Testimonials

I took Dr. Phillips’ organic chemistry class in Fall 2012 and Spring 2013, after which I became one of her organic chemistry workshop leaders for 3 years. Organic chemistry is notoriously challenging for pre-health students, so it is important to have a competent and experienced teacher who is able to illustrate and unravel how molecules “think and feel.” I still vividly remember Dr. Phillips drawing out reactions and mechanisms in lecture and office hours at a pace that we were able to follow along. Her class never exceeded 100 students, which is an example of how she values the teacher-student relationship on a more personal level. She knew all our names, and was able to discern when we didn’t understand something. Her practice questions and exams were a perfect combination of multiple choice, mix and match, synthesis, mechanism, and essay. They trained my brain to fully understand organic chemistry. I whole-heartedly recommend her as a teacher. To this day, 10 years later, I can confidently say I still know and remember the fundamentals of organic chemistry because of her.

Dr. Phillips is not only a teacher to me. She is one of my mentors and advisors. I remember sitting in her office for numerous hours expressing my concerns regarding medical school applications. She listened intently and always had a plan for me. She had so much experience that I naturally trusted her. We worked closely together on my application, especially the personal statement. She was so helpful that I asked her to review another personal statement 4 years later for pediatric residency (and she happily agreed to). Without a doubt, she was a crucial figure in helping me get accepted into medical school. 

I am so grateful to have met and known Dr. Phillips. She taught me and guided me so much in college and beyond. I would not be the physician and person I am today without her. Lastly, it is so apparent that she loves what she does in teaching organic chemistry and in pre-health advising, and she definitely does it with love! 

• Pediatric Resident 

Westchester Medical Center

• DO, New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine

Dr. Phillips not only helped me realize my full potential, but she also helped me achieve it. Organic chemistry can be very intimidating. As my organic chemistry professor, Dr. Phillips had a way of breaking down the content into digestible pieces. She also hosted Workshop sessions, in which she created practice questions to help us process the material and allowed us to ask questions in small-group settings. Her true expertise in organic chemistry shined while answering our (many!) questions. Her flexibility in walking through the many variations of synthesis reactions that myself and other students constructed was so valuable for our learning.   

I also had the pleasure of working with Dr. Phillips as my medical school application coach. She challenged me to write authentically about myself and my story. She was crucial in helping me paint a picture of who I truly was, and all the things I had to offer, onto a piece of paper--which very well may be the single most important part of medical school applications. Having Dr. Phillips on my team during the medical school application process gave me confidence when submitting my applications and stepping into interviews, because I knew she helped prepare me well. With Dr. Phillips guidance and support, I have undoubtedly grown into a stronger student and future physician. 

MD/MBA Candidate, Stanford University School of Medicine 

Any student would be lucky to work with Dr. Phillips. She is an expert advisor and educator who deeply invests in her students. She helped me craft a medical school application that genuinely reflected my interests and aspirations. Under her guidance, I was accepted into medical school.  

As a professor, she brilliantly translates complex principles into easily digestible concepts. She carefully writes original practice problems and exam questions, which beautifully synthesize new information while priming you for upcoming topics. She allowed me to understand organic chemistry on a deeper level, which I continually draw on as a medical student. She takes student questions seriously, no matter how fundamental or advanced, and provides thoughtful and comprehensive answers. Dr. Phillips has made me a more creative, confident, and dynamic student. 

MD Candidate, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University 

You sometimes hear of the professors whose classes were so clear and effective that they changed the way the student approaches academia. Well, Dr. Phillips is one of those rare professors. Her approach to Organic Chemistry changes not only the way you approach chemistry; it changes the way you look at the world around you! The effort Dr. Phillips puts in to ensure that every single one of her students UNDERSTANDS Organic Chemistry to its core is still paying dividends for me. 10 years after taking her classes I can still comfortably approach synthesis problems and correctly move around electrons in a molecule, which comes incredibly helpful for a medical student trying to understand Krebs cycle or the mechanism of action of a particular drug, as well as is instrumental for a PhD Student studying biochemistry.    

