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Quality of life was very important to me
in why I'm choosing schools.
And coming here, I knew that I would be happy.
When I was looking for med schools,
I was really looking for a school that
would allow me to grow professionally and let
me do what I wanted to do and go where
I wanted to go professionally.
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Why Stanford?
I needed to do a little bit of everything in my life.
I needed to be able to do other, non-medically related things
at the same time.
The big component for me was the ability of Stanford
to recruit people who are really interested in the types
of things I'm interested in.
I thought it was the best place for me in terms of research
and in terms of life experiences.
It was important to have that spectrum of things
that I could engage in.
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I think one of the biggest thing about Stanford
was that you just get to be who you are.
There's no specific track that you need to be on.
It's really choose your own adventure.
In the med school, there's so many opportunities
to excel-- clinically, in basic science research,
on health policy.
But even outside the med school, just being part
of a bigger university is huge because you
can connect with the School of Education,
the School of Design, the Law School, the Business School--
to really build your own little niche at where
you're going to excel.
I was taking cost effectiveness classes
over at the Business School that had focuses
on health and hospital management
and nonprofit management.
And that was fantastic for me.
And I'm actually doing neuroimaging research,
mostly with stroke and hemorrhage and outcome
analysis.
I did Summer Institute for Entrepreneurship
where you learn how to start a company, essentially,
over the course of four weeks.
And then I was working for an economist
on anemia and Chinese schoolchildren.
Being a clinical student is a little different
in that you really are an apprentice.
You are learning the culture of medicine.
You're learning how to present.
You're learning how to categorize information.
It really does take interacting with 20, 30, 100, 200 patients.
When I'm coming to school, I come
for the "Practice of Medicine" course,
which is my favorite course.
I think it's the most relevant course.
It's a course that we have both first year and second year,
where by the very first day or the first week of med school,
you're already learning how to interact with patients.
And it's really developing the clinical skills
that you're going to need throughout your career.
My favorite rotation so far has actually
be my pediatric surgery month.
I got to make a difference right away.
I got to be able to be in a room and do
a procedure that within 24, 48 hours made
a difference in someone's life.
And I got to see the kid before.
I got to see the kid afterwards.
And I got to see how we helped out.
And that was actually very, very rewarding.
Arbor Free Clinic is a student-run free clinic
that runs weekly on Sundays.
And it's a great opportunity for students
to practice the skills that they're learning in class.
In addition, it's just really inspiring
to get out into the community and really remind yourself
why you're in med school to begin with.
Because sometimes you just get lost
in the minutia of the science of the medicine,
and you really just want to remind yourself
that you're in it to care for people
and to really make an impact on the community.
I think the new Med School building is a great resource.
It's wonderful to always have your classmates around.
It really shows you that Stanford cares about you
when they're willing to do this.
And to give us the penthouse, where we have a gym.
There's a kitchen and study spaces.
And it's great to always have that.
All of my friends from college are in New York.
They're all on the East Coast.
But I've formed an amazing community here.
If I ever need any support, they're
here-- via my classmates, via mentors at the University.
I was very scared coming in.
But with my classmates, they're so amazing.
Everyone's very friendly.
Everyone emails each other what we need to do the next day.
Everyone checks on each other.
There's also someone that you can
talk to if you have difficulties studying.
I went to talk to someone, and they're
teaching me how I learn.
And so that was a great experience
because now I'm making better use of my time.
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I feel like you would get a great education no matter
where you went.
But what sets Stanford apart is the people
that you're going meet and the professional network
that you're going to build here.
And so the social things that we do
is really to build that community,
so you can really get to know your classmates so that you can
develop the bonds that are going to carry you
through the future.
First and second year, you have a surprising amount
of free time.
The pass/fail system affords you the option to do a lot.
My first two years, I would go to class.
I was also one of the social chairs
and so organized events with the medical school, the law school,
all the other professional schools.
They organized a surfing trip, and it was amazing.
I went surfing for the first time
in my life in very cold waters.
But it was very exciting.
I go up to Tahoe.
I often will go up for a day trip if I don't have time.
Which means you wake up at 4:00 AM and you ski all day,
and then you get home at 10:00 PM.
And then you have your Sunday to do all the homework
that you need to do.
They actually make it up to San Francisco quite a bit
A lot of my friends from undergraduate
live up in the city now, and it's
great to spend a Friday night, Saturday night up there--
either stay up there or take the train there and back.
And you can even get off campus a little bit
and see the rest of what the Bay has to offer.
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The best advice that I would give to students choosing
medical school right now is to firstly speak
to older students that are there.
It's really important to find students who are like-minded.
You go through the whole logic of the check boxes.
Does this place have this or that?
But at the end of the day, you need
to ask yourself do I think I fit here?
Are these people sitting with me on Admit Weekend,
can I see them as my classmates?
And you really have to pick a place where you don't just
grind it out, but you actually enjoy yourself
while you're doing it.
There is not a question in my mind that when I leave here,
I'm going to be incredibly happy with the five years
that I spent here.
And then it won't just be something
I did to get a degree.
It'll be something that made me a better person.
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