YouTube Deep Summary

## Welcome and Today’s Agenda [00:00] What's up everyone? Coach Tony here. In this session, we're going to break down how to prepare for college as a potential premed student. If it's a very first time meeting, my name is Coach Tony Masha, former UC Berkeley admissions reader, former UCLA outreach director, and we've been helping families with the college admissions process for the last 16 years. In this journey, and doing so, you start to see a lot of our students do really, really well in this process. So, uh, here in these trainings, my goal is kind of demystify, kind of pull back the curtains, give you guys some information that we tell our students so you guys can kind of replicate the same success for your family as well. Okay, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen uh, really quick. Let me see if we can some tech difficulties real fast there. One more time. Take two Google Doc um, as well. So we're going to do talk about how to prep uh for college as a premed premed student, right? So I say potential potential uh premed student itself. So let's go ahead and talk about that. That'll be that the topic for this session, right? So uh a few things when when it comes to preparing, right? So if you're watching this, this is for high school families, right? It's almost kind of for high school families as well too, right? So, first off, let let's do a ## What Pre-Med Actually Means in High School [01:30] quick FYI uh regarding uh med school because people uh have a few misconceptions when it comes to actually the medical path medical path uh as well, right? Keep in mind, all right, as a high school student, right, as a high school student, right, you're going to undergrad, right? Not med school is a thing people focus like, oh, I have to get this that. Oh, you're going to undergrad and basically once you finish undergrad, then you apply to med school. That comes after uh comes after as well too. In this middle, right, you're going to be applying with with uh your undergraduate GPA. That's when that one matters. You'll be applying with uh your MCAT, which like the adult like the adult the the the med SAT ACT score, right? and you're applying uh with your resume of that and your they call the CV the curriculum fet right of the fancy name of our resume going there that is not covered in today's call that that'll be a separate topic separate day for a separate group of people today our goal is just focus on the getting us right today we're going to focus on high school to undergrad that's kind of the the focus of today is focus on that pre the initial path high school to undergraduate itself. Okay, before we all start to another FYI number two, right? Is that regarding PMED, right? PMED is not a major, right? ## FYIs About Med School... GPA... MCAT... and Your CV [03:00] It's just a premed is a set of classes that you need to take. Uh that's it, right? That's what you need to take, right? The reason why a lot of people are bio majors is usually bio biology related majors, right? overlap with the premed requirements. And I think that's the big takeaway here is that uh if you are a bio major, your premed classes and your bio classes overlap. They're pretty much the same. That's kind of why a lot of premed students are like bio related majors because it overlaps nicely uh in that uh aspect here. Right? So that's kind of the the quick little FYI first uh for us to understand. Right? Now that we're good there, let's go and talk about it. Right? So when it comes to the admissions process itself there's kind of two factors uh that are the most factors uh that are the most important right most important uh in this journey itself right the first one is going to be the academics and number two is going ## BS/MD Programs Explained... Pros and Major Caveats [04:00] to be the activities uh is number two itself too so we'll talk about both of these in the content today one more thing I I'll do an FY number three as well too right f number three here is regarding BSMD. So there is before we talk about that there is a one more pathway that a lot of families like to talk a lot about uh is the BSMD pathway. The BSMD is an accelerated uh uh journey of undergrad plus med school in typically uh six to five to five to seven years uh is usually how it is as well too. The BSMD program, right? This the accelerated program, right? So this way you're applying directly as a high school a high school senior high school senior into this right right away as well too keep in mind right with this with this route there is no MCAT uh needed to apply right again keep in mind there's a few little caveats uh we actually interviewed coach Sonia we have a video on YouTube you guys can check it out uh about more of this but there's no MCAT need to apply you go directly to this path here. The most important uh part of this path, right, is you're you need to be able to answer why do you want to go with a BSMD rather than a traditional medical program, right? And I think this is the one question that most people do not have an answer to in the sense of like your only answer and and it cannot be I want to finish two years faster is it because that's pretty much what it is. Everyone is doing BS to get there faster. But why why do you need to do this path as well? And out of every metal per medical medical person I've talked to, I'll say everyone most people ## Academic Priorities: Strong Grades and Strong Rigor [06:00] they do not recommend the BSMD pathway um for most people. So that's kind of the one of the the FYI here because again no one really knows uh what you want to do and so that's that's the big thing here. Okay. So now going back right two things that was important one the academics and activities. So starting first with the academics right this relies a lot on our classes right a lot of classes as well too. So in terms of the classes that we take right uh I say the two areas that we focus a lot on in general is going to be like strong grades right is number one and number two is strong rigor right in your schedule itself. So, you want to keep your grades as strong as you can cuz keep in mind you're going to