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Ive been meaning to write this post for a while, but with school and then moving out Ive been a bit busy. I wanted to share my thoughts and impressions about the application cycle and invite others to do the same almost as a give your observations/advice thread. Some of the things I mention might be obvious, but some of them are a little less intuitive. Im going to leave out the typical SDN staples (apply early, edit your PS, etc.). Ill try and break them up into chronological sections.
I dont pretend to be an expert on the medical admissions game. There are people that post here that are far more accomplished than I am. I have, however, had the opportunity to interview at a fairly wide gamut of institutions, and Ive done some major reflecting on the process and my experiences. Take all of this with a grain of salt, because its just one mans perspective, but I do hope that its helpful to some of you that are applying this year.
Good luck!
Pre-Submission
Reread, reread, and reread some more your AMCAS application. Make sure all of the information is entered correctly and check for spelling and grammar mistakes multiple times. I got into a habit of reading my entire application at the end of every day I worked on it; I probably read my application in its entirety 10+ times before I submitted it. In addition to minimizing writing mistakes, this will also make you very familiar with what you wrote in your application, which is important for interviews.
Dont rush any part of the application. Contrary to most SDN advice, you dont need to submit the application on June 1st or gasp June 2nd. While the time to get verified does get much longer pretty quickly, you probably wont be receiving any secondaries until mid-to-late July anyway (unless AMCAS and schools change how they do things significantly). Dont compromise the integrity of your application for the sake of submitting on the first day possible.
Make sure you fully explain your activities on your application. Unless its obvious what you did (e.g., you dont necessarily need to explain what you did when you shadowed), the adcom may or may not know what you did even though it might be patently obvious to you. Remember that the people reading your application have no idea who you are; you have to make sure you review your application with that mindset (the only things theyre going to know about you are what you disclose in your application). Everything from your personal statement to your activity descriptions should speak to your character and your motivation to become a physician.
Be intentional about the schools you choose to apply to. It seems like every year theres someone who comes on here crying about how they only got accepted to a school they dont want to attend. Why the hell did you apply to that school to begin with? You have to be real with yourself when choosing schools; if you have a 3.3/30, you probably shouldnt be applying just to Harvard, Yale, Penn, etc. unless you have some other outstanding aspects of your application. On the other hand, if you have a 4.0/39+, you should feel comfortable going with a few reach schools unless you absolutely know you wouldnt want to attend them. Im not saying that you cant have lofty goals and apply to the elite schools unless you have a minimum set of numbers, but dont get your hopes up when your GPA/MCAT are below the 10th percentile for that school and your ECs arent much to talk about. Use the MSAR to compose your list. This is what I did, and I think it left me with a good list of schools:
-get the MSAR
-flag schools at which your numbers are competitive (i.e., your numbers are within the second half of the shaded bar or above)
-flag a couple of reach schools if you want to go that route
-flag a couple of schools you would consider safeties
-eliminate any schools that arent OOS-friendly if youre OOS
-eliminate any schools in locations that you absolutely dont want to be at
-look at school websites if you need to cut your list down further; Id recommend looking at information on dual-degree programs (if applicable), the curriculum, and any unique programs/opportunities they might have for their students
Get ready for a long year. I submitted my application on June 2nd, 2010 and didnt finalize my school decision until April 18th, 2011. I started working on my application in May, so it was almost a complete year between when I started the cycle and when I was done. It sucks. And while I know that its much more easily said than done, try and be patient. The summer is the worst since youll probably have a ton of time to sit around and think about it, but I promise it gets better once school gets rolling (if youre still a student).
I think this is probably the most important piece of advice I can give: be humble. Dont go into this process with any expectations. Again, there are a myriad of people who come on SDN and cry because they didnt get into their first choice school and they dont know why, they didnt get into any school and they dont know why, they didnt get a scholarship and they dont know why, etc.. Look at the numbers and be real with yourself. Most schools have a <10% acceptance rate; the most competitive have rates that are <5%. Even the interviewing numbers are a little daunting: most schools only interview about 20% of their applicants. And then they only accept anywhere from 10-50% of those! The fact is that your chances of getting into medical school arent good, and you need to accept that. If you go into this process expecting that youre going to get into Penn with a full tuition scholarship, youre going to be in for a rude awakening. This process will humble you like no other. Once you get that acceptance, anything else is just gravy. Your ego will be beat up, you will feel unaccomplished and subpar, and you will feel unworthy of getting into medical school. I think this is a feeling most people have, so dont worry if you feel that way. IMO its better to feel that than like youre a badass and will get into every school youre applying to. The latter WILL leave you disappointed; the former will leave you excited and grateful.
