How to Personalize Health Professions Advising: Inside Colorado College’s Winning Playbook

Jane Byrnes, Health Professions Advising Manager at Colorado College, shared her insights on supporting students on their next step after graduation, especially to competitive graduate programs such as medical school, during an exclusive panel webinar with Kaplan. Key takeaways focus on the power of reframing, how a coaching mindset makes you more adaptable, as well as the impact of free test prep on student success. The following excerpts are taken from the interview.

Share with us a high-level overview of Colorado College and your role there.

Jane Byrnes: I'm the pre-health advising manager at Colorado College and have been here for 17 years. Before then, I received my undergraduate degree as a recreational therapist, earned my master’s degree in Health Administration, and then taught at the University of Phoenix. In my current position, I blended two of my favorite things together with healthcare and education; I love our students here. Colorado College is a liberal arts college in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We're an hour south of Denver, and some people call us the Harvard of the west because we are a small, liberal arts school.

Of our approximately 2,000 students, about 15 to 20 percent are pursuing a health profession, which is a large amount of students to work with.

One of the most unique aspects of our institution is that we focus on a block plan class system as opposed to a semester. Our students take one class at a time, four classes per semester, and we call them blocks. In the fall, we're in blocks one through four and in the spring we’re in blocks five through eight. Students take classes for three and half weeks and the idea is that they are immersed in the subjects, that it is something they can focus on.

Many students really like this style. Then when the three and a half weeks are up, it is on a Wednesday at noon which enables them to be free to go camping, travel, and take some downtime before we start back up. It's very exciting.

What are your winning strategies for enhancing applications to competitive programs such as medical school?

Jane Byrnes: One of my favorites strategies is more directed to the health profession applicant, mainly toward medical and dental school. When I talk to students, I share my five-finger plan of what they should be focusing on for successful applications that come up a lot.

When I say five fingers, we hold up a hand and list off: 1) MCAT^®, 2) GPA, 3) medical experience, 4) research experience, and then 5) the involvement, extracurriculars and leadership bucket. Those are the five things for students to focus on to increase their medical school application chances. And then also we talk about letters of recommendation that reflect on those experiences.

It really gets students to think about it in a visual way, by looking at their hand and saying, “These are the five things I need to know.” They are some quick takeaway tips when students leave my office after we chat about it.

Another one of my biggest strategies I give students for thinking about their medical school applications is to reframe. Many times, when I'm talking to students, especially if we're talking about the application process, it's thinking about, “What does that school want me to do? What do I have to do for that school?” And I really focus on reframing that thought process to them.

Students ask me, “Should I be an EMT? Should I be a CNA?” Then I'll turn the question right back on them and ask “Do you want to be a CNA? Do you want to be an EMT? What are the experiences you want to have to bring with you to medical school?” The purpose of the reframing is to allow the student to think about, “As I am applying to these programs which have skills, do I have those skills to be competitive in that school? Maybe I should give myself those experiences prior to getting into that program.”

How are you overcoming common student challenges in career preparation to empower them for their next step?

Jane Byrnes: One of the support services that we added last year was academic coaching, with many of our staff becoming certified academic coaches. Because of that training, I have absolutely been able to adapt that to my advising with pre-health students.

We have students who come from very different backgrounds, and everyone is unique. One thing that we focus on is not approaching medical school applications like a cookie cutter checklist. It goes back to understanding why you want to pursue that career. Why are you becoming an EMT? Is it because you want to be, or is it that checklist mentality? We really focus on the student and meet them where they are. Academic coaching really helps with that because you're using questions to guide them where the student is in the driver's seat.

“Why do you want to go to medical school?” This is one of the first things I talk to students about. For any of the health professions, if they mention they want to pursue this career I ask them, “On a scale of 1 to 10, where are you?” When they tell me the number, that helps me gauge where we're going in the conversation.

If you answer with a six, you're not quite there. You're thinking about it. If you answer with a nine or a ten, then it’s clear this is a goal. They want to do this and then that guides the direction to what steps you are doing to be able to pursue that career or if you don't know what those steps are then figuring that out. Again, it’s about meeting the students where they are.

Not everyone has parents or family members who are doctors. Some of our students come from backgrounds where they didn't even really know what a doctor did or didn't get to even see a doctor. But they want to help and they want to work in their community.

