G&C Partners Blog Spot

Professional Degree Timeline

G&C Partners — Mon, 24 May 2010 02:54:38 +0000

Hey there,

So many students often ask me about what is the best “timeline” for pursing a professional degree or entering their professional career. That is, people get concerned about taking a year off after graduating from undergrad, or spending time doing post-baccalaureate coursework for one year, and even dedicating two years to purse a masters degree before a pre-professional program. I think it’s interesting to see many students worried about not being on the right “timeline” to get into medical school, law school, dental school, etc.

The truth is, there is never a perfect timeline to anything in life, especially when it comes to the competitive and taxing road of pursing a professional degree. Sometimes I hear students concerned they will be too old when they finish medical school, or won’t be able to have a family in dental school, or they can’t accomplish true goals until after graduate school, and so on. Listen, none of that stuff is true… If you want to start a family or have a serious relationship while doing your professional degree, you will make time to do so. There were several people who I went to medical school with who started in my class at the age of 32, 36, and even 40… It doesn’t matter whether or not you start professional school at the age of 22 or 26, what matters is that you are doing something you enjoy and you are continuously striving to further you successes is life.

Most business school applicants, and some law school applicants, work 3-5 years after undergrad before applying, so they finish when they are 29-31. If you pursing a career in medicine or dentistry, it doesn’t matter what age you “start” professional school because everything averages out to people being “finished” at the same time. For example, typically students who start school at the age of 27, tend to do shorter residencies so they are done with training by 33/34; however, students that start school at 24 are likely to do longer sub-specialties so they will also be done at 33/34. From experience, I can tell you that, when you are in undergrad, you can’t wait to start and rush to medical school. When you are in medical school, you can’t wait to start and rush to residency. When you are in residency, you can’t wait to start and rush to being an attending. And by the time you are an attending, you can’t wait to rush to make a large enough salary to retire sooner… When does it end?!.

Enjoy what you have now!!! Love what you are doing now… Do the best and be the best at what you are doing now!.!. Life will continue to move along, but if you try to place yourself on a timeline and micromanage what you think you should be doing, I promise you’ll lose sight of what’s important… ...And what’s important is enjoying and loving what life offers one day at a time.

Admitted / Rejected / Wait-Listed

G&C Partners — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 04:19:47 +0000

Hi All,

As March 1st quickly approaches, it’s now time to face some realities. For those of you who participated in the 2009-2010 cycle, you are probably in one of the following 3 categories: Admitted, Wait-Listed, Rejected… Many people tend to think these 3 categories are trivial; however, at this point in time, there are specific things that you need to take into consideration regardless of which category you are in. In fact, it’s so important, that my company has an entire service dedicated to help students navigate through these categories.

OK, so by March 1st, you should have an excellent idea of which category you are in, and I would encourage you to consider the fact there are options for you no matter which category you are in. There is one note I want to make. Several students have recently disclosed to me issues that arose when they approached career services for advise. I think the career service offices at most schools are good, and they truly mean well. They do an excellent job when it comes to jobs, career options, internships, and so on. However, when it comes to professional school admissions/applications, they should not be the final voice. For many students, they have been misinformed about managing the wait-list, writing personal statements, understanding strengths and weaknesses of their application, approaching secondary essays, and the list goes on… In my opinion, you are better off spending as little as $65 for me, or one of our representatives, to review your personal statement and give you specific-honest-beneficial advice then for you to have career services read your personal statement and give you general feedback that doesn’t work for professional school. At the end of the day, you don’t want to look back on the admissions/applications cycle and say “I wish I had done ___.” Having said that, there is my insight on admitted, wait-listed, rejected.

ADMITTED: Hopefully, many of you are in this category and you are celebrating with friends and family. If you have a single admission, then you should consider attending the second look, but also start the beginning stages of preparing for the difficult transition of matriculating to a professional school. As I mentioned before, professional school is not easy and all the qualities that got you in are needed to keep you there. If you have multiple admissions, then you need to start considering financing, school selection, negotiating, and other factors to get the most from the ultimate school you chose to attend. And yes, there are techniques and strategies for this.

