Behind the Scenes of Harvard Medical School Part II

If you could describe your medical school in three adjectives, what would they be? This week, we interview Logan for another look at Harvard Medical School.Logan grew up on a horse ranch in Issaquah, Washington. His love for swimming and for the outdoors brought him to Dartmouth College, where he captained his varsity swim team and led Dartmouth’s hunting and fishing club. His research on sleep disorders and hypertension named him a James O. Freedman Presidential Scholar. After graduation, Logan traveled to Nepal, where he worked on several medical service projects. Logan is currently an MD candidate at Harvard Medical School and president of Harvard’s Global Surgery Student Association. As such, you will most often find him chained to a desk in Harvard’s medical library, studying. If you could describe your medical school in three adjectives, what would they be? Supportive, diverse, progressive What's one thing that the average applicant would be surprised to learn about your medical school's curriculum? HMS incorporates and emphasizesa lot of very important curriculum that often falls by the wayside at other medical schools such as geriatrics, social medicine, health policy, and medical ethics. What is something unique or different about the admissions interview process at your medical school? I found the interviews at HMS to be very pleasant. That is not necessarily unique of HMS, asI had that experience at other medical schools, but it is comforting to know, going in, that the interviewers are not aggressively "testing you." Rather, they are genuinely trying to get to know you. It is helpful to know that going in because it may put interviewees at ease, and allow their true (and wonderful)self to come out. What's a tradition that you've enjoyed at your medical school that most prospective students don't know about? HMS is truly pass/fail. There are no reported internal grading or ranking scales. Residency programs are only told whether a student passed or failed each course, and are given some faculty letters of recommendation. This significantly (and truly) decreases student's stress levels because we don't need to focus on"what's going to be on the test," but rather onwhat's most important:the health andwellbeingof our futurepatients. What's one thing you wish you'd known when you were applying to medical school? By the time you're applying to medical school, your resume is pretty much set; there is not much time left for any significant activities that would further demonstrate your aptitude for medical school. Thus, the biggest challenge is showcasingthe right activities, in the right way,from your wealth of experience. Your grades andMCAT are what they are, and you're left choosing who to ask for letters of recommendation, whatextracurriculars (clinical exposure/shadowing, research, volunteering) to highlight, and what to include in your personal statement. This thought process is going to be different for every unique candidate, but I wish I fully appreciatedhow important it is to think about what medical schools are looking for in applicants, and how to best demonstrate that you fit the bill in a (somewhat) unique way. What kind of doctor do you want to be when you grow up? :) A good one! Want to work with Logan as you prepare your MD applications? ;