Articles

Apr 22 2018

Here is what matters to medical schools according to AMCAS

Applying to medical school is hard! There are many important components to one’s medical school application that must be considered. When applying to medical school you are evaluated based on your GPA, MCAT, letters of recommendation, shadowing experience, volunteering, extracurricular activities, and personal statement. This can make it hard to know what really matters when it comes to getting into medical school. Luckily, the AAMC has released a document that shows some important statistics about those who got accepted. Let’s see what we can learn from it!

Applicants and Enrollees:

A total of 49,990 applied and 29,840 that were accepted. This means that only 42% of students who applied for medical school got accepted.
Of the students who applied: 49% were White, 21% were Asian, 8.9% were Multiracial, 7.1% were African American, 6.5% were Hispanic, 3.6% identified as Unknown Race, 1.8% identified as Other, 1.3% were Non-U.S Citizen, 0.2% were American Indian or Alaska Native, and 0.1% were Native Hawaiin or Pacific Islander.

Average GPA:

The average GPA of applicants was 3.57.
The average GPA of enrollees was 3.71.

This is a pretty decent indicator that GPA is not as major a factor as most pre-meds think. While you definitely do not need a 4.00 GPA to get into medical school, you should still have a decent to high GPA. This gives a good idea of the GPA we want to be around (3.71).

Language and Age:

30.2% of enrollees speak another language other than English
The range of ages for enrollees was 19 to 49 years old.

This indicates that being bilingual could be beneficial to your chances of getting accepted into medical school. Being bilingual could show your ability to communicate well with others and understand different cultures.

The age range shows that it doesn’t matter how old you are when it comes to getting accepted into medical school. So don’t fret if you are an older applicant! I was about 3 years older than the normal applicant age when I got accepted! What really matters is if you can show the medical schools that you are serious about medicine and have the ability to handle the rigors of medical school.

Average MCAT score:

The average MCAT score of applicants was 502.9
The average MCAT score of enrollees was 508.9

This is good news to alot of pre-meds! This goes to show that the MCAT also doesn’t need to be as high as you would expect. You definitely don’t have to have a 515 or higher to get into medical school! And since the average MCAT score for those accepted was about 509 that means there were plenty of people who were accepted that got a few points lower than that.

Enrollee profile:

12.8 million community service hours provided by enrollees
85.1% of enrollees had research/lab experience
80.9% of enrollees had shadowing/clinical observation

This tells us what medical schools really value in their applicants. Volunteering, doing research, and having clinical exposure are incredibly important to getting accepted into medical school. Volunteering shows medical schools that you are willing to sacrifice your time for others and that you want to help the community. Research is important to medical schools because they have research programs they want you to partake in at their school usually. Clinical exposure (especially shadowing) is super important for medical schools, this one is probably the most important for most medical schools. They want to see that you know what medicine is really like and that you will be okay with a career in medicine. Make sure you have a good amount of volunteer hours (about 100 hours logged is decent), experience doing research, and a variety of clinical observation and shadowing before applying. It really matters.

Summary:

One of the main takeaways from these statistics is that there is a lot that goes into a medical school application. While GPA and MCAT are still very important, they are not everything. Having volunteering hours, research experience and shadowing experience are just as important. Try and make sure that your GPA and MCAT are at least within the range of what enrollees are and focus on really standing out in your research and clinical exposure. Remember, even if your GPA or MCAT score is not as high as you would like, you can still get in by having exceptional clinical experience. Go ahead and analyze the statistics from the AMCAS yourself and see what else you can learn from it!

Click here to view the document from the AAMC.

You can also download the document here.

Tell us what you think by leaving a comment down below! For more pre-med tips and advice, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, twitter, and pinterest!

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Apr 15 2018

5 Tips Every Pre-Med Needs To Hear Now

The process of applying to medical school is long and complicated. It requires pre-med students to use their undergraduate years wisely to build up a good application. As a pre-med it is important to know what to focus your time on and to have a game plan on how to accomplish what you need to. After applying to medical school, these are my 5 most important tips I can give to pre-medical students.

