"Know Thyself": How UIC Champions First-Generation Students for Competitive Medical School Success

Misty Huacuja-LaPointe, Director of Pre-Professional Advising at the University of Illinois Chicago, shared her insights on preparing students for competitive programs especially on their journey to medical school, during an exclusive panel webinar with Kaplan. Key takeaways focus on helping students to understand medical school fit, meeting students where they are, the power of self-reflection and knowing oneself 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 the University of Illinois Chicago and your role there.

Misty Huacuja-LaPointe: I'm the director for pre-professional advising at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) and have been in health professions advising for more than 13 years. We are a public, Research 1 university, located in Chicago just outside of the West Loop. While we are an urban campus, we still have a true campus feel. We are a fairly young institution, founded in our current location in 1965. Our mission is to provide an affordable four-year education for the people of Chicago.

Many of our students, approximately 45 percent, are first-generation college students, between 50 and 60 percent are Pell-eligible and a lot of our students commute. So, we truly serve the local area.

A lot of our students, about 6,000, are interested in health professions. Many students come here specifically because they know that this is a great place to get that foundation and go off to their next step.

What I'm excited about currently is that UIC started an Aspire grant this past year. Illinois students whose families earn less than $75,000 per year are able to attend UIC tuition and fee free, which is fantastic. And even before we were able to offer this grant, UIC has been recognized for our focus on social mobility and how we're able to help students, meeting them where they are and giving them a great foundation for their future goals.

What are your winning strategies for enhancing competitive program and medical school applications?

Misty Huacuja-LaPointe: Our students often come in hyper-focused. They know that they want to help people, but when many of them are coming from a first-generation or low-income background they may be really focused on, “what is success and how do I get there?” Sometimes this is to the exclusion of really thinking about why they want to get there or their fit or what other professions there may be that are helpful for them.

I always tell students, if they do nothing else early on in their career, start documenting their activities. Start a document or spreadsheet, putting in their activities, their courses, the things that they're doing that they're spending time on, because it makes it easier to track later on and they may not know who they are yet.

They are going to experience a lot of things that surprise them, that worry them, that get them excited. And any time they have a strong emotion, write a sentence or two about it. Building that over the next four years allows them to see how far they've come between their first year and their second year to understand the things that they are getting excited about.

Sometimes nursing students may realize they don't like to touch people. Once they get their experiences, making note of those things helps them triangulate their interests, helps them redirect if they realize, “maybe this isn't the right field. But look at all of these other things that I've experienced that I've had an interest in.”

Ultimately, when they come to write their personal statements, they've got a really good background of what they've done, why they've done it, and how they've grown. It helps them develop a sense of their fit. As more schools are looking at mission fit and selecting students, how do students figure out what their mission fit is and then find that fit between themselves in an institution?

Similar to that is this sense of, “I have to have this GPA and this MCAT^® score. If I do, I'm going to get into this school.” Instead, students should take a look and go beyond in considering “Do my stats match this school? Is this geography where I want to be? What does the school have to offer me as a student? Do I want to do research?” All of those sorts of things. Again, by knowing themselves that will help them better match up with that school.

» Related News: Illinois Student Assistance Commission and Kaplan Announce Free Test Prep Courses

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

Misty Huacuja-LaPointe: At UIC, our students are not necessarily living on campus and finances are a large concern. Some of them work full time, many work part time, and sometimes the jobs that are most convenient or pay the best are not necessarily those in health professions careers or pathways.

They might get certified as a CNA or an EMT, but a fast food restaurant is paying more and has better hours and tuition benefits. It’s about really working with our students to understand the value of their experiences, no matter what field that falls into, and then translating skills that they can bring with them.

We also work hard to make sure that they feel supported on campus, not just through the academic advising side, but across campus by helping them know where their resources are so that they don't slip between the cracks.

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

Misty Huacuja-LaPointe: It’s important to provide multiple pathways to students for their ultimate goals. It might be saying, “here's what pathway one looks like with this timing and this cost. And here's what pathway two looks like. Have you thought about pathways three through five? They may lead to different careers or different focuses, but you're using the same skills and the same experiences that you've had and they may be a better fit. And if not, that's okay because you still have these five other options.”

Particularly with health professions, there are so many different opportunities and varieties of fields that people don't know about that sometimes it's just opening their minds and allowing them to explore. We try to do that through our programming on campus. We have a couple of big programs trying to get students introduced to a variety of different things, but that's not necessarily an end point. We want that to happen early on in the process.

I've had those students who start out and are not quite ready. It may take them eight to ten years to get to that final path. But they're determined and they've thought about that cost benefit analysis. I have an alum who's about to graduate from medical school this year who falls into that category. She has had fantastic opportunities. She did have to do a number of steps, but she was willing to do them to get to her final goal.

The University of Illinois Chicago offers free test prep to your students through Kaplan’s All Access License^®. Tell us about the impact this makes on your students’ lives.

To provide a brief background, Kaplan’s All Access License is an umbrella program where institutions have the opportunity to license industry-leading test prep for graduate admissions exams, licensure, credentials, as well as skills development courses. Instead of students paying out of pocket for preparation, such as for the MCAT, LSAT^®, or GMAT^™, the university licenses the courses and students then get access for free.

Misty Huacuja-LaPointe: Most of my students can't afford test prep courses. The cost of a couple thousand dollars is really out of reach. It's been fantastic to hear students say access to free test prep through Kaplan’s All Access License took a weight off their shoulders. Students tell us they are excited about taking the test prep courses or have already been working through the course. It's one less thing to worry about and have to save for.

Applying to health professions programs or law school programs is often an expensive process. It's been great to be able to offer free test prep. When we launched the program, we did a lot of marketing to students originally and I am enjoying that whenever I bring it up students respond with, “Oh, yeah, I know I'm already signed up.” I have yet to have a student say, “I didn't know about it.” Students are excited to be able to really utilize the opportunity and take advantage of it.

» Related News: Fast Company Names Kaplan’s All Access License as a Winner in Its 2024 World Changing Ideas Awards

What are the top opportunities defining student success in the next five years?

Misty Huacuja-LaPointe: With the way that things are changing around student loans and higher education in general, access to education that's affordable for students across the board is one of the biggest opportunities for student success. Campuses need to really think about how we make ourselves both appealing and accessible. And also consider social mobility and how we can help students achieve their goals.

Don't wait to close the readiness gap. Give your students the competitive edge they deserve with free access to career and test prep resources through Kaplan’s All Access License.