Admissions Straight Talk

Our guest today, Dr. Anne Steptoe, earned her BA in Classics and English at Harvard in 2009. She then worked for two years as a Health Policy Senior Analyst at Mass General Hospital and attended medical school at Brown. Along the way to her current position as a pediatrics resident at UNC Chapel Hill, she earned an MBA at Duke Fuqua and started her own social enterprise with a partner.

Can you tell us about your background?  Where did you grow up? What do you like to do for fun? [1:29]

I grew up in a small town in West Virginia. There were about 2,000 families in the town and relationships really formed the fabric of the town. A sense of community has always driven me, which I attribute to my time there. In terms of my free time, I am now a North Carolinian – and there is amazing food here and some of the best craft brewing in the country. And of course basketball enthusiasm is in the water here.

How did you go from an undergrad degree in Classics and English in 2009 to starting med school in 2011? [2:47]

I knew a couple of things at the start of college. I loved Latin, one of my singular passions in high school, and I was not done studying that. I also loved to read and wanted to spend my college years doing more of that. I didn’t see myself as a professor, which would have been a typical pathway for someone with my majors, so I wanted to be a student for a bit longer but needed professional experiences to answer the question of what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

I got interested in public policy, an obvious extension of the community idea, and had some internships on Capitol Hill. I sought out the most interesting people in our office, and as it turns out I was most drawn to the health policy legislative aide. I loved that she would be on the phone with a single mom walking her through how to sign her child up for CHIP in the morning, and then in the afternoon be in these huge plenary sessions about what the future of the entire healthcare system looks like. The micro and macro look at change was really fascinating to me.

This still didn’t get me to med school, though. I actually thought med school was the last path I would follow, since I had to be hospitalized as a 7-8 year old and thought doctors were the worst. But another summer I had been given a small grant to go to West Virginia to ask, what in retrospect seems like an arrogant question, about the disconnect between health policy on obesity vs what was happening on the ground. West Virginia has one of the worst obesity rates in the country. The reason I say the question was arrogant was because it was almost as if, “What are those pesky doctors doing messing up the beautiful portrait we have of how an ideal healthcare system should work?”

I did some qualitative research in a healthcare center in West Virginia, and after 1.5 days there realized we weren’t asking the right questions. There is a huge disconnect with people enthused about national level policies, but who don’t have the experience of healthcare on the ground. I was struck by how little I knew about how healthcare functioned, which was the turning point to med school for me. I was introduced to the concept of a doctor as a change agent in the community. Providers were stepping in as entrepreneurs in their communities in the absence of policy. From there I was hooked.

I was lucky enough to have figured this out at the end of my sophomore year so I had enough intro science classes that I was able to stack a few ex...

It gives me great pleasure to welcome back to AST Shari Hubert, Associate Dean of Admissions at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. Shari earned her BA at Dartmouth and her MBA at Harvard. She worked at several elite companies, and in 2009 became Director of Recruitment for the Peace Corps. In 2012 she returned to the MBA world when she became the Associate Dean of MBA Admissions for Georgetown McDonough, and she joined Duke Fuqua as Associate Dean of Admissions in October.

Can you give an overview of the Duke Fuqua FT MBA program for those listeners who aren’t that familiar with it, perhaps focusing on its more distinctive elements? [1:32]

All of our programs excel at creating a certain type of leader – one who collaborates well with others. We call it Team Fuqua, which we define as a special way of working that brings out the strengths in others to work toward a common goal. You are required to work in teams for much of the program. The teams are intentionally diverse in order to learn from each other – not just gender and race diversity but functional background and industry as well. Team Fuqua is not just a student concept but it follows into your career as well. Tim Cook is arguably our most famous alum, and he talks about how he developed his own collaborative style from Fuqua. The program taught him how to learn, collaborate, and think.

From an academic perspective, our faculty are developing new courses for the ever complex world we live in. We were one of the first business schools to offer courses in block chain (cryptocurrency). Cam Harvey, a faculty member, is one of the experts. Last month we started a new course, CEO Activism, which is about the decision-making process in complex situations that leaders have to go through to decide whether to speak out about a political or social issue or not.

Finally, one thing I’ve been impressed with is the student-led culture. Students are constantly organizing events and conferences with high level people, and they manage the campus visit program. Students are always finding ways to learn from each other. One example is from a student who was in the military who founded Operation Blue Devil which gives students a firsthand perspective about what it’s like to serve. Another example is Fuqua Talks and Fuqua Listens – initiatives that help develop a more inclusive culture. With Fuqua Talks anyone can get up and talk about what they feel is important. With Fuqua Listens there is a topic of discussion – the most recent one was about professional athletes kneeling during the national anthem.

