Tips/Advice for Pre-Med's on AMCAS app, courses, research, LORs, PS, etc..(From a med student)

[NeuroMd23]

I'm a newly admitted medical student so I experienced the whole pre med journey. This website has helped me tremendously and I want to pay it forward by answering questions from all of the pre meds out there. I've listed some tips/advice below. If I can think of more, I will definitely post them here. Ask me questions if you have any. I'll try to answer them promptly. Good luck to everyone applying to medical school this year!


Ways to Improve your Pre-Med Experience and Strengthen AMCAS Application

1. Courses: Make sure to take Biochemistry even if it's not a requirement for your major. As I was applying to medical school through AMCAS, there were some schools that required you to take biochemistry and some that preferred it. My advice is that you take at least a semester of biochemistry in order to increase the number of schools you are eligible to apply for. Also take Bioethics because you may get some ethical questions during your interview so it will definitely help.
   • If you need to take some elective courses in undergrad, why not take Spanish for a year? There are a few schools on the AMCAS application that require 1 year of Spanish. An example is, Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico. Again, the idea here is to increase your chances of getting accepted to a medical school.
   • Retaking Courses: Allopathic med schools (including Caribbean) do not replace the highest grade for the lowest. They count both grades when calculating your GPA. This means that your undergraduate GPA and AMCAS GPA will not be the same. However, if you apply to DO schools then they will take the highest grade and usually your undergrad GPA and AACOM GPA will be the same. That being said, if you got a C in a pre med course I would think twice about retaking the class because it really wont do much to your AMCAS GPA. But that's just my suggestion.
2. Extracurricular Activities: Engage in research and volunteer work! This is probably one of the most important elements to consider on your application profile. Why? Because medical schools want to see students who are driven and are motivated enough to work outside of the classroom. It can also be use as a conversational piece during your interview.
   • If you decide to do research, make sure you gather a recommendation letter from your research project mentor and principal investigator (PI). This will give more credibility to your research project and it will give medical schools 2 different letters on your research work/experience
3. AMCAS APPLICATION: TIMING TIMING TIMING is crucial for medical school applications. The best time to submit your AMCAS application to medical schools is the first day that it is open (usually June 3rd). It took me about a month to finish the application so I submitted it in July. But, it's better to submit as EARLY AS POSSIBLE!! June - July is good. August is ok but only if you have a strong GPA and MCAT Score. The reason why you want to submit early is because there isn't a lot of traffic from other applicants and the admission committee is able to look at your profile and make early decisions.
   • Refer to your resume when completing the AMCAS application because in the Work/Activities section, they ask you to provide start/end dates for each job or activity. So that definitely saves some time.
   • When completing the Work/Activities section, there's no need to repeat anything if you already mentioned it on your personal statement. Put new information on there.
   • Secondary Applications: I remember that some medical schools don't even look at your primary application until you complete their secondary. So you definitely want to finish the secondary applications as soon as possible. I know it gets tiring because you've worked so hard on your primary but try not to procrastinate too much. Get this final step out of the way so medical schools have everything they need from you.
4. MCAT: The goal is to submit your AMCAS application as early as possible. You can submit your application for review/processing even if you don't have your MCAT score. However, medical schools will put your application on hold until they receive your score. My advice is that you take the MCAT as early as you can that way you don't have to worry about it when you're working on your AMCAS application and so that it is ready for review by medical schools.
   • AMCAS application opens on May 1, 2015 (this means that you can start filling out the application, however, you can't submit just yet)
   • June 3rd, 2015 is when you can submit your application. It will be available for AMCAS to review/process it.
5. Personal Statement: Make sure to spend a lot of time on your personal statement. Personally, it took me about a month to make it perfect. Here's on thing you should definitely do...take your personal statement to your English department and have someone there edit your paper for FREE! Usually universities pay english majors to offer these services to other students so take advantage of this opportunity.
6. Recommendation Letters: This is a very important part of your application as well. It can take a very long time to gather these letters from your professors, mentors, etc because they can be busy. You can get your recommender to submit your letter to the AMCAS service or Interfolio. Use Interfolio!! Why? because you'll be able to save your letters to use anytime, whereas the AMCAS service only stores the letters for that year. However, Interfolio does have a fee but it's very cheap! Once you have your letters, then you can send them to each of the schools you want to apply to through Interfolio. Again, the faster you manage to collect your letters from your professors or whoever, then the faster your application will be ready for schools to review and make final decisions. Medical schools will be your application on hold if they do not have your recommendation letters in hand so again, timing is very important here. The max amount of letters you want to have is 10. Have somewhere between the 5-10 range. Personally, I had 7.
7. How to Maximize Number of Recommendation Letters: Get to know your professors!!! If your class size was in the 100s then you might want to consider meeting with your professor after class. He/She will not know who you are unless you meet with them privately or after lecture. You want to get close with your professors (especially science/math professors) so that you are able to list them as a contact for personal recommendation letters. Volunteering, Research internships, and Physician Shadowing will also help because you will have medical directors, doctors, mentors, scientists, etc.... who will be happy to write you recommendation letters. Again, the goal here is to have a lot of professional contacts to choose from when you decide who to choose for writing your letters.
   • Although quality is more important than quantity, the idea here is to gather different types of LORs that you can choose from and assign to specific schools. For example, some med schools tend to focus more on research so it would be intuitive to send a LOR from a research mentor or principal investigator (PI).
   • Each medical school has a different requirement for the number of recommendation letters. Typically, it's between 3-5 letters but there are some schools that allow up to 10 letters. Do not send more than what they require!!
8. Interview Day!! I have one word for you. PREPARE! I can't emphasize how important this is. I prepared for my interviews at least a week ahead of time. So the question is.... how do you prepare for a med school interview?

