Medical School Admissions (2013-2014 Cycle): Important Medical School Application Dates and Deadlines

AMCAS is being finicky with their dates. Here are the most recent application dates and deadlines:

May 8, 2013: AMCAS application opens
June 4, 2013: AMCAS starts accepting submissions
June 28, 2013: AMCAS starts transmitting data to medical schools. This is the first day you can receive secondary applications from medical schools.
August 1, 2013: Early Decision Program deadline
Sept-Dec: Application deadlines. But you are going to submit your application in June, right?

--Dr. Miller

Suzanne M. Miller, MD, FACEP Emergency Physician
CEO of MDadmit: Medical Admissions Consulting and Essay Editing
www.MDadmit.com, 415.939.5251

Author of:
How to be Pre-Med
The Medical School Admissions Guide
How To Get Into Medical School with a Low GPA

Pre-meds: Stay on top of changing requirements!

Change in coming to the pre-med world. With the onset of MCAT 2015, universities are considering changing science major general education requirements. This is because the MCAT 2015 has added a new section emphasizing social sciences (psychology, sociology, etc), statistics, and research methods. Georgetown, for example, is already talking about a possible change in this The Hoya article.

Though I fully support these changes and a focus on the "softer" side of science, these changes will require pre-meds to stay on top of their school requirements and possibly add new classes. Be sure to pay attention as your school discusses such changes. I even suggest getting involved in the discussion. As a pre-med, your voice should be heard!

--Dr. Miller

 

Suzanne M. Miller, MD, FACEP

Emergency Physician
CEO of MDadmit Medical Admissions
www.MDadmit.com, 415.939.5251

Author of:
How to be Pre-Med
The Medical School Admissions Guide
How To Get Into Medical School with a Low GPA

Practical advice for the parent of a pre-med

I am thrilled to announce the publication of my "Practical Advice for the Parent of a Pre-Med" on KevinMD's fantastic blog.

How to be Pre-Med Book Talk: Georgetown Pre-Med Society

Hoya Saxa! Thank you to the Georgetown Pre-Med Society for the engaging How to be Pre-Med book talk this past Wednesday night. Though I was very impressed by the myriad questions, one stood out in particular that I would like to discuss here: "Should I turn in my AMCAS application in June if I am taking a June MCAT?"

Wow is this a hard question. And my answer will certainly create controversy, but it stems from over a decade of helping pre-meds get into medical school. My answer is NO! Do not turn in your application until you know the quality of every part of it. In other words, what if you bomb the MCAT? You don't want to hit the apply button and then learn you earned a subpar MCAT score. This can tank your application. Hitting the AMCAS submit button, regardless of whether the MCAT score is in, "counts" as an application. The last thing you want to do is be categorized as a re-applicant - it's a red flag to medical schools. Let's say you bomb the MCAT and then retake it is August and do better. By then, it will be September and many medical schools will already have thrown your application into the rejection pile.

So you have two choices if you are taking a June MCAT:
1. Wait until July to see your MCAT score then hit submit
2. Apply next cycle

My only exception to this rule is for pre-meds who are excellent test takers and are 100% sure they will do extremely well on the MCAT. But this will be <1 br="" nbsp="" of="" out="" pre-meds="" the="" there.="">

Thank you to Bryan Crutchfield for making this Georgetown book talk happen!

--Dr. Miller
Suzanne M. Miller, MD, FACEP Emergency Physician
CEO of MDadmit: Medical Admissions Consulting and Essay Editing
www.MDadmit.com, 415.939.5251

Author of:
How to be Pre-Med
The Medical School Admissions Guide
How To Get Into Medical School with a Low GPA

How to be Pre-Med Book Talk: Good Counsel High School

What fun it was to visit my high school alma mater and talk about How to be Pre-Med to Good Counsel High School students this past Wednesday. It's a good sign these teenagers were willing to give up an hour of sleep to hear me talk! Though the morning was filled with engaging questions about the Six Buckets of How to be Pre-Med, one question stood out, "Do high school activities matter for medical school?"

The answers are: no and yes.

In general, medical school admissions committees only assess your accomplishments beginning the minute you step foot in college. Med schools don't care about your SATs or high school grades. But if you have very remarkable high school accomplishments - such as winning the Westinghouse Science Award, publishing an article, or starting a community service project abroad - than you can certainly include them on your medical school application. Additionally, if you started a project in high school and have continued pursuing it in college, then this can certainly be part of your medical school application. This is good news all around. If you'd like to forget high school and not mention it on your medical school application, this is perfectly acceptable. And if you have an outstanding accomplishment or have continued an activity from high school to college, you are welcome to include it. Everyone wins!

--Dr. Miller

Suzanne M. Miller, MD, FACEP Emergency Physician
CEO of MDadmit: Medical Admissions Consulting and Essay Editing
www.MDadmit.com, 415.939.5251

Author of:
How to be Pre-Med
The Medical School Admissions Guide
How To Get Into Medical School with a Low GPA

Medical School Admissions (2012-2013 Cycle): May 15 Deadline

For all pre-meds applying this cycle: The May 15 deadline is less than three weeks away. What does this mean?

