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Welcome to the The Hoeflinger Podcast, where Dr. Brian Hoeflinger and Kevin Hoeflinger delve into riveting discussions about life as a neurosurgeon, the world of medicine, healthy living, fitness, and anything else that piques their curiosity. Dr. Brian Hoeflinger, MD, brings his extensive 24 years of experience as a full-time neurosurgeon to educate and inform. Get ready for engaging conversations that will broaden your understanding of the medical realm and beyond!
The Hoeflinger Podcast
#14: Neurosurgeon's Advice to Aspiring Doctors
In this episode, Dr. Hoeflinger gives his advice on how to become a doctor: including, how to stand out during undergraduate, how to get into medical school and residency, how to do well at each stage, and his overall advice to all aspiring doctors.
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So today we're going to be talking about advice to people aspiring to become doctors or physicians. From my dad, a lot of people private message and comment what would his advice be to people who are pre-med school or they're in high school and they're wondering what you know? What would the advice be from someone who's currently a neurosurgeon, currently a doctor going into the field? So let's, let's start there. I mean, I don't know what, but let's, you can talk about your path first.
Speaker 2:I think it's easier if I talk about my path and that'll hit a lot of general ideas for people and then Kevin can cut in. Maybe he has some questions. But I think the first thing when you start, when you decide you want to go to the medicine, you have to have your why right, like why, why are you going into medicine? What is the reason? Do you want to really help people or do you want to make money or do you think it's exciting and cool?
Speaker 2:For me it was personal. You know my brother was in a car accident when he was 21 and had emergency brain surgery in the middle of the night and was in a coma for six months. But that's that's what initially got me interested into neurosurgery or into medicine in general, but specifically neurosurgery. And you know you watch my brother through those months. I was just thinking there's got to be a better way to help people through this and and I want to be part of that future to try to help people not have to go through what our family and my brother went through.
Speaker 2:So that's what started for me. So I had kind of a personal passion about wanting to be a doctor and for me I wanted to be a neurosurgeon because that's what I got interested after my brother's accident. So I was actually going to be in marine biology. I was signed up for classes at University of South Florida Marine Biology and then, after my brother's accident, I completely changed my career goals and I dropped out of college for miemrology and I went into college to become a neurosurgeon.
Speaker 1:So do you think like, right there, I think a big thing of any career like your why has to be super important? Because medicine, especially, it's very long hours, it's very stressful. So do you think that is probably the most important thing, or what?
Speaker 2:I think that is the most important thing because I mean you hear this is very cliche and people say, you know, don't go on it for the money, obviously, depending on what field you're in. But medicine in general people do very well financially, especially being a neurosurgeon. But you give up a lot, you know. I mean the hours that we work with, the times you're not home with your family, the events you miss in your life, including time with your family and your kids. So you have to take that all into consideration. So it really depends what you want out of life and what's important to you in life, I mean, you know is is family time important or being home on the weekends and not, you know, being able to do what you want to do? As a doctor, often you're a call on the weekends and you know your time is spent helping other people but not being with your family. So I think the why is definitely the most important thing that you have to figure out. Why do you want to go into medicine? And and you know some some people will decide it's not for me after thinking about that, but other people say, yeah, medicines for me. So if you, if you decide medicine is what you want to go into, then you gotta start taking the steps to do it, you know. So initially obviously gotta go to college, you gotta have four years, at least four years of college.
Speaker 2:As far as I know, a college degree and I was just a bachelor's of arts was my degree, so it wasn't anything fancy. It can be a bachelor of science. There are people who do a psychology major, you can do all kind of different majors you just have to hit the criteria in. And I would say what I relied on and maybe it hasn't, maybe it's changed in 30 years, maybe it hasn't but what I relied on was my academic advisor. You know every, every college has an academic advisor and they will kind of guide you to what, what core criteria or classes you have to take so you can, so you can fulfill the criteria to get into medical school, because that's that's your goal if you want to be a doctor is getting into medical school. So college, you have to hit your certain criteria, just like when you went to college for a fish or business school, there probably was an academic advisor, right? Yeah?
Speaker 1:yeah, but I think in today's world too, with the internet and like all the websites and everything, if you put in all the work, you can look at all these different resources. You can see the different requirements, so it's really worth it. You're going to be spending so much time doing that. You've got four years of college all the hours you spend studying in these classes. It's worth spending lots of time before semesters and planning everything out and to constantly check in with that to make sure you're on the right path. Yeah, and.
