The decisions you make in your first two years shape everything that comes later: which courses you take and when, how you spend your summers, and when the MCAT fits. This working session is for students who want a plan before registration and summer applications open, not a lecture. Bring your transcript and your calendar; leave with a draft four-year plan and a short list of things to do this semester.

Most students imagine medicine as one job. It is dozens. Physicians from different specialties, including those who practice in community settings, talk about what their days actually look like, who their patients are, and the path that brought them there, with time for your questions. Come with a specialty you’re curious about and leave with two more you hadn’t considered.

The application opens in May, and the personal statement is the part most people put off. This evening is a conversation, not a lecture: our mentors read from their own statements, talk honestly about what worked and what they’d cut, and then work with you in small groups on finding the story that is already yours. Bring a draft if you have one, or three experiences you can’t stop thinking about if you don’t.

Interview invitations start arriving in early fall, and the first one usually comes before you feel ready. This Saturday-morning workshop opens with a short talk on how interviews actually run, then puts you through three practice stations with a mentor at each. You leave with written feedback and one specific thing to fix before your first real interview.