There were a lot of mistakes I made when applying to medical school. I didn’t think it differed much from applying to undergrad. Therefore, I didn’t ask for help or do too much research into how to increase my chance of getting into medical school. But, I learned from that experience and wanted to share with you my mistakes. This way, you don’t have to be like me, and can have success much sooner than I. Keep reading to learn the top 10 mistakes I made when applying to medical school.
1. Underestimating the Importance of Grades
When I was applying to medical school, I did not have the grades. I had a 2.99 science GPA and a 3.25 overall GPA. I did well in my psychology courses (which was my major). But I struggled in my science courses, earning mostly Bs, with one A, a couple of Cs, and unfortunately, one D. Instead of using my last year to take extra classes and bolster my GPA, I just accepted it and applied with those stats.
This did not bode me well because schools couldn’t get past my low GPA. No matter how much of an involved student I sold myself to be, at the end of the day, they wanted to see the grades. Now that I am in medical school, I understand their rationale. Medical schools believe that it is a disservice to admit students who do not demonstrate academic competency. Medical school costs too much, so if you don’t show that you can handle college courses, they don’t have a lot of confidence that you can handle medical school courses.
2. Cramming in MCAT Studying
Another one of the mistakes I made when applying to medical school was cramming in my MCAT studying. In April, I scheduled my MCAT for the July after Junior year. I had planned on studying throughout that year, but got busy. Then during the summer, I worked a full-time job and studied for the MCAT for two months. Evenings, weekends, and off days were spent studying for the MCAT. Although I logged anywhere from 40-60 hours a week studying, it was so rushed, that I couldn’t learn all that I needed to learn.
When I got to the exam, I was thoroughly surprised at how difficult the exam was. It was so bad, that I ended up crying in the middle of it! Basically, I had a panic attack about my entire future because I couldn’t make it through the biology/biochemistry section. If I could do it again, I would increase the amount of time I spent preparing for the MCAT. That way, not only could I have learned more about the information, but also how to take the exam.
3. Not Participating in Anything Clinical
Clinical experience is crucial to your medical school application, and I had absolutely none of it. I legitimately had no clinical experience to any degree. Clinical experience is important to medical schools because you are investing time and money to be a clinician. So, how can you convince medical schools to let you in when you haven’t shown any interest or experience in the clinical aspect of medicine?
They are looking for aspects of your application that are specific to medicine. This means that your experiences, jobs, and reasons for being a doctor are specific to medicine and cannot be achieved elsewhere. When you are applying to medical school, get some type of experience in a clinical environment, and make sure to put it on your application.
4. Not Having Shadowing Experience
In addition to clinical experience, one of the mistakes I made when applying to medical school was not having any shadowing experience. When I look back on my application, it’s actually comical to me that I thought I could get in. I had nothing but charisma, and that was not enough for those people to think I would have survived medical school.
Shadowing experience is important because it’s different from clinical experience. They sort of achieve the same goal of exposing you to the clinical aspects of medicine. However, they differ in the sense that clinical experience is more like a job, and shadowing is just learning. Whether you work as a nurse, a medical assistant, a scribe, etc., you are getting clinical experience by doing something. But this takes away from your ability to learn about what it’s like to be a doctor in a variety of specialties. This is where shadowing experience comes in, and why it’s so important as a medical student applicant.
5. Participating in Extracurriculars that Weren’t Relevant
When I was in undergrad, I participated in every single extracurricular of which I could think. I worked for the women’s basketball team, participated in a research lab, worked in the new student office as an orientation leader, was the president of a sorority, worked as a tutor for the athletic department, worked as a referee and then a supervisor for intramural sports, and I think that’s it…
Although I had such a great time and wouldn’t change anything about my experience, I do think that I took time away from the opportunity to do relevant extracurriculars. This includes working as a scribe or volunteering in a hospital. Now as a medical student, I am involved in many things, but I have a larger plan at play that ties all of my extracurriculars together. There is an end goal of which I will be explaining to residency programs. So, participate in all the extracurriculars you want, but the more relevant ones will definitely bolster your application.
