Award-winning pediatric doctor shot and killed Tuesday night

by: Billy Gates

AUSTIN (KXAN) Police identified a doctor who worked at the Childrens Medical Group as the victim in a deadly SWAT standoff Tuesday night in central Austin.

Dr. Lindley Dodson was found dead inside the pediatric office after a SWAT team breached the doors of the building, ending a 6-hour standoff. She was a pediatrician at the office operated by Ascension Seton Dell Childrens Medical Center.

She is survived by her husband, her two daughters and her son.

Dodson, 43, grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and completed her undergraduate degree in chemistry at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, where she graduated magna cum laude, her LinkedIn profile says. She attended medical school at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans.

We are shocked at the tragic loss of Lindley, and our hearts go out to Katherine, Paul, Drew, and the entire family, said LSU Interim President Tom Galligan. Words fail us, but we offer our good thoughts, sympathy, and prayers to our friends and colleague.

She completed her residency at Vanderbilt University Childrens Hospital in Nashville, Tenn., and was certified by the American Board of Pediatrics.

She joined Childrens Medical Groups office in 2017, according to its website. Her LinkedIn profile said she was also a partner at CMG.

Before coming to work in Austin, she was a Harvard Medical School instructor and was an urgent care doctor at Childrens Hospital Boston following her residency in Nashville. For 10 years, she worked at Dell Childrens Hospital in Austin and was named the hospitals top pediatric doctor in 2012 and 2017.

She was named a Rising Star by the Texas Super Doctors for three consecutive years, 2017-2019.

Multiple people replied to tweets by KXAN reporter Jody Barr, saying Dodson was their childs doctor or that they knew her personally.

Such a massive and heartbreaking loss for our community, one tweet said.

Another person who tweeted said she cared for his two sons, and the news was an absolute tragedy.

We are absolutely devastated and shaken, they added.

Karen Shafrir Vladeck, an Austin lawyer and friend of Dodson, said she was an absolute shining light, and organized a tribute thread on Twitter for people to share their favorite memories of Dodson.

Our entire community is beyond words gutted by the senseless loss of our wonderful pediatrician and friend, Dr. Lindley Dodson. This thread is dedicated to her life and love of children and I invite anyone who knew her to share a memory here, if that helps you process your grief. pic.twitter.com/JRU8pSIeHA

Dr. Dodson was a light. An absolute shining light. She walked into the exam room with a broad but sympathetic smile on her face every time you were there, she tweeted. She made you feel like your childs illness was the only one that mattered in that moment, even though you knew there was a line of other kids and parents waiting anxiously to see her. She always made you feel important and heard.

Texas Rep. Lloyd Doggett said Dodson cared for two of his grandchildren and offered his condolences on Twitter.

Last night, in a horrifying act of gun violence, one of our most skilled, compassionate pediatricians, Dr. Lindley Dodson, was held hostage and murdered at her Central Austin office. She provided care for our youngest 2 grandchildren & so many other children across the community. pic.twitter.com/98BhHyycVw

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Everything we know about Dr. Lindley Dodson - KXAN.com

Watch the AMA's daily COVID-19 update, with insights from AMA leaders and experts about the pandemic.

Featured topicand speakers

In todays COVID-19 Update, a special preview of the AMA webinar Your Voice, Your AMA: Health Care Advocacy and the New Administration," airing on Jan. 27 at noon Central for medical students to learn more about advocacy and how they can get involved in 2021.

Register for the webinar.

Learn more at theAMA COVID-19 resource center.

Unger: Hello, this is the American Medical Associations COVID-19 update. Today, we're bringing you a special preview of an AMA webinar airing on January 27th called, Your Voice, Your AMA: Health Care Advocacy and the New Administration and discussing how medical students can get more involved in advocacy in 2021. I'll be the moderator for this upcoming webinar and I'm joined today by the three panelists. Todd Askew, AMA senior vice president of advocacy in Washington, D.C. Reilly Bealer, the AMA's government relations advocacy fellow or GRAF in Washington, D.C., and a rising third year medical student at the Elson Floyd College of Medicine at Washington State University. And Jenny Young, director of membership at the Medical Society of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia. I'm Todd Unger, AMA's chief experience officer in Chicago. The panels have all asked for me to call them by their first names today. Todd, can you start by explaining the goal of the upcoming webinar and why it's so important to hold this event right now?

Askew: Sure. Todd, absolutely. This is a great opportunity and a great time for medical students to become involved in advocacy, that's really who we're targeting here. As a medical student at the beginning of your career, this is a great time to begin to make advocacy part of your practice, part of the way you care for patients throughout your career. Also, obviously right now, we have a lot of people that are very engaged in the political process right now, coming on the heels of the inaugural. We have a new president, we have a new Congress, so people are paying attention. So it's a great time to reach out and encourage medical students and young physicians and everybody really to make advocacy part of their regular practice.

Unger: And there's such a flurry of activity now, going on. Have you ever seen anything like this Todd?

Askew: No, it really is. This is an exciting time to be an advocate. It's an exciting time to be in Washington, but really in this virtual world, it's an exciting time to engage in the process from about anywhere. And we're going to talk in the webinar about how we think the new administration will impact health care policy and kind of what the future of health care policy is going forward.

Unger: Thank you. Reilly, you decided to spend a year as the AMA's GRAF and devote yourself to advocacy full time. Can you tell us where did you get this personal passion for advocacy and why do you believe students should get involved?

Bealer: Definitely, Todd. And for me, advocacy is not a specific definition and I'm sure Todd Askew and Jenny can talk about this more. It's more of a vague concept with many different ways to perceive it, whether that's collaboration, education, reconciliation and activism, advocacy is what you make it. And I want to see all of our students participate in the process because we need their voices. And for me, drivers of advocacy come from your personal values, your views of the world and your personal experiences of yourself and within your community. For me, I experienced housing insecurity at a very young age while dealing with a chronic medical condition.

Bealer: So I understand what it's like to not be able to access health care and as well as dealing with issues that many of the population doesn't have to struggle with. Like transportation, being able to get to an appointment when you're working eight to five in and physician's office is only nine to four. It's important that we advocate for all patients. And I don't see practicing medicine and taking part in advocacy and policy efforts as separate entities. As a physician, we take a role in healing all of the patient, not just their physical symptoms, but their emotional, spiritual, environmental, social issues as well.

