Archive by Author

A new “Guide to Med School” from friends

I’m happy to share that several classmates of mine who I graduated with from medical school at the University of Toronto have launched a new online book called Your Guide to Get into Medical School.

This is a free resource developed by physicians, residents and medical students for students, parents, and anyone else interested in the medical school admissions process or life as a physician. You can find it here.

I also had the pleasure of contributing a short chapter to this great resource about going from medicine to entrepreneurship, which you can find here.

Congrats to Jiayi, Manveen, Sameer and Aly on putting together a great resource. I hope you find it helpful!

Guest Post: Should I go to medical school in Australia or the UK?

The following post is written by my friend Jiayi Hu, a classmate of mine from medical school. He obtained his BHSc and MD from the University of Toronto (2009 and 2013, respectively). He is currently a Plastic Surgery resident at McMaster University and very passionate about education and career mentorship. You can learn more about him here.

A very common question I get from students and their parents is “I (or my child) is graduating from Grade 12 this year and really want/s to be a doctor. Should I (or he/she) stay in Canada for undergraduate studies before applying to medical school here? Or should he/she apply for Australian/UK medical schools now?”

The answer is somewhat simple: it all depends on if you intend to return to Canada to practice medicine.

The obvious benefits of attending an international school after Grade 12 are the shorter time of duration to obtain a medical degree (6 years, in comparison to the usual 8 years in Canada) and a relatively less competitive (and therefore, less stressful) application process. Despite the high tuition fees ($50,000-$60,000 CDN equivalent/year), those international schools are a popular choice among those with financial means. In comparison, a Canadian medical school costs $20,000/year to attend.

Ok. You got your medical degree. You are a doctor. But, are you really a doctor?

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New eBook – University of Toronto Medical School 2014-15

For the past few years, I have been writing eBooks to help applicants navigate the University of Toronto medical school’s new admission essays. I continue to receive great feedback and I have been psyched to see so many of you gaining admission medical school.

As the 2014-15 admissions cycle begins, I have gotten repeated requests to release an updated eBook. Today, I’m excited to announce the 2014-15 version of the eBook is now available!

In this book, you will learn:

  • Why each of the 4 essay questions is asked
  • How to select the best examples from your resume for answering the questions
  • A step-by-step template for writing each of the 4 essay questions and the 3 autobiographical sketch statements
  • Tips and tricks for turning those essays into masterpieces

You can find full details about the book here.



Regardless if you use my eBook, I want to wish you all the best of luck in this year’s application cycle!

New eBook – TD Canada Trust Scholarship for Community Leadership 2013-14

I have been getting lots of feedback that I should write an eBook for the TD Canada Trust Scholarship for Community Leadership. I am excited to announce that after weeks of hard work, my first version of the eBook is now available.

In this book, you will learn:

  • What I think the TD Scholarship is looking for in applicants
  • How to address each of the components of your 600 word essay
  • An actual copy of my very own TD Scholarship winning essay and my comments on why I wrote what I wrote
  • Tips and tricks for turning your essay into a masterpiece
  • How to complete the rest of the application
  • How to get strong reference letters

You can find full details about the book here.



Good luck to all of you applying, and I hope you find the eBook helpful!

New eBook – University of Toronto Medical School 2013-14

Last year, I wrote my first ever eBook to help applicants navigate the University of Toronto medical school’s new admission essays. I received great feedback, and it was fantastic to see some of those individuals end up getting into medical school.

Over the past few months, I received numerous requests to release an updated version for the 2013-14 application cycle. I am excited to announce that after weeks of hard work, my new version of the eBook is now available.

In this book, you will learn:

  • Why each of the 4 essay questions is asked
  • How to select the best examples from your resume for answering the questions
  • A step-by-step template for writing each of the 4 essay questions and the 3 autobiographical sketch statements
  • Tips and tricks for turning those essays into masterpieces

You can find full details about the book here.



Best of luck to all of you applying, and I hope you find the eBook helpful!

The end of an era and the start of something new

It’s been a great four and a half years blogging here at MedHopeful.

However, as my final year of medical school comes to a close this spring, I feel it is time for me to move on.

