If you attended our recent conversation with SUNY Upstate’s Jennifer Welch, Director of Admissions, then you know what a success it was. You can review the Q&A by reading the whole SUNY Upstate Q&A transcript, by listening to the full audio clip online, or by subscribing to our podcast in iTunes.
Here is a particularly noteworthy clip from the SUNY Upstate Q&A about improving your chances of acceptance:
Linda Abraham: What is the one thing you would recommend to a 2012 applicant that they could do now to improve their chances of acceptance…is there anything you could put your finger on?
Jennifer Welch: Number one would be to apply early. Number two would be clinical work. And I think, also really working on that personal statement. That really is the only time that a student becomes who they are. You’ve got all these numbers and you’ve got the grades and you’ve got the MCATs, but it’s really not until that personal statement when you can really sit down and figure out who the student is and what they are all about and what they may or may not be.
Linda Abraham: Do you expect the personal statement to answer the question – “Why do you want to go into medicine?” Or can it be something else?
Jennifer Welch: It could be something else….. I think that one thing that students tend to forget when they are applying is that this is your resume. This is really who you are… It’s got to be perfect. If you spell the person’s name wrong that you are writing your cover letter to, guess where that resume and cover letter is going to go to?! It’s going to go into the pile of “no thank you”. It’s the exact same thing with this application; this has to be perfect. … You are not going to be able to make those mistakes on patient charts, so why are you doing it in an application? So really just thinking about those things when you are putting it together is really imperative.
View the full SUNY Upstate Q&A transcript, listen to the mp3 recording of the event, or subscribe to the Apple iTunes Admissions Podcast now.
Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best
Read the full article: 2011 SUNY Upstate Admissions Director Interview Posted
