Pre-Health – Page 5 – Penn & Beyond

Pre-Health Food for Thought

Our office has noticed that many pre-health students love to cook and, especially, bake. We’ve seen pictures of whimsical cakes (it looks like a plate of spaghetti and meatballs…but, it’s a cake), tasted delicious homemade creations (thank you), and perused Martha-quality food blog entries, all created by health-minded Penn students. We also know many pre-health students plan to integrate their love of cooking with a career in healthcare. Here are a few ways healthcare professionals have integrated their love of cooking with a medical career:

The Cooking Doctor is Jehanne Ali, a surgeon, author and food blogger. Above is a picture of her Coconut Candy fudge.
The Foodie Physician is an emergency medicine doc with a culinary degree. Being a doctor doesn’t mean giving up the kitchen!
Healthcare professionals can attend a Healthy Kitchens/Healthy Lives conference at The Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley to learn the latest about diet and nutrition. Did I mention, Napa Valley?
Physicians can cook together for a fundraiser like the Doctors Who Cook event in Augusta, Georgia benefiting the Children’s Heart Program at the Children’ Hospital of Georgia.
The pediatrician-founded Dr. Yum Project promotes food-related wellness for children through education, action and advocacy. Yum!
You can take classes as a medical student or as a continuing medical education student at The Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane. Studies in culinary medicine at the first teaching kitchen implemented at a medical school — how neat is that?
Start your own business: The Mommy Doctors, Drs. Lennox McNeary and Cheri Wiggins created Milkin’ Cookies to provide optimal nutrition for nursing mothers.

Whatever your passion, there is a good chance you can integrate it with your healthcare career. For our many cooks and bakers, there is an excellent chance you can serve others while building your cooking knowledge and skills — and you are always welcome to share with staff at your undergraduate institution!

The Urge To Do Something (A phrase I totally stole from Carol Hagan!)

By Anne Reedstrom

This particular time in the medical/dental school application process can be a tricky one. Your primary and secondary applications are completed, your letters of recommendation are in and you’ve done everything you can be the best possible applicant. Now there’s nothing else to do but wait – for interview invitations, admissions decisions, or some kind of correspondence from schools letting you know where you stand. Just wait. Wait some more. Obsess a little. Wait. Go on line and read posts from others about their processes (We know you do it. We just wish you wouldn’t because no good will come of it.) And then you wait some more.

And then it happens. You are struck by TUTDS. The Urge To Do Something. (Carol Hagan, 2012)

TUTDS is indeed a powerful force and is very common amongst pre-health students during their application year. The challenge is to wield it carefully so that it becomes a force for good, not evil.

Another "powerful force for good." — Another “powerful force for good.”

TUTDS can take on many forms, all of which involve contacting medical or dental schools in some fashion, with wildly varying results. Channel yours in a positive way by thinking about the goal of your proposed communication and trying to see it from the perspective of an admissions officer.

Your goal, of course, is to receive an elusive interview or, the even rarer offer of admission, so think about what kind of information an admissions officer might consider useful when making this kind of decision. Remember that they do already know a great deal about you from your application materials.

Would it be helpful for them to know how much you LOVE their school? Maybe, but lots of students LOVE lots of schools, so it’s not really going to help you stand out in any way.

How about “If you admit me, I will absolutely, positively enroll. I promise.” Much to everyone’s amazement-no. This is not helpful information because no matter how much you mean it at the time, you are a fickle bunch and change your minds as often as the wind changes direction.

So what is helpful then? A substantive update that adds something new to the pile of information they already have can certainly work in your favor. A new publication, a presentation, a promotion, taking on a new project, leadership position or activity, or an honor or award—all of these kinds of things are useful pieces of information to share, especially if done with an upbeat, concise and informative manner. (more from Carol!)

By all means, add a couple of sentences to your update regarding your interest in the school. It’s a nice way to round out the letter/email, which, by the way, should be no more than a couple of paragraphs. We are happy to provide feedback on update letters/emails.

The Urge To Do Something is difficult to resist, especially at this point in the application cycle, but if you do succumb, use the power for good and for the benefit of your candidacy.

Please also see Facing Winter Break without a Medical School Interview, a blog by Carol Hagan.

5 Tips for Medical and Dental School Interviews

by Mia Carpiniello

Interview season has begun for medical and dental school applicants. Here are five things that you can do to prepare for a traditional medical or dental school interview. (For advice on preparing for a Multiple Mini-Interview, please see this blog post.)

Remember the purpose of the interview. The interview is an opportunity for the school to get to know you as a person, evaluate your interpersonal skills, and gauge your enthusiasm for their school and the profession. They are talking to you for a reason. Namely, they are interested in you and want to know more about you that they can’t get from your paper application. This prior blog post will shed some light on the interviewer’s perspective.
Refamiliarize yourself with your application materials. Be ready to share about yourself, your experiences, and why you want to become a physician/dentist. Review your primary application, your personal statement, your secondary applications, highlights from your classes, and anecdotes from your clinical experiences.
Practice having a conversation about yourself. Don’t go into the interview with an agenda, a script, or a sales pitch. Instead, have a conversation with the interviewer. Be reflective and introspective. Offer specific examples and anecdotes, rather than vague descriptions or a recitation of your resume. Once you have been invited for an interview, you are welcome to schedule a 30-minute, one-on-one mock interview with one our pre-health advisors.
Read up on bioethics issues and current events in health care. You are not expected to be an expert, but you should be well-read on hot topics in health care. Read the health and science sections of a major, national newspaper on a regular basis.
Familiarize yourself with the individual school. Have some questions ready to ask the interviewer if you get the opportunity. Ask questions that reflect your actual interests. Take advantage of this opportunity to demonstrate your interest in the particular school and get answers to things that you couldn’t easily find the answer to on your own.

