Meet Adam Nessim the Entrepreneur and MD Candidate Guiding 1000’s of Premed Students to Success
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Adam Nessim is an MD Candidate at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York. He graduated from Cornell University earning a Bachelor of Science with High Distinction where he majored in Human Biology, Health, and Society, and minored in health policy. Adam worked as a highly rated MCAT instructor for 2 years at a major test prep company before founding The Premed Consultants Inc.
He saw a need to develop an all-encompassing advising program that helps develop and guide students from early on in their careers. He is also the author of the popular book “My Premed Advisor Told Me I Couldn’t Do It, So I Did It Anyway” He is also known to thousands of students throughout social media with 26,000+ followers on Instagram and 45,000+ followers on TikTok.
Adam’s Top 3 Insights For Premed Students
1. Learn How To Learn
I am a firm believer that almost anyone can excel as a premed student, get into medical school, and become an excellent doctor. The limiting factor to this path is usually one’s ability to get good grades. Grades are one, if not the most, important part of the medical school application. Unfortunately, most students don’t focus on acquiring proper study skills and this is something I highly recommend doing from early on.
Just because you did well in highschool doesn’t mean you had proper study habits. You’ll probably find this out real quickly as you start to take weed out premed classes. So what are effective study habits? These would include active studying techniques such as using a question based approach, spaced repetition, and “learning through teaching”.
2. Start shadowing physicians early in the process
The path to being a doctor is a long and hard one. Therefore, its extremely important to make sure its one you want to dedicate your life to. However, I have seen students who are about to apply to medical school, and they haven’t even spent a day shadowing a physician to see what it’s like! I recommend shadowing multiple different doctors across various specialties.
This will give you a feel between different types of practice and lifestyles amongst physicians as they can vary greatly. Take initiative and reach out to physicians to try and get shadowing experiences, you can also apply for certain shadowing programs, or even sign up for volunteering at a hospital to first get your foot in the door.
3. Involve Yourself In Activities You Are Truly Passionate About
One of the most common questions I get is, “Adam do what other extracurriculars should I do to help myself stand out”. However, the truth is, if you just involve yourself in different activities to try to distinguish yourself, you many times do the opposite. Admissions committees can see right through an applicant who is in 12 different clubs but has shallow involvement in all of them.
You should focus on a few extracurriculars you are truly passionate about and go all-in on those such as taking on leadership positions. Yes, you need shadowing and clinical experience, but that won’t make you “Stand out”. In most of my medical school interviews, I talked about my experience on the club soccer team much more than I anticipated. That’s because interviewers want to know who you are as a person, and what you enjoy outside of medicine. So my advice is to seek out activities that excite you and don’t always worry about “checking all the boxes.”
Final thought
If you’ve ever thought about going to medical school, make sure to follow Adam. He is highly accessible via his social media profiles and regularly engages with his audience. So pick his brain about the process and preparation for not only getting into med school but thriving once you get there.