To Be...A Spartan MD

Now over a month into the new year, many are still committed to New Year's resolutions. Traditionally, resolutions are aimed at changing undesired traits and/or behaviors, accomplishing personal goals, continuing good practices, and generally improving life over the next calendar year. For those looking to apply to medical school, it is helpful to take time and think about how to stay on the right track.  We've discussed here on our blog the ways in which undergrads can position themselves to prepare for the medical school application process. We've also discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic is affecting, well, everything. Despite the pandemic, there are several things to consider when planning out what moves to make next. This all depends on where you line up in the process and what you need while on your journey.  Building a strong application is a bit of a longitudinal process and the stage in your progress matters. If wanting to add some resolutions framed around the me...

The College of Human Medicine recognizes that the COVID-19 crisis is life-disrupting for everyone. Colleges and universities are navigating this crisis in varying ways. One way is to institute a Pass/Fail grading system. As the pandemic continues, we must consider how students and applicants will be affected moving forward into the latter half of the 2020-2021 academic calendar.  Grades Through Spring 2021   Many colleges and universities have decided to continue instituting a Pass/Fail system for coursework through the spring of 2021. For those of you in which a Pass/Fail or Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory grade is rendered for any courses from winter/spring 2020 through spring 2021, CHM will accept that course grade without bias. This includes coursework that is traditionally considered prerequisite or recommended for many medical school admissions processes. The challenge for medical school admissions committees is that accurate and specific information is always preferre...

Among the countless aspects of life disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, one posed a significant problem for the College of Human Medicine: how to continue interviewing students who apply for admission. Until this year, top candidates were invited by the Office of Admissions to our East Lansing or Grand Rapids community campuses for a series of interviews. “I actually thought about this way back at the end of March when I saw that this was not something that was going to go away magically,” said Joel Maurer, MD, the college’s assistant dean for admissions. The answer, he and other administrators decided, was to interview applicants online, which posed multiple technical and logistical obstacles. Before the pandemic, applicants underwent a series of one-on-one interviews with faculty members, each on a specific topic. The college first tried to duplicate that approach online, but it quickly proved unworkable, Maurer said. A better approach was to have each student interviewed through ...

This past July, the College of Human Medicine Office of Admissions produced our first edition of the CHM Student COVID Diaries , allowing several of our current students to share their experiences during the initial months of the pandemic. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students and administrators alike were forced to adapt to rapidly changing circumstances. We now bring you the second installment of the series! This time, a number of our now third-year students recount what it was a few seasons into the pandemic. Summer was unlike many of the summers before. Still, students showed resilience through the pandemic, personal challenges, and even the Step I Exam. Check out their amazing stories below.

Current and future applicants of the 2020-21 cycle, The Admissions Office at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine has exceptionally high standards in implementing an interview experience that is positive and informative for everyone. After two days of online interviewing, our one-on-one interviews with a CHM medical student have (with rare exceptions) met these high standards.   For any who have experienced technological issues with this interview, we are confident that you will have a satisfying medical student interview experience in the very near future. Unfortunately, our ability to offer an exceptional multiple mini-interview (MMI) experience has fallen short of our standard.   And after reviewing the multiple challenges involved in rectifying online MMI obstacles, we have made the difficult decision to abandon any further MMI interviewing for the current application cycle.   Luckily, our current experiences create an opportunity for us t...