Category: Pre-Health

By the Book: New Additions to the Career Services Library

by J. Michael DeAngelis, Information Resources Manager

The Career Services library is open during our regular business hours, Monday – Friday from 9am-5pm.  It’s a great place to come and study during finals and to take advantage of some of the amazing print resources we have.  Here are a few of our latest acquisitions:

The Ten Day MBA by Steven Silbiger (3rd edition) – Billed as “a step-by-step guide to mastering the skills taught in America’s top business schools,” this is an extremely popular book for those about to enter the world of business but don’t have an exclusively business background.  The book covers everything from understanding finical statements to developing corporate strategies.   Easy to read, this book will help anyone get on the same page as those with an advanced business degree.

 

Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) 2012-2013 – from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The preeminent and reliable resource on medical schools just got better. MSAR’s printed guidebook includes abridged profiles of each medical school, while comprehensive listings of U.S. and Canadian medical schools, and baccalaureate/MD programs appear online. (The guidebook includes a unique code which can be entered for one year of unlimited access to the web site.) On the MSAR web site, you’ll be able to perform advanced searches, sort data, browse schools at a glance, save favorites, compare schools, and access more data and information than ever before. MSAR is the only resource fully authorized by medical schools and is a must for anyone interested in perusing a medical degree after graduation.

 

The NALP Directory of Legal Employers 2010/2011 – from the Association of Legal Career Professionals.  NALP’s most widely used Directory features information on more than 1,500 employers. The front of the book includes indexes by location and practice area keyword. For the most up-to-date version of this Directory, including employers who listed after the print edition was published, visit www.nalpdirectory.com. (The entire nalpdirectory.com database is replaced annually — at about the same time the print edition is released — but employers can continue to change their online listings throughout the year.) While the online version allows searches, comparison charts, and creation of mail merge lists, the print edition remains a valuable companion resource.

Accelerating on the Curves: The Artist’s Roadmap to Success by Katharine T. Carter & Associates – The definitive guide to self-marketing and career advancement for artists. The 363 page volume is anchored by Katharine T. Carter’s detailed roadmap approach to building an exhibition record and advancing from local and regional success to a path toward national recognition. Also included are numerous practical guidelines and approaches to marketing and presentation–sample pitch letters, artist statements, press releases and résumés, as well as protocols and advice on the best ways to effectively approach and communicate with professionals in each sector of the art world. In addition, individual contributions by the company’s distinguished Associates cover a broad range of issues and professional development topics. And finally, a comprehensive, up-to-date Information Resources index provides a wealth of useful research tools, publications, contacts and professional services essential to artists. A perfect companion for fine artists at both the BFA and MFA levels.

 

Who Are You?

by Anne Reedstrom

 

Whether this phrase immediately brings to your mind the classic sounds of The Who, the world of CSI (Las Vegas version), or simply sessions with your therapist, it is an important question to ask yourself when preparing to write a personal statement for your application to a health professions or law school.

Your personal statement is a chance to answer this question and give admissions committees insight into your personal qualities, abilities, characteristics, and skills which might be relevant to your field. I don’t mean that you should write an autobiography along the lines of “My name is Anne, I am X years old (I’m so not going to tell you the actual number), I grew up in Minnesota and studied Modern Languages as an undergraduate.” That’s not particularly helpful to anyone and will likely make you sound like a much more boring person than you are. That sentence certainly doesn’t do me any justice!

Dig a little deeper and provide the reader with more than a list of facts or accomplishments; these are the kinds of things that you can showcase on the actual application or the résumé you submit. Give them something they can’t get from your other application materials – you can’t really convey compassion, determination, meticulousness, organizational or communication skills on a résumé. But you can in a personal statement if you relate an experience, something in which you were an active participant, which demonstrates how you developed or used those qualities in a real-life situation.

When I talk to people about this, some know immediately what they want to write about – either the qualities they want to emphasize or the story they want to tell. Others struggle a little more, I think, for a couple of reasons. You have been doing a specific kind of writing since you came to college and only rarely has it been expressive or personal in any way. We’re actually taught to remove ourselves from academic writing and it can be a challenge to now be faced with a situation in which you are the subject of the essay. Some of us find it difficult to write about ourselves in an overtly positive way or even to identify positive traits we have – after all, our mothers taught us not to boast or be conceited (some were more successful than others).

These are the reasons that Peter, Todd, Carol and I are here to help you. We’re happy to help you reflect on your experiences, read what you’ve written and fill the pages with red ink. No, wait, that last one’s just me. Seriously, we are an excellent resource and hope that you will let us help you answer one of life’s great questions:

Well, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
Tell me, who are you? (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)
‘Cause I really wanna know (Who are you? Who, who, who, who?)*

*Words and music by Pete Townshend

Student Perspective: The Job You’ll Remember Forever

by Nick Raport, CAS ’12

So you’re looking for a job.

But not just any job. You want a job that will impress future employers, develop skills, pay you, and will be fun.

However, you know that those jobs don’t exist.

You’re wrong.

I’m a Team Coordinator for the Office of New Student Orientation and Academic Initiatives. When translated from the Penn jargon, that means I am one of the student workers who helps to put together and run New Student Orientation every fall, along with the events for the academic theme year the Provost’s Office sponsors.

