How to Apply to Medical School

You dream of tucking, pinching and slicing noses and tummies. Or maybe you'd rather treat stab wounds and pump hearts, as you've seen the characters on "ER" do. Read on.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Applications
• Internet Access
• Computers
• Word-processing Software

Primary and Secondary Applications

1. Fill out the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) application. You only need to fill out one application form and check off all the schools to which you'd like it sent, since most medical schools participate in the centralized application process coordinated by the AMCAS.
2. Obtain either the paper or electronic (AMCAS-E) application form. Contact your premed advisor or the American Association of Medical Colleges (aamc.org) for an application.
3. Complete the four-page application, which asks for your personal background, activities and interests, grades, and personal statement.
4. Send in the primary application right away, preferably in June or July. AMCAS begins accepting forms on June 1, and because medical school admissions are "rolling" (first-come, first-served), your chances of acceptance are better if you get your forms in early.
5. Complete and return your secondary application forms in a timely manner. After receiving your primary application, medical schools may or may not send you a secondary form. Unlike the AMCAS-centralized primary, secondaries are school-specific and differ from school to school.

Transcripts and Letters of Recommendation

6. Send out transcripts from colleges and universities that you have attended if medical schools ask you to provide them along with your secondary application.
7. Send out letters of recommendation. Provide ones that highlight different facets of yourself; in addition to science and nonscience professors, consider asking research supervisors, employers or co-workers. Schools typically ask for letters from one nonscience and two science professors.
8. Ask people for references at least four weeks in advance, and provide them with your resume and personal statement. Be sure to send them thank-you notes afterward.
9. Request that a section leader or teaching assistant co-write a reference with the professor if your science classes were too large for you to become intimate with your professors.
10. Avoid bombarding the admissions committee with too many or redundant recommendations. Carefully select the ones you think reveal your different qualities.

Interviews

11. Schedule interviews with the medical schools that contact you. Schools usually have two interviews - one with a faculty member and the other with a medical student, or both with faculty. You'll have to arrange your own travel plans.
12. Prepare clothes for the interview: a suit and tie for men, a pantsuit or skirt suit for women. Consider an overcoat if you will be traveling to cold regions in the winter.
13. Prepare mentally for the interview. Be able to explain issues such as your interest in medicine, your interest in the particular medical school, your activities, current news events, and issues in health care and bioethics.
14. Ask friends who have already interviewed at certain schools about their experiences.
15. Do a practice or mock interview. Visit your school's career center to see if it offers this service, or ask your friends to quiz you.
16. Check your mailbox frequently following the interviews. Medical schools can do one of three things: accept you, reject you or wait-list you.
17. Commit to one school and decline any other admission offers by May 15.

Tips & Warnings

• A good reference for this process is "Medical School Admissions Requirements," published by the American Association of Medical Colleges, and found at college bookstores.
• Each medical school charges an application fee, and costs mount rapidly. Ask about fee-reduction plans if you think you may be eligible.
• Most medical schools participate in AMCAS, but some do not, including the University of Texas medical schools, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Yale, Columbia and Baylor. Contact nonparticipating schools separately for applications.
• Write the admissions committee a letter if you are wait-listed at a school you are certain you want to attend. Explain that the school is your top choice and enclose an updated sheet with your most recent accomplishments and activities. This can work in your favor, since slots open up when applicants who have been accepted to multiple schools decline admission offers.

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