Tag Archives: admissions

Is Your Previous Career A Strike Against You?

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Admissions committees care most about what you got out of your experiences, less about what exactly they were.

worried photoHere’s a question we get often, in one form or another: will [some aspect of my life to date] hurt my chances for getting into medical school?  Kyle Kinder, Irisa Mahaparn, Aline Sandouk, and Hanna Van Ert are here to reassure listener Rachel that, despite her background in medical malpractice law, she’s going to be fine…if she can articulate what she took away from that part of her life.

Listener Fifi Trixiebell, who you may recall set off the keto wars of 2018 which ultimately led Dave to declare a moratorium on diet related topics, wrote in to apologize (no need, Fifi), and also point out that Iowa is the most America of the states.  Can the co-hosts discern which other states have achieved total-Murica status based on their rankings for bald eagles, fast food, and astronauts?


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You care about others, or you wouldn’t be into this medicine thing. Our #merchforgood program lets you to give to our charity of the semester and get something for yourself at the same time!

This Week in Medical News

The Chinese researcher who claimed that he’d genetically engineered two girl infants may have accidentally (or as Dave speculates, purposefully) made them into super-intelligent, super-stroke-recovering humans.  And researchers my have discovered an entirely new form of neural communication.

We Want to Hear From You

Do you need advice? We give it out, whether it’s related to med school or not? Call in your pleas for help to 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Is Your Previous Career A Strike Against You?

Man Ovens, Shoring Up Weaknesses, and Ditching the MCAT

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

hmm photo
Photo by Thad Zajdowicz

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.”

We Want to Hear From You

Have you just started medical school?  What’s been the best and worst parts of your new life? Call us at 347-SHORTCT anytime, visit our Facebook group, or email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Man Ovens, Shoring Up Weaknesses, and Ditching the MCAT

Recess Rehash: Medical School Secondary Applications: What Do They Want?

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How to Think About Medical School Secondary Applications

Photo of a cosplayer's big bird costume
Good lord, she wore him out. Photo by Doug Kline

A listener wants to know more about how best to approach medical school secondary applications.  Given the the turnaround time often recommended (a week), how important are they? Do they need to be as well crafted as your personal statement?  What do schools get out of them?  And are they just a way for schools to extract more money from applicants?  We asked our medical school’s admissions staff for answers to these questions so you can get on with crafting your best possible application.  And JC writes in to say nice things, including that he wants to start his own show when he matriculates this fall.  Go, JC, GO!

This week in science and medicine news

One major destination for patients’ medical dollars is the emergency room visit.  One recent study asks what do docs know about the costs of caring for some common complaints they see in the ER?  Turns out, not much…but when doctors are in charge of knowing the costs of care, is the patient really helped?

Meanwhile, a startup in (where else) California wants to charge $8000 to give old people young blood, because we need more dystopian sci-fi concepts.

And a discussion on the problems people can experience surrounding orgasms reveals something about Kylie that would have made Jim Henson blush.

We want to hear from you

We LOVE hearing from you, and we really try to  answer your questions.  If you have something to say or a question to ask, call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Recess Rehash: Medical School Secondary Applications: What Do They Want?

Medical School Secondary Applications: What Do They Want?

Share

How to Think About Medical School Secondary Applications

Photo of a cosplayer's big bird costume
Good lord, she wore him out. Photo by Doug Kline

A listener wants to know more about how best to approach medical school secondary applications.  Given the the turnaround time often recommended (a week), how important are they? Do they need to be as well crafted as your personal statement?  What do schools get out of them?  And are they just a way for schools to extract more money from applicants?  We asked our medical school’s admissions staff for answers to these questions so you can get on with crafting your best possible application.  And JC writes in to say nice things, including that he wants to start his own show when he matriculates this fall.  Go, JC, GO!

This week in science and medicine news

One major destination for patients’ medical dollars is the emergency room visit.  One recent study asks what do docs know about the costs of caring for some common complaints they see in the ER?  Turns out, not much…but when doctors are in charge of knowing the costs of care, is the patient really helped?

Meanwhile, a startup in (where else) California wants to charge $8000 to give old people young blood, because we need more dystopian sci-fi concepts.

And a discussion on the problems people can experience surrounding orgasms reveals something about Kylie that would have made Jim Henson blush.

We want to hear from you

We LOVE hearing from you, and we really try to  answer your questions.  If you have something to say or a question to ask, call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and email theshortcoats@gmail.com.

Continue reading Medical School Secondary Applications: What Do They Want?

Your Pre-med Clinical Experience Can Cost You Money and Waste Your Time…and Hurt Your Application.

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Photo by mikecogh

Medical school admissions committees look for clinical experiences on applications, so it behooves premeds to seek out ways to get into the clinic as a way of learning about the practice of medicine and to show they are serious about becoming a physician.  But there are clinical experiences that can hurt your application, and the Association of American Medical Colleges want to warn premeds that participation might signal a lack of judgement. Corbin Weaver, Kylie Miller, Teneme Konne, and Levi Endelman give some advice on the ones to avoid.  Meanwhile our president-elect is thinking about creating a ‘commission on autism,’ and may be looking to a well-known anti-vaxxer to head it up.  And a cybersecurity flaw leaves pacemakers and defibrillators wide open to hackers, allowing them to shock patients or drain batteries.  And we find out whether our co-hosts can really understand their patients, even if they speak sdrawkcab.  Listeners, share your thoughts with us each week.  Call us at 347-SHORTCT any time, and see our Facebook page for a question to consider every week.

Continue reading Your Pre-med Clinical Experience Can Cost You Money and Waste Your Time…and Hurt Your Application.

“The Cheese Slid Off My Cracker”

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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.

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

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.

Human Hamburger Meat

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mayor mccheese photo
Photo by Logan Donahoo

Matt gets in touch with a question:  does a mediocre academic history automatically destroy med school aspirations, or are there ways to fix that?  There are, and Amy A’hearn of our admissions office gives Matt a path to follow.  Lisa Wehr and Matt Maves discuss apps that seek to help poor people, a UK chef creating ‘human meat burgers’ to promote a popular television show (with recipe, so be sure to save this one for your next Walking Dead premiere party), and a special shout out to the first genetically modified babies, who are graduating high school in the coming year.  Please use your superpowers responsibly.

Listen to more great shows for medical students on The Vocalis Podcast Network.

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.