Advice for UW Medical School Applicants from a UW Alum now at Jefferson Medical College

My name is Eric Secrist and I’m a 2012 UW grad who’s now a first year med student at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Having gone through the medical school application cycle recently, I know all too well how tough it can be, and having seen it from the other side as a student interviewer, I’ve gained some insights into how it works. One thing I’ve recognized is that applicants from the Northwest have it harder than the rest of the country because we don’t have nearly the medical school density that the East Coast, or even the Midwest does. This unfortunately makes getting an interview tougher, but there are ways to help yourself out that I didn’t know about when I was going through the process and I’d love the opportunity to talk to some fellow huskies about my experiences, what med school has been like so far, what to expect with the application process and what can help their chances. I’d also have some advice on what they could do to get an interview out at Jefferson, which is a big deal because just getting a foot in the door is the hardest part. I have been in contact with the prehealth advising department about how I could get in touch with some UW students and had discussed possibly setting up a meeting during my spring break as I’ll be in the U District on Friday March 14. Obviously this is fairly late notice and I’m not going to be able to coordinate things from Philadelphia, but I figured I’d shoot this out there and see if any student groups had any interest in this and wanted to set something up. Please contact me if you are interested! Eric Secrist MS1 – Jefferson Medical College eric.secrist@jefferson.edu