1. It means that if you are holding multiple acceptances to medical school, you have to make a final decision by May 15. By this magic day, you need to unaccept all but one acceptance. Said another way, you no longer get to brag about having said yes to multiple schools that accepted you. Pick where you will become a doctor and let those on the waitlist have a chance:)

2. For those of you on waitlists, May 15 is a great day. With many of your pre-med brethren having to let go of the ego-boosting multiple acceptances, waitlists will start to move. Yah! In general, most schools will try to make waitlist decisions before the AMCAS opens again in early June. Some fail miserably at this goal, but most make a good effort. If you are waitlisted, be sure you have checkout out my waitlist strategy post: http://mdadmit.blogspot.com/2013/04/medical-school-admissions-2012-2013.html

Good luck and go get in!

--Dr. Miller

Suzanne M. Miller, MD, FACEP
Emergency Physician
CEO of MDadmit: Medical Admissions Consulting and Essay Editing
www.MDadmit.com, 415.939.5251

Author of:
How to be Pre-Med
The Medical School Admissions Guide
How To Get Into Medical School with a Low GPA

Medical School Admissions (2013-2014 Cycle): Transcripts

The primary application to medical school, known as the AMCAS, will open in a week (May 1). Are you ready?

Get started with transcripts. Did you know that you can request transcripts to be sent to AMCAS even before your application is complete?

Medical schools require transcripts from every post-secondary school you have attended. This includes all junior college, community college, trade school, or graduate school. You have to submit a transcript even if no credit was earned from a course.

AMCAS provides a transcript request form that you can complete online, print, and turn into each school’s registrar’s office. You can fill this form out and submit it even if the rest of the AMCAS application is incomplete. Go to www.aamc.org/amcas and get this done now as the process can often take weeks. Transcripts are notorious for holding up applications. It is also a good idea to obtain a transcript from each school for yourself and put it on file. You may need it later.

Good luck and get going!

--Dr. Miller

Suzanne M. Miller, MD, FACEP

Emergency Physician
CEO of MDadmit Medical Admissions
www.MDadmit.com
415.939.5251

Author of:
How to be Pre-Med
The Medical School Admissions Guide
How To Get Into Medical School with a Low GPA

Medical School Admissions (2013-2014 Cycle): AMCAS Grade Conversion Guide

Now that pre-med across the US are revving up for the upcoming medical school application cycle, I am fielding many questions about how AMCAS calculates GPA. In an attempt to create a standardized system, AMCAS has made the GPA calculation process a bit convoluted. Thankfully, they have created a free, downloadable AMCAS Grade Conversion Guide to help pre-meds understand the system and calculate their own AMCAS GPA.

Be sure to download this guide asap and calculate your GPA. You may be surprised by how different the AMCAS GPA is to your school's GPA, and this disparity could affect whether or not you should apply this application cycle.

As always, feel free to send me any questions.

Good luck!

--Dr. Miller

Suzanne M. Miller, MD, FACEP

Emergency Physician
CEO of MDadmit Medical Admissions
www.MDadmit.com
415.939.5251

Author of:
How to be Pre-Med
The Medical School Admissions Guide
How To Get Into Medical School with a Low GPA

Medical School Admissions (2012-2013 Cycle): Waitlist Strategy

April is a tough time in the medical school admissions process. Pre-meds everywhere are floating in the horrible neverland known as the waitlist (or deferment or hold). I am asked almost daily by pre-meds, "If I am waitlisted, what do I do?" Luckily, there are things you can do to move from the waitlist to the accepted list.

1. Send an update letter to your top choice.
This letter should state that the school is your top choice and that you would attend if accepted.
(For more on how to write a letter of intent, including examples, see The Medical School Admissions Guide)
2. Write update letters.
Send basically the same letter as your letter of intent (sans the top choice bit) to other schools you would attend if accepted.
3. Ask your pre-med advisor or a recommender to call your top choice on your behalf.
4. If you can't get anyone to call, consider sending in another recommendation (to be additional to the recs you have already sent via AMCAS or TMDSAS).

Though I highly recommend these tactics, be careful not to go overboard. I cannot tell you how many pre-meds have innundated admissions committees with updates, recommendations, and phone calls only to be rejected based on being "annoying." I suggest sending each school one communication (letter) from you and one communication (call or letter) from a pre-med advisor or additional recommender. And be sure to check with each school before you contact them. Some schools have no contact policies when you are on the waitlist. Contacting a no contact school is a sure fire way to quickly land on the rejected list.

Remember, being waitlisted means you are still in the game. Keep your head up!

--Dr. Miller
 


Suzanne M. Miller, MD, FACEP

Emergency Physician
CEO of MDadmit: Medical Admissions Consulting and Essay Editing
www.MDadmit.com, 415.939.5251

Author of:
How to be Pre-Med
The Medical School Admissions Guide
How To Get Into Medical School with a Low GPA

For pre-meds applying this cycle that have not heard from medical schools yet

I have been receiving many e-mails recently from pre-med clients asking about their chances of getting into medical school if they haven't heard from the schools yet. I wanted to share my response with all pre-meds, as I know this is a commonly asked question and an incredibly stressful time.

