Today we're joined by Mr. Christian Essman, the senior director of admissions at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and host of the All Access: Med School Admissions podcast where he interviews admissions faculty from across the nation. With med school applications right around the corner for a lot of us, I think this conversation with Mr. Essman was really needed to try to understand how admissions are affected by the pandemic. As he notes, this year of applicants will be the first to have been affected by COVID for over a year, and these effects will be reflected in the applications. Mr. Essman shares a lot of really valuable insight in this episode - including details on what exactly happens to your application when you submit it, tips to writing your personal statement, advice on getting recommendations even if you've only met the person virtually, how med school applications increased 17% this past year, and much much more. At the end of the day, Mr. Essman urges us to just trust the process, and that everything will be okay.