Most of all, try to relax, be yourself, and let your enthusiasm for the school and the profession come through!

For additional advice, we encourage current applicants to attend our Pre-Health Interview Tips Workshop. Check our events calendar for upcoming workshops.

Pre-Health: Recommended Reading; Reading Recommended

If you are wondering what it feels like to train and practice as a physician, Dr. Danielle Ofri‘s What Doctors Feel (2014) offers a welcome study break from premedical work. Dr. Ofri, who practices at Bellevue Hospital in NYC, is co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Bellevue Literary Revue and hold MD and PhD degrees from NYU. Her website is full of “medical media” addressing some of the most poignant and important issues in medicine. Reading is a great way to remain connected with your emotional and reflective side when problem sets and exams are pressing upon you.

A starred review from Booklist: Tucked inside a white lab coat or scrub suit is a welter of human emotions that can play a large role in a doctor’s decision-making process. Ofri, an internist at New York’s Bellevue Hospital, explores the emotional core of doctoring. Suturing together her own experiences, the plights of memorable patients, and interviews with other physicians, she examines the diverse feelings—anger, grief, shame, disillusionment, gratitude, humility, joy—that can fluster or elevate physicians. “Fear is a primal emotion in medicine,” she writes, and doctors worry about making a mistake or even killing a patient. Sadness is an occupational hazard, and “A thread of sorrow weaves through the daily life of medicine.” Then there’s empathy. Is it innate, acquired, or both, and why do third-year medical students lose it? Ofri exposes her emotional side as she recounts the story of a longtime patient, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who finally receives a heart transplant but dies shortly after the procedure. Ofri admits, “Doctors who are angry, nervous, jealous, burned out, terrified, or ashamed can usually still treat bronchitis or ankle sprains competently.” Yet her insightful and invigorating book makes the case that it’s better for patients if a physician’s emotional compass-needle points in a positive direction. –Tony Miksanek

Finding a Summer Research Positon

This is the next in a series of posts by recipients of the Career Services Summer Funding grant. We’ve asked funding recipients to reflect on their summer experiences and talk about the industries in which they’ve been spending the summer. You can read the entire series here.

This blog is by Joseph Cesare, CAS ’17

This past summer, I was offered the opportunity to stay in Philadelphia and continue research at the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, a part of the Department of Psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine. I had been previously assigned to a project evaluating the development of glutamatergic neural circuitry and NMDA function particularly at the post-synaptic density of dysbindin knockout mice, which has implications to the pathogenesis of Schizophrenia in humans. I continued this project working closely with post-graduates and the primary investigators in my lab, which served as an invaluable learning experience.

During the summer, I honed my skills at several research methods such as the dissection of brain samples, kinase assays, immunoprecipitation, and western blotting. The opportunities our lab offered during lab meetings and summer lectures were another great way to completely immerse myself into the medical field. Our lab conducted weekly meetings to discuss our work and other works of research that have made a recent impact on the field of psychiatric medicine. During these meetings, I regularly presented the findings of our project to our whole lab and discussed ways to improve our methods and reevaluate the direction of our research. Other times, I was given the opportunity to present the findings of other scientists’ work. I found this intellectually challenging, but it was very rewarding to contribute to the field of medicine and well worth the effort put into the project. I now feel more prepared to move forward with a future career in medicine and research, and I am continuing with this project this semester with the hope to publish the work I have done soon.

Reflecting on my experience, I remember not knowing where to start when it came to finding a research position. I was a freshman coming from rural Kentucky without any research experience, and I felt overwhelmed by the multitude of opportunities Penn offered. I read about CURF, Uscholars, and many of the amazing programs that Penn has to offer and asked other students already involved in research for advice. However, I didn’t feel like I was getting a clear picture of where to begin, and I realized that I wasn’t the only one who felt the same way. For that reason, I hope to save you some time and trouble by giving the best holistic piece of advice from someone who recently went through the process.

There are so many different ways to getting a research position at Penn, but here are some concrete examples of where you might begin and how you might go about getting the position you want.

Get to know your professors in your classes, read their research, and if you find it interesting, send them an email or talk to them after class or during office hours. Let them know you are authentically interested in their research, tell them why, and ask if you could volunteer in their lab.
The Center for Undergraduate Research and Fellowships office and website is here to help undergraduates get involved with research. Their website has everything from research grants to help fund your project to links to the actual applications for programs. One program, Penn Undergraduate Research Mentoring Program (PURM), is designed for students who do not have any previous research experience.
Search different department’s websites such as CURF, the medical school, Wharton, the nursing school, the chemistry department, etc., and read about the research of Penn faculty posted on these websites. Narrow down projects that are interesting, read some of the papers that they have published, and send the primary investigator an email. Since this often means sending an email to a complete stranger, include a cover letter introducing yourself, explain why you are interested in research (include any personal details), ask if they have any positions open, give them your availability during the week, and include your resume.
If you qualify for work-study, the job listings website is an invaluable resource. Go to the listings and narrow your job search to only “research” or “laboratory assistant.” This search will show a list of job openings in a variety of departments at Penn where the primary investigators are actively searching for undergraduates. Each job description has a list of requirements you will need to meet in order to fill the position so pay attention to this.
If you haven’t already, subscribe to the email distribution lists from Career Services where many opportunities are posted.

Once you get your foot into the door, there may be several other things you must do in order to get a research position. This might include sending your resume, going through a series of interviews, finding grants, and so on. In trying to find my research position, I was required to do all of the above, and honestly, seeking help from Career Services helped me immensely. Please, do not be afraid to ask for help because the feedback you can receive on these details will make a difference.

I hope this helps!