Big Three Consulting Firms Delay Start Dates for MBA Hires

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the big three consulting firms—McKinsey, Bain, and BCG—have delayed start dates for MBA hires. The firms, together nicknamed MBB, are perennially among the top employers of MBA graduates, as is the broader consulting industry. 

McKinsey plans to onboard MBA hires in a staged manner from post-graduation through February 2024. Similarly, a BCG spokesperson confirmed that they too plan to stagger start dates for MBA hires from late 2023 to January 2024. 

Bain, taking a different tact, offered its MBA recruits compensation to accept an April 2024 start date. For those impacted, Bain’s financial incentives include $40,000 to work for a nonprofit, $30,000 to learn a new language or take on another academic endeavor, and even $20,000 to become a yoga instructor or take a safari. 

According to the WSJ, the Big Three are not alone in adjusting their hiring practices this year. The article highlighted a recent analysis by William Blair & Co., showing that job postings at EY, Deloitte, KPMG, and PWC have declined by 62 percent year-over-year. 

Poets & Quants reached out to MBA career center professionals for additional insight into how the delays are impacting students. Most maintained their optimism. 

“We have yet to see (knock on wood) any offers—consulting or otherwise—get rescinded. What is impacting our Class of 2023 MBA graduates are start dates being pushed back. Most firms employing Scheller MBAs have offered a range of dates that are definitely later than in prior years. And at least one firm has offered some financial incentive to students who accept later dates. That is about the extent of it at this point,” Dave Deiters, Associate Dean of MBA Programs at Georgia Tech’s Scheller MBA Career Center, said.

Jeff McNish, Assistant Dean of the Career Center at University of Virginia’s Darden, also describes the impact as relatively minimal. “To date, we have not been made aware of any frozen or rescinded offers for consulting in the class of 2023. We have had one company ask a small set of students going to a specific city to consider changing the start date to later this year or early next year. It has impacted fewer than six of our students. This is the extent of what we know at present,” he said.

One unnamed career center director at a top-20 MBA program hypothesized to P&Q that the delayed start dates are simply “a reset to previous years.” They explained that in hot economic times, consulting firms ask MBA hires to start work soon after graduation, but that in slower economic periods it is not atypical for firms to opt for later start dates.

U.S. Continues to Dominate QS Global Ranking of Law Schools

QS just released its 2023 Law & Legal Studies rankings. For the second year in a row U.S.-based programs took seven of the top ten spots in the global rankings. There was no movement between 2022 and 2023 within the top ten. 

Harvard with a near perfect score, 99.8, continued its reign at the top, followed by Oxford (98) and Cambridge (97.1). The score is calculated using the following factors: Academic reputation (50 percent), Employer reputation (30 percent), Research citations per paper (5 percent), and the H-index (15 percent), which is a metric that measures the productivity and impact of an academic department. 

2023 Rank School Total Score

1 Harvard University   99.8

2 University of Oxford     98

3 University of Cambridge 97.1

4 Yale University 93.8

5 Stanford University     93.4

6 New York University       91.6

7 London School of Economics 89.9

8 Columbia University   89.7

9 University of California, Berkeley 88.9

10 University of Chicago   87.9

Outside of the top 10, a number of elite U.S. programs ranked within the top 50. They include: Georgetown University (ranked 21), UCLA (22), University of Pennsylvania (27), Duke University (29), and Cornell University and University of Michigan (tied at 34). University of Virginia fell out of the top 50 this year, to the 51st rank.

Before Starting Medical School: Create a Study Routine that Works for You

This blog is the second in a series on the soft skills that all premedical students should develop prior to starting medical school. 

Medical school admissions officers admit applicants who have demonstrated their ability to thrive in a challenging academic environment through competitive transcripts and test scores, meaningful experiences, and high-quality letters of recommendation.  Yet many first-year medical students find themselves shocked by the intensity of the curriculum. 

Dr. Aron Sousa, Senior Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at Michigan State University’s medical school, described this phenomenon in an email written to U.S. News and World Report.  "For the most part, the intellectual difficulty of the work is about the same as a meaningful upper-level college course, but there is so much studying and work that even very good students work long hours," he wrote. "Most medical schools expect their students to work 60-80 hours a week every week." 

David Delnegro, a fourth-year medical student at the University of South Florida, also via an email to U.S. News and World Report, echoed this sentiment. "The speed in which medical school material is delivered is breathtaking and will humble every incoming student, especially since little guidance is given on how to prioritize the mountain of material," he wrote.

We share this, not as a cause for alarm, but as a point for preparation. Incoming medical students often have a history of taking on academic challenges with relative ease, but many have not yet learned the study skills effective for an even more demanding environment.  

According to a Medscape article, Study Hacks for Medical School, written by Kolin Meehan, research shows that effective study habits can be distilled into three simple rules. “Accomplished students actively construct a study plan and configure the surroundings to maximize their chance of success. Whether using 3x5 flashcards or Quizlet, one highlighter or a rainbow of colors, effective study strategies share common features borne out in the literature: Fully remove all distractions, temporally disperse the material, and repeatedly test concepts. These three simple rules stand to beget untold benefits to students at every level,” Meehan wrote.

As the article’s title promises, Meehan also provides suggested “hacks” for meeting these three conditions: removing distractions, dispersing the material, and testing yourself. We’ve summarized them below. 