1.GPA and MCAT are not everything. Don’t underestimate the value of your extracurriculars

Many pre-med students fall into the trap of thinking that their MCAT and GPA are the only factors that matter to whether they get accepted into medical school. This is definitely not the case! Your GPA and MCAT are certainly important but they are not everything. Your extracurricular can be even more important to some schools than your GPA or MCAT. This will be especially obvious when you are filling out your primary and secondary applications. Medical schools care about your shadowing, research, and volunteering! If you don’t have a good list of activities you have done, you will have a very hard time impressing any medical school even with a good GPA or MCAT. Remember, GPA and MCAT are just one component of your medical application. Don’t get so caught up in them that you forget to do your extracurricular activities! In fact, if you have a bad GPA or low MCAT score, your extracurricular activities can be what still give you a chance at getting accepted!

2. Start early on building your “pre-med resume”

What I mean by “pre-med resume” is your list of activities and extracurriculars that you can write about on your primary and secondary applications. You should begin working on building up your pre-medical resume as soon as possible. It is much easier to get in a variety of volunteering, extracurricular activities, and shadowing in when you have 3-4 years before applying than if you waited till the last year. My advice is START EARLY on building your pre-medical resume. Start looking for physicians to shadow as soon as possible and getting those volunteer hours in. It looks better to medical schools as well if you have a long history of volunteering than if you just tried to grind it out over a month or two. Another advantage of starting early is that you will have more time to build relationships that can lead to quality letters of recommendation.

3.Try to start finding opportunities that will present you with memorable experiences

Medical schools love to ask about memorable experiences that you have had that is related to medicine or motivated you to pursue medicine. There will be questions about this all over your secondary applications and during your interview. That is why it is important you seek out opportunities that other pre-med students probably aren’t doing. This could be things such as a volunteer trip to help serve people in an underserved area or country, volunteering for hospice, being involved in some non-profit organization, going on a trip to present your research at a conference, or even just something memorable from shadowing.

4.Learn about the school’s you plan on applying to

If you haven’t done this, do it right now. Knowing about the schools you are applying to will help you realize what the ideal applicant is for their school. If the school you are applying to values research a lot, you better make sure to get some research experience under your belt. You will have a big advantage by knowing what the schools you are applying to are looking for in applicants. This will help you tailor your application to the schools you are interested in applying to.

5. Plan out your pre-med years

Take the time to plan out your pre-med years ahead of you. Figure out what your goals are for your freshmen, sophmore, junior, and senior year as a pre-med. Come up with a game plan for how you are going to get in your shadowing, research, and volunteer hours. You also want to come up with a general timeline for when you want to take the MCAT and when you plan on actually applying for medical school. Take some time to create a document where you basically outline the way you want to allocate your time as a pre-med. This will help you stay organized and be on top of all your pre-med goals. Doing so will make your life much easier!

Tell us what you think by leaving a comment down below! For more pre-med tips and advice, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, twitter, and pinterest!

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Apr 02 2018

Pre-med guide to creating an effective MCAT study plan

The MCAT is arguably the most important aspect of getting into medical school. Without a good MCAT score you might not even get the chance to have the rest of your application reviewed. Many medical schools have a cut off grade for the minimum MCAT score required to apply. Its no wonder that so many pre-med students dread taking this exam! Your chance of getting into medical school could depend on how well you do! That is why it is important to make sure you study smart and effectively for the exam. I was able to improve my score about 10 whole points within less than two months, using the methods and strategies I am about to share in this guide. This is a basic overview of what you should do to prepare, I will be sharing a more in depth and detailed guide in the future. So be on the look out for that!

General tips for preparing for the MCAT:

Start with a practice test:

Starting with a practice test by the AAMC is the best way to get started on your preparation. You really need to do this. It accomplishes a few things. First, it shows you what the real MCAT is like. You will get to see what type of questions it asks, how much time it takes you to complete a certain section, and just gives you a general feel for the exam. Second, it will show you right away what your weakest areas are and what you need to focus your studying on.

Make a word document to help organize your studying:

This can be really helpful as well. You want to list all of the topics that you have struggled with and then also include all the new notes you have taken for those topics. These topics should be very specific, such as: Colligative properties, action potentials, DNA replication, lenses/mirrors, etc.

Lets take an example: So let’s say you had a hard time remembering the colligative properties on your last MCAT practice test. You will go ahead and add colligative properties to the word document. Now you will do some studying and research about colligative properties to learn what you need to know. Once you have found the formulas and information you need for that topic, such as boiling point elevation and freezing point depression, you will add it under colligative properties. Once you have finished with adding in all the notes for colligative properties you will move on to the next topic.

