Must have books

Sorry for the lack of blogging this week. Spence and I have been so sick this past weekend. He picked up a nice cold from school (yay for going back to school) and decided to share it with his wife. So nice of him!

So I was thinking back to our med school application days and I was trying to think what books were our favorites. Through out the whole process we constantly referred to two books.

1. The USA News Best Medical School Book find here.
2. MSAR: Admission requirements found here.

The MSAR is an awesome book that goes through all accredited medical schools. It will tell you a bit about the school and what kind of requirements it had. It was really useful when applying and trying to decide where to fit the school in our list. The MSAR will ist the cost of the medical schools as well so we didn't have to go searching for that information. It also helped Spencer get a better idea of what the school was like for interviews.

When it  came to us deciding on schools to go to we used the USA News Best Medical Schools book to compare rankings. This was nice to put our top schools side by side and really see who had the best rankings. We didn't go just off rankings. But it was nice to see how schools ranked.

When we found a school we liked we compared it's USA ranking and the averages from the MSAR book to see if Spence should apply. It actually worked out really great. We were able to find a lot of schools that fit our needs, Spencers levels and interests.  Just keep in mind the MSAR wasn't always correct on tuition and levels. Always refer to the school site if you want a firm answer.

So if you are applying or thinking of applying these two books are a must have. FYI if you get the online version of the MSAR book you can compare schools side by side (way awesome when choosing between schools).

I know that USA News also has ranking books for Dental Schools, Law Schools and other Graduate programs. A great way to compare schools!

Do you have any other book suggestions?

Dr. Shadowing

Dr. shadowing is a must for any med school application. Most schools recommend about 25 hours with a physician. One reason they want you to shadow Dr's is so that you know what you are getting into. If you follow a Dr. around for a few hours and absolutely hate your life then I don't think med school is for you.

Med schools want to know that you really want to be a Dr. They want to know that you have done your research into the profession enough to really think you would be a great fit as a Dr. That is why Dr. shadowing is so important.

Tips: shadow as many different types of dr.'s as you can. Try to get different practice areas. For example go to your family Dr. Then try a surgeon at a hospital. Maybe an internist or an pediatrician. It is also helpful to consider shadowing both DO and MD Dr.'s. Especially if you plan on applying to DO schools.

Make sure when you shadow that you spend a good amount of time. I'm talking 4-6 hours with each dr. You may need to go two separate times.  Spencer shadowed about 6 different drs. Two of those he spent about 12 hours with each.

Also, make friends with those you are shadowing. Take the opportunity to ask them why they wanted to be a Dr. Ask about how they managed med school and family and such. Keep in mind that you may need a letter of recommendation from a Dr you've shadowed.

After you have completed the shadowing write Thank You notes. These relationships may come in handy in the future. For letters of recommendation, referrals or even advice down the road.

Below is a great site with advice for how to find dr's to shadow.
http://www.startmedicine.com/app/shadowing.asp

Good luck!

Letters of Recommendation

A good set of letters of recommendation can really boost your application.
First steps in getting a good set of letters is starting a list of all those you can think of who will write you letters. We made a good list of professors, employers, volunteer organizations, dr.s and who ever else we could think of. Now keep in mind we started this list a good year before we were going to apply. It was important to us to give each person plenty of time to accept the invitation to write a letter as well as write a good letter in plenty of time.

BYU where Spencer went to school offered a program where your letter writers could turn in their letters to them. Then when it was time for us to turn in that part of our application BYU did all the work. This made it really easy to ask for letters early and not worry them later. See if your pre-med department offers something like this. It was a great help for us!

Also remember that professors will most likely be writing letters for a lot of other students as well. If you want your letter to stand out ask early and give them plenty of time to write a good letter. Also know that with professors you want a letter from a professor that knows you well. There were a few professors that we would have loved to ask for a letter  but Spence didn't feel they really knew him. He was just a student in a class of 400. So we went for professors where Spencer had a personal relationship with them.

While you are preparing for Medical School (way before applications) it is a good idea to get to know your professors, make friends with those you do research for, work hard as a volunteer. Not only are these things good for hours/service but you will also make a good impression for when you ask for a letter of recommendation later on.

Another thought....a couple of times Spencer was asked to write a letter of recommendation for himself. Then he would send that to the individual writing his letter. This gave the letter writer a chance to see what Spencer thought of himself and also what he wanted those reading the letters to see. It gave the letter writer a good starting point for Spencer. Just a thought!

Good luck with your letters. Like everything I've said before...start early so you don't have to worry about it later on!

Links:
AMCAS has a special letter writer application.  You can find info here
Here is a site with some other suggestions
BYU has a great document to get your mind on what kind of letters you want and what info you would like. Read it here.

application advice from the b. family (plus happy 4th)

happy fourth of july!!!! spence and i are still on our cruise celebrating our nations birthday. what are you doing to celebrate???

i thought i'd share a few of my favorite 4 of july pins....just for fun!!!

anyway....

applications were rough for spence and i
it was a really stressful time of life.  i was in the middle of a large job hunt. spence was in the middle of studying for the mcat and working full time. but good news...we survived.

we started the application the first day we could. we made a plan but didn't turn it in until the middle of july. spence wanted to make sure everything was perfect. i was a nervous wreck that because we turned it in late we wouldn't get any response.

here is what i would suggest.....
-start early. we spent about 80 hours filling out the first amcas application. add a few more hours for the tmdsas (texas) application and a little bit for the do application. we decided to focus on the amcas first and really try to polish as much as we could.
-spence and i took turns. i filled out all of his classes, grades, etc....he wrote all his essays. i typed in his service, leadership and work hours. he wrote more essays. i checked, rechecked, and rerechecked the application. he wrote and rewrote essays. yes there were that many essays!
-don't get stressed. though this is easy to do try to avoid it. don't worry about when you turn it in. if you're not ready to turn in your application...don't turn it in yet. wait till you feel ready and confident.
-be prepared for more...the first application is simply that...the first. you'll have secondaries. spence was asked for secondaries from every school he applied to (hum...some schools just want money!). so we were in the mix of applications from may to november.
-save your essays under topics. for secondaries you can usually take a general essay you wrote and make it work for that school. there will be a bit of changing to do but it helped us out!

so basically start early, plan for a bit of time, share in the work, and don't stress....

and once you've turned in your application
go CELEBRATE!!!!