WAIT-LISTED: This isn’t the best category, but it’s certainly not the worst. There is nothing wrong with being on the wait-list and it’s important to be patient but proactive. There are several strategies and techniques that are possible to help you move up the list; however, it’s important not to make pivotal mistakes that can move you down the list. Remember, you never know when your number will be called, but if it is, you should be ready…

REJECTED: First, there is nothing wrong with rejections, and everyone gets rejections. It happens and it’s fine. The key thing is not to get rejections from everywhere you apply. If you have been rejected from most programs, but you got a few interviews, then you should determine why you had limited success and look for ways to improve upon your application. If you got rejections from every program, then it’s time to do a reality check. That means, it’s critical that you find out why you didn’t get any interviews. In either case, I can help you determine the reason(s) why you had a series of rejections and why your overall application was unfavorable. There is a specific algorithm I use, and by following this, we can identify the specific problems then correct them for the next application cycle. Remember, life isn’t about a series of successes, it’s about triumph over adversity…

New Year, New Leaf

G&C Partners — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:19:56 +0000

Happy New Year!

Since 2010 is here, we have a new year and for some, a new leaf on life. If not on life, at least on goals and objectives… For some of our readers/followers, this is the year by which multiple accomplishments, changes, goals need to be met. For some, it’s succeeding on the MCAT or LSAT while for others it’s getting straight As in graduate coursework. And for some, it’s making a tough choice on deciding between 2 admissions offers or debating whether or not reapply for graduate school. Regardless of where you are in this taxing and trying process, I promise we at G&C Partners can help guide you through.

With a new year, many people have new resolutions. And for some of you, I believe that resolution should be putting mind over matter… I hear many students say: “Dr. Jenkins, I can’t get any better than a B+ in this class because it’s just too hard. And I can’t get that score on this exam because it’s just too difficult. I’m not sure if I can do it…” I hear this all the time, and the truth is, that’s a lie…

I don’t believe it when a student tells me he/she can’t do something because I believe he/she can. In my day and on my path, I used to have the same thoughts. I used to think I couldn’t accomplish something or I couldn’t overcome an obstacle. Finally, I said, the hell with that because I can and I will… From that point in time, any goal that I needed to accomplish, I’ve dedicated 100% of myself and have made every sacrifice possible to making that happen. And to this day, I have accomplished every task and every goal I have set out for. It may not have always been perfect, but it was accomplished. Therefore, if I can do it, so can you… Go after it if you want it… This is a new year and it’s time for your new leaf, so no excuses. Just get it done!.!.

Challenging Interviews

G&C Partners — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:23:58 +0000

I had a very interesting conversation with a student this evening and I think it will benefit all of you, regardless if you are interviewing for medical, business, dental, graduate, or pharmacy school.

So, when you are on the interview trail, you may have an experience what I call “Good Cop / Bad Cop”. Essentially it’s when you interview at an institution and 1 interviewer is totally chill while 1 interview is a pain in the ass! When I was interviewing for both medical school and residency, I had this experience 2-3 times. For medical school, I got grilled on why I got Cs in Physics but did well on the Physical Science of the MCAT. I mean, I got grilled… Asked about why I got 2 Cs, if I could handle medical school, if I had a lack of focus, if I was ready for challenging coursework, if I was capable of completing the program, etc… All of this over 2 Cs in Physics while having a very respectable GPA from the University of Michigan. In another interview, the person asked only 2 questions, why I want to be a doctor and why I chose to do research. Clearly, those were very straight forward.

I’m saying that because all of you should know how to handle this situation. If this happens to you, be steadfast in your answers because they are trying to play a game with you or even break you… For me, I was honest and said I took very difficult Physics classes with Engineering majors and Physics didn’t quite come together until I studied for the MCAT. Yes, I was ready to do medical school and I demonstrated academic excellence with my high GPA from Columbia University and solid grades at the University of Michigan. I told them I’ve never lost sight of what I wanted to accomplish and that motivation helped me raise my Verbal Section of the MCAT by 3 points. I never showed signs of weakness or never let them get the best of me no matter how hard they asked or how much they wanted me to cave in. If you cave in or show weakness or lack of preparation in your answers, you will get on the wait-list at best, but get some rejections for sure…

Please don’t be mistaken, the admissions and applications process for professional schools is a game and you should be using a strategy, it’s not random luck… You need to have a package together and have a plan for who you are, what you offer, and why you are going to excel in that profession. You can’t give in or show any lack of confidence in this, because if you do, you’ll be get some unfortunate rejections.

