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Should you fix a bad grade, or concentrate on making your strengths even stronger?

Activia (not her actual name, though it probably should be. Feel free to take that name, anonymous caller) emailed us at theshorcoats@gmail.com to ask whether she should retake her physics classes (which she took while coping with other unfortunate life-related stuff) or concentrate on getting great grades in other courses. In addition, she wanted to know if admissions committees REALLY take into account extenuating circumstances? Well, you’re in luck, Activia! We’ve got answers from non-traditional first-year students Kyle Kinder, Nick Lind, and Emma Barr; and our friendly admissions staff Dan and Amy chime in, too.

We also play a game of Psych! while Dave tries to use their performance to make judgements about their personalities. Can he do it? No he can’t, though he notes with concern Kyle’s suspicious ideas about male anatomical structures and function. Too late, Admissions, you said yes!

This Week in Medical News

Facebook has become known as a place where you can find any number of suspicious ideas, but it seems ready to judge so-called alternative health pages as unworthy of its platform. And we discuss an article that argues the MCAT should no longer be used because of a legal concept called “disparate impact.”

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cheese cracker photo — Photo by @davestone

It’s our 50th episode, and students Lisa Wehr, Matt Maves, Greg Woods, Cole Cheney, and Deep Bhat are on hand, and admissions recruiter Amy A’hearn stops by to address a listener’s Moment of Truth: are overseas medical mission trips still a good idea when you’re looking to add a little something to your CV as you prepare to apply to med school? She says, sure, but there are some gotchas you need to know about. Also, Facebook and Apple cover the costs for female employees to freeze their eggs. The first baby born from a transplanted uterus is doing fine. Withdrawal symptoms due to a Google Glass addiction are mistaken for alcohol withdrawal. Breast cancer awareness campaigns—are they trivializing with humor a serious disease? A woman’s “cheese slid off her cracker,” resulting in a fugue state that lasts 2400 miles, but shows that people are still looking out for each other. A berry’s juice, applied to some cancers, make them disappear, but (because Mother Nature hates us) it’s a pretty rare berry. Long Islanders’ are becoming allergic to red meat due to tick bites. We succumb to the Ebola coverage epidemic raging through America.

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The opinions expressed in this feed and podcast are not those of the University of Iowa or the Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.

An honest guide to the amazing and intense world of medical school.