Five Tips to Make your Medical Application Stand Out
A strong medical school application is essential to receive interview invitations from the most coveted medical schools. Preparing the application takes ample time and students must focus on every part of the application to stand above the intense competition.
Read on to find out five tips that can help medical students prepare a complete medical application.
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Tip #1 Start the process as early as possible
While pre med students have a lot of important things to attend to like research, extracurricular activities and the MCAT prep course, it is mandatory to start the medical school application process as early as possible. This allows the students ample time to build the application in the most favorable manner. For instance, earlier start allows more time for professors and research heads to offer a well crafted recommendation letter for the applicant.
Tip #2 Participate in a "study abroad" program
Less than 1% of the pre medical students group opts to take up a relevant study program overseas. While the initiative may be slightly more expensive, it is a great option to add diversity and build a competitive edge for an applicant. Students taking up a course abroad experience a different educational system, learn about the cultural variances and also get a great topic to discuss with the board during the interview process. Students who take up overseas programs are not guaranteed admission in a medical school but they have a better chance of getting into a reputed school compared to those who haven't applied for one.
Tip #3 Believe in quality rather than quantity while choose extracurricular activities
The general rule while choosing an extracurricular activity is to pick the ones that you best enjoy doing. Indulge in activities that demonstrate your genuine interest in the field of medicine and speak about them passionately during the interview. Frame the activities in a comprehensive manner and ensure that they bring out your dedication towards the medical field. The admissions committee does not expect students to take up clinical research, volunteering activities, community work and shadowing a physician at the same time. Instead the quality of the chosen activity is immensely considered.
Tip #4 Non-medical extracurricular activities also count
There is no doubt that pre medical students have myriad responsibilities to handle. From enrolling for the best onsite MCAT training program to shadowing a physician, pre med students must be able to balance their time between the various tasks. A proof to establish one's ability to hold such multiple duties efficiently is the inclusion of non-medical extracurricular activities in the application. A set of interesting non medical extracurricular activities coupled with the right medical extracurriculars can help differentiate a medical application.
Tip #5 Include a recommendation letter from a non-science professor
Most often students opt to secure the recommendation letter from a science professor or from a faculty from a major department. However it may be a good idea to approach a professor from a non science department like humanities. This helps to underline additional abilities like the power of comprehension, logical reasoning, and construction of arguments and so on.
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