Public Health Dentistry

In thinking about global health, students don't often consider the various avenues outside of becoming a medical doctor. Dentistry is one of those options. Here's what a graduate from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine said when I asked, "What have you found to be the best resources for exploring public and global health options in dentistry?"

As for different avenues for public health dentistry, both domestic and international, there are several. Often, students who are part of a particular religious group (e.g.- Alpha Omega, CMDA = Christian Medical and Dental Association), and/or social organizations (e.g.- YMCA), can find opportunities to serve through pre-established partnerships. Within each dental school, there are usually a couple faculty who are involved in public service, whether it be in nearby communities or abroad. It is important to note that although there is a need for international healthcare providers, medical and dental healthcare needs in our immediate domestic and U.S. communities are very real as well.

My best advice for those students who are interested in pursuing public health dentistry would be to directly contact the Public Oral Health Policy and Epidemiology Department at their respective dental schools. Generally, it is there that they can find a wealth of undiscovered information regarding on-going service projects, and/or collaborate with faculty to pursue new projects and ideas.

For those who are interested, a helpful resource may be the International Volunteer Organizations Guide. And for those Harvard students out there interested in dentistry, we're hoping to announce a program for you soon. Stay tuned.

"Traffic rules" for accepted students to med school

Lee Ann and I have been getting a number of questions from concerned students who have been accepted to med school this year. Upon acceptance, med schools ask students to respond to their acceptance offer, typically within two weeks of acceptance. It's important to realize that accepting this offer means holding a spot at that school and does not mean a binding commitment to attend.

Per the traffic rules from the AAMC, accepted students may hold multiple acceptance offers until May 15, at which point they will need to choose one school and withdraw from the remainder of their offers. They are not required though to withdraw from schools where they have been waitlisted. Of course, if a student has already made a decision not to attend prior to May 15, they should withdraw to be fair to other applicants in the pool.

If you have questions about this, please let Lee Ann or me know!

Med school applicant trends and data

Recently, I was at a meeting for Boston-area health professions advisors, and a couple folks from the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) were discussing med school applicant data. I don't think any of this should necessarily inform an individual student's decision-making around medicine but it is interesting nonetheless.

What pleasantly surprised me is the data on re-applicants (meaning students who apply but are not admitted the first time). Of those applicants who applied only once, 48% were admitted (this is the national average; Harvard's was 93% last year). Of those who applied twice (meaning those who were denied the first time through), 39% were admitted. To me, these are encouraging numbers (when noting the marginal difference in rates between first- and second-time applicants). Total re-applicants are a fairly small group but it seems that many of these students succeed in the end.

Having said this, when making decisions around whether to apply now, apply later, or reapply, it's really important to talk through these individual circumstances. The important point to make about re-applicants' success is that it is not due merely to having submitted an additonal application; rather, it's because these students significantly improved the weaknesses in their original application. I often (as I know Lee Ann does as well) encourage premeds to plan to apply to medical school just once, to take this approach. This means addressing the significant weaknesses before applying, not using the application process as a gauge of competitiveness. Applying to "see how it goes" is usually not the best strategy.

There are practical reasons for this--time, money, psychological burden, etc.--but I do think that upon applying again, re-applicants are scrutinized in a different way. They are expected to have significantly updated their applications. This is all to say, plan to apply once. But for re-applicants who are ultimately qualified and for whom medicine is good career, a healthy number succeed in the end.

But on to other things...

Right now, we're experiencing a peak in applications. The total number will be around 42,000 in 2008. Historically, this comes after a dip in 1988, a peak in 1996, and another dip in 2002 (dot com bubble?). And by 2015, the AAMC projects that the number of applications from women will exceed those of men.

For more information on Harvard data for medical school, OCS publishes a data report which is available for viewing in the 1st floor library. And if you have photos or pictures that would be good for this blog, please send them my way! Not enough mixed media on this thing.

Global health resources and panelists' nuggets of wisdom

The panelists at both the undergrad and "gap year" discussions during the Global Health Expo last week had a lot of good advice and resources to share. These programs affirmed to me the value of the Harvard community, the wealth of expertise and wisdom that exists among you all.

