MS1 at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Sweta Sudhir

First generation Indian-American

First in family to attend medical school

Interested in academic medicine and working with underserved patients

TL;DR

Chose a traditional undergrad over a BS/MD program
Graduated undergrad in 3 years
Took a research gap year
Completed 6 years of basic science research, mainly in neuro-oncology
Gained hands-on experience by volunteering in the emergency department and becoming an EMT

Update: Jan 2021

The beginning of medical school has been unexpected but despite the uncertain backdrop, the one thing I am certain of is that it is setting me up to be a more resilient and empathetic physician in the future. After missing our second-look week due to the pandemic, our admissions office set up weekly conversations to learn more about the school and to develop a sense of community. I found my roommates, envisioned how I would set up my room, and began planning for adventures in NYC. Less than a month before school started, we found out our first semester would be virtual. This meant that the quintessential anatomy experience for first years would be done virtually with a 3D model. I would attend my own white coat ceremony in my living room in Iowa and the highly anticipated opportunities to be in the hospital were no longer available. To add to the chaos, an inland hurricane (derecho) hit my hometown the first week of classes, forcing me to move in with a gracious friend in a neighboring city for orientation. I spent the first month of med school moving in with a family friend and then moving to a new house. Fast forward 6 months and I have just arrived in NYC for a hybrid semester and have been juggling being in quarantine housing, moving in, and classes. In addition to the changes in my life at home, there is no denying that the racism in our country, health care disparities (especially in COVID), and the threats to our democracy have been weighing heavily on me, making it difficult to focus on school. I am certain these experiences have shaped my foundation in medicine differently than I envisioned. As a researcher, this backdrop motivated me to look into socioeconomic factors that affect how soon a patient with stroke symptoms comes to a hospital. It has helped me connect better with patients because I make an effort to talk to them about their background and social determinants of health that deeply impact their care. These events of 2020 and my first semester of medical school have also helped me realize how important it is for me to check-in with myself and take care of my well-being. In addition to my friends and family who have always been an incredible support, I expanded my support system by reaching out to our Sinai learning specialist, faculty advisor, and wellness advisor. Frequent meetings with these advisors have helped me set myself up for academic success and good mental health. This semester has taught me to be appreciative; I am so thankful for the extra time I got to spend with my family for the first semester. Now that I am in NYC, I am incredibly excited to meet my classmates and build new personal and professional relationships.

The academic pace has picked up from undergrad and as a result, there isn’t much time to indulge in the details of our basic biology curriculum or savor the learning process. Added to that, I have been around patients far less in med school so far than I was in undergrad with my EMT and volunteering experiences. Having aspired to become a doctor from a very young age, I thought I had a good idea of what I was getting myself into. Honestly, even if 2020 had been entirely unremarkable, there would still be many changes I wasn’t ready for. What has made me love med school is the excitement with which I approach each day. Every class includes clinical correlates that remind me why I am learning all this information. Each faculty member is so inspiring and teaches with passion about their subject. I have also been fortunate to have an amazing cohort. Even with the virtual format, I got to form study groups, go on virtual walks, and have virtual weekend hangouts with my classmates. People were great about private messaging in zoom and getting to know each other. Overall, I have been appreciative of the resilience this first semester has taught me and am looking forward to in-person sessions!

I have also reflected on prior experience/tips that have helped me in med school so far:

1. Prior research experience

a. Definitely not necessary but helps you quickly acclimate to projects without too steep of a learning curve

2. Anki set up

a. Have an upperclassman at your school, or in my case our learning specialist set up Anki with you (a week before MS1)

b. Learn what decks are best for each class and try them out for your first time to see if you like them

3. Don’t have passive clinical experiences

a. Anytime you are shadowing or volunteering, ask yourself if you could envision yourself in that role 20 years from now

b. Do self-reflection before each experience and ask yourself what you are trying to gain from it

4. BE WILLING TO CHANGE AND ADAPT

a. I cannot emphasize this enough

b. The way you study might change for every class and it may even change based on who the lecturer is – this is completely okay

c. It is unlikely for one study strategy to work for all your classes

i. Some classes benefit from Anki, others outlining, others talking through concepts out loud or using some combinations