So, stay strong, be diligent, and be resilient in this process… I do what I do because I want you all to have that experience and understanding that I never had when I was in your position. Thus, I genuinely hope you all act on this advice and execute it…

Master’s vs. Post-Bac

G&C Partners — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 18:16:58 +0000

So the other day I had a great conversation with a former student of mine about the differences between doing a Master’s Degree and a Post-Baccalaureate training. Let me start by saying I’m super biased. I did an MA after college so of course, my perspective is biased; nevertheless, I do have some thoughts to share.

One of the things to note is that everything is an investment and that you have to stop and look at the big picture.

If you do a post-bac, the advantage is: it’s only 1 year, it can greatly improve your GPA, it can demonstrate excellence in classes you need when applying for medical/dental school. There isn’t a huge downside to a post-bac. The only downside would be if you didn’t do well. If you don’t do well, then consider yourself looking for a different career option.

If you do a master’s, the advantage is: you challenge yourself in a new and unique way, you gain a vast breadth of educational experience, you can demonstrate academic excellence while forming an entirely new GPA, and finally you get a degree. There isn’t a huge downside to a master’s degree other than the fact most are 2 year programs. The upside to doing a master’s is great, primarily being you have an advanced degree to fall back on should medical/dental school not work out. In addition, having an advanced degree will make you unique when applying to any professional program, whether law school, business school, or medical school.

Therefore, my vote is for doing a MA/MS degree instead of the post-bac. Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with doing an post-bac, It’s just that in the long run, or big picture, the degree will help open doors for you more than a post-bac will.

Healthcare

G&C Partners — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 03:07:18 +0000

Today is a historic day in the fact it was 8 years ago today we witnessed the tragic loss that occurred at the World Trade Center in New York City. Today is also important in terms of healthcare because we are about to witness a potential change in the way we view healthcare and the issues surround personal health within the United States. The month of September has consisted of considerable debate but it may signify a starting point in the direction healthcare will move. As a medical doctor, it is imperative for me to understand the concepts and specifics of what is going on in healthcare. As many of you pursue a career in medicine and dentistry, it’s just as important, of not more, to stay abreast to the change that is ahead in healthcare. It will affect your future in many ways, so don’t underestimate this debate and its importance to your career. In addition, as you are interviewing at medical or dental schools, be prepared for questions pertaining to healthcare. If you don’t know anything about it, then you need to contact me or someone who does. If you know a good amount, take the next step and evaluate how healthcare reform will affect your future practice of medicine or dentistry.

Finally, stay on your secondary applications! Now is not the time to slack on a secondary application… Handle that business!.!.

End Goal

G&C Partners — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:02:32 +0000

I just want to make a quick clarification about the overall goal and purpose of G&C Partners. At the end of the day, our goal is to see students matriculate and graduate from a professional degree program that best meets their personal needs and future career endeavors. This is the sole purpose of our company. I genuinely wish I had this type of service when I was applying to medical school, graduate school, and when I almost applied to business school. Thus, G&C Partners is to fill a void that is much needed for so many students who are seeking to get into a professional degree program. G&C Partners isn’t about making as much money as possible. In fact, all services have been free for a reasonable period of time, and the only reason we charge is due to time constraints and realistic limitations due to the amount of students we service. Think about this, you pay $1000 or more for MCAT, DAT, GRE, or GMAT test prep through the Princeton Review because it is an investment in your future as a M.D. or D.D.S. or M.B.A. In the same way, if you were to pay $500 for a comprehensive review and evaluation of the fundamental aspects of your application from G&C Partners, you are making an investment and gaining an edge over thousands of applicants. So many students won’t have a resource of people that have been through this process before and these students won’t have an assessment of all the major and minor details that can significantly affect the outcome of an application. Thus, if you consider the consultation services of G&C Partners, think about the investment you are making and advantage you gaining over scores of applicants. Please read our testimonials and note we can provide contacts for dozens of students we have helped. It really does make a difference. Thanks for your time…

