Biography
Currently a student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Sam graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University with a major in Neuroscience. Having grown up in Petersham, a small Massachusetts town, Sam is now enjoying New York, where more people live on his block than his entire hometown.
After being accepted to medical school as a college sophomore, Sam began working with fellow pre-medical students when he was hired by Princeton as a chemistry tutor. Sam enjoyed the experience of working with his peers on general chemistry so much that he stayed on the next year to teach organic chemistry. His style focuses on connecting specific details to high-level critical thinking that students can rely on during an exam.
After graduation, Sam moved to Beijing to complete a master’s degree in Economics and Business as a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University. While in China, he gained experience tutoring English and neuroscience to students in a wide age range. When Sam isn’t studying for his next medical school exam, you can find him reading international newspapers on Middle Eastern and Asian politics.
Whether working on organic chemistry problems or on an admissions essay, Sam’s background in neuroscience informs his belief that the key for students is first to understand how their own minds work. Self-awareness and a recognition of one’s own strengths and weaknesses open the door to steady progress.
Sam has tutored biology, chemistry, neuroscience, English, essay editing, and admissions applications since 2013.
Testimonials:
“I was always grateful for how patient Sam was. He always welcomed my texts regarding concepts and also the frantic texts where I thought I failed an exam or was going to fail an exam and would reassure me otherwise. Sometimes it would take multiple times for me to understand a concept and Sam would always explain it in different ways until it clicked and then have me explain it back to him to make sure I actually did understand it. This way of studying and test-taking helped me do significantly better.”
\What I loved about learning from Sam was that he not only attended to the concerns that I had talked to him about, but he also pushed me to make connections between the material that he helped clarify with other concepts in the course. This means that our meetings were always surprising – I learned chemistry thanks to Sam because he helped me relate concepts that I thought had no business together.”
Education
Bachelor of Arts, Neuroscience, Minor in Cognitive Science
Schwarzman Scholarship at Tsinghua University
Master’s, Global Affairs: Concentration in Economics and Business
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Doctor of Medicine