Secondaries
FOR SECONDARIES THAT CONTAIN ESSAYS, MAKE SURE YOU TREAT THEM SERIOUSLY. A lot of people discount secondaries, and while that might be fine at some schools that simply require a rehash of your AMCAS, be particularly careful about schools that ask some form of the question, why us? IMO this question is extremely important, and a well-crafted answer might very well be the difference between getting an interview and not getting an interview. Its fine to copy and paste essays between different schools, but MAKE SURE YOUR ESSAY DIRECTLY ANSWERS THE PROMPT. Dont try and shortcut the essay by using an essay that tangentially addresses the question. I was never able to recycle essays without any sort of editing. If nothing else, different length requirements will cause you to cut parts of your essays out.
Be prompt with your secondaries, but like what was said with your AMCAS app, dont sacrifice quality for a quick turnaround. As an example, I think it took me a month to turn in my Pritzker secondary significantly longer than what I took for any other school and breaking the oh-so-hallowed two-week rule and I was still accepted and am ultimately attending school there. While some schools might gauge interest by how quickly you return the secondary, a poorly completed but quickly returned secondary isnt going to get you anywhere. With schools that simply require confirmation of demographic information and/or a payment, however, you should get that returned ASAP (e.g., Harvard, Mayo, etc.).
Be nice to the admissions staff when youre calling them and asking them about the status of your application. In fact, I wouldnt even call about the status of your application before youve been invited to interview. If every applicant to a school called the office and spent 30 seconds asking what the status of his/her application was, the office would literally spend full days in the aggregate responding to those inane calls. If you have something legitimate to ask about, thats fine, but calling and asking about your application in an attempt to express interest is just silly. Also keep in mind that admissions offices are sorely understaffed for the amount of work they do. If they dont get back to you right away or are terse with you on the phone, be gracious and thankful and try not to be bothered by it. If you dealt with thousands of neurotic pre-meds year after year, Im sure you would be a bit frayed, too.
Interviews
First CELEBRATE! I remember getting my first interview invite, and though it was to a school that ended up being my last choice, I was still extremely excited (butterflies, jumping off the walls, etc.). After youre done celebrating, make sure you book your date (if the school allows you to choose dates) ASAP, especially at rolling schools. Those dates will fill up quickly early on in the cycle. If youre still in school, youre going to HAVE to miss class. Class, IMO, isnt an excuse for choosing a later interview date over an earlier one. As long as youre accepted and dont completely screw up, youre going to be the only person that cares about your grades senior year. This is obviously professor-dependent, but I found that all of my professors were more than willing to reschedule exams, assignments, etc. for my interviews. As long as you keep the lines of communication open, you shouldnt have any problems.
Guys, make sure you have a decent suit. Buy one if you need to. Dont wear a suit that doesnt fit you well or isnt flattering. Id recommend taking a look at the interview clothing thread for a whole bunch of pictures and commentary. While a suit wont get you accepted or rejected, you need to look PROFESSIONAL. Your personal appearance comprises a significant portion of what an interviewer will think about you when he/she first sees you. Girls do what you do. Im no fashion expert, so youll need to refer to someone with expertise on womens fashion. Before I started attending interviews I thought this would go without saying, but try and keep the cleavage and extremely short skirts at home. You would be surprised at what some people consider to be professional. Id also recommend bringing a pair of flats for the walking tours; most schools are fine with you leaving the professional façade for the sake of comfort, but if youre concerned about whether or not this would be acceptable I would call or e-mail the admissions office prior to your interview.
One thing that I didnt do but wish that I did was reread my application, especially secondaries, before each interview. Your overall application of which your interview is a part should tell a story, and rereading what you wrote in your applications can help keep that story cohesive. In a majority of my interviews, I rather than the interviewer directed the conversation. Answer their questions directly and honestly, but highlight your strong points while minimizing or not mentioning your weak points (unless, of course, youre directly asked about them). If an interviewer doesnt ask about something and you dont mention something, no ones going to know unless its otherwise listed on your application. Offering up negative or dubious aspects about yourself is a very bad idea. Keep things positive and try to keep the interview under your control without being too assertive.
Be POSITIVE and EXCITED about an institution your truly interested in. Be engaging in your interview and make it clear that youre happy and want to be there.
