Everything You Need to Know Medical School

Everything you need to know to get into medical school, whether you're a student, recent grad, or non-traditional applicant, including a step-by-step guide to get into your dream program

Acquire HOW TO GET INTO MEDICAL Schoolhouse

Part 1: Introduction

Getting into medical school and condign a physician is a dream for many—and with good reason.

Beyond beingness a highly respected and lucrative profession, medicine uniquely allows you to combine your love for science with your desire to help people directly. While the latter—wanting to aid people—is clichéd, it'south true and necessary if you desire to be fulfilled as a physician. You wouldn't be interested in and then many years of training if y'all were simply motivated by earning potential or prestige. For instance, you could achieve the quondam faster every bit a software engineer.

As a reader of this article, you probably fall into i of four categories:

• You're a loftier school or higher student who is considering medicine as one of several career options

• You're a premed student or recent college grad who surely wants to become a doctor

• Y'all graduated from college years ago and are considering a career change

• You're a parent who wants to learn more nigh how your kid can become a doc

Regardless of which category you fall into, y'all're in the right place. After helping thousands of students get accepted to med school for nearly 20 years—and answering every imaginable question about how to become into medical school—I decided to write a guide that covers all medical school requirements, from various degree programs and extracurricular activities to MCAT prep, admissions essays, and interviews.

Reading this guide thoroughly volition assist you approach medical school admissions the right way, whether you're a high schooler, college junior, nontraditional applicant, or anything in between. It will also help you lot avoid applying bad advice on premed forums or the opinions of misinformed people so you lot can maximize your odds of getting into med school in the shortest amount of time possible.

This guide focuses on getting into U.S. medical schools—allopathic (MD) and osteopathic (DO). That said, the bulk of communication too applies to Canadian medical schools and Caribbean medical schools, the latter existence a consideration for students with low grades or exam scores. On the other manus, international medical schools fall outside the scope of this article.

Paths to medical school

Historically, the well-nigh traditional path involves completing a iv-yr college caste and applying to medical school during the summer between your inferior and senior yr of college. If successful, you lot would enroll in medical school a few months later on graduation. This path is besides known every bit "going straight through."

However, the average age of matriculation into medical school is 24, which means that about students take at least one gap yr before enrolling. Gap years are typically used to supplement or bolster your application, whether you lot need to consummate outstanding prerequisite courses, boost a low or and then-then GPA, or deepen your interest in various extracurricular activities, like research. While taking a gap year is not required, it is helpful for students who are not set up to go straight through.

In add-on, some people take over two years—sometimes fashion more than two years—to enroll in medical school. While in that location is no agreed-upon definition, nontraditional applicants are typically those who are over 24 years one-time. They may be career changers or individuals who focused on personal responsibilities (e.thou., raising children) before returning to school.

On the other stop of the spectrum, high-achieving loftier schoolers who are sure about wanting to become a physician have the option to utilize to straight medical programs, otherwise known as BA/Doctor or BS/MD programs. (More recently, BS/DO programs have begun to attract students interested in osteopathic medicine. We'll cover osteopathic medical schools in a moment.) Straight medical programs let students to consummate their undergraduate and medical degree in 6 to 8 years—seven years is most mutual—depending on the program. Moreover, these combined programs offer "conditional acceptance" to medical school, meaning you have to maintain a minimum GPA and achieve a minimum MCAT score to secure your position.

Finally, a pocket-size number of medical schools offer early assurance programs to college students who accept exhibited an extraordinary level of accomplishment and hope during their first yr or two of undergrad. Accepted students are not required to accept the dreaded Medical Higher Admission Test (MCAT)—the standardized test for medical school—and tin can focus on their studies, research, clinical experiences, and so on.

While most medical students receive a single caste—MD or Do—a subset of students complete dual degrees, such as an Medico/PhD, MD/MPH, or MD/MBA. Typically, these admissions processes require that you separately get admitted to the two programs. Even so, if you go rejected from the "other" plan, you will yet be considered for the medical plan.

Types of medical schools

U.S. medical schools are mainly divided into allopathic and osteopathic programs. The former confers the widely-recognized MD caste, whereas the latter offers the less-recognized Exercise caste.

Historically, the osteopathic model has focused on holistic medicine, which is sometimes idea of as "treating the whole person." Criticism of osteopathy has largely focused on the apply of therapeutic techniques that are not necessarily evidence-based (i.eastward., research-supported).

Over the years, MD and DO programs accept come to be more like. Allopathic physicians consider illness prevention, mental wellness, and systemic factors more than than e'er, and osteopathic physicians focus on delivering evidence-based care. Moreover, many are involved in cutting-edge enquiry.

While MD and DO physicians tin can practice the same specialties, their residencies accept long been separated. This changed in 2020, when residency programs for the 2 merged. Withal, some applicants, parents, and Exercise students are concerned about having to compete against highly regarding Medico students for the same positions, especially when it comes to entering highly competitive specialties.

There are ii main reasons for Md programs being more coveted:

1. The Medico degree is generally more widely recognized.

2. MD programs tend to admit higher-achieving students. In other words, it is typically easier to get into a DO programme than an MD program. Therefore, nearly students adopt to nourish an Doc program and come across DO programs as Plan B.

In truth, Do students who do well in medical school and ace their board exams can go on to have careers that are just as successful and impactful as their Medico counterparts. However, the prestige issue is hard for many med school hopefuls to milkshake off, and so the DO vs. Physician argue rages on.

(Recommended reading: Doctor vs. DO: The Biggest Differences (And Which is Better))

Office 2: What medical schools look for

I often tell students, "Medical schoolhouse admissions is hard, only information technology'due south not complicated."

My point is that while in that location is little mystery regarding what it takes to go into medical school, pulling it off can be difficult. Every bit an illustration, it'south one thing to understand how to douse a basketball on a ten-pes rim—grab the ball, jump and extend your arm loftier enough to become the brawl over the hoop, and douse—but an entirely different thing to do it.