1. Mold your environment. Opt to go somewhere to study that is free of distractions. It should be away from others and quiet. Don’t just silence your phone, but keep it out of your sight. Meehan notes that research shows that even silenced and without notifications, keeping your phone within your field of vision creates a psychological distraction. You will waste energy trying to ignore it, so help yourself by keeping it put away.

2. Define your time. Meehan recommends that you use the “Pomodoro Technique.” This involves setting a timer for a set interval to work. For example, 25 minutes with no interruptions. Follow this with a five-minute break. Do this for about four iterations and then take a longer break, for about 30 minutes. Meehan explains why this strategy works. “Study sessions structured in this manner enable students to accomplish a day's work without perceiving the level of fatigue normally felt during long, uninterrupted study cycles. The short breaks punctuating the day are sufficient to initiate the consolidation process and enable longer study periods,” he wrote.

3. Slow and steady wins the race. While Meehan recommends the Pomodoro Technique for daily work, he emphasizes the need to study consistently throughout the full semester. Do. Not. Cram. Research shows that spaced repetition is necessary for long-term retention. “Study structures that incorporate spaced repetition vastly outperform single, large cramming sessions,” he wrote.

4. Test yourself. Use frequent self-assessments to ensure that you are recalling the information that you are attempting to learn. He notes that studies have shown the brain must be asked to recall the information to ensure retention. “Students face a very real ‘use it or lose it’ situation,” Meehan wrote.

5. Seriously, do not cram. Meehan again pointed to the superior results in studies of spaced learning combined with self-assessment and recall over passive review (or cramming). If you have been properly spacing your learning and testing yourself, the benefits of cramming are negligible. Save your time to enjoy a walk (or perhaps a quick rest!) before the exam. 

Try incorporating these three hacks into your day-to-day and let us know how they work for you. We think it will pay off.

Read the rest of the series: Learn How to Accept Critical Feedback Before Starting Medical School

Chicago Schools Come Out on Top in U.S. News’ Best MBA Rankings

University of Chicago Booth took the top spot in the newly released U.S. News and World Report’s “Best MBA” ranking. Booth was followed by Northwestern Kellogg at number two. University of Pennsylvania Wharton dropped to number three after sharing the top rank with Booth last year. This year’s rankings utilized an updated methodology with a greater emphasis on outcomes, which caused some shifts within the top 15. Highlights include:

• Dartmouth Tuck saw the largest uptick, moving from the 11th rank in 2022 to share the 6th rank with Stanford. 

• USC Marshall climbed four spots to the 15th rank, which it holds alongside Cornell Johnson.

• Harvard maintained its 5th rank position for the third consecutive year.

• Stanford, Columbia, and Berkeley Haas all dropped three spots from their positions last year. Columbia and Berkeley fell out of the top 10 into a three-way tie for the 11th rank with Duke Fuqua.

Along with the rankings, U.S. News shared key updates to its methodology, which increased the weight for “Placement Success,” to 50 percent of the overall rank. This is up significantly from 35 percent last year and includes two employment metrics as well as the mean starting salary and bonus for graduates. The overall rank de-emphasized the “Quality Assessment” to 25 percent of the total, down from 40 percent, and includes a peer and recruiter assessment score. “Student Selectivity” makes up the final 25 percent of the rank. It includes undergraduate GPA and acceptance rate, weighted slightly more than in previous years, and standardized test scores, weighted slightly less. 

Rank/School

1 University of Chicago (Booth)

2 Northwestern University (Kellogg)

3 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton)

4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Sloan)

5 Harvard University

6 Dartmouth College (Tuck)

6 Stanford University

8 University of Michigan--Ann Arbor (Ross)

8 Yale University

10 New York University (Stern)

11 Columbia University

11 Duke University (Fuqua)

11 University of California, Berkeley (Haas)

14 University of Virginia (Darden)

15 Cornell University (Johnson)

15 University of Southern California (Marshall)

17 Emory University (Goizueta)

18 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper)

19 University of California--Los Angeles (Anderson)

20 University of Texas--Austin (McCombs)

20 University of Washington (Foster)

22 Indiana University (Kelley)

22 University of North Carolina--Chapel Hill (Kenan-Flagler)

24 Georgetown University (McDonough)

24 Rice University (Jones)

U.S. News and World Report Takes Down Law School and Medical School Rankings Previews

The U.S. News and World Report just removed the Best Law School and Best Medical School previews, which were posted earlier this month. In place of the previews, which showed the Top 14 Law Schools and Top 15 Medical Schools: Research, U.S. News posted this announcement, which explains that the organization has received a number of data update requests from law and medical schools:

As U.S. News previously announced, we are dealing with an unprecedented number of inquiries during our embargo period for the 2023-2024 Best Graduate Schools, including requests from law and medical schools to update data submitted after the collection period.

While we address these inquiries, we have removed the preview content for the 2023-2024 Best Medical Schools: Research and 2023-2024 Best Law Schools rankings published here on April 11. As previously noted, the rankings are not final until they are published in their entirety on USNews.com.

The previews’ removal falls after two announced delays in the publication of the full rankings for law and medical schools. The organization has not yet provided an expected publication date for the rankings, although it published other graduate school rankings, including business schools, today. 

