The Medical School HQ Podcast: Premed | Med School | Residency | MCAT | USMLE | COMLEX show

The Medical School HQ Podcast: Premed | Med School | Residency | MCAT | USMLE | COMLEX

Summary: The Medical School HQ Podcast is an extension of MedicalSchoolHQ.net. Started by Ryan Gray and his wife Allison, who are both physicians, it is another means of bringing valuable information to pre med students and medical students. Interviews with deans of medical schools, chats with trusted, valuable advisors and up-to-date news, The Medical School HQ Podcast and MedicalSchoolHQ.net are the go-to resources for all things related to the path to medical school. We are here to help you figure out the medical school requirements. We will show you how to answer the hard questions during your medical school interviews. What is a good MCAT Score? What is the best MCAT Prep? What the heck is the AMCAS? What is the best undergraduate program? What is medical school like? What do you do to volunteer and shadow? Get your questions answered here.

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Podcasts:

 MSHQ 036 : Life as a Flight Surgeon & Intro to Our New Project | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 34:12

Some craziness is happening around here. This week Allison interviews me about my job as a flight surgeon. I get a lot of questions about what a flight surgeon is, and what we do on a daily basis.   I can tell you one thing. A flight surgeon DOES NOT operate on a plane!   We are basically family practice doctors for pilots and other essential personnel involved with flight. We are also occupational health doctors and preventive medicine doctors all wrapped into one.

 MSHQ 035 : How to Fix a Medical School Application After Starting Premed Poorly | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 53:58

Dr. Polites is back with us again to talk about how to go about fixing a poor start to a premed career. If you remember, Dr. Polites joined us back in session 23.   Dr. Polites and I try to create scenarios that students may be in, whether it is a poor GPA or low MCAT score, so he/she can listen to the advice Dr. Polites has to offer.   If you have a good GPA and low MCAT, should you retake the MCAT? Should you try to retake the test with the hopes of raising the score? We talk about that!   What about getting a C in a course - should you retake the course? For the AMCAS application you have to average you grades. For the AACOMAS application you us the LAST grade, even if you do worse.

 MSHQ 034 : #RespectTheMCAT with @PremedPrincess_ | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 38:19

The world of Twitter is very confusing to most. I even thought it was the weirdest thing when it came out. I signed up for a personal account very early on and never used it, because I never knew it's power.   Fast forward to last year when I created an account for Medical School HQ and actually began learning how to use it. It's crazy how you can truly reach out and touch (tweet) anybody in the world (as long as they are on Twitter!).   One of the earlier people I saw on Twitter, sharing advice and retweeting fun pictures and stories of other premeds was @PremedPrincess_. She's a premed twitter star with over 9,000 followers (as of this publishing).   I reached out to her to find out who she is - or I guess at the time, I didn't even know if she was even a she. You never know in todays internet world. 65 year old Billy Bob from the middle of nowhere could have been having a blast being a Premed Princess :)!

 MSHQ 033 : Transitioning to Medical School – How it Begins! | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 43:47

Allison and I talk about what it was like transitioning into medical school the first year. Some of the obstacles, frustrations and what worked for us, what didn't and how we survived!   We talk about how we chose what to do with our first summer during medical school (typically your only free summer during medical school).   Take a listen for a lot of fun conversation!

 MSHQ 032 : Top 7 Things You Should Know as a Medical Student | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 34:56

Subscribe and Download iOS/Mac/Windows - You can subscribe to the show in iTunes. Or you could manually add the RSS feed to your aggregator.   Android/Mac/Windows - You can download DoubleTwist and use that to manage all of our past and future episodes  Session 32 We had a great response to Session 31 - 8 Pieces of Information Every Premed Should Know that we thought we would add follow up with medical school tips for this week.   These are the 7 things that we thought you should know entering medical school and as you go through med school to increase your chances of whatever residency you want, maximize your time and enjoy yourself.

 MSHQ 031 : 8 Pieces of Information Every Premed Should Know | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 30:39

Allison and I talk about 8 key pieces of information that every student going through the premed process, whether in high school or in college, should know.

 MSHQ 030 : Military Medical School and Being a Medical Officer | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 44:48

Dr. Saguil now works at the 'Military Medical School,' located in Bethesda, MD, right outside of Washington, D.C. USUHS has been around since 1972 and has graduated 5000 physicians. It is an allopathic (MD) granting degree. USUHS is part of the AMCAS application which is used to apply to the majority (except for Texas) allopathic medical schools.   USUHS doesn't charge for applying! But that doesn't mean you should apply, just because it's free. You should truly have an interest/desire to be part of something bigger/something other than yourself.   1/3 of students have some prior association with the military, ROTC, Academy or prior active service.

