Online lifeline for med school applicants

Students looking for a leg up in the competition to get into medical school can turn to the Internet for help and guidance, because several Web sites offer services ranging from tips on interview techniques to doing well on the ever-intimidating MCAT.

The Medical Education Ring page (http://nav.we bring.org/cgi-bin/navcgi?ring =mededrg;list) lists 194 sites that offer help to medical school applicants. While most of these target Americans and American medical schools, a few Canadian sites are worth checking out.

Ian Wong, a medical student at the University of British Columbia, serves up advice by outlining his personal experiences. His Web site, Admissions Advice Page for Canadian Pre-Meds (www.geocities.com/HotSprings/Oasis/8998/), also helps potential applications survive PMS — pre-med syndrome.

”I like to define pre-med syndrome as the overly obsessive and unhealthy desire to do whatever it takes to enter medical school,” says Wong. ”Stressing out over my exams and mid-terms throughout the entire semester definitely didn‚t make for a fun time, and it doesn‚t make you fun to be around.”

Another Canadian site is the Canuck Medical School Applicant Help Page (www.voicenet.com/~popare/poframes .html), which was created by John Po, a Canadian attending medical school in Philadelphia. It is geared toward helping Canadian students apply to American medical schools. He offers general advice regarding the interview process, and for a fee he will give applicants personalized preparatory training for the all-important interview.

The Medical School Interview Feedback site (www.in terviewfeedback.com) is another interesting site. It asks applicants to complete a questionnaire after their medical school interview. Anonymity is guaranteed, with results sorted by school and posted for other potential applicants to read.

People completing the questionnaire can comment on the interview process, the number and type of interviewers, and what the hardest questions were. Applicants are also encouraged to give their impressions of the interviewers‚ attitudes and the friendliness of the faculty.

Graham Redgrave, editor of the site, says some admissions personnel are ”uncomfortable” with the content of some of completed questionnaires. ”The opinions and narratives here are meant to be useful in as broad a sense as possible,” he tells admissions officials. ”I hope the feedback contained within the questionnaires is of as much utility to you in your professional roles as it appears to be to the applicants in their pre-professional ones.”

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