The panelists at the gap year discussion recommended several good web resources, including globalhealth.org, the listserv on the American Medical Student Association's (AMSA) global health site, and the directory of non-profit orgs from idealist.org. The challenges in global health are large and complex, and there are not clear-cut linear paths to exploring the field (or fields since it encompasses so many). As a result, learning to do informational interviews is such a good practice to get into. There are a ton of Harvard alumni who are happy to talk with you about what they do. Follow your curiosity and reach out to them via Crimson Compass. It's easier to conceptualize something like a job or organization when it's personalized.

One of the take-homes for me from the undergrad panel was to find a community here where you can discuss these issues. And, from the gap year panel, a take-home was to begin to develop your own framework for thinking about global health in order to know what questions to ask and to be able to critically evaluate the work of NGOs.

Below are the remainder of my take-homes (as interpreted by me). It's a fairly quick and dirty list. But first, the earth:

Undergrad panel (4 seniors)

• find an intellectual community or peer group and discuss issues
• equip yourself to speak the language of global/public health
• learn how what you can do now at Harvard connects to larger, longer-term goals
  go for big questions; technical expertise by itself is easy
• seek broader contextualization of issues
• distinguish between an organization’s ethos (e.g. social justice) and actual product
• get involved with a good organization; be okay with putting yourself at their service
• pick courses based on people and ideas primarily
• orgs are often reticent to involve undergrads; know what you’re getting yourself into
• it’s okay to struggle with whether or not a future in medicine is the best option--this is common!
• find mentors and see how they did it
• it’s an important geopolitical moment for global health…go for it!

Gap Year Panel (1 MBA, 1 PhD, 2 MD/PhDs)

• investigate specific organizations
• think about particular skill you would like to develop; what do I want to learn in the 1-2 years off?
• distinguish between an NGO’s mission statement and actual impact
• seek out mentorship and don’t just jump at any opportunity; some oversight will make the experience more fulfilling and less disorienting
• time off is time well spent--you will inevitably gain something from it; even learning to take care of yourself and pay your own bills is worthwhile.
• ask about the size of the organization (e.g. World Bank or community setting?)
• ask about where you’ll be living (e.g. among international crew or local people?)
• gap year can provide context to what you’re doing, what you want from your work
  experience, in any form, can be formative; don’t underestimate this
• learn a language perhaps
• use the gap year to explore whether you really need an MD
• make sure you know who the org is accountable to
• be wary of orgs that ask for money or sound too good to be true
• when you arrive, be sensitive to culture; observe and be friendly but don’t state solutions
  honestly evaluate whether you’re really ready for grad school
• do informational interviewing in the field (e.g. Crimson Compass, professors, etc.); word of mouth is valuable

Enjoy the long weekend!

Funding for global health experiences

So much that I'd like to write about after the Global Health Expo last Thursday and Friday. (There have been some great freshman programs recently too but those'll have to wait.) Since what's most pressing for students right now is the fellowships process, I wanted to share information about several specific funds that would apply to global health work.

Here are the particular ones mentioned at the gap year panel last Friday. This isn't an exhaustive list. Many others can be found in the supplement to the Harvard Guide to Grants and Harvard's international funding database. An alternative way to find OCS-administered fellowships is by looking at the calendar of deadlines.

• Roux (all returning undergrads; overseas; summer; March 20 deadline)
• Boothe (juniors & seniors;U.S. or overseas; summer; February 20 deadline)
• Pforzheimer (juniors & seniors; US or overseas; summer or post-grad; March 7 deadline)
• Richardson (graduating seniors; US or overseas; post-grad; March 12 deadline)
• International Centers, e.g. DRCLAS (undergrads; overseas; summer; February 26 deadline for common application)
• Other public service fellowships or international fellowships

Keep in mind that fellowships and funding can be found everywhere, including at other centers on campus. Get out there and poke around. And keep in mind that something like the Roux is for an overseas project specifically around global health issues but other funds may apply to the same project. Make sure you read the criteria carefully.

Much more nuggets to share about the Global Health Expo but will need to do that later. By the way, 317 students attended the fair at OCS on Friday afternoon. Wow!

Next time...take-home points from both undergrad and gap year panels