Getting into medical school is so hard, in fact, that over 60% of applicants fail to matriculate into all Doctor programs they apply to. In other words, most applicants don't get in anywhere. Therefore, there is niggling room for mistake with the admissions process and information technology'due south important that you achieve at the highest levels you're able, with regard to academics and extracurriculars.

While it's of import to know medical school requirements (e.g., which specific classes to take), information technology's also disquisitional to understand why medical school admissions committees (adcoms) look you to complete sure coursework, attain at a certain level, and participate in various extracurricular activities: to demonstrate your delivery to medicine, including the lifelong pursuit of academic knowledge, passion for promoting wellness, and desire to serve people.

"Medical school admissions is difficult,
but it's not complicated."

Without this agreement, you may prefer a "checklist mentality" and, rather than develop a clear "it factor" (more on this afterward), fail to stand out due to completing academic and extracurricular requirements at a surface level.

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) provides an official list of core competencies, as follows:

Interpersonal competencies:

• Service orientation

• Social skills

• Cultural competence

• Teamwork

• Oral communication

Intrapersonal competencies:

• Ethical responsibility to self and others

• Reliability and dependability

• Resilience and adaptability

• Capacity for improvement

Thinking and reasoning competencies:

• Critical thinking

• Quantitative reasoning

• Scientific inquiry

• Written advice

Scientific discipline competencies:

• Living systems

• Human beliefs

This is an overwhelming list, but you lot need not worry. Core competencies are not divide medical school requirements, but tin rather be demonstrated through the academics and extracurricular activities you will have to pursue anyway.

To make things more digestible, medical school admissions factors fall into the following categories:

• Academics (i.east., "stats"): GPA and MCAT score

• Extracurricular activities: Shadowing, patient exposure, community service/volunteering, inquiry

• Qualities: Leadership, compassion, thoughtfulness, interpersonal skills

• Personal factors: Ethnocultural, socioeconomic, and regional background

Academics

Your stats—GPA and MCAT score—collectively correspond your level of bookish achievement and fitness for medical school. While GPA is maybe the unmarried most important variable for med school admissions, different grading practices and prestige beyond schools affect its interpretation. Considering there is no GPA conversion tabular array, nosotros don't know that a 3.7 GPA at Vanderbilt is the aforementioned equally a three.8 GPA at, say, Penn State.

That said, your undergrad does matter for med schoolhouse—that is, medical schools indeed consider the forcefulness and prestige of your institution—so a 3.6 GPA from UC Berkeley is valued more than than a 3.6 GPA from UC Riverside.

To further complicate things, adcoms consider your overall GPA and science GPA, the latter comprising your biology, chemistry, physics, and math (BCPM) courses. Nigh students volition accept a slightly college overall GPA than a science GPA, reinforcing the widely held belief that humanities courses are easier to practise well in than science courses.

Medical schools use the MCAT, a difficult standardized test, to address these GPA-related variabilities. The MCAT is composed of four sections—roughly Biology, Chemical science/Physics, Psychology/Sociology, and CARS (reading comprehension)—that make up an eight-60 minutes testing day. It is graded on a 472–528 scale, with 500 corresponding to the 50th percentile score. To do well, you'll want to study difficult anywhere betwixt two and four months and focus just as much on examination strategy as you exercise test content.

I often get asked, "What MCAT score do I need to get into medical schoolhouse?" or "What MCAT score should I aim for?" The answer depends on where you lot're trying to get into, your GPA, and your other extracurricular achievements. The more prestigious the med schools yous desire to get into, the higher your MCAT score will need to be. The higher your GPA, the more than information technology volition buffer your MCAT score. Similarly, stronger extracurricular achievements, like multiple inquiry publications, will assuage adcom concerns about your MCAT score.

Extracurricular activities

Adcoms review applications from many students with a high GPA and MCAT score, and it'south incredibly difficult to discern from stats alone who the summit applicants really are.

In addition, medicine transcends scientific noesis and achievement. In other words, it'southward not just about your ability to do well in science classes or on exams. Therefore, medical schoolhouse adcoms rely on your extracurricular activities to sympathise how y'all spend your time outside the classroom, your efforts to get involved in the medical field, what you lot're passionate about, your commitment to service, and your leadership potential.

Obtaining shadowing experience is typically the first clinical stride for premed students. Shadowing a doc is a more often than not hands-off experience where you volition discover a physician's daily activities. Your goal will exist to shadow ii–four physicians—for 50–100 hours total—beyond multiple specialties and medical contexts (e.g., inpatient vs. community clinic) to show adcoms that y'all know what a doctor does.

Clinical experience is a broad term that encompasses the following:

• Patient exposure: Hands-on piece of work with patients, like working as an emergency medical technician (EMT)

• Clinical volunteering: Any paid or unpaid work in a clinical setting. Clinical volunteering may count as patient exposure (e.g., providing intendance to patients in hospice) or more than general service (e.g., volunteering at a hospital's information desk).

While it's important to get involved with service opportunities, there is no substitute for true, hands-on patient exposure.

(Note: Working as a clinical scribe falls somewhere between shadowing and patient exposure. Scribing is more active than shadowing, only does not provide the aforementioned direct patient experience as other activities.)

Customs service/volunteering is another foundational extracurricular category. Your service could be medically relevant, but it does not accept to be. For case, leading after-school math programs for students from low-income backgrounds, developing community gardens in urban nutrient deserts, or organizing large beach clean ups or other environmental initiatives are all meaningful activities. Since medicine is viewed as a career of service, adcoms want to run into show that you share their mentality.

