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Mastering the University of Toronto Medical School Essay – Part 1: The Secret

Categories: Application

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Disclaimer:
The following article was originally written in 2009 for the University of Toronto medical school admissions essay. Although the advice here is still useful for general medical school essays, since 2012, the University of Toronto medical school changed its admissions process to require the applicant write 4 Brief Personal Essays instead. Don’t fret – I have a written a new step-by-step guide to help applicants with these new 4 Brief Personal Essays.

I want to share a secret with you. It’s something I discovered last summer, and is the reason I believe my essay was successful in the University of Toronto medical school admissions process.

It began when a friend of mine (who by coincidence, or perhaps not, is also entering UofT medicine this fall) showed me the essay of one of his friends who was accepted into UofT’s medical school last year. The content of the essay was rather unexpected as it went against the common intuition of what the essay should include. I think most applicants think that the essay should be some sort of interesting piece that simply highlights the applicant’s accomplishments and qualifications for medicine – but if anything, this essay had a different overall focus.

Without getting into the specifics of the essay, I remember reading through it, and being rather engrossed in it. And when I finally finished the essay, I had this strong feeling inside of me – the essay made me want to help him get into medical school.

It wasn’t that the applicant was a Rhodes scholar, or published in a million journals, or had a resume that blew my mind. And it’s not like he had some traumatic life changing moment that made him want to be a doctor that moved me to tears. No, nothing like that. In fact, there was nothing particularly outstanding about him on paper that would make him stand out among any other random applicant.

I mean, let’s think about it. If I read that you’re a Rhodes scholar who has been on the front page of Nature magazine, I’m sure as heck going to be really impressed and think you have the sickest resume ever. But that isn’t necessarily going to give me this strong, deep feeling that I want to do whatever possible to help you become a doctor. I’m just going to think you’ve done some crazy cool things.

However, this essay was different – in his own words, he was able to make me, the reader (and potential admissions judges) want to help him get into medical school. And if there’s someone you want to have that feeling, it’s the person deciding whether you get an interview or not.

Why is this so powerful and how was his essay able to make me feel this way?

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Why You Need to Think Critically about Advice and Who You Get it From

Categories: Med Admissions, Scholarships

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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

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Is medical school admissions basically a lottery?

Categories: Med Admissions

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If you’re an avid reader of this blog, you can probably guess what my answer is. But to me, the answer itself isn’t as important as understanding how we get that answer, because it is only by knowing the process of finding the answer that we will be able to answer similar questions correctly in the future.

In short, the answer is pretty clearly a no, despite what many frustrated applicants might think. Comparing the medical school admissions process to a lottery is not only an insult to the intelligence and efforts of medical school admissions committees, but it shows a problematic perspective to the process overall.

Why this is problematic

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Interview Advice: The Importance of Being Memorable and Telling Stories

Categories: Interviews, Med Admissions, Scholarships

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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

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Medical School Admissions: How important are non-academic components really?

Categories: Med Admissions

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After reading Medaholic’s great post on why grades are the most important component of the medical school admissions process, it got me thinking about how important the non-GPA/MCAT components actually are. And the more I think about it, the more it seems like they are significantly less important than most people realize.

Now, let me make sure there’s no confusion by saying that I do think things like extra-curricular activities, community involvement, travel experiences, hobbies, etc. all have a huge amount of value. But I think their value lies much more in how they help you personally develop and grow, and not so much in really affecting your chances at getting into medical school to the degree that your GPA and MCAT scores do.

And yet it seems to me that a lot of students see to have the perception that you need to have a resume that is a mile long in order to have a shot at getting into medical school. Because of this, some students take on way too much and completely exhaust themselves day in and day out. Not only do I think this is bad for the student’s mental and physical health (and that doing something solely for the sake of applying to medical school is something you will probably regret), but in terms of the medical school admissions process, it’s really unnecessary. And worse, some students take on so many non-academic activities that it seriously hurts their academic performance, without realizing that GPA is always the first step in the medical school door.

Granted, I can’t speak for all medical schools, since there are 17 in Canada and I only know about the Ontario ones. So while I don’t want to make any generalized claims, what I will do is analyze four of the medical schools in Ontario whose admissions process I do know a decent bit about, and the role non-academic components actually play. And from there, you can come to your own conclusions (though it’s pretty obvious what I think).

McMaster University

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So… I’m going to be a doctor!

Categories: Life, Med Admissions

So I was rolling around in bed at 6:45am, and decided to check my email just for the heck of it….

May 15, 2009

Dear Joshua,

Congratulations!

On behalf of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, I am delighted to extend to you an offer of admission into the first year of the Doctor of Medicine Program in 2009-10.

An offer package, including your official offer of admission, will be arriving through regular mail shortly.

