Tele-Admissions: Skype As a Screening Tool

You have probably heard of tele-medicine before. It’s basically a way for doctors to attend to patients in remote locations via video conferencing technologies. It certainly isn’t a replacement for in-person care, but it’s better than nothing for people with limited access to health care settings. Tele-medicine is definitely part of the digital revolution in medicine.

It occurred to me, after a brief Twitter conversation with @thegrandfinalle, that this same video conferencing technology could help medical school admissions committees and applicants make the admissions process a bit easier. Why don’t we bring that digital revolution to the admissions office as well?

MCAT 2015: The Wrong Step in the Right Direction

Many future, or current premeds have probably heard about the new MCAT in 2015 by now. If you haven’t, and you’re curious, here’s a link to the PDF document the American Association of Medical Colleges, or AAMC for short, released on the new MCAT. While this new MCAT is an indication that the medical community is responding to the importance of character – something  I have mentioned before - it’s not going about it correctly. Before we begin though, let’s first talk about the old MCAT, what’s new on the “MCAT 2015″, and  then go from there.

The current MCAT, based on the model the AAMC created in 1991, covers three major subject areas: physical sciences, biological sciences, and verbal reasoning. It is primarily a measure of knowledge mastery and analytical thinking in the sciences and verbal sections, respectively. The test assesses this mastery through the use of multiple choice questions, and, as such, there is only one right answer to any given question.

Cutthroat Culture: Why the Competition Needs to Change

I eyed my chat screen with a good amount of suspicion. A friend of a friend who I had rarely spoken to had initiated a chat conversation with me with the opening line “How are medical school apps going?” The cursor blinked in anticipation.

I began to think about possible ulterior motives that she, another pre-medical student, could have had. Perhaps she just wanted to use me as a comparison for her own chances, a gauge for her success, or an excuse to feel better about herself. I doubted if she truly cared whether I had found success or not. When it comes to premedical undergraduate students, commonly referred to as “premeds”, friends are rare amongst the competition, and that’s very unfortunate.