Sometimes I read advice online for medical school admissions from medical students that I think is fundamentally wrong. Of course this would seem counter-intuitive – how could someone be wrong about advice if they got in?

Consider a game of rock, paper, scissors (yah yah, how many times have I used this example now?). Imagine your opponent is playing scissors. Now also imagine that you’ve never played the game before, so you enlist the help of a friend who has. This friend has defeated this opponent before and tells you to play rock because it worked for him last time. If you listen to him and play rock, you’ll win too. Great.

But what if your opponent decides to play paper instead? Of course your friend comes along and again tells you to play rock because that’s what he did last time and it worked for him. But if you play rock, you’ll quickly realize that it doesn’t work this time. So what went wrong, and how could your friend win at this game but fail to help you this time?

Short-Term Success does Not Necessarily Equate to True Understanding

The reason why you lost is because you assumed that your friend understood the game simply because he was successful at it once. He played one game of rock, paper, scissors and got it right, and you both jumped to the conclusion that he knew how to play. But once the situation of the game changed, it became clear that the value of his advice was limited – and the value of his advice was limited because his actual understanding was limited.

One of the mistakes we tend to make is being too results oriented, particularly when it comes to attributing the success of others to genuine understanding. This can become problematic if we spend more time asking for advice and less time actually thinking about it. If the main character in our little hypothetical situation spent time thinking and figuring out rock, paper, scissors, he would realize that the advice he received was bad. He would understand that the justification of “it worked for me last time” isn’t enough to guarantee success in the future.

So how does this relate to medical school advice, and well, advice in general? Sometimes I see successful individuals view their short-term results as evidence for the idea that their strategy was correct. But instead of thinking about why their strategy may have worked, they just assume it was a good strategy because everything worked out. But like I explained, unless you can actually explain why your ideas are good, you are taking the risk of actually being quite wrong.

For instance, there are some students with a resume a mile long who get into medical school. So when they see a medical school applicant list a shorter resume and ask what their chances of getting in are, these students chime in and say it probably isn’t long enough, since they got in with a longer one. I hope you can see the logical problems with this line of thinking, and while it may seem obvious, it’s amazing how often we don’t realize it at the time.

This is precisely the reason why I don’t like answering the questions like “what courses did you take and what things did you do to get into medical school?”. Instead, I like to write articles that take a more analytical approach to the admissions process and aim to provide an understanding of the process.

Common Pitfall: Projection

One common mistake we make when providing advice and thinking about it is projecting the way we think onto other people. It’s a mistake to think that other people or groups both should and do think the way you do.

For instance, let’s visit the claim that medical schools prefer students who have studied at more “reputable” universities. For the sake of discussion, let’s assume it’s true that these more reputable universities have, on average, more challenging undergraduate programs. Some students take this idea and think to themselves that it would only seem “right” to take this information to account, and thus, they propose that medical schools prefer students who go to these more challenging undergraduate programs.

However, such students are making huge and unfounded assumptions, primarily that medical school admissions committees think the way they do. That is, they are projecting their own model of thought on the admissions committees for no apparent reason. To students, if they have to work harder than others for the same grades, they deserve to have some sort of advantage in the admissions process.

Instead of assuming other individuals or groups think like you, it’s better to picture yourself in their shoes, and try and figure out how they would perceive the situation, concept, or idea at hand. Imagine you are on a medical school admissions committee. Even if you knew that certain undergraduate programs must be more challenging, how would you react to that? How would you know which actual courses were harder at which universities, and given that the student populations are different, how could you adjust the marks submitted to you? Moreover, how could you do it in a fair, objective way?

It’s really hard if you think about it, and personally, I haven’t been able to come up with a solution myself besides just leaving things the way they are.

Are You Saying I Shouldn’t be Taking Advice from Others?

Oh no, I am definitely not saying that. In fact, I take advice from others all the time. However, what you should do is not accept advice blindly. You need to spend the time critically thinking about advice you’re given, and whether it’s logical and makes sense. You are definitely doing yourself a disservice if you accept anything I say blindly.

Imagine if a lottery winner told you to pick the numbers 3, 14, 16, 22, 31, 44 because it worked for her. You would quickly realize that’s absurd – yet for some reason it doesn’t seem so absurd to many students when they hear from teachers, parents, guidance counselors, or older students that medical schools actually care which university you did your undergraduate studies at.

If you’re given advice that could seriously affect an important decision of yours, make sure you understand the reasoning behind the advice. And if you’re not sure, ask the person giving the advice. If they can’t provide a reason that makes logical sense, you should be wary of it.

However, keep in mind that not understanding the advice is not a justification for viewing a piece of advice as bad. It’s easy to shrug off things you don’t understand, but from personal experience, some of the best advice I’ve received were things I just didn’t understand at the time.