U.S. News and World Report Postpones Law and Medical School Rankings Indefinitely

The U.S. News and World Report just announced that the release of the “Best Law School” and “Best Medical School” rankings will be postponed indefinitely. The news comes shortly after the organization delayed the publication of all graduate rankings by a week, from April 18th to April 25th, to account for additional data review and validation. U.S. News still plans to publish all other graduate program rankings, including business schools, on April 25th. 

The withdrawal of many law and medical schools from the rankings earlier this year spurred U.S. News to depend more heavily on publicly available data than in the past. After publishing a preview of the top 14 ranked law schools and top 15 ranked medical research programs earlier this month, the organization allowed school officials the opportunity to review the data under an embargo period. This standard practice led to an “unprecedented” number of questions and calls for additional review, which has apparently led to the delay. 

In a letter written to the U.S. News and shared with Reuters, Harvard Law Assistant Dean Marva de Marothy wrote, "Although we no longer participate in the U.S. News rankings, we expect the magazine to use accurate, publicly available numbers if it intends to continue to make representations about our law school.” 

Starting Your MBA in the Fall? Apply Now for BCG’s Pre-MBA Summer Program.

Are you interested in pursuing a career in consulting after your MBA? Do you want to learn more about what life in the “Big Three”—BCG, Bain, McKinsey—is really like? 

BCG’s Unlock summer program is designed for students who are about to enter their first year of an MBA program. It will provide participants with an insider’s view of life in consulting and at BCG, as well as the opportunity to network with BCG consultants and leaders. The flexible program will use a host of optional, virtual events (typically 60 to 90 minutes in length) between late May and late June, so that it can fit into any schedule (even those working full-time). 

Applications for BCG Unlock are available now, and due April 30th. 

To be eligible, students must be enrolled as a first-year student starting in the Fall of 2023 at one of these 41 41 full-time MBA programs. The program is not available to second-year students, or part-time or executive MBA students.

2024 AMCAS Work & Activities Section Will Include New Experience Category: Social Justice/Advocacy

The American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) just announced that the 2024 application will include a new experience category in the Work and Activities section: Social Justice/Advocacy.  

AMCAS defines a social justice/advocacy experience as “one in which the applicant worked to advance the rights, privileges, or opportunities of a person, a group of people, or a cause.” It is specifically noted that experiences in this category do not need to be tied to any particular ideology, and that the category is “not intended to solicit experiences campaigning for a particular political candidate or party.” Rather, it is based on the applicant’s understanding of social justice/advocacy.

AMCAS provides examples of social justice/advocacy activities, which include: Registering people to vote, advocating for civil rights, decreasing health inequities, addressing food deserts, building awareness for a particular cause or health condition, advocating for vulnerable populations (children, homeless, etc.), and assisting with policy change or development. Previously, some applicants might have included advocacy work and social justice-related volunteering in other categories.

It's likely that you’ve already had experiences that will fall into this category. If so, we recommend that you include them. More schools are emphasizing social justice in their mission statements—and they’re looking for students whose values align with theirs.

As you consider this new category, remember these tips:

• Provide specific information about your social justice/advocacy experiences instead of making broad or generalized statements. For what specific issues did you advocate? What vulnerable population did you intend to benefit? What actions did you take on behalf of this issue/population? What did you learn that will make you a more effective member of the medical community?

• Avoid using overly-political or inflammatory language in your description. You want to resonate with a broad audience. Keep your description centered on the issues or population for which you worked and explore how it prepared you for medical school and your future career.

• While showing dedication to social justice and advocacy is important to admissions committees, ensure that you come across as well-rounded and include experiences across many different categories. If you have many social justice/advocacy experiences, select the strongest few to share or group them together. Consider the efforts where you played a meaningful leadership role, issues that you have a particular passion for, or experiences that relate directly to the mission of a school where you are applying.

• Conversely, if you don’t have any of these experiences, first think carefully about your volunteer activities and if there are components of those activities that may fit into this category. A good deal of volunteer work advocates for vulnerable populations or seeks to change an issue. However, if you are unsure or uncomfortable, don’t try to stretch an experience to make it fit. While this is a meaningful category for the medical community, there are many other experiences that will also prove your readiness for medical school.

GMAC Prospective Students Survey Finds Candidates Seek Business Degree to “Enrich Life and Develop Potential.”

The latest GMAC Prospective Students survey results provide a view into the shifting values and preferences of business school hopefuls. This year’s results show how Gen Z, who now make up the majority of business school applicants, and Millennials overlap and differ in their motivations, expectations, preferences, and career aspirations. 

The global survey includes over 2700 respondents from more than 130 countries. 

Key findings include:

Most candidates reported that they were seeking a business degree “to enrich their life and develop their potential.” 

• When respondents were asked to select their key motivation for attending business school, 79 percent of respondents chose “enrich life and develop potential.” GMAC’s report notes that this motivation was the top option selected across gender, generation, and region. 

• The next most frequently selected motivations included: Increase income (64 percent), Gain business knowledge (61 percent), and Enhance network (60 percent). 

• Gen Z respondents were much more likely than millennials (about 10 percentage points) to select “increase income” and “expand network” as top motivators.

Most candidates believe that businesses have a social responsibility to their communities. 

• Just over four in ten respondents globally, 42 percent, view Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as essential components of graduate management education. While there were no noteworthy differences between generations, female respondents were more likely (52 percent) than males (36 percent) to hold this view.