Split your day in how you study:

When it comes to preparing for the MCAT its important that you not only learn the material for the test but also actually do practice problems. The MCAT is like no other test, the way it asks questions and uses passages is unique. This is why you absolutely need to allocate atleast half of your study time to doing practice problems. If possible, everyday you are preparing for the MCAT try and split your study time into reviewing information and doing practice problems. I suggest studying and revieweing your weak areas first for an hour or two, and then using the rest of your study time to do practice problems in those areas. For example, study and review some flashcards in the morning and then in the afternoon do some practice problems.

Do practice problems:

I cannot emphasize this enough, you NEED to be doing practice problems constantly. It is not enough to just study and review the information. You have to continue to grind through practice problems for every topic. This is the only way to get good at the MCAT. These practice problems must mimic the style and difficulty of the MCAT as well. That means that it should most likely be in passage format and not just ask for you to solve for some number using a formula. MCAT problems require to think and figure out what answer makes the most sense after applying a formula. I suggest doing practice problems from Khan Academy for this because it mimics the style of the MCAT well and is completely free. Also examkrackers has good practice problems for applying formulas but not for the critical thinking component that the MCAT is known for. However, to get the most realistic practice you can buy practice problems from the AAMC.

The general strategy for preparing for the MCAT:

Take a practice test.
Find your weakest areas and focus on mastering them.
Once you feel you have mastery over those topics take another practice test.
Figure out what your weakest areas are from the most recent practice test.
Repeat this process for all of your weak areas.

In my opinion, this is the most effective strategy for studying for the MCAT. You want to focus your time on the areas that need the most help first. There is no need to spend your time on trying to study what you already know. It is okay to review the topics you already know once and awhile. Fix your weaknesses and your MCAT score will skyrocket. To do this you need to use practice tests to identify your weak areas. Once you know those weak areas, you can then focus on adressing them. Also the more practice tests that you take, the better you understand how the MCAT works. You will develop a feel for the MCAT and that alone will boost your confidence and help you do much better.

As the test date approaches you want to be doing more and more practice tests. Within the month of your exam, I reccomend taking a full length practice test atleast 2-3 times a week. Its important to really get comfortable with the actual exam before you take it in person. When doing this, make sure to give yourself atleast a day between taking practice tests to relax and review the previous practice test.

Tell us what you think by leaving a comment down below! For more pre-med tips and advice, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, twitter, and pinterest!

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Mar 26 2018

8 Tips for Writing a Personal Statement For Medical School

8 Tips for Writing A Personal Statement for Medical School

So, you want to apply to medical school. We’re impressed already – this requires a tremendous amount of intelligence, dedication, and optimism, and will set you off on a journey which will doubtlessly lead to a long and highly rewarding career. However, to get to that place at the college of your choice, you’ll have a few hurdles to get over first.

You’ve already passed your exams with flying colors, and have proven your level of intelligence and ambition. You’ve thought carefully about which colleges, schools, or universities best suit your needs and aspirations. Now all that’s left is to score that interview and get that place; and for that to happen, you’re going to need a killer personal statement.

This aspect of the applications process is not to be overlooked, and in many ways, is one of the most important things you’ll have to produce to achieve your goals. Medical schools are looking for bright, intelligent, empathetic and communicative individuals for enrolment on their courses… and a correctly written medical personal statement is your key to showing you fit that bill perfectly. Check out our 8 top tips for personal statement success below!

1) Write, re-write, then write it again!

Your statement for medical school is not -, and we mean not – something you should be leaving to the last minute. It’s going to take some real time and concentration, and it’s highly unlikely that you’ll be able to nail it on your first go.

Produce a draft, and take some time to go through it with a fine-toothed comb. Imagine you’re the one receiving the statement: what impression does it make? Is there anything missing? Make sure you get at least one of your tutors to take a look through your statement and listen to their advice on what should be changed, added, or removed.

2) Be focused

It’s common for students to ramble a bit during their statements, and try to cram in as much about their life as possible. Remember – you aren’t writing your memoirs; this is a document with a specific purpose and needs to be sharp, focused, and relevant. Try to choose a particular theme or thread from your educational journey and onward ambitions. Stick with that theme, support it with examples, and you’ll be on to a winner.