Speaker 2:I think there's a little bit of leeway. I mean, you can take. You can take some classes that are of interest to you, like astronomy, and if there's literature you're interested in, but there's just a certain core classes like organic chemistry and things like that. You have to, you have to take. So it's um, it's a bit of give and take. You know you get a little bit of what you want to do with your degree, but then there's other things with your degree that you have to take certain courses um and so, outside of just obviously the straightforward going to college, how do you think people especially in how competitive med school is in residency is nowadays?
Speaker 1:what do you think there are ways for people to stand out or, yeah, give themselves about a chance to getting in?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So as far as medical school goes, I mean for me, I did a few different things. I mean I, you know, I knew I wanted to go into neurosurgery, or at least medicine to start with, and so I contacted the neurosurgeon at my medical school in town.
Speaker 2:And I you know, said was there any research projects that you had that I could be involved with? And I told him about my brother and my my passion to want to go into neurosurgeon. So he was very receptive and so I started doing research for a neurosurgeon in my spare time. That was one thing I did. I also Looked into becoming a dean, or so a dean or is an autopsy assistant. So my wife's a pathologist, she does the autopsies, but I help with an autopsy, so I'm an autopsy assistant, and it was a paying job but so I made some extra money. But it also, I think, it looks good that I was, you know, doing something with the human body and something medicine related. So that was another thing that I did.
Speaker 2:So if you can get in any kind of research or any kind of job related to Medicine, I think it helps a lot. And you know that's something where you have to be proactive. You have to see, you know, what kind of research is out there. Like my son-in-law to be a Hayden. He's going to college right now, so this is first year, but he wants to go into medicine. So he's contacted, actually, a doctor In town who he said he wants to go into medicine and so he's working elaborate now too, and it's voluntary work, but you know, if he gets a publication out of that, it looks very good on your resume when you go to apply for medical school.
Speaker 2:So you just have to position yourself with things like that, but ultimately, the most important thing obviously is your grades. I truly believe that you have to really study hard, get good grades, try to get a 4.0 if you can, because you have to stand out. There's so many people that want to go to medical school. You have to stand out somehow and and and. So you've got to get good grades because that you know Everybody not everybody, but a lot of people can get, you know, near 4.0s now, so you have to be competitive with them. You have to study really hard for your MCATs, which is your pre-admission test in the medical school, and then you have to do things that are outside of just your classes, which include trying to get into some research project or do something Medically related that makes you stand out among the other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think for undergrad like at least nowadays I think is if in how like hard undergrad is for going into like pre-med, I think if you need a 3.7 to a 3.8 or above, I think you're in a really good boat. I think that's in the top 10 percent.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it puts you into.
Speaker 1:I think I'm there for I don't think there's many people Get 4.0 in pre-med. Yeah so just to roll back a little bit on that, because I know some people, some I know people who if you have like a 3.8, that's considered really good in pre-med. So I just get as good at grades as you can as possible. That's just gonna, I guess, what I'm.
Speaker 2:I think what happens? I'm pretty confident about this, but you know, when you apply for medical school, I think there's Categories, right, and so when your resume comes in front of the people that review, you know if your GPA is 3.5, you're gonna get put intoa Pile over here. If your GPA is a 3.9, you're gonna get put into a pile over here and then among that pile where everybody else has the 3.8 or 3.9, then they're gonna look at you know what have you done. We know what makes you outstanding among all these other people got 3.8 or 3.9 GPA and that's where the other things come in. But I think you have to have that great point just to get into a good category.
Speaker 1:You know it just improves your chance. It's all just about improving your chances, because I'm to the day that that's all you can do with some. Prove your chances, that you can't guarantee anything and then the last part.
Speaker 2:You know you got you have to start to learn to interact with people a little bit and could, because part of it's gonna be I don't know for medical school. You know, when you interview it is a process and you have to come across like somebody who is going to Take advantage of what they're offering. I mean, when you go to medical school they want you to be successful, they want you to Advance their program, make them look better. So they want somebody who is, which I say, presentable, presentable, who seems motivated, passionate, and I think for the most part people can see through that so you can't really fake your way through that, but I mean again, that's just like your.
Speaker 1:Why to I? Think that's when people get weeded out. So, because that's not like what people people aren't gonna ever want someone who's just motivated by extrinsic things such as money, right, but yeah, we'll definitely get someone on soon.
Speaker 1:one of my friends is I believe I'm three right now, but there's some different people. We're going to try to get a med school student because obviously it's been a while since you have, so they get to talk through. Like, how do you talk with someone who's currently in medical school? Because I mean, that's just something we get all the time. That people follow, yeah, like you on social media is a huge thing is.
