so my dudes, it is may. it is the time for flowers to bloom, school to let out for the summer…and for some of you lovely people in the us, medical school application hell. i wanted to make this post for a while, but while i was wrapped up in my own pre-medical school adventures and finishing up the semester, i got sidetracked. however, i promised to help you guys navigate this very crazy application cycle, especially with covid, so here is some of my advice on applying to medical school. please note that i did not cover every situation that might arise for you, nor will i. i also focus on m.d. apps, not d.o. or m.d./ph.d, which are entirely different, so i don’t want to talk about something i am not the most informed on. if you have any more individualized questions, do not hesitate to drop into my inbox, or the dms i will be opening shortly.
being a competitive applicant
i’m going to start at the very beginning here, at the start of anyone’s med school journey, and talk about the required classes. your academic advisor also should have given you a list ahead of time of required and recommended courses for premeds. this is for the mcat, plus medical school prerequisites. note that i might have left some out, but this sounds about right:
general bio 1 + 2, with lab
general chem 1 + 2, with labochem 1 + 2, with lab
introductory physics, both newtonian and electricity + magnetism
some form of english class
intro psych (recommended for mcat)
intro socio (recommended for mcat)
intro biochem physiology (required at very few schools, but sometimes required)
double check if you have the credits for all of this. you don’t want to put in an app and not have the appropriate prerequisites.
now i’ll talk about the things that med school adcoms specifically look for in order for you to be competitive in your application. this may include:
a good gpa (i don’t want to give numbers since your own advisor will know better than me, so i’m not going to provide them)
a good mcat score (typically above 80th percentile to avoid being weeded out during secondaries)
extracurriculars, including research, clinical volunteering, clinical shadowing, non-clinical volunteering, tutoring/TA work, clinical or non-clinical paid employment, leadership positions, involvement in student organizations, and other hobbies
strong letters of recommendation from your professors, as well as possibly doctors, volunteer coordinators, etc. or a good committee letter written by your prehealth advisor
a well-written, compelling personal statement demonstrating 1) why you want to become a physician above all and 2) the grit factor necessary to succeed in medical school
if you are a freshman or sophomore, go see your premed advisor early. this is important because it will allow you to build a relationship with them and get to know you better, which will prove incredibly helpful when they are bound to write a committee letter for you. i’ll get to what a committee letter is a bit later.
as someone in this here internet box, i cannot tell you the exact specifics of what amount of time or what particular activities med school adcoms are looking for- i.e. number of hours for each thing. however, more experiences that are quality time investments where you learn something is always better than less. if you are an underclassman, you should get going especially with extracurriculars, because that takes time to rack up time. my own prehealth advisor said that about 100-200 hours of shadowing, research, and both types of volunteering would be sufficient, but i’m not guaranteeing anything here. in my opinion, you need to be able to write well and talk about the experiences you had, and that only can happen when you’ve put in enough quality hours actually dedicating yourself to doing the thing you’re talking about. only you can decide how much is enough, and you should also be free to discover your own interests and pursue them however much you like.
i want to stress this: if you don’t feel ready to apply, don’t. seriously. don’t waste your money, because it costs quite a bit to apply. spend a gap year shoring up on what you perceive to be a hole in your application. there’s absolutely no shame in doing so, and in fact, people who take gap years come to med school more mature and rested than people who go straight in. your app will be stronger, and you’ll only have to go through the hellish process once.
letters of recommendation
for med school, there’s two main types of rec letters:
the traditional rec letter from a professor, written by that professor for med school
the committee letter, which is the summation of the information from at least three different letter writers, plus a supplemental application and an interview usually conducted by the prehealth office. if you haven’t been told by your prehealth office about this, ignore this. if you have, this is the one you send and med schools see, not the individual letters unless you have a separate letter from a different individual letter writer not already included in the committee letter.
you’ll have to make some account for confidential letter writing delivery, using interfolio or something. you’ll have to pay a one-time fee. it’s a rip off but unfortunately necessary to ensure you haven’t been reading and revising the letters yourself, which is waaaaay out of line.
there are quite a number of posts about asking for rec letters already so i’ll link three here: [1, 2, 3]. here’s my two cents on the whole matter:
ask someone who knows you well. ask them if they would be able to write a strong letter. they should give you an honest answer, and if they can’t, it’s ok and you’ll just find someone new. if you’re an underclassman reading this, you should start building relationships with professors now. i know it sounds scary, but if you already have to do research, that’s one down, two to go. the ideal letter writer is someone who has known you for years and understands your motivations and personality.