Overview

Hello to all of you future physicians! My name is Sweta Sudhir. I am 22 years old and I was born and brought up in Iowa. Growing up I did not have any physicians in my immediate family, but nonetheless, I grew up listening to my mom’s detail-rich stories about my great uncle who is a wonderful physician. From the multiple heroic tales of him saving my grandfather’s life to the heartwarming stories of him reaching out to rural villages with little access to medical care, I had a rosy picture of the medical field. So yes, I was the four-year-old who proudly announced that I would be a doctor one day. Yet as I grew up, I was interested in everything from Lego League where I got to build a robot that would complete various tasks, to National History Day where I dived into a rabbit hole of information about Engle vs. Vitale and the separation of church and state. It wasn’t until my sophomore year of high school where my interests began to fall into the path I saw to medicine. AP Biology fascinated me and encouraged me to pursue research the following summer. It was in that wet lab setting where I was introduced to molecular and cellular biology which I continued to major in college. College brought the true test of translating textbook knowledge to practice when I became an EMT. I realized I loved the hands-on science-based approach to address the concerns of a patient. In the midst of this, I was getting ready to schedule my junior fall and realized I had enough credits to graduate a year early. This threw me into a quest to determine what I wanted to do for my gap year. After exploring everything from consulting to project manager for Epic, I stuck with what I knew I liked which was basic science research. I spent the year applying to medical school and am thrilled to be starting at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai this fall (virtually)!

Background

I grew up in a mostly white community in Iowa but spent my weekends and holidays with our local Indian community. Early on, there was a large emphasis placed on education by my immigrant parents who knew the hard work it required to be successful in any field. Though they are both software engineers, they encouraged my diverse interests. My mom helped me through math while my dad helped me with reading and writing.

Much of my interests were cultivated through extracurricular activities including Lego League, Future Cities, Mock Trial, National History Day, and Optimist Speech.

Growing up, my community was incredibly important to me. They grew me up to be proud of my Indian culture and heritage. The farmer community also built in a sense of perseverance and resilience. In elementary school, our city suffered from a terrible flood. Our community drew together in that time of crisis and demonstrated to me how important it was to help each other out. It encouraged me to get involved from volunteering in the soup kitchen every Sunday to helping out at the hospital.

High School/Pre-Med

Experiences

Intel Science and Engineering Fair
Predated by the Secondary Student Training Program at the University of Iowa where I began research during the summer before my Junior year
World Food Prize Borlaug-Ruan International Internship
Spent 8 weeks in Turkey participating in agricultural research
Key Club, NHS, SNHS, Speech, Cross Country, Tennis, volunteered at the local emergency department and soup kitchen, PTA Reflections Dance Choreography Competition, introduced STEM to middle school students, Kuchipudi dance teacher

In high school, I got involved in a variety of experiences from cross-country to speech. I was lucky to be in a high school that pushed extracurriculars and had a strong AP curriculum that prepared me well for college. In my sophomore year of high school, I met one of my life-long mentors, my AP Bio teacher Mr. Horton. Until that point, I had always said that I was interested in medicine but hadn’t shown any particular interest in science. That changed through the course of the year where I was introduced to research and molecular biology. My teacher encouraged me to dive deeper with every question I ask and ultimately helped me start a research program that summer. This research program connected me with an incredible lab where I continued to do research through the end of graduation. Beyond the academic benefits, it also exposed me to a more diverse group than I had access to in my hometown. Seeking diversity in thought, identity, and experience guided several of my decisions in the later years. The following year I got involved with the World Food Prize Organization. This got me to think hard about global food insecurity. I decided to take a step away from the molecular biology research I was doing at the University of Iowa to go to Eskisehir, Turkey and study crown rot in wheat. That summer helped me realize my heart was more in wet lab research than fieldwork, but at the same time, it gave me an incredible opportunity to experience a culture very different from my own. I came back and began to apply to schools across the country. I applied for several combined BS/MD programs and traditional undergraduate programs. Ultimately when choosing between the two, I decided I wanted a traditional undergraduate school that would allow me to explore classes outside of the traditional stem course catalog. It was difficult turning down a guaranteed path to my dream profession but I hope it helps me be a more well-rounded physician.

Undergrad

Unlike a lot of my high school friends, I wasn’t thrilled to be leaving home for college. I was very much a homebody with very close ties to my family. The thought of moving across the country to an unfamiliar environment with extremely challenging academics felt daunting. I entered college feeling like an imposter, telling myself I was not going to be able to thrive. Little did I know that this would provide me with the motivation to succeed. The biggest difference in studying for me was the dedicated time I spent on each class. In high school I spent 30 minutes to an hour on each of my classes a night with an average of 7 classes in my daily schedule. In undergrad, however, I had about 3 classes daily and spent hours focusing on one subject at a time. It took practice to be able to focus on one subject for 4 hours at a time but this really helped me succeed in my classes.

I sought mentorship from upperclassman and they were ultimately my most useful resources on the pre-med journey. The lack of availability of pre-professional advisors combined with upperclassmen’s familiarity with daily struggles made them those ones I turned to. These mentors are the ones who helped me form class schedules, shared MCAT resources, and study schedules, and read over my AMCAS application when it came time to apply for medical school. In fact, one of my mentors ultimately connected me to my gap year job.

