Admissions Straight Talk

Azan Virji discusses his path to Harvard Medical School, and challenges faced by international medical students [Show summary]

Med student Azan Virji explores the unique challenges he faced as an international student applying to Harvard Medical School, as well as his mission to mentor students like himself through the organization he founded,  F-1 Doctors.

F1-Doctors: A virtual community connecting international medical school applicants with mentors who are current international students [Show notes]

Our guest today is Azan Virji. Azan grew up in Tanzania and came to the U.S. as a student at Yale University, where he studied molecular, cellular, and developmental biology and was a Yale Global Health Scholar. He earned his MPH in 2019, also from Yale, and then went on to begin his medical studies at Harvard in 2019. Knowing all too well the difficulties facing international applicants to U.S. medical schools, which were exacerbated by the corona pandemic and visa policy changes, Azan founded F-1 Doctors in May 2020. Its mission is to provide a network of international medical students, dental students, residents, and attendings to international applicants who are struggling to pursue their med school dreams.

Can you tell us a little bit about your background? [2:21]

I was born in Kenya, which is neighboring Tanzania, but then I grew up in Tanzania because my mom is from Kenya and my dad is from Tanzania. I think of myself as an East African baby, and I went to high school there as well. I spent 18 years of my life there and went to high school in Mwanza, Tanzania. It was a pretty small high school; my graduating class at the end was almost 24 students. In school, I was the person who would always volunteer to do things. I was always really interested in leadership activities and getting leadership experiences. I was what we called the Head Boy at the time. It's based on the British curriculum, where you're basically the link between the students and the faculty. And then I was also a really big theater nerd. I used to do plays regularly and used to sing a lot. On top of all of that, I was really hard working. I wanted to focus on academics and really wanted to do good in school. 

Then, I applied to colleges, mostly here in the United States. The reason for that was twofold. I think it's pretty obvious that some of the best institutions of higher learning are here in the United States. Some of the world-class research happens here, and I really wanted to be a part of that environment. But on top of that, I also come from a very low-income background. I'm a first generation, low-income student, and I really needed financial support to attend a place of higher learning. It's something that I couldn't afford on my own. And in the United States, particularly, a lot of colleges here do have a lot of generous financial aid packages that they offer to attract international students from the rest of the world. I got a great financial aid package to attend Yale. That's how I finally found myself, after never having left East Africa, in the US for the very first time, almost six years ago now.

It was definitely quite a cultural shock in the be...

Wondering how to write about the tumultuous events of 2020 in your application essays? [Show summary]

Accepted Founder Linda Abraham offers a framework for discussing COVID-19, the events of 2020, and their impact on your life in your undergraduate or graduate program applications.

Your application should include information about your experience of and response to COVID-19 and the other events of 2020, whether or not you are explicitly asked for it. [Show Notes]

I want to address something that I've been thinking a lot about. I think that my topic is not only of concern to me; I strongly suspect it's of concern to you, too, and something that's on everyone's mind: how to deal with COVID and the tumultuous year 2020.

.It's a pretty big topic, isn't it? I'm going to narrow my topic a little bit. I have neither a cure nor a preventive vaccine for the disease. I also don't have cures for the other ills that have struck the world this year. I'm going to suggest how you should address these events in your application, regardless of whether you are applying to undergraduate or graduate programs, or if you're asked about COVID and year 2020 in an essay or in an interview (or in a video interview).

How should you address COVID and the other events of 2020 in your application? There's two aspects to the question, to any COVID or 2020 kind of question, or any of the questions that we're dealing with right now. The first part of it is, how have you been affected? And the second one is, how have you responded? In other words, how have you acted to address or alleviate the pain, stress, and suffering of others?

How to address COVID-19 in your application [2:37]

Let's deal first with COVID, which I think is an overarching theme for this year. There are plenty of lemons with COVID. There're plenty of difficulties. There's plenty of pain. There's plenty of illness, and death. I hope it's not true, but it's quite possible that you or a loved one has had COVID, and maybe you didn't have a light case. Maybe you were sick for several weeks. Maybe you were unemployed or furloughed for all or part of the time since the first shutdown in March.

Moving more specifically to admissions, many of you have experienced the inability to take tests when you planned to take them, especially if you were trying to take the MCAT in March, April, May, or most of June. Perhaps you've had planned volunteer activities canceled, or your internships postponed or moved online. Maybe you had classes that you wanted to take for grades to boost your GPA and suddenly, they're pass/fail because that's what happened to a lot of courses in the spring. Maybe you are taking classes online via Zoom when you really would do much better in an in-person, traditional classroom environment. That's certainly happening to tons and tons of people. So there are lemons there.

