Prescription for BS/MD admission – Just play the Musical chair with a twist!

Pre-Med & Medical School Multiple Degree Programs
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                            Prescription for BS/MD admission – Just play the Musical chair with a twist.

Most of us would have tried musical chair when we were kids with mixed success and feelings. Now is another chance to try the game in grown up life with a twist!

First let us go back to the child version before exploring the current version. It is very simple, anyone can participate for fun but the winner is limited. So what makes the winner, his/her ability or luck or both? Or who decides/influences winner, the person conducting musical chair program or the participating individuals or combination of both? There is no perfect answer. The conductor of the program provide the chairs, can play the music for a very short interval of time or play the music for a very long time and create the psychological effect on the kids. But in general in this game, the program influence is less (who wants to be mean to kids, when they are having fun and playing the game) compared to the participating individuals who need to listen intensely and have a quick reflex to grab a chair. It is as simple.

Now coming to the current game, it is no different, except to the twist that you supply the musical chair (or should we call magical chair!). Still the game is the same and it is as simple. But now the conductor of the game can play the music to their whim and in the process can validate and wet out things of importance to them. For example, how quick the participant gets back to the circle (after landing on a seat when the music stopped first time) and ready for the next stop of the music(does it ring a bell on MMI) or still enjoying the glory and lost the attention. Or when the music goes on and on, do the participant still continues his focus or allowed his mind to wander. This part of the game is nothing but interview. It could be 1 round or multiple round and in any format. There may be 1 interviewer annoying intentionally (music goes on and on) to check the resiliency and composure. There may be another interviewer who finishes the interview in 9 minutes (music stops every 30 seconds) before even the student has positioned and could regroup. So you need to prepare yourself for all possible scenarios since you do not know the conductor of the program. The natural question, how do I prepare for the interview? Let us revisit little later.

First let us come to the twist. Participants need to supply the chair with 4 legs and program selects few chairs to use for the game. Of course only the owners of the chair are called to play the game and it is as simple. I could hear your rumblings! It is great, all that I need to supply is the best chair, sure I will send in my gold plated (or even platinum plated) chair and I am sure my chair will be selected.

But meantime, let us take a closer look at the requirement, 4 legged chair. (The most often asked question in this forum year after year).

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Part 2 - continued …

The first leg, the high school GPA. Focus on what best you can do, than worrying about whether is it weighted or un-weighted, rank known or unknown, # of AP courses done or not done etc., Since there are close to 40,000 high schools, the quality and variations are going to be infinite. But based on different normalizing factors, college programs will do their best to get a sense of your GPA. The key thing is how best you have done to utilize the opportunity presented within your school, what kind of courses (pre-college, honors or AP) you have taken, what grades you got.

Second leg, test scores. This gives an opportunity to look at all students on the same scale, unlike GPA. Here again, questions will pop up, should I take SAT or ACT or any need to take Subject SAT, how many times should I take each test. Take at least once, both SAT and ACT. Some are more comfortable with SAT vs ACT and vice versa. Take during junior year to get the most out of it. Also taking more than 2 times, is not going to yield better results unless you have identified the causes for low score and have a clear tangible plans to address those causes and taken steps. Certain programs have requirement for Subject SAT (At least do 1 science Chem or Bio or both and 1 Math). Though there is no direct requirement related to AP, programs get an opportunity to look at AP scores in the context of your GPA (the rigor of the courses you have taken). In reality, AP courses are more useful once you are in college when doing undergrad to get credit for pre-req courses or get priority to register courses etc.,

Third leg, extra-curricular activities (EC) you have done during high school and the recommendations. Natural questions pop up are should it be related to health related, should it be president of club(s), sports or arts or must have won Intel/Siemens medals or published article in Nature magazine. Again this leg is going to be similar to GPA leg. There are so many variations. The most important is, what have you done and how well you have done on whatever you pursued? It could be in Sports, Journalism, Arts, Science or Math, or volunteer helping under served kids or seniors or school organization. Basically, did you just go to school and completed diploma requirements and did nothing or taken time to explore and understand and appreciate various opportunities to grow. It should demonstrate the passion, leadership, how you handled success and failure and benefits it offered to you and to others.

