The Life Cycle of an "Average" Premed: a ragecomic chronicle

I've finally settled down enough to reflect on the last 4 years of applications... and thought it would be a good idea to share my application history for those of you who may be in similar positions.

As requested (many times), my year-by-year undergraduate GPA (OMSAS) :

Year 1: 3.64
Year 2: 3.75
Year 3: 3.86
Year 4: 3.86

cGPA: 3.78
wGPA (weighted for U of T): 3.88

Not the most impressive stats, as you can clearly see.

I first started applying during third year of undergrad, more for practice than expecting actual interviews given my stats at the time. I've applied every year since then, at one point applying to the US (which was a complete and utter fail- for good reason). Here's a year-to-year breakdown along with graphical illustrations of my reaction to rejections each year:

Cycle 1- 2010-2011

Applied: Queen's, Toronto, McMaster
Rejected: Queen's, Toronto, McMaster

Figure 1. Pre-intervew rejections.

Summary: Rejected pre-interview for the three schools I applied to. I was periodically checking the library computers during lab break times. My lab partner at the time didn't apply, but was accepted in our 4th year- to the same school I'll be attending, actually.

This was the year Queen's first started taking ECs into pre-interview scoring, hence the lack of an interview...

Cycle 2- 2011-2012

Applied: Queen's, Toronto, McMaster, Western, Ottawa, Manitoba, Calgary
Interview: Manitoba, Western
Rejected: Manitoba, Western

Interviews at Western & Manitoba- see How to really, really screw up important interviews: a ragecomic presentation.

Summary: As a (slightly) socially awkward & nervous interviewer, interviews did not go down well (see above link). This was during my 4th year, while I did not have any back-up plans planned. This was/is a terrible idea, I still can't stress this enough. See How I got my first research position: a ragecomic illustration for what is usually highly unlikely to happen for people without solid backup plans.

Cycle 3- 2012-2013

Applied: Queen's, Toronto, McMaster, Western, Ottawa, Manitoba, 14 US schools
Interview: McMaster (off waitlist), Western
Rejected: McMaster, Western, all US schools

Figure 2. Overly-exaggerated graphical illustration of post-rejection celebrations.

Summary: Sad times here. I prepared extensively for both interviews, practicing with friends, labmates, etc. I think the problem was (like many others) I was over-prepared, and sounded as if I was reading off a script... and consequently didn't seem like a real person. Interestingly, now that I look back- I actually thought I did well in the interview (see Interviews & raging times at the lab)... idiocy, idiocy everywhere.

To be honest, this was probably among the most (but not the most) depressing, disappointing moments in my life. Especially considering the amount of help I was given by some awesome people around me... also didn't help that I was receiving pre-interview rejections year-round (starting from September? Or something like that) from the US schools I applied to. More on that later, but mostly due to bad reference letter(s), terribly written essay & secondaries, and lack of quantifiable research during applications.

Cycle 4- 2013-2014

Applied: Queen's, Toronto, McMaster, Western, McGill

Interview: Queen's, Toronto, Western (MD/PhD)
Rejected: All MD/PhD programs, and 1 MD
Waitlist: 1 MD
Accepted: 1 MD (after initial waitlist)

Summary: This was the first year I could apply with actual research experience/accomplishments in hand, since I had only started my job around the time applications were due in the previous cycle (2012-2013). After 1-1.5 years of solid research slavery (see Enslaved by brains: a ragecomic representation), I had a reasonably decent CV for MD/PhD programs- and was lucky enough to get interviews.

The interview at the school I was accepted to was the last interview I did, whilst knowing I was rejected from all the MD/PhD programs and also highly likely rejected from the MD programs as well since the interviews occurred on the same days/weekends (and interview performance likely correlated among each other). I went into the interview saying to myself that this is the last med school interview I will ever do, and ended up as the most "real" interview I ever did- I was not nervous at all, and able to be "myself" during the entire interview. I left feeling confident, and continuously so until a week before May 13th.

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After 36 (that's a nice number) pre- and post-interview rejections, and 7 interviews over 4 application cycles, I finally have an acceptance in my hand. Even as I'm filling out paperwork, applying for my LOC, and doing all the med-like things I've always wanted to do (paperwork ftw), and as cliché as this sounds, I still can't believe I'm in. Imposter syndrome, even before starting med school...

...and I find myself wondering what I'm going to write about now in this blog of mine. Perhaps something about research? How to epic-fail at US med applications? Not really sure.

