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When I conduct Strategy Sessions with medical and dental school applicants, I notice a recurring problem: It’s hard to get very strong academic letters of recommendation, especially at colleges with large classes.
So I’m here to offer a piece of advice to those just starting their university studies: Get to know your profs. In addition to keeping your grades up from the beginning of your college career, acquainting yourself well with your teachers is one of the most important pieces of advice I can give to the new pre-med. Go to office hours, send an email invite for a lunch meeting or approach the faculty member about working in his or her laboratory.
In addition to being strategic, these relationships can fill a mentorship role that is invaluable.
This blog post refers to an insightful article written by David Z. Presser, MD, MPH regarding the need for pre-med freshmen and sophomores to distinguish themselves early in their college careers. David’s point, first made in the Chicano Medical Student Bulletin, is that pre-med underclassmen need to distinguish their “brand of leadership” as club officers. Here’s an excerpt:
When you find an activity that you enjoy, a natural desire to explore your interests will lead you to want to get involved in a leadership capacity. Lots of people become officers in their organizations. An officer is someone who is elected to a position of leadership and fulfills the duties required of the job – nothing more, nothing less.
STORY BREAK: When I was a child, I used to love Billy the Kid. (This was at the age before I learned he was a sociopath.) The reason I put Billy on a pedestal was because he was an outlaw. He played the game by his own rules. He never accepted the limits imposed by society or dictated by convention.
The leaders who have the greatest impact on their groups and who revolutionize the way things are done are outlaws, not officers. It would be to your benefit to think like an outlaw and apply your innovative style to the different tasks you undertake. Among those tasks you can personalize are leadership duties in different groups. Don’t stop at the list of duties specified by your position; rather, fulfill the needs of your group that no position is meeting.
David’s point is well-taken. Anyone can be president of the health career interest club. But not anyone can organize a campus-wide conference on how physicians are being mis-incentivized, a controversial topic. Work toward originality and high impact to catch admissions committees’ attention and enjoy your accomplishments more.