Questions will pop up, from whom to get recommendations. It differs from program to program and from school to school. It may have some challenges for some since some schools have restrictions on how many recommendations you can get and some programs explicitly state get recommendations from Science or English teacher than providing some flexible guidelines. Do your best and if it poses some hurdles, explain that. Again programs should understand there are going to be variations. How can you expect one counselor responsible for 150 students in huge public school (they would not even met once before the day s/he asks recommendation) versus pricey private schools (with $30k/year fees) where counselor manages just 20-30 students and knows students for years.

You may wonder at this point, great all the 3 legs of my chair are strong and my chair is solid. Also you may wonder there is nothing new so far and you are already familiar with all the 3 areas since that is what needed to apply to college admission. A solid and stable chair can be built with 3 legs. So why do I need to have 4 legs. Because that is the requirement, the fourth leg, demonstration of your activities to medicine and the essays related to why you want to do medicine. It is the most BS/MD programs expect that student aspiring this program, have taken time to understand what the health profession means and what it takes to be successful both academically and professionally. Clear demonstration that you have done the ground work. This leg definitely throws the curve ball. Because all other 3 legs everyone is aware and planned and executing for a long time, whereas this leg some students decide later than sooner. Since this need planning and time, some are at distinct advantages than others. Understand and accept the reality ((It is strongly recommended to apply to regular UG programs also). If your health related activities including physician shadowing is short compared to others who have spent 3 to 4 years, take time to put your heart and soul to convey the desire in your BS/MD app prompts.

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Part 3 - continued …

Let us say, your 3 legs are super strong, do you have a better chance, even if the fourth leg is weak. Unfortunately no, because of fine prints. It is not just a chair with 4 legs, but the chair need to be very stable, reliable with good quality and finish. Having a chair with 3 legs super strong and perfect height and last leg slightly shorter will not provide the stability. So it does not matter whether the material is titanium or steel or red wood or teak or plastic but it need to be well balanced and need to have a perfect 4 legs and can hold the weight of the person. Similar to how materials differ, there are so many variations in schools GPA, EC and Health care related activities. So the key differentiator is what level of craftsman ship and balanced stability your chair provides, determines the selection.

Since we have the baseline on how your chair got selected, let us get back to the un-answered questions on interview. Here again often asked question is, will only interview matters at this point or will my chair also gets credit in the final selection. The simple answer is focus on what you can control and ignore things which you cannot control. No one knows and it may differ from program to program. The best strategy is to assume only the interview matters. So that will lead naturally to focus and succeed on the interview, because the game starts only now. So listen to the music and grab the chair when it stops, because not all invited for interview is going to be selected (though the odds are so much higher compared to the application stage).

How to prepare for the interview? The interview is nothing but how you built your chair? It is similar to store bought versus made at home. Sure, store bought can be good quality and may have all the information on the material, weight, height, similar to how a paid programs on how to do interview will prepare to certain extent. But when interview gets deeper or more involved questions, the example to respond will come naturally if it is home made. Because there is so much labor of love involved whether it is making a handmade chair or baking a dessert. You can provide the examples of the aroma you enjoyed and at what stage of baking (similar to the satisfaction you got when you had the conversation with a patient whom you wheel chaired) or how after fixing the seat on the 4 legs, you realized it is not even and how and what you did to re-balance (similar to the challenges or the adversity you faced and how you overcame that or how you guided a deserved child to do well in his/her exams in the tutoring class). Obviously the more and longer you are involved in your various activities and the level of passion and dedication you had will provide ample opportunity to answer varied questions. (There is no harm in preparing, paid or unpaid and rehearing for interview, since practice makes it perfect).

Now, you aced the interview, but still some one edged you and grabbed the chair. That is fine and don’t give up, because you may be invited for another musical chair game and try to pay more attention and run to the chair when the music stops. Unfortunately for few, season may end before you grab a chair. What went wrong? Nothing except the 5th leg was not good.
Dude! Wait! All along you told the requirement is only 4 legs and now silently you are saying the 5th leg is bad. Yes, this invisible leg is so called luck and blessing. Luck factors because the program can select only certain number of students and there may be so many talented students and they may have guidelines to select on certain factors like some steel, some wood and some plastic and some even from recycled materials (there is a need to select based on demographics including URM, in state, out of state and many other factors). Blessing factors, for all you know (however it hurts now) it may be best outcome for you, blessing in disguise! Because you may end up in a different career which may be best in the long run for you or you may end up in a better medical school when you go in the traditional route. But the key to your success (both in personal and professional life), don’t give up at any time and move forward in a positive way. Good Luck to all.