I have also been lucky enough to have Dr. Phillips as my pre-medical advisor and credit 99% percent of the success of my application to MD/PhD programs to her expertise and insight. Dr. Phillips took an individualized approach to all her pre-med students, took time to understand what was important for me and how can my skills be applied in my future career. She used that insight to effectively guide me in my application to MSTP MD/PhD programs. As a matter of fact, my decision to pursue a dual-degree program was after her suggestion to explore the option, the decision that I am convinced was the best decision for my career. Throughout the application process Dr. Phillips has highlighted the strengths of my application and the areas that could need more boost to ensure optimal use of my time and efforts and make my application as successful as can be. Her guidance and suggestions for medical school interviews allowed me the confidence to comfortably go though and actually enjoy the process. At the end of the application cycle, I had multiple acceptances into schools that I was really interested in and had the luxury to choose a school that is the best fit for me. I will forever be thankful for all the help, insight, expertise, and genuine care that Dr. Phillips provides her students and mentees.   

MD/PhD Candidate, University of Rochester

Dr. Phillips was my professor for Organic Chemistry of Spring 2013. I had already taken part one of organic chemistry with another professor. I did not love that experience as it was a large group (around 200 students) and one professor. A friend of mine spoke highly of Dr. Phillips’ class so I transitioned into her class. Thankfully I chose her class. It was a smaller group (around 88 students) but she knew all of her students. I spent the same amount of time studying in part one vs. part two of organic chemistry. But the key difference was Dr. Phillips. The way Dr. Phillips taught, I was able to retain more information and learned how to effectively learn/study /take notes and eventually teach- all the essential things to be successful in college and after. I went on to be her workshop leader for a little over 3 years. As a student and workshop leader, I saw her dedication and love towards teaching all her students the essential skills for academic success.  

I later learned that she was also the pre-med advisor. Of course, I asked her for her help to apply for medical school. At that point she also became a mentor of mine. She was straight-forward in the whole process and laid out the fundamentals to succeed as an applicant. It was an overwhelming experience, but Dr. Phillips gave me hope and believed in me. She broke it down to baby-steps for me and made them into accomplishable tasks. She helped me put together a committee letter- including her own statement about me, my final personal statement that she helped revise and snippets of other letter of recommendations. I honestly had so many doubts of becoming a physician before I met Dr. Phillips. I couldn’t believe I was so lucky to stumble onto someone who cared about my success, aside from my family. And to find out I was only one out of hundreds of other students. She had a network of successful pre-med students that attained doctorate degrees all over the country.   

All in all, she is a wonderful mentor, professor, and person. Because of her, I was able to reach my dreams of being a physician. Thank you, Dr. Phillips!

• Family Medicine Resident, Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center  

• DO, University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine

True mentorship is more than just getting people to a destination they have in mind, but also facilitating their growth and skill development in a way that helps them use their potential in creative and fulfilling ways. I met Dr. Karen Phillips as a 19-year-old college sophomore at Hunter College who was very unsure of himself. Today, I am a fellow in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. I completed training at the Yale School of Medicine in Internal Medicine and was chosen for a highly selective junior faculty position my last year there as a Chief resident. My medical school training was at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City where I received a full tuition scholarship. It is hard for me to separate my journey from three major influences in my life: faith, my parents, and the mentorship of Dr. Karen Phillips.

When I first met Dr. Phillips, my understanding of education was limited by a worldview shaped by the financial insecurity of my immigrant family. Like many, I felt education had to be practically focused and was intended to be a means of leapfrogging beyond minimum wage paying jobs and the uncertainty of living check by check. I give you this context because Dr. Phillips is a catalyst for transforming my vision for the future.   

The first remarkable quality I observed in Dr. Phillips is her excellence in two main areas – organic chemistry and teaching. Dr. Phillips is a master educator. Over my 25 years of being a learner, I have only encountered her level of mastery in teaching rarely.  In organic chemistry, Dr. Phillips helped me and countless peers learn the language of chemistry. She developed a collaborative model of learning in our classes that required us to teach one another and positively reinforce and encourage mutual progress. We adopted a mantra, “if you can teach someone else soundly then you understand it yourself and can move on.” Under Dr. Phillips’ instruction, I came to appreciate the language of chemistry in a way that opened my eyes. In every subsequent stage of learning and becoming a clinician and teacher, I have employed the tools Dr. Phillips imparted to me. As an internal medicine resident, I won three teaching awards and I think it is because I was taught to create a climate of collaborative curiosity that invited the contributions of others to our shared benefit. This was something I was taught by Dr. Phillips and I think it will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Mentoring is hard to do well, but Dr. Phillips has dedicated her life to it. Every aspect of applying to medical school was foreign to me. Dr. Phillips coached me through the unknowns, introduced me to former advisees on the path, and encouraged me to reflect thoughtfully on how to use my career in medicine for the pursuit of my own passions. Today, I am working on trying to affect change on the future of healthcare as it relates to obesity and fatty liver disease through public policy and direct patient care. My vision for my career is built on the foundations established during the years I spent as a mentee and student of Dr. Phillips. I am eternally indebted to her and cannot more highly recommend her as a teacher, mentor, and coach.   

