Archive | January, 2011

Medical School Rejection: Having a Healthy Attitude

Categories: Med Admissions

In recent days, Canadian medical schools have begun spreading joy (through interview invites) and crushing dreams (through rejections) among students everywhere. Great for those invited to interviews, but feelings of disappointment, sadness, and sometimes anger for those who received bad news. As we all know, it’s never fun to be rejected for anything.

When you receive a rejection, many thoughts can go through your head, like: What did I do wrong? Was I not good enough? Boy, they really screwed up!

While some of these thoughts can end up leading to something positive (e.g. you work harder for next year’s application cycle), some of them can be quite destructive (e.g. you blame the medical school admissions process solely and spread a lot of negativity).

In perusing the Canadian premed forums this past week, it’s quite clear that all kinds of thoughts formed in response to rejections. In reacting to rejections, I think it helps to stand back and take an objective look at the medical school admissions process.

What happens every year around interview invite time is that students who hear back from medical schools post their “stats” and a status update for their application. For those unfamiliar with I’m talking about, here’s an example:

Rejected! 🙁
4th year applicant
3.91 GPA
PS12/VR14/BS10/WSQ
EC’s: 2 summers of research, started a club, lots of leadership positions, volunteered at a hospital every week
Application: Strong essay and reference letters

There are lots of good applicants with really good “stats” who get rejected from medical schools every year – stellar GPA, strong MCAT, lots of extracurriculars and leadership experience, etc. In their mind, they have put together a pretty darn good application and are shocked when they don’t get an interview – especially when they see other students with similar or even lower “stats” moving on in the admissions process. So what’s going on?

The easy way out would be to blame the admissions committee and say they screwed up. I see this a few times every year and unfortunately this is an unhealthy attitude. It suggests a sense of “entitlement” to the applicant when the reality is that there isn’t one. Understand this: the admissions committee can do whatever the heck they want. It is their process. Their goal isn’t to get you into medical school. Their goal is to create a medical school class that they and the medical school are happy with.

What do we really know about the process? Really, a whole lot of nothing

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Taking your body AND your mind to the gym

Categories: Personal Development

Lots of people take their music with them to the gym. For the longest time I was the same, working out to the radio or my playlist. I would just listen to the music and get lost in my own thoughts.

But at some point, I realized I had heard the same songs over and over again. Sure new songs come out all the time, but there only a couple of new good ones every so often, and I would play those to death anyways.

That’s when I started listening to podcasts while working out (when else would I listen to them anyways?), and found it a great way to make the time go by faster while also learning something interesting and new.

Here are a couple I listen to right now, and I’ll add to this list if I find something interesting over time.

Podcasts

CBC Ideas: Run by CBC radio and researchers / experts in different fields are invited to present or debate an issue. Art, science, technology, history, philosophy – you name it, they have a podcast on it.

TED Talks: Where have you been if you haven’t heard of TED talks? TED conferences “bring together the world’s most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes)“. Most of the talks are fascinating, entertaining, and thought-provoking.

Do you listen to any podcasts? Anything you suggest? Let us know! 🙂

I feel like a juggler

Categories: Life

Right now I feel like a juggler, trying to balance so many things in my life. I guess variety is good, but it can feel overwhelming when I think about all of it.

School, residency, research, side projects, relationships, intellectual pursuits, health – and of course, within these, many subdivisions. Needless to say I feel like a juggler with many, many balls in the air.

And of course you have to mix in fun and hobbies – more balls to add into the mix.

Inevitably this leads to some stress. I try to not let stress get to me, and I think I do a pretty good job of that. There is always a base line level of stress, that just sits there at the back of my mind. When I stare at my planning document those feelings become slightly more pronounced. No matter what, I always make sure I am willing to give around to being lazy and just taking it easy sometimes. I think it’s important to take care of yourself and be critical, but not harsh, on your progress.

Anyone else feel like a juggler? What are you balancing in your lives?

Not in the right mindset? Take a break!

Categories: Personal Development

I have a friend who, when it comes to studying, instantly gives up and goes to sleep once he gets tired. He’ll study during the evening, start to feel tired and his brain go to mush, and hit the sack at 12am, sometimes earlier. Even the night before the exam, if he doesn’t feel ready yet, he’ll still go to bed at 12am and then wake up early in the morning to study more once he is a bit refreshed.

In contrast, I will feel disappointed in myself for not studying enough, and then try to cram a few more things in at 2am even though I know I’m not awake enough to be efficient. Even though I’m tired as heck and nothing is really going in.

I wish I could do what my friend does with the ease at which he does it. What he’s doing is really smart and is something I should be thinking about in all aspects of my life that require mental focus, and not just when it comes to studying.

You have to know when to quit.

When it comes to performance, being in the right mental state is crucial. You can’t perform your best if you’re not mentally there. What you can study in 2 hours half awake can be completed in half the time while awake and probably more efficiently.

Tired and brain is mushy? Go to sleep or take a break.

Frustrated and upset? Take some time to clear your head

It goes beyond just being tired. When we’re emotionally charged or frustrated it’s hard to focus and stay in control. We’ve all experienced trying to tackle a problem only to hit a wall and feel completely stumped. I don’t just mean a math problem. These can be problems in relationships, in hobbies, in work – anything. When we’re frustrated and emotional with problems, it’s difficult to focus, think clearly and make good decisions.

Frustrated? Distract yourself with something else until you cool down, and then come back to the problem with a clear head.

Sometimes it feels like you’re so busy that you can’t afford to take a break. Well unless your exam is tomorrow, I’m telling you right now, you can afford to take a break. Take that break, recharge and refresh your head, and get back up ready to go at it 100%.

Happy New Year from MedHopeful! New years resolutions, anyone?

Categories: Life

Today is the last day of my winter break. Tomorrow I start my last semester of preclerkship. After that, I will be working as a clerk full time in the hospital for two years.

I’ve really enjoyed the winter break. I basically got no work done, but that’s fine. It’s Christmas, right? I really needed this break, and I feel very at peace (minus the stress lingering from all the work I didn’t do).

Shelly asked me what my new years resolutions were (happy new year by the way everyone!). At first I said, “Oh I didn’t make any. I set goals all the time, so I didn’t really bother to make any new years resolutions”.

But after thinking about it, I decided to take back my statement. It’s true that we can set goals anytime we want. But there’s something special about making resolutions for the new year. As Shelly put it, it’s like having a “clean slate”. You can mentally forget all of your shortcomings the previous year and tell yourself it’s a brand new year and anything is possible.

So I decided to make a new years resolution after all: to crush all of my goals in 2011.

Pretty vague, right? Basically, I have all these ongoing goals I have set for myself, and I have even make plans for them. However, I have done a pretty mediocre job at executing.

I feel like in general I have a very good grasp of what I want and how I can get it, but historically I have just been extremely lazy and not putting in the time to do it. It’s frustrating to look back on myself and see that I wasn’t able to achieve everything I knew I was capable. It doesn’t matter how good your plan is if you don’t execute. I need to work harder and execute (that includes being more active on Medhopeful and writing more). So that’s what I hope to do better in 2011.

What about you? Any resolutions for the new year?

Best of luck to everyone this semester!