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Medical School: So, you wanna be a doctor, huh?...PART IMay 18 '00 (Updated Jun 08 '00) Write an essay on this topic.An introduction to medicine, medical school, and the application process As corny as it sounds, the most important aspect of your "pre-med" life is learning about medicine. There's no specific inquiry you must make, nor any golden questions you must ask. Learn about medicine at your leisure, spend ample time to read, observe, and question those in the field, and then spend further time digesting it all and eventually apply it to your own life. The bottom line is that you need to get to a point where you're familiar enough with the field of medicine that you can realistically consider it as a viable career option for you. Of all professional and non-professional careers, medicine has some of the greatest demands on your physical, mental, and emotional sides, and you really need to be confident that it's the right career for you. How? You need to know that you will love it, and be willing to sacrifice your entire 20s (if you're planning on going right after your undergrad education) for the educational requirements. To get to this point, you need to be as familiar as you can with what medicine is really about; obviously, since you don't have an MD, you are somewhat limited in your capacity to truly experience and appreciate the overwhelming responsibility of being a physician, but you have to do your best to evade the Catch-22 of, "How will I really know about the field without getting my MD, while I cannot get my MD unless I commit to the field?" Honestly, that's a toughie, but you must do your best to try. Hey, if you're really curious about the field of medicine, you'll find a way, whether it's a stint in an ER, shadowing a physician, working as an EMT, doing clerical work in a doctor's office, working for an HMO or non-profit health organization, working at a hospice, or free clinic...I think you get where I'm headed. Know this is what you want to do...if you're not sure...keep exploring. Some things to consider before you apply So you think medicine is the career for you...good. Unfortunately, a strong will to become a physician is not enough to get you into medical school. There are significant objective requirements you must fulfill in order for a school to admit you. I am really not going to delve too deeply into all these requirements; for a list, you can stop by your university's career center for some handouts, or pick up any of the How To Get Into Medical School books published by Princeton Review, Barron's, Arco, etc. in the Test Prep/College Guides section of your local bookstore. As a recent participant in the whole application process, the point of this editorial is to offer you information these mass-market publications seem to neglect or overlook...or simply don't have the inside information to provide. This just in: for an insightful look into the pre-med life and some issues you might confront as must decide whether medicine is indeed your calling, check out fellow epinion member dave_huber's three editorials below: http://www.epinions.com/educ-review-B91-32936FC-39330896-prod5 http://www.epinions.com/educ-review-4A16-3B2FB4F-39346943-prod5 http://www.epinions.com/educ-review-77F-7DADA37-393F0064-prod4 The Application Process Part I: All that damn paperwork So, I'll make the assumption that you know full well about the requirements for medical school, including but not limited to: a decent score on the MCAT, taken in April of the year before you are planning to matriculate, meaning if you are applying in summer of 2000 for a spot in the entering class of 2001, make sure you completed your MCAT by April of 2000. A decent GPA, and hopefully a strong academic major in basic science classes and your major (it usually doesn't wash very well if you don't perform very well in the field you claim to be interested in, i.e., your major, with the exception of unforeseen circumstances). Strong letters of recommendation from faculty (faculty of your university is the top choice, followed by people you've worked with, etc.) that illustrate you as a good person and one who is intellectually capable of the rigors of medicine, and is mature enough to handle it. Decent evidence that you understand what medicine is about. This last "requirement" will be addressed in greater detail shortly. Key tip #1: Apply EARLY I cannot stress this enough. Send in your AMCAS as soon as they begin accepting it, usually June 1. I sent mine in around June 14, and I felt like I was on the bubble of the first wave of schools getting back to me with secondaries. Also, applying early seems to contradict the thought of taking the MCAT that August, as your scores will not be available to schools until October, putting you at a disadvantage against students turning all their stuff in early. Take the MCAT in April. And get your stuff in EARLY! A few schools (NYU, Baylor, and Columbia come to mind) do not use the AMCAS, so request their applications ASAP as well. Don't dawdle, I cannot highlight and rehighlight this enough. Key tip #2: Write Well...Very Well That said about getting stuff in early, don't submit anything that's poorly written or poorly compiled just to get it in early. A few days here and there won't kill you, and will probably make a huge difference if you spend the time diligently polishing your written work. For me, I didn't have the greatest stats (low science GPA (yeah, yeah, so I'm a hypocrite...you can learn from my mistakes), low overall GPA, average to strong MCAT scores, and a boatload of activities and research), so I realized that my personal statement and subsequent essays were my make-or-break component of my application. At that point, I couldn't change my grades as I wanted to apply this past year, nor did I really want to retake the MCAT, and I wasn't lined up to do anything exceptional, like relief work in a foreign country. The one thing I could control was the quality of all my writings, so I worked very hard on writing a personal statement that really summed up my desires to become a doctor, as well offer a glimpse into who I am as a person and the things I had done to get me to where I was then. To me, the trick to writing a convincing autobiographical piece is to be as truthful as possible and illustrate your thoughts and feelings