That focus of asking them what they want and where they are is definitely a step in the right direction because it's their narrative that they're creating when they're writing that application and their genuine self is coming through. Whatever challenges they are going through during their undergraduate studies, we can work through them in those questions and guide them so that they can be successful in their application.

How do you help students close the skills gap and prepare them for competitive programs or professions?

Jane Byrnes: One of my favorite challenges is working with students who feel like they can't do it. Or working with students who experienced someone telling them that they can’t do it. I’ve had students tell me, “I was told by an advisor that I can't be a doctor.” However, that is not our role.

Our role as health professions advisors is not to tell anybody what they can or cannot do. Our role is to help guide students to what they'd like to do or open the door to other health professions out there. A lot of students in their first year are thinking about medical school and many times it could be for a lack of not knowing other health professions that they could look at.

We try to expose them to all of the health professions, bringing in different people in certain careers—our alums specifically—to talk about their experiences. If their GPA is not where they want it to be or their MCAT score is not what they want it to be, we then explore with the students what other options they have available.

There are postbaccalaureate programs or there are master's programs, there are all kinds of ways a student could still pursue health careers. Maybe it's a little more challenging for them because they started out poorly and they have to increase their GPA, but that doesn't mean it can't be done. It's all about their drive and their ambition.

It goes back to that academic coaching, where they're the driver and we're just helping guide their way. It really is fun to watch that. That's probably my favorite thing, to watch them look at that challenge and decide to go for it.

A lot of times, students say they have wanted to be a doctor since they were five years old and now don't really have the ability or don't want to go to medical school for four years. It’s about offering them alternatives, such as considering being a physician assistant or a nurse practitioner. Once they start thinking about those options and maturing, they may realize, “I'd have a better life balance, I should follow that.” It's really fun to watch that path with students.

Colorado College offers free test prep to your students through Kaplan’s All Access License^®. Tell us about the impact this makes on your students’ lives.

For context, Kaplan’s All Access License is an umbrella program where institutions have the opportunity to offer students industry-leading test preparation for graduate admissions exams, licensure, credentials, as well as skills development courses all for one flat fee. With zero out of pocket costs to students, this solution removes cost barriers and unlocks new opportunities as they take high stakes exams such as for the MCAT, LSAT^®, or GMAT^™.

Jane Byrnes: I've had the pleasure of watching how offering test prep opportunities has impacted students as well as observing the journey of the different ways delivering test prep has evolved over the course of the last six to seven years. When we first started, our Career Center funded a program as a dynamic half block in January. We are on a block format as opposed to a semester. We have two-week courses that we call half block and we thought that would be a great opportunity to offer students an MCAT bootcamp with Kaplan.

The program was face to face on campus, but we realized it was limited because it would be two weeks in person and then a 12-week study plan. It was going to be okay, but it wasn't the best solution.

As things progressed and we met with people from Kaplan, we discovered that it'd be better to offer the full program. For us, Kaplan’s All Access License is a game changer. Before the program, one of the issues we had was that originally our course was only offered in the spring and then students could maybe study on their own in the summer. It really wasn't designed with the flexibility for students to take it when they wanted to take it.

I can't express how awesome it is to see the expression on a student’s face when I tell them we have free test prep through Kaplan’s All Access License. Now, they can start test prep tomorrow if they want. They can start anytime. To watch the weight on their shoulders come down and their face be unstressed and realize it's free is absolutely wonderful.

It's something that Colorado College offers to our students if they want it. We were also able to increase the number of programs available by adding DAT prep, which we didn't have before. We didn't have very many dental students and now we do.

It was an easy discussion to offer Kaplan’s All Access License. The program includes prep for GRE, DAT, MCAT, OAT, and more. It has been really helpful for our students. And also for Colorado College alumni, since they can also access the same test prep for a discounted cost, which is great.

Again, it’s about meeting students where they are. Not everybody knows when they're a senior their next steps, and they may say, “Oh, I didn't think to take it.” Well, they can sign up now as a student and they have access for a year to take the course. The All Access License is wonderfully flexible and really is a game changer.

Equip your students with the industry-leading tools they need to ace their exams and take their next big step after graduation through Kaplan’s All Access License.