Matt

Big List of All Med School Interview Questions- Part 2: Multiple Mini Interview (MMI)

Figure 1. A hauntingly accurate, single-meme portrayal of the MMI.

As promised- here is the compilation of MMI interview questions... and arguably the largest collection of MMI questions in a single document.

Link: Big List of All Med School Interview Questions- Part 2: Multiple Mini Interview (MMI)

Why this collection is useful:

1. As with the panel/traditional format, interviews can only cover so many topics of discussion and from a limited number of questions. Although this might be less applicable for the MMI, one could argue that there exist some limitations in how the questions are structured.
2. Medical schools tend to organize their interview questions based on certain categories- although the categories here are slightly different from the panel/traditional format.
3. The sheer number of questions & comprehensiveness of areas covered allows for a thorough understanding of the interview process, while at the same time acting as a large reservoir of practice questions for applicants.

This collection is currently organized into the following categories:

• Section 1. Ethical decision making
• Barely addressed in Part 1 (Panel/Traditional).
• Section 2. Critical thinking
• Section 3. Problem solving & conflict management
• Section 4. Communication skills (acting)
• Section 5. Current healthcare & societal issues
• Section 6. Standard interview questions (redundant)
• Small section, possibly redundant- however MMIs tend to ask different types of standard questions than the panel/traditional format.

Things to note:

• Please note that this is only the first release, before the majority of the interviews start in Canada.
• This is considerably less expansive than Part 1- due to many reasons:
• A lot of material I had to withhold until further notice (many issues dealing with compromised confidentiality agreements, possible copyrights, etc).
• I've been more swamped than ever at work.
• Despite having said that, this compilation will get updated from time to time with the addition of more questions and such.

Release info:

Version 1.0 (January 2^nd, 2014): Initial release

Acknowledgements: this collection was based on more than a dozen sources, anywhere from premed101, SDN, multiple schools' admissions websites etc.

Terms of Use:

In accessing the documents and its content ("Materials") on this site, you agree to the following terms and conditions:

1. Permission is granted to electronically copy or print portions of the Materials for your own personal, non-commercial use. Any other use of materials on this site without our prior written consent is strictly prohibited.
2. You must not modify paper or digital copies of the Materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way.
3. You must not use any part of the Materials for commercial purposes.
4. In no event, unless required by law or agreed to in writing, will "The Average Korean Premed" (krnpremed.blogspot.com) be liable to you for damages, including any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the Materials.

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Please feel free to share your opinions/concerns/comments/criticism/etc.

Part 3 will be a collection of solutions/answers to some of these MMI questions (not provided by me, of course). This will take some a lot of time.

Happy New Year.

Matt

Big List of All Med School Interview Questions- Part 1: Panel/Traditional Interview

http://business-english.pl/?p=344

Hello all- here is the ultimate compilation of traditional/panel interview questions, which is arguably the largest collection of medical school interview questions in a single document.

Link: Big List of All Med School Interview Questions- Part 1: Panel/Traditional Interview

Why this collection is useful:

1. Panel/traditional interviews can only cover so many topics of discussion and from a limited number of standard questions.
2. Medical schools tend to organize their interview questions based on certain categories- which I've tried to emulate in this guide.
3. The sheer number of questions & comprehensiveness of areas covered allows for a thorough understanding of the interview process, while at the same time acting as a large reservoir of practice questions for applicants.

That being said, the collection is currently organized into the following categories:

• 1. Personal Questions
• 1.1 Personal History
• 1.2 Personal Details
• 1.3 Relationships/Interactions with others
• 1.4 Personality & Character
• 1.5 Behavioral/Situational
• 1.6 Personal Experiences: collaboration/teamwork/leadership
• 1.7 Personal Experiences: character
• 1.8 Goals & Plans
• 2. Application Related
• 2.1 Knowledge of Program/Specific motivations
• 2.2 Motivation/Commitment for Medicine
• 3. Experiences: education/medicine/healthcare
• 3.1 Academics
• 3.2 Healthcare, Volunteer, Extracurricular Experiences
• 3.3 Knowledge of field/realistic view of profession
• 3.4 Knowledge of Healthcare System/Issues (Canada)
• 4. Ethical questions
• 5. Other
• 5.1 Current events/World/History
• 5.2 Weird/out-of-the-blue/creative questions
• 31 Questions I Wish I Had Asked: from Organization of Student Representatives Association of American Medical Colleges, January 1992

Things to note:

• There are sometimes comments or "sample answers" at the end of questions- these are sample response and/or advice from people with more insight and knowledge than myself (successful applicants, current medical students, admission committee members).
• Please note that this is only the first release of the guide. The questions have been through a "brief" first pass (which still took  long). There will still need to be some changes, including (but not limited to):
• There are sometimes questions that are only relevant to US medical school applicants (this guide was originally meant to assist with both Canada and US interviews).
• Redundancies, badly worded/bad/unnecessary questions which need to be filtered out in a more thorough review.
• Better/more efficient categorization of questions.
• The "Ethical questions" section is not as expansive since I will be releasing an additional collection of MMI questions which will have a large number of ethical scenarios/questions.