You cant predict what kind of interviewer youre going to get. Check out the bizarre interview moments thread for some prime examples. If you get a combative, weird, quiet, etc. interviewer, you cant do anything but try and adapt and make the experience as positive as possible. Stay calm, answer their questions, and be positive. You will almost certainly have a weird interviewer at some point. Once you accept that fact, you shouldnt need to worry about it.
While you should be prepared for the most common questions (why this school, why do you want to be a physician, etc.), I would NOT rehearse answers under any circumstances. Youll risk coming across as stiff, boring, and uncomfortable if you simply recite a memorized answer. Try and remember key ideas but improvise exactly how youre going to express them if youre a decent speaker, thatll make your response sound fresh and unrehearsed.
Unless your application is submitted late or you have an extremely outstanding interview, at most schools interviewing at the end of the cycle doesnt bode well. Think about it: if your file was complete in August but you dont interview until January or February, what does that say? I wouldnt say that youre interviewing for the waitlist per se, but if they really wanted you, they would get you that interview invitation quicker than 4-6 months after you apply (LizzyM has more or less confirmed that this is how the process works at her institution). There certainly might be other factors outside your control that may contribute to this long delay slow reviewer, your application gets lost in the bathroom, etc. but I wouldnt put too much stock in that. The fact is that there are people that will be complete months after you but will be invited to interview before you. Im not sure what else that can possibly say but were interested in you, but not that interested. Again, Im not saying this is a guaranteed thing and Im sure people interview late at schools and get accepted, but I wouldnt be too optimistic about interviews late in the cycle if your file was complete early on (with the exception, perhaps, of non-rolling schools; but even then I think this is somewhat true, because while they may not fully evaluate your file until after all interviews are done, your file IS being evaluated to determine whether or not youll get an interview in other words, interview invites are given out in a rolling manner).
Make sure you have a question or two ready to ask your interviewer when you get to the so, do you have any questions for me? phase of the interview. I used the exact same 2-3 questions with every interviewer, so once you formulate them it gets pretty easy. If I happened to have specific questions about a school I would ask those instead, but if I didnt (and its wholly possible that you wouldnt) Id go with the general questions. Id recommend taking a look at the schools website the night before your interview to try and come up with some topics for questions. If the tour and/or meet-and-greet is before the interview, PAY ATTENTION and try and get some questions from those parts of the day. That way youll seem very interested and knowledgeable about the school.
My best piece of advice for interviews is to be flexible and be yourself. Unfortunately theres not an easy way to change who you are, which will more than anything dictate how you do in interviews. If youre quiet, nervous, and not personable, youll more than likely portray that to some degree (though some people can mask their personalities better than others). Thats who you are, and theres not much you can do about it. Be as excited as you can about the school, vary your intonation when youre talking, be enthusiastic (but not overly so) when you speak, and be genuine. Youre going to get a few curveballs, so be ready. You need to be like the Old Spice guy someone that can handle anything and everything smoothly and turn your interviews into diamonds, no matter what youre presented with. This isnt something that can be taught, really at least not immediately. Its more reflective of how you interact with people in social situations. Understand that if you dont bull**** your interviews and are entirely honest about your interests, motivations, etc., youre most likely not going to get accepted to a few schools. As an example, my interviewer at WashU asked me about my future career aspirations as they relate to research. The correct answer would be, of course, to say that youre very much interested in research given that WashU is a strong research institution. I told him that I had absolutely no interest in being a scientist in the long term my main goal is to be a practicing physician. I was ultimately waitlisted, and while there might be many reasons why, I have no doubt that that contributed significantly because I wouldnt fit in with their culture and/or mission as a research institution. If your goal is to get into accepted into every school you want, youre more than likely going to have to fake it somewhat (unless youre just an incredible person). Whether you want to do that or not is your choice.
Accepted, Waitlisted, Rejected
If youre accepted CONGRATULATIONS! Youre going to be a physician! If youre waitlisted, stay in the game you were granted an interview for a reason and you werent rejected outright for a reason. The school is genuinely interested in you, but they cant accept everyone. If this is a school you really want to go to, send updates, tell the admissions staff/dean that you want to go there, and hope for the best. If youre rejected, dont take it personally. As I just said, there are simply too many qualified applicants for any one class. I used to think that sort of phrasing in rejection letters was disingenuous, but when you look at how many people are applying for admission to a class, its certainly possible. How many people with 4.0/40+ numbers and outstanding ECs apply to Harvard, Yale, Penn, etc. each year? That cohort alone is probably enough to fill their classes. At every school the situation is similar: unless youre applying with an extremely extraordinary application, youre not going to get into every school you apply to because there are simply too many people that would be excellent additions to a class to admit each year. Keep your chin up and move on to the next school.