• The majority of respondents agreed that corporations have a social responsibility to the countries where they operate and the people who support them. Among those who view CSR as essential to the business school curriculum, 80 percent agreed that corporations have a social responsibility. 

• Among U.S. respondents, differences emerged in views on corporate social responsibility between those who do and who do not identify as part of an underrepresented population. Among respondents who did not identify as an underrepresented population, 61 percent agreed that corporations have a social responsibility, whereas just 35 percent of respondents who identified with an underrepresented group agreed. 

The one-year MBA emerged as the most preferred program type. 

• Globally, candidates expressed the greatest preference for full-time, in-person MBA programs (of either one or two-year durations) over flexible or executive MBA programs or specialized master’s programs. 

• Gen Z respondents (87 percent) were more likely than Millennials (72 percent) to express a preference for in-person programs. 

• Women, Millennials, and first-generation candidates remained the most likely groups to express a preference for online and hybrid programs.

• North American respondents expressed a greater preference for longer programs (39 percent), over shorter programs that were 13-18 months (29 percent), or one-year or less (13 percent).  

Gen Z candidates expressed less interest in pursuing tech careers. 

• Among all prospective students, consulting continues to be the most sought-after industry for post-graduate work followed by technology. Interest in tech has leveled off among women and members of underrepresented populations.

• Gen Z respondents reported a greater interest in finance and accounting (41 percent) over tech careers (35 percent).

• A greater proportion of Millennials remain interested in tech (47 percent) versus finance and accounting (41 percent).

U.S. News Will Delay Publication of Rankings After Unprecedented Number of Data Inquiries by Law Schools

U.S. News and World Report’s annual ranking of law schools will be delayed a week. In an email to law deans, published in part by Above the Law, U.S. News explained that during the law school data review period—a standard part of the pre-publication process—the organization received “an unprecedented number of inquiries from schools.” In order to fully address the inquiries, U.S. News added an additional week to the review period. Participating law deans are expected to receive access to the updated data on Wednesday, April 19th, and the final publication has been moved to April 25th. 

Johns Hopkins Takes Top Spot in U.S. News’ Best Research Medical Schools Ranking Preview

In the U.S. News’ preview of its 2024 Best Medical Schools (Research), Johns Hopkins University overtook perennial leader, Harvard, for the top rank. The full rankings will be released April 18th.  

In addition to the noteworthy change at the top, significant movement occurred elsewhere within the top-ranked schools when compared to the 2023 rankings. 

• University of Michigan and Northwestern University entered the elite tier of medical schools, climbing to 9th and 12th, respectively, from a tie at 17th last year. 

• Three schools dropped out of the top 15: University of Washington (ranked 8th in 2023), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ranked 11th in 2023), and Vanderbilt University (ranked 13th in 2023). 

• NYU Grossman saw a sharp decline, although it still remained in the top 15, falling from 2nd in 2023 to 13th in 2024. 

• Washington University in St. Louis climbed seven spots from last year, moving from the 11th rank in 2023, to tie for 4th in 2024. 

Rank School

1 Johns Hopkins University, +2 from 2023

2 University of Pennsylvania (Perelman), +4

3 Harvard University, -2

4 University of California—San Francisco (tie), -1

4 Washington University in St. Louis (tie), +7

6 Columbia University, -3

7 Stanford University (tie), +1

7 Yale University (tie), +3

9 Duke University (tie), -3

9 University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (tie), +8

11 University of Pittsburgh, +3

12 Northwestern University (Feinberg), +5

13 New York University (Grossman), -11

14 Cornell University (Weill) (tie), no change

14 Mayo Clinic School of Medicine (Alix) (tie), no change

U.S. News has also made changes to their ranking methodology, which includes the addition of a research quality metric, increased weight given to faculty-student ratios, and a reduced weight for reputation surveys, MCAT, and GPA scores.

Briefly addressing the departure of many medical schools from the rankings—including those at Harvard, Columbia, Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell, Duke and University of Chicago—U.S. News explained that it ranked all schools using publicly available data from the National Institutes of Health, as well as data submitted through surveys in 2023 (or 2022 if 2023 was not available).  

Following Months of Controversy, U.S. News Unveils Preview of 2024 Best Law School Rankings

The U.S. News just published a preview of its 2024 Best Law School Rankings. And there weren’t many surprises. Stanford Law moved up from the second rank to tie Yale University for the top spot. Columbia Law dropped from the fourth rank to the eighth, Georgetown Law fell out of the top-14, and UCLA moved up from the 15th rank to take Georgetown’s place. 

There were some notable updates to U.S. News’ methodology, however, which the news organization said were based upon the input of over 100 law deans and legal experts. Some of the named changes include: an increase in the weight given to the bar pass rate and the addition of the “ultimate bar pass pass rate” (the bar pass rate of a graduating class two years post-grad); an increase in the weight given to employment ten months post-graduation; changes to the credit assigned for students entering into fellowships or graduate school post-graduation; and a significant reduction in the weight given to reputation surveys, LSAT/GRE scores, and median GPA scores. 

Briefly addressing the controversy, U.S. News explained that it ranked all schools using publicly available data, and removed some of the metrics that were not available (e.g. expenditures, at-graduation employment rate, and JD graduate indebtedness). 

The U.S. News plans to publish the full methodology, including measures and weights, alongside the complete rankings, on April 18. 

