My name is Dr. Ian Storch. I'm a board-certified gastroenterologist and osteopathic physician,

and you are listening to DO or DO NOT. If you are interested in joining our team or

have suggestions or comments, please contact us at DoOrDoNotPodcast.com. Share our link

with your friends and like us on Apple Podcasts, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We hope

you enjoy this episode. Welcome to the DO or DO NOT podcast. My name

is Ben Berg. I am a non-traditional pre-medical student who originally graduated from the

University of Albany and am now completing my pre-medical education at Hunter College

in New York in preparation to apply to osteopathic medical school. This past month, I was lucky

enough to attend ACOM's Educating Leaders 2022 conference in Denver, Colorado. Attending

the conference afforded me an incredible week of lectures, networking, and was overall a

great experience, which I would recommend to any pre-medical student. Representing the

podcast at the conference and being surrounded by so many great osteopathic physicians and

administrators was terrific, and speaking for me personally, this experience truly affirmed

my desire to become an osteopathic physician. The reason for me being included on this trip

as a pre-medical student was that I represent the pre-medical student's perspective and

can share my experience with our pre-medical listeners who are interested in osteopathic

medicine. And that is what we are going to do on this episode.

Today we are joined by Jeanette Martin, the Director of Admissions at the Idaho College

of Osteopathic Medicine. Jeanette, thank you for taking the time to be with us today.

Thank you for inviting me.

Great. So we'll jump right into our first question. For our pre-med listeners out there

who might be thinking of attending Idaho Comm, what makes ICOM stand out both as an academic

institution and as a community?

Idaho College of Osteopathic Medicine has a very collaborative, healthy learning environment.

Students support each other. We have lots of resources like learning specialists, behavior

specialists, student success committees, so lots of peer tutoring, just lots of resources

to help students become successful. And it's very rewarding to see students work together

to get through the first two years in the curriculum, which they do a very nice job

at.

The community in Meridian and Boise is also very nice. Lots of activities to do. If you're

an outdoors person, there's a green belt, there's a river that runs through Boise, there

is hiking, mountain trails. We have a rock climbing gym just across the street from the

school. And we have camping, fishing, you name it, we have it. So not that students

will have a lot of free time, but it is nice when they have free time. Bogus Basin is just

45 minutes away from our school and a lot of students will go up there to snowboard

or ski together, and so lots of activities.

That sounds great, especially if you're into more outdoor activities. What hospitals is

ICOM currently affiliated with for clinical rotations? Should students expect to be around

Meridian and Idaho for all four years?

Well, we have rotation sites in every mission state, which is Idaho, North Dakota, South

Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. And then we have a couple of beyond in Stony Brook, New

York, and Logan, Utah. So we have excellent rotation sites. The hospitals associated with

these are Abera Health, the Benefits Health System. We have in Idaho Falls, we have Eastern

Idaho Regional Medical Center. And in Twin Falls, Idaho, we have the Magic Valley Core

site. So we have other hospital systems too. But I think the most important thing about

doing a rotation is to be flexible. So we assign you, you get to rank all the rotation

sites. We have speakers come in and tell you what they're like, what they have to offer.

You get to rank them. And then we use a true lottery system that will push your name out

and you will be assigned that location. And then the fourth year is all about electives

and being able to do your audition rotations and will help support you in all of those

two. So I say be flexible because typically students get in their top third choice for

second or third, but they realize once they get to their rotation site, how great it is,

how many experiences, hands-on experiences they get. So no matter where you go to school,

be flexible with your rotation sites. So we're going to kind of switch gears here to more

admissions-based questions while we have you here. What makes a good and compelling personal

statement in your opinion and what are some potential pitfalls to avoid while writing

the personal statement? I think the personal statement is just that. It's your story, your

connection to becoming a physician. And you can tell them that you're the most unique

individual, but if you don't show that, if you don't show that you want to work, you've

had experiences in rural experiences, then they're not going to know that you really

are interested in rural medicine. So I think it's important also to write it cohesively.

You have a strong introduction and a strong conclusion, and they need to connect. Many

times we see personal statements that are scattered all over the board. So I think it's

really important that you have it proofread. You proofread it. You have other people proofread

it. Make sure that the paragraphs are a smooth transition to each other and that you're including

two or three experiences that have really helped you decide on medicine. And so pitfalls,

I would say be careful on the I statements. You don't want I, I, I, a lot of I statements.

I think another pitfall is exaggeration of the experience. So what I think admissions

committees are looking for are self-reflection, how you've grown and what your connection

to becoming a physician is. So I think that the personal statement is your opportunity

to write your story.

To sort of tie into that, what are some extracurricular activities that you work into your personal

statement and which ones really stand out on an application?

I think what we look for is passion. So if you're passionate about going into rural medicine,

we want to see that you have volunteered at a rural hospital or that you have done volunteer

work in a rural town. We want to see that your passion matches what you, what you want

to do. So a lot of students will say they want rural medicine, but all of their exposure

is in the city, big city. So just make sure that that matches. But I think instead of

having a checklist, I need to do this, I need to do this, I need to do this, I'd say make

sure that you get time with a physician so you can see what a physician's life is, not

just all the glory, but the hard times too. And I would also add that you write about

what you've learned from that situation, what really compelled you. One thing I would caution

applicants, I would say be careful describing your experience, putting any physicians down.

So this MD doctor didn't do this, this or this, but the DO doctor did this. Focus on

the positive, what you took away from the DO physician.