What does it mean to be a consequential leader? [6:21]

Team Fuqua embodies what it means to be a consequential leader, and is synonymous with demonstrating collaborative leadership, which is the ability to pull out the strengths of others to make the best team. This is the key to innovation – it’s not just a nice concept but a winning strategy to harness the best team.

One great example of this type of leadership is when a research firm interviewed recruiters about the value of our graduates. One recruiter mentioned an exercise where MBA students from several schools came in to solve a problem in the same room. Not surprisingly, most students approached the situation by highlighting their own strengths, hoping to land that job offer. The recruiter said that Fuqua students were generally different. Instead of discussing their own strengths they worked to understand the other tea...

Dr. Andrea Tooley is currently an ophthalmology resident at the Mayo Clinic who will soon start a fellowship in oculoplastics in NYC.

I know you’re a returning guest, but can you tell us a little about yourself? Your background, where you grew up, went to college and medical school? [1:22]

I am originally from Sarasota, Florida, and lived there until I was 16, when my family moved to Indiana. I stayed in Indiana for college, going to Butler University in Indianapolis, with a double major in English literature and chemistry. I then went to Indiana University for medical school, followed by the Mayo Clinic for residency. I did my intern year at Mayo and now I’m in my final year of ophthalmology residency at Mayo.

When we last spoke in Winter 2015 you were starting your ophthalmology residency, how has it been for you? [2:13]

It’s been so great. I feel like a different person than I was as a first year. It is such a transformative residency. You don’t learn much in medical school about the eye, and so coming into an ophthalmology residency you just know nothing! I have loved my residency experience at Mayo and am going to be sad to leave.

What did you like best and least about your residency experience at the Mayo Clinic? [2:54]

The culture is very unique – it’s very collaborative and focused on patient care, but also on research and innovation. It is a tremendous institution, and I feel very lucky to be a resident where I have so much support for doing research, attending conferences, and so forth. I feel like working at a place like Mayo has made me want to be better, to do better, and the department of ophthalmology is a really happy environment. All the attendings are great, and you also get a lot of autonomy, which is important to me. I’ve grown a lot, gotten to do a lot of stuff on my own, and become my own ophthalmologist.

What do you think could be improved about the residency program? [5:23]

No residency is perfect, but I think generally it is a really well-rounded residency. I think it is all about fit and where you think you are the best version of yourself.

What were you looking for in a program? [7:01]

I was looking for a resident-run clinic. There aren’t many programs that offer that. With ophthalmology you really need to do it to learn it. So much of it is pattern recognition, and you need lots of exam and technical skills – to look at the eye and know how to do it. I wanted a lot of responsibility because I knew that would make me better, and watching someone else wouldn’t work for me, so all of the programs I ranked had resident-run clinics. I also wanted to go somewhere I felt challenged, and to feel lucky I was matched there. I wanted to go to a reach school. I was so nervous with my Mayo interview, thinking I wasn’t good enough to be there, but it made me want to be better, being somewhere that would push me.

Did you ever adjust to primary call? [9:08]

Primary call is rough. With some programs you take it all three years, but at Mayo you only do it your first year. What primary call means is you are the first person on a pager, so any time of the night 24/7/365 if someone needs an ophthalmolo...

Today for the first time we welcome Jamie Young, Director of Recruitment & Admissions for the Full-Time MBA Program at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. Jamie graduated from McMaster University in 2008 and has worked in Canadian higher ed since then. He came to Rotman in January 2016 to assume the role of Director of Recruitment & Admissions. He also serves on the ETS Business School Advisory Council and Forte Foundation’s School Advisory Council.

Can you give an overview of the Toronto Rotman FT MBA program with a focus on its more distinctive elements? [1:44]

Our program combines 16 months of academic study with a 4-month internship opportunity. We offer 15 diverse majors, so candidates can choose to specialize in their second year, and there is something for everyone. You can choose everything from health sector management to brand management to investment banking to real estate management. It’s really up to you. So while we are renowned for our strengths in strategy and finance, we have a number of strengths.

Some of the things that are more distinctive are the Creative Destruction Lab, a course in the second year of our program that infuses a lot of things from across the university. It is a seed-stage program for massively scalable science-based companies, and at Rotman we have the largest concentration of AI companies of any program here on earth. Our Self Development Lab runs alongside curricula, with workshops designed to help students express themselves more effectively, understand their own motivations and of those around them, and work toward achieving their goals in complex and high stakes environments.