be in school for a very, very, very long time, right? Keep in mind, undergraduate, four years, med school, what, six to eight years. Those who want to specialize, another five years, top of that, you're going to be in school for a very, very long time, right? They want to make sure you you're able to keep up with the rigor as well, too. So, strong grades is very important. Rigor is also important because again, life's not going to get any easier. It only gets harder. They want to make sure you're going to be fine once you're about to enter that. Right? But the thing that we want to tell students to focus on is the overlays for like a premed student. Right? So the overlays are things that a reader will be trained to look for in your application itself. So there's kind of two overlays I see. One is going to be strong math and the second one is going to be strong biological sciences. Biological sciences as well too. Right? ## Two Key Overlays: Math and Biological Sciences [07:30] So when it comes to strong math, what you want to focus on, right, is getting to AP calculus. Uh BC minimum is usually what we are seeing nowadays for a lot of our students, right? Is getting to BC minimum if you can, right? Sometimes uh sometimes even u multivariable for some students in some some of the more competitive areas. Again, do you need this? No. from most fields. No, but the idea of it is you're showing a little more rigor than than a lot of other students can is is is what we are seeing with some of our students there, right? But when it comes to strong biological, we're thinking like AP biology, AP chemistry, AP environmental sciences, right? Environmental sciences. These types of courses are showing the readers uh you're strong in this. Can you take AP physics? You can, but again, it's not a direct uh correlation to the premed stuff itself. That's more for like engineering if you're thinking about engineering there. Okay. So, in terms of academics, I would try to hit these in your schedule as you're keeping your grades and rigor strong for everything else, right? We also want to make sure that the there's a the strong math is on the schedule. The strong sciences is in there as well too. That's going to be a big one. All right. That's pretty simple. That's pretty straightforward. Now, the fun part of this of this training is going to be the activities, right? So when it comes to activities, uh what we typically tell students to do ## Which APs to Take: Calc BC... Bio... Chem... Environmental [09:00] is you want to uh you want to spend uh again 20 30 plus hours per week on activities is if you're aiming for the more competitive colleges, right? We this is like our own thing. You don't have to copy it, but our kids tend to have this. If you listen to the interviews, you see our students kind of do this and they tend to do really well. So I would copy it if I were you, right? But the idea is we want to spend the hours here uh on the activity section, but how do you break it up? Right? It's broken up in two buckets, right? The first bucket is uh tasting your major and the second one is going to be uh things that interest uh things that interest the student outside of the major as well too. So it's major stuff and non- major stuff as well too. We're going to focus on the major stuff in this uh call uh this call specifically. Right. So for me is how do you demonstrate? So for the quick question is how do we demonstrate the uh the interest in premed right or interest in bio or interest in all these different categories as well right so there's a few different ways uh on oops a few different ways and how you do it and there's no right or wrong way right so let's let's let's keep that out real fast as well too fi there is no right or wrong way, right? There's just a lot of there's just a just just a lot of possibilities, right? So, instead of ## Why Physics Doesn’t Help Your Pre-Med Profile Much [10:30] saying you have to do this, you have to do that, which is not true. I'm just going to list out a bunch of stuff. I think in this training, we're going to keep it very fun. We're kind of here some ideas, right? And the idea is you want to have the one that matches the student. You want to find activities. Oops. You want to find activities. Find activities that match the student. aka let's say your student uh does not like um does not like uh sports don't put them in sports is a thing right so same thing logic here there are things that I'd recommend just things to think about but if that's not what your student enjoys or wants to do don't do it is kind of the first kind of caveat right keep that in mind but just because this video is going to go out to a lot of people we want to make it as universal as we can so I'm just give ideas again keep in mind also this is not every single idea out there ideas. I'm just going to come up live right now uh for everyone here so you guys can see right so we can see what uh the possibilities could be uh as well. Okay, so the first thing uh so ideas are here, right? So ideas number one is what if you join clubs, right? This is probably one of the easiest uh things to do uh is joining clubs. You can join clubs at your school. You can jo clubs there clubs and groups like and and groups as well too, right? In your community, you can do this online, right? There's virtual clubs as well, right? Or you can join or start your own, right? Keep in ## Building Activities That Show Interest in Medicine [12:00] mind, you don't have to just join. If they don't have it and you want to do it, go make it, right? Go be the one who starts it as well, too. So, here's a few of them that usually some ideas for us to consider and think about here. Okay. So, the first one um is HOSA. HOSA is a very popular one uh for the premeds like a future health uh professionals kind of club as well too. There are some clubs at some schools like uh science olympiad Olympiad as well, right? where they go ahead and compete uh compete in science related topics as well. That's another big one as well. Some schools have like a biology club, right? They talk about bio, they do stuff. Uh these are very similar and there's tons of these