hpplc.indiana.eduHPPLC Health Professions & Prelaw Center: Indiana University Bloomington

HPPLC Health Professions & Prelaw Center: Indiana University Bloomington written by our advisors, who collectively draw on decades of experience in helping thousands of students just like you gain admission to professional schools. We’d like to connect with you in person, too. Please schedule an appointment with one of our advisors and attend our events throughout the year to learn steps you can take to enhance your success. We look forward to working with you! Fall 2020 Freshman Premedical Orientation HPPLC Director and Pre-med advisor Rachel Tolen welcomes new undergraduate students and shares information to help students prepare for medical school while completing their IU Bloomington undergraduate degrees. Description of the video: Welcome thank you so much for tuning in to this presentation tonight my name is Rachel Tollen and I’m the director of the health professions and pre-law center at Indiana university I hope you’ve had a good experience so far as an Indiana university student so I want to take a moment to take attendance of everyone who has tuned in tonight so we’re going to ask you to use your phone or a computer to log your attendance so we’re going to show you a slide and here’s the slide and you can use the qr code or the tiny URL here and I want to give you a moment to go in to log your attendance all right thank you so tonight we are going to talk about the things you should do to prepare for medical school many of the things I will outline you will do over the next four years not this semester so do not feel that you have to do everything immediately in fact for your first semester your most important focus should be on just doing well in your classes and making the adjustment to college there is no rush to do very much more than that you will want to use this first semester and first year in college to develop your study skills and select or confirm your choice of a major you are beginning college in a unique historical moment with many challenges posed by the covid19 pandemic but there are also opportunities I would guess that some of you may be feeling that things are not quite how you envisioned they would be when you imagined starting college we also have new opportunities more than previous classes at IU you will be asked to think always about the welfare of others for instance when you are asked to wear a face covering and keep socially distanced you have the opportunity to adopt in your daily life the same kind of mindset and actions that physicians put into practice and we will talk more about the professionalism that guides physicians later tonight I want to tell you also that we are here for you the health professions and pre-law center is here for you tonight you will hear from former IU students who are now medical students and residents people who are completing their training that comes after medical school in a specialty area and you will hear also from advisors at the health professions and pre-law center who are here to support you I hope that you’ll feel a part of the Indiana university community that surrounds you and is here to support you in your goal of becoming a physician one of the things that you will also want to do is meet with your assigned advisor for many of you that is a university division advisor for some it may be an advisor in business or biology or another academic department if you have specific questions about scheduling classes or your choice of a major you will want to see your assigned advisor our office the health professions and pre-law center provides training to advisors all across campus so they are knowledgeable on pre-medical coursework and many of the other steps you should take your assigned advisor can be a very valuable resource for you and that person can also help you fully explore many of your other interests besides the possibility of medical school tonight we are going to give you an overview of the process of preparing for medical school you are all here today because you have imagined yourself in the role of caring for the health and well-being of others as a physician that’s a very admirable role to imagine for yourself tonight we are going to talk about how you can go about planning your college education so that you can meet that goal one day because there are certain things that you need to do now I wondered if anyone who has tuned in tonight is concerned that they already made some mistake or have some problem that will prevent them from ever getting into medical school anyone worried they may not have all the right classes anyone worried they are already so far behind in their homework and reading that they will never recover and never get into medical school because of a bad grade their first semester it would not surprise me if some people felt that way and I’m here to tell you not to worry there’s no way that by the second week of classes in your first semester of your freshman year of college you could have done anything that will prevent you from getting into medical school as long as you are willing to work hard it’s impossible there is still hope for you there are a number of things you will need to do to be successful it will not be easy and you will have to work very hard and you will need to develop very strong abilities in a number of different areas first and foremost you will need to get a good undergraduate education and build strong skills in a number of different areas to prepare for medical school from the start your focus should be on preparing for a career in medicine not just on preparing to apply to medical school not just on what will look good on your application later on the key is getting a good education one of the first questions freshmen often have when they get to campus is what’s the best major for someone who wants to go to medical school actually there’s no answer to that question there’s no best major for medical school IU does not have a pre-med major and medical schools are not particularly interested in accepting students who’ve done pre-med majors you will need to select one of the majors offered at Indiana university traditionally specialized study in medicine has been carried out after a broad course of study in college and the completion of an undergraduate degree often a degree in the liberal arts and sciences by a liberal education we mean an education that broadens a student’s awareness in the major areas of human knowledge including the physical and biological sciences and academic disciplines exploring the social historical and cultural aspects of human life a liberal education begins with the premise that one’s world and oneself are worth knowing and to understand our world we must know something about its physical biological cognitive social and cultural dimensions and you can recognize how medicine involves all those areas the physical the biological the cognitive the social and cultural medical schools have continued to have some preference for students completing a broad liberal education at the undergraduate level before they specialize in medicine now why would that be why do they feel that students need this preparation first well consider the qualities that make someone a good physician what skills and personal qualities does a good physician have well first competency in science of course a strong foundation in the sciences is important and essential whatever else you have you need that it doesn’t matter how compassionate and kind you are if you don’t have a command of the science behind medicine forget it good physicians also need decision making skills physicians need decision-making skills to help them choose a course of treatment with a patient physicians also need analytical skills they need to be able to analyze complex situations from different points of view they need problem solving skills those are important in diagnosis and treatment and they also need good communication skills good communication...