What’s new at Rotman? [3:56]

We are really proud of the flexible internship program, an innovation we announced just over a year ago. Students coming into the MBA program have the opportunity to complete their internship in one of three periods, our traditional which is the summer, but also the winter or fall. Right away there is this increased opportunity for flexibility, with students able to tailor their experience towards exactly what they are looking for. It also adds a lot of opportunities for students - there are organizations and companies that can offer really rich projects. We have seen incredible growth in postings, and it is an innovation we are really proud of.

We have also added an applied management placement course. We have some faculty and executives in residence guiding students through their internship experience, which is incredible to watch. So we see somebody with great experience of their own, and mentoring students to really reflect on their own larger goals. The execs connect formally with students and do exercises with them. One example is for the student to find individuals within the internship organizations who have experienced success, and then working back to figure out what the elements of that culture are that could help set the students up to be successful. It’s all about connecting and applying, making sure you are working toward achieving your larger goals.

Sometimes students want to complete more than one internship but that’s not a possibility. I will say that with the Creative Destruction Lab there are sometimes more opportunities, as sometimes students take on a CFO or COO role for some of these seed-stage startups, and it becomes more of an applied-learning internship.

At the AIGAC conference you were the only happy face on a panel discussing th...

Our guest today, Dr. Akshat Kumar, earned his MD from Kasturba Medical College in India and completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Rutgers University/St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Jersey, where he became Chief Resident and then Attending Physician. In his spare time he co-founded thewisemd.com and later joined WellUHealth as Business Development Lead and Chief Medical Officer. Today he is an attending physician at Penn Medicine and a Wharton MBA student.

Can you tell us about your background? Where you grew up? What you were doing before Wharton? [1:28]

I am originally from Delhi, India. I was a math nerd in school, and none of my friends expected me to go to medical school, instead expecting me to focus on math/finance studies. But I wanted to use my problem-solving abilities to help people, which is why I decided to attend medical school. In my final years of medic al school I was able to work in some U.S. hospitals – in Boston and in Rochester, and those experiences motivated me to pursue further education in the U.S. I moved to the U.S. five or six years ago to pursue my residency training and then further worked as you outlined earlier.

You managed to get into a U.S. residency as an international medical graduate (IMG). How did you do it? [2:30]

There are two things that help IMGs - one is obviously having strong stats and the other is doing training in the U.S. I was lucky to have gotten some chances to work in the U.S. There is one more thing I have also come to realize since coming to Wharton - the power of networking. In medicine this is not a skillset that is touched on. During your training there is just so much focus on academics. It really helps to have people who can vouch for your work, which I had.

Can you give a couple of examples of how the practice of medicine is different in the U.S. than in India? [4:56]

The power of academic medicine is what made me decide to come to the U.S. If you want to do academic research, there is no place better to do it than here. There are negative aspects to that as well, though. For example, if I walk into the ER to see a patient I already have a lot of data with me – their CAT scans, their blood work, etc., so I have more data to work with, but sometimes that can lead to less use of bedside clinical medicine skills. I am a big believer in traditional medicine. You have to work hard especially in the U.S. on your clinical skills and not rely too much on technology. That is one aspect. The other is from a business standpoint. In India, everybody knows the cost of care, but here because insurance companies are paying for it, and the lack of cost transparency here was very surprising to me.

How has your experience at thewisemd.com, which you co-founded, and at WellUHealth influenced your decision to join the HCM program at Wharton and to get an MBA? [6:55]

Thewisemd was a consequence of this realization of lack of cost transparency. When I fractured my wrist I knew it was a specific type of fracture and required a specific type of treatment, but there was no way for me to know the cost of an x-ray vs an MRI, even as a doctor in my own hospital. So that led to the idea of cost transparency at the point of care for physicians to help patients make better decisions.

 

We are pleased to welcome back Dawna Levenson, Director of Admissions at MIT Sloan. Dawna earned her bachelors and masters in Management Science at MIT Sloan, worked in consulting, and then returned to MIT Sloan in 2007 as Associate Director of Academic Programs. She moved into Admissions in 2012 and became Director of Admissions in 2013.

Can you give an overview of MIT Sloan’s MBA program focusing on its distinctive features? [1:20]

My focus today is on our two-year MBA program. We have a one-semester core, and three semesters to shape curriculum to meet individual interests. We continue to have three tracks specific to the MBA program – entrepreneurship, finance and enterprise management. We also have three certificates - sustainability, healthcare, and this year we just introduced business analytics. These are designed in such a way that a student can do a track and a certificate, so for example if you want to do the finance track and apply it to the healthcare industry. One significant difference between tracks and certificates is that tracks are very focused on MBA students, and certificates are available to the entire MIT community.