Rank School Name

1 Stanford University (tie)

1 Yale University (tie)

3 University of Chicago

4 Harvard University (tie)

4 University of Pennsylvania (Carey) (tie)

6 Duke University (tie)

6 New York University (tie)

8 Columbia University (tie)

8 University of Virginia (tie)

10 Northwestern University (Pritzker) (tie)

10 University of California, Berkeley (tie)

10 University of Michigan—Ann Arbor (tie)

13 Cornell University

14 University of California—Los Angeles

AMCAS 2024: “Disadvantaged Applicant” Question Revised to Broader Adversity Question

The AMCAS “disadvantaged applicant” question is no more. This year’s AMCAS application has introduced a new question in its place that asks more broadly about an applicant’s “impactful experiences.” 

The 2024 AMCAS application will now include the following question and guidance: 

Other Impactful Experiences 

To provide some additional context around each individual’s application, admissions committees are interested in learning more about the challenges applicants may have overcome in life. The following question is designed to give you the opportunity to provide additional information about yourself that is not easily captured in the rest of the application. 

Please consider whether this question applies to you. Medical schools do not expect all applicants to answer “yes” to this question. This question is intended for applicants who have overcome major challenges or obstacles. Some applicants may not have experiences that are relevant to this question.  Other applicants may not feel comfortable sharing personal information in their application.  

o Yes o No 

Please use the space below to describe why you selected “yes.” [This text and the textbox only appear if “yes” is selected for this question.] 

In a pop-up box, AMCAS provides some helpful examples. It reads:

The following examples can help you decide whether you should respond “yes” to the question, and if so, what kinds of experiences you could share. Please keep in mind that this is not a fully inclusive list and any experiences you choose to write about should be ones that directly impacted your life opportunities. 

Example Experiences 

• Family background: serving as a caretaker of a family member (e.g., siblings, parent/guardian), first generation to college 

• Community setting: rural area, food scarcity, high poverty or crime rate, lack of access to regular health care (e.g., primarily used urgent care clinics or emergency room, no primary care physician) 

• Financial background: low-income family, worked to support family growing up, work-study to pay for college, federal or state financial support 

• Educational experience: limited educational opportunities, limited access to advisors or counselors who were knowledgeable/supportive of higher education requirements 

• Other general life circumstances that were beyond your control and impacted your life and/or presented barriers (e.g., religion) 

Why the change?

The AAMC made the revision in response to “limitations” identified with the previous question, which asked a candidate if they wished to identify themself as a “disadvantaged applicant.” Research into the text found that applicants found the question ambiguous, and that many had a negative reaction to the use of the term “disadvantaged applicant.” 

However, AAMC’s research also found that both applicants and admissions officers found value in the intent of the question, which was “to provide rich contextual information about an applicant’s journey and how their lived experiences align with schools’ missions and/or the communities they serve.” 

The revised question and associated guidance was piloted using the Summer Health Professions Education Program and the supplemental Electronic Residency Application Service. And both the question and guidance received “generally positive feedback” from administrators and applicants. 

Should I respond to this question?

As with the question that preceded it, this question text states that not all candidates are expected to respond. Rather, it is intended for those who have had “major challenges or obstacles.” 

That being said, this updated question provides applicants with a broader scope for responses. So, we urge you to consider any significant challenges that you have faced, using the following questions:

1. Did this experience impact my life in such a way that it provides meaningful context to my application? 

Examples of such adversity include: Facing a significant health challenge such as cancer or a disability; serving as the guardian to your younger siblings, while also attending classes (likely, negatively impacting your resume); living in an underserved medical community that made it difficult to gain shadowing or clinical experiences, but also inspired your interest in rural medicine. 

Alternatively, more typical experiences that likely do not represent significant adversity (but potentially belong in your personal statement or secondary essays) include: Breaking a bone during high school athletics and going through a difficult recuperation process; facing a life-impacting food allergy, the dissolution of a romantic relationship, a domestic move, and/or your parents’ divorce. While these experiences likely impacted you greatly, they may not belong in this response. 

2. What did I learn from the experience? 

Your essay response should detail the adversity, but should center on what you learned from going through the experience. Did this experience provide you with an “ah-ha!” moment that changed your perspective and impacted your life? If the take-aways from the adversity do not feel relevant to your application (i.e., your learnings do not clearly make you a stronger candidate for a medical school), you should reconsider the take-aways or including the experience.

3. Have I already spoken to this experience in my personal statement? 

You will want to avoid redundancy by sharing different stories and anecdotes in this essay and your personal statement. If you fully explored the experience in your personal statement, do not feel compelled to re-write about the experience here. Not all applicants are expected to have responses to this question. 

Your writing approach:

Overcoming adversity makes for a stronger medical school candidate and this is what you will want to emphasize in your response: Provide the reader background on the situation in the first 20 percent of the response. But the remaining 80 percent should be devoted to what you learned from the adversity.

How will your future classmates and patients benefit from the lessons you gained from the adversity? Keep in mind the qualities that medical schools are looking for in prospective students and show the reader how your experience improved your dedication to medicine and resilience and/or your abilities in leadership, teamwork, empathy, and critical and creative thinking.

Most Popular Courses at Stanford GSB in Interpersonal and Organizational Dynamics

To gain insight into the “future of management,” The Economist recently published a profile of Stanford GSB’s most oversubscribed courses. The findings are fascinating. In a world where ChatGPT and AI are gaining traction, the most popular courses for Stanford GSB students are also the most humane. Students are seeking instruction on how to thrive within the murky and complex world of interpersonal dynamics and organizational politics. 

