Mount Sinai Humanities and Medicine Program (HuMed)

By Jessica Freedman, MD, MedEdits

An excellent article in the New York Times today discusses the Mount Sinai Humanities and Medicine Program (HuMed). This program allows students "from top liberal arts colleges and research universities" to gain early acceptance to the Mount Sinai School of Medicine when they are sophomores in college, two years before they actually begin their medical studies. If admitted, these students are not required to take some major hard science prerequisites (including organic chemistry) or the MCAT. In fact, they are required to pursue a humanities or social sciences major. This article was based on a study written by Drs. David Muller and Nathan Kase that is published in the August issue of Academic Medicine.

As a former faculty member at Mount Sinai, the aspect of this program that concerns me most is that some students enrolled in the program may not be fully committed to the practice of medicine. Interestingly, specific data for the numbers of students who took "nonscholarly leaves of absence for academic or personal reasons" was not revealed but the article did state the following:

"More troubling is the HuMed group's significantly higher rate of nonscholarly leave of absence. This may indicate that a very small number of students struggle academically and require leave before returning to school, or are unsure of their career choice and find their uncertainty compounded by the demanding medical school curriculum."

Based on my own work with medical students who took part in the HuMed program, they are all exceedingly bright and motivated and clearly had the academic potential to succeed in medicine and other disciplines. However, I did question, at times, whether they were as committed to the practice to medicine as their peers who had taken a traditional path to medical school.

Click Here to read the article in Academic Medicine.

Click Here to read the NYT article.

Medical School Interviews!!!

By Jessica Freedman, MD, MedEdits

We would like to congratulate those MedEdits clients who have already secured medical school interviews at impressive schools including:

George Washington University
Ohio State University
The University of Pittsburgh
University of Texas, San Antonio
The University of Virginia

If you have not yet received interview invitations, don't be stressed! It is still very early in the season.

For students interested in working with me as they prepare for interviews, I encourage you to contact us soon. We are starting to book in to October for interview services.

Who's Who in America

By Jessica Freedman, MD, MedEdits

I wanted to let all of my readers know that my credentials can soon be verified in Marquis Who's Who in America. My biography was selected for inclusion in the forthcoming 2011 Edition of Who's Who in America.

Marquis Who's Who "endeavors to profile the leaders of American society; those men and women who are influencing their nation's development." 

Residency Applications and Plagiarism

By Jessica Freedman, MD, MedEdits

I am not surprised by the results of a study published today in the Annals of Internal Medicine that discovered evidence of plagiarism in 5.2% of residency applications. This finding was more common in non-US citizen applicants. Each year at MedEdits, we have applicants who ask if we will write essays on their behalf. We do not offer this service but there are many companies that do. I have blogged previously about Turnitin software which is designed to detect plagiarism in applications and I am curious to see if the study results motivate other programs to utilize this resource.

Click Here to access the article.

ERAS Resources

By Jessica Freedman, MD, MedEdits

The Association of American Medical Colleges has terrific resources this year to guide applicants through the residency application process. The most notable addition to their library of resources includes video tutorials about how to navigate the web-based application.

Click Here to access the AAMC ERAS resources.

If you are interested in working with me on interview preparation this year, I encourage you to retain my services as soon as possible. I am currently booked for the remainder of this summer but I am forming a wait list. Every year I have clients who postpone their plans to apply and I will turn to the wait list to fill their "spots." If you are interested in working with me this summer, contact our office.

I am also accepting clients for the 2010/2011 application season.

I encourage applicants to hire our editors for help with documents. MedEdits' small group of professional editors are all trained by me in the art of medical admissions.

Teach for America

By Jessica Freedman, MD, MedEdits

Every year, "graduates" of the Teach for America program seek out my guidance and I have been impressed by the experiences my clients have had through this program. Teach for America is a nonprofit organization that trains recent college graduates to teach at public schools located in underserved areas. Teach for America has always been a popular choice for premedical students seeking to gain teaching experience  especially for those hoping to pursue careers in underserved areas. However, obtaining a job with Teach for America has become increasingly competitive. In 2009, there was a 32% increase in applications; 46,359 individuals applied for 4,500 positions.

An excellent article in the New York Times discusses the competitiveness of the Teach for America program.

Federal Funding for Foreign Medical Students

By Jessica Freedman, MD, MedEdits

The Governmental Accountability Office recently recommended that the Department of Education collect information from US loan recipients who attend foreign medical schools. Some people question if this is a worthy investment since some students who receive these funds may never graduate from medical school or receive residency matches. Dr. Freedman is quoted in this informative article. Click Here to read the article.