Finally, conducting scientific research is more than or less required by noteworthy medical schools every bit a demonstration of your scientific literacy and ability to contribute knowledge to the field. Yous tin can work in a basic science lab or get involved in clinical research. Moreover, you can piece of work in a moisture lab or dry lab, as well as bear biological experiments or focus on information scientific discipline in a cognitive psychology lab. More important than the specific lab chosen is your longstanding commitment and, ideally, your publication record.

(Notation: Competitive Md/PhD applicants participate in enquiry for years, and often work in multiple labs. If yous're interested in Doc/PhD programs, you will be expected to submit letters of recommendation from all PIs you worked with.)

While it's important to shadow, work with patients, volunteer, and behave research, the best applicants are those who develop a specialty or "it factor" in one, perhaps 2 extracurricular activities.

Height medical schools especially desire to admit students who are "world class" (i.e., the best of the all-time) at something. For instance, some of the students I worked with who got into top-ten schools demonstrated a research specialty past publishing iii first-authored papers in peer-reviewed journals. Notwithstanding, others founded science teaching initiatives for elementary students in low-income schools.

The point is that one extracurricular category is not inherently improve than the other. This should be liberating. Instead of looking around to see what your peers are doing and attempting to mimic their achievements, consider how you desire to spend your time, where your passions lie, and what blazon of touch on you lot want to brand in your community or the medical field.

To stand out, you lot must be memorable, and y'all're much more likely to exist remembered for being great at one affair vs. pretty good at a bunch of things. And even if yous are pretty good at a bunch of things, you lot'll yet desire to be slap-up at 1 thing.

To use another basketball illustration: Stephen "Steph" Curry of the Golden Land Warriors is a perennial NBA All Star, widely recognized every bit i of the all-time players who always lived. And while he'southward incredible in a number of means on a basketball game court, he is credited for revolutionizing basketball mostly for his unprecedented three-indicate shooting ability. Countless articles have been written well-nigh how no ane in NBA history has shot three pointers every bit well equally Steph Back-scratch, and from such incredible distances.

Your goal is to be the Steph Curry—relative to your peers—of your chosen area, no thing how niche. For case, yous tin be the Steph Curry of publishing autism fMRI research or the Steph Curry of opening soup kitchens. Fortunately, even if y'all go 80-90% of the manner to Steph Curry status, you lot'll exist alee of 99% of the applicant pool.

Sound difficult? It'southward supposed to be. At the same time, it's doable. If your aim is to go into a peak med school like Stanford or Johns Hopkins, you have to exist a top applicant. And there's no better way to split yourself from the other academic high achievers than through an extracurricular specialty.

(Recommended reading: How to Choose the Right Extracurricular Activities for Medical School)

Qualities

Medical schools aren't looking to acknowledge applicants who take just checked all the right boxes with regard to academics and activities. Rather, they desire to admit students who have demonstrated certain qualities during their premed years, such as pity (e.g., patient exposure, community services) and desire for knowledge (e.chiliad., research, honors thesis).

Many students mistakenly think that leadership is its ain extracurricular category. They then pursue activities that require a significant time investment but that are non impressive. You lot can demonstrate leadership through any feel, whether leading an organization you started or taking on increasing responsibilities in your research lab.

Personal factors

Doctors serve various people—individuals from high-income and depression-income backgrounds, ethnic majority and ethnic minority groups, patients from urban and rural areas, religious and not-religious individuals, and so on.

To be treated well, the various human race requires a various physician workforce. Therefore, medical schools expect to recruit individuals from various backgrounds to their programs. While personal factors similar your ethnicity, sexual orientation, and familial income are outside your control, yous can demonstrate an appreciation for and commitment to serving various people through your coursework and extracurricular activities.

Part 3: Medical schoolhouse applications

Your bookish and extracurricular paths will eventually converge on your medical schoolhouse applications, which are divided into three phases:

1. Main applications

2. Secondary applications

3. Interviews

Some people will say that your principal awarding, which includes your personal statement, is more important than your secondary applications. Others will say the exact opposite. While some medical schools indeed weigh 1 more than the other, you should apply your maximum endeavor towards all of your application materials. Yous're putting in a lot of piece of work into your premed journey; don't slack off every bit you near the finish line.

In improver, it's imperative that you lot brainstorm working on your applications early. Not only is in that location a significant amount of work to consummate, but applying late can injure your chances, every bit medical schools practice rolling admissions, meaning that they invite students for interviews—and accept them—on a rolling footing. Therefore, the before you submit, the fewer people y'all'll be competing against for more spots. Conversely, the later you lot submit your applications, the greater the contest for fewer spots.

You should brainstorm working on your medical school applications months before the submission dates open in May. At that place is a significant amount of work to complete, and starting later will compromise your ability to submit applications early.

(Recommended reading: The Ideal Medical School Application Timeline)

Primary applications

Your primary applications, otherwise known as "primaries", are the centralized application systems that will ship your demographic information, transcript(due south), MCAT score(s), letters of recommendation, expanded resume, and personal statement to individual medical schools.

In that location are 3 chief master applications:

• AMCAS (Medico programs)

• AACOMAS (Exercise programs)

• TMDSAS (Texas medical schools).

Fortunately, each application will require you to more or less submit the same materials, with a few exceptions.

Entering demographic information is relatively straightforward. Medical schools want to know your historic period, gender, land of residence, family income, etc. Next, you'll be asked to enter all of your academic information: your higher courses and grades, every bit well as your MCAT attempts and scores. (Note: Your official transcripts and MCAT scores will accept to separately exist sent to each application system'due south physical address.) You lot will besides be asked to indicate who will submit your medical school letters of recommendation.

Adjacent, yous'll be asked to complete the AMCAS Piece of work and Activities section, which is substantially a long-form resume. You'll list your extracurricular activities and awards, hours devoted to each, along with a short description. Moreover, y'all will be asked to further discuss a few of your most meaningful activities.

