New guidelines approved this month by the Association of American Medical Colleges affect the medical school admissions timeline, and for some students, waitlist decisions.
As a medical school candidate, you will not notice much of a difference in the first months of the upcoming admissions season, other than schools announcing their new timelines. Some schools’ timelines may differ slightly from the AAMC guidelines, which take effect next April.
[Read: How to Get Into Top Medical Schools.]
On April 30, you will be asked to choose one medical school. Schools will know only if you selected their program, and schools are not allowed to communicate with one another about any particular applicant.
If, by April 1, you are an undecided applicant and among the lucky students who hold multiple acceptances, you should start holding conversations about your key decision points. Consider which factors you want to discuss with your parents, school deans, significant other, and, possibly, students at your top medical school choices.
You may have some constraints to consider, such as location and distance from home, finances, personal learning style compared with the school’s teaching style, mental health resources and support network. The sooner you speak with everyone who factors into your decision, the better.
[Read: Strategies to Select the Right Medical School to Attend.]
The new AAMC guidelines may affect the decision-making process considerably. It’s possible that Second-Look weekends will be crammed into one month, which is even tighter than they have been in the past.
What’s more, the new guidelines make managing the waitlist trickier. If all students drop off waitlists after picking their first choice by April 30, all will be well. All the slots will be filled, and the maximum number of students can attend medical school. Any remaining openings can be filled by students who had not yet been selected for admission.
If, however, some students stay on a waitlist and withdraw from one medical school to enroll in another after the academic year begins, it may leave openings that cannot be filled — particularly at schools that offer unique programs to students as soon as they enroll, such as research projects.
[Read: 4 Answers About Medical School Letters of Intent.]
To avoid a preponderance of unfilled openings and, thus, a situation in which qualified students miss the opportunity to attend medical school, students as well as schools must adhere to high standards of professionalism. Per the AAMC guidelines, schools are encouraged to ask applicants about their intention to matriculate and whether they have already matriculated at another medical school.
Students should recognize that they will excel from wherever they begin. It is what you do with what you have that matters in the end. Students who change medical schools at the last minute will not necessarily find themselves in a better situation, and they may deny other students a chance to achieve the same dream.
Come next April, medical schools and students will be put to the test.
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How Medical School Admissions Will Change in 2019 originally appeared on usnews.com
