Strange question asked by my advisor...

[texandoctobe]

Hi everybody,

Today I had a meeting with my ex-advisor for him to write me a rec letter. All was great until he asked me: "What do you do other than volunteering and shadowing that would make you a good candidate for medical school?"

I had no idea how to answer the question!! I brought up the fact that I work full-time and don't have much time to devote to things so I try to expose myself to as much medicine that I can. He wasn't looking for community service, research, volunteering & shadowing, hobbies, sports, or a story of why I'm a good candidate. I'm really stumped by this!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[Drrrrrr. Celty]

Realistically that's such a open ended question. You could have replied to what you believe makes you a unique individual. You could have been like well I also enjoy reading books which have made me very good at critical thinking or I work in high stress situations as a cop lol. Anything really.

 

[yearn4ivy]

Hi everybody,

Today I had a meeting with my ex-advisor for him to write me a rec letter. All was great until he asked me: "What do you do other than volunteering and shadowing that would make you a good candidate for medical school?"

I had no idea how to answer the question!! I brought up the fact that I work full-time and don't have much time to devote to things so I try to expose myself to as much medicine that I can. He wasn't looking for community service, research, volunteering & shadowing, hobbies, sports, or a story of why I'm a good candidate. I'm really stumped by this!

Create a CV (Curriculum Vitae), categories include Awards, clinical experience, work experience, volunteer experience, Conference papers & presentation.

In addition, start writing a draft of your personal statement: it will help you answer the question "why did you choose medicine", and tease out your goals for med school.

I gave all my letter writes a copy of my CV, personal statement, and unofficial transcript.

My advisor even responded to my personal statement, giving me ideas for a concluding statement because I was stumped.

 

[Hamiltonian]

Pre-med advisors are notorious for trying to make you second guess yourself, testing you to make you check your desire and motivation.

 

[texandoctobe]

Create a CV (Curriculum Vitae), categories include Awards, clinical experience, work experience, volunteer experience, Conference papers & presentation.

In addition, start writing a draft of your personal statement: it will help you answer the question "why did you choose medicine", and tease out your goals for med school.

I gave all my letter writes a copy of my CV, personal statement, and unofficial transcript.

My advisor even responded to my personal statement, giving me ideas for a concluding statement because I was stumped.

I gave him all of that including essays that I'll be submitting to schools and he made a few corrections here and there.

Any situation I told him about what makes me a good candidate he shook off and said that wasn't what he was looking for.

 

[texandoctobe]

Pre-med advisors are notorious for trying to make you second guess yourself, testing you to make you check your desire and motivation.

No kidding

 

[Bernoull]

Hi everybody,

Today I had a meeting with my ex-advisor for him to write me a rec letter. All was great until he asked me: "What do you do other than volunteering and shadowing that would make you a good candidate for medical school?"

I had no idea how to answer the question!! I brought up the fact that I work full-time and don't have much time to devote to things so I try to expose myself to as much medicine that I can. He wasn't looking for community service, research, volunteering & shadowing, hobbies, sports, or a story of why I'm a good candidate. I'm really stumped by this!

S/he's effing with ur head..

 

[yearn4ivy]

I gave him all of that including essays that I'll be submitting to schools and he made a few corrections here and there.

Any situation I told him about what makes me a good candidate he shook off and said that wasn't what he was looking for.

Then pound your answer to "why medicine" into his head!

Leadership experiences and scholarly endeavors (research too) make you a good candidate for medical school

 

[Sammich117]

I think it's a fair question. Hobbies, experiences, etc all play a vital role in being a good physician.

 

[Morsetlis]

I think it's a fair question. Hobbies, experiences, etc all play a vital role in being a good physician.

Experiences, yes, because they strengthen you and grant you wisdom.

Hobbies... like whitewater rafting and writing poetry, don't.

 

[eatsleeprepeat]

Experiences, yes, because they strengthen you and grant you wisdom.

Hobbies... like whitewater rafting and writing poetry, don't.

beg to differ. having non-medical hobbies is a huge part of being a good physician, gotta keep that stress level down, you know.

