A Pathway to Medical School

“There are lots of smart people who don’t get into medical school the first time.” 

Dr. Michael Warner ‘96 shared this with the auditorium, which was packed with Crescent’s HOSA team members, before talking about how an aspiring physician could strategize their way into medical school.

HOSA – Future Health Professionals is a global, student-led organization that empowers aspiring healthcare professionals to become leaders in the global health community, through education, collaboration, and experience. Crescent’s HOSA team invited Dr. Warner, medical director of critical care at Michael Garron Hospital, to share some of his experiences and advice on entering the medical field. Dr. Warner spent an hour in person with the group on April 19. He answered questions about everything from medical school prerequisites, to the importance of a good work ethic, to what it was like to run an Intensive Care Unit during the pandemic. 

“It’s good to work hard. It’s also important to be balanced,” he shared. “But if you work, it will pay off. It worked for me, because I got that [good] MCAT score.” Dr. Warner spoke of sacrificing summers to study in libraries, and how he networked with the then-Physician-in-Chief at Mount Sinai hospital thanks to a connection through his mother. He said there are numerous ways in which a medical student can find their specialty, like anesthesiology, internal medicine or pathology. “The great thing about medicine is there’s something for every personality type.”