Perhaps you're stagnating at work because of reduced opportunity for advancement and interesting projects. And I think everybody is dealing with loneliness and monotony and the sam...

Welcome to the 386th episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Thanks for joining me.

I am taking a week off for family time this week. As a result, I decided to air an encore of one of our most popular shows of 2020: How to Apply to the Best Med Schools for You.  

I chose it not only because of its popularity, but because it’s critical that medical students apply to programs where they are likely to be accepted. A solid understanding of the interplay between your priorities and qualifications as well as the medical schools’ criteria for admissions is critical to your success. 

If you like this episode and want to test out whether you are competitive at your target medical schools, take the free Medical School Admissions Quiz.  It’s a brief assessment that will give you insight into your competitiveness as well as suggestions for improving your qualifications and competitiveness. Take it today!

Thanks as always for listening to Admissions Straight Talk. I’ll talk to you again next week! In the meantime, here is How to Apply to the Best Med Schools for You.

For the complete show notes, check out the original blog post.

Related links:

* Med School Selectivity Index: Avg MCAT Scores, GPAs, and Acceptance Rates* Ace Your Med School Application: A Live Q&A with 3 Med School Experts* Medical School Admissions Quiz* What Do Medical Schools Look for in Applicants?* Accepted’s Medical School Admissions Advising

Related shows:

* Focus On Fit* Applying to Med School During COVID-19* Med School Admissions Veteran Shares Her Experience: How to Get In

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What makes Dell Medical School unique? [Show summary]

Joel Daboub, Director of Admissions and Records for Dell Medical School at UT Austin, explores the school’s unique curriculum and what applicants need to know about Dell Medical’s approach to admissions.

Find out about Dell's one-of-a-kind approach to medical education, and what adcom members are seeking in applicants. [Show notes]

Today's guest is Joel Daboub, Director of Admissions and Records for Dell Medical School at UT Austin. He earned his MBA at the University of North Texas and worked at UNT's Health Science Center as Assistant Dean of Admissions from 2004 to 2015. He then joined the brand-new medical school at UT Austin, the Dell Medical School, which we're going to learn about right now.

Can you give an overview of the Dell Medical MD program? [1:30]

I’ll point to our curriculum and describe that first because that's one of the most unique aspects of Dell Medical School. As a brand-new medical school, one of the things that we had an opportunity to do was to rethink medical education. What are the challenges that physicians face today that may not necessarily be addressed with a traditional medical education? And in particular, how do we reinvent healthcare? What skills do clinicians need today to not only take care of their patients, but also manage the healthcare system? And I say “we” euphemistically. The greater minds in medical education looked at curriculums from across the country and across other countries as well to see what skills physicians need to develop. How could we design a curriculum to meet that?

The first thing that many students recognize is that our basic science curriculum is only 12 months long. Historically, in a Flexner-like model, that would be at a two-year length of basic science education. That allows us to then use the second year for clinical education. Historically, that would be your third year. Having our students go through that training in that sequence, that opens up the third year to a lot of marvelous opportunities, especially since we're part of the University of Texas, and there are so many great training programs at the university that can be beneficial for future leaders. Making that third year available for a dual degree or research activity really gives our students an opportunity to expand their skills in that third year that you historically would not necessarily get in medical training.

Particularly if you’re going on to manage or work in management in a hospital setting, you may choose to do the MBA program, for instance. We have a brand-new health policy degree opening up with the LBJ School for that year. We have a health transformation degree that's just brand-new in our school for that year that's actually created by Elizabeth Teisberg, who was one of the co-authors of the book about healthcare transformation that's really changed how we think about managing healthcare. That third year really expands the opportunity for our students to gain additional skills that one would not necessarily get in medical training but we believe are necessary if you're going to be at the table, making decisions about how healthcare is going to change. We are starting to think also about not just the process of using fee-payer models to run healthcare, but about how healthcare outcomes are more important drivers than ...

Law school admissions experts Linda Abraham and Christine Carr share wisdom about how to achieve application success during COVID-19 [Show summary]

In part two of this joint interview, TextMax Prep’s Branden Frankel and Jelena Woehr interview Accepted’s Linda Abraham and Christine Carr on what applicants should expect entering the law school admissions process.

