For the past few years, the White Coat Investor has funded a scholarship for full-time professional students, including those in medical, osteopathic, dental, law, pharmacy, nurse practitioner, physician assistant, optometry, and podiatry schools. The goal is to both reduce the winning students’ debt burden and spread “an important message of financial literacy throughout medical, dental, and other professional schools.”
Blog Archives
Be an Adult: Don’t Accept Helicopter Parenting
Check out this hilarious (and sad) piece in the New York Times about helicopter parenting and note that two of the anecdotes are physician related. (Can you imagine interviewing for an attending position with your dad present?)
My policy at Insider is to work exclusively with applicants (not parents or spouses) to maintain confidentiality, avoid redundancy, and ensure candidates assume primary responsibility for their work. It’s a winning strategy.
Tags: Medical School, Nyt Article, residency
Writing Your Own Residency or Medical School Letter of Recommendation: Is it Ethical?
It’s not infrequent that an applicant tells me that a letter of recommendation (LOR) writer has asked the candidate to draft his/her own letter because the writer is “too busy.” I notice that medical school and residency applicants are a bit sheepish as they tell me about this arrangement. Have no fear: You are not doing anything unethical. (Here is an old piece by the New York Times ethicist Ariel Kaminer regarding this exact topic.)
If a faculty member asks you to write your own letter, not only should you do it, but you should do it with zeal. Make sure you showcase the accomplishments that distinguish you from other candidates and highlight traits that are important for your future career path. Use honest – but bold – adjectives to describe your best qualities.
Remember that the letter writer has final say, so even a busy faculty member might modify the letter. Keeping this fact in mind might alleviate your (unnecessary) guilt and should encourage you to write the strongest letter you can. (It’s harder to go from outstanding to mediocre than from outstanding to excellent.)
Medical School Help: What are the Next Steps Once the AMCAS is Submitted?
Once your AMCAS is in, what can you do next to best prepare for what’s to come in the medical school admissions process?
Here are a few tips:
1. Start to draft secondary essays. Even if you haven’t yet received the prompts, you can begin to craft responses to common themes like “how would you add diversity to our school?” and “describe an extracurricular activity that might be of interest to the committee.” Good writing takes time, but if you wait for the onslaught of secondary applications, you won’t be able to impart your essays with your highest quality effort.
2. Get a head start on preparing for the medical school interview. Practice, practice, practice. Start mocking up answers to interview questions so that you distinguish yourself.
3. Consider what you want. Do some soul searching to determine what you are really seeking geographically, philosophically, and educationally. You want to make considered decisions when the time comes.
Be A Dirtbag Millionaire
For many of us, medical training means taking on significant debt and learning to manage complex personal finances. Many financial advisors “specialize” in physicians (like wolves who specialize in sheep?), and young doctors have a reputation as easy targets.
How can you defend yourself against financial predators, kill your debt early, and learn to manage your own portfolio? (And where can you even learn what a portfolio is?) Crispy Doc offers a blog dedicated to financial literacy for the newly minted physician with an emphasis on early financial independence for doctors.
Check out his blog, and learn from Crispy Doc’s recent Student Doctor Network article.
Tags: Financial Burden, Medical School, SDN
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to
stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital.
She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated
Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more