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I was once asked in an interview to talk about an accomplishment I was proud of. Prior to the interview, I had come up with a list of practice questions and what my general approach to them would be – the “accomplishment question” was one of them. I had planned on mentioning my TD Canada Trust Scholarship because of it’s prestige, the hard work it represented, and how it has allowed me to continue doing a lot of my volunteer/non-profit work during university without worrying about having to pay for my education. But as soon as I was asked the question, I decided to change my mind and pick an experience that I had spoken about before, but had not planned on using as my answer for this type of question.

Instead of the TD Scholarship, I decided to talk about June 29, 2006. It was 9 a.m., and I was at City Hall in downtown Toronto. I was also really, really tired. I was tired because the previous day was a big day for me. Not only was June 28 my 18th birthday, but it also ended up being the day of my graduation and high school prom (yah, my high school was weird that way). Needless to say, June 28 was a really big and exciting day for me, but also a very tiring one.

So why did I need to be up at so early the day after my birthday, graduation, and prom? The previous fall, my friends and I started a Make Poverty History student banner that was signed by students in over 30 schools and university campuses in Southern Ontario. June 29, 2006 was the one-year anniversary of the Live 8 concert, and so there was a Make Poverty History press conference held at City Hall to commemorate the event, as well as remind world leaders to put issues of poverty on the agenda for an upcoming G8 meeting. To celebrate the work of all the students involved, we were given the opportunity to present our banner at the press conference.

Part of that presentation involved me giving a speech about the banner. It was a really cool experience, especially the chance to share the podium with the likes of Gerry Barr (past-chair of Make Poverty History Canada), Steven Page (of the Bare Naked Ladies), and Toronto Mayor David Miller. The reason why I was proud of that moment was more than because it culminated the achievement of our banner campaign. It was a great personal achievement for myself – if you had told me four years before when I started high school that I would be at that podium a day after turning 18, I would never have believed it. That wasn’t the person I was when I entered high school – I was much too shy. For me, that moment also represented the personal transformation I went through in high school as I opened myself up to more experiences, and for that reason, I was very proud of myself.

Telling Stories

The reason I changed my answer at the last minute was because I remembered the importance of being memorable and producing memorable answers. This is important for a few reasons.

You see, in most scholarship or medical school interviews, the interviewers aren’t writing down what you say. Rather, they hear what you have to say, and then discuss and score you afterwards. Interviewers are regular people just like you and me – meaning that, just like you and me, they aren’t going to remember everything you say. In general, interviewers are going to remember two types of candidates – people they liked and people they didn’t like. When competition is stiff for so few spots, you want to be the good kind that’s remembered.

How do you produce answers that are memorable? One way is by telling stories.

Everyone loves a good story, and I would guess that most people would rather here a story than facts. You have to keep in mind that your interviewers are probably going through a long day of interviewing many candidates. Anytime you can entertain them, make them laugh, or give them something interesting to listen to, you are being a bright spot in a sometimes long, tedious day for them. Stories can accomplish all of these things.

Imagine if I had told the interviewers that my greatest accomplishment was my TD Scholarship – just straight facts. It’s not something that’s likely to be remembered. It’s also not that interesting. And if my interviewers don’t remember my answer when they are evaluating me after the interview, it’s almost as if I didn’t answer the question.

But compare that to the story I told about June 29, 2006. Talking about city hall, Steven Page, etc. creates a vivid image in my interviewers minds about that day. It likely captivates them much more than talking about my scholarship – it is clearly way more interesting, and so they are less likely to zone out when I’m talking. And as a story, it is something they are way more likely to remember after the interview.

In a vacuum, is the story that much of a better answer than talking about my scholarship? Perhaps not, but if it is significantly more likely to be remembered and gives the interviewers a more positive, captivating experience, then it is most likely much better.

If the interviewers are looking at a wall of photos of candidates at the end of the day, comparing the interview experiences, telling interesting stories makes me less likely to be one of the candidates who they don’t remember interviewing at all (that’s hopefully an extreme case, and I would hope that doesn’t happen to any candidate, but you get the point). They might not remember my face on its own, but they’ll remember my story, and if they do, they will probably remember my face and the rest of me.

A Second Example

I also like to use this approach whenever I’m asked in an interview about an important leadership experience. When answering this question, I think some candidates might just pick their most impressive-sounding leadership experience – but I don’t think this necessarily ends up being the best possible answer. Let me use myself as an example to better explain this.

One of my most impressive and important leadership experiences was creating the SMARTS network for Canadian youth interested in science. If I had to give a one hour talk about leadership, it’s one of the stories I would definitely focus on. But you don’t get one hour to talk about a leadership experience in an interview – you get maybe a few minutes to answer the question.