Speaker 2:So for, like everybody in high school right now, or anybody not in high school, just they, maybe they're in college and just trying to go into medicine. But so the first thing I think you know to step back is going to be your why. That's the most important thing. Do you really want to be a doctor? Do you want to, you know, be in charge of taking care of patients? And it's a busy lifestyle and it's not. Sometimes it's not induces to, you know, family life, as much as you may want to be. So you have to have a reason why you want to become a doctor, and it has to be something in a you know, you can't. What am I looking for? You can't, you can't really fake it. You have to fake it.
Speaker 1:It has to be something you want to do, right, so well, it's just like you know they say if you enjoy what you do, you never work a day in your life. It's not necessarily bad, but it's the fact that you're willing to sacrifice hours to help other people and so we you get through all that, just like you getting through residency or those other hard times is. There is just that shared comradery and you're all. You're working really hard towards an end goal of what you knew was going to like what you were trying to achieve. If you don't really have that, when you fall back and you just try to think of an external factor to motivate you, it doesn't really work very well. When you're, say, studying 10 hours a day, you need that internal why to keep pushing you forward.
Speaker 2:Maybe if you're, if you're the kind of person like where you think I, you know, I'd like an eight to five job, you know, and you would be upset if you had a stay until 10 o'clock at night, then you have to really think hard that maybe I don't want to be a doctor because you're going to become frustrated and unhappy, you know.
Speaker 1:So I think too, there's a lot. There's lots of stuff just like us putting stuff out about you and just other. There's so much resources out the Internet and social media trying to really think about different things. Put a lot of effort and thought into what you want to do. Try all different things, see if there's what feel you know trial, medicine, trial other things. Get yourself exposure, just like getting internships or fellowships or other things, or unpaid intern or on paid volunteering, just any way you can to interact with these different fields. I mean, if you're going to be doing that, for you're going to be putting so much time, effort into that you want to try to explore if that's something you do enjoy, I mean in the bottom line.
Speaker 2:in the end you just got to. If it's something in there, you got to just try right, and if it doesn't work out, you know that's life and you change your career. It's not what you want to do and you may have put in a lot of effort and time, but I mean, ultimately, if it's something that intrigues you, it's a great career. So I mean, you know, give it a try and you just have to see what happens. So then you get into college.
Speaker 2:Right, and I don't know what people ask me all the time like doesn't matter if I go to Harvard or Yale, if I go to the University of Toledo that's where I went I mean I don't think it matters as much, for me it didn't, as long as you do well there. So for me I got a very high GPA and I did well on my MCATs and I did research ahead of time and did some other things, and so for me that helped tremendously getting into into medical school and ultimately a good residency. So I don't know if it matters as much where you go to college. And then the same thing. Then then you're off to medical school. So let's say, you went to college, you did well, you're applying to medical schools, and so now where to go to medical school. And so, again, it depends what you do when you're at school, you know. I mean you can go to Harvard and get a 3.5, and you can, or 3.0, 3.5, and you can go to University Toledo and get 4.0. And it really is going to depend on how.
Speaker 1:What if you make the most of your time and apply yourself? I mean, just because some people, I think, get into really good colleges and they don't apply themselves. If you pursue your passion and you're working very hard, I think if you get into any medical school, you're well on your way in trying to become the best version of your life. So you know medical school.
Speaker 2:Once you get into medical school, then the first two years is kind of basic sciences. You know you do anatomy, a lot of classwork, there's a lot of testing, a lot of testing. When I graduated, when I was in medical school, we used to they would rank you and tell you what percentage and what, where you were in the class, and we'd always go outside of class and we'd look at our names to see what we got on the test. I don't know how it is now, if it's just past failure, I honestly don't know. But the first two years is just going to be a lot of studying long hours, because your goal is to get good grades on your test, you know. And then your third and fourth year that's about clinical.
