5+ Lessons About Pre-med and Getting into Medical School: Part 4- We’re eager to learn but we don’t know who to trust

How many of you are eager to learn how to be better, in whatever way it is?

You’re eager to learn how to get into medical school.

You’re eager to learn about the MCAT

You’re eager to learn all these things in your life but you don’t know who and what to trust when it comes to information. Who feels that way?

It’s hard to know who to trust in this day and age because it’s so easy to play the role. It’s so easy for people to say, “Hey, trust me” and throw up a fancy website and video like they’re legitimate.

It’s so easy for someone to tell you, “Hey, I’m a dean, listen to me”, “Hey, I’m a learning specialist, listen to me”, “Hey, I’m your paid counselor for the university for 25 years advising students, trust me.” It’s hard to turn away from them.

Because you think that they’re the people that should be bringing you the expert advice that you can trust.

What if your counselor told you that you suck and that you can’t go? That you have such a low GPA and that you should just give up on your dreams?

It’s hard not to listen to them about giving up because they’re supposed to know. They’re a paid counselor in the university and they should be able to judge if I’m qualified to go to medical school. So if they tell me to quit, then I should quit. If the dean tells me that I should do this program, then I should do that.

It’s hard to see through the fact that they got complacent. In academics, they tend to protect their positions by insulating themselves from newness, much like politicians.

These people get into these tenured academic positions and they hide out for 50 years and they never advance their thinking and leave you guys astray.

Challenge everything you’ve ever learned about learning, about everything. Let yourself be the judge of what is true.

You can’t expect to learn everything from one person, one book, one source. And the same thing is true for getting advice.

The reason why I feel good about the advice I give to my students is that I do not just tell you my personal experience or what I heard from one dean or one admissions officer.

Instead, I source it from five, 10 or 15 different people before I give a strategy. I have to make sure that I have vetted the process and run it through with people. If I’m unsure, I make sure to tell that as well - and if it works, I share it with my other students.

If your sample size is small or your knowledge is outdated, then you shouldn’t be giving advice to other people.

Now, if you guys read my website or watch my videos, then you probably agree with what one person described me in one word: TRUTH.

You guys know where I’m from or where I’m at currently - I have students come to me at my house or at the hospital. I don’t hide out because I have nothing to hide. When you are telling the truth and being honest about yourself about what you are doing, you feel good about it.

When you feel ashamed, it’s when you’re not being true to yourself and you have something to hide.

I feel no shame about what I tell you guys because I bring the truth.

I know my students are able to recognize the truth in what I teach and when they do, they don’t go back to listening to that YouTube video crap or even their advisors. My students feel confident enough to step up and challenge people on things because they feel like they’re the expert because they’ve gotten great advice.

And it makes me feel so proud. It’s not about the knowledge I’m giving them but about the confidence I’m giving them in themselves.

If you do your research and have the information, you never have to bow down to anybody who tries to tell you otherwise just because they have a degree or a title.

I’m proud of what I bring because students have never told me “ahh Dr. Pinesett, you got me”. My students actually want more courses from me after they get one course. I get invited to events and they invite me again for more of that goodness that I bring.