• RESEARCH your INTERVIEWER!!! Usually you'll be contacted by the person who will be interviewing you so do a google search on their name! This is key to a great interview. Why? because you'll have an idea of who your interviewer is!
  • Learn about who they are, what they like, what their position is, search their resume. FInd out as much as possible about them because it will help paint a picture of who they are before you step foot inside the interview room. This will REDUCE your ANXIETY, I promise you
  • This strategy will also help you make connections with your interviewer by sharing common interests with each other. For example, I learned that my interviewer liked soccer and running so when it came to the interview, I mentioned that I liked soccer/running too and instantly we made a connection. The vibes were awesome!!
• Find a forum on this site that lists possible questions that the interviewer might ask. Gather as much of those questions and paste them on microsoft word. Next, answer those questions in a few sentences and study it!! I'm not saying to memorize your responses. All I'm saying is to make sure you have an answer to all the questions that they may ask you. Be prepared for all of those questions!! You don't want to say ummm or ughhh when the interviewer asks the question. Once you do this, you'll be direct and to the point when you respond during the interview. It will help you because it definitely helped me.
• Find a hotel close to your interview location and go a day before the interview date! If you arrive to the city early, why not go to your interview location so you don't have to look for it the next day? Browse around, see what the location will look like!
• So why do all of this? Well you want to have a mental picture of who your interviewer will be, what questions they will ask, and where your interview will take place. All of this should reduce your nerves because you already know what to expect.

Again, these are just some ideas that worked for me. Everyone will have their own approach to AMCAS so do whatever works for you. My intention here is to share my experiences with you so hopefully it can help in some way. I wish you all the best and good luck!

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[songl4a]

.

 

[NeuroMd23]

Would you still recommend a May MCAT for this upcoming cycle?
April & May scores both come out before scores are sent to schools, with June scores coming out 3 weeks after April/May scores. Not sure what the * denotes though.
https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/mcat/register/417812/2015scorereleasedates.html

Don't know how many people will be using the old MCAT and thereby be submitting ASAP as well as how many people are taking April/May tests who will probably also submit day 1.

Depending on when AMCAS applications are open for submission (usually June 3rd), you want to take the MCAT at least a month or two in advance. That way you'll have your scores ready and schools don't have to wait to have them in hand. Also keep in mind if you submit your AMCAS application the first month it opens then it will only take a week or two for AMCAS to review/process it. So that gives you a little extra time if you do decide to take the MCAT a little later. If you're ready to take the MCAT in April and May then my answer is yes!!

You just want to avoid studying for the MCAT and working on your AMCAS application at the same time. Get the MCAT out of the way and you can put all of your focus on your AMCAS application because it is a tedious process.

