MD Program

Medical students can use their music background to enhance their education. Playing together and improvising is great practice for working in teams. The mental health benefits of playing or singing are huge--it's impossible to play or sing without forgetting your cares.

Now that Texas has conferred on its citizens the responsibility for enforcing it's ban on abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, what will be the effects? Also, the University of Iowa community protests alleged sex abuse in Greek life, but the movement is tearing itself apart. And we play a game to distract ourselves from all that stuff.

Rushing to med school may be a good idea, but there is a danger of missing experiences that make you a better student and a better doctor. But if you're going to do it...go hard. Nutrition is well covered in the med school curriculum, but there's a lot we don't understand. And Falling off a tall stack of milk crates on purpose has questionable health benefits.

A listener asks about the etiquette of keeping the adcom up to date on their activities. We discuss Dave’s experience in the TSA line with an anti-masker. Dave tries to come up with new business ideas that YOU can use (if you’re brave). This episode is sponsored by Enso Rings, makers of soft, safe silicone rings. Listeners get 10% off rings at EnsoRings.com using promo code SHORT!

One important responsibility that doctors can and should take on is to educate their communities on health issues. Learning how to do this in medical school can be as easy as collaborating with your university news paper. Plus, our advice for a young mother and wife whose med student husband will be away during third year: plan, iterate and empathize.

Our expert looks at the mistakes that can keep you from landing your spot in med school. Give the admissions committee what it needs to assure them you want this more than anything, and that you’ve done your homework. When is the right time to apply? When YOU are ready. Don’t rush it, because whether you’re successful or not in finishing med school, a bad decision will affect you for many, many years.

Dave picks his co-hosts' brains on how they interpret the latest numbers on COVID. We eat baked goods that AJ brought us and try to guess what's in them, and fail because they're deliciously unlike anything we've had before. And we play Out of the Loop.

Most people don't see themselves as partners in success, but as hired hands. Doctors are employees, too, and have similar issues with their employers! 30% of administrators reported losing physicians during the pandemic. Either an exit from healthcare or a mass shift of physicians from low-engagement jobs to higher engagement positions may have already begun.

CASPer seeks to help schools understand applicants’ non-academic and people skills. It’s never been validated, but more and more schools are using it. Some residency programs have begun using ‘supplemental questions’ as so-called objective measures like STEP 1 and STEP 2 CS fall away. Are these new hurdles useful? Or do they add to the burden of becoming a doctor for no reason?

Your med school application won't be the last time you write a personal statement. They're everywhere in medicine, so keep track of experiences you can write about when you need to. Be careful about thinking too much about strategy, sacrificing the 'personal' part. It's pretty easy to spot someone who isn't writing with feeling.