As I worked to find my groove with the academic work, I found myself excited but hesitant to get involved in extracurriculars. I had been warned not to be involved in as many activities as an undergrad in order to be able to focus on the rigorous academics and between the club fair and the weekly emails from our pre-professional advisors, there was an overwhelming number of opportunities. I started with what felt familiar. I volunteered in the Emergency Department in high school and loved my experience so I joined the volunteer program at the Hopkins Emergency Department and also joined a classical Indian dance team so I could dedicate time to the art form I love.

Despite being aware of how much I needed to focus on academics, I often struggled. Physics had been my toughest class since high school. I had failed two physics quizzes in high school and had worked tirelessly to bring my grade back up. I thought I had learned my lesson only to get a 49% on my first college physics exam my freshman spring. I realized that even though I was going to two different physics learning groups, my dance competition schedule that booked full weekends and research that required 20+ hours a week wasn’t sustainable for the academic excellence required of me to pursue med school.

My biggest piece of advice to anyone entering undergrad is to recognize when something isn’t working and to not be afraid to change it.

That spring I took my own advice. I decided that it was time to reprioritize my extracurriculars to drive impact. While I enjoyed spending time with the dance team, I could continue my dedication to the art form in my personal time. It was hard to say goodbye when I had been asked to be a captain the following year but it was a choice that proved beneficial. The research I was conducting was causing a lot of stress with little reward so I switched labs after my freshman year. This paid off tremendously. I found a life-long mentor in the postdoc who trained me. He encouraged me to be independent in my research and present my work at conferences. Most importantly it helped me realize my interest in neuro-oncology work.

As I became more comfortable with my academics, I put more energy in a program to get middle school kids excited about STEM. I also became an EMT to further explore my interest in medicine. More than the academics, it was my extracurriculars that become my most influential college experiences.

MCAT

Though I took my own advice when it came to research and extracurriculars, I wish I had been able to follow this advice when I studied for my MCAT. When I began studying for the MCAT, I thought I was mentally ready. After all, I had always wanted to be a physician and my mentors had shared wonderfully curated resources with me. I decided to follow their schedules to a T, sitting in my room for 8 hours a day, trying to hit my daily content goals. But what I failed to recognize was how to morph their recommendations to a schedule that would work effectively for me. This was my first true independent study. Since I took it the summer after my sophomore year, I didn’t know anyone else studying at the same time whom I could talk to. No external gratification of grades or homework deadlines were there to keep me motivated. Without the structure of a curriculum, I had difficulty tackling the material and often would find myself sitting in my room feeling overwhelmed and fed up. Ultimately, I took my exam before my practice test scores had stabilized, against my better judgment and advice from my parents because I wanted it to be done. All that being said, I was happy with my score and grateful but If I had been able to fully recognize at the moment that my methods weren’t the best for me and if more importantly, I had been willing to institute a change, I would have had a better outcome.

Gap Year

Soon after taking the MCAT, I began considering what I wanted to do for my gap year. I had always planned to apply my senior year and go straight through but I had realized by spring of sophomore year that I had the credits to graduate in 3 years. This forced my hand into taking a gap year. Financially I couldn’t justify staying a year to be with my friends and take random classes when I could save on tuition and earn a salary for a year. At first, I was interested in understanding the healthcare infrastructure. I attended all the healthcare consulting workshops on campus. But as I prepared for case studies and interviews, I realized that I neither had the necessary skills or a deep interest that would drive me to work persistently and relentlessly. I was interested in having a more holistic understanding of healthcare – an objective I could satisfy through independent reading and engaging in interest groups. I reached this same conclusion when I explored a project manager position at EPIC. Ultimately, I realized I wanted a dedicated year in research and moved to San Francisco to continue Glioblastoma research at UCSF. Another driving factor in making my decision was that research would afford the flexibility to take time off for interviews.

My gap year was hard. My pretense of having a cushy 9-5 job where I explored California on the weekends was shot when I realized I would be working 60+ hour weeks. Though I had already done 5 years of research, this was the first time I was getting paid to conduct an independent project and the expectations were much higher. Over the course of the year, I grew professionally and personally. I learned to ask for help. I learned to present my work with confidence. I learned to fail and fail again with the hope of consistent improvement. I realized it was up to me to develop a work-life balance. Though I was fascinated by my research and deeply invested, it was important that I took care of my physical and mental health. Most importantly, I realized the value of my friendships. Having a strong support system from my family, my undergrad friends, and co-workers is the reason I came out the other end happy and with a co-first author publication that is in review.