remember to ask people who aren’t professors too. bosses, volunteer coordinators, especially doctors and nurses you’ve worked with. those are great people to ask as well.
don’t be afraid to ask. it’s always nerve-wracking to ask a professor for anything, but chances are they’ve received tons of requests for letters before and are unfazed by now, especially profs that have been teaching for years.
make sure you attach a CV and possibly, a copy of your personal statement (if they ask for it) to the letter request. even if professors know you really well, they’ll like to have your resume just for reference.
the applications themselves
there’s two main systems for primary applications in the us: tmdsas (the texas system) and amcas. i’m familiar with both, but because i am a texas resident, tmdsas was the main one i used to apply. here’s some tips about filling out the primary application:
do it as fast as possible and submit as soon as you can, without sacrificing quality. these are rolling admissions so time is crucial. you will be then placed in a queue post submission, where your application will in fact languish for up to a month before it gets processed. be well aware of this, because you will not get secondaries until it is processed.
read the application instructions handbook thoroughly. take notes if you have to. these applications are complicated and you have to know every single bit to make sure you’re doing it right.
it’s helpful to have an official transcript, but it’s not necessary when inputting all your course work. don’t pay for an official transcript lol
watch your word counts. tmdsas was more difficult for me because you have so few words in the descriptions when you want to say so much.
have a second person review your application to catch mistakes before submission, like a parent, sibling, or friend. it is SO easy to make a mistake inputting classes in, and it could set the time of processing way back if you do make a mistake.
tmdsas has less characters available than amcas for activity descriptions. be very careful about how you word things, since you need to stay under the character limit. this is probably what threw me off the most when trying to put my app together.
tmdsas also has more essays than amcas. i think these are the “characteristics and attributes” and “extenuating circumstances” questions. i don’t think the latter is technically required, but do every question and take advantage of the chance to give them more information about yourself. when you approach these essays, make sure you highlight different areas of your application that you didn’t talk about in your personal statement to give an adcom a more complete picture of who you are. maybe highlight skills that aren’t talked about too often when it comes to med school apps in these essays, experiences unique to you, and interests that will show you to be a balanced applicant.
write ALL your descriptions in a separate word document or notes file. don’t directly write it into the amcas/tmdsas website. what if you forget to save it. also, save your application after you submit it. always.
personal statements are hard. if a medical school application is an example of the mortifying ordeal of being known, personal statements are the ultimate form of making yourself known. it is baring your heart and soul out explaining why you want to be a doctor, and you have to do it well.
ideally, you start coming up with ideas for personal statements up to 6 months before you apply. keep a journal and write your healthcare experiences and reflections on them down in it- this will help you collect what was valuable about that experience and clarify what you did to prove you want to be a doctor.
you’re usually required to submit one early with your committee letter, if you do a committee letter and go through that process. but start writing drafts early even if you don’t have to. it gives the ideas more time to percolate. don’t procrastinate- set concrete deadlines with yourself or even others, if you’re that worried about keeping yourself accountable.
answer the question “why do i want to be a doctor?” succinctly but fully. keep your language simple- this isn’t a novel or work of fiction, don’t be flowery and focus on big themes that you’re not meant to tackle in about 5000 characters. this is your story. tell it in chronological order- it’s helpful to hit three things:
what made you interested in medicine in the first place? was it your family, friends, an extracurricular activity of some sort?
what have you done to show your interest in medicine? this is where you talk about activities like clinical shadowing and volunteering and research.
how do you want to practice as a physician in the future? what sorts of things do you want to do as a physician? what should medicine be and what does it mean to you?
tell your story in an organized manner. when you bring up an event or activity or experience, describe it and then how that leads back into your “thesis” of sorts- that you want to be a doctor- and how you want to practice as a doctor. it’s like any other analytical essay, make sure everything reinforces the fact that you want to be a physician.
a doctor i shadowed said to start with something eye catching. what is special about you and only you? talk about it, and talk about it first.
you’re not going to come up with something brilliant overnight. this is something you have to sleep on and mull over in the shower and walk around thinking about. my piano professor always said “work slowly, with haste.” be deliberate, but also be aware you need to submit as fast as possible.
make other people read your personal statement. this will help you figure out if it’s clear, free of grammatical errors, and in general whether your personal statement leaves people feeling something positive.