Release info:

Version 1.0 (April 5th, 2013): Initial release

Acknowledgements: this collection was based on more than a dozen sources, anywhere from premed101, SDN, various medical school admissions websites, etc. My goal was to at least attempt to put together a much more complete and organized collection of interview questions based on every available source.

...and just in case:

Terms of Use:

In accessing the documents and its content ("Materials") on this site, you agree to the following terms and conditions:

1. Permission is granted to electronically copy or print portions of the Materials for your own personal, non-commercial use. Any other use of materials on this site without our prior written consent is strictly prohibited.
2. You must not modify paper or digital copies of the Materials you have printed off or downloaded in any way.
3. You must not use any part of the Materials for commercial purposes.
4. In no event, unless required by law or agreed to in writing, will "The Average Korean Premed" (krnpremed.blogspot.com) be liable to you for damages, including any general, special, incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the Materials.

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Again, please feel free to share your opinions/concerns/comments/criticism/etc. I always welcome feedback (which I really don't get a lot of). 

Part 2 will be a collection of MMI questions, and an accompanying guide for answering interview questions (both panel and MMI)... which may take a lot longer to put together.

Matt

Interviews & raging times at the lab

I've been having trouble finding time to work on anything for the blog- been completely overrun by research & interview prep.

If you've read my last post regarding my past interview at a med school, you would have seen this:

I recently interviewed at the same med school recently, with (almost) the exact same panel:

...which leads me to believe that all interview panels for that school are composed of three characters: 1 friendly, 1 stoic, 1 skeptical, who've been instructed to appear that way. In any case (after having learned my lesson last year), I was a lot more prepared and the interview went much better. I sincerely hope I can change the title of the blog sometime in the future.

My job has also been keeping me busy. After (actually) working nights, weekends (see How I got my first research position), I'm finally at a point where I can take a breath and relax a bit (although I'm still deep within the never-ending pit of research clusterf**k)... which means I finally have some time to work on the blog.

Updates to come (more like notes to self):

1. Big List of Med School Interview Questions: the most comprehensive collection of interview questions, for both panel and MMI. 

-I admit my own interview prep has been preventing me from putting this together for release, but I hope to get this out soon- hopefully some people will still have a chance to use it.

2. Big list of "Back-Up" Plans for Premeds- Part 5: Pharmacy? Optometry? Podiatry?? If you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment/email.

3. More ragecomics & memes.

4. An investigation to determine why (all of a sudden) the blog's daily view counts have more than doubled.

Matt

How to really, really screw up important interviews: a ragecomic presentation

I'm not in med school- as much as I'd like to be, I'm not. This is because I am apparently terrible at interviews (or severely lack experience with interviews, which is also the case), which led me to screw up my med school interviews in the past cycle. Here I have a graphic presentation on how to really, really screw up a med school interview. There are lessons to be learned:

Figure 1. Three awesome people I wish I would never meet again.

Figure 2. One does not simply walk into med school.

My MMI went similarly- few excellent, some good, average, and 2-3 terrible stations. Fortunately, I learned some things:

• Prepare. Prepare early and intensely if you don't have a lot of experience with interviews, or if you're just not good with such situations (especially with MMIs).
• Don't try to be something you're not.
• This was my biggest mistake. Panels 6, 7 clearly show my failed attempts at trying to be someone I wasn't and the disastrous consequences that followed. You hear this advice all the time regarding interviews, but you don't actually realize it until it's too late (i.e. halfway through the interview).
• Never get nervous.
• Never. I was told that I lost points (during an MMI) because I seemed too nervous. I'm guessing they're not looking for people who'll grow up to be twitchy, emotionally wrecked doctors...

On the bright side, I'm really enjoying my lab work and for the first time actually glad that I got rejected (yes, seriously. Science is hard but research is awesome). Hopefully in time I'll be able to draw on some good news!

Matt