like like neuroscience club, neuroscience club, there's like psychology club, all these science related clubs that again your interest like hey I kind of like that. I would do stuff about that. Um there there's also like for another good one's Red Cross, right? Red Cross is ## Club Ideas: HOSA... Future Doctors... Red Cross... Biology Club [13:00] very directly related to uh the medicine route as well too. Even though it's a very big volunteering group um there, but it does that as another big one. Another one there some maybe some premed uh club or like uh future doctors, future doctors uh club as well, right? So these are some of the ideas too that are like bi biology uh specific as well too. And I think that's going to be a very fun thing. One of the ideas that we have some of our students do is future doctor's thing, right? Future doctor's day thing is a very easy thing. Uh by the way, little little fun little lesson here, right? Pro tip, right? Pro tip, right? Want to start a future doctor's uh virtual club, right? This is like virtual club, make it easy. Here's what I do step by step, right? So, step one, right? Step one, step one, right? What I do is create a discord. Create a discord uh as well. And you can go ahead and discord account, right? This this is like an online community group uh as well. Step number two. All right. Number two, gather people, right? You get people from your school, find people who are interested in um in bio, be a future doctor as well. And step three, right, the idea future future doctors, you're going to go ahead and uh invite, right? The idea is what if we invite doctors, right, doctors to do a guest a guest speaker, right? To to be a guest speaker, do a guest speaker to be a guest speaker. And if you can get like one speaker every single month, boom, right? Imagine you say, "Hey, we're going to have a doctor come every single month, talk to you guys, answer questions, tell you guys exactly what to do." I'm sure some people will will like that and will want to join that as well, too, right? So again, here's a quick Oops. That was a quick little easy thing to do if you're like, "Hey, I could probably do that." Like, here, there you go. Go go go go go do it. We'll make it happen as well, too. Right. So, clubs is a very easy way uh to make this happen is number one, right? Next thing you can do, right? The more the more uh typical ## Volunteering... Shadowing... First Aid... Explorers Programs [15:00] thing you hear is um like I would say it's like exposure, right? So, exposure is getting yourself in it like being more hands-on. So those who learn better being hands-on, this might be something you might you might want to consider um as well too, right? So one of the the things you talk you hear first is hospital volunteering, right? This one's a very tedious one, very hard to do. Uh but it's the thing that people talk about the most, right? Volunteering at a hospital. The my my two cents really quick based on like personal anecdotes talking to our students who have done this before. This is not as glamorous as you hear it as is just because when you are what 16 17 uh years old and you're volunteering at a hospital, think about it. If you were a hospital, would you tr what would you trust a 16-year-old with? I'll let you guys think, right? Not much, right? So, it's a hospital place of health. What will you trust? Not much as well, too. That's why a lot of these volunteers don't do too much, right? You probably we call them uh fancy pointers because you people are asking you where's the restroom? You point where the restrooms are. Maybe you are pushing people uh to and from places as well too. But there's not much you are doing that's directly related to uh the medical field directly, right? You're not going to do anything. You're not going to be involved in much things. But that's kind it helps. It's it's a it's an idea for you to start doing is number one. Something though you quite could do is shadowing, right? shadowing uh shadowing doctors, physicians, nurses as well too. One of the things to keep in mind that this is a lot harder at the bigger places, right? The bigger places a lot more red tape uh to to do stuff. So, what I usually recommend is look at local. Look at local as well too. If you Google doctor's offices in uh on Google Maps, look how many doctors in your like five mile radius you have, right? And go reach out to each one and try talk to them as well, right? Another thing to look into, Red Cross actually has a volunteering uh program as well too. Look it up. Uh you can see what they do. Uh Red Cross is pretty much everywhere, right? They're always looking for help um as well, right? Something that some of our students do get more hands-on is something like an EMS uh first aid uh as well too. You can get first aid certified, right? Certified certified as well too. That's pretty cool. It's like a weekend. It's like 20 30 bucks I believe now u to get your thing and you can be first a certified. That's pretty cool. You could there's there's something called an EMT program like a junior EMT program um that are out there where you can go ahead and do assist with things, right? Probably not so many crazy but you can assist with stuff. There's some programs out there. They usually call like the explorers program. Um some students of ours have done that in the past as well too. You can also be a volunteer, right? volunteer for like the for like blood drives, right? When there's a blood drive near coming to your your city, you can go ahead and reach out to them and ask them like, "Hey, I'm a XYZ student at local school. Can I help volunteer?" ## Local Clinics and Online Shadowing After COVID [18:00] Um, and uh with you guys as well too. Same thing, right? You can kind of volunteer for like a clinic, right? Clinic as well too, right? Clinics are free. They need all that help they can get as well too. So, you're meeting them where they're at, right? Meeting them where they're at. Uh, as well, you can do this as well. Another thing about shadowing right especially nowadays you could also look local and look online is the other thing as well. There are some doctors