Yah, the point is that we all draw our own lines for what’s acceptable/expected in terms of altruism, and it isn’t appropriate to force others to accept the lines we draw.

I am really glad you wrote this article. I agree with most of what you’ve said, especially the part telling us to think for ourselves and not project our own morals on others. It’s a smart thing to do, whether you are a premed or not.

-Sherry

Thanks for your insightful comment and a position I’m glad someone brought up (as I expected someone would). It’s most definitely something I’ve thought about (e.g. I have thought about personally charging for consulting, but then that produces a financial barrier to access, but then it’s also nice to be compensated for your work, etc. etc.). It’s a complex situation and I think it’s going to be hard to find an overall compromise. The interesting thing is that you can also extend this argument to things beyond medical school admissions (e.g. tutoring). People with money and resources are always going to have an advantage and this advantage will always exist unless you completely change the system and the rules that govern it. Problem is not only that this is very difficult to do, but also questionable whether it is the “right” thing to do (especially when it comes to discussing freedom of choice).

I wonder, could you go as far as to argue that my blog indirectly hurts those who don’t have the online research skills to find it and benefit from it? Or what about those who lack regular internet access? (in essence, the help I provide isn’t “free” then, though I’m sure someone would argue reasonable access to Internet, but you get the point).

What about connections and knowing people – is it “unfair” for me to have friends in medical school who help me review my application and help me practice for the interview? Are there not social barriers that affect success?

What about being able to afford to apply to more medical schools and travel for interviews? To afford post-secondary in the first place?

Clearly, advantages exist in ways beyond just getting ahead in the application process. You could extend this concept to the entire world past admissions.

There are consistently going to be barriers of access to resources, financial or not. What would be a fair leveling of the playing field then? And I don’t just mean fair to the applicants, but fair to all parties involved (businesses, medical schools, etc. etc.).

I think what you’re missing in your analysis Josh, is that protection of public goods is sometimes necessary in order to ensure that EVERYONE is better off. When people responded ardently against med students charging for admissions consulting services, it is because those who posted did so on a public forum that has as one of its core principles empowerment through shared knowledge and discussion. If we as a society, or as potential applicants to medicine, find it acceptable that people begin to charge for some of the information that would otherwise be available freely on the med forums, we create a tiered system wherein access is denied for some (whether that be for geographic reasons, monetary reasons etc.). This disparity in access is actually a serious problem as far as medical school admissions is concerned because it perpetuates class systems already in place- affluent individuals from major urban centres continue to be able to preferentially access resources which in turn help them occupy positions of power and authority in society.

So, if we are interested in attempting to level the playing field (which is already extremely skewed toward the status quo via MCAT courses, access to summer jobs, time spent studying instead of working etc.) we do need to speak up in favor of shared information for the public pre-med good. Does this make med students who want to offer this service “bad people”, probably not, but in my opinion it is short-sighted and does a dis-service to the movement for a more diverse (financially, culturally, geographically) medical profession.

You pose a really good question, and I too haven’t done enough research on this to answer accurately – I proposed some possibilities for why, but I’m well aware that I could be wrong about where this altruism/nobility comes from and how much there actually is – I am basing it on my own experience which may not be fairly reflective of most schools/methods of teaching in Canada.

I think one problem is that there might be a mindset that we go to school to learn, and that this means to be taught knowledge. However, we’re not just taught knowledge in school – often times that knowledge is mixed in with ideas, perspectives, values, etc. What happens sometimes is that we might mix knowledge up with ideas/perspectives, and start believing things that are debatable to be true.

Thanks for your well thought out post, it’s really good to hear some other perspectives on this issue.

With regards to how/whether MCAT prep companies/consultants exploit premeds, I agree that it can be exploitive (e.g. a medical student who isn’t a good consultant but will be paid for the job) but not necessarily.

I disagree with the idea that it’s exploitive to charge premeds for the consolidation of information freely available. In fact, I can see many cases where even for myself, I’d be willing to pay for someone else to consolidate information for me so that I don’t have to (a simplistic case would be buying a first year biology textbook even though technically all this information is probably available online somewhere). You’d be surprised how many questions I get from people who are too lazy (or whatever reason) to use Google, and if someone is willing to pay someone else to use Google, that’s their prerogative, in my opinion. I would say it’s exploitive if you sell consolidated information while giving the impression the information isn’t freely available.

I do agree that simply being a medical student does not mean you are qualified to be or would make a good consultant. I’m sure there are medical students who would give terrible consulting advice despite getting into medical school themselves. But the fact that there are people who provide poor services in something is nothing new, and there are good consultants worthy of the cost. I’d advise people interested in getting a consultant to do their homework – get referrals from friends who have tried the service, perhaps see the work of the consultant (i.e. if I was consulting, my thoughts/views on admissions are freely available here so you know how I think).

I don’t see why you think that I believe we should be charging for everything and that there are no instances where it would make more sense, or that there might be obligation to, or whatever, to not charge for a service. All I’ve said is that in this specific instance of admissions consulting/MCAT prep companies, in general, there’s nothing inherently wrong with charging for the service – that’s all I’m saying, and nothing more. We can debate specific instances and exceptions, of course, but I’d say this is true for the most part.

With regards to your final part about “tricks” to admission, I agree there’s no magic formula or anything like that. But I firmly believe there are strategies/skills you can employ when writing your application/interviewing that increase your chances of getting in. Simply being a medical student doesn’t mean you understand these strategies at a level worth the money people charge for consulting, and I agree, there are probably medical students taking advantage of their status to charge for consulting they shouldn’t be – this doesn’t make consulting wrong though, it’s just unfortunate it exists. All that being said, it would be wrong (in my opinion) to deny that there is potential value in consulting if done right and done well and the solution shouldn’t be to just get rid of consulting altogether.

Shad usually sends out an email every two years or so to the alumni network asking for individuals interesting in being Alumni representatives on the board.

However, I believe there might be some changes going on right now, which is why there hasn’t been anything sent out recently.

Unfortunately, I don’t know how medical schools will evaluate your GPA for courses from two different institutions – you should probably send OMSAS an email, or ask the medical schools directly.

As for transferring, I can’t say for sure whether you would do better at York because it’s so dependent on the courses you take and who teaches them and I don’t personally know what UTSG life sciences is like, but I will say that I think York is generally pretty fair – you will do well if you put in the work.