Interpersonal Dynamics, often referenced as “Touchy Feely,” has received the “most popular” accolade annually at GSB for the last 45 years. The class recognizes the role that self-awareness and introspection play in creating strong relationships, which in turn are necessary for success in global and interconnected organizations. The course is typically facilitated in a conversational style within small group sections, and culminates with students sorting themselves into a line based on their influence. The Economist noted their struggle as they seek to balance their perception of their own personal influence with the, occasionally conflicting, views of their classmates.  

Another exceedingly popular course asks students to look outward to understand the power dynamics at play around them. The course, The Paths to Power, provides students with a view of inter-organizational power struggles and strategies to thrive within that dynamic. Topics such as likeability, aggression, pushiness, and audaciousness dominate the conversation. According to the instructor, the course is designed to ensure that students have the tools to “never have to leave a position involuntarily.” According to The Economist, students joke that the course is, “designed for the budding Machiavellian.” 

Finally, Managing Growing Enterprises is geared towards students who plan to own a business. But, rather than the logistics of scaling a business, the course gears predominantly towards navigating sensitive interpersonal or public relations situations, such as poor employee performance or lay-offs, challenging board interactions, crisis management, journalist interactions, missed revenue forecasts, etc. Students engage with these situations through role-playing exercises followed by feedback, offered by professors and fellow students, which can be highly critical. 

New Jersey Bar Association Advocates to Remove Mental Health Questions from Bar Applicant Questionnaire

New Jersey is the latest state to seek to abolish the mental health questions asked on the “character and fitness questionnaire” required of all Bar applicants. Late last month, the New Jersey State Bar officially requested that the NJ Supreme Court remove item 12B from the bar applicant questionnaire: Do you currently have any condition or impairment (including but not limited to substance abuse, alcohol abuse, or a mental, emotional, or nervous disorder or condition) that in any way affects your ability to practice law in a competent, ethical, and professional manner and in compliance with the Rules of Professional Conduct, the Rules of Court, and applicable case law? 

Jeralyn Lawrence, New Jersey State Bar Association President, speaking to the New Jersey Law Journal, explained the reasoning behind her advocacy for the change. “We are a profession in crisis. The pace of our practice is not sustainable. We need to remove barriers in place for people to get help, and 12b, we believe, is a barrier to the bar. We’re advocating strongly that the court remove that question so that it’s not a detriment to people getting help,” she said. 

Virginia and New York removed its mental health questions from the bar admission application in 2019 and 2020 following similar advocacy efforts by law students and interested groups. And, in January, Ohio abandoned questions related to diagnosis and only asks about mental health as it relates to disciplinary actions or guardianship/conservatorship. 

According to the ABA: 

• Fourteen states do not request a candidate’s mental health status in evaluating their fitness for the Bar: Arizona, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New York, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Washington, and Wisconsin. 

• Four states—Indiana, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Texas—ask about mental health only in the context of disciplinary action. 

• One state—Ohio—asks about mental health only in the context of disciplinary action and court appointed guardianship/conservatorship. 

• Two states—California and Connecticut—ask about mental health only in the context of court appointed guardianship/conservatorship. 

• Ten states—Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming), and Washington D.C.—have adopted the three mental health questions drafted by the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) that are shown below: 

1. Diagnosis:  Do you currently have any condition or impairment (including, but not limited to, substance abuse, alcohol abuse, or a mental, emotional, or nervous disorder or condition) that in any way affects your ability to practice law in a competent, ethical, and professional manner? Note: “Currently” means recent enough that the condition or impairment could reasonably affect your ability to function as a lawyer. 

2. Treatment: Are the limitations caused by your condition or impairment reduced or ameliorated because you receive ongoing treatment or because you participate in a monitoring or support program? 

3. Defense/Disciplinary Action: Within the past five years, have you asserted any condition or impairment as a defense, in mitigation, or as an explanation for your conduct in the course of any inquiry, any investigation, or any administrative or judicial proceeding by an educational institution, government agency, professional organization, or licensing authority; or in 10 years, connection with an employment disciplinary or termination procedure?

• Eleven states that do not follow the NCBE test—Alabama, Arkansas (disciplinary action only), Colorado, Delaware, Indiana (disciplinary action only), Kentucky, Nevada, New Hampshire (disciplinary action only), Oregon, Rhode Island, and Texas (disciplinary action only)—ask at least one of the NCBE questions. 

• Fifteen other states ask questions of their own drafting.

Some Students Don’t Match on Residency Match Day. Do they Need More Support?

Match rates improved across all applicant types in the 2023 National Match. U.S. MD seniors garnered a 93.7 percent match rate (+0.8 percentage points from 2022) and U.S. DOs achieved an all-time high with a match rate of 91.6 percent (+0.3 percentage points from 2022). Among international medical graduates, who historically match at lower rates, U.S. citizens achieved a record high match rate of 67.6 percent (+6.2 percentage points from 2022) and non-U.S. citizens matched at a rate of 59.4 percent (+1.3 from 2022).

