Hey guys,
I went through the application cycle this past year and was fortunate enough to receive multiple acceptances. Given how much SDN helped me, I wanted to provide some advice to future applicants. Just a bit about myself first, I applied to roughly 25 schools. I received 10 II. I went on 9 interviews. I was accepted to two schools outright and was later accepted at two other schools off the wait-list. For the sake of anonymity, I can say that the two schools I was accepted to off the waitlist were both in the top 20, but I would prefer to not name the exact schools. Before providing actual advice, I also wanted to write a brief paragraph below about what actually happens during the application cycle to better educate those who may be unfamiliar with it.
What Happens in the Cycle: To apply to medical school, you have to first fill out a primary application. In the primary application, you include brief descriptions of each EC, write a personal statement, input your course grades, and include the names of your LOR writers. In the primary applications, you will also include which medical schools you will apply to. Those schools, in turn, will receive your primary application and then decide whether they will send you a secondary application. Secondary applications are different for each school, and schools use the secondary to ask questions such as, " Why do you(the applicant) want to go to our school". After the secondary, a school decides whether they want to grant you an interview. If interviewed, then the school decides whether to accept, waitlist, or reject an applicant.
Now, time for the actual advice:
1. Apply early. Many schools have rolling admissions. The earlier you apply, the higher the chances of being interviewed and accepted.
2. Try to do your personal statement and secondaries ahead of time. I decided not to apply to certain schools simply because I did not have the time to complete their long secondaries. As an applicant, you can look up the secondaries from past years and do those ahead of time.
3. A few questions you should start thinking about early: Why do you want to be a doctor? Why not other health professions? How would you describe yourself? Is there any field you are interested in? The reason I highlighted the questions above is that these questions repeatedly come up during secondaries and interviews. You want to be thinking about your answers to them.
4. Use the interview feedback section on SDN to get a better understanding of questions you will be asked on interview day. I found the interview feedback section to be immensely helpful. Even though many of the questions are old, it provides a great sampling of questions.
5. When writing your personal statement, be specific. Don't talk in general terms. To make a strong essay, you need to provide specific examples from your life.
6. Many school secondaries ask the same questions. For questions that come up often, do those questions first and spend extra time on them as you will be sending those answers to many schools.
7. Talk to your pre-med counselor. On snd, there is a lot of bashing on pre-med counselors. And, although I am sure there are many horrible pre-med counselors out there, I still feel they are an important resource. Even if you dont like what they say, ignore their advice but definitely talk to them. My pre-med counselor helped me immensely and motivated me in all steps of the applications process.
8. Be realistic about your chances of getting in. I have seen people apply who I know had no chances of getting in. Once again, be realistic. The medical school process is very competitive. The only thing that will come out of applying with a poor application is frustration and the loss of money.
9. Last piece of advice: applying to medical school is a long process. Be mentally prepared for that. At each step, you will face different challenges and will feel mentally drained at many points.
Over the last few weeks, many have also asked me what it takes to get into a top-20 medical schools. From what I have seen, I think you need a good MCAT score, a good GPA, at least a year of research, and at least a year of clinical volunteering. There are a few other smaller pieces, but I think if you have the four above, you are in a pretty good place.
Lastly, good luck to all applying!!!! If anyone has any other questions, feel free to post them below.
I went through the application cycle this past year and was fortunate enough to receive multiple acceptances. Given how much SDN helped me, I wanted to provide some advice to future applicants. Just a bit about myself first, I applied to roughly 25 schools. I received 10 II. I went on 9 interviews. I was accepted to two schools outright and was later accepted at two other schools off the wait-list. For the sake of anonymity, I can say that the two schools I was accepted to off the waitlist were both in the top 20, but I would prefer to not name the exact schools. Before providing actual advice, I also wanted to write a brief paragraph below about what actually happens during the application cycle to better educate those who may be unfamiliar with it.
What Happens in the Cycle: To apply to medical school, you have to first fill out a primary application. In the primary application, you include brief descriptions of each EC, write a personal statement, input your course grades, and include the names of your LOR writers. In the primary applications, you will also include which medical schools you will apply to. Those schools, in turn, will receive your primary application and then decide whether they will send you a secondary application. Secondary applications are different for each school, and schools use the secondary to ask questions such as, " Why do you(the applicant) want to go to our school". After the secondary, a school decides whether they want to grant you an interview. If interviewed, then the school decides whether to accept, waitlist, or reject an applicant.
Now, time for the actual advice:
1. Apply early. Many schools have rolling admissions. The earlier you apply, the higher the chances of being interviewed and accepted.
2. Try to do your personal statement and secondaries ahead of time. I decided not to apply to certain schools simply because I did not have the time to complete their long secondaries. As an applicant, you can look up the secondaries from past years and do those ahead of time.
3. A few questions you should start thinking about early: Why do you want to be a doctor? Why not other health professions? How would you describe yourself? Is there any field you are interested in? The reason I highlighted the questions above is that these questions repeatedly come up during secondaries and interviews. You want to be thinking about your answers to them.
4. Use the interview feedback section on SDN to get a better understanding of questions you will be asked on interview day. I found the interview feedback section to be immensely helpful. Even though many of the questions are old, it provides a great sampling of questions.
5. When writing your personal statement, be specific. Don't talk in general terms. To make a strong essay, you need to provide specific examples from your life.
6. Many school secondaries ask the same questions. For questions that come up often, do those questions first and spend extra time on them as you will be sending those answers to many schools.
7. Talk to your pre-med counselor. On snd, there is a lot of bashing on pre-med counselors. And, although I am sure there are many horrible pre-med counselors out there, I still feel they are an important resource. Even if you dont like what they say, ignore their advice but definitely talk to them. My pre-med counselor helped me immensely and motivated me in all steps of the applications process.
8. Be realistic about your chances of getting in. I have seen people apply who I know had no chances of getting in. Once again, be realistic. The medical school process is very competitive. The only thing that will come out of applying with a poor application is frustration and the loss of money.
9. Last piece of advice: applying to medical school is a long process. Be mentally prepared for that. At each step, you will face different challenges and will feel mentally drained at many points.
Over the last few weeks, many have also asked me what it takes to get into a top-20 medical schools. From what I have seen, I think you need a good MCAT score, a good GPA, at least a year of research, and at least a year of clinical volunteering. There are a few other smaller pieces, but I think if you have the four above, you are in a pretty good place.
Lastly, good luck to all applying!!!! If anyone has any other questions, feel free to post them below.