Speaker 2:So this is where you really get into being on different services. So you'll do a three month rotation on internal medicine and a three month rotation in surgery and you'll do us potentially a psychiatry rotation and there's all kind of different rotations that you do through those years and that's where you really get a chance to kind of see what kind of doctor I do I want to be and what interests me. Did I like being on internal medicine service or did I enjoy being on the orthopedic service or the neurology service and that's where you kind of hone in, where your career is going to be, and during those years you get evaluations. So after each rotation, the attendings and the residents, they evaluate you, they write you letters of recommendation and that's all used to formulate your grades. But also some of that is used for when you go to apply for residency.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean, if you decide you want to go into internal medicine, then I would become very close with the internal medicine attendings and maybe go out of your way to do some extra, you know, research or extra work with one of those doctors, because they may potentially write you a glowing letter of recommendation that the residency people are going to read Say this guy is a stellar applicant, we want him in our program. So once you get in the medical school, two years of basic sciences, a lot of rote memorization, long hours studying, a lot of tests, and then when you get into your third and fourth year of medical school, that's where you get into your clinicals, which is getting into the hospitals, being on a service, seeing, if you like, that specific specialty, and that's where you decide eventually what you're going to apply to for residency.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So I think, though, it's a different thing of, once you get to the third and fourth year, of really Paying attention and giving each one as much time, thought as you can to see what you really are, and then pursuing that one with your full, yeah, effort of trying to get into that, and you'll find, like it a lot of people ask Well, how do I know what I want to do?
Speaker 2:like, I think one of my rotations that I did was OBGYN and I hated it because At first I didn't like as a medical student I didn't like going in on a private situation with a family. You know, husband and wife in there and having a baby and I'm sitting there standing there. I just never felt comfortable in that scenario and it just didn't. It just it's one of those things. Right away I knew that's not what I wanted to do. So it didn't take me long to figure out that wasn't what I wanted to do. I did internal medicine. Internal medicine was fun. It was kind of like being a, a detective. You know you have a patient that comes with a set of symptoms and you're like the detective trying to figure out what disease do they have. And it was pretty. It's pretty cool. I mean enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:At first I think I might want to go and turn on medicine. Then I Realized I really wanted to be more procedure oriented. I didn't, I didn't like that. You just all. You mean it just wasn't for me, right? I mean I didn't like just working with the patients and never doing a procedure, so I was more procedure oriented. So when I did my surgery rotation I really liked surgery a lot and I like the atmosphere and I like using my hands being hands-on. And then you know, when I get to my nursery rotation, I really like this. So you'll learn as you go through what you like and what you don't. Psychiatry I didn't. I didn't like so it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's paying attention to not just aspects you like, but things you dislike. That can guide you just as much to picking the field that will suit you the best and suit your skills at the best.
Speaker 2:Sure, and another person will go through that and they'll say this is for me, is I love this, I loved your lover and you know babies, and so it's just one of those things that it's gonna be a personal preference, but it'll. It'll strike you. When you go through your clinicals You'll. You'll figure out which, which one you like.
Speaker 1:The best for sure. I think, as you do each one of those things, you think that this might be the one, like you said, trying to reach out to people who are attendings or residents in that field so you can talk to them further and try to confirm or right Not or reject your thesis there that that might be the right field for you.
Speaker 2:And then so then medical school, so that's four years, right, and then after that you graduate In your senior year. Early in your senior years, when you start to apply, I think, for a residencies, and that's where you have to decide, first of all you have to know what field you're going into and then you have to. There's a common app I think it might be the same as for colleges and medical schools, right, but I don't know. Yeah, so I don't. The common app that they have in college medical schools it's, um, there's free residency for, I think, for basic information, there's a common app, but, but you have to apply to each school individually for residency.
Speaker 2:That's how I did, anyways. I picked the ones I wanted. It's like I applied to don't you rank them? Like you do rank them. So, like my rank was, university of Michigan was my number one choice, and then Johns Hopkins was number two. Number three was University of Rochester, where I ended up going in Rochester, new York. Number four was Yale, five was Georgetown, six was University of Washington, seattle, washington, and then I ranked like nine, nine spots, so I got my third choice.
Speaker 1:Because they all rank you back, so they rank different people they want. So University of Rochester, I'm assuming you want.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so so University of Rochester obviously ranked me one.
Speaker 1:University of Michigan and.
Speaker 2:John Hopkins didn't rank me number one, so then I Got my third choice, and Rochester got their first choice, which was me.
Speaker 1:So how it work is say, say, someone at Michigan say he was ranked second at Michigan, the first person was ranked first ended up going somewhere else that they got matched to. Then it can go to the next person. So it's kind of a joint. You know everyone's seen. But yeah, so and it was very nice.