Unger: Jenny, you've been working with students for a long time now. Why do you think students should get involved?

Young: Great, thanks, Todd. As you mentioned, I've been with the Medical Society of Virginia for almost nine years, and we have found that the medical students are an incredible advocacy group and kind of force. One of the big reasons is the legislators are making changes to the health care system that are going to affect a medical student much more in their profession than it will say, an almost retired physician. We've also found that, especially on medical education and scope of practice issues, having students just have a basic general conversation with a legislator or their aid about what is residency, what is medical school, what is GME funding it's really important because the normal lay person, or even legislator may not understand the complexities that come along with medical education.

Unger: Jenny has your approach changed due to the pandemic? I mean, how do you advocate in this environment?

Young: Absolutely. So we are actually in Virginia in the midst of our general assembly session, which is 100% virtual, which I'm sure most states in the country are dealing with. So we really have been trying to have the communications with the legislators via Zoom, which is not without its glitches. However, one thing that we also really try to do is partner with our medical student leaders and make sure that they have the opportunity to testify in committee meeting hearings, as well as really talk to the important key legislators that are voting on the specific issues. This year, we're dealing with a lot of scope of practice battles. And one thing this also just highlights is the importance of year-round advocacy.

Young: So one of the great things about partnering with the AMA or partnering with your state medical society is they can help to connect your school chapter with your legislators. So you actually start to build a relationship. So when you do reach out to your legislator during that session, or when you need their help on a boat, they know you are, they know what your school chapter stands for and you're not just a random name or number that comes over their phone or email. They remember that relationship and connection.

Unger: That's probably pretty important right now in this virtual environment. Todd, when you think about advocacy, how has the pandemic environment changed that right now for the AMA?

Askew: Well, I think in terms of the physical act of advocacy, the Congress is, they are meeting, but hearings are mostly virtual. Most access to the Capitol grounds is closed off to non-staff. And so essentially we are all virtual in our advocacy activities. A lot of this has relied on the relationships that were established before the pandemic hit and being able to call on those individuals, those members, those staffers and reach out to them and have that communication without having the other environment where you're tracking somebody down in a hallway or sitting in a hearing room. So having those established relationships, I think, has been a really important component that said, once you do get into this virtual environment and you have them, on your screen sort of, you have them, they're a 100% paying attention to you in that moment.

Askew: And so it can be an effective tool. I don't know if it will last past the pandemic, but I think everybody has worked hard to make it an effective tool. And I think that's met with some success. In terms of the issues that we're lobbying on, obviously an entire new set of public health issues and dealing with the novel coronavirus and the needs of the health care system, in terms of PPE, for example, and the desperate search for PPE early, and even into the day, the advocacy for clear guidance for reliance on science, some things you would think shouldn't have to be said, but they have had to be said. And so it's these many issues related directly to the pandemic that we're all learning, we're all teaching and we're all advocating for them.

Unger: And it's been a particularly, very successful year for AMA's advocacy on behalf of physicians and patients. Reilly, you took on the role of the GRAF in a very strange environment. How has this environment, this pandemic, affected the way that you've approached your role as the GRAF?

Bealer: I work with Todd, but I've never actually met him in person due to the virtual world. It's a definitely new experience for me being all virtual and it has posed the challenges, but it's also been incredibly insightful and provided the opportunity to expand access to our resources and speakers, to students in positions. For example, at our National Advocacy Week in October, we were able to get amazing speakers like FDA commissioner, Stephen Hahn, and the majority Whip representative, Jim Clyburn, speakers, you wouldn't even imagine would be able to attend in person in the non-virtual setting. In addition, being virtual, we can expand access to students across the country. As you know, in D.C., Things are very busy and people may not have the time to meet with students or students may not be able to afford to fly to D.C. To do their advocacy work. So this gives us the ability to expand and offer more opportunities for students. For example, our medical student advocacy conference coming up in March is going to be all virtual and students get the opportunities to speak with their legislators via telehealth session or televisit session.

Unger: What I think is really neat too, about that Physicians of the Future Summit is about 70% more students can participate in this kind of virtual approach. We had almost 70% more submissions to our research symposium and research challenge. So a lot of opportunity in this virtual world, like you mentioned before, the kind of speakers that you can get and just expanded opportunities. So it's great to see you do that. Well, speaking of our upcoming webinar, we have students giving them an opportunity to submit questions in advance. Reilly, would you say that medical students are largely concerned about the same issues that physicians have or do they have unique concerns?

Bealer: I think students themselves are a very unique population and we don't all necessarily fit in the same box. However, students are considered the conscience of the AMA, at least our section is. And so we are really focused on equity, ensuring that these challenges that are going to face our health care systems for years to come have solutions that don't just benefit one population that help those who've been historically minoritized and marginalized in society, making sure that we can analyze issues from unique perspectives, utilizing our own experiences and problem solving skills to debate and come together on a solution. And I also think that's what makes our organization so great is because we can have perspectives of students, perspectives of physicians, and we'll all work together on these critical, complex multifaceted issues.

Unger: Great. Well, last question. I want to just get your thoughts on the role of associations and state societies in advancing the issues that matter to physicians and students in this particularly unique year. Jenny, why don't you start?

Young: I think the big issue that we're working on in addition to, as I mentioned previously, scope of practice is burnout. And so the Medical Society of Virginia in particular has been working very hard on physician burnout for several years now. We actually were the first state in the nation to pass legal protections for physicians seeking help for their career burnout. And this year, the burnout that we've seen from the medical student perspective is enormous, that added stress and pressure on an already incredibly stressful time has really made us focus on increasing legal protections for medical student burnout in this year's Virginia general assembly session. And it's something that we're very proud of. And so far our bill has passed unanimously. So we look forward to having it go through the continued channels of the Virginia general assembly and be signed by the governor.

Unger: Todd, your thoughts.

Askew: I think it's been interesting so much of the time and advocates spend is trying to get your issue lifted up the agenda, right? And get the attention of those who have the power to advance what you're working on. In this environment, so many of the issues, both equity and COVID are right in the wheelhouse of physicians and within the resource kind of box that the AMA and other state and specialty medical societies fill. So we have a tremendous number of legislators coming to us and regulators coming to us, help me understand this, tell me the experience from the frontline. The government says, "We have plenty of PPE." And we can say, "No, you don't. Here's where the shortage is." The government has said, "Look, telemedicine may not work here." And we can say, "Yes, it can work here. Here are the changes you need to make in order to make it accessible for people."

