CPMA Meeting Minutes 9/10

Salsa announcement was made about translational volunteering in medicine.

They focus mostly on Spanish translating.
Quick view of webpage that is now active.
Med students introduced.
o Olivia Meyer (4
th
year medical student)
About:
UNC undergradSpanish major, minor in chemistry
and drama
No strong research background but loved to do
international work, travel, musical theatre
Always interested in medicine but also wanted to keep
artsy side alive
Advice/Medical School Experience:
Figure out how you work the best, enjoy college, take
time to enjoy years of college, but figure out how you
learn best. That is the majority of what you will be doing
in med school.
Surround yourself with people who will support you.
Medicine requires a lot of time, commitment, and
sacrifices. Doctors forget to take time for themselves.
Dont make that mistake.
New curriculum will let first and second years have
some clinical experience.
In third year, you go through every clinical rotation.
Once you get to your fourth year, you pick specific
electives in whatever rotation you like.
Fourth years apply for residency at the beginning of
their last year. Lots of them dont know what they want
to do, so the new curriculum is good in that it gets
students in the clinic 6 months earlier.

o Jimmy Chen (3
rd
year)clinical rotation
About:
UNC undergradtook a year off, worked for a full year
before starting med school, not a fan of research
Advice/Medical School Experience:
Theres no set formula for getting in to med school. Just
make sure you love what you do.
In the clinic, you get to see and take care of patients,
put in orders. Its a great experience and you feel like
you finally get to experience what it is like being a
doctor, what youve spent all of this time working for.
It
Its important to have a basic knowledge from two
years, but third and fourth year experiences show you
what you have been working hard for the whole time.
If you really want to be in medicine, just keep going.
Keep adapting and finding what works for you with
studying.

o DeanUC Berkeley
About:
Thought about PhD school.
Became more interested in medicine as time wore on
and decided to do MD/Phd school.
Doing PhD after second year of MD school instead of
going into third year.
Bioengineering major, Chem minor
Advice/Medical School Experience:
There is a lot of support through classes despite their
rigor. Though it is hard, it is not impossible to get
through med school.
Tests dont necessarily accumulate throughout the
months. Since the curriculum is in blocks, the
cumulative part is only over the course of weeks instead
of months.
Theres still plenty of time for social time, so take it.

o Second Year Med Student
About
Biology major
Biology major
President of the karate club at UNC
Not big into research but enjoyed leadership
Post-baccalaureate at UNC G
Advice/Medical School Experience:
1
st
year was about understanding all of the sciences you
studied.
Develop efficient learning techniques
Summer hit: research, study abroad, mentor, etc.
Second year consists of system-based curriculum.
o Ex: Cardiologythis is how the heart works and
how it gets messed up (1 week of studying
before test)

o Lawrence1
st
year
About:
Has lived in America for 7 years
Not sure about med until sophomore year of college
Got shadowing and volunteer experience in medicine
Started off as chem major and did three years of chem
research (enjoyed it)
Ended up doing biochem major and biology BS major


Advice/Medical School Experience:
Going abroad was deciding factor in pursuing medicine.
Africa journey was more fulfilling than lab work.
Enjoying med school career so far. He started the same
year that the shortened curriculum was implemented at
UNC (class from 8-12).
So far the content of med education has been going
through systems. Subjects include principles of
medicine, immunology, anatomy (integrated
throughout one and a half years)
Has been at med school for 3 weeks and has had three
tests.
Has had clinical experience from the beginning.

Questions Posed by the Audience:
What undergrad classes helped you the most in med school?
Acting: your presentation to upper levels and to the patient requires you to
be extremely confident, on your toes, and good at taking criticism.
Literature classes: honed in ability to pick out what is important in reading,
find details, and be comprehensive in summarizing.
Science classesscience background gave strong foundation of science in
general, helped with fundamental understanding of the body.
Its important to know how to improve yourself constantly and criticize
yourself and your performance.
Biochemistry: helps build skills for conceptual classes
Microbiology: smaller details
Every class: you form the entire learning process by acquiring all knowledge
and holding on to it. Med schools want to see that you know how to learn and
do well.