nowadays that they just meet people um ever since like 2020 if you know a lot of doctors now some of the parents now you may have done with your own your own self right instead of going to the instead of going straight to the to the uh the hospital or doctor's office. They're meeting you on Zoom, right? They're meeting with you on Zoom and talking to you uh that way as well too. So I think that's pretty cool. I did something really cool u if you guys heard of they they shut down but then uh forward a company like forward where it's like a medical office where they again it was a big old screen right they talk to a big old screen as well too that was pretty cool um as well but again these are just different opportunities you can do is number one right so these are like all ways to get exposure hands on think another way think of is hands-on is a big thing here right another angle you can go let's say your student is very uh competitive or they're more on the the book side, right? So this let me call the the books uh opportunity the book side uh the more the more academic ones um as well too right because now the one thing you can do you can do like summer programs right summer program there's tons of these right look for is Google uh programs there's tons and tons and tons of biorated summer programs to have students get immersed in a certain field does the name matter not really right again the idea is you want to go and do the things keep in mind certain programs do offer certain opportunities that other schools, other programs can't offer or don't offer. So, that may play a role as well too, right? Another thing you can think about is doing research internships. That's another option as well too. Again, don't do this to look ## Academic Exploration Through Research and Science Fairs [20:00] good for college, but that's something if it's something you're you're genuinely interested in, right? Go for it. Again, there's the students who are doing really cool research with professors from school as well too that might get you a little bit more hands-on in these fields as well, right? And same thing, science Olympiads, you're competing um with this stuff as well. That's pretty cool. Science fairs is another really cool thing uh for you to get involved in uh as well too. And so some some some of our students did really well in science fairs uh as well. You can kind of share that as well. There's also like the uh uh fairs, right? Affiliated flare affiliated uh fairs. These are uh the the fancier ones, right? ICF uh affairs is like a like a fancy organ a medical organization uh as well. Oh, there's something really cool one of our students were talking about with me la last week. Uh, Regeneron um science talent search, right? It's like a like a like invitation kind of program uh for medical stuff uh as well too, right? So again research and research program research programs um as well too like if you think of like polygens polyens uh the lumir all these guys right that's kind of what they are doing um as well right so I think that that that's going to be another one let's say again and it doesn't have to be just like bio right biobio as well too let's say you want to explore like bio within the context of a community right so the community impact part I ## Lumiere... Regeneron... ISEF... and Public Health Impact Projects [21:30] think is like public health right so those who are thinking about more like the the the human side of this and just not just medical but also the human side. There's also things like uh like community related things, right? Like for example, health equity as well too. Talking about uh equity, figuring this out um as well bringing awareness to it, right? It's a lot of the more you dive into healthcare world, the more disparities you see uh when it comes to this stuff as well too, right? Maybe you want to again tutor uh tutor students uh in science, right? Again, it's a similar skill, right? But it's again we're close closer to what it is as well too. Um there, right? A lot of some of you guys can speak multiple languages, right? How do we turn it in? What if you create uh multilingual health uh resources, right, for your community, right? As well too. Now we're turning language into the thing as well. So again the idea is you see I'm just starting start starting a podcast start a blog uh podcast uh regarding like ## Community-Based Health Education and Equity Projects [22:30] health topics as well too right so um so things like this I think there's endless you the more you there's endless endless possibilities of what you can do right but all this goes back to the big thing of like basically you're answering the question we're answering question how do we this this is the real question we're answering how do we demonstrate the interest in premed all these you do the answer is Yes. Right. So, don't feel like one thing's better than another thing, right? You just want to do that. And again, keep in mind these number of hours per week, right? You got to do more of these, right? Don't just do something for one hour. Like, hey, what stuff I can do for a few hours here, a few hours there that adds up to get to the number of hours that we're looking for. And keep in mind, right, and more is the key, right? So you basically use this as a starting point as a starting point to create to uh start uh discovering right discovering and fostering your interest in premed uh ## Final Takeaway: Build Hours... Build Identity... Build Direction [23:30] activities is the key. Okay. So that that's going to be the big takeaway over here. All right. So that is pretty much the recap for this training. Again nice short and sweet one. Right. How to prepare this kind of summary is two big things. one academics strong calculus uh take the science classes is the big thing over there but the big big area is going to be your activities right the what doesn't matter exactly but just doing things to show your involvement and uh interest in it that's going to be the key itself there okay that is pretty much it for me if you have any questions leave them down below and if not I'll see you guys in the next training bye everyone