Applying to Medical School

When should I make my med school list?

Most applicants start crafting their list in the spring prior to application. Almost all applicants include their public state schools on their list, so early on, check your state schools to be sure that you’re fulfilling their requirements (if you don’t know your state schools, use the AAMC Medical School Admission Requirements site to find them. It’s hard to develop the list without your MCAT and GPA, so much of the work will be done after you’ve taken your MCAT.

You’ll want to submit your application in June, with at least one school listed. Some applicants will submit the application with one school listed to secure an early place in the verification line (the longer you wait, the longer the verification process takes). They can then do additional school research and add more schools without losing their place in the verification line.

What are secondary applications and why are they important?

Your primary application (e.g., AMCAS, AACOMAS, TMDSAS) was broad and covered general information about your preparation and motivation for becoming a doctor, dentist, vet, etc. The information in the primary application will be received by all schools and they will determine how to use it. A supplemental or secondary application is specific and designed by each individual school to capture information that they, specifically, deem important in determining whether you’re a good fit for their school. The bulk of your secondaries will likely arrive within two weeks of the first application release to schools (date varies by year, but typically late June), or two weeks after verification if you aren’t verified by that release date. The rule of thumb is to send back within two weeks of receipt of a secondary.

What’s the best way to learn about the different specialties I can pursue after medical school?

The way that most premed students learn about different kinds of specialties is by shadowing physicians in those specialties and using the experience with someone in the field to think about their own fit for that field.

Volunteering in a patient care setting will also provide some insight into a certain specialty; while you won’t necessarily spend a lot of time with doctors, you will get a sense of how the general environment and culture feels, for example, in an inpatient vs. outpatient setting. Rather than trying to learn about all 120+ specialties before medical school, focus on the kinds of interactions you might like to have with patients (some specialties focus on long term and continuous care, others with shorter interactions but perhaps more variety), what kind of work/life balance you seek, how much time you want available for non-clinical activities (e.g., research, policy), and whether you prefer work that’s more hands-on and procedural or more focused on reasoning and deduction.

If you keep these factors in mind now, you’ll have more information to start narrowing down specialty choice once you get to medical school. Once you get to medical school, you’ll have an advisor who can help you think through your residency choices, just like at Princeton you have advisors to help you think through major choices. No need to absolutely decide until you’ve had much more exposure to medicine and much more time to think about other long-term life factors.

I have one med school acceptance but there were many schools that did not interview me but I really think I have a shot at. I’m thinking that I’d like to reapply. I really do not want to go to School X. Can I reapply?

This is a serious matter. Please come in and talk to us about your reasons for not wanting to attend School X. We’ve advised you from the beginning to apply only to schools you would attend and to keep an open mind throughout. In general, we never advise former applicants to reapply when they were accepted to at least one U.S. medical school. Aside from the logistical issues of going through the process again when you already have an opportunity awaiting you, most schools feel, as we do, that enrollment in a U.S. medical school is a privilege and a wonderful thing.

The only time we can think of where such a reapplication might be OK is if a serious personal crisis led you away from your goal in the midst of this application cycle (a death in the family, an illness, etc), and a number of years passed before you came back as an applicant; depending on the uniqueness of the situation, we suspect that med schools would understand why you stepped away from the chance to attend med school the first time around. But even in that scenario, we would advise you to ask first for a one-year deferral and try to renew that deferral if you needed more time to get back on track.

I know that most students get into medical school but what about the ones who don’t? What do they usually do?

Of those who were not accepted over the past four years, about 2/3 of them reapplied in a later year and were accepted. Most, but not all of them took two years – it is common to take a year to address any areas of the candidacy that needed strengthening (and take a step away from a long, stressful period to reflect and regroup), then put the application in at the end of that year to go through the interview year. Commonly students need additional academic preparation to bring their metrics up, time to retake the MCAT, time to gain more clinical exposure or just time to be out in the real world and gain new perspectives and personal growth.  We’ve had students some who have expanded their school list to osteopathic (DO) schools or overseas MD programs to expand their options.

Of those who chose not to continue in the application process, some went into other health careers (dentistry, physician assistant, public health, nurse practitioner), some attended masters or doctoral programs to focus on the research aspect of health, some are approaching health as consultants, sales associates, or device makers in health-related companies.

When should I expect to receive interview invitations?

Historically, over half of the interview invitations our applicants have received have come in September and October (this is part of the argument for applying early). At the same time, we’ve seen accepted applicants who received their first invitation in January or later in the spring. One of the hardest and most stressful parts of the process is waiting to hear about interviews.

There is no preferred major for health professions programs, and it does not affect your chance
of admission. You should choose your major based on whatever interests you most.

Some schools see it as invaluable, while others are indifferent. However, all agree that applicants need to venture beyond shadowing to experiences that involve direct patient exposure. Shadowing can be a useful introduction to healthcare, but can be difficult to find given HIPPA rules. It is best to try private offices rather than large hospitals.