How did you get into medical school?
To get into med school, you need to make sacrifices, know where your goals
are, know the patterns that people use to get into med school (but distinguish
yourself from those stipulations), and separate yourself from the crowd.
Think about why you want to be a doctor.
Do what you love.


What is the timeline for a gap year?
The MCAT has a three-year limit. Might want to hold off on taking it if you are
taking a really long gap. It is advantageous to take the MCAT while the
material is still fresh. Take it early enough that, if you arent satisfied with
your score, you can take it again. Take MCAT when you are ready to take it.
Application is longprimary app (basic stuff), secondary application (school
specificcan be several other essays), major screening, interview
If you start applying in 2012, you will start med school fall of 2013.
Post-bacs are great and courses are, too. Plan to use those as resources if you
take a long gap from undergrad. You can also defer your admittance to med
school if you have something else that you would like to pursue (i.e. Fulbright
scholarship).

When you took time off was it hard to adjust back to school life?
As someone who went straight through, the first semester is an equalizer.
Med school is totally different from undergrad. Taking a year or two off might
involve some readjustments to school but everyone has to put in effort to
succeed.
Theres not really homework in med school. You have to be self-driven. Keep
up with everything if you can, though no one does. Cramming is still a thing.
If someone else can manage to get through, you can, too. The amount of effort
you put in is what will make or break you. Be adaptable. Applying for med
school is stressful, getting in is stressful, but being in med school is a different
kind of stress. Know where you are going and make a plan for yourself.

Is it acceptable to take a full year abroad in undergrad for medical school?
Yes, if you can swing it with your required science classes. In the end, it
depends what you do with it. They want to see that you have lived life. The
hardest part is managing your time.

When you want to go to med school right out of college, when do you take the
MCAT?
At the end of junior year. Balance taking classes with MCAT prep.
Also make sure you apply at the beginning of the application cycle (opens in
May), not at the end (October).
About 2/3 of the class is re-applicants. Dont take it as a life-altering blow if
you dont get in the first time. It doesnt mean you wont be a doctor.
Take a year off. After improving what you need to improve or experiencing
whatever it is you want, dive right back in.
Even if medical school isnt your immediate interest, it doesnt mean it wont
be later. Its never too late to go for it.
If you get rejected, ask schools why and how you can improve your
candidacy. Some schools are willing to talk to you about it.
Make sure to build some good connections with professors and research
supervisors, people you need rec letters. As to recommendations, you will
need one from your research PI, one from a non science class you did well in,
and two from science classes you did well in.

What is the best way to prepare for the MCAT?
Kaplan prep courses can be useful. However, if you are not an auditory
learner, then maybe you shouldnt drop money on the instructional time that
is tied in with prep coursesjust get the books.
Learning the test is possible if you do enough and study enough. Take full-
length tests once a week if you are hard-core. Try to replicate testing
environment. Take tests intermittently throughout the MCAT study period.
When you take the test they are assessing how well you know how to learn.
Focus on mastering your courses. Its useful to figure out how to fix your
mindset if you get problems wrong. Why did you choose the wrong answer?
You will read a passage and answer questions throughout the entire test. It
involves applying your knowledge more than anything else.

What if you only want to study 1 or 2 months if you can study 5-8 hours a day?
Make some time before taking the actual test. You can do a 3-4 month stretch
of a little bit of studying day or 1-2 months of lots of time a day. The MCAT is
an equalizer in a lot of ways. You cant gauge a students quality based on just
their grades. A good score is a 30. 30 and above gets your foot in the door
with med schools.

Should you apply right after you are rejected?
Fix the problem before you step back in. Dont apply with the same
application.
However, if you get waitlisted, having something tangible that you will be
doing to put on your application should you be denied would be beneficial.

How many schools did you apply to apart from Chapel Hill?
12
30
Know your odds. Public schools out of state will be hard to get in.
Do your research and look into figuring out which schools will accept you
over other ones.
Applying is a lot of money and time. If you arent in the right place you may
not be happy. If you arent there at the right time, you may not be prepared
enough to get in.
If you are interested in the school, network with them. Get your face around
those faculty members and get them to know you.




If you get waitlisted, can you send another application even if you havent
heard back?
They notify you before the next application cycle if you are accepted or
rejected. By May you know whether you get in.
By July, submit your application for the next year. Get some experience if this
happens so that you can update your application.