 MSHQ 029 : Interview with ZDoggMD, Yes – He is a Real Doctor | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 44:32

Dr. Zubin Damania, a.k.a. ZDoggMD, is a hospitalist, healthcare visionary and internet personality. He was grateful enough to sit down and talk to me for a little while about his path to medicine, some of his struggles with his career and the exciting stuff he is doing with the Downtown Project in Las Vegas, NV.  Dr. Damania grew up in a dual physician household, and went into medicine just to "spite" his parents. He followed this path into medicine because he liked science, was good at taking tests and had an aptitude for taking tests - which he now says are not good reasons for going into medicine.  Dr. Damania talks about how he mostly saw the negative side of medicine as he grew up with parents as physicians, which he thinks helped in proving to the admissions committees that he truly knew medicine was what he wanted to do.  One of the most disturbing things Dr. Damania said near the beginning of the interview - that he actually liked the process of being premed, getting into medical school and going through it. Maybe we should call a psych consult for him?! He actually finished his undergrad at UC Berkeley in 3 years and found medicine a "nice change of pace." If only we could all see it that way!

 MSHQ 028 : The USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 CK with Dr. McInnis | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:40

In our interview today I talk to Dr. Mike McInnis, Chief Educator at Doctors in Training, a small company that focuses mainly on USMLE (United States Medical Licensing Exam) and COMLEX (Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing Examination) board prep for the medical student. We talk in-depth about the USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 board exams.   One of the most important things about the USMLE Step 1 is that it one of the main determining factors in your residency application. Similar to a great MCAT score giving you an opportunity to go to the best medical schools, an excellent USMLE Step 1 score will give you many more opportunities when you are applying to residency. Think of the most competitive residency programs like the most competitive medical school. Typically the students that score the highest on the Step 1 will have the best opportunities to get into the best, most competitive residencies.

 MSHQ 027 : The Non-Traditional Medical Student – A Different Path to Medical School | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 44:09

Liza Thompson started working with premed students 20 years ago. She has worked with directly with non-traditional medical students during that time with two different postbaccalaureate (postbac) programs at Goucher and Johns Hopkins. She now runs an advising company for medical school applicants and postbac applicants called Thompson Advising.   We've covered some non-traditional student stuff before. If you haven't seen those posts and podcasts, check out the links in the main article.   We talk exactly about what a postbac program is, the different types of post-bac programs and some tips on selecting one. We also discuss do-it-yourself (DIY) postbac programs.

 MSHQ 026 : 6 Myths of Osteopathic Medical School | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 51:02

Session 26 is a great interview with Patrick and Jonathan, two 3rd year DO (Osteopathic) Medical Students at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine. They wrote A Brief Guide to Osteopathic Medicine which is published on AACOM.   They thought there was a gap in the understanding of what osteopathic medical school is and they wanted to fill that gap.  We talked about what their friends and families reactions were when they were admitted to an osteopathic medical school. An initial reaction that Jonathan's family had was for him to wait or go to medical school overseas.  We also got into a discussion about the recent post that I wrote about if we even needed a DO degree. Patrick respectfully disagreed with my argument that osteopathic physicians should stick to primary care so they can practice OMT.  The biggest thing we talked about was this amazingly helpful guide that they wrote. One of my favorite parts was the 6 Myths of Osteopathic Medical School.

 MSHQ 025 : Top 5 Keys to a Successful Internship | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 38:34

With medical school winding down for 4th year medical students, and the thought of being THE doctor on the wards looming large in most minds, we thought we would put together a list of the top 5 keys to being a successful intern.   If you have any other thoughts on what it takes to be a successful intern, let us know in the comment section below!

 MSHQ 024 : Interview with Bow Tie Ben, 4th Year Med Student | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 30:44

Ben Azevedo, better known as Bow Tie Ben, as of this recording is a 4th year medical student. I first found out about Ben when I saw this article and video. I was amazed that a medical student was taking the time to make bow ties during medical school. He wasn't making them for him. He actually has a business that he runs at New Orleans Bow Ties!   I reached out to Ben because he seemed like the perfect example of a student who is actively involved with something outside of medical school. We often talk about the need for balance in life. Medical school can easily engulf everything that you do, and if you don't put an effort into fighting it, that is all you will do. We as humans need balance, need a break from all the studying and need to get away from medicine so that when we go back into it, we have a fresh mind, ready to absorb all the new info we need to learn.

 MSHQ 023 : Interview with Dr. Polites of MedPrep at Wash. U. | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 40:42

Dr. Greg Polites must wander around the campus of Washington University in St. Louis with a flock of adoring fans like Justin Beiber anywhere in public.   Dr. Polites is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine. He's also on the admissions committee and the coursemaster for the Practice of Medicine course for 1st and 3rd year medical students there.   For premeds at Wash. U, he's the instructor for MedPrep, a course that has very similar goals as we do here at the Medical School Headquarters. Upwards of 90% of all premed students at Wash. U take the MedPrep course on their way to medical school.

 MSHQ 022 : Interview with MD2B Publisher Allison Greco | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 33:16

Allison Greco is the brains behind the blog MD2B, which you can find at md2bgrecoa3.com.   The MD2B is coming true in just a few short weeks (as of this posting) as Allison is graduating from Jefferson Medical College and will start her Internal Medicine residency at Jefferson in July.

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