there’s always going to be a bit of a waiting period after you submit, during which your app sits in a queue waiting to be processed. this is a time during which you should be looking at different sources online, looking for past secondary prompts. usually, they don’t change them year to year, so you can prewrite them and then submit them as soon as possible when you get them officially from the school. sometimes you have to request a secondary, but most schools will automatically send you theirs in through email- check to make sure that you get them or request them, especially in your junk folder. i have a friend who is going to a med school whose secondary application actually ended up languishing in his junk folder for more than two weeks. some of my opinions on secondaries:
again: work slowly, with haste. be deliberate but quick about getting these out- you should be getting these out within two weeks of receiving them from the med school.
some of the smallest experiences are things you can write secondaries about. little lab incidents or people you’ve met shadowing can make wonderful secondaries. it’s all about how you tell the story.
check thoroughly for grammatical errors, and have someone else read it to make sure you didn’t make any. avoid passive voice at all costs
you can find past secondaries on student doctor network, but DO NOT spend any more time on there than you need to. seriously. that place is toxic. full of neurotic premeds. r/premed is a bit better, but still. don’t spend a lot of time on there looking for interview dates and invites. it will make you very anxious.
you CAN reuse secondaries about general topics, but tailor your answer to the school for the “why this school” questions. pointing out specific programs and people you’d like to work with in these essays- Proper Nouns as my friend called them- will help adcoms know that you’ve thoroughly done your research on the school and are clearly interested. the worst mistake is probably to leave another school’s name in a “why our school” question. it’s a clear indication you’ve copied and pasted entirely and didn’t do your research.
video secondaries are much more common these days. one school i interviewed with had you answer three short questions in about a minute each, with no real time to prep and write down stuff, like an actual interview. i suggest that you look up common questions for these video secondaries for the school early, write out and practice responses, and if you’re lucky, you get something similar to what you practiced. if you get a video secondary where you can record something over and over without a med school seeing it, write it out first and practice your inflection and tone if you’re not comfortable with talking. treat it like a zoom interview- make sure your shirt is presentable and you have a decent background and good lighting for this.
the goal with secondaries is to show why you’re specifically interested in that school so that you can get an interview. they’re almost as important, if not as important as the personal statement. treat them carefully.
i can’t speak on every type of med school interview- i applied during a very crazy time with the covid vaccine not out yet, so all my interviews were remote. i don’t know if your interviews will be in person, but here’s some things i learned from my interview process:
it’s not going to be as scary as you think it is. most of the time, you’ll get a professor or an older student (like MS3 or MS4), and they just want to chat. they’ll have one or two questions they’re required to ask- usually behavioral or ethical questions- but otherwise, you get to chat and ask questions about their school. it can be very casual. i ended up talking about my studyblr to one of my student interviewers at the school i’m now going to. my friend talked about grilling for five minutes with her interviewer. it’s a conversation and they want to get to know you.
by behavioral questions, i’m referring to questions like “tell about a time you faced a challenge” or “tell me about a time you caught someone cheating.” by ethical questions, these are questions like “if a patient told you they didn’t want a vaccine wyd” or “how do you feel about (insert controversial medical topic here).” here’s a short list of what they usually ask at a med school interview that you should write out and practice ahead of time:
why do you want to be a physician
what’s your greatest strength and weakness
what do you do in your spare time
what’s the biggest pressing question in healthcare today
what’s your stance on (insert controversial medical practice here)
my friend who’s a business major taught me how to answer behavioral questions: the star method, which stands for Situation Task Action Resolution. describe the situation, what you had to do, what you did, and what happened in the end that resolved a conflict. keep your answer short and under two minutes.
make sure you have a long list of questions tailored specifically to the school- ask about research in a particular department, organizations, student run clinics, the curriculum, different facilities. if you get a student interviewer, definitely ask about the student culture and whether everyone gets along with their classmates. the one clincher question i always ask at the end is “what advice do you have for me going into med school or through the rest of the application process?” they will usually have an thoughtful answer and valuable advice.
the best way to formulate questions ahead of time is to go to the student run event the night before. hang out with students; ask what they do. get a feel of the sense of community. they’ll be more than happy to answer, even if it’s a bit awkward.
know everything you wrote down. have it next to you, if you’re online on zoom. whether it’s the committee interview or the actual one, they will nitpick details in your app. it’s all good! just know what you wrote in there and don’t make things up or exaggerate
i don’t think i have to tell you to practice, but you need to practice. practice with a friend, practice with the career services people at your school. the more you get used to it, the less nervous you’ll be.
