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The medical school admissions process has several stages. A brief
outline of the process follows.
1. Before you apply to medical school
Getting accepted into medical school takes planning. It takes 2-3
years of pre-application work to be ready. Your job in these early
years is to:
- Get as strong a GPA as you can
- Complete all the required
courses for admission into medical school
- Build relationships with physicians, faculty and researchers
who will provide your letters of recommendation
- Build a history of success outside of shoolwork - this could
be a research project, or any extracurricular activity in which
you stand out
- Prepare for and do well on the MCAT (MCAT
test prep)
2. Your preliminary application
Your preliminary application for most US allopathic schools go through
AMCAS.
The 7 medical and dental schools in the University of Texas system
(not including Baylor medical school) use the TMDSAS
for their preliminary application. There are several elements that
make up a good preliminary application. They include:
- Strong "numbers": MCAT
scores and GPA.
- Great letters of recommendation
- A well written, clear medical
school personal statement. This is a lot more important than
people assume, so don't leave it to chance. Professional editing
is definitely worth it (see Cyberedit
for help on this).
- Your extra-curricular activities
- Choosing the right schools to which to apply. Strategies vary,
so get a lot of opinions on how to do this. We recommend choosing:
- 2-3 "safety schools"
- 8-12 "competitive schools"
- 2-3 "long-shot schools"
- Use the Medical
School Search tool to find out which schools would be
"saftey schools", which would be "competitive
medical schools" and which would be the long-shot "top
medical schools" for your scores.
3. Secondary applications
Most medical schools send out secondary applications if you pass their
"initial screen." Secondary applications are unique to each
school and often consist of more personal information and several
essay questions. Secondary applications take a lot of time to fill
out, so budget time for this.
4. The medical school interview
If you get past the preliminary and secondary application stage you'll
be invited to the medical school for an interview. This is a basically
a courting ritual. Make them like you, and see if you like them. Engage
your interviewer, show that you were interested enough in the school
to find out the basics about it, and ask more detailed questions about
the institution.
Interviewers want to know if you will be a good match for the university.
Don't assume all medical schools are the same. Some specialize in
primary care, some insist on a research component to your education
- know this before you go. If you show up at Duke or Stanford medical
school and say you're not interested in research, you're going to
have trouble.
5. Getting THE letter
One day the letter will come. Perhaps by snail mail, perhaps by
email. Thick good, thin uncertain. Expect some rejections - not all
qualified applicants get accepted where they should. Much of the admissions
process is hit-or-miss, it's not science. Don't take rejections personally.
Once you've been accepted to two schools, withdraw your application
from schools lower on your list - the schools you known you won't
go to now that you've been accepted at a school high on your list.
This helps other students get a spot.
Your next job is to enjoy the heck out of your last summer.
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