3) Avoid the cliches

Your future tutors and directors of study will be bored stiff from reading countless application letters from students claiming they love science and want to help people. Apparently, you shouldn’t be saying the opposite of these things, but just try and avoid the predictable and cliched. Find something new to say, and your statement will stand head and shoulders above the rest.

4) Find a unique angle

You are an individual. You are unique. You have experiences, hopes, dreams, memories, and skills which are entirely your own. In your statement, you need to be putting this across in the most reliable ways possible – it’ll help your document catch the eye of the people receiving it.

Write in your voice, and include personalized examples of times you’ve succeeded, or failed and learned from your mistakes. It could make all the difference.

5) Don’t be flowery

It’s sometimes tempting to write a personal statement in a highly elaborate or impressive way. Our advice? Steer well clear of this. You aren’t going to be accepted on the strength of your poetic skills, but rather on your ability to be clear, concise, and appropriately communicative. Write in direct, simple language, and avoid anything which might confuse.

6) Stick to the word count

Your medical school personal statement will come with its word count. Make sure you keep an eye on this and stick to it as closely as possible (within 10%, at a minimum). Your recipient doesn’t want to have to wade through page after page of information, and following precise instructions is a crucial skill for future medics, so demonstrate you’re capable of doing this from the beginning!

Remember the 5-point essay format.

The 5 point essay format exists for a good reason: it works.

Your first paragraph should be snappy, concise, and catch the attention of the reader.

Paragraphs 2-4 should introduce who you are personally, with one reflecting your clinical experience or understanding, and one dedicated to medical service and aspirations.

Your final paragraph should be a neat conclusion; one which reflects your introduction, summarises you as an applicant, and ends with your thoughts on future challenges.

I hope you found this advice helpful! Tell us what you think by leaving a comment down below! For more pre-med tips and advice, make sure to subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Facebook, twitter, and pinterest!

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Mar 16 2018

Pre-Med 101: Does joining an honor society help me get into medical school?

I’m sure by now many of you have received invitations to join an honor society. After all you are some of the best and brightest students around! But given that most of these honor societies require you to pay an initial membership fee, is it worth it to join? Will joining some of the “elite” honor societies help your chances of getting into medical school? Thats what we are going to cover in this Pre med 101 article!

Will joining an honor society help me get into medical school?

The short answer is no. Most honor societies aren’t that exclusive and hard to get into. Each honor society is a bit different but in general they will invite anyone who has above a certain GPA. And often this GPA isn’t that high to begin with! Joining one of these societies on its own does little to nothing for your chances to getting into medical school. After all, the medical schools will already know your GPA and what kind of student you are from your grades and MCAT score.

Being part of an honor society does nothing for your chances of getting into medical school. I was part of six different honor societies when I applied for medical school, and it had absolutely zero impact on me getting accepted. In fact it was never even brought up once during my interview. The truth is medical schools have a bunch of other things they care about when considering an applicant, and these are the things you should be focusing your time on. When I first started getting invitations to join honor societies I was very excited as a pre med. I would do whatever it took to get into medical school so I accepted almost every honor society I was invited to at first, even though it cost alot of money. I learned the hard way that being part of an honor society (or even six!) wont improve chances of getting accepted. Many honor societies cost ALOT of money to join, usually in the range of $70-100. So I would highly recommend against joining multiple honor societies if you think that it will improve your chances of getting accepted to medical school, because it wont.

Honor societies can provide some benefits however…

I would like to mention that there are some benefits that you can obtain from being part of an honor society that may interest you. These benefits vary between honor societies but most honor societies provide similar benefits. Some of these benefits include..

scholarships for its members
study abroad programs
networking opportunities
the opportunity for leadership positions.

All of the benefits from honor societies are opportunistic in nature and thus require you to act on them to get their benefits. Once again, simply being a part of an honor society does nothing for you. But finding use out of some of the opportunities it offers may be worth the effort. If you were to join an honor society and wanted to make the most out of it for getting into medical school then I would recommend trying to achieve some leadership position in the organization. Possibly your school has a local chapter that you can be the president of. Also if they offer a study abroad program that is suited for pre-meds, I suggest taking part of that if you can afford it.

Summary

Being part of an honor society will most likely not affect your chances of getting into medical school. It can improve your chances of getting into medical school if you make the most out of the opportunities it may offer you. However, for the amount of money that most honor societies require for membership, I would recommend against joining them. There are many better and cheaper (usually free) alternatives out there to help boost the quality of your medical school application.

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