‘Tis the season: Yes, it’s time to make those final decisions about your future specialty. However, the way the medical education system is set up, it’s a very difficult and stressful choice to make. Here’s my Student Doctor Network article on how to choose your future career.
Medical Students: How Do you Select Your Specialty?
Tags: choosing a specialty, Medical Student, SDN
Get a Better Letter
After over a decade of reading medical school and residency letters of recommendation (LOR), I can tell you that the biggest error I see in the LOR process occurs when applicants settle for mediocre letters. In other words, they know that a supervisor/faculty member/attending isn’t going to write them a strong letter, but they fill the LOR slot with the middling endorsement anyway.
Please take a look at my most recent Student Doctor Network article, “Get a Better Letter” for concrete ideas on how to approach the letter of recommendation process.
Personal Statement Errors You Can Easily Avoid
As AMCAS® and ERAS® openings approach, I wanted to remind candidates about a few personal statement errors to avoid. First, take a look at my piece Tales from an Insider on Student Doctor Network about how to write a persuasive (not narrative) personal statement. Second, spend under two minutes (literally) checking out two Guru on the Go® Videos on my YouTube channel: Personal Statement Russian Roulette #1 and #2.
Contact me for personalized help on your documents.
AMCAS Opens this Week
Just a reminder that AMCAS opens on May 3, and you can submit your AMCAS as early as June 7. This application cycle’s AMCAS Processing Fee is $160 (which includes one medical school designation). Additional medical school designations are $38 each.
AMCAS has fantastic resources, including a FAQ sheet and pre-med calendar for applicants. Take a look here to get started.
Tags: Amcas Application, F&Q
International Medical Graduate (IMG) 2016 Match Statistics Are Out
The ECFMG® recently published 2016 Match statistics for International Medical Graduates (IMGs). In the 2016 Match, only 53.9% of U.S. citizen IMG participants were matched to first-year positions, and of those IMG participants who were not U.S. citizens, only 50.5% obtained first-year positions. While the actual number of IMGs matching was slightly better than last year (with more residency positions on the whole available), IMGs still face large challenges in the residency application process.
Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital. She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more
Listen to Dr. Finkel’s interview on The Visible Voices podcast:
Listen to Dr. Finkel’s interview on the White Coat Investor podcast:
Listen to Dr. Finkel’s interview on the FeminEm podcast:
