Medical School Costs

Here's a short downer of an article on medical school debt. Per the NEJM, The median cost of attending medical school for one year (including fees) is $62,243 at private schools and $44,390 for state residents at public schools. The graph - following the trends in cost and reimbursements over the past ten years - is particularly grave.

Interviews: What are they really looking for anyway?

It helps to prepare for your interviews by considering what the questions are really asking. There are several reassurances medical school, residency and fellowship interviewers are seeking:

1. Are you sure you know what you're doing? If you're applying to medical school, can you demonstrate that you are familiar with what being a doctor entails? (Giving examples of clinical experience helps.) If you are applying for residency or fellowship, are you confident you want to be a [insert specialty or subspecialty here]? Institutions do not want to accept someone who later quits. It looks bad and can be very inconvenient, especially for residency and fellowship schedules!

2. Are you crazy? Is there anything that tips the interviewer off to some problem personality? Are you going to harass your colleagues, commit a crime or do anything that will cause the institution extra work and embarrassment? (A colleague told me about an applicant who started his interview by putting his feet on her desk and ended it by winking at her. Needless to say, he was not ranked to match.)

3. Are you really interested in this institution? If we send you an acceptance/ put you high on our match list will you really come here? You can try to convince them by knowing the institution and the city it's in.

For individualized help on your interviews give me a jingle: insidermedical@gmail. I have excellent feedback from my clients on my personalized mock interviews: http://insidermedicaladmissions.com/about/testimonials.shtml .

The blog will take a short break over the Christmas holiday.

Offers outside of the match

One of my clients emailed me to say she was already offered a residency position outside of the match but had a short deadline by which to make her decision or the offer was off the table. (This was the first program at which she had interviewed.) She asked me what to do. I'd love to say I had a great answer.

Taking a position outside of the match (before you have time to interview at other places) is safe and very understandable. But some people are risk-takers and would rather wait it out and see what happens in the Match. I don't think one or the other is the right way to go: It really depends on your risk tolerance. I recommend relying on your family and your gut to make a decision like this one because it is so individual.

But such a conundrum is a nice problem to have, huh?


For help practicing for your interviews (as the client above had done) contact me at insidermedical@gmail.com or check out InsiderMedicalAdmissions.com .

Napping on the job?

The saga continues. Read this editorial on resident (and medical student) fatigue. I agree that mandating a nap is impossible to enforce. And can you imagine the chutzpah a resident would have to have to demand his/her nap in the current hierarchical medical training system?

How to be a good doctor

Anyone who reads my blog knows I am a big New York Times fan. There was another good article recently (even my mom pointed it out to me) regarding hubris in physicians. Just like in a good Greek tragedy, being arrogant can hurt you and your patients. Take a look at the article and remember my advice: If a nurse ever asks you to come see a patient do it. You'd be surprised how many times they can save the patient... and you.

Medical Training: Long and Dangerous Hours

Check out this NYT's article on residency training hours. What the author doesn't mention is that - despite the mandatory maximum 80-hour work week - many residents are working more. The residents have no incentive to report this to the Residency Review Committee (RRC) because they don't want to find themselves in unaccredited programs. The incentives are misaligned, leaving the residents without recourse.

Interesting feedback

A client emailed me to tell me that during one of his visits for residency interviews, a faculty member asked the group of applicants if anyone had hired a professional for mock interviews. My client was the only one to raise his hand. (I give him a lot of credit for his bravery.) The faculty member praised him publicly, and my client thinks he had a particularly good interaction with the faculty member later during their interview session.

I think it's interesting that professional admissions services are being viewed so positively by some faculty and programs.

For help with your interviews please contact me at InsiderMedicalAdmissions.com . I am booking 2 weeks in advance so email me soon.