I have very minimal experience with being on a waitlist because I chose not to play the waitlist game, but I have been following the threads I was waitlisted at to see what people are doing and how things are going. At the Ivies, it seems like spamming the admissions office with letters of intent, updates, etc. is the best way to go. This strategy was also confirmed by my pre-health advisor; his explanation was that they want to offer as few acceptances as possible, so they will accept people that appear to be the most interested first. I dont possibly understand how people can send in 3-4 update letters with meaningful updates over the course of a cycle, but they do, and it seems those are the people who get in. So if youre waitlisted at one of these schools, get your pen and paper (or computer) ready and start drafting those letters. Its a game, and if you want to win you have to play it hard.
If youre accepted/waitlisted, MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT FINANCIAL AID FORMS ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE YOUR FILE. If youre accepted earlier in the cycle (any time before January), you probably wont be able to do much other than get all of your information together and come up with a system to keep track of what you have and havent turned in. Make sure you know exactly what you need to turn in and when. I missed out on financial aid deadlines at a couple of schools I was interested in because I was careless; had those been my only acceptances, I wouldve been screwed. While most schools will usually send out an e-mail reminding you to complete the financial aid process, they likely wont hound you to make sure you turn everything in. Thats your responsibility. MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR FORMS IN.
If you know youre not going to attend a school, do both the admissions staff and other applicants a favor and withdraw as soon as possible. Im not one of those people that gets angry because someone holds on to their acceptances you earned them and youre certainly entitled to do that but its a courtesy thing more than anything else.
Making the Decision
If youre fortunate enough to hold multiple acceptances, youre going to ultimately have a decision to make. Unfortunately I cant tell you what factors are most important in choosing a school; thats going to be an extremely individualized set of criteria, and whats most important is going to vary from one person to the next. My general piece of advice is to go to Second Look weekends/revisits at every school that youre seriously considering. Youll have plenty of opportunities to meet potential future classmates, talk with current students about questions/concerns you may have about your education, and get another fresh look at the institution. The final decision will probably be more than anything a gut feeling. Every program will have its strengths and weaknesses; its up to you to determine whether you can live with those things or not.
These are some of the questions that I asked (both to students and myself) when choosing a school:
How much is it going to cost?
I dont care what anyone says the world isnt rainbows and butterflies, and cost matters. You should worry about the cost of your education, ESPECIALLY if youve already got a significant debt burden from undergrad. Whether or not youre going to pay off the debt isnt the question; you WILL pay off that debt at some point (whether 5 or 30 years after graduating). The question you should be asking is, what sort of impact with this debt have on my lifestyle? And make no mistake: a significant debt burden will have an impact on your ability to acquire credit, secure a mortgage, secure a home loan, etc., which may not be things youre thinking about now, but it certainly will be when youre done with residency and still have 90+% remaining on your loan balance. Unless I absolutely hated the cheaper institution, attending a school that will put me $100k in debt versus a school that will put me $240k+ in debt is an easy decision. I dont think cost is the most important factor in the decision-making process, but its certainly something that should be taken into consideration and would probably be in the top three (at least for me).
What kinds of research opportunities are available to medical students?
Unless you know for a fact that youre not going into academic medicine and/or a competitive specialty, you should be concerned about research opportunities being available to you. Is it easy to get involved with research? Would the administration support taking a year off for you to conduct research? This is something that you can best talk to current students about.
Did I like the current students, faculty, and administrators that I met? Could I see myself as a member of this institution?
While you probably wont be interacting with these specific individuals on a regular basis, the people that are associated with an institution reveal much about the culture of the institution. Youre obviously not going to get to know these people like youre soulmates, but you CAN get a general feel for them. Try and talk to as many people as you can to see what theyre like. Is this a community you can yourself as a member of? Whats the general culture like?
Do I like the city/community/area the institution is in?
Do you like big cities? Small towns? Warm climate? Cold climate? These sorts of things are seemingly trite, but I have no doubt that they will impact your quality of life in the times you arent studying or doing school-related activities.
Again, its hard to judge these things accurately, and theres no real way to know for sure that what you perceive is how things actually are. Theres no way youll really get to know what an institution is like until youve been there for some time. But you have to do your best and make a decision based on what you see, and unfortunately theres a significant amount of uncertainty in that decision for most people.