Speaker 2:I know like I, you know, when I Michigan and the reason I picked Michigan and Hopkins, because when I went there to interview I just felt really comfortable. Those prams I love the um. You know, buzz off was the chairman at Michigan and Down the lawn was the chairman at Hopkins. And I really like the chairmen's a lot. They influenced me because they're very gentlemanly and they had a great philosophy about residency and how they treated people and I just thought I would have thrived there. And it's very nice because they called me, I don't know, a week before the match was gonna happen or days, I don't know, and they said you know you're a great candidate, but we just want you to know that we're not gonna rank you number one if you rank this number one and they kind of let me know ahead of time. So which I don't know if we do that anymore or not, but it was.
Speaker 2:But even with residency, you know, you go on interview and it was really about Meeting the residents. I like the residents. They were like me. They all seem very motivated. They had my kind of. They just seemed like I could be friends with them. The Programs seemed very gentlemanly and the program I went to University. Rochester was a very gentlemanly program and Became close friends with my residents and it's kind of like a family, like you're moving into a new family because you spend so much time with them and so you have to be comfortable with the people you're gonna be working with and the staff you're gonna be working with in your attendance and I. It was a great program.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, every residency is different. Obviously there are surgeries, what like one longest at seven years seven years, but versus other ones. So Do, well, you know like people will take gap years in between the high school and starting undergrad, like college. Yeah, there are people do that with residency and stuff like that Well, I did it.
Speaker 2:So between what's it? Between medical school, no, yeah, between between medical school and residency. I took a year off. So after medical school I I applied for what was called a Howard Hughes research fellowship. They give us at that time they give out 60 in the country.
Speaker 2:Not many of these be given out and it was a way to do a year of research because I really thought I wanted to become an academic neurosurgeon and someday be a chairman program.
Speaker 2:That's what I really my intent was and so I did this research fellowship. I was lucky enough to get it so I wasn't gonna turn it down. So after medical school I did an additional year of a research fellowship, got to go to Maryland to Howard Hughes Institute and I presented my research and and had some papers you know like five or six paid research papers. I I got out of that year and so that really helped me get into a good residency but also was a good experience and and so, yeah, sometimes people will do gap years like if you if you don't think you can Maybe get in somewhere, or you want to be, or you want to get into a really good program, you want to ensure that you're a top pick, then you might do an extra year to make yourself more marketable or, you know, more desirable to program. So I think a lot of people do that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but so there's no like just coming for set path.
Speaker 2:There's lots of you don't have to. I say most people don't do that. I was different, you know so.
Speaker 1:Well, I know some people. Some people will After undergrad they will. If they don't think they're, they'll apply and say they don't get into med school. They will Study really hard for their own cat. Maybe you're trying to work her to research somewhere while they're doing that and apply again the next year, or you know. So there's, there's tons of different ways. If you truly want something, you just keep.
Speaker 2:Mine became a part of my medical school because I so my wife, we were in same medical school class, so she graduated 92 and I actually graduated 93 From medical school. Because that, howard, he was research fellowship. We build into my, into my medical school. I don't know why it worked over. That's the way it was. I had a five-year medical school that way, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you guys did a joint there's like is that I'm assuming there's that they did a couple couples, couple, couples match for residency, which that involves. So my friends went in forensic pathology.
Speaker 2:So, although we didn't, we were going to do couples match. We didn't end up doing that because nursery was so competitive a couple's match wasn't going to work for us. So so what we did is, when I interviewed at the programs, we would let them know. You know, the Cindy's my wife and she's a Pathologist, you know, and she needs to do a pathology resin residency because she started her residency. You know, I was doing my Howard, he was research fellowship, she was doing her first year of residency. So we found programs that were amendable to us both coming. So I just applied through the neurosurgery match. But we talked to the programs ahead of time and they said that yes, your wife would have a position in our pathology program If you come to our program. So that's how it worked for us.
Speaker 1:So we didn't do the couples match because nursery was too competitive to do it that way, but you still were proactive and, yeah, yeah, we did it definitely proactive.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so but I think that I mean that was, I mean that's your path and that's just like in the general sense, you can. I think it's more. It's kind of figuring out what you want to do and then at each step, keep planning and researching and trying to keep staying down as much as you can and put in the time and effort. But then just a general like overview sense for any like advice to people. What do you have any like major advice you would say to anyone who wants to be like in terms of operating as a doctor, operating the institution.
Speaker 2:I mean my advice would be that you have to. I'm upset this morning on a tiktok, I think. But you have to be committed, right? So if you're gonna do this, don't go into it lighthearted thinking, well, I'm just gonna try and see if it works. I mean you can't have that too. I mean this is something that you wanna do for the rest of your life. You know you gotta be passionate about it. So be committed and don't quit.
