This seems like an odd post for a website primarily aimed at doctors and those already in the pipeline to become doctors. But I have a surprisingly high number of pre-med students who read the blog, and I hope this post will help pre-meds find the blog long before they take on $400K in student loans to become docs. So, here are the “secrets” to getting into medical school.
1) Get better at standardized tests.
If you didn't do well on the SAT or ACT getting into college, you've got a lot of work ahead of you. Taking standardized tests is an essential skill for pre-meds, medical students, resident, and even practicing physicians. The tests never end. You might as well learn now how to deal with them. It helps to be smart, but there are real skills to test-taking that anyone can use to improve their scores from subadequate to adequate, adequate to good, and good to great. Taking every MCAT practice test you can get your hands on is a good start. But read the answer explanations, even for the ones you got right. You'll learn a lot about how to make and take a good test. Those skills will help you to do well on the MCAT, the USMLE Steps I-III, the shelf exams, the inservice exams, the board certification exams, and the re-certification exams.
2) Work Harder AND Smarter.
You're going to study more in medical school than you did as a pre-med. You'll work even more hours as a resident. If you don't like going to school, studying hard, and working hard now, you might as well get out while you still can. There are lots of great careers out there where you can make decent money without killing yourself. But at the same time, start practicing “high-yield” reading and learning strategies. If you're still reading the entire textbook twice for the class, you're doing it all wrong. Eventually, there will be so much material that you cannot read it all once, much less twice.
The “required” textbooks for medical school have their thickness measured in feet, not inches. You simply cannot read them all word for word. Read the summaries. Read the section headings. Look at the charts, diagrams, and figures. If there's something you don't get, read that section. You'll spend less time studying and end up with a better understanding of the material and how it fits together.
3) Work On Your Social Skills.
Although many doctors are introverts, there is little room in medicine for those who cannot communicate effectively with others. Most doctors spend their entire day communicating. If you aren't listening to and talking to patients and their families, you're communicating with staff and other physicians or generating lengthy written notes. This isn't a career for those who prefer to work by themselves. You might think that you can go into radiology or pathology or some other “non-patient-care” specialty, but I've got news for you. The jobs where you don't interact with other people on a routine basis are few and far between. People who can't communicate effectively are pretty readily weeded out using letters of recommendation, essays, and especially interviews.
4) Check the Boxes, But Use Them to Your Benefit.
There are sections on every medical school application where you detail your extracurricular activities, including leadership opportunities, health care orientation activities, and service activities. You have to check these boxes to get into medical school. Many pre-meds check them JUST to get into medical school. I suggest you use these activities to see if you really want to be a doctor. If you don't like being a leader, you aren't fascinated by most aspects of health care, or you don't really like helping other people with no thought of reward, you might want to reconsider your desire to go to medical school. It might not be for you, and that's okay.
Also keep in mind that you don't need to spend a bazillion hours at each activity. So you shadowed a doctor all day, every day for two months. Did you really get all that much out of that last 59 days? Far better to shadow four different doctors for 4 hours a piece. You don't have to work as an ER clerk for 3 years or be the president of 6 different clubs on campus.
5) Be Interesting.
I served on a medical school admissions selection committee as a 4th year medical student. Everyone that reached our committee had adequate MCAT scores and grades. All of them had checked all the required boxes. We still had several hundred applicants for 100 slots. At that point it came down to who was really interesting. Being a biology major and the president of the pre-med club didn't carry you very far in those discussions. But if you were a Russian emigrant who had started an orphanage across the Mexican border for children whose parents were killed in drug wars all while playing as a linebacker on the college football team AND STILL earned solid MCAT scores, received good grades, and checked all the pre-med boxes, then you were a shoe-in.
Don't try to conform to the “pre-med model.” Be yourself, and be outstanding at it. Play up whatever makes you unique, whether it is your race, heritage, extracurricular activities, age, prior career, or interests. You have to sell yourself in the application and at the interview. It's not enough to be Hawaiian or a famous jazz musician. You need to be able to explain how your experiences will make you a better doctor and contribute to the education of your classmates and the care of your future patients.
