Put down the study guides for a second because I’m taking you back 20 years to my own medical school application, back when the MCAT was still paper and pencil. I’m breaking down my 4.0 GPA, my "31S" test score, and why I spent my interviews pretending to be passionate about the phylogenetics of North American fruit bats just to check a box. We’re also diving into the high-stakes Department of Justice investigation into diversity initiatives at major med schools and why turning admissions into a "pure numbers game" is a massive mistake for the future of compassionate medicine.

After the break, we’re back with Thing I Love, Thing I Hate. I’ll explain why I’m obsessed with OCT imaging, technology that lets us see all nine layers of the retina at a microscopic level. Then, we tackle the "Thing I Hate": the history of "Radial Keratotomy" (RK). It was the precursor to LASIK that involved cutting 80% through the cornea with a knife, and it serves as a cautionary tale for why I’m a "slow adopter" of the latest, most expensive surgical fads today.

Takeaways:

The Sliding Doors of Dartmouth: How a last-minute application and a persistent string of update letters changed Will’s life and eventually saved it.

The Wealth Gap in Admissions: Why expensive prep courses and the ability to study without working are creating a homogenous group of doctors that doesn't reflect America.

Retinal Micromapping: A look at Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) and how imaging a 500-micron tissue allows us to prevent blindness before it starts.

The RK Mistake: Why a surgery that seemed like a "miracle" for myopia in the short term ended up destabilizing corneas for thousands of patients years later.

The "Wait and See" Philosophy: Why Will chooses to avoid being an early adopter of $5,000 "light-adjustable" lenses until the long-term data is undeniable.

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