Presents a fascinating view of medical education at the University of Michigan supplemented with rare photographs

Being a physician is an amazing privilege, and it can be a deeply rewarding career...but first you have to get through medical school. Students, who were often at the top of their class prior to medical school, now find themselves surrounded by equally bright, hardworking, overachieving classmates and facing new challenges from rigorous curricula to specialty selection to navigation of unchartered territories of mentorship, clinical rotations, and research. Thriving in medical school requires more than smarts--it requires new learning strategies, organization, time management, teamwork skills, mentorship, adaptability, resilience, and more. This book brings together advice from medical educators, practicing physicians, and current medical students to help new medical students not just survive medical school but handle the transition with grace and position them to succeed and thrive.

Med School Confidential from Robert H. Miller and Daniel M. Bissell uses the same chronological format and mentor-based system that have made Law School Confidential and Business School Confidential such treasured and popular guides. It takes the reader step-by-step through the entire med school process--from thinking about, applying to, and choosing a medical school and program, through the four-year curriculum, internships, residencies, and fellowships, to choosing a specialty and finding the perfect job. With a foreword by Chair of the Admissions Committee at Dartmouth Medical School Harold M. Friedman, M.D., Med School Confidential provides what no other book currently does: a comprehensive, chronological account of the full medical school experience.

A group of vivid, first-person stories of medical students who don't "fit the mold" and have had challenges completing conventional medical training.

Forget the old concept of medical school taking over your life. It is possible to do great in school while still having a rich and well-rounded life. Whether your dream is having time for international volunteer work, having time to do cutting edge research, having time to be the parent and spouse you want to be, having time to exercise relax and unwind, or just HAVING TIME to live more and work less, Medical School 2.0 is your blue print to thrive as a medical student. This step-by-step guide to medical school teaches: How Dave, a medical student with below-average SAT and MCAT scores used these techniques to go from spending 16 hours a day on medical school and getting a "C" average to spending 1-3 hours a day on medical school and getting the top academic honors, 99.7th percentile on USMLE Steps 1 and 2, induction into the AOA honor society, and getting into his top choice residency in his top choice location, all the while enjoying the process of learning and having plenty of free time to enjoy life outside of medical school. How to clarify your personal goals for your life in medicine and in medical school and use those to reverse-engineer a personalized and customized curriculum for yourself. How to sift through seemingly infinite study sources and choose the highest yield information for your own unique goals. How to apply the latest research findings in the neuroscience of learning and memory to supercharge your brain's learning potential, maximizing your per-hour learning output. How to structure and schedule your study sessions and your "work days" to maximize your learning potential. What to eat and drink to fuel your brain to form and maintain sold long term memories of what you're learning. This book is the result of hundreds of hours of research interviewing top-performing medical students across the USA to deconstruct the strategies behind their success, researching and integrating the latest science of how our brain's learn, and then distilling the final product into a group of practical, simple, and extremely high yield tools and tricks to both maximize your mind's learning output, to enjoy the process of learning, and to have the time to follow your dreams in medical school and beyond. These are the same strategies that the author used in medical school, continues to use now, and has taught to hundreds of other students who have achieved even better results."

“A must-have for every future doctor’s collection. Great advice, comprehensive, and to the point. Dr. Gray breaks it down, play by play.” —Sujay Kansagra, MD, author of The Medical School Manual The Premed Playbook Guide to the Medical School Interview is the only book needed to prepare premed students for their medical school interviews. Through interviews with Admissions Committee members and others, Dr. Gray has compiled the most comprehensive book on this subject. Premed students want to know what to expect, but more importantly they need to see examples of what successful applicants have done. The Premed Playbook not only gives them close to six hundred potential interview questions, it also gives them real answers and feedback from interview sessions that Dr. Gray has held with students. “This book touches on every aspect of the interview from applying, during the interview and things to do/not to do after the interview. I highly recommend this book for every student to read and have available for reference during the medical school interview season.” —Antonio J. Webb, MD, orthopedic resident surgeon, motivational speaker, and author of Overcoming the Odds “He challenges the reader to examine their strengths and weaknesses and gives them a blueprint on how to put their best foot forward. His advice is real-world and complied by many interviewers, including myself, who have years of experience interviewing medical school applicants. I highly recommend this book as a fundamental preparation tool for the application process.” —Gregory M. Polites, MD, Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine, Chairman of the Central Subcommittee on Admissions, Washington University School of Medicine

I got into medical school by saying I was black. I lied. Honestly, I am about as black as my sister Mindy Kaling (The Office / The Mindy Project). Once upon a time, I was an ethically challenged, hard-partying Indian American frat boy enjoying my third year of college. That is until I realized I didn't have the grades or scores to get into medical school. Legitimately. Still, I was determined to be a doctor and discovered that affirmative action provided a loophole that might help. The only problem? I wasn't a minority. So I became one. I shaved my head, trimmed my long Indian eyelashes, and applied as an African American. Not even my frat brothers recognized me. I joined the Organization of Black Students and used my middle name, Jojo. Vijay, the Indian American frat boy, became Jojo, the African American affirmative action applicant. Not everything went as planned. During a med school interview, an African American doctor angrily confronted me for not being black. Cops harassed me. Store clerks accused me of shoplifting. Women were either scared of me or found my bald black dude look sexually mesmerizing. What started as a scam to get into med school turned into a twisted social experiment that taught me lessons I would never have learned in the classroom. I became a serious contender at some of America's greatest schools, including Harvard, Wash U, UPenn, Case Western, and Columbia. I interviewed at 11 schools while posing as a black man. After all that, I finally got accepted into medical school. Before I finished this book, I stirred a hornet's nest by telling my story. It has been featured in more than 100 media outlets, including CNN, NBC, TIME, FOX, and Huffington Post. Many loved it, but not everyone approved of what I did. My college classmate Tucker Max (I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell) disapproved. My sister Mindy Kaling furiously declared, This book will bring shame on our family! I disagree but I'll let you be the judge.