with real examples. It also doesn't hurt to write eloquently and error-free. What do you have to lose by writing a stunning personal statement? Maybe a few nights at a bar when you're proofing your essay at a cafe instead? Peanuts, really, for what you could potentially gain. Get as many people as you feel comfortable with to look over your essays, from science people to non-science people. The people reading your application (and there could be 10+) will come from hugely diverse backgrounds, experiences, and interests, so it helps if your stuff is easily approachable for the layman, while being compelling enough for the expert, all rolled into one. Yes, it's tough, but you won't get good results unless you spend the time working on them. Key tip #3: Know the process a little...what happens to your application? So, now you have an amazing personal statement and a succinct list of your activities, your grades and personal information. What's gonna happen when you submit it? The unfortunate answer: anything and everything. Some schools will send you a secondary application automatically, with nary a look at your AMCAS. Other schools (often public schools, to generalize a bit) will screen your AMCAS objectively, using a formula to account for your GPA and MCAT score, sometimes but not always adjusting it for the "reputation" of your undergrad school, and creating some sort of cut-off point, where they send a secondary to everyone at or above this number. Of course, the bar can be raised or lowered depending on other factors, such as socioeconomic status, or other "affirmative action" measures schools take. If you are fortunate enough to receive a secondary application from a school follow the first two rules above: take all the essays seriously and write them well. And get those in early too, along with your letters of recommendation and anything else the school requests. Your application will only be complete when a school receives EVERYTHING it asks for. One little thing can hold up your application indefinitely and it will NOT be reviewed until it's 100% complete. This is why it's important to always remember the GET IT IN EARLY philosophy. Getting in the AMCAS early is only the first step, but it can mean getting your secondaries first, as many schools review applications in bulk, as they come in. For example, school X might start reviewing once 200 apps come in. Then, they move on to the next 200. Basically, you want to be in that first pool of 200. Getting your secondaries early gives you the potential to COMPLETE your application early as well, which can mean an earlier interview. A school will request to interview you after going over your entire file: grades, MCAT, activities, personal statement, secondary essays, letters of rec, statements of extenuating circumstances. Some schools interview a lot of applicants, others really weed based on the application and don't interview that many. Pick up a copy of the Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR) 2001-2002 at your college bookstore, or go to www.aamc.org to learn where you can order a copy. Get this book! It profiles EVERY medical school in the US and Canada, listing course requirements and average statistics for virtually every school, including number of applicants, in-state and out-of-state, number of interviews offered, and ultimate acceptance rate. This is a nice segue for the final chapter of this post... Key tip #4: Know a bit about each school before you apply This will save you a lot of time and money. The aforementioned book, MSAR, will give you a rundown of the average stats for a given medical school, so you can match your own to gauge your chances of getting into a school and find other schools that are in-line with your application. If your state has a medical school or two, apply, as state schools are excellent deals financially and usually give preference to state residents. On the flip side, if you want to apply to a state school but you're not a resident of the state, look it up in the MSAR to see your chances. A school's policy might be that it doesn't take anyone out of state, and even if you have the most stellar application, it's a waste of time and money to apply to such a school. Use common sense, above all. Don't apply to a school if you are certain you are not going to be happy there, for whatever reason. Almost all schools these days have web pages, so you can get a decent amount of info about a school without even visiting it. Find out if the school is very clinically oriented, research oriented, or both, and apply that information toward the type of physician you think you want to be. Narrow it down as much as you can. The thought of getting 20 secondaries might be exciting, so you decide to apply to 40-50 schools...but that 20th secondary will be murder on you after you've slaved through the first 19, and at what quality? I'd say it's better to do 8-10 secondaries VERY well, versus 15-20 mediocrely. Trust me, secondaries get old very fast...I ended up doing around 12...and that twelfth one nearly killed me. For handy new compilation of what medical students actually think about their school, point your browser to: www.amsa.org/resource/cardev/medsurvey. This site is still a little new, so take the numbers with a grain of salt (notice the SD for the schools you select), until more people's surveys get included. So, I think that concludes PART I of my little expose here. I'll post PART II, which details the interviewing process in a bit...at least within the next month. Also, I'll probably be updating this editorial from time to time as I think of new things to include...this first draft was written in one sitting. If you're thinking, who the heck is this guy to write all this?, I don't blame you. I'm no expert on how to get in to medical school...I just recently went through the process (starting last June and ending a couple months ago), and I just wanted to share with you my experiences and caveats about this very complicated and often confusing process. And, yes, I'll be going to medical school this fall. Where? Well, let's just say I won't have to move out of state... Quick update: PART II, which deals with interviewing, has been posted. You can find it at: http://www.epinions.com/educ-review-24F2-DFBFE53-39370002-prod1 Good luck, all of you!  |
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