During the summer, I plan all of those events you remember with fondness from your time as a freshman. Last fall, I personally oversaw Late Nights, the Penn Reading Project, and the Toga Party, to name just a few. Through the process of planning these, I built working relationships with Penn faculty and administration, both local and national businesses, and student leaders from every kind of organization imaginable. I learned how to properly compile budgets and file them within the University system, gained a working knowledge of the entire Adobe and Microsoft Office software suites, and how to run a virtual orientation using current social networking sites. I learned what to tell building administrators in order to let my event go longer without an extra charge, what to tell a caterer to get a few extra items, and how to ensure that vendors donate items for events like Pennfest.

I also maintain two major Penn websites, NSO and the Theme Year, constantly updating them and making sure they are both accurate and composed of the newest features.  Before I started this job, I just assumed that websites made themselves and were just for my viewing pleasure.

During NSO, you’re going to work. A lot. And you’ll be frustrated. You’ll want go home and sleep. Instead you’ll keep going beyond what you thought was possible. But the satisfaction of seeing all those students having the time of their lives at something that you have overseen from the moment it was proposed until the doors opened is worth it. Months later, you’ll pass people on Locust and they’ll be talking about how they want to go back to NSO, to dance amidst the statues of the PMA, to dress in togas with their entire class, and you’ll smile. Because you will know that you made that happen, that you are the reason those memories exist in the first place.

This job is very real, and not your imagination at all. This is the job you want on your resume. This is the job you will remember forever.

To apply to the NSOAI Management Internship Program for this year, search Penn Link for job #745101.  For more information, contact Troy Majnerick , Assistant Director of New Student Orientation.

Survey Says! 1/3 of Penn Alums Entering Medical School Wish…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dpstyles

Pre-health students — it has arrived!  Feedback from our survey of Penn alums who started medical school in 2010 is here and available for your reading pleasure in the Career Services library and in the pre-health advising waiting area (aka, the places where we keep “the stats”).  Here are some of the questions we posed to alumni:

  • What do you wish you had known before starting the application process?
  • Are there any specific courses you wish you had taken before starting medical school?
  • What pre-medical experiences best prepared you for medical school?
  • If you took time between undergrad and medical school, what did you do?

In addition to answering these questions, alumni generously provided detailed comments on about 36 individual medical schools with multiple responses for many schools (particularly Penn Med and Jefferson).

To warm up before reading the survey, get ready to hit the buzzer.  Here is the question (insert dramatic silence):  What do Penn alums, enrolled in their first year of medical school, wish they had known before they applied?  Survey says!  BING!  TO APPLY EARLY!  One third of those who returned the survey said they wish they had known to apply early.  And so I say to you, “Apply early!  It’s important!”   Some other popular responses were:  I wish I had known — applying to medical school is expensive…how important it is to know why you want to be a doctor…that medical school is very difficult…more about the curricula at different medical schools….

Alumni are always a great resource, those wise old Quakers!  There’s a great deal of helpful information in the survey from many different voices and we appreciate our alums taking the time to share their experience and insight with us.  Also, if you wish to connect with an alum, don’t forget the Penn Alumni Career Network, known as PACNet!

Medical School: A Major Opportunity

by Peter Stokes

Mount Sinai School of Medicine’s Humanities and Medicine Early Acceptance Program received a lot of media attention this year—for example from the New York Times and, more recently, the Daily Pennsylvanian.  The program allows admitted sophomores, who have shown promise in science and math and as compassionate future physicians, to take physics and organic chemistry at Mt. Sinai during the summers before entering the medical school.  This frees up some space during the regular year for students to pursue, extensively, disciplines in the humanities or social sciences.  It’s an interesting program, so long as you know that medical school, and Mt. Sinai in particular, is for you, and you have a plan for what to do with that extra room in your academic schedule.

But don’t let the fact that the program is called “Humanities and Medicine” fool you into believing that it provides the only way you can combine an interest in both those areas.  Admissions officers at medical schools everywhere repeatedly tell us that they look for students with any major, and the numbers back up what they say.  Over the last several years, statistics show that around half of medical school matriculants have majored in the biological sciences; roughly 30% have majored in humanities or social science disciplines.  The remainder majored in such areas as engineering, nursing, physical sciences, mathematics, and business.  That’s the case nationally, and we see the same pattern for those who are admitted to medical school from Penn.  You have a pretty good chance of getting in if you major in, say, Biology or in Biological Basis of Behavior; you also have a pretty good chance of getting in if you major in Anthropology, Classical Studies, Economics, English, Fine Arts, or International Relations, to name just a few among the impressively diverse list of majors of recent successful applicants.

Of course, whatever you major in, you do have to complete the required science and math courses, and do quite well in them.  But your choice of major should be independent of your decision to go to medical school.  Any major is fine—and since you’re most likely to do well in what you are most enthusiastic about, it’s usually best to pick what you’re genuinely most interested in.  It is in fact quite feasible to combine any major with the pre-med requirements, and we and your academic advisors can help you figure that out.

Note also that you don’t have to rush through medical school requirements.  Two thirds of Penn applicants apply after their senior year, taking some time between undergrad and medical school, and thereby giving themselves the chance to spread the required courses over four years—or even, in some cases, complete some or all of them after graduation.

There are many ways to get to medical school.  Medical schools look for people with all kinds of interests, so don’t make all your decisions based on what you think they might want!