Askew: And so that expertise I think, has been called upon by government at all levels in this time to help guide the response and the receptivity of policymakers to that messaging has been much more than I think it might have been in more normal times when some of the other more mundane issues perhaps would also be on their mind as well. So it's been a challenge, but it's been an exciting time to be able to play a part, both as professional advocates, but also the physicians and the medical students we represent all play a part in different ways in kind of meeting the moment.

Unger: And one of the key things I've really seen as effective is how the advocacy team at the AMA has created that direct connection between people at the CDC and the FDA to connect directly with a physician audience and kind of tell them the facts and actually answer questions.

Askew: And I would say, it's not just the advocacy team. It's kind of like, who's in membership, we're all in membership. Well, we're all in advocacy too, because the legal team, Todd, the communications team, the MMX team that you had, it's been a real example of the power of organized medicine to make a real difference.

Unger: Yeah, there's really never been a better time for speaking with a unified voice than right now. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming webinar. You can watch that live webinar again, Your Voice, Your AMA: Health Care Advocacy and the New Administration. That event is on January 27th at noon Central time. And if you want to register, go to ama-assn.org/med-student-voices. Or if you can't remember that, click on the link in our YouTube descriptions. Thanks so much Todd, Reilly and Jenny for being here today and sharing your perspectives. We'll be back soon with another COVID update. In the meantime, please take care.

Disclaimer:The viewpoints expressed in this video are those of the participants and/or do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the AMA.

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Med students learn how to be advocates for health care in 2021 - American Medical Association

In the early 1800s, womens access to meaningful healthcare was grim, with many dying from diseases curable re. Because, for the most part, they werent allowed to attend medical schools, female physicians were unheard of, and women often avoided male doctors. Some didnt want to be examined by men, and others were afraid that a diagnosis would ruin their marriage prospects. Three brave souls Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Garrett-Anderson, and Sophia Jex-Blake setoff tochange that. Despite societal reproof, discrimination and countless obstacles, they proved their ability to practice medicine and founded women-run hospitals and medical schools that trained female physicians.

Writer Olivia Campbell chronicles their journeys, which spanned from Europe to the United States and back, in her upcoming book, Women in White Coats: How the First Women Doctors Changed the World of Medicine (Park Row). Medical Bag spoke to Campbell about her inspiration and interest in the subject.

What motivated you to write a book about these women?

I read about male students rioting in Philadelphia and Edinburgh, Scotland, against women wanting to attend school alongside them. In the 1869 America, male students at the Philadelphia Hospital hurled spitballs and obscenities at the students from Womans Medical College of Pennsylvania who came to attend a lecture alongside them. A year later in Scotland, a mob of about 200 male students threw mud, rotten eggs and trash at what became known as the Edinburgh Seven seven female medical students who began attending the school, and Sophia Jex-Blake was one of them. The riots were a year apart, and I thought that was fascinating two parallels, two schools, two different countries at about the same time. The men didnt want women to study medicine. Moreover, the entire medical and societal doctrine declared women unfit to study. These three women transcended that barrier, and I wanted to tell a story of how they came together to make medical school possible for other women.

Why were women considered unfit to study?

The Victorian medical views originated from the teachings of ancient Greece, which believed that inside every person theres a creature that drives them to have sex. Inside women, that was the uterus, which craved not only sex but also semen and could be fully satisfied only when pregnant. If a woman spent too long a time without carrying a child, her uterus, called hystera in Greek, became bored and started causing health problems, from heart palpitations to hysterics. Even though womens health issues were usually caused by malnutrition, pregnancies and poor work conditions, their entire nature was believed to be controlled by their uterus. They werent supposed to go to school because studying was too taxing on their minds they would use their energy on their brain instead of their uterus.

Throughout history, women always helped people heal, nursing everyone from ill children to wounded soldiers back to health. Why was there so much mistrust in womens ability to be doctors?

Women were practicing healing arts everywhere in the world throughout history they were herbalists and healers and shamans. But when the church decided to make medicine an official profession and started establishing universities where one could get medical degrees and licenses to practice, they began to prosecute women. Thats when they started witch-hunting campaigns, accusing women of witchcraft. Scared of being burned at the stake, women stopped practicing medicine. Essentially, this was the patriarchal control establishing the fact that medicine is a mans job. The men rioted against women studying because they were scared of the competition. And they used the faulty science to keep their monopoly.

How did these three unwavering women change the field of medicine?

They became doctors at the time when women couldnt go to school, but they had to fight every step of the way, so they decided to create schools specifically for women.

Elizabeth was the first, sort of the grandmother of the movement, and the other two came later, inspired by her example. In 1847, Elizabeth was accepted to Geneva Medical College in Geneva, New York, essentially by mistake. When male students voted whether to accept the first female student, they thought it was a joke, so they voted in favor of acceptance. Sophia persuaded University of Edinburgh professors to admit her along with six others, which eventually led to riots. Lizzie attended several schools, but each would kick her out after some time, so she studied privately with physicians and eventually managed to get a license. The three womens paths crossed at different times, in the United States and England. Ultimately, Elizabeth started a medical school for women in New York, and together the three created the London School for Women. They also established women-run hospitals. They even performed surgery, such as removing breast cancer. They proved to the world that women could be doctors and surgeons.

Even today, its hard for women in medicine to keep the life-work balance. How did your three trailblazers manage that challenge?

At the time, being independent women defeating societal norms pretty much ruined your marriage chances. Elizabeth never married, but she adopted a daughter. Sophia was a lesbian, who had a partner when she was young, but they parted ways and later in life she lived with another one. Lizzie had four marriage proposals and accepted one. She and her husband had a very progressive relationship two people going to work was a very modern idea at the time, especially when one of them was pregnant. Lizzie had three children, two of whom survived, and her daughter pioneered the idea of women doctors treating men. So Lizzie was the proof that a female physician could indeed have it all just like so many women do today.

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In Her First Book, Olivia Campbell Details How the First Women in White Coats Changed the World of Medicine - Medical Bag

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Professorship supports research into development of antifungal drugs, vaccines

Jennifer Lodge, PhD, the vice chancellor for research at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named the inaugural David T. Blasingame Professor.

