Dr. Svarakic shares her story of matching into an Internal Medicine residency in Chicago.

I’m originally from St. Louis, Missouri. I’m a first-generation Serbian.
My parents immigrated in the late ’80s, early ’90s.

Did my undergraduate at the University of Illinois. And then decided med school
was the right move for me.

Applied to UMHS and in my 4th year, I matched in Internal medicine at the Chicago Medical School here in Chicago, Illinois, which is part of Rosalind Franklin University.

My dad is a psychiatrist at WashU and one of his residents actually was a UMHS grad. So when I was researching where to go, that was really impressive to me that she matched at a
really great program. She offered to meet with me and give me some insight into what it was like for her at UMHS, what she liked about it, and the opportunities that were available to her through UMHS. So I met with her. She really had a lot of insight into the quality
of the rotations.

Were there any professors or staff members, both in UMHS, in St. Kitts in Maine, that
were especially helpful or inspiring to you?

The first one that sticks out to me is Dr. Jalan, Path one professor.
Incredible professor, so knowledgeable, so passionate, so helpful.
I think he is probably one of my favorite professors
of all time, and that’s including my undergraduate experience.

And then also, Patrick McCormick. He is our residency advisor for UMHS.

He really knows this process of residency match through and through and is just really informative and always available for help, but also sends these really information-dense emails that I was continuously referenced, and I think those helped tremendously.

I think we’re really lucky to have him. He’s really advocating for you and you feel that.

Is there anything specific about your medical education that you think helped you match in your specialty other than the great guidance of people like Patrick?

I would say the quality of our clinical rotations. The rotations themselves were incredible
and super enriching, but also, the attendings were vouching for you and also advocating for
you and were more than happy to write you a letter of recommendation.

Matching into a residency is not just about having high scores and performing well in a rotation,
it’s also about how are you and a team, and how well you work with people around you. So I think that was a really important thing to highlight.

I mean, I think I highlighted the most important parts that really helped me
throughout basic sciences and the match process in the end.

But also, I think, just a word of advice would be to stay focused, but also really take care of yourself, and prioritize your mental and physical health. I think that’s really important.
It’s easy to lose sight of that because this is a really grueling, demanding process.

But work hard, stay focused, prioritize yourself, and I really think there’s no reason it shouldn’t work out.

Please check out Dr. Svrakic’s interview with Scott Harrah, Director of Digital Content here:
Please also check out the other great videos on this Youtube playlist that tell other success stories from UMHS graduates here:

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