Most medical schools review applications holistically, so while MCAT scores and GPA play an important role, other factors — like clinical experience, volunteer work, research and extracurricular activities — are also considered.
“Any med school hopeful would want to try their best to get some experience in each of those buckets,” says Sarika Thakur, a medical school admissions counselor at Ivywise, a New York-based admissions consulting company. “It doesn’t necessarily have to be an expansive amount, but enough to let admissions committees know that medical school hopefuls (understand) what they’re getting into when they pursue a career in medicine. It’s a demanding career and they just want to make sure people are informed as they’re applying.”
Every medical school has its own mission, culture, policies and procedures — one size does not fit all, says Tami Levin, director of premedical and applicant resources at the Association of American Medical Colleges.
“The best way for an applicant to learn about medical school is to read their mission statement,” she says. “The mission statement is going to, in any case, tell you the type of applicants they hope to attract, their admissions processes, the way in which they educate their students and where ultimately they hope to see them practice. It’s a good starting point to see what’s important to the university and see if the student themselves has the same kind of goals and places the same level of importance on different factors.”
Factors Considered in Med School Admissions
MCAT Score
The MCAT is not a test you can cram for, Thakur says. There are many MCAT preparation materials available online, including through AAMC, the organization that administers the exam.
“You definitely want to make sure that you hit all the four key areas of the MCAT equally and over a period of time,” she says. “I would also most definitely recommend taking a few practice MCAT exams because the physical requirements it takes to take the MCAT, where you’re sitting for (a long time), it’s hard on the body, it’s hard on the mind. So you want to make sure that you train for it just like you would any type of sport.”
[See: What Is a Good MCAT Score?]
Prospective medical school applicants can use AAMC’s Medical School Admission Requirements, or MSAR, tool to search information such as MCAT scores and GPA data of prior classes at U.S. and Canadian medical schools. A one-year subscription costs $28 and a two-year subscription is $36.
MSAR is a “good indicator of what the ranges are for the academic metrics for their particular school,” Thakur says. “I know everyone tends to have a dream school and that’s great … But I do encourage all applicants to cast a wide net because you don’t want to limit yourself to only one medical school, given how competitive the landscape is.”
GPA
Medical schools consider GPA trends when reviewing applications. And they request your grades from all undergraduate courses you took anywhere, including at community college or dual enrollment high school courses.
“If somebody started out with difficulty freshman year, maybe didn’t do that well sophomore year, but then later took more science courses and there’s an ascending GPA — that counts, that matters to us,” says Dr. Cheryl Hanau, senior associate dean of admissions and enrollment for Drexel University College of Medicine in Pennsylvania.
If you have a lower GPA, talk with a prehealth adviser to determine whether you should enroll in a postbaccalaureate program, earn a graduate degree or take a few extra courses, Levin says.
However, if you’ve been out of school for a while and don’t have an adviser, you can seek support through the National Association of Advisors for the Health Professions, which pairs you with an experienced volunteer adviser who reviews your application to “see if you are ready to apply or what you might need to do to become a more prepared and competitive applicant,” Levin says.
“I think it’s really important that once you identify a weakness in your application, whether it’s medical exposure or science grades or MCAT or whatever it is, you need to address that,” Hanau says. “Because every once in a while, we’ll see somebody whose science GPA is low, but then they get a graduate degree in public health. Well, it’s great that they got a graduate degree in public health but that doesn’t show me that you can handle many rigorous basic science courses at once.”
[Read: Tips for Becoming a Doctor Later in Life]
Required or Recommended Courses
Required or recommended courses vary per medical school. They can be found using the MSAR tool and typically include biology, chemistry, physics, math and psychology.
Beyond meeting the requirements, it’s also good to take a course you are really interested in “because you’re not going to get to do it again,” Hanau says. “One of my favorite courses was film criticism and appreciation. And I still use it when I watch movies.”
Extracurricular Activities, Volunteer Work, Clinical Experience
Beyond strong academics, applicants need to show that they know what they’re signing up for, Hanau says.
“Every once in a while, there’s somebody who doesn’t have any medical exposure and they’ve just figured it out by watching TV or seeing their family member, and that doesn’t really do it,” she says. “So showing that you’ve had some exposure to the medical field, so you can say, ‘This is why I’ve decided on it.’? Then there’s the issue of showing a service orientation. We think of physicians as people who are service-oriented and care about the health of the community, and so involvement in bettering the community wherever they are.”
Clinical experience can be demonstrated through shadowing doctors or volunteering in health care environments, for example. Applicants can also volunteer at a nonmedical facility, hold leadership positions, be a mentor or tutor, or play an instrument, among other extracurricular activities.
“There’s so many different kind of extracurriculars and volunteering activities and just something to show that the applicant is a well-rounded individual,” Thakur says.
Research
Research is an admissions factor that has the ?”most variability among schools,” Hanau says.
“Here at Drexel, we are down the street from the University of Pennsylvania‘s Medical School, and I think research is valued more highly in the application there than it might be here,” she says. “We care about it, we love to see it, but the expectation of ‘Do you have published papers’ is going to vary at different schools.”
Therefore, it’s important to be an informed consumer, Hanau adds. “This is an expensive endeavor — you should apply for schools that match who you are and the record that you’ve compiled.”
[Read: How to Discuss Diversity in Medical School Application Essays]
When Should You Apply to Med School?
Med school hopefuls should be aware of all application dates and deadlines, experts say. The American Medical College Application Service, or AMCAS, which is used by most medical schools for their primary application, usually opens in early May each year but doesn’t accept submissions until late May or early June. That cycle’s applications are for students hoping to start med school in the fall of the following calendar year.
“Sending it sooner rather than later during the year that you’re applying is important just in terms of volume,” Hanau says. “You have to get your AMCAS in and then you’re going to get your secondaries and many of the secondaries are going to ask you to write essays.”
Secondary application requirements vary by school and seek to learn more about applicants.
Levin says that med school hopefuls should “apply when they’re ready,” as the AMCAS application can’t be filled out quickly.
“It does take a considerable amount of time to complete and there are many components,” she says. “Many schools have rolling admissions. So the further you are into an application cycle, perhaps the fewer spots are available at any given medical school.”
But advisers can give advice on whether your application is competitive enough to apply later in the cycle. “It is so individualized,” Levin says. “?It’s really hard to tell anyone, do this in June or July. It really is specific to something in their situation.”
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How to Fulfill Med School Admission Requirements originally appeared on usnews.com