Next comes your medical schoolhouse personal statement, a 1.five-page narrative essay that describes your personal path to and reflections on medicine. Your personal statement is your single most important awarding essay and will probable take upwardly more than time—and stress you out—than whatever other piece of your primary applications.

You can write your personal statement on any topic. Many students mistakenly believe that some topics are better than others, merely that'southward not the case. I've seen smashing essays written about pretty much every topic, and I've seen poor essays written about those same topics. Therefore, how yous write your personal statement and every other essay is at least every bit of import as what you write about. Just make certain that your essay highlights why you want to be a physician and the qualities that will make you an asset to the medical customs.

The final step before submitting your primaries is to cull the listing of schools that you'd like your applications to be sent to. Ideally, your school listing volition include a number of schools whose average stats are lower than yours (undershoots), about the same as yours (targets), and slightly higher than yours (reaches). Target schools should contain the unmarried largest category.

(Note: TMDSAS will enquire you to submit two additional essays—Personal Characteristics Essay and Optional Essay. The Optional Essay should be treated as a required essay. You can detect examples of each in our TMDSAS: The Ultimate Guide)

Secondary applications

Presently after your primary application(s) is verified, it will exist sent to every schoolhouse you indicated. Salve for a few medical schools that automatically filter applications that don't meet sure GPA and MCAT cutoffs, you will receive a secondary awarding, otherwise known as a supplemental application, from every schoolhouse you practical to.

Most secondary applications comprise a number of school-specific essay prompts with varying character or word limits. The 3 nearly mutual prompts are those generally pertaining to diversity, a challenge you've experienced, and why you desire to nourish the specific schoolhouse.

Given rolling admissions, you should submit your secondary applications within two weeks of receiving them. If you begin working on your applications early, y'all tin pre-write many of your secondaries by viewing previous years' secondary prompts, since they change little from year to yr.

(Recommended reading: Medical School Secondary Essays: The Consummate Guide (Examples Included))

Medical school interviews

Anywhere from a few days to a few months afterwards you lot submit your secondary applications, you lot may receive invitations for in-person medical school interviews. The earlier you receive interview invitations, the better the omen.

There are ii master types of interviews: traditional and multiple mini interview (MMI). The former, as the proper noun suggests, will involve you answering typical interview questions, such as, "Tell me about yourself," "What is your biggest weakness?," or "Why do you want to be a physician?" MMI interviews, on the other hand, will require you to visit various interview stations, where yous will be asked how y'all would behave if presented with a certain upstanding dilemma, communicate with an actor playing the role of patient, work with a teammate to solve a problem, and and then on.

Years ago, medical schoolhouse interviews tended to be much more stressful than they are today. You are unlikely to encounter uncomfortable personal questions or "put on the spot." Rather, medical school adcoms are hoping to become to know you interpersonally and to ostend their positive reaction to your application.

Information technology's important to do your interview skills with experienced interviewers. Instead of focusing on rare questions like, "How do you feel almost Obamacare?," you should practise more than common questions, such as, "Why practice y'all want to attend our program?" and focus but as much on how y'all come beyond in your answers every bit you lot do on the content of your answers. Recollect: if they simply desire to know the content of your answers, adcoms could've just asked you to write more essays.

(Recommended reading: How to Ace Your Medical School Interviews)

Waiting

Waiting—for interview invitations or for admissions decisions—is the well-nigh stressful part of the application process for virtually students.

During this time, you lot should do what yous can to take your listen off the admissions process. You should also consider sending update letters—letters of interest or letters of intent—to schools when y'all take meaningful updates to share, and also to express your continued interest in their programme. If a school explicitly requests that y'all not communicate with them subsequently submitting secondaries or interviewing, honour their asking.

Admissions decisions

Some time later submitting your secondary applications or interviews, y'all will receive one of the following admissions decisions from medical schools:

1. Accepted

2. Rejected

3. Waitlisted

While acceptances and rejections are fairly straightforward, navigating wait lists is more catchy. Some schools will invite you to ship letters of continued interest, whether others will allow you know that you will not need to send in anything. In the latter instance, consider sending an update letter, unless expressly told not to.

If you are accustomed to multiple medical schools, yous will have to accept one of your offers by May 15 and turn down the others. If you lot receive additional acceptance by May 15, yous'll accept two weeks to decide whether you desire to go along your accepted offer or turn it downward in favor of the new one.

Financial aid

Dissimilar with undergrad, few medical schools offering financial aid in the course of grants or scholarships. And the schools that do offer scholarships tend to give them to one of the highest achieving students they admitted and that they want to recruit

Unless you can afford to pay for medical school out-of-pocket, you will have to finance your school through loans or external scholarships, fellowships, or employment.

Part iv: A four-yr guide to getting into medical schoolhouse

How this guide is organized

This section is separated into iv parts that correspond to the traditional iv-year higher path, bold that you will apply straight through. However, it is meant to be practical flexibly.

For instance, if you lot're a college sophomore and realize that you didn't consummate one of my freshman-year recommendations, information technology doesn't mean you should skip over those. Rather, you should work hard to "take hold of upwardly" by completing tasks you may take missed. Conversely, if you've completed a recommended job ahead of time, you don't have to echo information technology. In add-on, if you intend to take 1 or more gap years, y'all can space out various tasks.

In improver, each yr has a theme to guide your approach to academics and extracurricular activities. Therefore, you should never exist over-focused on one or the other. Remember that maintaining strong stats is critical, so never take on too much coursework or too many extracurricular commitments that they compromise your grades. At the same time, you lot don't want to be seen just every bit an bookish high achiever.

At starting time, you lot'll want to bandage a relatively broad net. Over fourth dimension, your interest will become more clear. As yous decide which area(due south) to pursue securely, your "information technology cistron(s)" will naturally develop. Think of your medical school admissions journey every bit a funnel, where your focus gets narrower over time.

Freshman twelvemonth: Good for you foundations and breadth

The start year of your undergraduate career will speed by much more than quickly than y'all think. In addition, you will receive seemingly countless opinions on your many questions about how to navigate your premed years. Hither are the most mutual ones:

• Which specific courses should you take? Should yous accept more general instruction courses (GEs) or more than prerequisite courses? How many of each?

  • Create a iv-yr programme that works backwards from key landmarks (eastward.one thousand., graduation, applying to medical schoolhouse, taking the MCAT). And so, fit in your coursework accordingly (eastward.k., "If I want to take the MCAT during the summer after my 2nd year, I'll need to consummate XYZ before then."). Do your best to create counterbalanced schedules. You don't desire to be taking three science courses one quarter (a rather heavy load) then 3 GE courses the next (a rather light load).

• What extracurriculars should yous participate in?

  • Y'all take a considerable corporeality of time to make up one's mind how to commit your limited bandwidth. The goal during your kickoff year is to expose yourself to as many opportunities equally possible, noting programs that you would similar to contribute significantly to and can see yourself growing inside. We'll talk over this further below.

• What's shadowing and when should I become started with that?

  • Shadowing is a passive action where you notice the daily practise of medicine. In other words, you follow a doc throughout their workday to get a better sense of the blazon of piece of work doctors do so you lot can determine whether medicine is the right career for you. While you don't need to shadow correct away, you should cheque this box—really the only action you may treat as a checklist item—relatively early on so you can move on to more hands-on clinical opportunities. You'll need to aggregate virtually 50–100 hours by the fourth dimension y'all apply to medical school and you can do and then quickly during your winter/summer breaks.

• Am I already behind on research?

  • No! If you insist, yous could begin searching faculty pages in departments of interest (due east.one thousand., neuroscience, molecular biological science) to become a sense of the work being done on your campus. If you're eager to become started with inquiry right away, reach out to a few professors and ask about available opportunities to piece of work as a inquiry banana.

Now, take a deep breath. We've answered these questions for the sake of assuaging freshman jitters. Over fourth dimension, you'll complete everything necessary, so practice your best to find a trusted counselor and avoid overwhelm, rather than rely on premed hearsay or online forums that are filled with misinformation.

College'southward novelty tends to produce two camps of students. The first comprises those who feel the pressure to jump into every opportunity that comes their style. These students experience like they may "miss out" or that they're non taking their pre-medical aspirations seriously plenty. This approach is largely borne out of two errors:

1. Following the herd of other premed students who are getting involved in certain activities

2. Key misunderstandings of what it takes to get into medical schoolhouse.

Unfortunately, joining as well many clubs and pursuing besides many opportunities you're not completely passionate about leads to shallow, unmemorable work in all of your commitments.

The second group of students are those who do not take advantage of the freedom that higher offers. They'll focus on their coursework and return to their dorm promptly afterward, choosing to laissez passer on activities fairs and introductory club meetings. These students won't understand the breadth of experiences available on a college campus.

Which of these 2 approaches is "right?"

The truth is that your showtime year means relatively little in the thou context of your medical schoolhouse candidacy. It'south built equally a transition year to assistance you accustom to a new space surrounded past new people and new freedoms. Therefore, the theme for your freshman year is to build healthy foundations and explore the breadth of experiences available to yous.

(Annotation: At that place is one exception to my point about your first year meaning relatively little: your GPA. A mutual saying that circulates the premed community is: "Pain is temporary, GPA is forever." Above all else at this signal in your pre-medical journey—including shadowing, research, clinical experience—is your GPA, and so protect it. Every bit your units rise, information technology becomes increasingly difficult to budge it. Exist on the right side of this so yous can have the opportunity to relax during your afterwards years, considering while a B or C early can compromise your GPA, a slightly lower grade later will brand picayune deviation.)

Here are a few key points to consider when developing a stiff, lasting foundation:

• Build healthy habits. Eating healthy, working out ofttimes, and sleeping consistently are too frequently overlooked by students. If you neglect your wellness, yous'll likely burn out when coursework intensifies and extracurricular commitments outset piling up. Therefore, treat healthy habits as a cornerstone for your success equally a premed student.

• Optimize your studying. Experiment with location, temperature, music, etc. Your study infinite will become your holy space for the next couple of years. Care for it as such. As with the previous point, many students volition neglect this. But while pure intellect may go you through freshman yr, your courses volition go tougher and your commitments volition take more than of your free fourth dimension. Y'all should therefore study effectively when y'all have the opportunity to practise so.

• Struggle, then seek help. Take pride in your ability. Push yourself to solve problems and learn to ask for help but in one case you tin can reply: "What specific stride am I stuck on?" The premed journey volition crave you lot to be self-sufficient in many areas of your life, including academics. Many students autumn into the trap of depending entirely on office hours and study guides created past students from prior years. Learn to push yourself because in that location are fewer such resources as y'all move forwards in your academic journey.

In improver, it's of import to get a sense of your available opportunities. Survey the choices that your campus offers you through engaging in small-scale, bite-sized extracurricular experiences. Become acquainted with a few clubs and programs and note which experiences interest yous so can render and peradventure commit to them.

Moreover, don't feel the demand to exclusively engage in medically-related experiences. Since admissions committees look for attractive qualities, such as the ability to work in teams, interpersonal skills or the chapters to lead can be developed through a hospital volunteering programme as much equally through an a capella team.

Lastly, take advantage of your offset college summer, as it volition be your most free one. While a popular option is to get alee of your coursework past taking summertime classes, consider a diversity of experiences, such as:

• Studying abroad to complete prerequisite courses (e.yard., study physics in Hong Kong). Often, these programs allow you to consummate entire prerequisite series (e.g., Physics ABC) in 8 weeks, as compared to the traditional 3 quarters/two semesters/30 weeks at your university. In addition, you tin bask fourth dimension abroad!