As I made my way through undergrad and medical school, I shared a lot of thoughts regarding scholarships, undergrad and medical school. As I enter into a new phase of my life, the truth is these topics aren’t much on my mind anymore, and I don’t have much to add.

I will continue to leave MedHopeful up as a resource for students and applicants to use, but I don’t plan on updating, and as other areas in my life start to fill up, I likely won’t be as active in replying to comments anymore. Of course, this was inevitable.

For those of you interested in following along as I start a new phase in my life, I will be writing on my new personal blog over at www.joshualiu.ca. I will be sharing my thoughts as I work towards understanding how we can better leverage technology to solve some of the greatest problems in health care.

Thanks again for all your support over the years!

5 Things I Need to do More in 2013

2012 was an interesting year. I completed my first year of doing clinical work full time as a clerk, and am in the midset of preparing for residency (interviews are in late January and early February).

As I look back, on not just this year but the past decade, I realized that I am still on my journey of “finding myself”. As I get smarter, more skilled and more experienced, I am getting closer to figuring out what I really want out of life. Yet in doing so, the more I realize how much more I need to learn and develop in order to get there.

I’ve realized that what I’m trying to achieve is not actually a goal, but rather, a way of life.

Yes, there are milestones I want to achieve (for example, receiving my M.D. this coming spring). However, I use the word milestone intentionally – for me, becoming a physician is not the end goal, but an important part of my path to something much greater. What will that be? I can’t say for certain, but as I said, I’m slowly getting closer to what that might be.

While I don’t know where I end up, I do believe there are 3 key things (more specifically, habits and attitudes) I want to work on to get there.

1. Read more

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The 6 Key Qualities for Success

I often receive emails asking me very vague questions, such as “how do I stand out on my medical school application?” or “I did well in high school, but I’m having so much trouble in university now – what to I do?” The problem with these types of questions is that there is no good answer for them; honestly, there is no step by step formula for success.

Instead, I think a better approach is to figure out what qualities or habits one should adopt in order to be successful. This is especially important for young people in high school and postsecondary who are soon to enter the working world, but are still lost about their interests, skills and need to build their capacity.

Through my personal experiences, I have come across a remarkable number of outstanding individuals in a variety of sectors, including science, medicine, business and community service, among others. In reflecting on these individuals, I have come to realize there are 6 qualities they all tend to share in common.

1. Resourceful

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How Interviews Should be Used and What Their Limitations Are

As I am in the midst of writing many essays for my residency applications, I am also thinking ahead to the inevitable interview stage. I started to reflect on my experiences, the questions I was asked, and really the most important topic – what value do interviews contribute, why should we use them, and therefore, how should we use them?

Actions speak louder than words

Before I dive further into interviews, I want to point out why I think someone’s resume should be the most important part of the application process for anything. Really, it comes down to one simple reason:

Past behaviour is most predictive of future behaviour.

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High School Courses that Should Exist but Don’t

I have now spent the last 20 years of my life in the formal education system. This includes all kinds of schooling: private school, public school, a self-directed learning high school, undergraduate studies, and most recently, professional school. I have 1 year left to go in medical school, but if you count residency as a formal education, then I actually have at least another 3 years to go (assuming I do Family Medicine residency, which is the plan).

Every student at some point in his or her life comes across a school subject they hate and asks:

Why do I have to learn this? I'm never going to use this again.

Usually parents and teachers say something like “you might not understand now, but someday you'll see why it's important”. Sometimes this is actually true. But other times, chances are your parents and teachers are thinking the same thing you are.

So why are there all these different subjects that often don't seem to really matter?

The main theory that comes to mind is to expose students to a variety of subjects. How do you know what subjects would interest you until you try them? It's like trying new food – you're missing out on a ton of great stuff if you never try anything new.

I think this concept is sound on a theoretical level. And so it makes sense that not every student is going to like every subject out there. You might try Science and hate it, and never want to do it again. On the other hand, you might try Science, love it, and become a scientist.

Both outcomes are useful: if you like the subject, you are closer to finding a career or interest; if you don't like it, well at least you can rule stuff out.

My problem with this theory

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