To Be...A Spartan MD

With the recent news of McLaren Health's plan to consolidate operations into a new hospital next to MSU , the move expands McLaren's relationship with the university and, subsequently, the College of Human Medicine (CHM). The plan for a new $450 million health care campus will allow both entities to work more closely together on research and increase educational opportunities for students among additional clinical services. "This is an extraordinary opportunity to collaborate with MSU to redesign and elevate health care for a region and the state for generations to come. Our partnership will transform health care delivery to support a world-class medical experience and advance pioneering medical research," said McLaren CEO Phil Incarnati. Norman Beauchamp, Dean of the College of Human Medicine, is also excited about the partnership's expansion and the college's opportunity to help transform health care. The college is proud to see that CHM medical stude...

One of the biggest takeaways of the new Shared Discovery Curriculum is that it quickly places students inside clinics to contribute to real patient care teams. By quickly, we mean the first year. Within weeks, actually. While this is only one facet of the new curriculum , rapidly immersing students in real clinical environments is a big departure from traditional models. Medical schools have delivered their curriculum by way of a "2 + 2" structure for decades. The first two years are predominantly dedicated to learning basic and disease sciences (typically delivered through lectures and numerous exams) followed by two years dedicated to clinical experiences that use observational and apprenticeship methods for learning. With the Shared Discovery Curriculum now in it's second year, each of the college's last two entering classes have joined third- and fourth-year students in the clinic, providing a more authentic trajectory of training focused on progressi...

Today is a College of Human Medicine (CHM) Rural Applicant Interview day. This is one of the days that the admissions office specifically designates for interviewing students that are from rural communities, have strong ties to rural areas, or are interested in one of our rural medicine training programs. As Director of Rural Medicine for the College of Human Medicine, this is one of my favorite days. Many of these students will become part of the Leadership in Rural Medicine certificate program, and will choose to complete their clinical training in Michigan’s rural communities—either in the Upper Peninsula, Northern Lower Peninsula, or the MidMichigan/Thumb area. These students, if enrolled, will eventually graduate as the 44th class that has been involved in the college's rural training programs. Things are different now than they were when CHM started the Rural Physician Program in the 1970’s. The College was one of the first medical schools to create a rural t...

After a violent demonstration on the University of Virginia campus in Charlottesville took place in August, an idea began taking shape in Chrissiey Jackson’s mind. “After the Charlottesville incident, I asked my peers how they felt about what was going on,” said Jackson, a second-year Michigan State University College of Human Medicine student. “As an institution, we needed to deal with it.” She emailed her concerns to Wanda Lipscomb, senior associate dean for diversity and inclusion and associate dean for student affairs in the medical college. Other students also began approaching Lipscomb, suggesting the college needed to do something in response. As a result, Celebrating Unity and Connections week was born and has now become the college’s effort to help its students of different ethnic, economic and cultural backgrounds share their personal stories and find common ground. As part of Celebrating Unity and Connections week, students participated in group activities “We ...

September is Women in Medicine Month and we celebrate those who offer their support to advance women with careers in medicine. While there are still ways to go, women have made great strides in the field. In terms of medical school students, the AAMC has reported that in the decade from 2006-2016, female first-time applicants have steadily increased from under 15,000 to about 20,000 applicants. In fact, the number of female enrollees reached a 10-year high in 2016.  Most recently at the College of Human Medicine , women made up the majority in four of our last five entering classes and averaged over 54% of the classes in that span. As the month comes to a close, we reached out to our Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, Dr. Dianne Wagner, to discuss a bit of her story and the changes she has witnessed for Women in Medicine. *** It is a great time to be a woman in medicine. I often talk about how “internal medicine chased me down.”  As a third year medi...

The College of Human Medicine Office of Admissions has announced their two fall Twitter Talk sessions of the 2017-2018 cycle. Those interested in learning more about the college and/or admissions process can join us on Wednesday, September 27th at 8pm ET/5pm PT and Thursday, October 12th at 7pm ET/4pm PT . It is the third straight fall the admissions office has planned the initiative, a platform allowing curious and potential applicants to chat with the college and ask any questions they may have on a variety of topics. Admissions staff will once again be joined by a panel of Early Clinical Experience (ECE) and Middle Clinical Experience (MCE) students. The chat on Sept. 27th will feature students from our Grand Rapids community campus while the chat on Oct. 12th will switch over to East Lansing. Last year, students touched on several topics including the innovative Shared Discovery Curriculum and the college's community campuses . "Our fall Twitter Talks al...

This week marks the first as official medical students for the college's entering class. With another great white coat ceremony in the books, the College of Human Medicine (CHM) Office of Admissions has released the class profile, closing the chapter on the 2016-2017 cycle. Among other notable stats is the fact that the college officially surpassed 7,000 applications last year, steadily increasing from 6,488 and 6,819 over the last two years, respectively. With an interview process that runs from September to March, the college met with close to 500 excellent applicants. From those 490 students, CHM is happy to welcome 191 matriculants this year to the nation's pioneer in community-based medicine . Just over three-quarters are from the state of Michigan, allowing an uptick of out-of-state students. While out-of-state students typically make up about 20 percent of each class, it is not too abnormal to see non-Michiganders make up to a quarter of the class.  Of the 24...