• Going on a medical mission to Vietnam/India/Tanzania, etc. These opportunities are smashing if you're interested in healthcare institutions outside of America, all the while enjoying a summer in a different country.

Freshman yr will exist over sooner than you call up. Although there'due south a lot to consider, the main takeaways are:

• Protect your GPA. It is very difficult to budge it as y'all progress through your undergraduate years and accumulate units.

• Transition into the college surround to the best of your power. These salubrious foundations will acquit frontward into the adjacent iii years. Neglect this, and yous won't be able to handle things when the pace of your coursework and extracurricular activities increase.

• Prioritize breadth over depth when it comes to extracurricular activities. Survey your entire campus' mural and when you've come to the point where you're settled academically, yous can brainstorm to funnel your boosted fourth dimension into extracurriculars you're truly interested in.

• Take reward of the summer afterwards your freshman year! Information technology is an important time to get ahead of the pack and, when planned correct, tin can also involve memorable experiences studying abroad or serving underserved communities in developing countries.

Sophomore year: Academic refinement and exploration

During your second year, the academic and extracurricular pace volition option up considerably. Professors will assume that yous've transitioned to college and that you can now excel despite the rigor of academy coursework. In addition, if you're considering matriculating into medical schoolhouse correct after graduation, you must apply in May/June of your third yr.

With just under 2 years until you lot submit your application, MCAT, letters of recommendation and extracurricular involvement should exist moving towards the forefront of your mind. Due to these considerations, the theme for your second year should be bookish refinement and exploration of activities that volition make you more than just your GPA and MCAT score.

Recall about when to take the MCAT. It'southward an incredibly difficult examination and should be treated seriously. If you're looking to apply directly through, a pop option is to study full time during the summer later on your 2nd yr. This strategy will requite you protected fourth dimension abroad from coursework and extracurriculars so you can focus entirely on getting the all-time score y'all tin can. Notation that the alternative to studying during the summer is to study during the school yr. With that approach, you'll have to juggle MCAT study fourth dimension with your university coursework, which is frequently a recipe for disappointment.

Review your 4-year plan and ensure that your coursework in the upcoming years matches your timeline for taking the MCAT and applying. Pay item attention to whether you volition have completed the bulk of your prerequisite courses for the MCAT before you brainstorm to written report for the exam. Retrieve, the MCAT consists of:

• Full general Chemistry/Organic Chemistry/Physics

• Biological science/Biochemistry

• Psychology/Folklore

(Notation: The MCAT as well includes reading comprehension and analysis, but those skills are non directly associated with certain prerequisite courses.)

Past the time you lot enter a dedicated study menstruation for the MCAT, you should have completed most of these series in their entireties, except for the associated lab courses (e.yard., Full general Chemistry Lab won't be important for the MCAT). It volition aid if you have taken introductory psychology and sociology coursework, but if you lot can't fit all these subjects into your schedule, self-studying psychology and sociology would be manageable. In contrast, y'all should ideally consummate all of your chemical science, physics, and biology coursework beforehand.

More generally, continue to refine your learning style and protect your GPA past excelling in your classes. The learning habits you develop as an underclassman volition bear with you lot throughout your undergraduate years and far into medical school. Continuing to study inefficiently (eastward.thou., with your phone'southward notifications on or in loud, distracting environments) volition eventually catch upwardly to you as coursework becomes more difficult.

(Note: It'south completely normal for yous to not have establish your groove with your coursework just notwithstanding. Rather than panic about a B hither or at that place, the right course of activity is to double down and focus entirely on your academic success. On the other mitt, it would be a error to continue adding onto your plate. Tiresome down and have your medical school admissions journeying one footstep at a fourth dimension. One time your salubrious academic habits are in identify, you tin can take the training wheels off.

Too ofttimes, students spread themselves thin every which way, hoping that their extracurricular involvement will be plenty to "cover" their lower bookish stats. Remember, with so many applicants, many of whom have strong stats and extracurriculars, admissions committees need quick means to filter applicants. Don't let your low GPA be the reason y'all don't get a 2nd look. Your numbers are most important and your extracurriculars, the differentiating factor.

Think of information technology this fashion: your GPA and MCAT scores are the block and your extracurriculars are the frosting. Without the block, your frosting may be nice, merely insubstantial.)

Extracurricular-wise, information technology's fourth dimension to get more than involved . Considering you've had a twelvemonth to survey the extracurricular landscape and found things that interest y'all, you should have no problem with diving headfirst into them and doing your all-time to contribute however you tin. Whether giving your best efforts when serving patients at a community wellness off-white, answering questions during a club presentation, or interacting with guest speakers at a console, make sure that yous make your time spent in these activities well worth information technology. Prioritize serving the mission and members of every organization over your personal interests. Likewise oftentimes, premeds bring together clubs simply in search of leadership positions.

Consider exploring clinical experiences to go a meliorate sense of what working in patient intendance is like and what medical contexts you'd similar to do inside. A general rule of thumb is that if you are interacting with patients, that experience is clinical. Hither are some examples of programs to consider on your own college campus:

• Join the hospital volunteering program and get a sense of what life is like equally a nurse, physician, or patient. Pay attention to how you feel when serving people in their times of poor wellness and whether you see yourself working in this context throughout your professional career.

• Serve as a volunteer in a free customs health clinic. Become a sense of working with patients from dissimilar socioeconomic backgrounds and what medicine looks like "in the field."

• Create a program to bus patients with chronic disease on losing weight and maintaining weight loss. This unique clinical experience would broaden your perspective on patient care.