Trying to convey a complete, captivating, and most importantly, coherent story about SMARTS in just a few minutes would probably come out pretty awful – I just wouldn’t be able to do it. I could try, but I think I would end up just confusing the interviewers more than anything. I could just focus on the basic details, but then I wouldn’t have time to talk about the leadership skills I developed and obstacles I overcame, which I think are things you want to mention in your answer. And if I focused on those things, I wouldn’t have time to talk about all the details, and so on.

So instead, I like to talk about my leadership experience at the Shad Valley summer program and the company and product my teammates and I developed. It’s not only an interesting story, but as the project only lasted two months, I am able to tell a complete, coherent story in the few minutes I have.

Basically, my point is that if you choose to answer a question with a story, it’s important to be strategic about exactly which stories you choose to tell. Not all stories make sense to be used in the context of an interview. So if you choose to tell a story, you should select one that’s interesting, meaningful, and can be delivered clearly within a few minutes.

Be Careful – Don’t Use Stories Just for the Sake of Using Them

I want to make it perfectly clear that you don’t need to spend a ridiculous amount of time and effort making everything you say memorable. Of course that’s not going to happen, and it would be a pretty awkward interview if you answered every single question with a story.

Some questions are going to lend themselves better for stories than others. I just want to get you thinking about and exploring the possibilities of improving the memorability of your interview by using stories.

In preparing for an interview, one of the things I suggest you do (and I will explore this technique more later on) is come up with a list of questions you are very likely to be asked, and come up with some possible ways you could answer each question. Explore story and non-story type answers, and see what works better for you for those types of interview questions.

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Every medical school has a different philosophy when it comes to evaluating applicants. Some schools, like Queen’s and Western, look at your GPA and MCAT scores first, and pretty much guarantee you an interview if you meet certain cutoffs. Some schools, like the University of Toronto, look at your entire application package first before granting an interview: GPA, MCAT, personal essay, biographical sketch, and reference letters.

As with any medical school, you will get complaints about the process. Personally, I think it’s great that the medical schools have such different philosophies on admissions, so that many great candidates with different backgrounds are likely to get in somewhere. But when it gets more personal, and your application package isn’t as competitive at a certain school, it’s understandable for people to be a bit frustrated.

As an example, some applicants have voiced frustration with the fact that UofT’s medical school admissions places a greater weight on reference letters than some other schools. The most common argument is that there is a lot of variance involved with reference letters since it is out of the applicant’s control, in terms of how well the referees are able to write. So it is very possible that an applicant is fantastic, but his or her referee just lacks the skills, experience, and knowledge to put those ideas well onto paper.

In this article I want to analyze this common frustration, and then give my argument for why I think a medical school (or scholarship organization, summer program, etc.) might value reference letters.

Variance Exists Everywhere – Deal with It

I’m not going to deny that there is variance when it comes to reference letters. Considering the letters are supposed to be confidential, it’s quite possible that no matter how hard your referee tries, he/she could end up writing a letter that is relatively poor compared to the average, simply because he/she isn’t used to writing stuff like this. For sure, there is some skill involved in writing a strong reference letter, and it takes experience and knowledge to do that.

The problem with this complaint is that it’s essentially founded on the ideas of variance, chance, and luck. If you’re going to be upset with variance, then logically, you should be upset with the entire medical school application process.

For instance, it’s true that some applicants are naturally better writers than others. Should we throw out the personal essay too? Or, let’s analyze that fact that most applicants don’t get the same interviewers, which also leads to a lot of variance (as I’ve written extensively on before). Should we scrap the interview process too?

The fact is that most things in life, whether medical school related or not, consist of some things out of our control. Sometimes you just need to be lucky.

That being said, one question we can ask is whether a component of the admissions process has an unacceptably high amount of variance. While we can’t eliminate variance or chance, we should always try to reduce it whenever possible. And this is a question that needs to be asked for every component of the process.

Unfortunately, I don’t have the knowledge or experience to say whether there is too much variance in the use of reference letters. I would like to think that the admissions committees have seen enough reference letters over the years to recognize the type of variance involved, and adjust their selection process accordingly (and likewise with other aspects of their admissions process).

The Second Factor: How Strongly a Potential Referee is Likely to Support You

I’d imagine that most applicants have only been on one side of the reference letter process – that is, have had reference letters written for them but have never been in a position to write reference letters for others. As the founder of SMARTS, I have had to write my fair share of reference letters for some of our student volunteers over the past few years. By now having been on both sides of the fence, I’ve come to understand an extremely important concept that I don’t think many applicants realize about reference letters.

There are essentially two factors that affect the strength of your reference letter. The first factor is something we already know, and that is somewhat uncontrollable: the skills of the referee in writing a good reference letter. However, there is a second factor that most applicants don’t really realize, and I don’t think put enough thought into when choosing potential referees.

You see, many applicants just assume that anyone they could reasonably ask is going to write them the most fantastic reference letter. They assume that just because they asked for a fantastic letter, they are going to get one. The reality is that this is simply not the case. How good of a reference letter you can get also comes down to how strongly your referee feels about supporting you.

For example, when I’m asked to write reference letters for SMARTS student volunteers, I can honestly say that not all students get the same quality of letter from me. If you’re a student who I don’t work with on a personal basis, not only is it hard for me to fill up a letter with content and impossible for me to comment on your personal qualities, but I don’t have a strong enough personal connection with you to feel the urge to write you the best letter possible. The result is a letter that is much more formal and sparser in detail – I’d be lying if I wrote otherwise. In such a case, it would have made much more sense to ask a teacher or other supervisor who has seen your work in action, and can comment on personal qualities in a detailed fashion.

On the other hand, if you are a SMARTS student volunteer who I know personally and have seen in action on a regular basis, not only can I write much more detailed about you, but I end up writing a ridiculously fantastic letter. Why? Because of the personal connection we have developed, I personally want you to succeed and want to do anything possible to help.

So What Do Reference Letters tell Medical School Committees (or other judging committees)?

The importance of the reference letters is that they tell medical schools about how other people think about you, and how good of a physician they think you’d make. It’s easy for you to write a personal essay claiming to be a fantastic person – but of course they expect you to do that. And of course your opinion of yourself is going to be positively biased. You might say that you are a fantastic leader, communicator, and team player – but where is the proof? The closest thing to objective proof that the judges have are your referees.

Extremely strong reference letters show medical schools that there are actually people, other than yourself/your family, who genuinely believe you would make a great physician. If someone else can write a letter advocating for you so strongly, logic says there must be something really good about you. And unless they lack a ton of integrity (and are just making stuff up), referees are generally not going to write you absolutely fantastic letters unless they really believe you deserve one – I mean, do you really think that first year biology professor who only knows you from class really cares to write you an outstanding letter? I mean, why would he care whether you get into medical school or not? Why would he waste his time getting the letter “just right”? Furthermore, strong letters show that you can form meaningful personal relationships with other individuals.

I’d imagine that any referee would approach the letter writing process like I do. If they know you well, are impressed by you, and honestly desire to support you to the best of their ability, they will spend their time writing the best letter possible. But if they barely know you or aren’t particularly impressed by you, it’s a bit naive to expect a really strong letter.

So What Does this Mean for Picking My Referees?

In short, this means that you should pick referees who know you very well and who you know want to support you.

Don’t just pick someone because they have a really prestigious title. The person’s title makes up a few words, but what he/she writes makes up the entire page – which part do you think the judge is going to focus on and remember?

I know when I picked my medical school referees this year I followed those two exact criteria. I picked people who I knew for at least a few years, who I felt were impressed by me, and who I knew genuinely wanted to support me in my endeavours.

If you do that as well, I think you will be getting your best reference letters possible.

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Questions?

If you have any further questions about the University of Western Ontario National Scholarship Program, please leave a comment, and I will do my best to answer them!

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Questions?

If you have any further questions about the York University Awards of Distinction, please leave a comment, and I will do my best to answer them!

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“What is real? How do you define real? If you’re talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then real is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.”

This is a famous quote from the character Morpheus of one of my favourite movies of all time, The Matrix. In this part of the movie, Morpheus is helping Neo to realize that the world he once believed to be his reality was no more than a computer simulation. Yet for everyone else stuck in the “matrix”, this simulation was as real as anything.

After watching The Matrix for the first time, I remember randomly asking myself: How do I know this world I’m in is real? I know I can hear my own thoughts, but how can I know for sure that everything around me is real? My family and friends seem real, but without being able to hear their thoughts, how can I know for sure?

But because I can perceive all of the world around me, I believe it to be real. Because I can smell roses, I believe them to be real. Because I can hear my brother speak, I believe he is real. In order to live in my reality, I have to rely on the notion that my perceptions are interpreting a true reality.

Marketing: Delivering a Perception You Want Customers to Adopt

Marketing takes advantage of this very same concept. In marketing, you’re not just promoting a product – you are also promoting a specific image or idea about that product. Essentially, marketers present a certain perception of their product that they want customers to have. And for potential customers, that perception is often interpreted as reality.

For instance, take the famous brand name paper towel product: Bounty – “the Quicker Picker-Upper”. Their television commercials portray Bounty as a superior paper towel that is able to absorb moisture much better than its competitors. Most of us don’t and will probably never know if Bounty is even among the best paper towel products, but due to the perception their company has created for their product, many of us who have seen the commercial probably believe that Bounty is indeed the best paper towel in the market.

