An Oversupply of Emergency Physicians?

When I applied in emergency medicine (EM), I had only two other classmates submitting applications to the field. EM wasn't a very popular specialty, although that would change as the show ER became hotter. Although enthusiasm for the field has generally increased over my career, medical students' interest in EM has waxed and waned.

Recently an eight-organization consortium of EM groups analyzed the field's workforce, demonstrating an oversupply of emergency physicians likely to appear over the next decade. There are a number of reasons proposed, including the proliferation of EM residencies and inappropriate use of physician extenders. Take a look at this piece in ACEP Now for detailed information, especially if you see EM in your future.

AMCAS Opens for Submission on Thursday

The AMCAS open-for-submission date is this Thursday, May 27. While submitting on Thursday is to your advantage because of rolling admissions, getting that application in at 9:30am EST on May 27 is not worth losing your mind over, so if you simply can't, please don't kick yourself.

If you're wrapping up your work and have your written materials in a superior state, just keep moving and get your application submitted promptly. If you're behind the eight ball and don't feel that you can craft outstanding written materials speedily, consider waiting a year to apply. Every season I encounter re-applicants who, during the previous cycle, submitted their AMCASes in August or September...thus making them re-applicants :(. 

Expert Writing Tips

With AMCAS' submission open date fast approaching (on May 27), I thought I might lower the boiling point a little by offering an amusing group of writing tips based on the wit of the late author William Safire and copywriter Frank LaPosta Visco. Enjoy!

A writer must not shift your point of view.
Always pick on the correct idiom.
Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
Always be sure to finish what
Avoid alliteration. Always.
Avoid archaeic spellings.
Avoid clichés like the plague. (They're old hat.)
Avoid trendy locutions that sound flaky.
Be more or less specific.
Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
Contractions aren't necessary.
Do not use hyperbole; not one in a million can do it effectively.
Don't indulge in sesquipedalian lexicological constructions.
Don't never use no double negatives.
Don't overuse exclamation marks!!
Don't repeat yourself, or say again what you have said before.
Don't use commas, that, are not, necessary.
Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
Employ the vernacular.
Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
Eschew obfuscation.
Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
Everyone should be careful to use a singular pronoun with singular nouns in their writing.
Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
Hopefully, you will use words correctly, irregardless of how others use them.
If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
If you reread your work, you can find on rereading a great deal of repetition can be avoided by rereading and editing.
It behooves you to avoid archaic expressions.
It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
Never use a big word when a diminutive alternative would suffice.
No sentence fragments.
One should never generalize.
One-word sentences? Eliminate.
Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
Parenthetical words however must be enclosed in commas.
Place pronouns as close as possible, especially in long sentences, as of ten or more words, to their antecedents.
Placing a comma between subject and predicate, is not correct.
Proofread carefully to see if you any words out.
Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
Profanity sucks.
Subject and verb always has to agree.
Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
The adverb always follows the verb.
The passive voice is to be avoided.
Understatement is always best.
Use the apostrophe in it's proper place and omit it when its not needed.
Use youre spell chekker to avoid mispeling and to catch typograhpical errers.
Who needs rhetorical questions?
Writing carefully, dangling participles must be avoided.

Choose the Right Category for your AMCAS Experiences

AMCAS provides 18 categories in which you can classify your experiences. They are:

Artistic Endeavors
Community Service/Volunteer – Not Medical/Clinical
Community Service/Volunteer – Medical/Clinical
Conferences Attended
Extracurricular Activities
Hobbies
Honors/Awards/Recognitions
Intercollegiate Athletics
Leadership – Not listed elsewhere
Military Service
Other
Paid Employment – Medical/Clinical
Paid Employment – Not Medical/Clinical
Physician Shadowing/Clinical Observation
Presentations/Posters
Publications
Research/Lab
Teaching/Tutoring/Teaching Assistant  

Sometimes an activity can match two categories. When that happens, lean on the clinical categories, if applicable. (For example, if your activity is both Leadership and Community Service - Medical/ Clinical, choose the latter.) If clinical is not relevant, then choose the category in which you have the fewest activities.

A client who came to me as a re-applicant a few years back told me that a school from which she was rejected indicated that they had not counted a clearly clinical activity as clinical because she had classified it differently. So be sure you consider the categories deliberately in crafting your AMCAS.  

How To Craft Stand-out Most Meaningful Paragraphs

Back in 2012, seemingly out of the blue, a new component appeared on AMCAS®. Applicants were being asked to identify up to three of their most significant extracurricular experiences and support their selections with more writing. The instructions stated:

This is your opportunity to summarize why you have selected this experience as one of your most meaningful. In your remarks, you might consider the transformative nature of the experience, the impact you made while engaging in the experience and the personal growth you experienced as a result of your participation. 1325 max characters.

Now the Most Meaningful Paragraphs are par for the course, but applicants routinely make a few avoidable errors in crafting them. Here are tips to do your best work:

1) Don’t merge the descriptors with the Most Meaningful Paragraphs; they are separate sections: You can complete descriptors for up to 15 activities with a maximum of 700 characters each, plus up to three Most Meaningful Paragraphs with a maximum of 1325 characters each. The fact that these are two different tasks might seem clear to some, but every year, I receive AMCAS drafts to edit with merged descriptors and Most Meaningful Paragraphs. 

2) Don't use patient anecdotes in your Most Meaningful Paragraphs: Most medical school applicants have patient vignettes to share, which means that a patient story does not distinguish an applicant from the masses of other candidates. Also, these patient stories can sound trite or even inadvertently condescending. Talk about yourself instead. (See below.)

3) Don’t repeat what you've written in your descriptor. The Most Meaningful Paragraphs are an opportunity to delve deeper into your achievements. Let’s say you're showcasing your experience as a teaching assistant (TA) who was promoted to head TA or simply asked to return the next semester. Highlight teaching achievements that propelled you to get the lead position or the return invite. Did you offer an unconventional way of learning the difficult material? If so, what was it? Did you provide service that was above and beyond what was required? If so, what exactly did you do and how did it help your students? Did you get excellent teaching reviews? By delving deeper, you can truly demonstrate the “transformative nature of the experience, the impact you made while engaging in the experience and the personal growth you experienced as a result of your participation.” Make sure you address at least one of the three topics mentioned in the prompt - transformative nature, impact, and/or personal growth - in your Most Meaningful Paragraph. 

Bottom line: The Most Meaningful Paragraphs are an opportunity for you to demonstrate your distinctiveness and worthiness for medical school. Write substantively to make sure you don’t waste the opportunity to further your candidacy.