Jennifer K. Lodge, PhD, the vice chancellor for research at Washington University in St. Louis and a leading expert in fungus that can cause a potentially fatal brain infection, has been named the inaugural David T. Blasingame Professor. She also serves as the senior associate dean for research and a professor of molecular microbiology at the School of Medicine.

The new professorship, funded by Washington University, was created to honor the extraordinary contributions of David T. Blasingame, who led the universitys Alumni & Development Office for 28 years until his retirement in 2018.

Lodge was named to the professorship by Chancellor Andrew D. Martin and David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, the George and Carol Bauer Dean of the School of Medicine, and the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor.

I am delighted to be recognizing Dr. Jennifer Lodge with a professorship honoring the legacy of David Blasingame, Martin said. Both of these distinguished individuals have long histories of extraordinary contributions to the university, and it is a pleasure to recognize those contributions with this professorship. The new professorship will support and facilitate the important work that Dr. Lodge continues to perform including her outstanding leadership of the universitys research programs during these unprecedented pandemic times as well as the vital research she has conducted over her long and distinguished career. At the same time, we are recognizing the dedication of David Blasingame in his tireless commitment to raising vital funds for the university over his many decades of service.

Lodge studies a type of fungus called Cryptococcus neoformans that typically causes lung disease that can spread through the blood to the brain in people. The fungal infection can cause meningitis in patients who are immune-compromised, and it kills an estimated 180,000 people each year. Her expertise is focused on the fungal cell wall, which is required for the fungus to grow and determine how the fungus interacts with the host. Understanding these processes could lead to new antifungal treatments and vaccines.

She is the author of over 75 scientific papers and, since 1997, her work has been funded continuously by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In her administrative roles, Lodge also leads the massive research infrastructure across Washington University, and most recently has focused considerable efforts navigating the unprecedented circumstances and pressures the COVID-19 pandemic has placed upon the universitys research labs.

Not only is Dr. Lodge a talented and productive scientist, she has done extraordinary work in her leadership of research for the medical school and the rest of the university, including tremendous work during the pandemic, Perlmutter said. We could not have had more capable leadership supporting our research programs, often times with essential services that otherwise go unrecognized and especially during this unprecedented time. Research is an essential part of everything we do, and Jennifer Lodge has been incredibly skilled in supporting interdisciplinary research projects that bring together collaborators across many departments, securing new potential funding opportunities, and maximizing the benefits of the universitys continuing investments in research and the infrastructure required to support it.

Lodge is an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Academy of Microbiology and the National Academy of Inventors. In 2014, she graduated from the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program at the university, and in 2015, she received the Academy of Science St. Louis Trustee Award. She has served as chair of the Group on Research at the Association of American Medical Colleges and serves on several editorial boards and NIH review panels.

It is an honor to receive this professorship recognizing the extraordinary contributions of David Blasingame, Lodge said. The support from the university will help continue my labs research into a debilitating and deadly infection. It also has been a tremendous honor to guide the extraordinary response of the universitys research community to this pandemic. Our researchers have spectacularly risen to the challenge posed by the virus from donating protective equipment to our front-line health-care workers, to pivoting work in their labs to focus on COVID-19, to adhering to our public health guidelines so that we can productively continue our important research mission.

Lodge earned her bachelors degree from Oberlin College in 1979 and her doctorate in biomedical sciences from Washington University in 1988. She continued her postdoctoral training at both Washington University and what was then Monsanto. She began her career at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, where she went on to serve as associate dean for research, from 2005 to 2009.

In 2009, she joined the Washington University faculty in the Department of Molecular Microbiology and also became the School of Medicines associate dean for research. In 2014, she was named vice chancellor for research for the entire university. In this role, she oversees university investments in research on the Medical and Danforth campuses, and oversees research compliance, education, grants and contracts.

Blasingame

Blasingame, a native of Little Rock, Ark., arrived as a freshman at Washington University in 1965 and went on to earn a bachelors degree in psychology and then a Master of Business Administration. Blasingame served in the U.S. Army and then returned to the university in 1974 as associate director of alumni relations. He was director of development for the John M. Olin School of Business from 1978 to 1985 and then named associate vice chancellor for alumni and development programs. In 1990, he was appointed vice chancellor of the department, and in 2004, he became executive vice chancellor.

Blasingame has a long history of success in leading campaigns supporting Washington University. In 2018, when Leading Together: The Campaign for Washington University ended, the program had raised more than $3.3 billion, surpassing the campaigns initial goal of $2.2 billion. His achievements in university advancement have been recognized with several awards, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals in St. Louis and the Circle of Excellence Award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education.

I am so grateful for this professorship established in my name and could not be more pleased for Jennifer Lodge to serve as the inaugural holder, Blasingame said. While at Washington University, I saw the incredible passion and commitment our faculty bring to their work, and I had the distinct privilege of sharing news of their tremendous accomplishments with our alumni and friends. To have my name associated with our facultys life-changing scholarship, teaching, and research and with an institution that has meant so much to me is a very special honor.

Washington University School of Medicines 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

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Lodge named inaugural Blasingame professor - Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

When Worcester Polytechnic Institute wanted to attract more Black,Hispanic and femalestudents, it became the first nationally ranked science university to make the ACT and SAT standardized tests optional for admission.

Eliminating the test requirement can raise the numbers of low-income and first-generation students and those from underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups without affecting graduation rates, according to research conducted in collaboration with the National Association for College Admission Counseling, or NACAC.

And white and well-off students from better-resourced high schools and with greater access to private tutoring score better on these tests, according to ACT and the College Board, which administers the SAT.

Institutions are kidding themselves if they believe going test-optional equals diversifying a student body a lot more. You have to put many more strategies in place.

Thats why the rush by universities and colleges to make the SAT and ACT optional during the pandemic has given hope to advocates for more diversity on campus. Its part of a flurry of activity that has included the closing of testing centers because of health concerns and a decision by the College Board to permanently eliminate the optional essay from the SAT and SAT subject tests.

But WPI discovered an important lesson when it went and made the tests optional in 2007: The policy does little to transform a student body unless its accompanied by other changes in the admissions process and shifts in the way financial aid is handed out.