Internships

G&C Partners — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 06:32:34 +0000

G&C Partners is looking to network at various colleges and universities around the United States. We believe the best marketing is through word of mouth from friends, peers, and classmates. Thus, we are currently working with several schools to establish fall/spring internship programs by which students will: learn about all professional degree programs, network with various professionals, interact with student organizations from their own institution but also with other national institutions, coordinate a campus event for our lecture seminar, and act as a liaison with career services. This is an excellent opportunity for students to: build their resumes, prepare for admissions to a professional degree program, gain insight into the healthcare industry, and demonstrate leadership and managerial skills. If you or someone you know would be interested, please contact us at: gnc@gncpartners.com

Resume vs. Personal Statement

G&C Partners — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 06:20:24 +0000

Ah, I totally understand the difficulty of putting a nice personal statement together. Most of you by now at least have a solid draft on paper and are getting people to give you feedback before it officially goes off to AMCAS or AADSAS. Remember a personal statement is the “paper personality” so make sure that this first non-physical interaction is just as impressive as your first physical interaction when you interview. Cover all your bases: why do you want to go to medical/dental school; what characteristics, experiences, and qualifications do you have that make you a competitive applicant; how do you see yourself using your professional degree in the future. This is the bread and butter of a personal statement for medical school and dental school, and addressing these points will help your application out a lot! You can be more sophisticated by tying in a story or an experience but whatever the case, get to these three questions in some way shape or form.

G&C Partners have some good tips about correlating the resume and your personal statement, but we are going to save that for the seminar; however, we will say this… The students who are able to weave the resume and personal statement together into a seamless-fluid-cohesive entity are more likely to have an admissions committee deem them strong candidates than those who have the resume and personal statement appear as distinct bodies of work. Take this as food for thought until our next seminar.

21st Century Doctors & Your Medical School Application

G&C Partners — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 05:39:38 +0000

Ok, so as some of you may or may not be aware, there’s actually a predicted physician shortage expected by 2020 or even sooner, 2015. When I was speaking with directors from various admissions committees, I asked them if they were anticipating an increased size in their incoming medical school class to neutralize this potential shortage. All of them said YES! The smaller schools, a class size of 100-120, can’t take on a huge increase just do to space limitations and such; however, some of the larger schools 160-180, can accommodate a reasonable increase in size if its moderate growth each year. This means that there will be 5 more slots available at Small School M and 15 more slots available at Large School P. As you know, the size of a medical school class is regulated; however there was a 2.3 percent increase in first-year class size from 2006-2007. This percentage will continue to grow! I believe there will be an increasing demand for physicians in the near future and the only way to meet this demand is to increase the pool of licensed physicians.

I say that to say this, if you are applying this cycle, take this fact into consideration… Think seriously about the schools you are applying to, especially the ones in the Misc category. That might be the school that is taking 8 more students this year than it did last year. You may be competitive at a place you don’t except you would. Be balanced in your AMCAS medical school selections, but remember the field of medicine must get more bright young doctors for our healthcare system to survive. Just keep that as food for thought!

On another note, please note that I send out these updates via email, but I may not do all of them like this so I don’t clutter inboxes. Thus, check out: www.gncpartners.com/blog.html or you can follow at: www.gncpartners.wordpress.com

