To Be...A Spartan MD

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...