Click here for Part 1: The Test Prep Experts’ Guide to the LSAT >>

How will the coronavirus pandemic impact law school admissions this year? [Show notes]

[Jelena] Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, have you noticed more people interested in applying to law schools, fewer, or no change? What are students' feelings about applying to law school from your point of view right now? [0:37]

Linda: We're seeing more law school applicants this year. There's no question that we're seeing more inquiries, and I think it'll ultimately significantly increase our law school admissions businesses this year.

[Branden] Are applicants bringing different concerns to you than they were bringing before? [1:26]

Christine: Not necessarily. Actually, with respect to the pandemic specifically, I'm generally the one that's bringing that up and asking questions as to how they're informing their decisions based on the current state of affairs and remote learning, etc. I've been seeing that most of the applicants are asking the same types of questions. Personal statements are still top of mind for many people, and how to get started, so it's not necessarily any different right now.

Linda: I think there is some concern about starting law school online and the quality of their education, especially if that continues. On the other hand, there seems to be a lot of optimism about a vaccine coming out in early 2021. So for the people applying this cycle, by the time they start law school, hopefully much of the population will have been vaccinated and the restrictions that we're dealing with now, we won't be dealing with.

[Jelena] Should online learning lead to any changes in an applicant's application strategy? Should they be highlighting different traits about themselves than they would in a pre-pandemic world? [2:58]

Linda: I think, in general, adaptability is something that everybody is valuing a little bit more these days. I don't think that's going to fundamentally change what law schools look for in a law school personal statement. It might change a little bit. If you're showing that adaptability, grit, perseverance, and resilience, those qualities have become more important in the last six months. But fundamentally, I don't think you're going to see big, big, big changes in the core of the personal statement.

Christine: I think that adaptability piece is a big piece, and that's a thread that we carried pre-pandemic,

LSAT experts discuss how to prepare for the LSAT, LSAT vs GRE, the LSAT-Flex, and more [Show summary]

TestMax Prep’s Branden Frankel and Jelena Woehr, hosts of the Legal Level podcast, explore what LSAT test-takers need to know about testing options, recent changes, and prep strategies.

Click here for Part 2: Two Admissions Experts on the Latest in Law School Admissions >>

TestMax Prep’s Branden Frankel and Jelena Woehr talk about all things LSAT [Show notes]

Law school acceptance isn't just dependent on your LSAT, or your GPA, or your personal statement, or even where you apply. All those elements come into play. Part one of this joint, two-part episode with TestMax Prep’s Branden Frankel and Jelena Woehr, who also host the Legal Level podcast, will cover them all. Adding her law school admissions expertise to the show is Christine Carr, Accepted's law school admissions guru and former Associate Director of Admissions at Boston University Law School.

Jelena and Branden, how did you both get involved with LSAT prep? [1:58]

Jelena: The LSAT was intended to be an off-ramp out of a tech career for me. I had thought about it for a number of years. In fact, recently I went back into an old email that I no longer have and realized I'd been talking about taking the LSAT in my emails years ago, way earlier than I ever thought that I was interested in it, with some random guy from OkCupid that I was emailing back and forth with. But in 2017, I was tired of working in startups and thought I should finally go ahead and take the LSAT.

To my surprise, I actually really, really enjoyed the LSAT. I got a 178 on the June 2017 test, and the process of studying for it actually taught me a lot that I had not picked up earlier in my life about study skills and my own learning style. I ended up liking the LSAT so much that I couldn't really quite figure out what I would do as a lawyer, so I never went to law school, but I just started teaching the LSAT. I'm still really loving it. That's my journey. 

Branden: My journey started earlier, as my life started much earlier, because I'm much older. I studied for the LSAT first in the early 2000s. I ended up going to law school in 2007. I taught the LSAT a little bit before I went to law school. The LSAT was always up my alley because I was a philosophy major as an undergrad, and I was really into symbolic logic. I took a lot of symbolic logic classes, so when I studied for the LSAT, it was kind of close to what I had been doing as an undergrad, which is not the same for just about anybody who has any other degree, and then I went to law school. I practiced law for a few years. I had a kid and a wife at one point, and then my wife and I split up. I had my daughter half the time, and working in the law firm was just not a flexible way for me to manage my responsibilities as a newfound single parent.

Washington University School of Medicine's unique approach to admissions [Show summary]

Dr. Valerie Ratts, Associate Dean for Admissions at Washington University School of Medicine, explores what’s unique about the medical school’s approach to admissions, including what COVID-related changes applicants can expect this year.