View Shadowing Opportunities

Research is not a requirement for a competitive application, unless your program is research intensive (e.g. MD-PhD, DO-PhD, DVM-PhD) or your career goals involve research. Gaining research experience will also be of interest to schools that have a research mission or curriculum component. Many MD programs will appreciate research and may find your application to be more competitive.

Finding the right match for yourself goes a long way to making it feel like serving others is worth the time. If you’re working toward a cause you care about—reducing poverty, educating others, addressing disparities, protecting others’ rights, caring for those with health needs—in a way that resonates with you, it won’t feel like something you “have to” do for medical school applications, but rather something that brings satisfaction in doing good.

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) provides guidance on what to include. The categories you use to classify your activities is also useful in considering what “counts.” So, your thesis, which is a research experience, should certainly be included.

It helps to think about what professional schools want to know about you based on your clinical experience. As they read your application, they will ask questions like:

  • Does this applicant know what they’re getting into before committing to an expensive, time-intensive career path? Is their perspective sufficiently concrete and gained from personal experience?
  • Has this applicant started to develop a good “bedside manner” and ability to care for people from diverse backgrounds who have medical needs?
  • What is this applicant’s career vision? Where do they see themselves long-term?
  • Is this applicant ready to navigate in hospital and clinical environments and work successfully as a team member within them?

No single experience is likely to cover all four of these aspects of clinical experience, so most students do some of each. Here are a few common ways that students gain clinical experience.

  • Shadowing: Short-term, passive opportunity to get a glimpse into a certain specialty by following a doctor in their day to day work. You may have a chance to see how a physician interacts with their patients, discuss rewards and challenges of the profession, and gain insight on what you might want in your career.
  • Hospital/Clinic/Hospice Volunteering: Longer-term, active opportunity in which you provide a service to the clinical setting. This can give you a sense of the culture within a unit of the hospital or other care facility over time, allow you to interact with the team within the unit (nurses, techs, physicians, etc.), and, in some units, you may have the opportunity to interact directly with patients and their families.
  • Volunteering with patient populations: Opportunities outside of the hospital/clinic setting interacting with individuals with medical needs, such as working at a summer camp with kids with health issues; spending time with elderly individuals who are navigating dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other conditions; assisting with health screenings for at-risk populations.
  • Working/Volunteering as an Emergency Medical Technician: After a course and certification test, CNAs work alongside nurses to provide direct care to patients. Training is available through community colleges and through care facilities like nursing homes. Check your state’s Department of Health for a list of training facilities.
  • Scribing: Paid position in which you follow doctors as they visit with patients and take notes for them, so that they can focus on the patient.
  • Clinical Research: Students may be able to assist in enrolling patients or administering tests, which can help develop interpersonal skills and provide better understanding of the patient experience. Research also gives students access to mentors in the field and a sense of what it’s like to work within an academic medical/research environment
  • Volunteering through Hotline/Counseling Opportunities: Many students value the opportunity to develop active listening and counseling skills in these helping roles.

Don’t limit yourself to one type of experience or one setting — the broader and more diverse the exposure to health and health care, the better.

It depends on what you’ll be doing as you shadow and what you want to get out of it. Generally, if you’re just observing and asking a few questions, about 50-100 hours will give you a good sense of what’s going on. Spread your time out across different shadowing opportunities with physicians or other health professionals in diverse specialties, types of practice (e.g., private practice vs. hospital, in-patient vs. outpatient) to maximize the learning experience. The more that you can shadow physicians with whom you have something in common, the more it may help you think about yourself in the role later. If you’re a humanities concentrator, look for physicians with a similar academic background; if you’re interested in MD/PhD, try to shadow physician-scientists or MDs who run their own labs. A couple of the goals behind shadowing are to see enough that you understand the rewards and challenges of day-to-day doctoring, and that you gain insight from folks who are doing the kinds of things you want to be doing.

Any research experience will be of interest to medical schools. Your depth of knowledge in any subject, demonstration of intellectual curiosity, and interest in pursuing questions of interest via research for your JP and thesis, will be weighed favorably by schools. So, in a general sense, it all “counts.” If you’re interested in pursuing biomedical science research in med school and beyond, it doesn’t hurt to have some experience in a science laboratory beyond your prerequisite course lab experiences. This would not have to be molecular in nature – chemical, physical, biochemical, etc. would all be fine. Again, this applies only to certain programs, and certain career goals you may have. And of course, if you’re interested in the MD/PhD (or MSTP’s), then in-depth research in a lab in your field of interest is critical. If you’re more interested in other types of research — quality improvement; ethnographic; medical education — then seek opportunities that will give you exposure in these areas.

Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs) are used by schools to better understand inter- and intrapersonal competencies and your approach to ethical decision making. Over the years, different SJTs have been piloted to complement the written secondary applications. Currently, the CASPer and AAMC PREview are the prevailing SJTs that you will be asked to take when applying to medical school.

Try to take CASPer and PREview in the summer (June/July) around the time that you’re completing secondary applications so that your score will arrive at your schools around the same time that your file will be complete.