6) Apply To Medical School Early and Perfectly.
Applying late to medical school is like walking to the batter's box with two strikes already against you. Not only have you missed out on many opportunities for interviews (and acceptances), but you've demonstrated a lack of ability to plan ahead and a lack of attention to detail, two essential qualities in good physicians. Likewise, your applications should be perfect. If you haven't had several people (preferably those who know how to spell) read your entire application, not just the essay, you're doing yourself a disservice. It really does matter.
7) Play the Numbers Game When Applying to Medical School.
I'm always appalled to see people that only applied to one medical school. That's a losing strategy. Granted, the better you are as an applicant, the fewer schools you can apply to. But I would put the minimum at 10. Sure, it'll cost you $100 a piece to apply, but not getting in until next year may cost you hundreds of thousands of lost earnings. Don't be penny-wise and pound-foolish. If you're not a great applicant, 20 or even 30 schools isn't a bad idea. You can always turn down interviews if you get too many. Save your money by turning down interviews (if you are so lucky), not skipping applications.
8) Apply to the Right Medical Schools.
Your biggest advantage is probably at your in-state school. They're often required to take a certain number of people from their own state. But there aren't many states with 10 in-state medical schools. So how do you decide which out-of-state schools to apply to? Take a look at who they've taken in the past. If a school traditionally takes 95% of its students from it's own state, don't apply there. If 2/3rds of the class consists of out of state students, that's probably worth the $100 to apply. Likewise, apply to someplace where you'll be a little unique. If you're from Louisiana, someone in Colorado might think that's pretty cool, but you're not going to stand out much applying in Alabama.
Likewise, apply to a range of schools. No matter how great of an applicant you think you are, be sure to apply to some “back-up” schools. It might be humbling to see how many of these don't invite you to interview. If you aren't an above average applicant, consider also applying to DO schools or even Caribbean medical schools. Although some DO students choose their schools out of a desire to learn osteopathic manipulation techniques or an interest in a “more holistic approach”, most are well aware that the average scores and grades at a typical DO school are lower than at a typical MD school. Both alternatives will give you difficulties in applying to competitive residencies, but if that is your only medical school acceptance, I'm confident you will prefer it to the alternative.
If you are lucky enough to get into a lot of schools, do yourself a favor and give serious consideration to the cheapest medical school. What you learn in medical school depends far more on you than it does on the school, and escaping with only $100K in debt instead of $400K will make a huge difference in professional and personal opportunities in the future.
Docs- Add your own tips for pre-meds in the comments section below.
I 100% agree with #5. You do not need a Biology major, or any other science major to get into a good school. If you’re really that passionate about biology – and I’m gonna go out on a limb and say most people are not – then by all means go for it. But having an atypical college major as a pre-med (I majored in drums and percussion) and interesting extracurricular activities will make you stand out from the rest of the herd in a positive way.
Quick question, How did you score on the MCAT without a science degree?
I really dislike chemistry, but am afraid if I dont take it I will bomb the MCAT, but taking it is killing my GPA.
In my experience, you don’t need a science degree to do well on the MCAT. You have to do well on the science prerequisites to get into school though. I see two options- the history degree and the science prerequisites vs the science degree that requires the prerequisites anyway. I think both are great options.
I can’t overemphasize how important it is to consider state schools in your decision making. You will have substantially lower debt and will have no difference in your education. You & your colleagues will still match at great residencies. It’s a win-win.