The fact of the matter is what we only know what we’re told. That is, unless someone else comes along and tells us that Bounty isn’t the best paper towel, we see no reason to believe otherwise. I mean, seriously, when is the last time you researched studies for the best paper towels? Or the most durable shoe on the market?

By nature, humans are quite lazy in that sense. We don’t like working for information – we would much prefer that the information to come to us. The problem with this mindset is that by allowing other people to control the information that is “marketed” to us, we are essentially allowing other people to dictate our perceptions, and subsequently our realities.

Marketing Yourself: Creating the Image You Want

When I was in Grade 7, I was selected to represent Toronto at the Ontario Mathematics Olympics. Because of the size of our city, Toronto was allowed to send three teams to the competition. Each team was composed of one Gr. 8 girl, one Gr. 8 boy, one Gr. 7 girl and one Gr. 7 boy.

After the initial 12 students were selected, a single preparation day was held before the actual event for the students to go through some practice problems. In addition, the coordinators of Team Toronto would use this day to do a bit more evaluation of the students and try and make the best teams possible. Because of the difficulty of the competition, it would make sense for the coordinators to put all of the best students on the same team, thus maximizing the chances for Team Toronto to be victorious. There was one student was clearly the best mathematics student there by far, and it made sense for the coordinators to try and build the best possible team around him.

On the actual preparation day, I was just myself. But for those of you that know me, that meant just doing what I was told, not answering questions unless someone asked me, etc. On the other hand, I noticed a few students who were more talkative and participated more in the activities – these students ended up being on the “best” team with that exceptional student I mentioned earlier. Led by that student, this team ended up placing an excellent 5th in the province.

Nothing motivates me more than losing, so when I made Team Toronto again the following year, I was determined to be a part of the “best” team. Recalling the previous year, I realized that the coordinators probably assumed that whoever participated the most in the preparation day were probably the strongest students. That was their perception of ability, and in all fairness, the only real evidence they could go by. I mean if you think about it, if only certain students answer your questions, you can’t assume the other students even knew the answers. Maybe this logic isn’t the best, but I believe this is what the coordinators went by.

So when I was in Gr. 8, I went to that preparation day determined to be outspoken, answer questions, and generally participate as much as possible. My suspicions turned out to be correct when I ended up being on the same team as the other students I believed to have been the strongest. I definitely was not the strongest Gr. 8 male math student there (I am sure one of my other friends was), but I ended up on the better team because I projected the exact image the coordinators were looking for.

They believed I was the strongest candidate because they perceived me to be the strongest.

You Are Whoever You Say You Are

This is essentially the same concept I am talking about whenever I say that it isn’t necessarily the best candidate who gets rewarded, but rather, the candidate who the judges perceive to be the best – because perception is reality.

No one can know how great of a person you are unless you project that image. That’s why knowing how to market yourself properly on applications and interviews is extremely important.

Whether you are taking part in a job interview, applying for a grant, or anything else where you need to impress someone else, you’re not going to be successful unless you sell yourself as the best candidate.

If you look at any of my articles or videos about interviews or applications, you’ll realize the central theme to all of them is marketing. I think about the factors that could affect the judge’s perception of you, and try and highlight the specific factors that are good for you.

That being said, in the end, it comes down to you.

No one can market yourself except you!

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Some students have been asking me if they could get a glimpse of my previous scholarship and application essays. But to be fair to everyone, I’m going to be consistent, and my decision is to not ever post or give out any of my previous essays.

Plagiarism

There are two main reasons for this. The first is simply because of possible plagiarism. I’d like to think that most students are not the plagiarizing type, but there are always a few students who get desperate at some point and end up plagiarizing. In addition, people tend to have distorted and different views on what actually constitutes plagiarizing – I have met students who didn’t think copying eight words in a row was plagiarizing. You might not realize it, but if you like something you see, you may subconsciously incorporate similar specific elements in your own essays, and you can imagine the weird trouble this could cause if a lot of students ended up with very similar application or scholarship essays. Overall, I feel it would be much safer for the application process if complete essays weren’t being thrown around the Internet.

Understanding My Approach is More Valuable

However, the main reason why I like to write articles about essay writing as opposed to posting my own is because I believe you learn something much more important this way. I want to teach you my approach to essay writing – that is, how and why I write what I do. The idea here is to get you guys really thinking about the best ways to market yourselves on paper. Posting my essays doesn’t explain why I wrote what I wrote – it just shows you what I wrote. And for students who are still gaining experience in essay writing, it is easy to misinterpret the elements you see in my essay, and I don’t want that happening to you.

If that doesn’t make sense, maybe this example will help. I know the basic rules of chess, but I am not a very good player and know next to nothing about even basic chess strategy. For those who haven’t heard of him, Gary Kasparov is arguably the greatest chess player ever. If I were to watch him play a single chess match and memorize his exact moves, and then tried imitating those moves against a decent opponent, I would probably still lose. This is because Kasparov has specific reasons behind every single move he makes – even something as simple as his opening move might depend on who is opponent is. In order to play as well as Kasparov, I would need to understand why he was making the moves he was, so that I could make the correct moves in my games.

I’m not saying I am the Gary Kasparov of application essay writing, but I’d like to think that I have a pretty good grasp of application essays in general. And in the same way that simply memorizing Kasparov’s moves from a single chess match will not significantly improve my chess game, I don’t believe just giving out copies of my essays will improve your essay writing skills. In addition, in the same way that hearing Kasparov talk or write about chess would be more valuable than watching him play, I’d like to think that reading my articles or watching my videos about the application process is much more valuable than seeing my work.

It’s a Matter of Experience

And to make it clear, I’m not saying that you would not be smart enough to understand the ideas behind my essays or anything like that – it’s a matter of experience. I have been writing application essays for probably 5-6 years now, and have spent quite a lot of time thinking about and discussing them. I have probably spent more time preparing for application essays than most students, and all that preparation has built up a lot of experience. It takes a certain amount of experience to understand applications the way I do, and if you have the experience to understand my essays, then you probably wouldn’t find most of my articles helpful in the first place.

To further that point, recall my article about writing with a purpose, where I talked about a friend who picked up a book with successful medical school admission essays, and tried to imitate some of the elements in those essays. This friend of mine is one of the smartest individuals I know, but he lacked experience in application essays, and at least in my opinion, he wasn’t successfully interpreting the elements he noticed in those published essays.

It is true that posting my essays with commentary explaining the different elements I used would probably be helpful, but then we get back to the whole plagiarism thing, and it just isn’t worth it to me in the end.

So I hope that explains why I don’t post my essays as samples. At the same time, I also hope you understand that you are getting significantly more value from understanding my approach than just seeing it.

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I was talking with a friend last night whose recent scholarship interview has left her a bit upset and frustrated at the moment. She felt like she did great, and that she deserved to move on to the next round of the process, but ultimately, she was not selected.

If you’ve read my article on success, you’ll know that I understand the feeling. When I learned that I did not move on to the final interview round for the Loran Award I was devastated. For the week after the results were revealed, I experienced a bag of emotions.

I was mad at the judges for making the “mistake” of not putting me through. I read the profiles of the previous year’s winners, and felt that I was just as good as any of them. I was upset when I learned that I did worse than other semi-finalists who I expected to do better than.

But whenever you’re emotional, it’s hard to think rationally and objectively. You start to try and come up with any reason to justify why things didn’t go your way. For instance, at that exact moment of defeat, the whole process seemed unfair – the judges only had my application and met me for only about an hour in total. They never saw me or my work in action. I thought to myself: “how could they make an important decision with such little information?”

Realize: The Scholarship Program is in Charge, Not You

In order to deal with loss, you have to let go of your emotions so that you can think rationally again. The first thing you need to realize is that you’re not entitled to anything, and you never were. The scholarship was never yours to lose in the first place. You’re not on the scholarship committee, so why should you feel as if you know better than them?

The fact of the matter is that the scholarship committee has their own criteria for selecting recipients, and therefore, they are in charge; in a way, they are “always right”. Realize that because you were never “entitled” to anything in the first place, you can’t say that it was unfair for you not to move on or win. The only facts you know are that, according to the committee, someone else was more deserving of the scholarship based on their criteria (and often you don’t even know this exact criteria).

Furthermore, since you did not read the other applications or observe the other interviews, how can you say you did better than someone else in the process? Remember that only the judges have the available information to make these decisions. Yes, it’s true they have a limited amount of information about you – but this is also true for everyone else. The process is fair in the sense that, for the most part, everyone gets the same treatment. Sometimes that works for you, and sometimes that works against you – it’s a part of life, and you have to deal with it.

For example, for the Loran Award, the interviews play a significantly greater role than in most scholarship processes. They interview more students than any Canadian scholarship I know of, and even have two rounds of interviews for sponsored candidates. The fact of the matter is that well-spoken individuals will have a distinct advantage in the Loran Award process. Some frustrated students I’ve met have complained that this isn’t fair, citing that the work that you’ve done tells a more accurate story of your leadership potential than how well you can put your thoughts and ideas into words. Whether that idea has merit is irrelevant. You must realize that we have no right to judge the methods of the Loran Award – it is their scholarship, and they have every right to choose their selection process.

Some Things are Just Out of Your Control

The reason why we often struggle to understand this idea of objectivity is because we take things personal and for granted. We often compare ourselves with others, and based on those personal comparisons, we produce expectations of ourselves and get frustrated when we can’t meet those expectations. Having expectations is not a bad thing, but being unable to reconcile your expectations with reality is unhealthy.

