Dr. Ellina Hattar was born in Amman, Jordan and grew up in the Middle East, as well as Odessa, Ukraine and Montreal, Canada. Her family immigrated to Ramsey, New Jersey when she was 13 years of age. She attended Johns Hopkins University where she earned a dual degree in Neuroscience and Public Health. She returned to New Jersey after college to attend NJMS at Rutgers University for medical school. Ellina enjoys the variety of surgical cases she is exposed to and continues to keep an open mind regarding future sub-specialization. During her spare time, she enjoys running with her husband, Jose (a family medicine resident at Jefferson), having movie nights with their chihuahua, Matilda, and spending time with her close-knit family in New Jersey.  ___ 0:00 - Intro 0:51 - Statistics About Neurosurgery 4:40 - What Is Neurosurgery? 8:30 - Neurosurgery Residency 18:47 - How Much Do Neurosurgeons Work? 23:08 - Average Day/Week of a Neurosurgeon 31:38 - If I Give You $100 Million, What Would You Do? 35:17 - Why Neurosurgery? 43:30 - Helping Factors to Get Through Med School and NSGY 46:58 - Choosing Neurosurgery 49:20 - Differences Between Neurosurgeons and Family Medicine 50:36 - Best Things About Being a Neurosurgeon 51:16 - Worst Things About Being a Neurosurgeon 53:12 - How to Maintain Mental Wellness? 54:31 - Advice for Students Looking Into NSGY 57:29 - Characteristics of a Student for Neurosurgery 57:40 - Tips and Tricks for NSGY 1:00:18 - Future of Neurosurgery 1:02:52 - Closing Message 1:04:27 - Super Important Question! 1:05:26 - Outro ___ Resources: Residency Information: https://students-residents.aamc.org/applying-residencies-eras/applying-residencies-eras ___ View the Show Notes Page for This Episode for transcript and more information: zhighley.com/podcast ___ Connect With Zach Main YouTube: @ZachHighley  Newsletter: https://zhighley.com/newsletter/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zachhighley/?hl=en Website: https://zhighley.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/zachhighley Linkedln: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zach-highley-gergel-44763766/ Business Inquiries: [email protected] ___ Listen for Free Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/23TvJdEBAJuW5WY1QHEc6A?si=cf65ae0abbaf46a4 Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-zach-highley-show/id1666374777 ___ Welcome to the Zach Highley Show, where we discuss personal growth and medicine to figure out how to improve our lives. My name is Zach and I’m a medical student, and soon to be physician, in Philadelphia. Throughout these episodes I’ll interview top performers from around the world in business, life, and medicine in hopes of extracting the resources and techniques they use to get to the top. The best way to help the show is share episodes on any platform. If you think a friend or family member will like a certain episode, send it to them! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.