Hey, everyone! Wow, we have been inside for a LONG time. The past few weeks have been tough for me. I have been dealing with the anxiety of contracting COVID-19 as well as studying for the MCAT and gathering everything for medical school applications. I literally thought I was dying from coronavirus a couple of week's ago, but it ended up just being a combination of allergies and asthma. I still have a cough here and there, but I feel better overall. Moral of the story: don't let your mind freak you out. I have also dealt with harassment and threats from speaking up about the MCAT Bros. If you haven't read about that situation, it's all over Twitter and my Instagram. I've stepped back from the situation but will continue to support the victims/supporters. If you need alternative resources, please watch my social media and check out the post I made about MCAT resources here.
Anyways, like a lot of pre-med students this month, I have been preparing to submit my AMCAS and AACOMAS applications. I literally had to talk to a good friend yesterday who scared me into reality. I'm behind in everything. So, I took her advice and started making a plan to tackle these applications but not get behind in MCAT studying. I plan to study for most of the day and wake up early to dedicate an hour or two to application writing. I have totally messed up my sleep schedule so I'll have to adjust it as time goes on. I'm pressed for time, so I decided that I will be taking a break from my blog. However, that doesn't mean I won't have any posts! I will be scheduling posts to appear in the future on my blog, which hopefully will work. I will be stepping away from social media a bit more to focus on MCAT and application season but will check my DMs at night before bed or in the morning. I also won't have these lengthy openings, but there will be plenty of them to make up for that in the future.
Knowing that I am SO stressed about this cycle, I figured I'm not the only one. I've learned throughout the years that having a well-thought out plan can ease your mind and resolve any uncertainty about the future. I highly recommend making a detailed schedule of your daily life. It's great to have something that you can look at and know what you need to accomplish every day. To help you make this schedule, I reached out to @FirstGenMD on Twitter to see if they would share some thoughts on the application cycle. I received a lovely response from Dr. Dunaway, MD, AKA Dr. D. Here are their thoughts on the pesky medical application. Hope you enjoy the read!
Applying for medical school can seem daunting, but if you make a thorough checklist and tackle things one by one, it is completely doable! Your application for medical school starts on Day One as a college student. Being a pre-med student is a big time commitment, so keep track of everything you do in undergrad and make sure you space out all of your required pre-med experiences throughout ALL of your undergraduate years (do NOT put everything off for the final year/application season). Do not include high school experiences in your application, unless you continued them throughout undergrad and they are highly meaningful to you or your career.
The AMCAS will ask for the number of HOURS and DATES for each activity you participated in during college/after high school. The categories for these activities include: community service, direct patient care experience, doctor shadowing, leadership positions, paid employment, and research. They will also ask you to list any honors/awards you received, as well as any personal hobbies. Your goal should be to have experiences in all of these categories. The more the merrier, but always stick to QUALITY over quantity. Establish a go-to place where you can write down everything you do (e.g. notebook, phone notes) and all of the hours spent/dates for each activity/experience as you go, after you complete each one. You want to be as accurate as possible when submitting your information. NEVER lie on your application.
It will help your application if you have a good variety of experiences to talk about. They want to know that you are a well-rounded person (multiple types of hobbies, interests, and experiences). This also applies to your doctor shadowing hours. It’s better to shadow a variety of different doctors from different specialties, rather than just one specialty/doctor. For volunteer hours, you should have both medical related volunteering as well as non-medical related volunteering. Some programs require a certain number of hours for each (e.g. 200 clinical volunteering, 200 non-clinical), so please check each med school program requirement for their minimum number of hours they accept for each of these experience categories. Every med school is different and will have different requirements. Make a list of the schools you want to apply to and find out what all of their pre-reqs are EARLY on (listed on each of their websites, and if not, call their admissions department to ask). Requirements can also vary per year within the same school.
Make sure when you are writing about each of your experiences, to explain why it was meaningful to you. If you can, speak to these experiences as though it might relate to making you a better doctor in the future. For example, instead of just saying “I pushed patients around the hospital and answered their questions,” try saying something like, “I led patients throughout the hospital and helped them find quick solutions to their issues or concerns.” So instead of writing about being a simple wheelchair “pusher,” you now let them know that you were, in fact, a leader and efficient helper for these patients (which is what we want to see as doctors). Bottom line, write about all of your experiences in MEANINGFUL ways. If you write about an experience in your application, be ready to talk about it in an interview. You may get asked about your least favorite experiences or the ones you already forgot about, so study your own application prior to your interviews so you can quickly tell a story from each experience that you listed.
The second most important piece to your long application will be your one-page Personal Statement. DO NOT write any pieces of your CV/resume into your PS. If it is already on your application, they already know about it and you do not need to mention it again in your PS. This is your chance to sell yourself as a person and talk about everything that is NOT on your resume. Your PS should be about your personal journey in life, stories of growth, perseverance, overcoming challenges, any “aha” moments that turned your life around, why you want to be a doctor, why you are a good fit, and why they should choose you. If you have any “oopsies” on your application (e.g. failed a calculus class), this is also your chance to briefly mention how you grew/learned from it (e.g. got an A on the second try) and how you overcame any obstacles that were in the way (but don’t dwell on this issue too much, just one or two sentences max). Schools want to know that you are capable of learning, adapting, and growing from your experiences, especially from any past struggles/challenges.
In your PS, be yourself and be authentic. This is the ONLY way you will make your PS stand out from the rest. If you copy other people or write what you “think” they want to hear, you will blend right in. However, don’t cross any weird lines or bring up super controversial topics either. Keep it professional and make sure it is 100% grammatically correct. Send your PS to as many people as possible to proof-read and provide feedback. Making changes after receiving feedback is completely up to you, so don’t ever let any one person’s comments make you delete the entire thing. Get input from MULTIPLE professionals and have at least one qualified person correct for grammatical errors in the end. Try to reach out to English professors and professors/advisors who have experience sitting in graduate-level admissions committees or judging personal essays in the past.
One final thing, remember to ALWAYS TRY to submit your AMCAS on the first day you are allowed to submit it, no matter what the “deadlines” or “extensions” are that they give out. The day it opens up is the day you should aim to be ready to submit. If you’re going to submit it a few days late, it should only be for an important reason (whatever that may be). A well written application is always stronger than a rushed one, so only submit when you’re absolutely ready. A lot of programs (not all) are on a “rolling admission" basis, meaning that they take students as they go, or first-come-first-serve. But there will still be enough interview spots open throughout interview season (some schools reserve spots for later applicants), so don’t panic if you can’t submit exactly on Day 1 (that’s just a goal). Again, the first thing you should do is always check each med school program’s website that you want to apply to, make a list with all of them and each of their pre-reqs/minimum service hours requested, then make sure you’ve met all of their requirements before applying.
Thanks for sharing, Dr. D! For more inspiration, be sure to follow Dr. D at @FirstGenMD. This has been a tough few months but please stay faithful that things will work out in the end. And remember,
Thanks for visiting my blog! Be sure to check out my other posts. There is more to come soon! Until then be kind and remember tomorrow depends on what you do today. Hope you enjoyed reading! — Taylor ❤
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