Jenny Liu, M4

Why did you choose to attend Northwestern MSTP?

On interview day, I thought the MSTP students, staff and professors who interviewed seemed like happy and nice people who were enthusiastic about their work – and non-work – lives. They described Northwestern as supportive of trainees, which is very true! Northwestern is also open-minded about medical students doing engineering research.

Tell us what you've enjoyed most about your current phase in the program.

Looking back at M3, I appreciated the thorough "rewarming" process, which was helpful for relearning how to be a medical student again. Overall, M3 was a good way to explore my interests and decide on my specialty. I'm interested in pathology, and the attendings were very encouraging. There were also opportunities for field trips to the path lab. For each rotation, we can submit preferences for site and subspecialty, which was also helpful for exploring specific interests.

For students curious about pathology: The pathology rotations (there are three of them!) here are fantastic. There's good exposure to both anatomic and clinical pathology. The residents are friendly to students and the clinical teams that visit the path lab to learn.

Tell us about an experience that made you truly feel part of the “Feinberg Family.”

My classmates, the Office of Medical Education and the MSTP office have been incredibly supportive. Medical students also have college mentors who are attendings and who regularly meet with students. My college mentor is an awesome person and provides excellent advice! The MSTP office provides all kinds of support, including emotional support to me (and several of my classmates) when dealing with naturalization paperwork, which I personally found extremely stressful to deal with. My thesis advisers and the labs that I joined on the Evanston campus are also super supportive during qualifying exams (quals), grant and paper rejections, and both difficult and positive life events.

What do you enjoy most about living in Chicago?

Chicago has pretty good public transportation and bike accessibility. This makes it easier to travel across the city to attend events in different neighborhoods. There are a lot of cool neighborhoods with unique shops, like the Recyclery for refurbished bikes and open shop, restaurants and grocery stores at "Asia on Argyle" in Uptown, and the LGBTQ+ communities in Andersonville and Boystown.

As a Northwestern student, there are many opportunities to see what medical practice looks like outside of the hospital campus. My primary care continuity clinic was in Bucktown, I volunteer at a free clinic in the Devon neighborhood and my M3 pediatrics outpatient experience was in Lake Forest/Libertyville. The Lakefront Trail connects the University of Chicago, Northwestern Chicago campus, Loyola and (with a small gap) Northwestern Evanston campus.