I would encourage others to share their tidbits of advice here if you have any. As I said before, I dont pretend to be an expert, and Im sure people will disagree with some of things that I said. I did want to get these thoughts out, though, and I dont think my girlfriend, friends, parents, or cats would be too interested.
I dont pretend to be an expert on the medical admissions game. There are people that post here that are far more accomplished than I am. I have, however, had the opportunity to interview at a fairly wide gamut of institutions, and Ive done some major reflecting on the process and my experiences. Take all of this with a grain of salt, because its just one mans perspective, but I do hope that its helpful to some of you that are applying this year.
Good luck!
Pre-Submission
Reread, reread, and reread some more your AMCAS application. Make sure all of the information is entered correctly and check for spelling and grammar mistakes multiple times. I got into a habit of reading my entire application at the end of every day I worked on it; I probably read my application in its entirety 10+ times before I submitted it. In addition to minimizing writing mistakes, this will also make you very familiar with what you wrote in your application, which is important for interviews.
Dont rush any part of the application. Contrary to most SDN advice, you dont need to submit the application on June 1st or gasp June 2nd. While the time to get verified does get much longer pretty quickly, you probably wont be receiving any secondaries until mid-to-late July anyway (unless AMCAS and schools change how they do things significantly). Dont compromise the integrity of your application for the sake of submitting on the first day possible.
Make sure you fully explain your activities on your application. Unless its obvious what you did (e.g., you dont necessarily need to explain what you did when you shadowed), the adcom may or may not know what you did even though it might be patently obvious to you. Remember that the people reading your application have no idea who you are; you have to make sure you review your application with that mindset (the only things theyre going to know about you are what you disclose in your application). Everything from your personal statement to your activity descriptions should speak to your character and your motivation to become a physician.
Be intentional about the schools you choose to apply to. It seems like every year theres someone who comes on here crying about how they only got accepted to a school they dont want to attend. Why the hell did you apply to that school to begin with? You have to be real with yourself when choosing schools; if you have a 3.3/30, you probably shouldnt be applying just to Harvard, Yale, Penn, etc. unless you have some other outstanding aspects of your application. On the other hand, if you have a 4.0/39+, you should feel comfortable going with a few reach schools unless you absolutely know you wouldnt want to attend them. Im not saying that you cant have lofty goals and apply to the elite schools unless you have a minimum set of numbers, but dont get your hopes up when your GPA/MCAT are below the 10th percentile for that school and your ECs arent much to talk about. Use the MSAR to compose your list. This is what I did, and I think it left me with a good list of schools:
-get the MSAR
-flag schools at which your numbers are competitive (i.e., your numbers are within the second half of the shaded bar or above)
-flag a couple of reach schools if you want to go that route
-flag a couple of schools you would consider safeties
-eliminate any schools that arent OOS-friendly if youre OOS
-eliminate any schools in locations that you absolutely dont want to be at
-look at school websites if you need to cut your list down further; Id recommend looking at information on dual-degree programs (if applicable), the curriculum, and any unique programs/opportunities they might have for their students
Get ready for a long year. I submitted my application on June 2nd, 2010 and didnt finalize my school decision until April 18th, 2011. I started working on my application in May, so it was almost a complete year between when I started the cycle and when I was done. It sucks. And while I know that its much more easily said than done, try and be patient. The summer is the worst since youll probably have a ton of time to sit around and think about it, but I promise it gets better once school gets rolling (if youre still a student).
I think this is probably the most important piece of advice I can give: be humble. Dont go into this process with any expectations. Again, there are a myriad of people who come on SDN and cry because they didnt get into their first choice school and they dont know why, they didnt get into any school and they dont know why, they didnt get a scholarship and they dont know why, etc.. Look at the numbers and be real with yourself. Most schools have a <10% acceptance rate; the most competitive have rates that are <5%. Even the interviewing numbers are a little daunting: most schools only interview about 20% of their applicants. And then they only accept anywhere from 10-50% of those! The fact is that your chances of getting into medical school arent good, and you need to accept that. If you go into this process expecting that youre going to get into Penn with a full tuition scholarship, youre going to be in for a rude awakening. This process will humble you like no other. Once you get that acceptance, anything else is just gravy. Your ego will be beat up, you will feel unaccomplished and subpar, and you will feel unworthy of getting into medical school. I think this is a feeling most people have, so dont worry if you feel that way. IMO its better to feel that than like youre a badass and will get into every school youre applying to. The latter WILL leave you disappointed; the former will leave you excited and grateful.
