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Featured Guest Speaker at AMSA

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This is my fifth year as an invited guest lecturer at the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) National Convention. The conference will be held in New Orleans this year, and I’ll be speaking on Friday, March 7 at 1pm on “Getting into Residency: An Insider’s Tips.” Last year I was fortunate to have a completely packed auditorium for my talk.

In years’ past, the AMSA national meeting has been the largest annual gathering of medical students in the United States. The conference is a fantastic opportunity to learn and network.

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Curling up with a Good Book

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booksPlease check out my latest Varsity Tutors guest blog “A Recommended Reading List for Pre-Meds.”

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Medical School Interview Questions

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medical school interview questions and medical school interview

As my clients trudge through their medical school interviews (sometimes in the Midwest and East Coast they really trudge because of the snow), I encourage them to keep their chins up. The good news is that many medical school interview questions are the same from institution to institution.

Practice answering broad questions like “Tell me about yourself,” “Why do you think we chose to interview you?” and “Is there anything else you want me to tell the committee about you?” Once you’ve drafted answers that demonstrate your distinctiveness, half the battle will be won.

For professional help with medical school interviews, contact me.


How to Rank Residency Programs for the Match

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Getting into residency is hard. Understanding how to rank programs for the Match is easy. Thanks to a Nobel Prize winning economist and his colleagues, the current Match algorithm ensures that your desires are the priority over the residency programs’. What this means practically is that you should rank your first choice first, your second second, etc. There is no need to try to play the system. Please see my Guru on the Go® video “NRMP Ranking to Avoid a Spanking” below for a fun summary.

 

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Letters of intent

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medical school application and residency application I receive a lot of inquiries this time of year about how to distinguish one’s self after the interview process.

One option is the letter of intent. This is a formal note to program directors and medical school deans that a) states your interest in the institution and b) restates the strengths of your candidacy. As I tell my clients, what you do not want to do in the letter of intent is wax poetic about the program’s good qualities. The reader is already familiar with them.

Getting into residency and medical school is never clear cut, so I’ll end by saying that the weight that a letter of intent carries is variable. It depends on the reader, the institution, the timing, and the program’s interest in you. But in this competitive game of residency and medical school admissions, taking a little time to make yourself distinctive before decisions are made won’t hurt.

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About Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Michelle Finkel

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

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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: