Pre-Medical Webinar Series
4/25/2013
Medical School Applications
in a Nutshell
with
Dr. London and Dr. McClure
Moderator: Kyra Young, SCS Program Coordinator
How to Participate in the Webinar
1) Chat & Questions. If you do NOT
have access to a mic and do not call in with
a phone, you can use the Questions feature
to type a question that you want to ask to
the presenters. At the end of the
presentation, the facilitator will read out
loud any questions that come through this
feature.
2) Raise Hand. For most of the webinar,
all participants will be in listen-only mode,
meaning they will be muted. When the
presenter opens the floor for questions,
people will not be unmuted unless they use
the Raise Hand function.
James T. London, MD
Dr. James T. London is a graduate
of UC Berkeley and received his
medical degree from University of
California San Francisco Medical
School. He was a fellow at the
Mayo Clinic. Prior to going into
private practice he was on the fulltime teaching staff as an assistant
professor of surgery at the UCLA
School of Medicine.
He has been in private practice for
over 30 years and has served as
Chief of Staff at San Pedro
Peninsula Hospital. He was
previously active in The New York
Times Scholarship Fund. Dr.
London is co-founder of South
Central Scholars.
William O. McClure, PhD
Dr. William “Bill” McClure is a
Professor of Biological Sciences at
the College of Letters, Arts, and
Sciences at USC. His research
interests center upon the biological
and chemical aspects of mental
illness.
He has published over 150 books,
scientific papers and patents and
trained over 40 graduate students,
who now hold significant positions in
both academe and industry. Dr.
McClure is a recipient of the USC
Associates Award for Excellence in
Teaching and the USC Presidential
Medallion—the highest award given
by USC. Dr. McClure is a board
member and Summer Academy
professor of South Central Scholars.
How do you raise your chances of
getting into medical school? 11 Tips
1) Grades
•
•
Grades are still most important factor
Get high grades in required subjects (i.e. Chemistry,
Physics, Biology, Math)
2) Key Courses
•
•
DON’T take key courses at same time
DON’T take key courses at community college
3) Summer School
4) Major
•
Biology is a required prerequisite, NOT a required
major
…continued.
How do you raise your chances of getting into medical school?
5) Create a coherent story
•
Why the major? Why the summer internship?
6) MCAT
•
More important than USMLE
7) Summer Internships
•
•
Give back! (community service)
Research  Published (i.e. NSF, NIH)
8) Post-Bachelorette Programs
•
List of medical schools (no such thing as bad ones;
similar to college applications; apply to popular ones)
…continued
11 Tips
9) Letters of Recommendation
•
Let them be blind
10) Personal Statement
•
•
Terribly important; make it distinctive
Everything must be correct: spelling, etc.
11) Practice before interviews
•
•
Don’t go in cold!
Practice with SCS
Questions & Answers
Dr. London
Dr. McClure
THANK YOU!!!