Institutions are kidding themselves if they believe going test-optional equals diversifying a student body a lot more, said Angel Prez, NACACs chief executive officer and former vice president for enrollment and student successat Trinity College. You have to put many more strategies in place.

One in four universities were test-optional by the end of 2019, but the obstacles to group test-taking created by the COVID-19 pandemic increased that number substantially; two-thirds of four-year higher education institutions in the U.S. allowed students to forgo submitting scores this year.

READ MORE: Questioning their fairness, a record number of colleges stop requiring the SAT and ACT

Critics of the tests have been exuberant about that decision, even though many of those colleges have said theyll wait until after the pandemic to decide whether to make the policy permanent.

But the experiences of WPI and many other institutions make clear that jettisoning the requirement for test scores does not by itself mean schools will attract a more diverse enrollment.

Without more investment in recruiting, financial aid, advising and mentoring for low-income, first-generation, Black and Hispanic students, test-optional or even test-blind admissions policies will amount to little more than window dressing, said Kelly Ochs Rosinger, an assistantprofessor of education at Pennsylvania State University who has studied test-optional admissions.

The need for those kinds of commitments comes at a time when universities and colleges are strapped for cash. A big enrollment decline and increased costs attributed to COVID-19 have cost universities and colleges at least $120 billion since the pandemic began, according to estimates by the American Council on Education.

Rather than going up, the number of low-income, Black and Native American students starting college fell this year, and upward momentum for Hispanic students stalled, the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center reported. Absenteeism and demoralization in high schools that have gone fully or partially remote is translating into fewer urban and rural students planning to go to college next year, based on the proportion who are filling out applications for financial aid.

READ MORE: Number of rural students planning on going to college plummets

Research is not unanimous on whether dropping the test requirement leads to greater diversity. The College Board points to a series of studies whose three editors all worked for the College Board at some point that found eliminating them doesnt boost the numbers of underrepresented students and takes away a valuable tool for admissions officers.

But the largest study on the topic to date did find that a well-executed test-optional admissions policy can increase the numbers of these kinds of students pursuing higher educations. In the process, however, the the proportion of needy students rose at roughly half of institutions surveyed.

Admissions officials with experience in making SAT and ACT scores optional say responding to the needs of additional low-income students requires not just allocating more money but also changing the way its spent. WPI, in 2019, stopped awarding financial aid based on the test scores of students who submitted them; that was the culmination of a three-year process looking at where scores were improperly influencing aid dollars, said Andrew Palumbo, assistant vice president for enrollment management.

It also withdrew from the National Merit Scholarship Program, which is based on the preliminary SAT, or PSAT, taken by high school sophomores and juniors. High-scoring students can receive scholarships from the program as well as from participating universities and colleges.

We redirected those dollars to go back to need-based aid, Palumbo said, meaning financial aid based on income rather than test scores. This goes back to the idea of test-optional being a starting point. If we want to be optional for admissions because of the problematic correlation of race and income and gender and then were reinforcing that [correlation] for merit, it doesnt make a whole lot of sense.

READ MORE: Progress in getting underrepresented people into college and skilled jobs may be stalling because of the pandemic

Since WPI went test-optional, the school has increased its numbers of full-time Hispanic students from about 4 percent to 8 percent of the total, and of women from 27 percent to 39 percent. Black enrollment has grown but remains at little more than 2 percent. Palumbo said the small percentage reflects the relatively few Black students enrolled in advanced high school science, technology, engineering and math classes; to address that, WPI has invested in a pre-collegiate outreach program.

The number of students considered low-income, meaning they qualify for federal Pell grants, has also increased, though the percentage has hovered between 12 percent and 16 percent.

The objective scores go last, Palumbo said. We want to know who the student is, to understand the context, before we ever get to the transcript.

The bottom line is that one change cant move the needle, Palumbo said, but a combination of big and small ones can. WPI also worked on reducing bias in its admissions process by reversing the order in which it considered applicants, looking at grades and test scores last instead of first.

The objective scores go last, Palumbo said. We want to know who the student is, to understand the context, before we ever get to the transcript.

The University of San Francisco also went test-optional before the pandemic, in 2019. Before that, however, it took other steps to diversify its student body. It increased its recruitment of Black candidates nationwide and added programs to support them when they arrived on campus. That boosted first-year enrollment of what the school calls Black-identified students from 8.9 percent in 2017 to 15 percent in 2020.

Standardized tests continue to be viewed as an important hurdle, however so much so that the test-optional movement has quickly expanded to the graduate level, with critics saying the Graduate Record Examinations (GRE), Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and other exams used for admission reflect the same racial and income biases as the SAT and ACT.

That criticism has been accelerated by the pandemic, which has seen huge increases in the numbers of applications to medical schools and other graduate programs.

READ MORE: Desperate for students, colleges resort to previously banned recruiting tactics

Students for Ethical Admissions was formed by pre-med students and medical school applicants to protest the requirement that they take the MCAT during the COVID-19 crisis. Some who are part of the organization say they now question the need for the test at all.

I do understand you do have to have an objective academic measurement, but is this the best way? said one member of the group, who asked to remain anonymous for fear of hurting her chances of getting into medical school.

A lot of the MCAT is not applicable to medicine it emphasizes rote memorization, the student said. We would like to see transparency in how medical schools are using the test and to see a compelling reason not to make it optional.

Blacks and Hispanics make up roughly 5 percent each of the doctors in the U.S., according to the Association of American Medical Colleges far lower than their proportions of the population.

Admissions officers counter that theyre too often asked to fix racial and economic inequities deeply rooted in society as a whole.

Rosinger acknowledged thats impossible to do, but she also said that universities need to stop adopting a single-lever policy, hoping that will make some dramatic changes, and really start to think comprehensively about the system that oppresses certain students.

This story about colleges going test-optional was produced byThe Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused oninequality and innovation in education. Sign upforourhigher education newsletter.

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Advocates hope higher ed shift from standardized tests will aid diversity, but its no cure-all - PBS NewsHour

Researchers with UNDs biomedical sciences department have identified two new members of the superantigen family that, when combined with a common helper molecule, showed significantly higher cure rates in and long-term survival of animals with solid tumors compared to other immunotherapeutic agents now deployed clinically.

Dr. David Terman, one of the lead researchers on the project and an adjunct professor at UNDs medical school, said this work is a definitive step forward to add to the arsenal of immunotherapeutics that can potentially combat solid tumors.

