The Inspiring Story of Tiffany Chan

Tiffany Chan was just a young student with dreams of becoming a doctor, when doctors found a brain tumor in her left inferior temporal lobe. However this bump on the road did not stop her from achieving her dreams. Even when she lost most of her memory after surgery, Tiffany did all she could do to become a doctor. She finished undergrad with a psychology major and worked in public relations until she felt ready to continue with medicine. Eight years after her surgery, Tiffany got accepted into George Washington medical school, and is now in her third year.

The reason I am sharing this story is because no matter what situation you are in, you can always find a way out. Whether there are big bumps or small bumps along the road, they are bumps that you can overcome. All that you need to do is work hard, stay patient, and keep going. There are many other inspirational stories of current doctors that went through many struggles to get to where they are now. The key thing to learn from reading them is to learn to never give up! Be sure to check them out.

Changes in the MCAT!

As of 2015, the MCAT will undergo some changes that will require you to prepare for the exam in a different way. They are making some changes to test the students on more of what they really need to know, and are taking off the sections they feel did not really help. One of the major changes is the addition of social and behavioral sciences section which they believe recognizes the importance of socio-culture and behavioral determinants of health and health outcomes. 

There is a Preview Guide for the MCAT 2015 Exam which lists and discusses the new format of the exam, with sample exam questions. I strongly advise you to look at this guide as it will really help you see what you need to focus on and what you should do to become the most prepared for the exam. The MCAT exam is one of the most important things you will need when applying to medical school, and has just as much importance as your GPA. This is why learning more about the changes to the exam and preparing yourself in the best way possible is very important. I know it may seem overwhelming, but it is very doable. All it takes it time management and dedication. Play hard, work harder!

Top 10 Best Medical Schools In The United States

There are several factors that you have to keep in mind when picking a medical school to attend. You have to think about the cost of tuition, location, and how good the school is. Here I listed the top ten universities in the United States with the average amount of students expected each year and cost of tuition.

1. Harvard University, Boston, Mass. The medical school once presided over by  Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. (to name one of many famous deans and students) remains the best medical school in the country, according to the rankings. There are currently 709 students enrolled in the MD program. U.S. News & World Report ranked the school first overall and also first for research. The tuition is $47,500.

2. John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. Founded in 1876 by Hopkins, a Baltimore entrepreneur and staunch abolitionist, the school is a private research university that has had 37 Nobel Prizes winners among its faculty and graduates (President Woodrow Wilson among them). There are 455 students enrolled in its MD program. The tuition is $42,600.

3. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Penn. The Perelman School of Medicine, which used to be the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, is the oldest medical school in America, founded in 1765. There are 636 students in its MD program. In addition to MD, PhD and post-doctoral degrees, the university also offers certificates in areas such as Global Health, Women’s Health and Aging. The tuition is $45,498.

4. Stanford University, Stanford, Calif. Located between San Francisco and San Jose, Stanford University School of Medicine is a relative newcomer compared to the first three schools on this list, having first started medical classes in 1909. There are 449 students enrolled in its MD program. The tuition is $45,744.

5. University of California — San Francisco, San Francisco, Calif. This California school began as Toland Medical College in 1864, joined with the University of California in 1873 and now occupies 7 sites in San Francisco and Fresno. There are currently three Nobel laureates on the school’s faculty. There are 634 students enrolled. The tuition is $29,856 for Californians and $42,101 for all students from outside the state.

 6. Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. Founded in 1891, the Washington University School of Medicine is ranked in the Top 10 by U.S. News & World Report in research, drug and alcohol abuse treatment, internal medicine and pediatrics. There are 490 students enrolled, with a tuition of $50,510.

7. Yale University, New Haven, Conn. Established in 1810 and opened in 1813, the Yale School of Medicine is among the oldest medical schools in the country. It currently has 25 National Academy of Sciences members on its faculty. U.S. News & World Report ranked the school first for its drug and alcohol abuse program. There are 401 students enrolled. The tuition is $47,560.