The Match generally brought positive feedback for the improving rates, but what about those who don’t match? “After the match, of course, there's an uptick [in calls] every year," said Pamela Wible, MD and Founder/Operator of a mental health helpline for doctors and medical students. "Matchless medical students reach out to me who don't know what to do with their lives, sitting on $300,000 of student loans, sobbing on their couch" continued Dr. Wible, in a MedPage article published after the 2021 Match.

A recent MedScape op-ed considers the challenges for matchless medical students and urges the medical community to provide more proactive and structured advice and guidance on how to navigate not matching to a position. The authors suggest the following ways that medical schools or national medical organizations can offer more meaningful support: 

• Prior to Match Day, organizations can facilitate webinars/meetings that both normalize not matching to a position and also provide guidance on useful actions. The meeting might include topics such as how to adjust career plans, approach loan repayment, enter the SOAP process, explore alternative positions in research or other fields, and reapply to a future Match process. 

• Medical schools should focus on providing mental health support services and ensuring that students know how to access these resources both prior to, on, and after Match Day. In addition to providing access to emergency counseling services, the authors suggest that schools offer stress reduction workshops/tips and opt-out mental health services prior to the Match.

• Finally, schools and the medical community must work together to destigmatize not matching. Students should feel comfortable and safe pursuing next steps knowing that their school and the wider medical community will support them as they determine how they will continue to pursue their dream of practicing medicine. 

“Stay in touch with your dean and others at your medical school and ask them for help…Also, get involved in a research project. Look for mentors at your medical school who are working in the field of medicine you want to work in and volunteer to help,” said Margarita Loeza, MD, MPH and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Admissions at the Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in AMA article published last month. 

Elite MBA Programs Incorporate Online Learning

Even the most elite MBA programs continue to embrace online learning. A recent Business Because article highlighted a few of the recently added options.  

• The University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) Global Executive MBA will launch in May and provide a predominantly online experience for participants. Just 25 percent of the program will take place in-person, while the remainder of the content will be provided online. The program intends to cater to a global cohort of participants and will confer the same Executive MBA degree, at the same cost, as the in-person Executive MBA.

• The NYU (Stern) Part-Time MBA will provide online modules (asynchronous online learning combined with an in-person component) and course options for those in the part-time MBA program. The online offerings are intended to provide additional flexibility, however, the program will still require students to take at least nine classes in-person. The tuition and degree conferred are the same for part-time students taking courses in-person or using the hybrid learning model.

• The University of California Berkeley (Haas) Part-Time Flex MBA will allow students to complete the majority of their coursework online, but do require participation in at least three in-person immersion events. The tuition and degree conferred are the same for the in-person and online part-time programs.

• The Georgetown (McDonough) Flex MBA Online will offer students the option to complete the majority of their coursework online. In addition to the virtual classes, the program requires students to participate in a two-week on-campus residency as well as a one-week study abroad program. The tuition and degree conferred are the same for the Flex MBA and Flex MBA Online.

Learn How to Accept Critical Feedback Before Starting Medical School

This blog is the first in a new series that we are publishing on the soft skills that all premedical students should develop prior to starting medical school. While your academic preparation has been underway for many years, we don’t want you to forget about those skills we believe will be vital to your success in medical school (and beyond).

Many pre-medical students have spent the majority of their lives receiving praise and playing starring roles both inside and outside of the classroom. Your commitment to success is part of why you made it into medical school, but it can also make the transition particularly tough. Medical school is not only a challenging academic environment, it is a time filled with new experiences and, accordingly, a lot of mistakes. You will get critical feedback in large doses. 

“My first piece of written feedback during my clinical year was ripe with criticism. I regrettably reacted to it by reading and re-reading it, allowing discouragement and imposter’s syndrome to slowly infiltrate my psyche. My voice began quivering during my presentations on rounds. My thoughts quickly became consumed with what every attending might be thinking of me at any given moment. It became harder to concentrate and learn. I stood in my own way, allowing my dependence on external validation to hamper my professional growth,” said Nabeel Salka, a third-year medical student at the University of Michigan, in a personal essay.  

In preparation for medical school, we want you to gain some comfort with the discomfort. We urge you to practice requesting and receiving negative feedback because feedback plays a critical role in performance and leadership effectiveness. Dr. Sheila Heen, a lecturer at Harvard Law School and author of Thanks for the Feedback: The Science and Art of Receiving Feedback Well, regularly references research that says those who regularly seek critical feedback report higher job satisfaction, adapt better into new roles, and receive higher performance reviews than those who do not seek out feedback. 

But it’s not always easy. Dr. Heen points out that feedback can cause various “trigger” responses, such as truth triggers, relationship triggers, and identity triggers that make it difficult to productively receive the provider’s message. 

--Truth triggers: When we question the veracity of the feedback. We may feel misunderstood, wronged, or indignant, and we are more likely to reject the feedback or go on the defensive.

--Relationship triggers: When the person providing the feedback colors how we receive it. We may feel targeted or bullied. 

--Identity triggers: When feedback hits at how we see ourselves. We may feel shaken, confused, and particularly sensitive. 

So, once you identify your triggers, what’s the next step? Tasha Eurich, organizational psychologist and executive coach, provides guidelines for overcoming the initial emotional reaction, and accepting critical feedback for the useful tool that it is. 