We're talking about cancers of the lung, breast, colon, to some degree application here to kidney, and, in our case, melanoma, he said. The problem is an enormous problem.

The work of Terman and David Bradley, an associate professor at UND, was recently reported in the prestigious Journal for Immunotherapy of Cancer.

Terman and Bradley have spent about seven years working on the research.

Superantigens are a class of bacterial-based antigens that induce an overactivation of the bodys immune system. Superantigens trigger the white blood cells known as T-lymphocytes or T-cells that help the body generate the inflammatory response that fights infectious organisms and cancer.

Immunotherapy has changed the management of the most treatment-resistant human tumors, such as melanoma, lung, breast and colon cancer, Terman said.

Those cancers have been treated with chemotherapy in the past, Bradley said, but chemo often includes various side effects. Immunotherapies began to burst on the scene in the past five years, he said.

There are ways to deal with cancer, but the reality is most treatments for cancer are not particularly effective, if you look at the big picture numbers, Bradley said. This is providing another avenue to deal with a really big problem, the No. 2 killer (in the world).

Previous superantigens deployed in clinical trials of patients with advanced cancer failed to reach their potential largely due to their excessive toxicity and the widespread presence of neutralizing antibodies in human blood that blocked the superantigens from exerting their tumor-killing function, Terman said.

Unlike their earlier relatives, our new superantigens showed a low incidence of such disabling antibodies, he said.

Researchers were able to eradicate the toxicity noted with other superantigens by combining the new superantigens with a partner molecule known as HLA-DQ8. In other words, the pair demonstrated that, when combined with a molecule that helped reduce toxicity, their superantigens curtailed toxicity and also served as lightning rods attracting the bodys own T-cells to the tumor and destroying it in more than 80% of mice.

Bradley added that the anti-tumor mechanism of the superantigens appears to be long-lasting and that it also served as a vaccine that prevented the development of tumors and withstood subsequent challenges with live tumor cells.

The tumor killing seemed to be an ongoing response that continued for quite some time, he said, noting how the mice were at least 400 days post-treatment, which is the equivalent to more than 60 human years, without experiencing any recurrence of cancer.

Pending FDA approval, the team is on the cusp of clinical trials in humans. Trials are planned to be carried out collaboratively with UND and a team at the University of Washington in Seattle later this year.

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UND medical researchers publish study on new way to treat solid tumor cancers - Grand Forks Herald

Yale School of Medicine (YSM) students have led the effort, on campus and nationally, to advocate for first-generation and low-income (FGLI) students in medicine, creating organizations and developing resources to help students access and navigate medical school. This includes working to end the default perception that FGLI students are high-risk in medical school, and replace it with the recognition that their diverse perspectives significantly enhance medical education and will improve how health care is delivered.

YSM fifth-year MD-PhD student Mytien Nguyen, MS, played a central role in the creation of two toolkits, one for first-generation medical school students and another for their advisors and families, launched nationally through the AAMC in November 2020. She says the student toolkit would have been helpful when she started medical school, a time when there was no first-generation or low-income identity student group at YSM or any other medical school. Nguyen, who grew up as a low-income refugee after her family immigrated to the United States from rural Vietnam when she was eight, helped spearhead the effort to create such a group.

Individual and small group conversations among YSM FGLI students led to a formal dinner in September 2017, where the idea for the Yale First Generation/Low Income (YFLI) student group was launched, co-founded by Nguyen and fifth-year MD student Seong Im Hong. YLFI now includes 80 MD and MD-PhD students focused on promoting recruitment of more diverse medical students, building a more welcoming community, advocating for mentorship, and helping first-generation American/college students and low-income students navigate medical school.

Current YFLI president, second-year MD student Jamieson O'Marra first-generation college studentis excited to expand YFLI even more. As of January 2021, YFLI has begun to include Yale Physician Associate and Physician Assistant Online students. He hopes to engage Yale School of Nursing students soon and develop an alumni base as the first YFLI members begin to graduate in the coming years.

YFLIs significant impact is reflected in how different the environment was when OMarr applied to YSM from when Nguyen arrived. A significant reason OMarr chose YSM was because he knew it had a strong first-generation community among students, with committed administrative support through the Office of Diversity, Inclusion, Community Engagement, and Equity (DICE).

Nguyen believes the school has done so much already these past few yearshonestly, I think that YSM is among the leading institutions of the national FGLI in medicine advocacy movement.

However, Nguyen adds, much remains to be done and it starts with reflecting on the current norms of medical education and how many of those norms were based on the presumption that medical students are from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. As supportive as YSM is, Nguyen explains students faced challenges inherent to medicine, where more than 70% of trainees are from the highest income households in the country, including the stigma surrounding poverty and classism. Nguyen states that the medical training curriculum is not conducive to the success of first-gen and low-income student.

Nguyens frustration led her to reach out to other institutions about their FGLI initiatives and in 2018, students from YSM and Georgetown University School of Medicine launched the National First Generation and Low-Income in Medicine Association (FGLIMed), which now has more than 800 members. Nguyen explains, we realized that in order to tackle classism in medicine and advocate for FGLI students at our schools, we need a national movement. There is nothing more powerful than a national movement. Four of the FGLIMed board members are from YSM: Nguyen, OMarr, second-year MD-PhD student Joanna Chen, and second-year MD student Mursal Gardezi.

FGLIMed provided significant input into the AAMC toolkit project, to which Nguyen devoted close to 100 hours over the past two years. The idea for this resource originated with the AAMC Section on Undergraduate Medical Education of the Group on Educational Affairs. Ten students, faculty, and staff collaborated on the project with the goal of iteratively updating the toolkits.

The student toolkit covers academic support, professional development and career mentorship, emotional support, and financial support, while the advisor/family toolkit focuses on similar topics, plus the learning environment and family connection and engagement.

For each topic, the toolkit provides ideas and resources, as well as specific examples and contact information. Nguyen is listed as a contact for information about steps YSM has taken to change the curriculum to improve the learning environment including, in part, adding health equity to the core curriculum and developing a workshop on teaching first-generation and non-traditional students in partnership with the Yale Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning.

The family connection and support section discusses how a key way to retain first-generation students is to make their families feel welcome on the campus by creating activities that bridge cultural gaps, inviting them to activities, and providing students tools to communicate about their medical training. Financial assistance from YSM for up to two family members, broadly defined, to attend the White Coat Ceremony is included as an example.

