Picture, if you will, a residency admissions committee member beneath a halo of light reading applicant essays in her office at midnight. Caffeine on her breath, crumpled white coat next to her desk chair, she is making steady progress on the never-ending stack of applicant files until she picks up a residency personal statement that begins, “I first became interested in Internal Medicine when Grandma was diagnosed with cancer…” Pulling out her hair by the fistful, she tosses the file into the trash. That cancer may not have killed your grandma, but it just might have killed your application. Read more ›
Blog Archives
More Residency Slots Proposed
There was a well-reasoned op-ed in the NYT this past week on an amendment being proposed to Congress to add fifteen thousand medical residency slots to the hundred thousand residencies the federal government now finances. The point the writers make is that increasing the supply of physicians across the board is much less strategic than training primary care physicians (PCPs) specifically and remunerating those PCPs such that they continue to practice. The piece is written by Shannon Brownlee, the author of “Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer” and David Goodman, a professor at the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. Here is the article.
Tags: December 2009
Happy Holidays
I’m taking a brief respite during the holiday season. Have a healthy, happy new year!
Tags: December 2009
Offers outside of the match
One of my clients emailed me to say she was already offered a residency position outside of the match but had a short deadline by which to make her decision or the offer was off the table. (This was the first program at which she had interviewed.) She asked me what to do. I’d love to say I had a great answer.
Taking a position outside of the match (before you have time to interview at other places) is safe and very understandable. But some people are risk-takers and would rather wait it out and see what happens in the Match. I don’t think one or the other is the right way to go: It really depends on your risk tolerance. I recommend relying on your family and your gut to make a decision like this one because it is so individual.
But such a conundrum is a nice problem to have, huh?
For help practicing for your interviews (as the client above had done) contact me at insidermedical@gmail.com or check out InsiderMedicalAdmissions.com.
Tags: December 2008
Doctors Seeking Management Training
Here’s an interesting article on MDs who get MBAs or go through other management training programs to improve their administrative skills in the hospital.
Tags: December 2009
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:
