Stanford Med School Doctor's Advice on Med School Apps

Dr Jason Khoo on the power of reflection, and re-writing his essay a week before the deadline

This week’s Health Hero is Dr. Jason Khoo, an Emergency Medicine resident doctor in California, who graduated from Stanford Medical School. Learn about his journey before med-school, applying to research labs, starting a health tech company, and his med-school application process.

First, what is Hear From Heroes?

I remember when my parents asked me about college and my job afterwards. I had some ideas, but I had no idea what a doctor, or a scientist, or a business person actually did.

When it was time to apply for school and jobs, my friends leaned on their family connections to get advice. I didn’t have a network or people who could help me, in fact I didn’t really know what a ‘network’ was.

I felt left out.

After speaking with people who had done the things I wanted to do, it started to make sense.

So that’s what a CEO did, and what a surgeon did.

If they could do it, why couldn’t I?

I started to believe that I could be a hero too.

I got some lucky breaks, and graduated from Cambridge and Stanford. It’s my mission to help others who felt left out get access to Heroes.

Everything Heroes is a community for STEM students to learn from Heroes in the real world. We’ll talk about college, grad school, careers, finances, family, and more.

Thank you for joining us.

How the website, Hero Calls, and the newsletter work

Every month we speak with Heroes in Health, Tech, Science, and Investing. Conversations will take place via Zoom call.

The newsletter and website will share the upcoming schedule. Calls are limited to 30 live attendees, so sign up to calls fast if you’d like to join.

We open sign up links a week before a call.

You can submit questions via a Google form. If your question is selected, you can ask it live for our Hero to answer on the call.

We post call notes on the website and in the newsletter.

Join Hear From Heroes and read call notes here.

Join calls with future guests and view the schedule here. We update it every week!

If you can’t make a call, recorded calls can be found on YouTube. Subscribe to get updated automatically.

Upcoming Hero Calls

Stanford Neurosurgeon - date to be announced

Unicorn health tech founder + Stanford MD - date to be announced

Stanford Medical School professor - date to be announced

MIT biotech leader - date to be announced

Dr Khoo on med school advice, the power of reflection when defining your story, and his journey starting a healthcare company.

Doctors communicate by sharing one liner headlines about patients. “51 year old male with low blood pressure and diabetes.” What is the one line headline for your story? Does your personal statement stay true to your headline?

Dr. Khoo

  • Reflecting ahead of your medical school application is super important

    1. The most important thing Jason did was reflecting on his life before his medical school application. Why did he choose to study his major? To do lab research? To not study economics despite his interest in business?

    2. The business school at Stanford asks students to answer the question “What matters to you most and why”. Answering this question will help you define your own story, authentic to you.

    3. After reflecting on this, Jason re-wrote his entire med-school essay a week before the application was due. He wanted to tell his own story, as opposed to what he thought the admissions team would value.

  • Create a one line headline to share your own story

    1. When doctors communicate they need to share relevant patient information concisely. They do this using a one line headline about a patient.

    2. Reflect on your own one line headline that can tell the listener all they need to know about your medical school application.

    3. This will also help you stay focused when writing your personal statements.

I applied to lots of labs. I only got into one! This lab and work experience changed my journey in a way I could have never predicted.

Dr Jason Khoo
  • Med schools value diversity, especially diversity of experience

    1. Today doctors need to be diverse, as all parts of their work require diversity - interacting with patients, considering preventative patient health outside of the hospital, working with diverse medical teams.

    2. Get a diverse perspective by doing diverse things.

    3. Jason took classes unrelated to med school, like in business, design thinking, and communication.

    4. Share your new perspectives and how they will help you to become a better doctor during your med school applications.

  • Be open to new experiences and learnings by applying to diverse labs

    1. Getting research experience can be super helpful in developing your medical interests and demonstrating them to others.

    2. But getting lab experience can be tough.

    3. Jason applied to tens of different lab research roles.

    4. He was accepted into only one. It wasn’t his first choice. But he learned so much in this research role, which also led to founding his first company.

  • Reach out to people to build genuine relationships

    1. To get more information when making these decisions, reach out to people with genuine curiosity about their story.

    2. Approach them from a perspective of learning more about them. Be open to wherever the conversation goes. Some of the learnings may be useful in the future.

    3. Cold outreach works, but be thoughtful in your approach. Research them as much as you can.

  • Choose schools based on the flexibility of classes

    1. Jason was also interested in business, technology and innovation. He wanted a medical program that allowed him to explore, in addition to his formal med school education.

    2. Do research on which schools are flexible if that is important to you.

    3. Stanford allows you to take classes across the campus, perfect for an entrepreneur.

    4. Be careful, these classes can impact your GPA!

Can you imagine yourself doing the day to day work of the attending doctor? That is the best representation of what being a doctor in your specialty will be like.

Dr. Jason Khoo
  • Consider the life of the attending doctor when choosing your specialty

    1. Deciding what specialty you want to be in as a pre-med student is really hard. How do you know what you will like?

    2. Jason found that by speaking with attending doctors, who had already completed their residency, he could understand what their day to day tasks looked like.

    3. Jason found value in imagining himself completing those day to day tasks. Would he enjoy them, and find value in them, if he had to repeat them often?

Great doctors can be great business leaders by checking their biases.

Dr. Jason Khoo.
  • Great doctors can be great business leaders by checking their biases

    1. Doctors have incredible understanding about how to help patients. This can be really valuable when leading a health care, biotech, or technology company.

    2. It’s really important for doctors to check their biases when transitioning to business. For example, the way you lead a medical team in a hospital may be entirely different in a business!

    3. Be self aware by having a growth mindset, checking your biases, asking team members for honest feedback, and being open to what you hear.

    4. Jason also did an MBA at Stanford to create time to explore other business ideas.

Reply

or to participate.