So if somebody pursues a certificate are they likely to take classes outside of Sloan? [2:48]

Certificates are housed at Sloan, and I believe the majority of classes within the certificate (some are required and some are elective) are in fact Sloan classes. For the tracks they are exclusively Sloan classes.

What’s new at MIT Sloan? [3:42]

In addition to the analytics certificate, there is also an awful lot of activity around fintech – new courses and a club. We also have a new lab course which is USA Lab. We have been doing action learning labs for many years, mostly focused outside of the US, and we’ve added this one to really focus on the United States. It will be offered for the first time in Spring 2018. The focus of our lab courses is on development and opportunities for growth. Within the US there are many opportunities for growth – in Michigan and Mississippi, for example. The labs are entrepreneurially focused, with the idea being that a start-up business is aimed to help a specific geography and business in the area itself.

MIT Sloan is famous for its action-learning and its labs. Can you provide an example or two of Sloan’s hands-on approach? [6:16]

One company that is a great example is Sanergy. The company was born at MIT Sloan from the 100K competition, and is now a viable company. It started out in areas of rural Africa to provide water and sanitation and now is turning waste into fertilizer. Now they have come back to us and sponsor action learning courses so it is really nice to see it come full circle.

Can you describe MIT’s newest certificate program in Business Analytics, and the differences with the Master of Business Analytics? [7:25]

The Master of Business Analytics is a standalone degree program. We just graduated our first class of 16, our second class of 30 is currently on campus, and we are recruiting for our next class which will be 45 students. The degree is really targeted at early stage professionals, and the majority of our students are coming straight from undergrad. It is not that different from the profile of our Master of Finance program, just that students have different interests.

I am swamped at this time of year with clients facing early January deadlines so I decided to start the new year with our most popular healthcare-related interview for the last half of 2017: my interview with Accepted consultant, Dr. Suzi Schweikert.

Dr. Schweikert, a practicing OBGYN who has an MPH, talks about her non-traditional path to medicine, her choice of residency, her reasons for adding an MPH to her credentials as well as her work on the UCSD med school admissions committee when she was a medical student there. It’s a fascinating episode, and if you are applying to medical school, thinking ahead to residency, considering an MPH or any of the above, listen to this interview. You’ll find it valuable.

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

Related Links:

• Consultant Profile: Suzi Schweikert

• Get in Touch With Dr. Schweikert

• Postbac, Medical School & Residency Services

• Residency/Fellowship Application Package

• How to Nail Your Med School Interviews Webinar

• School-Specific Secondary Essay Tips

Related Shows:

• Medicinal Magic and Magical Medicine: An Interview with M3 David Elkin

• Amy Ho: An ER Resident Who Connects with Patients and Society

• What is Med School Really Like?

• M3 and Entrepreneur: An Interview with David Eisenberg, Co-Founder of PreMD Tracker

•A New Approach to Training Doctors: The University of Connecticut’s M Delta Curriculum

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As applicants, students, and admissions consultants are knee deep in family, celebration, and application essays we'd like to play an encore of one of the most popular Admission Straight Talk podcast episodes of the year.

Our conversation with Alex Lawrence, Assistant Dean of MBA Admissions and Financial Aid at UCLA Anderson, is loaded with information about Anderson's outstanding MBA program as well important insights into MBA admissions at top business schools. Listen to the show to find out what an admissions director is looking for when he reviews MBA applications!

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

Related Resources:

• Anderson Full-time MBA

• UCLA Anderson B-School Zone

• UCLA Anderson Essay Tips & Deadlines

• How an MBA from Anderson Helped this Career Switcher

• B-School for Good: Pursuing Social Impact Through UCLA Anderson’s Fully Employed MBA

• UCLA Anderson Executive MBA Application Essay Tips & Deadlines

• MBA Admissions Consulting Services

Related Shows:

• UCLA’s MS in Business Analytics: Prep for the Sexiest Job of the 21st Century

• What’s New at NYU Stern? A Lot!

• From Wall St to Wharton, While Starting Wall Street Oasis

• What’s Life Like as a Darden MBA and Entrepreneur?

• Make a Difference at Michigan Ross: An Interview with Soojin Kwon

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You’ve taken the MCAT, maybe even applied and been rejected. Discouraged? Don’t be. Hear Dr. Allie’s story.

Allie Lyle had wanted to be a doctor since she was 14. More specifically she wanted to be a pediatrician. And she pursued this path diligently. But the MCAT and a few mistakes got in her way. She didn’t let them stop her and today she is a pediatric resident.