Besides, seeking out research experiences not merely to ameliorate your candidacy for medical schoolhouse, merely also to get a sense of whether you'd like to pursue academic medicine in the futurity. To make headway on a research projection, yous should dedicate anywhere from 10–20 hours a week to the lab. That said, remember not to push button your schedule if you're not withal at the point where you tin handle information technology. Here are some means to get involved with research:

• Attend lunch seminars hosted by your college's science departments (e.g., psychiatry, biochemistry). Get a sense of the blazon of work that's being done on campus and attain out to kinesthesia members via electronic mail if y'all're interested in supporting them. Be persistent. Frequently, faculty members run into your email but, for any reason—they saw your email right before lunch or while leaving lecture—did not or could not answer. Don't have information technology personally and continue to follow up if you lot're genuinely interested.

• Reach out to your upperclassman friends that are doing research in a field you're interested in or to enquire whether they recommend working in certain labs. Upperclassmen often know near research openings and a recommendation from these already-vetted students can help you obtain a position more easily. Spring quarter/semester is the best time to search for and obtain research positions as many of the seniors in the lab will be looking to transition out of their position after graduation.

• Bring together established inquiry pipelines. Some undergraduate institutions, like UCLA, have dedicated biomedical research minors and others have programs that promote research opportunities to sure pupil populations (due east.g., commencement-generation, underrepresented). Employ to these programs merely if you are relatively certain you want to incorporate inquiry into your undergraduate career every bit these programs tend to be selective and rigorous. On the flip side, they offer first-class mentorship and, often, funding for your scholarly pursuits.

Every bit sophomore year comes to a shut, you'll have completed half of your undergraduate years! The first two years are a period of significant growth and the following ii years will be more exciting every bit a result. The main takeaway for second twelvemonth include:

• Don't bite off more than than yous can chew. A stiff GPA and MCAT score is disquisitional for consideration from pinnacle medical schools. Therefore, don't fall into the trap of leveraging your extracurricular experiences to attempt to compensate for subpar academic metrics.

• Think about the MCAT and your overall application timeline. Ensure that your four-year-programme matches what you lot hope to accomplish by the time dedicated written report for the MCAT rolls around.

• If yous're academically comfy, beginning shifting into a depth over breadth mindset when it comes to extracurriculars. Cascade your time into things that truly affair to you and serve your clubs' missions and members earlier expecting annihilation for yourself. In other words, don't get involved in a club because you lot call up, "Information technology'll expect dandy for medical school." This dangerous "checklist mentality" will hurt you when it comes fourth dimension to write your medical school applications. Y'all'll take trivial of substance to communicate. The leadership positions, accolades, publications, and presentations will come if you provide value upward front end.

• Explore clinical experiences. These are whatever activities that involve patient care and give you a amend sense of what it means to serve patients in their fourth dimension of need. Clinical work volition develop your interpersonal skills and an understanding of what working with the sick and their families is truly like.

• Explore inquiry experiences, particularly in the spring equally seniors look to transition out of their positions. Research will give you a meliorate sense of whether you want to comprise academic pursuits into your career. If you don't, that'southward perfectly fine, simply medical schools want to run across that you've worked to sympathise the science that goes hand-in-manus with the medical profession.

Inferior yr: Optimize your time and elevate your responsibilities

If you're applying straight through, your tertiary year will exist your application year. At this point, you'll probably feel like time is flying by. With one twelvemonth remaining to boost your application, your goal should be to optimize your time and elevate your responsibilities. By now, you'll need to have a firm grasp on your academics and funnel the rest of your fourth dimension to differentiate your application from the residuum of the pack.

Naturally, the content of your coursework will go more difficult as you enter upper-sectionalization coursework. Despite this, the habits that you've developed will pay dividends. Getting great grades in these non-weeder courses should be relatively straightforward now: put in constructive study time in an surroundings optimized for your learning.

As a reminder, if yous find yourself struggling academically, lessen your other commitments to improve your stats. You're going to need competitive stats to exist seriously considered amidst the thousands of applications that medical schools receive each twelvemonth.

At the same, there is little departure betwixt, say, a iii.85 and a iii.88 GPA. You'll find that your courses at present matter much less in moving the needle of your GPA. Therefore, you should be more strategic with your fourth dimension and not chase diminishing returns. A 98% in a class is viewed the same every bit a 94% and getting those four percentage points may take valuable hours away from other ventures, like working on a research publication. Therefore, practice the most yous can academically with the least amount of work.

By protecting your time, you tin can focus more than on extracurriculars than ever. Your achievements exterior the classroom will help brand y'all as more than a student with great stats. If yous've focused on serving the missions of your extracurricular opportunities, yous'll shortly be taking on larger responsibilities. Per the Stephen Back-scratch analogy earlier, look for ways to stand out. Here are some ways to elevate your responsibilities and be seen as a superstar applicant:

• Have on a leadership role and apply your experience as a fellow member to place ways to improve an organization! For instance, y'all may accept served as a volunteer at a community health fair for recent immigrants from Latin American countries and noticed that this population would benefit considerably from having signal-of-care glucose and cholesterol screenings. You attain out to neighboring schools of chemist's shop and nursing and bring out a team of healthcare providers that tin can now offer that service.

• Lead your ain contained inquiry project. For instance, your larger research question may be: "What are the underlying mechanisms of stroke recovery?" You propose a smaller experiment that analyzes a mouse'due south motor behavior before and after a stroke through a auto-learning algorithm. Whenever possible, disseminate your work through poster presentations and publications. This will requite y'all facetime with experts in the field who can offer valuable feedback and push your enquiry career forward.

• Scale your positions to build out a squad of members that can perform your role more extensively. Maybe you are a health double-decker who helps patients achieve and maintain weight loss to reduce their chronic disease risk. You could recruit a dozen other wellness coaches, train them to be just as effective as y'all are, and then spend your time recruiting patients who can be served past the team you lot've just built out.

On the admissions forepart, your primary applications will open up for submission in May or June, which will come much faster than you lot think. While specific awarding details are outside the scope of this resources, here are some guiding questions:

• Are you comfortable with your GPA and MCAT score?