Didn’t get any other emails yet (since it’s so early and I don’t think anyone was expecting something at this time), but at this point, everything else is gravy as UofT (at least at this point) is my top choice.

Thanks again to everyone for their support! Will be back later tonight or tomorrow to post all the details from the day, how I’m feeling, etc.

Less than 24 hours to go…

Categories: Life, Med Admissions

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So I find out whether I get into medical school tomorrow. To be fair, unless I’m outright rejected, I could still get in sometime this summer off the wait list, though the longer it goes into the summer, the less likely I’ll probably get in.

I’m actually not feeling anything right now. Anxiety, nervous, excitement, etc. there really isn’t much going on inside. There’s a little bit of course, but my heart is not racing and I’m not spending the entire day thinking about it or anything.

I actually think I felt more nervous the days leading up to when interview invites were coming out. Maybe that’s because I could still control my chances then, and now I really can’t do anything but wait. Before, I thought I was going to be really anxious tonight and stay up the whole night wasting time because I couldn’t sleep, but now it looks like I’ll just go to sleep after all.

While emails will go out tomorrow morning, there’s no set time. I think most schools send out acceptances around 9-10am, and rejections/waitlists soon after, but there is still a lot of variability in terms of time within there. I think the latest I’ll leave for school is 9am, as I still have class at 9:30am, so it’s going to be funny if I suddenly get all my emails at once right when I check at school. I would actually prefer to get all my emails at once, so that I only have to experience disappointment once, or any disappointment might get offset by good news.

In any case, going to spend the rest of the day celebrating and having fun (though I’m not really sure what I’ll be celebrating if I get rejected everywhere=P). After class, my friends and I plan on getting some drinks, and then heading over to see the new Star Trek movie. Trailer for that looks pretty sick, and it’s been getting great reviews, so I’m looking forward to it.

After that, my family is planning on taking me out for dinner, obviously assuming I will be getting in tomorrow…

I’m not really sure if I’ll find the time to post tomorrow morning when I find out (I’ll obviously try and at least post something quick), hopefully I will be able to post something.

Before I sign off tonight, I just want to thank everyone who has followed along during my progress this past year. Thanks for all your support and kind words, and hopefully I can make you all proud tomorrow =)

Medaholic.com – Why Grades Matter

Categories: Med Admissions, Undergrad

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The following is a guest post from my good friend over at Medaholic.com. He is currently a first year medical student and is involved in his school’s admissions process. His blog is fantastic, so check it out!

Why do grades matter so much when it comes to getting into medical school? We’ve all seen people obsessed with getting a good GPA, arguing with professors for extra an extra mark here and there, and studying not to learn, but as a means to a better grade. The hard fact is if you want to get into medical school, you need solid academic performance. As a result, many students become mark-mongering paranoid GPA calculators.

But we all know that a high GPA does not necessarily correlate with being a good physician. Intangible factors like compassion, empathy and bedside manner cannot be recorded on a transcript. So why should grades play such an important role, if not the most essential, when it comes to medical school admissions?

There are three reasons why medical schools, and why you too, should put such a big emphasis on grades. (1) Convenience, (2) Objectivity, (3) Indication of future performance

Convenience

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Why Reference Letters are Important and How to Pick Your Referees

Categories: Reference Letters

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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

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Post-McMaster Interview Thoughts

Categories: Life, Med Admissions

Wow, so apparently it’s been a few weeks since I last wrote on this blog. I honestly didn’t realize it had been that long – I guess it’s true that time flies by when you’re having fun. Actually, I don’t know if that’s really the case – I feel like it’s more because I have been so exhausted with starting my second semester of school. Things have been absolutely crazy and busy these past few weeks, that everything except school and the interview has sort of been pushed to the back burner.

Congrats to some of you!

Thanks to everyone who has let me know about their journey in the scholarship process. It makes me really happy that so many of you have done well, and that you think that this blog has in some way helped you. That’s one of the cool things about providing help, advice, and connecting with others – it doesn’t matter what happens to me today, or if I don’t wake up tomorrow – I will know that my life has actually impacted people positively, which means what I have done (and will do) matters. That’s a great feeling.

First Failed Test?

I think I might have actually failed my first ever university test this past Monday. I really dislike the course, but seeing as I need the credit in the event that I do get into medical school, it’s not like I can really drop it and take something else at this point. It’s a biology course that is extremely dense in terms of material, and for me personally, not particularly interesting. Because of that, the material is simply really hard to retain, and it really pained me to get through it. I guess it didn’t help that I wrote the test on three hours of sleep. And it also didn’t help that the test was only on less than 5% of what I actually studied, and there was a super ambiguous essay question worth a third of my mark. Oh well. We’ll see what happens – I think I’m going to have to work really hard to turn this course around.

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