Can you give us a little background on your path to medicine and your pediatric residency? [0:44]

I am the first doctor in my family. I shadowed my pediatrician for a school project when I was in high school and from then on I knew I wanted to do some form of medicine that involved kids. I majored in biochemistry in college, and my extracurriculars revolved around children. After college I earned a masters in bioethics and medical humanities, got married, and worked in research for a few years while my husband finished his engineering degree. I was finally accepted to medical school and we had our daughter at the end of my first year. Last spring I successfully matched into pediatrics, and am now a pediatrics intern, which means I am in my first year. It’s no secret I applied to medical school four times, but in this age of social media where you see “picture perfect” snapshots of life, I think it’s important for people to realize success doesn’t always come without obstacles.

Linda: I agree, and that’s one of the reasons I invited you on the show. People need to hear from medical students/residents who didn’t have smooth sailing the whole way, because frankly, most people do have bumps along the way. The last statistic I heard is that 39% of applicants to allopathic medical schools were accepted, which means 61% weren’t! Struggles are not talked about nearly enough, so I think it’s really important you share your story.

Let’s go back to when you applied: What was the hardest part of the application process for you? [2:55]

The application process is so long and hard and intricate. The application opens in early spring, and if you are waitlisted you might not hear anything until the following August – over a year later. In general, people applying to medical school are Type-A planners, wanting to know things ahead of time, and it is just so slow! Also, on a personal level, I am such an introvert that trying to sell myself in the interview process was hard – it’s very unnatural for me to talk about my successes and brag a bit.

On your blog you list 5 mistakes you made during your 3 unsuccessful application efforts. To help the listeners avoid these errors, do you mind reviewing them? [4:06]

One is applying to too few schools. Prior to my first application, my advisor told me my best bet was to apply to a state school. Since it was my dream school, I only applied to that school, with one interview and one shot at acceptance. I was waitlisted, only to wait until August of that next year to hear there wasn’t room in the class for me. Another error was not having enough advisors – I recommend multiple, so you can get as much advice as possible. Applying early is important, too. If you are late, why should they look at you? I also had to take the MCAT more than once. My first score was average,

The application cycle is in full swing in early December, when I’m recording this podcast. In reflecting on the many applications that my colleagues and I review here at Accepted and the problems we help our clients deal with, I thought it might be a good time to discuss things you shouldn’t do - mistakes that can really hurt your chances of admission.

We’ve also prepared an “Unchecklist” that you can download and review at your leisure. The Unchecklist contains the Toxic 16 + one bonus. Make sure none of them poison your application efforts. Click here to download your copy now!

1. Waiting until the last minute to start. [2:00]

After you receive your test score and select your target schools the application process is still a marathon, not a sprint. How long will it take? That depends on the degree program, but typically three months ahead of time is a great time to start working on applications, and two months still works. However, when you get down to a month prior to deadlines for starting work, it gets a little dicey in terms of time crunch.

If you work with an Accepted consultant, waiting until the last minute means there is less we (and you) can do to optimize your application. Delay limits the opportunity for us to review your overall profile, and can lead to a rushed application, which does not allow either you or us to do our best work. Applying is a detailed, difficult process whether you are working on your own or with a consultant. The essays require writing, rewriting, sometimes distancing yourself, and then returning to the essays. There are the boxes to fill in, the recommendations to procure, and perhaps a video to create.

And of course, there’s the exam (MCAT, GMAT, GRE, LSAT, etc), which I’ve been assuming you already took. In reality, we talk to so many people who take the exam at the last minute thinking they will apply right after and they bomb it – the low score throws their whole timeline out of whack. Get your tests done early (at least 6 months before you apply), so when application cycle swings into gear, you’re satisfied with your score and the test is behind you.

2. Focusing on your past instead of your future when choosing schools. [4:43]

Graduate school is to a certain extent about changing you. Sometimes applicants are so stuck on what they’ve done in the past (“I’m an Indian male engineer. What schools accept lots of applicants with that profile?”), they fail to think about which schools will prepare them most effectively for what they want to do AFTER they graduate.

3. Putting too much emphasis on the rankings. [6:35]

Rankings are great storehouses of data, but the absolute rankings are not the elements you should be focusing on when you choose where to apply. You should be focusing on:

• Your future goals and how well your target program will help you achieve them.

• Your qualifications vs the class profile of admitted students.

• Your fit with the schools’ culture, values.

• Your personal preferences: Do you want rural or urban, warm or cold climate, a particular geographic location?

Rankings should come into play if they measure something that is really of value to you, like how many women are on the faculty and a ra...