  • View the average GPA and MCAT scores of matriculants at every medical schoolhouse and come across whether your stats are in the ballpark range of schools you'd like to attend. If your stats are below what Doctor programs expect and you need to boost your GPA, consider enrolling in a post-bacc, Special Master'south, or extension plan. If yous need to improve your score, consider retaking the MCAT and studying more effectively than you previously did.·

• Practice you have sufficient shadowing hours and clinical experience to demonstrate an understanding of what medicine entails?

  • In other words, tin can yous effectively enunciate why y'all want to exist a md? Do you take clinical experiences that can support your reasons?

• Have you secured strong letters of recommendation?

  • These letters serve as a third-party perspective into you every bit a student and as a person. Strong messages of recommendation can make the difference between receiving an interview invitation early vs. waiting a long time, so consider the relationship yous have with your letter writers and the picture they would pigment of y'all. If it's been a while since you were in touch with various professors or other references, use your third twelvemonth to solidify relationships.

• Do you need a mental break before medical school?

  • Medical school is four years long and nearly continuous, significant you'll go few breaks. Therefore, consider whether you want to commit to another 4 years of rigorous schooling right after undergrad.

• Are you proud of extracurricular activities and can speak passionately virtually them?

  • If you can't, perhaps you would benefit from some other year or two of focused work. You'll have much more time to devote to extracurriculars during gap years because you no longer need to dedicate so much time to your coursework.

• Are you lot still committed to going to medical school straight through?

  • If so, you'll want to get started on your applications early, ideally during the fall of your tertiary year, and no later than the winter. Otherwise, you volition risk submitting your applications belatedly or rushing and submitting subpar materials.

The summertime after your third year volition be largely devoted to completing outstanding application essays and preparing for interviews. This is fourth dimension tin be extremely stressful, every bit well-nigh every medical school will you ask y'all to complete a supplemental application with a few additional essays. If your medical school list contains, say, 30 schools, y'all're looking at upwards of fourscore additional pieces of writing beyond your main applications!

Whereas some essays may be repurposed, others will crave original writing. Do your best not to have as well many outside commitments. Even if you lot have a full-time task, try to schedule a few weeks of protected fourth dimension to piece of work on your awarding.

Should y'all take free time later submitting your primary applications, you should pre-write your secondaries. While yous can view every prompt in our medical schoolhouse secondary essay prompts database, note that they may modify from year to year, although most remain the aforementioned.

When you receive a sure secondary, practice your best to return it within two weeks. If you got started on your applications early, this should non exist an result. Rolling admissions truly comes into play here because once a secondary is submitted along with your letters of recommendation, your application will exist considered consummate and ready for evaluation. Submitting early means you'll be competing against fewer applicants for more spots.

Senior yr: Enjoy the interview trail and relax

Your fourth yr may feel similar you're on a roller coaster. With secondaries (hopefully) out of the way, this twelvemonth will likely be an intensely uncomfortable waiting game. You'll take to wait to receive interview invitations, perform well on interview solar day so wait some more than. If you receive numerous invitations, you lot'll accumulate more flying miles and credit card points than you ever could have imagined.

You'll also be triggered by every email notification, anxiously wondering whether it'southward an interview invite, an acceptance, or an unfortunate waitlist placement or rejection. Practice your all-time to non let this period swallow you. Mute your notifications when yous tin, schedule time away from technology, and lean on your support network to manage difficult emotions. It's an exciting time, but you should still relish your senior year. Therefore, the theme for your quaternary year is to enjoy the interview trail and relax to the best of your power.

If yous're fortunate to make it through the primary and secondary screens and receive interview invitations, congratulations! Y'all're nearing the lite at the end of the tunnel and you deserve it. On your interview 24-hour interval, remember to:

• Enjoy interview days. You lot volition visit new places and see new people who may be your colleagues going forrard. Frequently, medical school candidates end upward meeting once again on the interview trail and on 2nd-look weekends. Yous're in this together and may end upwards being great friends while yous navigate your education and careers together.

• Medical schools are as interested in you as you are interested in them. They were impressed enough with your application to requite you a second await in person. Remember that interview spots are coveted, and it is therefore in schools' all-time interest to invite only people they are genuinely interested in. Be yourself and evidence schools that what they read about y'all genuinely reflects who you are in person. At that place are no trick questions; schools only want to get to know you.

• Read up on impostor syndrome and don't psych yourself out. The admissions process is rigorous, and y'all deserve your interview invitations after three years of hard work. Stay out of your head and resist being your ain worst enemy.

When you lot're not interviewing, you lot'll maintain your condition as a full-time student and complete coursework for your degree. Whereas your goal during previous years was to protect your GPA, your mentality this year—assuming you've done well and won't be applying during a hereafter admissions cycle—should be to maintain information technology. Therefore, prioritize enjoying your senior twelvemonth.

Now, that doesn't mean you should coast, just it does mean that a 4.0 is neither necessary nor helpful. Since you've already applied, your fourth-yr grades will not be considered during the application process. Still, you lot must send a terminal official transcript afterwards you are accustomed, then don't put yourself in a position where you take to explain why your iii.85 GPA suddenly became a 3.65 in a single year.

Most chiefly, relax and reflect. You've worked difficult and grown over the better part of 4 years. In that location won't be many opportunities to practice so during med school or residency equally you study for test later exam or push projects to completion. Consider traveling during the latter part of your fourth twelvemonth and during summertime, pursue other interests, and celebrate.

THERE'South NO REASON TO STRUGGLE THROUGH THE MED Schoolhouse ADMISSIONS PROCESS ALONE, Peculiarly WITH Then MUCH ON THE LINE. SCHEDULE YOUR COMPLIMENTARY 30-Minute CONSULTATION TO ENSURE YOU Go out NOTHING TO CHANCE.

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Source: https://www.shemmassianconsulting.com/blog/how-to-get-into-medical-school

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