Check here for complete Fall Dr. Is In... schedule.

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The University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine will be here on Monday Dec 7th at 5:00pm in the Mathey College Common Room.  Dr. Steve Galetta, Dean for Admissions, and Gaye Sheffler, Director of Admissions, will be speaking about their Top-10 medical school (including their global health program) and about what they look for in successful applicants.  They will hopefully be joined by a few Princeton alumni who are current Penn med students.  Each year, Penn remains one of the most popular schools with Princeton pre-meds, attracting more applications from us than most other medical schools and also accepting more.  All Class Years welcome.  Light refreshments served.

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Better Days: Pediatric Oncology Ward Volunteering
Like to help kids? Interested in volunteering in a hospital setting?
Better Days is a volunteer project under the Student Volunteers Council that drives to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital every Friday from 12-3 PM and does science experiments with the child patients in the pediatric oncology ward. We take three to four volunteers per week; sign up for as many weeks as you like! For more information on signing up for this opportunity, email svcbdays@princeton.edu.

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Question of the Week:  A “Year Off” Between College and Medical School

I’m a senior and starting to think about what to do during my year off before medical school.  I’d like to travel but does that look bad to med schools, just to spend some time in Europe?  What else should I be doing? 

Answer:   Let’s start by rethinking the term “year off.”  We like to think of a year (or two) between Princeton and medical school as time to do something you’ve always wanted to do, which will continue your growth, intellectually as well as socially and culturally, even if you’re not in a classroom.  Hardly a “year off,” when you think about it . . .  Now, probably the three most common reasons why people elect to take some time before medical school are, 1) They’re feeling burnt out academically, 2) There is something else they’d like to do—a program, an adventure, a job—before starting their medical education, or 3) They need time to become a stronger applicant.  If you’re in one of these first two groups, you have the freedom to choose how to spend your time, and Princeton offers an abundance of opportunities for positions, fellowships, etc for your life following graduation.  If you’re in that third group, you usually fall into one of two additional subgroups:  you need to take more courses to improve your academic credentials (usually science courses) or you need to find some health-related “clinical” work since this area is absent from your background.  Some traveling doesn’t “look bad,” especially if you view it as a way toward personal growth.  However, if your entire year includes no health-related activity, helps no one other than yourself, and involves just a lot of sightseeing, you may indeed appear a little too “leisurely” to medical schools.  Every year we have recent alumni doing Princeton Project 55 and Princeton-In-X fellowships, working for Teach For America and the Peace Corps, teaching on their own (outside of a program), doing bench research or clinical research, working in doctors’ offices or hospitals, working at pharm companies . . . and countless other things.  To sum up:  our general advice would be to decide what you dream of doing, decide where to do it, and keep an eye on your overall credentials for medicine (academic and non-academic). 

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Drop-In Hours for Fall 2009:

Monday: 2:00pm - 4:00pm (Ms. Deutsch)
Tuesday: 2:00pm - 3:30pm (Ms. Deutsch)
Wednesday: 2:00pm - 4:00pm (Dr. Cummings)
Thursday: 1:00pm - 2:30pm (Dr. Cummings)
Friday: 11:00am - 12:30pm (Dr. Cummings and Ms. Deutsch alternate)