Secondaries
FOR SECONDARIES THAT CONTAIN ESSAYS, MAKE SURE YOU TREAT THEM SERIOUSLY. A lot of people discount secondaries, and while that might be fine at some schools that simply require a rehash of your AMCAS, be particularly careful about schools that ask some form of the question, why us? IMO this question is extremely important, and a well-crafted answer might very well be the difference between getting an interview and not getting an interview. Its fine to copy and paste essays between different schools, but MAKE SURE YOUR ESSAY DIRECTLY ANSWERS THE PROMPT. Dont try and shortcut the essay by using an essay that tangentially addresses the question. I was never able to recycle essays without any sort of editing. If nothing else, different length requirements will cause you to cut parts of your essays out.
Be prompt with your secondaries, but like what was said with your AMCAS app, dont sacrifice quality for a quick turnaround. As an example, I think it took me a month to turn in my Pritzker secondary significantly longer than what I took for any other school and breaking the oh-so-hallowed two-week rule and I was still accepted and am ultimately attending school there. While some schools might gauge interest by how quickly you return the secondary, a poorly completed but quickly returned secondary isnt going to get you anywhere. With schools that simply require confirmation of demographic information and/or a payment, however, you should get that returned ASAP (e.g., Harvard, Mayo, etc.).
Be nice to the admissions staff when youre calling them and asking them about the status of your application. In fact, I wouldnt even call about the status of your application before youve been invited to interview. If every applicant to a school called the office and spent 30 seconds asking what the status of his/her application was, the office would literally spend full days in the aggregate responding to those inane calls. If you have something legitimate to ask about, thats fine, but calling and asking about your application in an attempt to express interest is just silly. Also keep in mind that admissions offices are sorely understaffed for the amount of work they do. If they dont get back to you right away or are terse with you on the phone, be gracious and thankful and try not to be bothered by it. If you dealt with thousands of neurotic pre-meds year after year, Im sure you would be a bit frayed, too.
Interviews
First CELEBRATE! I remember getting my first interview invite, and though it was to a school that ended up being my last choice, I was still extremely excited (butterflies, jumping off the walls, etc.). After youre done celebrating, make sure you book your date (if the school allows you to choose dates) ASAP, especially at rolling schools. Those dates will fill up quickly early on in the cycle. If youre still in school, youre going to HAVE to miss class. Class, IMO, isnt an excuse for choosing a later interview date over an earlier one. As long as youre accepted and dont completely screw up, youre going to be the only person that cares about your grades senior year. This is obviously professor-dependent, but I found that all of my professors were more than willing to reschedule exams, assignments, etc. for my interviews. As long as you keep the lines of communication open, you shouldnt have any problems.
Guys, make sure you have a decent suit. Buy one if you need to. Dont wear a suit that doesnt fit you well or isnt flattering. Id recommend taking a look at the interview clothing thread for a whole bunch of pictures and commentary. While a suit wont get you accepted or rejected, you need to look PROFESSIONAL. Your personal appearance comprises a significant portion of what an interviewer will think about you when he/she first sees you. Girls do what you do. Im no fashion expert, so youll need to refer to someone with expertise on womens fashion. Before I started attending interviews I thought this would go without saying, but try and keep the cleavage and extremely short skirts at home. You would be surprised at what some people consider to be professional. Id also recommend bringing a pair of flats for the walking tours; most schools are fine with you leaving the professional façade for the sake of comfort, but if youre concerned about whether or not this would be acceptable I would call or e-mail the admissions office prior to your interview.
One thing that I didnt do but wish that I did was reread my application, especially secondaries, before each interview. Your overall application of which your interview is a part should tell a story, and rereading what you wrote in your applications can help keep that story cohesive. In a majority of my interviews, I rather than the interviewer directed the conversation. Answer their questions directly and honestly, but highlight your strong points while minimizing or not mentioning your weak points (unless, of course, youre directly asked about them). If an interviewer doesnt ask about something and you dont mention something, no ones going to know unless its otherwise listed on your application. Offering up negative or dubious aspects about yourself is a very bad idea. Keep things positive and try to keep the interview under your control without being too assertive.
Be POSITIVE and EXCITED about an institution your truly interested in. Be engaging in your interview and make it clear that youre happy and want to be there.
You cant predict what kind of interviewer youre going to get. Check out the bizarre interview moments thread for some prime examples. If you get a combative, weird, quiet, etc. interviewer, you cant do anything but try and adapt and make the experience as positive as possible. Stay calm, answer their questions, and be positive. You will almost certainly have a weird interviewer at some point. Once you accept that fact, you shouldnt need to worry about it.
