7 Tips to Make Your Medical School Application Stand Out
If you’re an aspiring doctor, then few things in life can be more stressful than writing all your medical school applications. Not only do you have to get your academic records together, write strong essays about your passion for the medical industry, and provide references, but you have to do all of this knowing that the competition to get into med school makes your chances slim indeed.
That’s why you need all the help you can get in the form of solid medical school application tips.
In this article, you’ll learn how to improve your medical school application. You’ll learn exactly what you need to do to take your application from good to great to extraordinary. We’ll teach you how to set yourself head and shoulders above the competition in seven simple steps.
1. Increase Clinical Experience
Think of your medical school application in the same way as a job application. What’s one thing that can make an application to any job position stand out from the rest of the pack?
That’s easy: experience.
By increasing the number of hours you have of clinical experience, you’ll demonstrate your suitability for a medical school program in different ways.
First and foremost, you show admissions personnel that you really do want to be in medicine. You not only have the interest, but you’ve acted on that interest by going the extra mile to get your feet wet with experience. This proves to admissions personnel that you aren’t just someone who ran out of options in college and decided to apply to med school because they know doctors make oodles of cash.
Secondly, you’ll show that you have what it takes to be a doctor. Clinical experience isn’t for everyone — if you’ve been able to be successful in your experience thus far, then you show your grit in the medical industry.
Last but not least, it also demonstrates your work ethic. If you’ve been able to gain clinical hours while keeping your grades up and studying for the MCAT, you’re going to be able to keep up with the hours demanded from med school students.
2. Approach Well-Known Faculty for References
When it comes to your references, the reputation of the faculty who provides them can often make or break the quality of the reference. At the end of the day, you need well-known faculty who are respected in their field. The weight of their recommendation is significantly more than the weight of an adjunct faculty member who hasn’t published any research or made a name for themselves in any scientific field.
3. Re-take the MCAT
Medical schools want to see the complete package in their applicants. That’s why it doesn’t matter if you only have phenomenal experience and terrific references. Without the academic acumen to back all of that up, your application doesn’t stand a chance.
Your college GPA, however, isn’t something that you can really change at this point. So instead, let’s focus on something that you can still change: your MCAT score. Make no mistake: your score on this standardized test is a massive ranking factor for your application.
If you’re serious about going to med school, then getting an MCAT score well above your target schools’ admissions average is a must. Simply put, the better your score, the better your chances of getting admission.
4. Apply Early to Rolling Admissions Programs
Med schools that have rolling admissions programs should always be on your list of target institutions. Why? Because if you submit your application early, you could stand a great chance of getting admission to this program.
Rolling admissions means that applicants get admission on a continuing basis. As applications come in, they are reviewed. If they’re up to snuff, they get admission. If they aren’t, then they don’t.
But if they come in too late after all of the spots are taken, even if the application was up to snuff they still won’t get admission. Read med school reviews to ensure that you know when each institution’s application deadlines so that this unfortunate situation doesn’t happen to you.
5. Get Your Essay Doctor-Reviewed
Your personal statement essay is another incredibly important part of the application process. That’s why it’s so crucial that you spend a lot of time developing it, then even more time refining it. In this refining process, get a second and third and fourth pair of eyes on it.
Get advice from folks who have written successful personal statements (i.e. doctors). If there are doctors in your family or social circle, be sure to ask them to give you feedback on your essay. Most medical professionals will only be too happy to help.
6. Demonstrate Your All-Roundedness
As we mentioned briefly above, medical schools want the complete package. They want to see smart, interesting individuals who truly do have it all. Show admissions staff that you match this description.
List all of the extracurriculars that you have done and highlight how they have developed you into an all-rounded person. These extracurriculars also don’t have to be uber-relevant to the medical industry (though that is helpful). For instance, if you were in a fraternity or sorority and held leadership positions, then that could demonstrate your leadership capabilities to those who read your application.
7. Show Service
Last but not least, med schools love to see applicants who show a commitment to service. After all, the medical industry is a service-based one. You are serving your patients by curing them of whatever ails them.
Thus, one of the best medical school application improvement tips is to get volunteer experience on your resume to demonstrate your passion for serving the community at large around you.
How to Improve Your Medical School Application
There you have it — with this guide on how to improve your medical school application, you should be far better equipped to craft a standout application that will get you accepted at all of your dream schools!
For more education advice, be sure to take some time to check out the rest of the articles available on the website!