Being a 4th year medical student, I can relate to every step you mentioned. I went to a public university where I found it fairly easy to keep my grades high. On top of that, I had a full-ride football scholarship which kept me very busy on and off the field, but I used that to my advantage when applying to medical schools. The admission boards take everything into consideration, so when my MCATs were sub-par, they also were very interested in how I was able to manage the demands of playing D1 football for 4 years while keeping my 3.8 GPA. I only applied to in-state schools(6 at the time) my first time around because I still had another year of eligibility left on my scholarship, and I planned to boost my CV if I didn’t get accepted my first time applying. I ended up being accepted to a DO school and decided to forgo my fifth year of football. I choose the DO school because it was close to my family and I wouldn’t have any extra expenses to pay for except for my tuition (180K), but the main reason I choose it was because the school was affiliated with 2 orthopedic surgery residencies which was one of my top two fields I wanted to pursue. In the end I didn’t match into ortho, but because of the people I meet along my med school journey and the skills I have learned from my athletic career (leadership, devotion, …) I was able to scramble into my other top field, anesthesia. I consider myself very lucky now realizing I had to scramble and got into an anesthesia residency which I know is very competitive and some of my close friends didn’t get accepted for that field at all. To summarize my experience for the last 5 or so years, keep your grades and studying up, be social because you never know who you can meet, be interesting, apply every where you can see yourself being at school, and don’t give up if things don’t work out for you the first time around. I truly think things happen for a reason.
That is awesome! I am very interested in finding a DO program. I played 5 years of college football and hoping to use that to my advantage as well. I would like some more advice from you if you are willing. What is you email?
You can email me at [email protected]
re: #2, can you tell me a little more about some of those great careers where you can make the easy money? Now that I’ve jumped through all the hoops, I still have to work hard to make my money! These careers you mention sound like they might be better than my current gig 😉
I’m not sure they’re “easy” money, but they certainly don’t involve a decade of training, 80+ hour work weeks, or the constant stress of killing someone, getting sued, or both.
In college I played on an intramural team with some other guys in the dorms. I believe I’m still the lowest paid member of that team. I’m sure I was when I was in the military. The rest are VPs, CEOs, investment bankers, business owners etc.
When you think about the pre-meds who actually get into med school, an awful lot of them are pretty smart, dedicated, hard-working folks who would do well in just about any career field.
As far as #4 goes, I recommend going into depth rather than breadth. I was never in a bunch of clubs or organizations but I gave my 100% into a single club, intramurals, and my part-time/summer jobs. Not only does this show commitment but also a desire to not just “check boxes.” You also will have many legitimate experiences to talk about during your interviews.
Matt –
That’s true…unless you happen to live in the NW. In which case, good freaking luck getting in to your local school, since there’s exactly one…and if that one happens to be OHSU, you’ll still pay more for tuition (as an in-state student) than you would at many private med schools.
I agree wholeheartedly with #7. When I was applying to ophthalmology residency, I applied to 95 programs. It makes no sense to not apply to as many programs as possible. Applying to 40 programs would have cost me in the neighborhood of $1,000 and 95 programs would have been $2,000. If I didn’t match, I would lose a year of my life and let’s say $200,000 of potential income. So, in order to justify spending the extra $1,000, I just need an extra 1,000/200,000 or 0.5% advantage to getting in. I think applying to more than twice as many programs would give me more than an additional 0.5% chance of matching my first application year.
I’ve always encouraged students who were interested in medicine to strongly consider a different major than in the traditional sciences and minor to get the required science background. Also, I think it’s very difficult to get into medicine if you’ve had a “bad semester or two”, but rehabilitated yourself academically. My degree was in speech.
I think it is important to do something interesting. I played baseball through college and actually got drafted by a major league team. I had over both a 3.5 gpa and 30 mcat. The chance of making the majors was slim and the minor league contract wasn’t a great sum of money. I guess with a 98 mph fastball, you get noticed.
People who intervied me for med school were very much interested in my story. So I would suggest to develop a skill. Also, it wasn’t mentioned in the article, you need to first get noticed by getting over a 3.5 GPA and 30 MCAT. So make sure to research the plan on how to do this.
I’ve been an attending Anesthesiologist for a few years now and really enjoy it. Yes, I can still throw over 90 mph. I was at a mlb last year and before the game a former friend of mine who is in the majors now had me pitch some b.p. and everyone was surprised by what I could still do at my ripe old age of 31.
WCI, my reply was a bit facetious. I honestly don’t believe there are that many better careers out there than being a physician, at least provided you are smart enough, enjoy working with and helping all types of people and have a pretty thick skin. It also helps to choose the right specialty. There are careers out there where you can make more money, but most of them do not have the same job stability and near-certaintly of making a comfortable income as a physician has. This also may sound a bit romantic, but I believe medicine ‘matters’ more than a lot of other careers. I go most days feeling like I did some good. I’m not sure the same can be said for those in business or financial services. I’m also trying to provide a little encouragement for those in the application process. You’ll undoubtedly run into some negative, bitter docs out there who will discourage you from going into medicine. Take what they say with a grain of salt, and realize there are unhappy people in every field. No job is perfect and medicine can be taxing, but if you’ve got the brains and the right personality/temperment, I think it’s hard to do better.
JR is absolutely correct.
You are 100% correct. Investment Bankers often times don’t even make more money than doctors. Especially not some of the extremely well paid ones like Spine Surgeons, Mohs Surgeons, Retina Surgeons…
I agree that medicine has some intangible benefits. One of my college roommates (that makes a multiple of my salary) has occasionally lamented the fact that all he does is make money rather than “something important.”
As far as “negative doctors” I think if someone can be talked out of medicine, they should be. If there was something else I really wanted to do, I probably wouldn’t have made it through my intern year!
Not to mention public perception. Doctors may get shat on a lot, but they’re still the most trusted and respected profession. Investment Bankers are ALWAYS the target of everyone.
Most Investment Bankers burn out in the first few years anyways. The few who survive make as much as a spine surgeon late career.
My thoughts:
1. Standardized Tests: Well said, it shocks me how poor at taking test some people are. If your not a good test taker, do yourself a favor and sign up for a MCAT prep course from Kaplan. The first couple classes are almost always solely on test taking strategy.
4 & 5: Be Active & Interesting: I to served on a medical school admission board and most applicants had decent grades (although some really didn’t), but the ones that often got in were the ones that had something else to contribute. Also, the correlation between undergrad grades, MCAT scores, and success as a doctor is very poor. Most medical schools know that. The MCAT isn’t to show how smart you are, its to demonstrate if you might have the ability to handle the volume of material that you will get in medical school.
8. The Right School: A very smart Dr. once told me that “the best medical school in the nation is the one that accepts you”. You get what you put in. Sure some are better than others but most of medical school is self study anyways.
I am a DO. I applied to both MD and DO schools, 12 in all (should have done more). The first two schools on my list were MD. The next two were DO. Guess which school I got into….#4. And I was a pretty good applicant.
DO schools do on average have lower GPA’s and lower MCAT score totals. But it isn’t just because they all didn’t make it into MD schools either. DO schools take a MUCH MUCH higher percentage of non-traditional (prior careers, older) students and much higher percentage of non-science majors as well. So if that is your situation you might have a better shot.
I think 5 can apply to any time you’re applying for something. There will always be someone more qualified, but you need something to separate yourself.
My gf is applying to med schools right now 🙂
I think this can be a very good web site, using this program.thank you for helping me get to this point..
I’m applying to dental schools, but I feel all of the items on this list apply very well to my situation, too (with minor tweaking—DAT instead of MCAT, no DO schools, etc.). Thanks, WCI. I’m going to share this with some of my pre-med friends.
What are the subjects required for pre-med. Is math and physics compulsory?
Typical requirements are a college calculus course and two semesters of physics with a physics lab. Statistics would probably be more useful than calculus though.
If you completed college without taking the prerequisites for medical school, a post-baccalaureate premedical program can help you get the course work you need. A list of programs is available at https://services.aamc.org/postbac/. Choose a program with good support services so that you have help with the medical school application process as well.