Virtual Open House: Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences

 

Register here

Mentorship Opportunity: PrIMES Program

Are you an NYC premed college student from an underrepresented background? Through our mentorship program, PrIMES, you will be paired with a current medical student or young doctor. Together, you will progress through a novel curriculum that helps address the unique barriers and challenges to applying and matriculating to medical school as a minority. You will also be exposed to wonderful opportunities and resources to help you succeed in your premedical studies and become a competitive applicant. We are now recruiting Mentees for the 2020-2021 Cohort. Apply today!

Cambridge Coaching MCAT Webinar: Periodic Table

It's a weekly live webinar about a high yield MCAT topic. It's short, sweet, and packed with valuable insight into both the topic at hand and how it's tested on the MCAT. While we are in the process of developing these materials, we are offering the webinar for free. Consider yourself a pilot student for a future Cambridge Coaching MCAT course, or textbook, or self-study platform (only the future can tell). All we ask in exchange is that you keep coming, participate in Q & A, share your feedback, and let friends know about this resource. This webinar's topic will be Periodic Table, and will take place Friday October 30 at 1pm EST. 

Register for this week's webinar here. 

Columbia Synapse Panel Event: The Resilient Brain, Current Research Landscape

 Columbia Synapse's annual research panel ("The Resilient Brain: Current Research Landscape") will be hosted on November 7th at 3 PM EST! Expert neuroscience and clinical researchers will be discussing current research and treatment of traumatic brain injury (TBI). All individuals interested in learning about the cutting-edge developments in TBI research are highly encouraged to attend! This will be a great opportunity to learn more about the brain and clinical treatments for TBIs, as well as the surrounding support networks for individuals with TBIs.

Registration for the event can be found here!  Dr.Sacks-Zimmerman, Dr. Bergold, and Dr. Koliatsos will be presenting at this event. Full bios will be listed below!

We hope to see you all there!

With love,

Columbia Synapse

Amanda L. Sacks-Zimmerman, Ph.D., ABPP-CN, is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist who has had extensive experience in assessing and treating neurological disorders with cognitive remediation as well as researching the cognitive impact of brain injury. She treats a variety of patients who suffer from cognitive and emotional difficulties that may be the result of epilepsy; radiation or chemotherapy; cardiopulmonary bypass procedures; surgery; cerebrovascular disease; stroke; silent infarcts; brain tumor resection; movement disorders such as multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease; metabolic disorders; infectious processes such as encephalitis or Lyme disease; chemical toxin exposure; traumatic brain injury; and dementia diagnoses including mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, multi-infarct dementia, and frontal temporal dementia.

Dr. Koliatsos, Professor of Pathology and Neurology and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, is the head of the Laboratory. Dr. Koliatsos trained in systems neuroscience with Mahlon DeLong and cellular and molecular neuropathology with Don Price. His main interest is mechanisms of neural injury and repair relevant to human disease. He has previously characterized a number of neurotrophic factors for key populations of neurons in the brain and spinal cord and initiated experimental therapies of spinal cord diseases with stem cells and their progenies. In recent years, Dr. Koliatsos has turned to the problem of traumatic brain injury, both as morbidity in and of itself and as model for neurodegenerative disorders. He serves on the faculty of the Ph.D. graduate program of Pathobiology of Disease and leads the TBI Research Center in the Department of Pathology. A clinical neuropsychiatrist, he also sees patients with TBI and degenerative dementias. Dr. Koliatsos has received a Leadership and Excellence in Alzheimer’s disease Award and the Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from NIH and a 2018 Discovery Award from Johns Hopkins University.

Dr. Peter Bergold received his B.S.in Biology from Trinity College in 1977 and his PhD in Molecular Biology from Cornell Medical College in 1986.  He did a post-doctoral fellowship in Neuroscience with Dr. James Schwartz at the Howard Hughes Institute at Columbia University.  He joined the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology of Downstate in 1990 as an Assistant Professor and became a Professor of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neurology in 2009.  His research interest in the last ten years has focused on traumatic brain injury.  A major research focus of his laboratory has been the development of drug combinations to treat brain injury.

New & Updated MCAT Prep Resources from AAMC

The AAMC has announced updates to its MCAT preparation resources! Read below or click here to learn more. 

 The MCAT Official Prep Sample Test is now a FREE Resource

• The Sample Test has been converted into a free resource accessible in the MCAT Official Prep Hub. The Sample Test is a great way for students to identify their strengths and weaknesses as they begin preparing for the MCAT exam. Examinees can review questions and answers in MCAT Foundational Concepts, Content Categories, and Skills to identify areas for further study. The Sample Test includes the following features:
• 230 questions with the same look and feel and the same length and functionality as the actual MCAT exam
• Solutions written by the same test developers as the actual MCAT exam

NEW MCAT Official Prep CARS Diagnostic Tool

• The CARS Diagnostic tool is the first, section-specific diagnostic by the AAMC to help students identify and address their areas of strengths and weaknesses as they prepare for the Critical Analysis and Reasoning section of the MCAT exam. The CARS Diagnostic Tool includes the following features:
• Video walkthroughs of how to approach answering two example CARS passage sets
• 28 passage sets for learners to practice 169 questions that have been created by the developers of the MCAT exam
• Score reports to help learners evaluate their strengths and weaknesses
• Explanations for all answer choices written by the same developers of the actual MCAT exam
• Enhancements to the question review that enable learners to dive deep into the skills assessed in CARS
• Strategies to improve learners' critical analysis and reasoning skills

• The new MCAT Official Prep CARS Diagnostic Tool will be added to the AAMC Fee Assistance Program MCAT Prep benefits. AAMC Fee Assistance Program awardees who have opted to receive their MCAT Official Prep products benefit in 2020 will be granted access to this product, in addition to all of the online AAMC MCAT Official Prep products. Please visit our website for more information and the full list of Fee Assistance Program benefits.

Enhancements to MCAT Official Prep Products and Resources

Updated FREE Road Map to MCAT Content in Sociology and Psychology Textbooks

• The AAMC reached out to more publishers of introductory psychology and sociology textbooks to expand the list of resources and include detailed information on where to find the concepts learners will need for the Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section of the MCAT exam. The Road Map also includes open source textbooks.

Enhanced FREE Online Version of the MCAT Study Plan Guide

• Creating a study plan is a great way for students to organize their preparation, keep themselves focused, and track their progress. In 2019, AAMC launched an online updated version of the How to Create A Study Plan guide in beta and has made enhancements based on user feedback.