Interview with Adam Goodcoff, fourth year medical student and co-founder of an online community for healthcare professionals [Show Summary]

Med student Adam Goodcoff shares info on what life is like as a med student, how he became interested in medicine, what he plans to do when he graduates, and his new digital platform, “The Med Life.”

Glimpse what life is like as a medical student [Show Notes]

Our guest today, Adam Goodcoff is a fourth-year med student and former graduate teaching fellow in anatomy applying to emergency medicine residencies this year. He graduated the University at Albany with a BS in Biology. During his sophomore year of college, he started a blog to document and share his attempts to gain acceptance into medical school. Once medical school started and time available shrank, Adam briefly switched to YouTube, which ultimately also proved to be too time consuming. Fast forward three years, and he decided to launch "The Med Life," a community where all healthcare providers and students can find entertaining and educational content.

Can you tell us about your background? Where you grew up? What do you like to do for fun? [2:03]

I grew up in upstate New York, went to the University of Albany and then to a different state entirely for medical school. For fun I do a million different things – I particularly enjoy cycling, downhill mountain biking, skiing, travel, and photography. I also used to play in a band, so I’ve covered the gamut, always trying new stuff.

How did you become interested in a career in medicine? [3:10]

In high school I wasn’t the best student, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was a swimmer, and it was sort of understood I would swim my way into college, but then I decided not to pursue it further. I was fortunate the University of Albany took me. I knew I liked medicine, as I did a short stint as a volunteer firefighter, which I didn’t enjoy. But I loved the EMS side of it, so I got a CFR (Certified First Responder). If you are not 18 you can’t be an EMT in New York, and I was 16 or 17 at the time. I learned the basics and volunteered at a local EMS agency. I stayed there for five years before going on to med school. I eventually did become an EMT and was hired as one just before med school. In school I enjoyed EMS so I thought maybe I should look at medicine, and it snowballed from there.

Did you go straight from college to med school? Are you happy with your decision whether you took a gap year or not? [5:07]

I did. I was relatively competitive and didn’t want to take a gap year. The student I am now isn’t the one I was applying to med school let alone the one I was applying to college. I was worried I would fall off the radar and not have the motivation to do it if I took a gap year. Hindsight is 20/20, and I’ve since thought of all the ways I could have taken advantage of that year, but I think it worked well.

Were there any challenges applying to medical school? [6:01]

For sure. It is tricky writing a personal statement and figuring out your voice. There are so many incredible students out there and I didn’t feel like I measured up – people creating a homeless shelter or going to Africa. Thinking back,