send a thank you note after! a physical one, not just an email, though you should do both. y’all know i’m into calligraphy, so i handmade mine and sent them to the admissions offices. taking the time to handwrite something, as dark academia enthusiasts know on studyblr, is the highest form of flattery :)
it is soooo hard to keep track of everything going on when you’re applying to med school, especially when you’re also dealing with a full class load and you might have to skip days to interview or even travel if they get back to regular interviews. it’s tough. its very tough. plus the nerves might get to you. there is always so much anxiety about whether your application will be enough, how you will balance this and schoolwork, comparing yourself to peers and worrying about when interview invites will come in. i went through it too. last years cycle was awful for me, mental health wise. i struggled to turn in my primary app, then my secondaries due to severe stress induced writer’s block. i waited and waited and waited for an interview invite from my dream school, stressed about writing a letter of interest, a letter of intent, all of that. i don’t know if i dealt with it very well- those of you who have followed me for a long time know that i very much struggled with my mental health in this period. but after everything on your end gets turned in, it becomes a waiting game that you can do nothing about. adcoms are a bit like a black box- you put something in, you have no idea what happens, and then a decision comes out. in the end, all you can do is accept you have done all the best you can with the decisions you’ve made and actions taken to present yourself the best you can, and let fate play out. med school apps are hard. treat yourself kindly. here are my tips dealing with the mental toll of applying to med school:
get a hobby. there’s two types of hobbies i think. first is the soothing, calming sort of hobby. knitting, sewing, baking, gardening, crocheting, coloring, animal crossing or minecraft, speedrunning wikipedia, that sort of thing. second is the energy-expending type. running, biking, zumba, learning every kpop choreography video on the planet, rock climbing, hiking, whatever it may be. the first type of hobby will help calm you down and distract you mentally. the second type will help you channel nervous energy out of your body and into something positive. of course, don’t overexert yourself- just help yourself produce that Dopamine to keep yourself from hurling yourself into the abyss.
rely on friends. your irl friends (particularly people not applying in your year or non premed peeps), your online friends, including me. i will be your friend. sometimes you’ll need to rant to them. sometimes you’ll need a shoulder to cry on. sometimes you’ll have fantastic news. they should be there for you always.
if you have built a good relationship with your prehealth advisor, confide in them. they’re there for you during this process. don’t bother them too much (like incessantly asking why you haven’t gotten an interview invite) but keep them updated.
don’t let your family get overly nosy or in your business. my mom was so overly worried about all my applications that she stressed me out so much. don’t let your parents do that to you. try to separate application talk from daily life.
stay off student doctor network. do NOT look at the spreadsheet of interview invites. people fake information on there. also stay off the reddit, but the reddit’s a bit more wholesome at times. try not to pay attention to everyone else’s interview invites, and distance yourself from other premeds if you need to if all the talk about iis freaks you out.
practice meditation or deep breathing. my friend swears this helps her deal with her anxiety and it might help you too
some vitamins that might help with energy levels and stress: vitamin b12 or b complex (energy and metabolism), vitamin c (immune system), 5-htp (precursor to serotonin), magnesium (buy some calm to put in your drink, for anxiety)
if you feel so badly about yourself that you feel your daily routines and work are being affected, talk to a mental health counselor. seriously. talk to someone. they will help you. don’t suffer alone.
miscellaneous tips and resources
other random things i think you should just do, just in general
read. read a bunch. fiction, nonfiction, news, magazines, the back of your cereal box, whatever it is. not just about medicine, but the world. doctors don’t operate in a vacuum- we’ll be learning about things in the real world, with people of all kinds. take the time to read on what’s going on and educate yourself, especially in matters of discrimination (be it racial, gender, lgbtq, etc.) bc a) it’s important to be aware of it as a doctor and b) you should want to educate yourself to be a good person
get a good interview outfit. get two, actually. you always want a spare in case you spill something or pop a button on accident.
get sleep, stay hydrated, and remember to eat food and take your meds. these are a given, but this is my reminder to you now to take care of yourself first and put worrying about apps on the back burner if you don’t feel right.
my other posts that might help you out
mcat prep - an extensive explanation of my study process
what to know about undergrad research
tips for freshman premeds
other resources that might help you out
a med student’s advice for in person interviews
my friend’s advice on interviews and the personal statement
if you made it to the end of this post, congratulations! you’ve read a mammoth of a post. i tried my best to get all my brain cells together enough for y’all to get this done lol. there are certainly tips or subtleties i’ve left out just because there’s so much to cover. but i hope this can help you out.
go into the world, future doctors, and do your best! i will be cheering you on, wherever you are. you’re going to be great and you’re going to do great things. i hope i can call you doctor one day as well.