8. Columbia University, New York City, NY.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, located in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, was the first medical school in the United States to award the MD degree. U.S. News & World Reportranked Columbia second for its drug and alcohol abuse program and fifth for both its AIDS research and women’s health program. There are 663 students. The tuition is $47,600.

9. Duke University, Durham, NC. The lone school in the Top 10 located in the South, the School of Medicine at Duke University offers a three-year, condensed period of student classes and fourth year for elective rotations and the chance for a dual master’s degree. It is also affiliated with the Duke Clinical Research Institute, the oldest and largest academic organization of its kind in America. There are 413 medical students enrolled at the school. The tuition is $46,261.

10. University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. The Pritzker School of Medicine at University of Chicago, which began in 1927, has 11 Nobel Prize winners affiliated with the school. Students must complete a mentored project in one of five areas before graduation – scientific discovery, medical education, quality and safety, community health and global health. There are 377 students enrolled. The tuition is $42,294.

Is this really what you want to do?

“Students who aspire to go to medical school should think about the consequences if they decide to work part time or leave clinical medicine. It’s fair to ask them — women especially — to consider the conflicting demands that medicine and parenthood make before they accept (and deny to others) sought-after positions in medical school and residency.”
-Dr. Sibert

Is this really what you want to do? You have to ask yourself this before you start. Don’t think about what your parents want or what you have been told to do. Are you sure this is this what YOU want to do for the rest of your life? Going to medical school and becoming a doctor will require you to sacrifice a lot and will challenge you like you never thought possible. There are gonna come times where everyone else is having fun and going out, and you will have to stay home and study. Instead of going to parties you will be going to review classes. Instead of sleeping in, you will have to wake up early and study for the whole day. This is why you have to make sure that this is the career you want to pursue. If it really is, then there is nothing that can stop you, and all the hard work will pay off.

Another thing to think about, is your future after medical school. By this time you will most likely be around 26, and still have another couple years to finish your internship and residency. During this time, it is almost impossible to make time for marriage and children since you’re barely gonna have time to have lunch or get more than 2 hours of sleep. For some people, they are okay with this and are willing to push the family life for later, but you have to figure out if that is what you want to do. As a woman, I find it very important to be there for my kids and not always be at work. So when I started pre-med, I decided that I will focus on marriage and kids till after I am done with medical school, so that way I will have time to actually be there for them. While it is good if you are interested in this field, you should really think about everything else. Is this really what you want to do?

What high school students can do to prepare for medical school

When I was in high school I was never told what I needed to do to get ready for medical school, or wasn’t really given a guide to help me enter the medical field. However, what you do in high school is actually really important and will affect you in your college years and later. This is why it is vital that you prepare yourself from high school, so that when it is time for college and medical school, you are aware of what is expected from you and get a good start.

In this video, he is explaining the different things you need to do to to be the best candidate. Getting into medical school is very challenging and requires you to work harder than most people will. Watching this video, you will learn that you should take AP classes because that way you learn how to study on the same level as a college student and challenge yourself. He also tells you about the different paths you can take depending on if you’re going to a 2 year or 4 year college.

After you watch this video, you can find different videos that are also helpful. I strongly advise you to read more about ways to prepare yourself because it really does help. It helps give you an idea of how and what you should study and what extracurricular activities to do to best prepare you for medical school. Read on!

The pre-med lifestyle

I’m sure when you think of medical school, all that comes to mind, is a stressed, tired, and antisocial student that hates their life. And I’m sure when people hear you say you want to go to medical school, you are constantly told about how hard and impossible it is. However, even though studying in this field is no where near easy, it is definitely not impossible. Really all you need is to manage your time and make the right decisions. It all goes down to how focused you stay and prove you are willing to work hard and sacrifice a lot of time. To be successful, it will require you to adapt to a completely new lifestyle that is made for students in this field.

