A Free Webinar on One of The Most Involved Paths in Higher Education

You want to become a doctor. You feel the pull — maybe you’ve spent time in a hospital, watched someone you love navigate a diagnosis, or grown up around medicine. That calling is real.

But before you start researching colleges, there’s something many high school students — and even many of their parents — don’t know: medical school in the United States is a graduate program. You don’t apply to it from high school. You apply to it after earning a bachelor’s degree. And medical schools are among the most selective graduate programs in the country.

That changes everything about how you should plan your undergraduate years.
The college you choose, the major you declare, the experiences you build, and the advising support you have access to — all of it either strengthens or weakens the application you’ll eventually submit to medical school. The students who arrive on campus knowing this have a fundamental advantage over those who figure it out in their sophomore or junior year.

This webinar is built to give you that advantage.

Who should attend

This webinar is for high school students who are seriously considering medicine as a career and want to make college decisions with full information. Parents are welcome and encouraged to join.

About Your Hosts

– Venkates “Swami” Swaminathan is Founder & CEO of LifeLaunchr and has more than a decade of experience helping students gain acceptance to top universities in the U.S., U.K., and Canada — including Ivy League institutions, flagship public universities, and selective smaller colleges nationwide. He is the lead author of Swami’s Take on College, a Substack publication covering higher education, admissions, career planning, and more. Swami’s approach is direct, deeply researched, and grounded in one belief: the goal isn’t just to get admitted. It’s to grow into the kind of person who truly belongs there.

– Claire Schadler is a LifeLaunchr coach and member of NACAC with more than a decade of experience helping students apply to and gain acceptance at top universities — private and public — across the country. She is also a contributor to Swami’s Take on College. Claire brings deep expertise in navigating the college process with students and families, helping them build strong, authentic applications that reflect who they really are.

What You’ll Learn:​​​​​​​

• What makes medical school so selective, and what that means for you: Medical schools receive far more qualified applicants than they can admit. Understanding how competitive the landscape is and how early that competition begins is the essential starting point for planning your undergraduate years wisely.
• What medical schools actually look for in applicants: It isn’t just grades. Medical schools use holistic review — weighing academic performance, clinical experience, research, recommendations, essays, and personal qualities like empathy and perseverance. Swami will break down exactly what the AAMC says matters, and what that means for the choices you make in college.
• How to choose a major: Medical schools don’t require biology — or any specific major. The AAMC explicitly says there is no required or preferred major. What matters is that you excel. Swami will show you how to choose a major that plays to your strengths, meets pre-med course requirements, and keeps other doors open if your path evolves.
• How to evaluate colleges as a pre-med student: “Pre-med” is not a major — it’s an advising path. And not all advising programs are created equal. A 2024 study found that CSU campuses had five times less access to pre-health advising per student than UC campuses, and thirteen times less than private institutions. Swami will show you what to look for — and what questions to ask — before you commit to a school.
• A brief look at BS/MD programs: For students curious about guaranteed admission pathways, Swami will give you an honest, high-level overview of what these programs are, who they suit, and the key trade-offs to understand.