6. Lack of Diversity in Schools
When I was applying to medical school, I only applied to nine schools. That may sound like quite a few schools, but it’s not. And I only applied to M.D., or allopathic, medical schools. I didn’t even apply to any HBCU medical schools. I thought that D.O. schools and H.B.C.U. medical schools were not top programs. However, that could not be farther from the truth.
A lack of diversity in the schools to which I applied was one of the biggest mistakes I made when applying to medical school. Most of that was just due to a lack of research, and relying on assumptions. That is the opposite of what you want to do. There are so many premier institutions that may accept students with lower stats, but still provide great education. However, you won’t know about them if you don’t do your research.
7. Applying to Out-of-State Unfriendly Schools
Another one of the mistakes I made when applying to medical school was applying to out-of-state unfriendly schools. There are state institutions and some private institutions that highly value their in-state students. So, not to sound like a debbie downer, but if you are not a resident of that state, it’s probably not worth applying to.
For example, I applied to the University of Kentucky, and they informed me that they only accept Kentucky residents, or graduates from the University of Kentucky. So it was not worth my time applying to that school, regardless of what my stats looked like. Texas schools are similar in that they highly value in-state residents. Do you research on the school and if they accept out-of-state students. If their demographics are very low for students who are not residents of the state, then find other schools that do not consider state of origin in their acceptance process.
8. A Paper-Thin Personal Statement
My personal statement was not the best, and was another one of the top mistakes I made when applying to medical school. It was just very generic, general, and did not highlight why I wanted to go to medical school. And you know why? Because I had absolutely nothing to base my decision on. No clinical experience. No experience in a hospital environment. Nothing.
Your personal statement should be the personal connection you have to the medical profession. It has to be something specific to medicine, and being a physician. Helping people is not enough, because there are plenty of other jobs you can do that help people. However, being a physician requires you to like something about the science, the art of medicine, or some aspect that you cannot achieve in another profession. So as you review your personal statement, ask yourself is there any other job that I can do the things I’ve written about in my essay? If the answer is no, then you probably have a good personal statement that reflects why you want to be a doctor, specifically.
9. Not Participating in Summer Programs
Summer programs in medical school are an excellent way to get involved in the medical school community and learn about research and clinical experience. Texas actually has a program called JAMP that introduces undergraduate students to Texas medical schools. Each medical school in Texas is required to host a JAMP program that includes a summer camp. Even if you are outside of medical school, other programs offer great summer research and medical scholar programs. Participating in these programs not only gets your foot in the door, but provides you with a really unique experience to write about in your essays.
I did not know about summer programs, or really put much effort into finding any information about these opportunities. I honestly had a summer camp job that I loved working that took over any opportunity to participate in any medical programs. Had I done something different, then maybe I would have given myself a better chance of getting in the first time.
10. Not Networking or Attending Conferences
Something that I never considered doing, which was one of my mistakes I made when applying to medical school was going to conferences or networking with people who work for a medical school. Sometimes, getting into medical school is about who you know and not just what you know. So, if you know someone who works for a medical school, or a hospital connected to a medical school, then use that connection. Ask what you can do to make yourself a good medical school applicant, and make a good impression with them. If you know them outside of your application, then they may be able to push for an interview so you can impress some of the other admissions committee members.
If you don’t know anyone, then the next best thing is to attend a conference. This was also one of the biggest mistakes I made when applying to medical school because I never thought about attending a conference. However, conferences are gatherings of all the professionals in the field, and sometimes they even have specific break out sessions for future medical students. If you are participating in research at your undergraduate institution, then try and submit to a conference that includes individuals from medical schools.
Key Takeaways
There were a lot of mistakes I made when applying to medical school, and although this is a part of my story, I could have made some different choices and entered medical school earlier. So, I hope you take my mistakes and use them to launch yourself into a matriculating medical school class.
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