--Don’t rush it. Negative feedback is inherently uncomfortable and emotional. Sit with the discomfort, feel the emotions, and don’t feel compelled to respond to feedback immediately. While researching for her book, Insight, Eurich interviewed a group of people who dramatically improved in self-awareness. Within this group, two clear patterns emerged: First, she found that they made a habit of seeking out critical feedback (although many agreed it was “unpleasant”). Second, after receiving feedback, they took their time, days or even weeks, to respond. During this reflection period, some worked to transform their view of the feedback from an emotional reaction (e.g, “upsetting”) to a rational one (e.g, “helpful and productive data”). Others used “self-affirmation” techniques such as considering their many good qualities (“I am a committed medical student.'') to contextualize the feedback into a broader picture, thus making it feel less threatening.  

--Gather more data. Request additional data points via feedback from others to understand the situation more completely. Is this feedback relevant to many interactions or is it an outlier? Find out if others agree and what additional context they can provide. In addition to providing a more complete picture and reducing personal blind spots, the additional data can help inform an improvement strategy. 

--Don’t choose isolation. There is a real tendency for people to cut off relationships with those who provide negative feedback, to their own detriment. Eurich references research by Marshall Goldsmith and Howard Morgan, who tracked 11,000 leaders within a leadership development program; the contingent who received critical feedback and continued to engage with their coworkers made dramatic behavioral improvements, while those who didn’t were much less likely to see improvement. Maintaining relationships with those who provide difficult feedback drives better progression over time. 

Within medicine, particularly in the clinical setting, there are additional barriers to feedback beyond our own emotional responses. An article in the NEJM Resident 360 identifies the following: not enough time, conflicting priorities, lack of physical/private space to provide feedback, power differentials (particularly for upward feedback), lack of (enough) observations, and a lack of a growth mindset (receiver). Understanding these barriers can help you to create structures to overcome them, such as seeking out feedback on a routine basis, learning to identify feedback in whatever form it may come, gaining comfort in hearing feedback publicly, and accepting that some feedback may not be valid due to a lack of observations. 

Nabeel Salka ended his personal essay by describing the power he felt when he learned to accept negative feedback for what it is, a growth opportunity rather than an indictment of his abilities as a physician. He wrote, “Nearly a year after receiving my first piece of written feedback, I read it again. This time I didn’t feel hurt or ashamed. In fact, I felt like I understood the actual content of the criticism for the first time. Rather than concerning myself with the grade and how much the resident disapproved of my performance, I learned that I could be more organized when presenting.” 

Starting medical school with an ability to see criticism as a learning moment, and nothing more, will allow you to enjoy and take advantage of challenging opportunities in this unique period of your life.

The GMAT Gets a Refresh

An updated version of the GMAT called the GMAT Focus will be released this year. Developed by GMAC in partnership with business schools, it is designed to offer test takers more flexibility because it is close to an hour shorter in length and won’t require an essay.  

According to a leaked graphic published by Poets & Quants, specific updates to the test are expected to include:

• A shorter Quantitative Reasoning section. The GMAT Focus will ask 21 questions, which will reduce the section by 10 questions and 17 minutes from the current GMAT. 

• A shorter Verbal Reasoning section. The GMAT Focus will ask 23 questions instead of the current 36, and the time allotted will decrease by 20 minutes. This section will include questions on reading comprehension and critical reasoning. 

• A new Data Insights section. The new section will increase the current GMAT’s Integrative Reasoning section from 12 questions to 20, with an additional 15 minutes of time. The section will include questions on data sufficiency, multi-source reasoning, table analysis, graphics interpretation, and two-part analysis.

In addition to shortening the overall test experience, test-takers will have the ability to flag questions that they wish to return to prior to the end of the section time. 

The current version of the GMAT will also be available for test-takers through early 2024. 

555 Vacant Emergency Medicine Resident Positions Remain Following National Match Day

According to social media reports, this year's National Resident Matching Program left 555 unfilled positions in emergency medicine. While the positions will likely be filled in the Supplemental Offer and Acceptance Program, it is noteworthy because, as recently as three to four years ago, the specialty was among the most competitive. This year’s number of vacancies more than doubled last year’s 219 unfilled positions, but in 2021 just 14 vacancies remained post-match. 

Several emergency medicine groups published a joint statement reacting to the open positions on the American College of Emergency Physicians website. In the statement, they noted that a combination of many factors likely influenced this year’s outcome. “Many have speculated about factors such as workforce projections, increased clinical demands, emergency department (ED) boarding, economic challenges, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the corporatization of medicine, among many others.”  

An interview between Medscape and Robert McNamara, MD, Chair of Emergency Medicine at Temple University and Chief Medical Officer of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, provided additional insight into two of the factors: workforce projections and the corporatization of emergency medicine. In December 2021, the Annals of Emergency Medicine published a study projecting an oversupply of emergency physicians by 2030. In McNamara’s view, the suggestion of an oversupply may have deterred prospective entrants into the field who worry about finding a job and repaying loans. 

"Emergency medicine residents always have among the highest debt of any specialty," McNamara said. "They have a strong sense of social justice and often don't come from privileged backgrounds ... so they're likely to accumulate debt."

He also added that emergency medicine positions tend to fall under corporate entities more often than physician-run groups. The corporate focus on profit can lead to burnout and a lack of “physician autonomy.” 

Moving forward, the joint statement announced the creation of a Match Task Force with heavy emergency medicine representation to further understand the reasoning behind the unfilled positions and create mitigation strategies for the future.