• Gastroenterology Fellow Johns Hopkins Hospital

• Resident, Yale New Haven Hospital 

• MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Dr. Karen Phillips was, and continues to be, instrumental in my comprehension and retention of organic chemistry. I came to Dr. Phillips with only the most rudimentary understanding of general chemistry and hardly any experience with organic chemistry—just enough to solemnly fear it. Within the first few hours of working with Dr. Phillips, my dread of organic chemistry melted away into curiosity and genuine enjoyment, thanks to her clear-headed explanations of fundamental principles, useful and easy-to-remember techniques, and most of all, due to her own readily visible passion for teaching. Dr. Phillips takes an intimidating subject and makes it approachable and masterable. She houses a wealth of knowledge and can also effectively communicate that knowledge. I very much appreciated her willingness to work with me thoroughly and holistically in understanding why I made the mistakes I made. Rather than simply pointing out what was wrong, Dr. Phillips made efforts to understand my thinking, so that she could help correct it from my perspective. I have treasured my notes from her classes, and refer to them often as I study for the MCAT. Her application of warm logic has also benefited me in other domains as I work and volunteer in the medical field. I cannot recommend her enough for anyone studying premedical sciences who wishes to deeply improve their knowledge and appreciation of organic chemistry, and to do so with the guidance of a skilled and generous ambassador of the subject.

Post-Baccalaureate Pre-Medical Program, Columbia University

I joined my first Organic Chemistry Course with questions that perhaps most, if not all, premedical students share: will I survive this? Is this going to be the reason I cannot go to medical school? On day one, sitting in my seat in a large lecture hall that can hold more than 300 students, I found myself surprisingly at ease, and even excited for a year-long course in organic chemistry. The way Dr. Phillips sees and teaches organic chemistry is truly unique. A subject that can feel pretty abstract and invisible at times comes alive in your mind when she is explaining it. As someone who dislikes memorizing dry facts, scientific or not, I was pleased to find that there was a way to conceptualize and understand the logic behind organic reactions, synthesis, and all things organic chemistry. Dr. Phillips shares so much passion for organic chemistry, teaching, and mentoring that everything becomes possible.    

With her guidance you will not only find yourself admitted to a medical school, but also deeply in love with organic chemistry and teaching. She is a great promoter of a healthy learning environment, building teams for collaboration and co-working. If you end up being part of a group under Dr. Phillips guidance, you will undoubtedly learn how to be a valuable and reliable team member - a skill that is increasingly valued and emphasized during medical education and training. In addition to organic chemistry, she has vast knowledge of the medical school admissions process and immense experience working with premedical students. During my medical school application process, I consulted with Dr. Phillips more than with my premed advisor and found her advice immensely helpful. Her caring heart, dedication to student’s success, and bottomless knowledge and experience makes her the best possible coach one can find for anything organic chemistry, premedical years, and a medical school application.   

MD Candidate, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth

As a pre-medical student at Columbia University, organic chemistry was a daunting hurdle to jump over. Some liken it to learning an entirely new language, and I was worried that it would be the class that squashed my dreams of eventually becoming a doctor. When I enrolled in Professor Phillip’s orgo class, the last thing I expected was for it to be one of my favorite classes at Columbia, provide me with strategies to tackle other science subjects, and inspire my own teaching and tutoring style. Professor Phillips empowers students to be active learners. Through her flipped classroom model, students learn by way of doing. Her approach to teaching made solving complex problems approachable and systematic. I have currently adopted this teaching strategy as a high school STEM educator and I will continue to benefit from it as a medical student next year. Professor Phillips’ approach to teaching is holistic and cultivates  skills and habits that can be applied to other pre-med classes, the MCAT, and medicine generally.   

MD Candidate, Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, Columbia University