http://hpap.syr.edu/spstate.htm
http://www.healthcareers.org/main/index.htm

Post-bac program list
http://services.aamc.org/postbac/
https://meded-postbac.ucsd.edu/index.cfm?curpage=home
http://hpap.syr.edu/pblist.htm

Clinical volunteer programs (Los Angeles area)
http://healthcare.ucla.edu/shared/volunteering/

Pre-Medical Association
http://www.amsa.org/premed/

MD/PhD and DO/PhD guides
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_development/previous_issues/articles/2590/the_m_d_ph_d_an_academic_path_to_a_career_as_a_physician_scientist/(parent)/12095
http://www.physicianscientists.org/Training_Programs/DO-PhD.html
http://www.mdphds.org/guide.shtml

Please post a comment with any other links you guys know of! Thanks!

Successful Non-Trad Applicant Thread on SDN

Hi, everyone!

Here's a link to an informative forum thread on SDN for non-trads like us! Successful non-traditional med school applicants have posted their experiences with the application procedure. They discuss all the major segments of applying--GPA, MCAT, LORs (Letters of Rec), ECs (Extracurriculars), Personal Statements, and Interviews.

http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=321873

It's well worth the read!

MCAT Prep Course Links

In no particular order, here are some MCAT prep course links. If you have info or opinions on any of them, please post a comment!

The Berkeley Review
http://www.berkeley-review.com/

The Princeton Review
http://www.princetonreview.com/home.asp

Kaplan Review
http://www.kaptest.com/Kaplan/3/Pre-Med/MCAT

Examkrackers
http://www.examkrackers.com/

Letter Services

Hello, members!

It has come to our attention that some of you may not know about letter-sending services. When you are requested by med school adcoms (admission committees) to send in your LORs (Letters of Rec) during secondaries, you can either send the LORs yourself which we've heard is a major pain in the derriere (...just imagine sending all 6 letters to all 30 of the schools that you have applied to...and what do you do in terms of waiving your right to see the letters? Ask your evaluators to give you 30 sealed envelopes of their letter? Ask THEM to send the letters for you?), OR you can have a letter service do all the collecting, copying, and sending for you.

Every 4-yr undergraduate institution tends to have a letter-sending service. Many small private colleges don't charge for the service even for alumni of many years past. Unfortunately, you public university graduates will more than likely have to pay for the service at your alma maters. There are also private letter-sending services like Interfolio and VirtualEvals, but some schools don't take them while others do, so make sure you read these private companies' websites thoroughly before hiring them!

Strictly as UCLA Extension students and/or Concurrent students, we are not eligible for the UCLA service on campus.

Best of luck in all you do,
Tanya & Sara

I use the UCLA service. If you are a UCLA alumni then it is $75/year to enroll plus it's a few bucks for each letter you send. Probably about $5 per school or so. If anyone is a UCLA alumni you can sign up for it through the career center website. It has definitely made things easier because you can get a letter of rec. immediately and just have it stored until you are ready to apply.
-Tyler