While you should be prepared for the most common questions (why this school, why do you want to be a physician, etc.), I would NOT rehearse answers under any circumstances. Youll risk coming across as stiff, boring, and uncomfortable if you simply recite a memorized answer. Try and remember key ideas but improvise exactly how youre going to express them if youre a decent speaker, thatll make your response sound fresh and unrehearsed.
Unless your application is submitted late or you have an extremely outstanding interview, at most schools interviewing at the end of the cycle doesnt bode well. Think about it: if your file was complete in August but you dont interview until January or February, what does that say? I wouldnt say that youre interviewing for the waitlist per se, but if they really wanted you, they would get you that interview invitation quicker than 4-6 months after you apply (LizzyM has more or less confirmed that this is how the process works at her institution). There certainly might be other factors outside your control that may contribute to this long delay slow reviewer, your application gets lost in the bathroom, etc. but I wouldnt put too much stock in that. The fact is that there are people that will be complete months after you but will be invited to interview before you. Im not sure what else that can possibly say but were interested in you, but not that interested. Again, Im not saying this is a guaranteed thing and Im sure people interview late at schools and get accepted, but I wouldnt be too optimistic about interviews late in the cycle if your file was complete early on (with the exception, perhaps, of non-rolling schools; but even then I think this is somewhat true, because while they may not fully evaluate your file until after all interviews are done, your file IS being evaluated to determine whether or not youll get an interview in other words, interview invites are given out in a rolling manner).
Make sure you have a question or two ready to ask your interviewer when you get to the so, do you have any questions for me? phase of the interview. I used the exact same 2-3 questions with every interviewer, so once you formulate them it gets pretty easy. If I happened to have specific questions about a school I would ask those instead, but if I didnt (and its wholly possible that you wouldnt) Id go with the general questions. Id recommend taking a look at the schools website the night before your interview to try and come up with some topics for questions. If the tour and/or meet-and-greet is before the interview, PAY ATTENTION and try and get some questions from those parts of the day. That way youll seem very interested and knowledgeable about the school.
My best piece of advice for interviews is to be flexible and be yourself. Unfortunately theres not an easy way to change who you are, which will more than anything dictate how you do in interviews. If youre quiet, nervous, and not personable, youll more than likely portray that to some degree (though some people can mask their personalities better than others). Thats who you are, and theres not much you can do about it. Be as excited as you can about the school, vary your intonation when youre talking, be enthusiastic (but not overly so) when you speak, and be genuine. Youre going to get a few curveballs, so be ready. You need to be like the Old Spice guy someone that can handle anything and everything smoothly and turn your interviews into diamonds, no matter what youre presented with. This isnt something that can be taught, really at least not immediately. Its more reflective of how you interact with people in social situations. Understand that if you dont bull**** your interviews and are entirely honest about your interests, motivations, etc., youre most likely not going to get accepted to a few schools. As an example, my interviewer at WashU asked me about my future career aspirations as they relate to research. The correct answer would be, of course, to say that youre very much interested in research given that WashU is a strong research institution. I told him that I had absolutely no interest in being a scientist in the long term my main goal is to be a practicing physician. I was ultimately waitlisted, and while there might be many reasons why, I have no doubt that that contributed significantly because I wouldnt fit in with their culture and/or mission as a research institution. If your goal is to get into accepted into every school you want, youre more than likely going to have to fake it somewhat (unless youre just an incredible person). Whether you want to do that or not is your choice.
Accepted, Waitlisted, Rejected
If youre accepted CONGRATULATIONS! Youre going to be a physician! If youre waitlisted, stay in the game you were granted an interview for a reason and you werent rejected outright for a reason. The school is genuinely interested in you, but they cant accept everyone. If this is a school you really want to go to, send updates, tell the admissions staff/dean that you want to go there, and hope for the best. If youre rejected, dont take it personally. As I just said, there are simply too many qualified applicants for any one class. I used to think that sort of phrasing in rejection letters was disingenuous, but when you look at how many people are applying for admission to a class, its certainly possible. How many people with 4.0/40+ numbers and outstanding ECs apply to Harvard, Yale, Penn, etc. each year? That cohort alone is probably enough to fill their classes. At every school the situation is similar: unless youre applying with an extremely extraordinary application, youre not going to get into every school you apply to because there are simply too many people that would be excellent additions to a class to admit each year. Keep your chin up and move on to the next school.