As an applicant to medical school, you may have heard more than enough reasons to apply early in the admissions process . Applying early in the timeline has traditionally been and continues to be an important step in ensuring an applicant is as competitive as possible. Ideally, students should be ready to apply to MD schools once the AMCAS opens for submission in early June. But what if a student is unable to apply at that time? Does the timing of an application have as much of an impact since more and more schools have moved toward holistic admissions ? Deadlines for submission vary by institution but are typically towards the end of the fall with some schools allowing applications through November. So then what is considered late? As with much of the admissions process, the answers to these questions depend on where you apply and why you haven't been able to submit. In regards to the MSU College of Human Medicine (CHM), applying anytime through the month of August i...

After being introduced by a friend to 1 Second Everyday , an app that allows users to create video diaries and visual stories by stitching together daily second-long snippets, third-year College of Human Medicine (CHM) student, Abhay Dhaliwal, was intrigued by the concept. He was an undergrad at the University of Michigan when Dhaliwal decided to download the app and recorded seconds of his life through moments like graduation and, ultimately, the medical school admissions process . It was then, as he was snapping videos in the months leading up to medical school, that he had an idea. No one, to Dhaliwal's knowledge, had created a video journal solely of single second-long videos to share their medical school experience. After being accepted to CHM, Dhaliwal decided he would document his days as a med student...one second at a time. What started out as a simple way to journal this important time ended up becoming "way more than that," according to Dhaliwal. No...

With over 140 combined accredited MD- and DO-granting medical schools across the country, how do you decide to which schools to apply? The Association of American Medical College (AAMC) says that most students typically apply to about 16 schools. Applicants can apply to as many schools as they wish, but each student's situation is different and so you must decide how many schools is reasonable and, frankly, affordable for you. Beyond the AMCAS, additional costs include secondary application fees as well as potential interview/travel expenses. For those eligible, the AAMC Fee Assistance Program is a good option to help alleviate a big chunk of those costs. While it's certainly an investment in your future, the money and time you spend filling out secondary essays, interviewing, acquiring letters and other paperwork will be substantial. Deciding which schools to apply to means doing a bit of research and streamlining your focus to identify which schools are worth the m...

The College of Human Medicine (CHM) Office of Admissions hosted its second Facebook Live stream last week, purposefully touching on a timely topic. While the first stream, held last December , spoke generally about the entire admissions process, admissions counselor, Brian Urlich, joined the chat this time around to speak specifically about the personal statement. With the AMCAS application opening this month, many applicants are currently working to organize their application and finish up their personal statement. In particular, Brian offered tips and insight on how to write an effective statement, giving consideration to theme, frame, and structure among other things. He also offered some do's and don'ts to follow as well.  Admissions staff will be utilizing the widely-used social media platform's LIVE function to broadcast directly to potential applicants and offer in-depth insight on various themes and topics. Following the initial stream's format, this...

The College of Human Medicine Office of Admissions is excited to announce that we'll be hosting another Facebook Live stream on Wednesday, April 26th at 3pm (ET). The topic of discussion for our second live stream chat is the personal statement . Admissions Counselor, Brian Ulrich, will be on hand to offer in-depth tips that touch on essay structures and topic ideas among additional information. Mark your calendars! With the AMCAS set to open in a few short months, a timely discussion on the personal statement for the next crop of applicants could be helpful for the next crop of applicants. Students across the country are working to finish their applications for submission and the personal statement is a topic for which we receive many questions. The office's initial Facebook Live stream was held last December and took an overall look at the admissions process timeline. Once again, followers can submit questions at any time leading up to the event via our Face...

We're hitting the road! That is, after a flight. Admissions representatives from the College of Human Medicine (CHM) will be taking a road trip across Southern California this month to represent the college and further discuss the admissions process with interested undergrads. To do that, representatives will be making stops at campuses in the greater Los Angeles-area as well as San Diego to attend several health career fairs and host a number of informationals. "We want be able to connect with the pre-medical students in the state. We received  over 1200 applications from California in the 2017 application cycle, so I believe it is essential to reach out to prospective applicants there and provide them information about CHM and, in particular, our mission," states Elizabeth Lyons, admissions counselor and Director of Minority Recruiting. Residents from California have consistently made up a big chunk of applicants to the College of Human Medicine, second b...

The results of the 2017 residency match process are in and over 96 percent of the College of Human Medicine 's graduating students secured a match. In total, 200 students matched for postgraduate medical training positions at teaching hospitals throughout the United States. Residency placements were confirmed for students through the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP) as well as for those who participated in the SOAP/Post-Match, Military Match, and Advanced/Independent Matches. Of note, 42.5 percent of students chose primary care residency programs, similar to prior matches. The top six specialties placements changed a bit from last year , however, when pediatrics was at the top spot. The top six overall specialty placements this year are as follows: 1. Family Medicine (38 graduates) 2T. General Surgery (23 graduates) 2T. Internal Medicine (23 graduates) 4. Emergency Medicine (20 graduates) 5. Pediatrics (19 graduates) 6. Obstetrics-Gynecology (14 graduates...

With the first semester of the new Shared Discovery Curriculum in the books, data is showing that students are getting a good grasp on the content they're learning at a faster pace, consuming the material 50 percent quicker. “Students even at seven weeks were already clinically performing essentially at the level of students who were at the end of their first year in the previous curriculum,” said Dr. Aron Sousa, senior associate dean for academic affairs for the medical college. “It’s the experiential learning aspect of the program that’s making this happen.” Among the many differences between what has been the traditional model of medical education and the College of Human Medicine's Shared Discovery Curriculum include early and ongoing clinical experience for students that integrates the basic and clinical sciences. Whereas schools typically split the learning of the sciences and the clinical experiences, students in Shared Discovery are learning with a hands-on ap...