Losing in the scholarship process does not make you any less of a leader, volunteer, or human being than someone who did better. So someone did better in the process than you – does that really affect you? Does it change how you will interact with others?

You need to understand that some things are just not in your control. When it comes to scholarship applications and interviews, all you can do is put your best foot forward and hope for the best. I know this sounds cliché, but this is a cliché that everyone says they understand but often don’t live. I myself struggle with this all the time, and am constantly trying to improve my attitude when it comes to losing.

Variance

Like with many things in life, there is variance. That is, although many things in life generally happen as they are expected to in the long run, there will always be random times out of your control when they won’t. For example, if you flip a coin, in the long run, it should come up heads half the time. However, due to short term variance, you might flip all heads in your first 10 tries.

In the same way, variance is involved in our lives whether we want it to or not. And without a doubt, there is a lot of luck and variance involved in the scholarship process. Do I think there are skills and strategies you can employ to improve your chances of winning? Of course – you can always work on improving your essay writing and interview skills. But that doesn’t mean you don’t still need to have luck on your side to do well. Something as simple as not being sick on interview day significantly improves your chances of doing well. There are a lot of chance variables that can affect your success – sometimes they improve your chances, and unfortunately, they also sometimes decrease your chances. Variance is a part of life, and you need to understand that.

For instance, you don’t decide which applicants are in your pool. It’s possible in some years the applicant pool is much larger or much stronger. Imagine 2003, the year of the double cohort in Ontario, where graduating high school students had to compete with significantly more applicants for the same number of scholarship and post-secondary spots – these things happen, and you can only do so much about it.

During my Loran semi-finalist interviews, the 50 or so students at the Toronto event were divided into about five groups of ten, each with an associated judging panel. Is it possible that given a different combination of students and judges in my group, I would’ve won a spot for the nationals? Of course, it’s entirely possible. On other hand, it’s also possible that no matter what combination of students and judges I was given, I would never have made it anyways. Either way, we will never know. The fact is you can’t control things like that, and therefore, there’s no point filling your mind with “what if’s”.

Luck has no personality or intentions. It is random. And in that sense, it theoretically evens out in the end – of course, this doesn’t mean it will. But if you can’t control it, why waste time thinking about it?

Again, all you can do is work hard to maximize your chances, and hope luck is on your side.

The Hidden Luck Factor: Connecting with the Judges

Whenever an interview is part of a process, building a rapport or connection with your judge significantly affects your chances. At the end of the day, a judge is going to prefer a finalist who they had a good conversation and interview with, and generally, conversations go better when the two sides have built a strong connection. As a judge, you want to be as impartial as possible, but the fact of the matter is that your connection with interviewees will be affected to some degree by things outside of your control. This is no one’s fault; it’s just a fact of life.

Being able to build a strong connection with a judge often depends on getting lucky that you two share mutual interests or ideas. The more you have in common with someone, the easier it is to explain yourself to them and establish a good rapport with them.

During my Loran Award interviews, I never felt like I established any connection whatsoever with any of my judges. For whatever reason, it just didn’t happen and I just didn’t feel it. I don’t think I performed well on the interview by any means, but my performance and the result were undoubtedly affected by my lack of connection with my judges.

Conversely, I had an extremely fortunate situation at my TD Canada Trust Scholarship interviews. I have always been passionate about working with youth and children, which is why I am interested in pursuing a medical career in pediatrics, as well as possible side initiatives in mentoring and educating young people. Lo and behold, my judges included Canadian Senator Landon Pearson (child advocate) and Dr. Miriam Rossi (paediatrician) who I obviously connected with.

Because I shared common interests with some of my judges, talking to them was very easy for me, and I believe we were able to connect on a deeper level with a common understanding. And while I did feel that I did pretty well in terms of being interviewed, I am sure my confidence and ability to be understood was helped by the connection I was able to build with my judges.

And so I basically have two main points I want to get across. The first is that depending on who interviews you, you may or may not be able to build as strong a connection as you like. The second point though is that you should realize the importance of building the best rapport with the judges that you can, and just hope it works out in your favour.

Grow Stronger and Keep Looking Forward

I know it’s hard, but you have to realize that this moment is but one of a million moments in your entire life. You will learn from this experience, and you will become better for it. What’s done is done, the past is the past. The longer you dwell in the past, the less you can live in the present and dream of the future.

What matters is what you choose to do with this experience as you go forward – and that depends on your attitude. Trust me when I say that keeping a positive, upbeat attitude about loss and disappointment goes a long way and is an important skill that will serve you well for your entire life.

There will be many more opportunities in the future, but you won’t see them or be able to give them your all if your mind is distracted by shortcomings of the past.

