Frequently Asked Questions

Independent, one-on-one guidance for students pursuing a career in healthcare — school list development, application timeline planning, essay and personal statement reads, mock interviews, and strategy for exams and clinical hours. One hourly rate covers everything: one hour can be used for a focused project or a single pressing concern, or for general planning.

Dr. Gold has experience advising for the big six healthcare pathways — medicine, dentistry, physician assistant, physical therapy, nursing, and occupational therapy — but is also experienced in helping students explore less-frequented healthcare pathways, such as anesthesiology assistant, forensics, and radiation therapy. Advising is tailored to the pathway your student chooses, including students who are not sure yet.

Earlier than most families think. The strongest applications are planned backward from application day: prerequisite coursework, admissions exams, clinical hours, and letters of recommendation each need their own season, and the crowded semesters announce themselves in advance when they are mapped early. Dr. Gold works with students from high school through post-baccalaureate and gap years. For more on this, read Plan backward from application day on The Compass.

Every engagement begins with a free 30-minute intro session — no obligation. Send a note through the contact page telling us a little about your student, and Dr. Gold will respond personally, usually within two business days, to schedule a time to talk. You'll leave the intro session with a clear recommendation whether or not you book more time.

One simple hourly rate: $250 per hour, for everything. A 5-hour package is $1,150 ($230/hour), and the Full Application Cycle package — 25 hours carrying a student through planning, primary, secondaries, and interviews — is $5,000 ($200/hour). Hours are hours: use them for any mix of advising, essay work, timeline planning, and interview practice. Details on the services page.

Yes. Dr. Gold is a native Spanish speaker, and every service — from the first consultation through the final review — is available fully in English or Spanish.

Sí. La Dra. Gold es hablante nativa de español, y todos los servicios están disponibles completamente en español, desde la primera consulta hasta la última revisión. Escríbanos en el idioma que prefiera.

The practice serves Potomac, Bethesda, North Potomac, Rockville, Frederick, Northern Virginia, and Washington DC. Virtual sessions are available anywhere, so students already away at college can work with Dr. Gold without missing a step.

Like a well-planned expedition, in three parts. It starts with the intake meeting: where Dr. Gold gets to know your student and which pathway fits. Next comes the route: a personalized timeline built backward from application day, assigning coursework, exams, clinical hours, and writing each a season and a purpose. Along the way, the campaign log keeps a shared record of progress that students and parents can check anytime.

This is a local, one-advisor practice in your community, led by a former university Pre-Health Program Director who advised more than 200 students and evaluated applicants the way admissions offices do. No dedicated pre-health advisor serves the Potomac-to-Frederick corridor, and national consultancies are call centers by comparison. Your student works with Dr. Gold herself, every session.

That's treated as a discovery, not a setback. Dr. Gold's philosophy is that every student's path is different: her job is not to fit your student into a mold, but to help them find their path and then walk it with them — whether that shifts from pre-med to nursing, from dentistry to physical therapy, or somewhere else in healthcare entirely.