Emotional support, one of the categories Nguyen worked on, discusses how many schools are adopting best practices that celebrate and advocate for the unique strengths of first-generation students and encourages them to use their talents to enhance the medical school experience. It emphasizes that visibility and peer relationships can be important starting points for emotional health and that having a student organization to support first-generation students is fundamental. The section cites YFLIs monthly community dinners, which DICE funds, as an opportunity for students to talk about their experiences in class, on the wards, and throughout medical school.

Having these toolkits as a national resource for all students, especially those from first-generation, low-income backgrounds, signals important messages about inclusion and belonging, states Rochelle Smith, associate dean of diversity and inclusion and associate chief diversity officer.

Deputy Dean and Chief Diversity Officer Darin Latimore, MD, is very proud of the students advocacy. He says that as a first-generation and low-income medical student, he would have benefited from such a resource. Since no one in my family went to medical school, they were ill-equipped to help me and unfortunately my pride often prevented me from reaching out to the schools administrators for guidance. The toolkits are an additional resource that will help make medicine more accessible for FGLI students.

OMarr similarly believes the toolkits will have a significant impact. He says the first-generation community often talks about how you dont know what you dont know, and the toolkits provide a clear roadmap of relevant issues and a wealth of resources.

Looking forward, Nguyen states, Yale has always been a leader in medical education innovation, starting with the Yale System. Im truly hopeful that Yale will also lead the field of medicine in diversifying the socioeconomic diversity of its medical trainees, as well as continuing to support FGLI students along their path to become leaders in medicine.

She shares a personal example of why this diversity is so valuable. I remember when a patient was struggling to navigate unemployment and I was able to assist because I had helped my parents navigate unemployment and other social services since middle school. She adds, imagine if we have a medical school class, a residency class, a physician workforce that reflects the socioeconomic diversity of our patient population. I think that health care delivery would look dramatically different.

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YSM Students Play Key Roles in the Creation of National Resources for First-generation and Low-income Medical Students - Yale School of Medicine

ST. LOUIS A groundbreaking new housing project is coming to Forest Park Southeast. Union At The Grove will house 160 units with over 80 units having workforce-targeted rents.

Union At The Grove, which includes six individual buildings is being developed by Green Street St. Louis.

The buildings are on Hunt, Vista and Norfolk Avenues, between Newstead and Taylor Avenues, east of Kingshighway

Union At The Grove is a natural extension of Green Streets continued commitment to the City of St. Louis and Midtown redevelopment through partnership and community revitalization, Joel Oliver, Green Street Senior Vice President for Development said. Green Streets innovative workforce housing model has enabled us to create, protect and cultivate income inclusive neighborhoods where they are needed most.

Union At The Grove teamed up with BJC Healthcare and Washington University School of Medicine to provide workforce housing.

Under workforce housing, about 52% of the units will have attainable rents so health care employees and medical school staff can live near where they work.

The project contributes to the resurgence process within the city. Other recent developments included the first fully protected bike and pedestrian infrastructure that will connect the Tower Grove Park and the Shaw neighborhood to Forest Park Southeast and Cortex.

The total cost of the development is $40 million dollars. They expect to begin construction Feb. 1 with the official groundbreaking ceremony in the Spring.

For more information, visit union-stl.com.

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Union At The Grove housing project to provide affordable rent for medical students - fox2now.com

Newswise PHILADELPHIAPenn Medicines Pavilion, one of the largest hospital projects underway in the United States and the largest capital project in the University of Pennsylvanias history, will feature an art installation by renowned artist and designer Maya Lin. The artworktentatively titled DNA Tree of Lifewill be on display in the atrium of the new state-of-the-art facility, set to open later this year on the West Philadelphia campus of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP).

Lins acclaimed work has been featured at museums and galleries around the world. Since her very first highly acclaimed work, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., completed in 1982, Lin has gone on to a remarkable career in both art and architecture. A committed environmentalist, Lins architecture has consistently focused on sustainable design solutions and sensitivity to site and adaptive reuse and her artworks have asked the viewer to pay closer attention to the natural world. Now, shell work with Penn Medicine to bring hope and inspiration to patients. Drawing inspiration from the shape of DNA, the extending branches of a tree, and a map of the Philadelphia-area landmark, the Schuylkill River, DNA Tree of Life connects nature and medical science, representing life within the hospital, and within the city.

My approach to this piece is to create something that is uplifting, that has a sense of wonder and beauty, Lin said. I want to make you aware of your surroundings in the Pavilion, in this beacon of scientific advancement, connecting you to the physical and natural world around you while symbolizing the very essence of lifeDNA.

As patients enter the Pavilion, also known as HUP East, they will be greeted with Lins intricate art piece, displaying a hidden steel tree structure. The structure will be concealed with hundreds of glass beads that will reflect the sunlight that streams through the windows. In the 17-story building, the sculpture will be suspended from the ceiling, between the Connector Levelwhere patients and visitors navigate the HUP campus with bridges between HUP East, HUP West, and the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicineand the ground floor of the hospital.

Art is a priority element of the Pavilions design. Working in partnership with art consultant Ivorypress, an art committee comprised of experts and art advocates across the University of Pennsylvania, the Penn arts community, and Penn Medicine, have been providing their expertise and recommendations on the artistic and architecture features to enhance an environment designed to promote healing. Additionally, the committee is prioritizing artwork which is reflective of not only the Philadelphia community, but of Penn Medicines global reach.

Art and design can be a transformational element of a patients experience. It was important to select pieces for HUP East that will convey a sense of peace and healing in this new landmark for exemplary care, as well as a welcoming, vibrant atmosphere for our patients, families, and staff, said Regina Cunningham, PhD, RN, Chief Executive Officer of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Maya Lin thoughtfully designed a sculpture that connects the fundamental elements of life and science to our health system and the Philadelphia community, and we look forward to its installation as we prepare to open the doors of our new patient pavilion.

Lins DNA Tree of Life will be installed before the Pavilion opens in October 2021.

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Penn Medicineis one of the worlds leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research, and excellence in patient care. Penn Medicine consists of theRaymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (founded in 1765 as the nations first medical school) and theUniversity of Pennsylvania Health System, which together form a $8.6 billion enterprise.