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Additional Info. on the Challenging Task / Project Essay

I had a bit of a brain fart when thinking about good examples to use for this section during the video (see the pause when I start talking about “designing a machine” =P). But to be clear, I’m not saying that you need to have discovered a potential treatment for attacking cancer cells or anything to that degree to do well in this section (I surely didn’t have an example like that!) – it was just an example of a science project that was in my head at the moment. Any type of science fair project or business you’ve created would be good examples, along with many other things.

The key thing to realize is that you want to talk about a challenge that is relevant to the Millennium application – so your challenge should deal with leadership, innovation, and/or community service. So while a personal hobby like learning to play the guitar might technically answer the question, I don’t think it would be a strong answer. The reason why a science project, for example, works better is that although conducting a novel science project is also a type of hobby, successful science projects are usually original and innovative to some degree – so it is at least relevant to a criteria of the Millennium scholarship.

Questions?

If you have any further questions about the Millennium Excellence Awards, please leave a comment, and I will do my best to answer them!

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A lot of people have been asking me about advice for the Loran Award regional interviews that are coming up in a few weeks. I decided to compile a lot of the things I have been telling students into an article here. Keep in mind that I did not move on to nationals when I went through these interviews two years ago.

NOTE: I’m not claiming to know anything in detail about the selection process or how the judges are trained to assess the applicants, so this is just my opinion, and you should take it with a grain of salt.

Regional Interview Structure

This is the structure for the regional interview I had in fall of 2005. It could have changed since then, but I highly doubt it.

The students in each region were divided into groups of about 10 students. Each group was associated with a panel of four judges.

In the morning you have two 15 minute interviews, each of them a 1-on-1 with a judge from your panel.

You then have lunch with a third judge from your panel, along with one or more of the other semi-finalists from your group.

In the afternoon you have a 15-20 minute interview with all four judges on your panel – so there’s one judge you won’t meet until the final panel interview.

I’m not really sure how the selection process goes from there, but I would imagine something like two students from each group move on to nationals, but I’m not really sure.

Interview Questions

In terms of the questions, most of mine where based on my application.

A few general questions that I got were: “What did you do this past summer? How do you motivate people?” But beyond that, I don’t recall there being too many non-application specific questions.

Apparently, some semi-finalists have reported being asked about their opinions on certain current events/issues. Other semi-finalists have apparently been asked to talk about historical leaders they admirer, etc. I was personally never asked anything like that, and it seems as if these types of questions could come on it depending on your judges or region. It is probably important to keep this in mind during your preparation (e.g. you may wish to catch up on current events or review some history, etc.)

Preparing for the Interview

I think that the most important piece of advice is to be completely honest, and not be afraid to share how you personally feel about things. Particularly in the Loran process, I think being honest and sharing your passions is really important. They want students who are sincere and genuine. I gave a lot of politically correct answers, because I was embarrassed to be 100% honest in some cases, and I think that’s what hurt me.

Remember, the Loran judges are looking for leadership/service/character potential. I get the feeling that once you reach the interview stage, the application doesn’t matter much anymore.

I think a lot of people prepare for interviews by searching for a bunch of interview questions and coming up with some premade answers, which they then practice over and over again. I really don’t think that’s the best way to do it.

For the most part, I think you should look at it as a conversation or discussion rather than an interview – except that it is a conversation where you usually do the most talking. The idea is that you want to feel comfortable in the interview process; so comfortable that you can just be yourself and talk as you normally do.

When you talk to people in everyday life, you aren’t regurgitating lines that you memorized. You’re just talking. Understanding this is particularly important for the Loran, in my opinion, who are looking for honest and genuine people who are just their passionate selves.

So I think the best way to prepare for the Loran interview (and for most interviews in general) is to just do a bunch of reflection, and discussions/conversations with friends/family who know you well. Reflect personally or discuss with them what you think your strengths and weaknesses are. Discuss with them what leadership means, and what it specifically means to you, etc.

You’re not necessarily memorizing your answers, but you’re getting ideas flowing and creating a huge pool of ideas, information, and perspectives in your head that you will be able to draw from during the interview.

In particular, during preparation, I suggest you:

• Know your application and the things you wrote about inside and out. Most of the questions are going to be about what you wrote in your application.
• Reflect a lot on what leadership, service, and character mean to you, and in terms of the things you mention in your application.
• Reflect on your personal interests, hobbies, and things that help you relax and have fun. Reflect on your motivations for all the great work that you do.
• Reflect on how you plan on continuing your service in the future, and where you see yourself in the future in general.

The idea is that through reflection you will really understand yourself, and there will be no need to memorize answers to specific questions; that is, the answer will naturally come to you because you’ve thought through most of the hard things.

Last of all, good luck!

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