AMCAS Q&A #1

G&C Partners — Sat, 30 May 2009 05:00:13 +0000

This past week I have received several emails concerning the AMCAS application and the level of detail that needs to be submitted for experiences. These are valid questions and concerns. The main point to remember here is to be interesting yet concise. For work and research experiences, I recommend using between 3-5 descriptive and focused sentences. You want this experience to be solid and appear better than your competition; thus, you want to use action words “performed” “analyzed” “developed” “managed” with descriptive terms to follow. Some of you will be surprised at how many applications misuse proper vocabulary. Here’s a good example of what to do: “determined the feasibility of an electronic clinical trials recruitment system to identify patients who qualify for cardiovascular clinical trials based on information within their electronic medical record.” This sentence is long, but contains a lot of great information about the actual experience. From this sentence you can add on what you learned, your level of responsibility, and how you matured from the experience. Here’s a bad example of what not to do: “looked at information to give patients.” This sentence is short, non-descriptive, contains very little action verbs, and there’s virtually no way for the reader to interpret the quality of the work done. For volunteer experiences, hobbies, and misc activities, I would use between 2-4 sentences for description and explanation.

Finally, you definitely want to use all important things that occurred during college and/or your post-bac/graduate school if you did further education. All of this is fair game. In terms of high school, it’s a much more difficult call. I would add high school activities if, and only if, they were genuinely meaningful, relatively important to your growth and personal maturity, or significant in providing a clearer depiction of who you are. For example, if you were a member of the national honor society and you continued to get various honors in college, I’d add that. If you were captain of a varsity sport that won a championship, I’d add that. If you had a uncle that was diagnosed with cancer while you were in high school and that influenced you in various ways, I’d add those experiences. Just make sure you describe the high school experiences in the same way you describe the college ones. You don’t want them to seem inconsequential.

Consulting Issues

G&C Partners — Tue, 19 May 2009 06:50:25 +0000

Advising for professional school admissions and applications has been wonderful. Some students ask me if I ever get annoyed by a lot of questions or random emails but the truth is I don’t. I don’t mind giving advise to my students because I’m privileged and honored to provide this service for you. I remember what it was like when I first finished undergrad and I was trying to gather legitimate guidance about applying for an MA or MD program. The career services office at my undergraduate institution was good, but their advice was way too general to be valuable. I realize the guidance I give you all is much better because it’s incredibly more significant, specialized, personalized, and based on vast experiences. I’m just glad to provide you all with the opportunity that I never had. At the end of the day, that makes me feel good. I get excited to see you all motivated, encouraged, and focused!

There is only one issue that bothers me… And that is when I give a person some great, specific, and personalized advice but he/she chooses to ignore it. This seriously makes me sad because I know what techniques can help get candidates to that next level, but it’s ridiculous to watch them disregard my guidance, especially when they went out of the way to get it. I’ve been through it all… I’ve seen a lot of things from before matriculation to after graduation; thus, I trust students heed the advice offered and aim for the sky! The truth is I can guide you to the next level mountain top but you have to be willing to do the work with me.

Real Honest Advice!

G&C Partners — Sat, 16 May 2009 06:12:58 +0000

Listen, people sometimes ask me what does it fundamentally take to not only get into a professional school but to make it through a graduate school… My answer is this: Believe in yourself! You’ve got to believe in yourself! If you don’t believe in you, no one else will… And don’t expect anyone else to believe in you if you don’t believe in you. No self-doubt… Believe in you, period!

MCAT Exam Thoughts

G&C Partners — Sat, 16 May 2009 06:10:46 +0000

The last few weeks, I have received many emails from pre-medical students stressing about their upcoming MCAT exam. Most of these emails have pertained to what to do, and how to prepare, the final week before the exam. I recommend doing a final diagnostic test about 7-10 days before the actual exam. The last thing you want to do is burn yourself out by doing too many diagnostic tests just before the exam. The final week, you really want to focus on spending a good amount of time reviewing “big ticket” items and major concepts, not intricate detail. For the MCAT, these include topics such as hormones, immunology, and prok vs. euk. Thus, about 4-5 days out, make sure your do this. The day before the exam is the most important! Don’t stress yourself out… The day before, briefly review major topics but definitely make sure to relax. Perhaps, watch a movie, workout, and do anything that will keep you relaxed. Make sure to get plenty of sleep as well. The day before the exam isn’t the time to cram in every detail because you’ll just get more stressed than necessary and by that point it’s too late, believe me!