Interview with Dr. Valerie Ratts, Associate Dean for Admissions at Washington University School of Medicine [Show notes]

Dr. Valerie Ratts earned her MD at Johns Hopkins, where she also did her residency in obstetrics and gynecology and a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology. She joined the Washington University faculty in 1994 and is currently Associate Dean for Admissions, as well as a professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Can you give an overview of Washington University School of Medicine's program, focusing on its more distinctive elements? [1:37]

Washington University School of Medicine is an amazing medical school. The thing that I'm the most proud about right now is that we are about to implement a new curriculum, an innovative curriculum, called the Gateway Curriculum. We're looking at how to educate in medicine a little bit differently. We are going to educate our students while thinking very carefully about what their passion and pathway will be in medicine. We will be working to enhance their exposure to the areas of academic medicine that we think are very important for physicians. That includes research, medical education, advocacy, inquiry, and  innovation. The other thing about WashU that we think is particularly important, besides our science, is that this is a place where we pride ourselves on creating a culture that is incredibly supportive for our students, a culture of collegiality and collaboration.

Academic medicine implies that the graduates are going to become professors or continue doing research. Is that a focus, or do you see your grads going into primary care? [2:56]

That's part of the new curriculum, recognizing that physicians go into various areas of medicine, and that we're ready to support them and enhance their education to be ready for those various areas of medicine (again, medical education, research, inquiry, innovation, and advocacy). We want to expose them to those areas, give them the skill set that they need and the experiences, so that when they graduate, when they complete their residency and fellowship, they can use that skill set to go into a career in all of those different areas. That's how we look at academic medicine. It's not just research, though research is very important.

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You have one of the biggest medical sciences programs, don't you? [3:52]

Yes. The MSTP program is a signature program here. It's one of the longest running and largest physician sciences programs in the country. Research has placed us on the map here at WashU, but I always say, research is more than just pipetting away in the lab.

Stanford GSB grads discuss MBA admissions, entrepreneurship and affordable car loans [Show summary]

Nicholas Hinrichsen and Chris Coleman, startup co-founders who earned their MBAs at Stanford GSB, return to Admissions Straight Talk to share what they’ve accomplished as entrepreneurs since earning their MBAs.

Chris Coleman and Nicholas Hinrichsen share how their experiences at GSB helped them grow their startups [Show notes]

So, you want to be an entrepreneur in something using tech. Or maybe you're interested in tech product management. Should you get an MBA? Is it a waste of time and money that you could better spend learning on your own, founding your own business? Two Stanford GSB grads are here to share their perspective, reflecting seven years of successful entrepreneurial experience since earning their MBAs.

Nicholas Hinrichsen and Chris Coleman, who were previously guests on Admission Straight Talk in Episode 88, both graduated from Stanford GSB in 2013. While at GSB, they founded Carlypso, which was acquired by Carvana in 2017. Since then, they’ve founded a new venture, WithClutch.

When we last spoke, you both had recently graduated from Stanford GSB, and you were running Carlypso, which you had founded as MBA students. What's happened since then? Can you bring us up to date? [2:09]

Chris: A lot has happened since then. When we talked, I think we were going through Y Combinator. We actually ended up pivoting the business into a new model since that time. Carlypso was this sort of peer-to-peer car sales platform. We ended up pivoting to being a direct wholesale channel where we sold cars, leasing to companies that can't sell directly to the consumer but have to sell through these wholesale auctions. We became a virtual dealer of sorts. We built software that said, "Okay, what are the cars that we think are good for consumers? How do we figure out how to use performance marketing to our advantage so that we can market the right car to the right consumer?"

We had a pretty good handle on that. It was a good business. It wasn't a great business because it required very, very heavy operations, actually moving around 4,000-pound pieces of metal all the time, rather than bits and bytes. The software that we built ended up being more valuable than our end-value prop to consumers. And so we sold the software to Carvana, and ended up joining as executives there. Nick ran the sell-to-Carvana business of buying cars from consumers, and I ran product for the initial part of the consumer experience, from the homepage, search page, and product pages.

We spent three years there. It was a great three years of seeing the company go from early public company to the company everyone else is aiming to beat. That was a really fun ride, and we got to know some of the executives there very well who were super helpful and had very different skill sets than us. Now we've gone off to start a new thing again. Me and Nick have just started WithClutch, which is sort of a platform for saving consumers on their automotive expenses.

Nick: Our first employee at Carlypso ended up applying to busi...

An inside look at the impact of COVID with Darrell Nabers [Show summary]

Darrell Nabers, Assistant Dean for Admissions and Recruitment at Loyola University of Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine, shares how the school is adapting its program and admissions policies to life in the time of COVID-19.