To sort of speak to that passion you can show in the application, unfortunately there is

a little bit of a trend of MD applicants maybe not getting in and circling back to DO schools.

If you can show on your application that you really are committed to the DO path, is that

something that plays well on an application?

I think that's very important. On our secondary application we ask if they've applied a previous

cycle and how have they improved their application. But honestly I feel like we can tell those

students who know about osteopathic philosophies and osteopathic tenets, we can see that in

their essays and in their interview too. So I think it's very important. Also the letters

of reference, you can ask your letter reference, your letter writer to mention that this student

wants to become an osteopathic physician. So that's important too.

So now we're going to segue into some questions based on our listeners who might be non-traditional

applicants. I myself am a non-traditional applicant who previously completed a business

degree at the University of Albany before attempting to pursue medicine. Is it important

to do an official post-bacc certificate program when you're doing your prerequisites as opposed

to just taking them out of university and not getting another degree?

I think that's an individual decision and when I say that I mean depending on how many

classes you take at one time. So the admissions committee the first two years is science based

and they're going to look to see that you can complete 22 hours of science successfully

and how they can see that is how many science classes you took in undergrad or post-bacc.

We do recognize that community college have great schedules and some people have to work

while they're trying to do a post-bacc. So we do recognize all that but the goal is to

show whether you have a rough undergrad science experience or whether you're a change into

the medical profession. The goal is to show that you can handle lots of sciences together

in one semester.

And just as sort of a quick piggyback to that question, how much does the prestige of the

university where you take these classes matter or is it more about sort of the grades or?

I think that each student has their own resources. So we look at each application individually.

Not everyone can go to Harvard. Not everyone can go to Georgetown. You know so we're going

to look at what this student brings. So I think you know honestly you do you. You find

a school that fits you. You find a school that has a curriculum you're looking for

and that you can afford.

So you're kind of saying that for each individual student as long as the story makes sense of

why you're taking the classes where and you demonstrate that you're capable of performing

at that level then you should be good.

Yes.

Awesome. How can being a non-traditional applicant who might have had a previous career work

to your advantage in the application process?

We love non-traditional applicants. They bring life experiences. Some of them have military

experiences. Some of them have other career experiences. But I think it works to their

advantage because we understand that medical school is tough and students who are non-traditional

typically might have lived through some tough times and they're going to they're going

to persevere. They're going to have resiliency and they're going to get through medical school.

So I think being a non-traditional student gives a variety of perspectives and it makes

the whole class richer.

So what is the best general piece of advice you would give to an applicant that we have

not covered in this interview?

I think one thing is it's more important to make sure that your application is ready to

turn in than it is getting it done right away. Take the time. Make your application look

like it's it is the best it can be. So that's one thing on that application. On the interview

if you're invited to an interview I would say have your elevator spill down. Meaning

you want to be able to articulate why you want to be a DO physician. Why you want to

come to ICOM or whatever school you're going to. So be able to articulate that very clearly

because we have students come to interview and the interviewers let us know that they

don't know why they want to be a physician and that's very important because when times

get tough the students who know and are driven to become a physician are the ones that are

going to get through medical school.

I think that's a really excellent point and speaking to the interview process the last

time we interviewed you for those who don't know we actually interviewed Jeanette back

in 2020 during the pandemic. If anyone would like to listen I believe that's episode 11.

How has the interview process changed since returning from the pandemic? Are you conducting

most of the interviews in person now or still some virtual?

Our school and I would think the majority of osteopathic schools are actually continuing

with virtual interviews. Some of the schools have hybrids. I think if we learned nothing

else in the pandemic it was to be flexible and our school specifically is very student

focused and we realize that applicants applying to medical school is an expensive endeavor

and applicants who can interview virtually don't have the flight to come visit and don't

have the you know the cost associated with interviews. So I think that I know this next

cycle we're going to stay virtual but we're going to try to introduce things like second

glance days where applicants or accepted students can come and meet their colleagues and meet

the faculty. We include a student panel in our interview day so they have contact with

our students. They can you know reach out to current students to ask questions and things

like that but I think we'll have some lots of in-person opportunities but our interviews

will be virtual this cycle.

So in your previous interview you mentioned that for students who might not have got in

or for students who were interested in applying to ICOM you provided some feedback for their

application and I thought that was really great. Expound upon that?

If you come to an interview and you are rejected I do try to give feedback positive feedback

from the admissions committee on how you can improve your application and your interview.

The other thing if you're really struggling to write a personal statement we have lots

of resources so if you reach out to me I will share resources for writing a personal statement

too.

I actually do have one more question for you. For our non-traditional listeners someone

who might be getting into medicine and medical education at a later date what advice would

you have for them as far as is it too late to get into medicine and should they be feeling

this way?

I don't think it's ever too late to get into medicine and it's not about age it's about

the passion and the desire to serve your community and humans and so if you've had a previous

career and now you're taking a look at medicine my advice would be be sure to shadow physicians

be sure to really get involved in what it means to be a physician so that you can make

the right determination for you.

Jeanette Martin thank you so much for coming on great as always.

This concludes our episode of Do or Do Not. Send all inquiries, comments, suggestions

and even let us know if there's someone you want us to interview to do or do not podcast

at gmail.com.

Don't forget to like us on Facebook at do or do not podcast for updates.

If you enjoyed our podcast please share it with your classmates and administration.

We have plenty of more interviews lined up and we're excited to share them with you.

This is Tianyu Shea. Thank you guys so much for listening to Do or Do Not.