 

[caffeinemia]

One way to improve your AMCAS in general is to capitalize, bullet point, and bold your activities and other descriptions in a consistent, cogent, legible manner. Example of what not to do as demonstrated above. Also -- remember that everyone's a critic.

 

[NeuroMd23]

One way to improve your AMCAS in general is to capitalize, bullet point, and bold your activities and other descriptions in a consistent, cogent, legible manner. Example of what not to do as demonstrated above. Also -- remember that everyone's a critic.

I agree. But this is just a forum and I never suggested anyone to follow the format above when it comes to AMCAS applications.

 

[GottaGetThatMD]

I also applied this year and had a very successful application season. There's a ton of things that I did very different than OP, who seems a bit too neurotic for my taste. Remember, there's no equation to getting into medical school. In most cases, use common sense and be yourself and you will be fine so long as you are an accomplished and interesting person. Don't make this process more stressful than it already it. Good luck everyone!

 

[tea guzzling traveler]

Question, is it exact dates that are required or month, year ( i.e. 3/24/2015-present or 3/2015-present)?

 

[songl4a]

.

 

[justadream]

One way to improve your AMCAS in general is to capitalize, bullet point, and bold your activities and other descriptions in a consistent, cogent, legible manner. Example of what not to do as demonstrated above. Also -- remember that everyone's a critic.

You can bold things in the application? I thought it would only accept plain text.

 

[NeuroMd23]

You don't need the MCAT for AMCAS to verify your primary though right?

Right! AMCAS will verify your application without your MCAT score.

 

[songl4a]

.

 

[jb94mg]

I also applied this year and had a very successful application season. There's a ton of things that I did very different than OP, who seems a bit too neurotic for my taste. Remember, there's no equation to getting into medical school. In most cases, use common sense and be yourself and you will be fine so long as you are an accomplished and interesting person. Don't make this process more stressful than it already it. Good luck everyone!

Out of curiosity, what about the OP's post strikes you as neurotic? I think most of what he recommended is pretty uncontroversial.

 

[TexasSurgeon]

I'm a newly admitted medical student so I experienced the whole pre med journey. This website has helped me tremendously and I want to pay it forward by answering questions from all of the pre meds out there. I've listed some tips/advice below. If I can think of more, I will definitely post them here. Ask me questions if you have any. I'll try to answer them promptly. Good luck to everyone applying to medical school this year!
Add me on Instagram: SisoMD23