 

[Mackey]

Hi everybody,

Today I had a meeting with my ex-advisor for him to write me a rec letter. All was great until he asked me: "What do you do other than volunteering and shadowing that would make you a good candidate for medical school?"

I had no idea how to answer the question!! I brought up the fact that I work full-time and don't have much time to devote to things so I try to expose myself to as much medicine that I can. He wasn't looking for community service, research, volunteering & shadowing, hobbies, sports, or a story of why I'm a good candidate. I'm really stumped by this!

So... you watched some doctors do their thing and you think it looked like fun, and you volunteered at a hospital fluffing patient's pillows...

And someone asking why you think you would be a good medical student was a strange question? Why does fluffing pillows and oooh'ing and aah'ing at an open heart surgery make you anything other than an average person?

Sheesh.. launch into a bunch of nonsense about how hard working you are (in context other than 'I'm so hard working I don't do anything else with my life'), some rationale behind why you fluffed pillows for zero-buckaroos a hour, or something. Being able to work for free and observing things that a vast majority of the population would find interesting don't really drive home your point of being a good candidate.

Also, have you ever written a letter of rec? It isn't easy to just bang out half a page on someone you know very little about. You should have gone in there with enough information for him to write a couple pages on. People are helping you out when they write you LORs, so help them out a bit yourself.

 

[JoshUNCW]

So... you watched some doctors do their thing and you think it looked like fun, and you volunteered at a hospital fluffing patient's pillows...

And someone asking why you think you would be a good medical student was a strangequestion? Why does fluffing pillows and oooh'ing and aah'ing at an open heart surgery make you anything other than an average person?

Sheesh.. launch into a bunch of nonsense about how hard working you are (in context other than 'I'm so hard working I don't do anything else with my life'), some rationale behind why you fluffed pillows for zero-buckaroos a hour, or something. Being able to work for free and observing things that a vast majority of the population would find interesting don't really drive home your point of being a good candidate.

Also, have you ever written a letter of rec? It isn't easy to just bang out half a page on someone you know very little about. You should have gone in there with enough information for him to write a couple pages on. People are helping you out when they write you LORs, so help them out a bit yourself.

No normal person would do those things.

 

[FloatOn]

I gave him all of that including essays that I'll be submitting to schools and he made a few corrections here and there.

Any situation I told him about what makes me a good candidate he shook off and said that wasn't what he was looking for.

Since you've already told him all about yourself, turn the question around and ask him what he would be looking for in a good candidate for med school.

 

[Mackey]

No normal person would do those things.

I think most normal people would look at a human heart for a moment and at least utter "neat."

I could always be wrong.

 

[JoshUNCW]

I think most normal people would look at a human heart for a moment and at least utter "neat."

I could always be wrong.

I think they would do more

 

[texandoctobe]

I talked to him again today and asked him what he meant by that question. I interrupted so that I could get my point across. I talked about what keeps motivating me and that my family doesn't support me and approve of what I'm doing and how i've supported myself. Not too sure if this is what he wanted but i didn't know how else to answer the question. I didn't think that would be important. He got my message though.

Turns out this advisor writes good rec letters but is known to ask really open ended questions and start to mess with your head during his little interview.

 

[justdoit31]

Experiences, yes, because they strengthen you and grant you wisdom.

Hobbies... like whitewater rafting and writing poetry, don't.

I disagree- having hobbies not only helps you as a physician being able to de-stress but it also helps you with patient relations... I don't know how many people I have seen in clinic who shared a hobby with me and that we could discuss it during the exam which helped them relax and gained favor for me.

 

[LizzyM]

I disagree- having hobbies not only helps you as a physician being able to de-stress but it also helps you with patient relations... I don't know how many people I have seen in clinic who shared a hobby with me and that we could discuss it during the exam which helped them relax and gained favor for me.

Likewise, there are those personal attributes and characteristics, including character, that are very important but so hard to assess. Are you honest, trustworthy, humble, courageous, courteous, etc?

 

[WildcatsDoc]

I think it's a fair question. Hobbies, experiences, etc all play a vital role in being a good physician.

While I agree, I think experiences and hobbies are vital in making a well-rounded, balanced individual, not just a good physician.