Getting into medical school What’s up guys! This one is for all of you pre-med students aspiring to earn acceptance into medical school. I’m going to discuss some tips that will be helpful in this process.
Strong Grades
First in foremost strong grades matter. I’m not saying you need a 4.0 but having a 3.0 will make this a little more challenging. The easiest way to do this is by picking a major you LOVE, not just like. You will need to get through 4 years of undergrad in this major; so it might as well be something you enjoy learning about…at least for the most part. It’s also okay if you need to change majors too. Personally for me, I went the biology route, I loved sciences and the biology major overlapped well with the courses I needed to matriculate into medical school.
Even if you have a rocky semester or even year the best thing you can do is to turn it around in the next semester/year. Showing the admissions committee an upward trend in grades is necessary.
The MCAT
Every pre-med has heard of the dreaded MCAT. Well it’s an important part of the application to take seriously. I ended up taking the MCAT twice. The first time around I studied to the best of my ability and didn’t hit my goal score. I was determined to get it right the next time! I took my MCAT test prep course much more seriously and dedicated an allotted time to study. Got a much better score the second time around.
My suggestion would be to pay extra attention in your general chemistry, physics, biology, and organic chemistry classes. This may sound like a lot but it’s the unfortunate truth. I took the “old” MCAT so I know things have changed some now. I would also enroll in a test prep course. Most likely its going to be in the summer, when your in the “out of school” mode but make sure to take it seriously because test prep courses like these are a game changer.
The last thing I cannot stress enough is…practice, practice, practice. Take practice tests! After each test go over all of your answers even the ones you got correct. To see if you actually understood the concept or if it was a lucky guess. Practice tests will become your best friend for a while, haha. Learn from what you got wrong so you don’t make the same mistakes again. If you DO see a trend of concepts you just can’t seem to get right. Then I suggest allotting extra study time to re-learning that specific material.
For me it was verbal reasoning. I’m naturally not a fast reader so I struggled not only with the time constraints. But actually understanding what the heck was going on in those passages and how to answer the questions all in 5-7minutes. The month prior to my MCAT a dedicated an hour each day to doing a block of verbal reasoning. There were many days I wanted to skip out and barely made it through those passages but I did it. And to my surprise I jumped 6 points on the VR section from my first MCAT to the second, and I was SO pleased with that.
Bottom line: spend the extra time on your weak areas. It will pay off.
Numbers matter
Lets face it numbers matter to medical school admission committees. It’s not the ONLY thing that matters because your personal experiences and you as a HUMAN also play a role. Like I said above study hard and chose your major wisely in order to maximize your grades. If this is starting to sound overwhelming or if medical school is starting to feel like it may not be for you, then that’s totally fine too. There are PLENTY of other career options out there that you may fall in love with. But don’t let fear stop you from achieving your dreams.
Strong letters of recommendation
These letters are an important part of your application that allows the selection committee to see the type of student you are from a different point of view, YAY. So choose your letter writers wisely. Ask professors, advisors, mentors, coaches…etc. where you feel like you performed well in their class and/or activities.
Volunteerism
Pick activities that you enjoy doing. For example, for me I have a passion for serving the underserved and for sports. I chose to volunteer at a local homeless shelter and as track and field coach during my summer breaks from school. Those are just two of the activities I’ve been involved with. One thing that really helped to make my application stronger was not just doing a whole bunch of activities but doing meaningful ones. I was involved with most of my activities for extended periods of time. So I would suggest following suit if you can.
Shadowing
If your interested in becoming a physician then make sure you get exposure early on. You can do this by reaching out to family physician friends, even your own physician and ask to shadow. Something I found very useful was reaching out to the hospital and signing up to volunteer. I was an Emergency Department volunteer and in between my ED responsibilities I had the opportunity shadow the ED physicians. However you want to do it, just make sure you have done a respectable amount of shadowing before submitting your apps.
Apply Early
Last tip, submit your applications in June or early July if you can. I know it says rolling admissions online, but the selection committee only has a limited number of interview spots to give out. So if you get your application in early you have a better chance of getting one of those spots.
***If you need to improve your application, decided late in the game, or whatever the reason, I suggest enrolling in pre-med classes or going to graduate school. I actually went to graduate school prior to medical school and it was one of the bests decisions I’ve made for MYSELF.
Would you like to see a future post of my road to medicine after my pre-med years in college?
I hope this post was helpful!
The Active Medic