Ways to Improve your Pre-Med Experience and Strengthen AMCAS Application

1. Courses: Make sure to take Biochemistry even if it's not a requirement for your major. As I was applying to medical school through AMCAS, there were some schools that required you to take biochemistry and some that preferred it. My advice is that you take at least a semester of biochemistry in order to increase the number of schools you are eligible to apply for.
   • If you need to take some elective courses in undergrad, why not take Spanish for a year? There are a few schools on the AMCAS application that require 1 year of Spanish. An example is, Ponce School of Medicine in Puerto Rico. Again, the idea here is to increase your chances of getting accepted to a medical school.
   • Retaking Courses: Allopathic med schools (including Caribbean) do not replace the highest grade for the lowest. They count both grades when calculating your GPA. This means that your undergraduate GPA and AMCAS GPA will not be the same. However, if you apply to DO schools then they will take the highest grade and usually your undergrad GPA and AACOM GPA will be the same. That being said, if you got a C in a pre med course I would think twice about retaking the class because it really wont do much to your AMCAS GPA. But that's just my suggestion.
2. Extracurricular Activities: Engage in research and volunteer work! This is probably one of the most important elements to consider on your application profile. Why? Because medical schools want to see students who are driven and are motivated enough to work outside of the classroom. It can also be use as a conversational piece during your interview.
   • If you decide to do research, make sure you gather a recommendation letter from your research project mentor and principal investigator (PI). This will give more credibility to your research project and it will give medical schools 2 different letters on your research work/experience
3. AMCAS APPLICATION: TIMING TIMING TIMING is crucial for medical school applications. The best time to submit your AMCAS application to medical schools is the first day that it is open (usually June 3rd). It took me about a month to finish the application so I submitted it in July. But, it's better to submit as EARLY AS POSSIBLE!! June - July is good. August is ok but only if you have a strong GPA and MCAT Score. The reason why you want to submit early is because there isn't a lot of traffic from other applicants and the admission committee is able to look at your profile and make early decisions.
   • Refer to your resume when completing the AMCAS application because in the Work/Activities section, they ask you to provide start/end dates for each job or activity. So that definitely saves some time.
4. MCAT: The goal is to submit your AMCAS application as early as possible. You can submit your application for review/processing even if you don't have your MCAT score. However, medical schools will put your application on hold until they receive your score. My advice is that you take the MCAT as early as you can that way you don't have to worry about it when you're working on your AMCAS application and so that it is ready for review by medical schools.
   • AMCAS application opens on May 1, 2015 (this means that you can start filling out the application, however, you can't submit just yet)
   • June 3rd, 2015 is when you can submit your application. It will be available for AMCAS to review/process it.
5. Personal Statement: Make sure to spend a lot of time on your personal statement. Personally, it took me about a month to make it perfect. Here's on thing you should definitely do...take your personal statement to your English department and have someone there edit your paper for FREE! Usually universities pay english majors to offer these services to other students so take advantage of this opportunity.
6. Recommendation Letters: This is a very important part of your application as well. It can take a very long time to gather these letters from your professors, mentors, etc because they can be busy. You can get your recommender to submit your letter to the AMCAS service or Interfolio. Use Interfolio!! Why? because you'll be able to save your letters to use anytime, whereas the AMCAS service only stores the letters for that year. However, Interfolio does have a fee but it's very cheap! Once you have your letters, then you can send them to each of the schools you want to apply to through Interfolio. Again, the faster you manage to collect your letters from your professors or whoever, then the faster your application will be ready for schools to review and make final decisions. Medical schools will be your application on hold if they do not have your recommendation letters in hand so again, timing is very important here. The max amount of letters you want to have is 10. Have somewhere between the 5-10 range. Personally, I had 7.
7. How to Maximize Number of Recommendation Letters: Get to know your professors!!! If your class size was in the 100s then you might want to consider meeting with your professor after class. He/She will not know who you are unless you meet with them privately or after lecture. You want to get close with your professors (especially science/math professors) so that you are able to list them as a contact for personal recommendation letters. Volunteering, Research internships, and Physician Shadowing will also help because you will have medical directors, doctors, mentors, scientists, etc.... who will be happy to write you recommendation letters. Again, the goal here is to have a lot of professional contacts to choose from when you decide who to choose for writing your letters.
8. Interview Day!! I have one word for you. PREPARE! I can't emphasize how important this is. I prepared for my interviews at least a week ahead of time. So the question is.... how do you prepare for a med school interview?

• RESEARCH your INTERVIEWER!!! Usually you'll be contacted by the person who will be interviewing you so do a google search on their name! This is key to a great interview. Why? because you'll have an idea of who your interviewer is!
  • Learn about who they are, what they like, what their position is, search their resume. FInd out as much as possible about them because it will help paint a picture of who they are before you step foot inside the interview room. This will REDUCE your ANXIETY, I promise you
  • This strategy will also help you make connections with your interviewer by sharing common interests with each other. For example, I learned that my interviewer liked soccer and running so when it came to the interview, I mentioned that I liked soccer/running too and instantly we made a connection. The vibes were awesome!!
• Find a forum on this site that lists possible questions that the interviewer might ask. Gather as much of those questions and paste them on microsoft word. Next, answer those questions in a few sentences and study it!! I'm not saying to memorize your responses. All I'm saying is to make sure you have an answer to all the questions that they may ask you. Be prepared for all of those questions!! You don't want to say ummm or ughhh when the interviewer asks the question. Once you do this, you'll be direct and to the point when you respond during the interview. It will help you because it definitely helped me.
• Find a hotel close to your interview location and go a day before the interview date! If you arrive to the city early, why not go to your interview location so you don't have to look for it the next day? Browse around, see what the location will look like!
• So why do all of this? Well you want to have a mental picture of who your interviewer will be, what questions they will ask, and where your interview will take place. All of this should reduce your nerves because you already know what to expect.

Again, these are just some ideas that worked for me. Everyone will have their own approach to AMCAS so do whatever works for you. My intention here is to share my experiences with you so hopefully it can help in some way. I wish you all the best and good luck!