Starting college is certainly a very fun and exciting experience, but it is important as a pre-med student to not get distracted. Every single day you go to school, there will be something more fun or interesting going on, and it is very easy to fall behind. This is why one of the most important things to succeed in class, is to attend every single lecture. Even when you think it wont be helpful, trust me it is. Another thing is to make a schedule from the beginning of the semester where you split up your studying time, extra-curricular, such as internships and volunteering, and your fun time. Taking a break is very important, and you should always put time to relax and have fun. If you truly want to succeed in this field, you will have to make sure you stick to your schedule and give your best effort from the first day. Every day is a step closer to going to medical school, and this time passes much faster than you think, so you want to make sure you use up every opportunity. The other thing to do, which I believe is one of the most important, is to develop relationships with your professors. This is simply for recommendations, which medical schools see as the most important data for deciding wether or not to accept you. You should start from your freshman year so that your relationship can progress throughout the years.

There will come times during the semester when you feel like just giving up or that you cant keep up with the high expectations that a pre-med student has, but make sure you keep going. These small factors that I discussed will help you much more than you would think, and if you follow them, you will realize it is not as bad as everyone makes it seem. But you do have to understand, that when you made the decision to do pre-med, you committed your life to school for the next couple years. Studying medicine means you will have to study harder than many of your friends will, and you have to learn when it is time for fun and when you have to work. It is hard but very possible, and I believe everyone can do it, if you they have the right mind set.

The most useful website for medical students

The most useful website for medical students 

As nerdy as this sounds, this website is my homepage and I love it! It provides information about every little thing a medical student needs to know and keeps you updated with news. It really is very helpful and I strongly recommend you to make this your homepage too. There is a lot of information you need to know, from changes to the MCAT exam to what you need to do if you are sick but have class. People write posts, similar to this, and give you all the advice and help you need.

When you subscribe to the website, it sends you emails on a regular basis that are actually very interesting. They also have a post where they send out “MCAT question of the day”, which really help in the long term. This website basically provides you important information but in an interesting way, and from people that are in the same position as you. You are also given new statistics about acceptance chances and average GPA’s, which help you stay on track of what you need to do.

If you are serious about becoming a part of this field, than leave facebook and twitter, and visit this website in your free time! Seriously, reading even a little every day will make you learn more about the medical community than you would think. Also because Kaplan teachers and administrators write it, the information provided will be very accurate and up to date.

A job that helps you pay your bills while gaining experience in the medical field

During college, you are expected to become more independent and get good grades, even though you are moving to a completely new environment. Paying bills, studying long hours, while still having somewhat of a social life actually sounds much harder than you would think. On top of all of this, students are expected to volunteer, shadow, and get internships to improve their resume and increase their chances of getting into graduate school. As a student doing pre-med, I have realized how over-whelming it is to balance all of this while remaining sane. Finding a doctor that will allow you to shadow them or receive an internship is quite difficult with such a competitive field, since there are thousands of students fighting for the same thing. This is why ScribeAmerica is one of the greatest opportunities a pre-medical student can take.

During my first semester in college, I was determined to get an internship and/or shadow a doctor. This was much harder than I thought, and when I didn’t receive either one, I began to feel unmotivated. When I found out about ScribeAmerica from one of my friends, it was like the light at the end of the tunnel! As dramatic as that sounds, it really amazed me how beneficial it was. When you are hired to be a medical scribe you are “essentially a personal assistant to the physician; performing documentation in the EHR, gathering information for the patient’s visit, and partnering with the physician to deliver the pinnacle of efficient patient care.” This is possibly the best experience a student can have that is hoping to go to medical school. It is the closest you will get to actually feeling what it is like to work at a hospital and interact with patients and medical professionals.

While working as a scribe means you will have to work long shifts and late nights, it is time worth sacrificing. Not only do you gain experience like no other place, you get to know doctors and have the opportunity to see if this job is really what you want. I strongly advise you to apply to this job if you are interested in medicine, it truly is unlike any other opportunity available. To make this even better, you get paid $8-10 per hour, which is pretty good since you are getting paid and gaining experience. Plus, if you start working and hate it, then at least you will know that this career is not what you want to pursue.