I have very minimal experience with being on a waitlist because I chose not to play the waitlist game, but I have been following the threads I was waitlisted at to see what people are doing and how things are going. At the Ivies, it seems like spamming the admissions office with letters of intent, updates, etc. is the best way to go. This strategy was also confirmed by my pre-health advisor; his explanation was that they want to offer as few acceptances as possible, so they will accept people that appear to be the most interested first. I dont possibly understand how people can send in 3-4 update letters with meaningful updates over the course of a cycle, but they do, and it seems those are the people who get in. So if youre waitlisted at one of these schools, get your pen and paper (or computer) ready and start drafting those letters. Its a game, and if you want to win you have to play it hard.
If youre accepted/waitlisted, MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT FINANCIAL AID FORMS ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE YOUR FILE. If youre accepted earlier in the cycle (any time before January), you probably wont be able to do much other than get all of your information together and come up with a system to keep track of what you have and havent turned in. Make sure you know exactly what you need to turn in and when. I missed out on financial aid deadlines at a couple of schools I was interested in because I was careless; had those been my only acceptances, I wouldve been screwed. While most schools will usually send out an e-mail reminding you to complete the financial aid process, they likely wont hound you to make sure you turn everything in. Thats your responsibility. MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR FORMS IN.
If you know youre not going to attend a school, do both the admissions staff and other applicants a favor and withdraw as soon as possible. Im not one of those people that gets angry because someone holds on to their acceptances you earned them and youre certainly entitled to do that but its a courtesy thing more than anything else.
Making the Decision
If youre fortunate enough to hold multiple acceptances, youre going to ultimately have a decision to make. Unfortunately I cant tell you what factors are most important in choosing a school; thats going to be an extremely individualized set of criteria, and whats most important is going to vary from one person to the next. My general piece of advice is to go to Second Look weekends/revisits at every school that youre seriously considering. Youll have plenty of opportunities to meet potential future classmates, talk with current students about questions/concerns you may have about your education, and get another fresh look at the institution. The final decision will probably be more than anything a gut feeling. Every program will have its strengths and weaknesses; its up to you to determine whether you can live with those things or not.
These are some of the questions that I asked (both to students and myself) when choosing a school:
How much is it going to cost?
I dont care what anyone says the world isnt rainbows and butterflies, and cost matters. You should worry about the cost of your education, ESPECIALLY if youve already got a significant debt burden from undergrad. Whether or not youre going to pay off the debt isnt the question; you WILL pay off that debt at some point (whether 5 or 30 years after graduating). The question you should be asking is, what sort of impact with this debt have on my lifestyle? And make no mistake: a significant debt burden will have an impact on your ability to acquire credit, secure a mortgage, secure a home loan, etc., which may not be things youre thinking about now, but it certainly will be when youre done with residency and still have 90+% remaining on your loan balance. Unless I absolutely hated the cheaper institution, attending a school that will put me $100k in debt versus a school that will put me $240k+ in debt is an easy decision. I dont think cost is the most important factor in the decision-making process, but its certainly something that should be taken into consideration and would probably be in the top three (at least for me).
What kinds of research opportunities are available to medical students?
Unless you know for a fact that youre not going into academic medicine and/or a competitive specialty, you should be concerned about research opportunities being available to you. Is it easy to get involved with research? Would the administration support taking a year off for you to conduct research? This is something that you can best talk to current students about.
Did I like the current students, faculty, and administrators that I met? Could I see myself as a member of this institution?
While you probably wont be interacting with these specific individuals on a regular basis, the people that are associated with an institution reveal much about the culture of the institution. Youre obviously not going to get to know these people like youre soulmates, but you CAN get a general feel for them. Try and talk to as many people as you can to see what theyre like. Is this a community you can yourself as a member of? Whats the general culture like?
Do I like the city/community/area the institution is in?
Do you like big cities? Small towns? Warm climate? Cold climate? These sorts of things are seemingly trite, but I have no doubt that they will impact your quality of life in the times you arent studying or doing school-related activities.
Again, its hard to judge these things accurately, and theres no real way to know for sure that what you perceive is how things actually are. Theres no way youll really get to know what an institution is like until youve been there for some time. But you have to do your best and make a decision based on what you see, and unfortunately theres a significant amount of uncertainty in that decision for most people.
I would encourage others to share their tidbits of advice here if you have any. As I said before, I dont pretend to be an expert, and Im sure people will disagree with some of things that I said. I did want to get these thoughts out, though, and I dont think my girlfriend, friends, parents, or cats would be too interested.