If you want PDF versions of practice MCAT exams (old mcat) from AAMC let me know. I will email them to you

While this is all excellent advice, please delete this sentence from your post "If you want PDF versions of practice MCAT exams (old mcat) from AAMC let me know. I will email them to you"

SDN Mods will come knocking at your door with the ban hammer. AAMC routinely scours this website looking for people who post confidential information and spread copyrighted material. AAMC can subpoena SDN and SDN will be forced to reveal your name and information (this has happened before).

So delete it. right now.

 

[NeuroMd23]

While this is all excellent advice, please delete this sentence from your post "If you want PDF versions of practice MCAT exams (old mcat) from AAMC let me know. I will email them to you"

SDN Mods will come knocking at your door with the ban hammer. AAMC routinely scours this website looking for people who post confidential information and spread copyrighted material. AAMC can subpoena SDN and SDN will be forced to reveal your name and information (this has happened before).

So delete it. right now.

I'll do that right now. Sorry about that. I'm new to this forum and wasn't aware of those rules. Thanks for letting me know!

 

[TexasSurgeon]

I'll do that right now. Sorry about that. I'm new to this forum and wasn't aware of those rules. Thanks for letting me know!

No worries!

 

[Catalystik]

Question, is it exact dates that are required or month, year ( i.e. 3/24/2015-present or 3/2015-present)?

Month and year were requested last year, but not exact day.

 

[NeuroMd23]

There's a ton of things that I did very different than OP, who seems a bit too neurotic for my taste.

Thanks for restating GottaGetThatMD's opinion It also says that you're a Pre-Dental student so I'm pretty sure you did everything differently.

 

[tea guzzling traveler]

Month and year were requested last year, but not exact day.

Great, thanks! I wasn't really sure because I haven't filled out AMCAS yet, and it would've been a pain to dredge up the exact day of things that happened freshman year.

 

[tea guzzling traveler]

@NeuroMd23

I think I agree with most of what you have, so thanks for the tips. I would actually add a few more. Leadership and having fun in an activity you enjoy are both important too, and ways to slightly differentiate yourself from the average "cookie cutter" applicant.
The one thing I would slightly clarify would be to emphasize quality over quantity in terms of LOR's. If someone does get 10 letters, great for them, but if someone has 5 stellar letters, and a second candidate has 10 letters, 4 stellar and 6 OK, I'd prefer to be candidate 1.

 

[f4reignbeauty]

In regards to LOR's, I think upcoming applicants should know that just because you have 7 letters doesn't mean a school wants 7 letters from you. Some schools are very specific with their requirements, and I would be aware of that. If a school wants three letters, DO NOT send them 5! Even if they are stellar letters!

 

[meander]

Ways to Improve your Pre-Med Experience and Strengthen AMCAS Application

Don't be afraid to take a gap year or three or six. Get a job, save some money, have some fun. Working, especially in a corporate environment, provides a tremendous amount of prep for the application and interview process... and they pay you to do it.

 

[tea guzzling traveler]

^^^^^ THIS I think there is a prevalent feeling of rush, and hurry, the idea that you should apply during your junior year. Certainly you can, but I think acquiring some additional life experiences is a great idea if you can. Plus, taking gap years has a lot of benefits too... (I feel like this is 1/4 of my posts telling people to chill and take a gap year... oops)

 

[NeuroMd23]

In regards to LOR's, I think upcoming applicants should know that just because you have 7 letters doesn't mean a school wants 7 letters from you. Some schools are very specific with their requirements, and I would be aware of that. If a school wants three letters, DO NOT send them 5! Even if they are stellar letters!

Thank you for mentioning this. You're absolutely correct. It is important that you send the correct number of recommendation letters to each school. Some may require 3- 5 and some do not have a maximum.

 

[NeuroMd23]

You can bold things in the application? I thought it would only accept plain text.

Only plain text on the AMCAS application.

 

[mistiblu02]

Do you have to send in LOR's to get secondaries?

 

[mw18]

Do you have to send in LOR's to get secondaries?

No, but your secondary won't get looked at until your app is marked complete, and LORs are required to be complete. Some schools without a secondary (Mayo) may request your LORs pretty soon after an application fee, but in my experience I received all my secondaries without LORs.