Speaker 2:You know, I mean, at the first sign of adversity, when it becomes tough and you know, maybe it got anything, I was gonna have to study this much, or, you know, have this many tests, or I'm not gonna have a chance to go out on the weekends I mean don't give up. I mean stick with it. I mean you can do it. I mean there's no way you can't do it if you put the time and effort in. But you have to have that mindset that this is gonna be a journey for me and it's not gonna be an easy journey at times, and so there's gonna be times that are better and other times that are not as good, but you have to keep that end goal in sight, right?
Speaker 2:This is what I really wanted to do. This is my why and I can do it. I just gotta stick with it, you know. So I would say, be very committed with it and don't get discouraged to the point where you wanna quit, you know, cause you can make it. You just gotta keep the end goal in sight. Yeah, that's my biggest advice, cause that's how I had to do that many a times, thinking you know I'm ready to quit, but I just know I can do it. It's just gotta get through this period.
Speaker 1:I think, keeping the end goal in sight, keeping the long term you're gonna be if you keep going, you one day be a doctor versus in that, thinking about just the short term. Oh, I can't go hang out with my friends and everyone else is doing it, that all won't matter. Well, you know, times get. Five years, 10 years is gonna pass, no matter what. So you might as well work really hard and accomplish your dream.
Speaker 2:And honestly it sounds cliche and stupid, but you gotta stay positive. So when something happens in your life, instead of always being negative and say, oh, this is just not gonna work, you gotta flip it around and say this is exciting. This is why I'm in here. I'm working till 10 o'clock and I'm seeing a ton of new stuff that I would have never seen, that the normal person can never see, and I'm seeing a glimpse in the people's lives that no one has access to. And so you turn it around and say and I got to stay till 10 o'clock and I can't go out with my friends tonight, and this sucks. You should really turn around and say I have the opportunity to do some things that most people will never get to do, and I'm excited to stay till 10 o'clock if I have to, because I'm learning stuff that nobody else is. So you have to in your mind, you have to turn things into a positive. Stay very positive. Get the negative out, because if you're negative all the time, you're just not gonna make it.
Speaker 1:But that's life right. Well, yeah, I think, just a positive attitude. It's an opportunity versus you get to do something, versus you have to do something.
Speaker 1:So it's all about how you frame things, but yeah, that applies to many aspects of life, but I think that's all very good advice to think for anyone Anyone who's maybe watching this that has aspirations or is currently in the process, or if you know anyone who is and you think this would be valuable, share it with them, Because I know all the time in social media social media we get comments and messages about that.
Speaker 2:So but I think, to summarize, just take away from this would be get your why. I know that's what you wanna do, but then just get into college. Okay, doesn't matter where you go to college, just get into college, do well, get good grades, try to do something extracurricular, whether it's medical related or not. Even if you form a new society, I mean, they wanna see that you're motivated and smart and your ingenuity counts for something. And then from there you work your way into medical school and during medical school that's where you really have to continue to work hard, get into some research projects and set yourself aside and then, once you get into the clinicals, you have to really focus on seeing what you want to do. Common questions we get. What kind of grades you have to have to get into medical school high. It's competitive, so you have to just try to get as high grades as you can, whether that's a 3.2 or 3.8,. You just gotta try to do the best you can and stay committed. Other things people ask does it matter where I go to college or medical school? I mean, obviously, if you go to Harvard. I mean Harvard has a name, but in my mind it's more about what you do there at the medical school you're at. So get good grades, get involved, be active with things, make yourself stand out. That's what counts the most. To get into residency more than anything. And then people will say what other questions do we get?
Speaker 2:Is residency hard? Yeah, residency is hard, but it's exciting. So residency is long hours, but that's where you're gonna learn your field. You're gonna see things that people never see. It's exciting and it's a unique time in your life. I mean my seven years flew by. When you first start you think it's never gonna end and then in the blink of an eye it's over. So I mean, enjoy those years when you get into residency. It's a very exciting field you know medicine is and it's very gratifying and it's just one of those things when you see how you've helped a person and you've changed their life. There's just no other better feeling than that.
Speaker 1:I think all that work pays off and it's very rewarding. So you just have to like looking back on it. I mean, that's the thing. If you have that, why all of that work is very meaningful? Because the reward comes from that of getting to change people's lives.
Speaker 2:So you know, we hope this was helpful. I mean, these are the. We asked this a lot about the questions that we went over in the discussion we had, so we hope this was helpful for people who are maybe considering going into medicine.
