Our guest today is Dr. Suzi Schweikert – a former English major at UCLA who decided she wanted to be an MD. She did so at UCSD, specialized in OBGYN at USC-Los Angeles County Medical Center, and after completing her residency, added an MPH to her credentials.

Let’s learn more about Dr. Schweikert’s path in medicine, and to becoming an Accepted consultant.

Suzi, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk!

Can you tell us a little bit about how you went from being an English major to being an MD? [1:20]

It’s a bit of a long story. I’ll start with my first year of college, when I got a C- in Chem, and I gave up being a premed. I thought I was done for. The next year, I retook it and got a B-. I didn’t have any doctors or nurses in my family – I really didn’t know what it took. After a couple of years of stumbling around, I transferred to UCLA, and they only had room for me as an English major, so that’s what I became. It was great for me – a break and balance with my science classes. And I realized it gave me a unique expertise – all my premed friends asked me to read their essays. I think reading all those essays helped me learn to write my own.

So I think it’s important to major in any subject you enjoy and learn your learning style.

Did you need to do a postbac? [3:05]

I continued my undergrad training for a fifth year, so I sort of did a postbac within my undergrad.

I think postbacs are great! A lot of people don’t do great in their first couple of years because they don’t know their learning style, and postbacs can help.

How did your learning style have to change to master the sciences? [4:00]

That’s a good question! I had to work hard at test prep.

I found I learn best by copying and recopying my lecture notes – in different colors. And I memorized better when I was moving around. It helped me with my MCAT, too. The way to get something deep into your brain is to do something that comes naturally to you.

How did you choose OBGYN? [5:50]

I’d thought I wanted to go into family practice. I did a sub-internship in ICU and found I liked critical care situations. Then I did another sub-I in OB, and I withdrew my apps for family med and applied for OB.

Sub-internships give you an entirely new perspective on the specialty.

And why did you also decide to pursue an MPH? [7:18]

After working in private practice, I missed working with underserved populations. I’d always wanted to serve people who fell through the cracks. Private practice wasn’t fulfilling my personal mission, and studying public health gave me a path back to that original passion. I ended up working in a community clinic, where I still work today.

When you were on the UCSD admissions committee and reviewing applications, what surprised you about the students being admitted? [8:27]

I was always surprised by how nice they were. The adcom was looking for people they could imagine caring for their own parent or child – the quality they were looking for was kindness.

Kindness is a hard quality to prove, but it shows in how people talk about themselves, and how they treat others on interview day.

Even if out of insecurity you’re not acting nicely to people you interact with on