Changes to Loyola Stritch's program and admissions practices as a result of the COVID pandemic [Show notes]

Our guest today is Darrell Nabers, Assistant Dean for Admissions and Recruitment at Loyola University of Chicago's Stritch School of Medicine. Darrell earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Whittier College and Golden State University, respectively. He then held various admissions positions from 2000 to 2005 before joining the University of Chicago's admissions staff where he served in different roles until 2015. He joined Loyola Chicago Stritch in 2015 as Director of Admissions and became Assistant Dean for Admissions and Recruitment in February 2019. Darrell was a guest on the podcast last year for Episode 325. Our latest interview focuses on the changes to Loyola Stritch's program, and specifically its admissions practices as a result of the COVID pandemic.

How is the Loyola Stritch medical school program different today due to COVID-19 than it was a year ago? [2:19]

It's very different. One example would be the fact that I am speaking to you from my home and not from my office. We as a staff have been working from home since March 20th. There have been discussions about when we'll return to the building. They have not yielded a decision, and because we're part of a larger institution with an undergraduate campus and the graduate campuses, that has to be a unified decision. As a health sciences division, we have been able to advocate for our third and fourth year students to get back into their courses, which has happened.

So we have third years who are doing mostly didactic-structured content for the first couple of months before they begin their rotations. The fourth years had to take a pause on their clerkship training when the COVID crisis hit, and this allowed them to make up the clerkships before we had third years overlapping with them. That's a difficult thing to do, to have two classifications overlap and then the third shift. Once the fourth years make up the clerkship rotations in the next few weeks, then the third years will move into theirs, but they're currently participating in clinical simulations and exercises and mostly virtual content, but we'll be back in the clerkships soon. And then of course, the fourth years move into their sub-I’s and electives.

For the first and second years, we are virtual. So there's an asynchronous curriculum which allows students to log in and conduct their coursework. There are also live lectures that are provided through a virtual platform. The goal is to bring both groups back at some point this year. We have preliminarily determined the early part of October for the first years to be back on, to actually be on campus for the first time. It's just going to require attention to the different health mandates by the state. Our main campus made a plan early to bring undergraduates back to campus,

Chen shares his journey from military intelligence service-member to international MBA student to Accepted admissions consultant [Show summary]

Chen Chadash, Accepted consultant and UCLA Anderson MBA grad, had a unique path to business school as an international student with a background in military service. He shares his insights on life at UCLA Anderson, working as an admissions ambassador, and navigating the MBA application process.

How can an admissions consultant help international applicants understand the MBA application process and submit essays and supporting materials that highlight what adcoms value the most? [Show notes]

Chen Chadash has a fascinating background: He earned his bachelor's in physics and electrical engineering from the Technion in Israel and served in an elite unit in the Israeli military for seven years in intelligence and cybersecurity. He then joined UCLA Anderson in 2016. After interning at Ernst and Young for the summer, he joined full-time in July of 2018. While at UCLA, he was a student admissions ambassador and has leveraged that experience to guide applicants to top MBA programs, including MIT Sloan, Kellogg, Booth, Columbia, INSEAD, London Business School, and UCLA Anderson.

Can you tell us a little bit about where you grew up and what you like to do for fun? [1:51]

I grew up in Israel, far from here, in Tel Aviv. I recommend everyone who hasn't been there to visit. Obviously, during the COVID pandemic, it's a bit difficult, but once that's over, I highly recommend it. I really like cooking a lot. Even more, eating what I cook. I really enjoy sports. I used to play basketball for many years in high school. And then other than that, I really like extreme sports. I like to try new things here and there like kite surfing, like climbing Mount Everest, scuba diving, stuff like that. I stick with some of them. Some I don't really enjoy, but I do enjoy trying them.

Did you get to the top of Everest? [2:50]

I got to the base camp. It's about 18,000 feet high. Base camp is what basically everyone can do without any special equipment. Beyond that point, it really gets dangerous. You have to get training, oxygen, etc. But base camp is what everyone can do if you don't mind the two weeks of hiking in very difficult conditions.

And then just a couple months ago, I had my first baby. I would call that another extreme experience! But this one caused me to stop everything else that I was doing and focus on that.

Why did you decide to earn an MBA? [3:37]

I was in the military for a long time. After a long military service, which was great and a very fulfilling experience that I wouldn't trade for the world, I felt I had a huge gap in understanding business and how the "real world" works. It was a very different environment. I was looking for a way to bridge that gap as fast as possible and in a way that would be both beneficial career-wise and in a way that I would enjoy. Then living and studying abroad was something that was a dream for me for a long time. Both those things came together.