The Perelman School of Medicine has been ranked among the top medical schools in the United States for more than 20 years, according toU.S. News & World Report's survey of research-oriented medical schools. The School is consistently among the nation's top recipients of funding from the National Institutes of Health, with $494 million awarded in the 2019 fiscal year.

The University of Pennsylvania Health Systems patient care facilities include: the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Penn Presbyterian Medical Centerwhich are recognized as one of the nations top Honor Roll hospitals byU.S. News & World ReportChester County Hospital; Lancaster General Health; Penn Medicine Princeton Health; and Pennsylvania Hospital, the nations first hospital, founded in 1751. Additional facilities and enterprises include Good Shepherd Penn Partners, Penn Medicine at Home, Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, and Princeton House Behavioral Health, among others.

Penn Medicine is powered by a talented and dedicated workforce of more than 43,900 people. The organization also has alliances with top community health systems across both Southeastern Pennsylvania and Southern New Jersey, creating more options for patients no matter where they live.

Penn Medicine is committed to improving lives and health through a variety of community-based programs and activities. In fiscal year 2019, Penn Medicine provided more than $583 million to benefit our community.

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Penn Medicine Partners with Renowned Artist Maya Lin for Art Installation Ahead of 2021 Opening of Hospital on Penns West Philadelphia Campus -...

AUSTIN, Texas A new engine that aims to improve health and prosperity for 1 million vulnerable people in Texas and beyond by 2030 has been co-established in the LBJ School of Public Affairs and Dell Medical School atThe University of Texas at Austin. The Impact Factory, a first-of-its-kind, cross-sector collaboration, will foster civic innovation, entrepreneurship and service learning beyond the classroom.

Led by joint LBJ/Dell faculty member, pediatrician and entrepreneur Dr. Michael Hole, The Impact Factory will tackle longstanding social problems, such as poverty and inequality, in new ways through civic innovation and entrepreneurship. Hole and his team are already making a difference: One hunger-facing program under the Factorys umbrellahas delivered almost 800,000 pounds of food to nearly 26,000 people since its launch in spring 2020.

Were hitting the ground running, Hole said. Our scrappy, growing team is already scaling innovative programs and building an evidence base, cross-sector partnerships and talent pipeline for sustainable, positive change. America faces multiple crises, both longstanding and new, impacting peoples lives and livelihoods. Folks are hurting. Were in the arena now with a sense of urgency I hope is contagious.

Examples of projects in The Impact Factorys portfolio include:

The Impact Factorys core operations are fourfold:

Crafting solutions to todays complex societal challenges takes service-oriented leadership and an interdisciplinary lens, said David Springer, LBJ School interim dean. Through the Impact Factory, Dr. Hole and his team are disrupting the existing system to improve health and prosperity for all.

Social entrepreneurship is a critical mechanism for solving societal problems, said Dell Medical School Dean Clay Johnston, M.D. Michaels program creates a platform for impactful community interventions and also trains the next generation of creative leaders.

To learn more about partnership, research, learning, investment or volunteer opportunities, visit TheImpactFactory.org or email TheImpactFactory@austin.utexas.edu.

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New Civic Impact Initiative to Help Improve Health and Prosperity for Vulnerable Populations - UT News - UT News | The University of Texas at Austin

Your journey as a doctor will start the moment you enroll in a medical school. Some many universities and colleges offer good medical programs, so its advisable to examine which schools youll apply to closely.

Each school will have its own criteria in selecting its students, and acing all those requirements will help increase your chances of getting into the school of your choice.

Most schools will look at your Grade Point Average (GPA) and Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) scores. Some may require you to write a letter as part of the application process.

A medical school personal statement could be a deciding factor on whether youll get accepted since it will include your background, goals, and motivations to pursue a degree in medicine. Medical Aid published an article on how you can write a compelling personal statement that can help increase your chances of getting into your school of choice.

Of course, just as schools have their own criteria in selecting students, you should also have a few considerations in choosing which schools youre submitting your requirements too.

While its probably a good idea to apply to as many as you can, focusing on a few can help you do better on your applications.

Try to narrow down your choices to five schools by evaluating the following:

Before applying to a specific school, you must check the schools location. Are you willing to live far from your family? Can you handle living in a different city on your own? Is the schools location close enough to where youll stay? Will you be required to commute every day to go to school?

Asking these questions will guide you in deciding if a school is worth the travel. Where youll attend medical school will influence not only your academic ability but also your finances and personal life, so its best to think about its location before applying.

Going to medical school should be seen as an investment rather than an expense, but of course, the cost shouldnt be taken out of the equation.

Different medical schools will have different tuition rates so consider that before enrolling. Its best to choose a school that will not bury you in debt before you even graduate.

Consider how youll finance your studies and look into assistance programs provided by the school. There are scholarships or financial aid extended to qualified students, so try your luck on one of those.

Selecting a medical school should be a long and decisive process since where you will impact where you can work and how many opportunities will come your way.

Companies will look into your educational background, so the school youll go to will play a part in which places you can get hired. The better your schools reputation and its graduates, the better your chances of landing a job when you graduate.

The passing rates of a school can be a basis on how prepared their graduates are. Check how well students perform to make sure that the school youre going to is competitive enough to produce prepared professionals.

Each school will have its own learning environment and teaching techniques. While you can expect that the curriculum will be similar across different schools, the learning environment youll develop your knowledge and skills can vary.

Pick a school that promotes a students well-being while prioritizing academic excellence. After all, youll spend years studying, so its best to pick a place where youll thrive not just as a student but also as an individual.

Medicine will take five years to finish across most medical schools, but some may require an intercalation year, which will cost you an additional year. The extra year may sway you if youre not too keen on allocating another year in school.

Pick a school that doesnt mandate students to take an intercalation year, so you dont have to dread spending another year in medical school.

Although it could be a good idea to apply to many medical schools to have more chances of getting accepted, concentrating on a few can help you focus on how to meet each schools qualifications.Some schools may require an application letter, a mentor or professors recommendation, a certain GPA, or good moral conduct to be accepted.

Know what the schools youre applying to are requiring its applicants and spend enough time going through each one.

In the end, no matter how many schools you send your applications to and how many accepts you, youre only going to one, so be smart about your decisions.

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How To Find The Top 5 Best Medical Schools To Start Your Study | - University Magazine