All medical schools, by rule, must have offered the number of acceptances as places in their class by April 15. Given that it is April 19, it is most likely that if you haven't heard from a school yet, you will likely be either waitlisted or rejected. Though some schools will offer more acceptances than places in their class, it is rare. But don't despair! If you are waitlisted, you are still in the game. The vast majority of medical schools "move" their waitlist - this means that some pre-meds on the waitlist gets in.

If you are waitlisted, check back next week for my weekly Medical School Admissions blog covering waitlist strategy tips.

Hang in there,

SMM

Suzanne M. Miller, MD, FACEP

Emergency Physician
CEO, MDadmit: Medical Admissions Consulting and Essay Editing
www.MDadmit.com
415.939.5251
Author of:
How to be Pre-Med
The Medical School Admissions Guide
How To Get Into Medical School with a Low GPA

Medical School Admissions (2013-2014 Cycle): Important Websites

With the AMCAS opening on May 1, 2013, I wanted to share some helpful websites to be used through the entire application process. Bookmark this page for easy access.

Most technical medical school questions www.aamc.org

AMCAS and personal statement www.aamc.org/amcas

Texas Medical and Dental Schools Application Service (TMDSAS) www.utsystem.edu/mdsas

Ontario Medical School Application Service (OMSAS) www.ouac.on.cal

American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine Application Service (AACOMAS) http://aacomas.aacom.org/

Good luck and get in!

--Dr. Miller

info@MDadmit.com

415.939.5251

Pre-Med Parent Survival Kit

For over a decade, I have advised pre-meds on how to maximize their chances of getting into medical school. During this time, as I witnessed thousands of anxiety-ridden pre-meds wade doggedly through the murky waters of medical school admissions, I have noticed pre-med difficulties often pale in comparison to those of pre-meds parents. It’s often much easier to be the athlete on the field than the coach on the sidelines. And so it goes with premeds and their parents.

My parents, a systems engineer and English teacher, knew little of the pre-med process. Taking a year “off” post-college, I lived at home while performing health policy research and applying to medical school. Despite their lack of expertise in medical school admissions, my parents thanklessly copy edited my application, served as sounding boards for secondary essay topics, and peppered me with practice interview questions. All the while, I stormed about the house in an anxious funk, snapping every time my parents asked if any news had arrived about interviews or acceptances. There was even a visit to the emergency department for stress-induced palpitations. It was not a pleasant time.

Though parents should feel no obligation to help their pre-med child get into medical school (it really is the pre-med’s responsibility), there are multiple tactics parents can take to maintain family harmony, ward off feelings of helplessness, and improve a pre-meds chances of achieving the dream of doctorhood:

Start Early

From the minute pre-meds step foot in college their actions will be subject to scrutiny in one of the most competitive and complex of all graduate school admissions processes. Over 40,000 pre-meds apply to medical school each year with less than half gaining admission. Every grade, including study abroad courses, are “counted” by the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS), creator of medical school’s primary application. Thus, there is little room for the traditional slump in grades freshman year while pre-meds ward off the transition blues. Further, pre-meds need more than stellar academics to get in. Medical schools are looking for well-rounded students, and rightly so. Great doctoring depends as much on interpersonal and leadership skills as on academic prowess. Given the rigorous nature of pre-med requirements, it’s important to start early and plan how to fit in academic, research, community service, extracurricular, and clinical experiences. I don’t want parents creating day-to-day schedules for their pre-med children. But I do suggest helping with a broad timeline starting freshman year allowing a pre-med to see how all of the prerequisites can be fit in by doing what one loves and doing it well.

Get Informed

In order to help make an effective timeline, a pre-med parent needs to understand the intricacies of pre-med requirements. Many universities provide online resources through the pre-health advising office that serve as an excellent starting point. Then I suggest reading some of the many books written by admissions experts listed in Amazon’s Medical School Guides section. Pick up a book with the goal of learning the pre-med requisites and admissions process details. Then hand the book to your pre-med. Further, you can skim through the many website, blogs, and forums dedicated to helping pre-med students. But be aware that many of these sites, particularly the forums, are unregulated and contain misleading information. I beg my pre-meds to stay off forums not actively monitored by an expert, as such mediums tend to be sources of increased anxiety. As the time to apply nears, visit the AMCAS website, which has an excellent instruction manual and frequent asked questions section dedicated to the next application cycle.

Avoid Nagging

One of the greatest difficulties faced by pre-med parents is becoming the dreaded nag. Pre-meds often need a gentle push to get going on a research project or start writing the application personal statement, but remember that becoming a physician requires intense self-motivation. Perhaps a pre-med dragging academically or in extracurriculars doesn’t really want to enter medicine. I always tell my pre-meds to only become a doctor if they can think of doing nothing else. Pre-med parents certainly want to avoid nagging a child into a profession that will not bring a lifetime of joy.

Ask for Help

Even after a pre-med parent has started early, gotten informed, and avoided nagging, there will still be many questions regarding how to be pre-med and gain acceptance to medical school. The first stop for questions should be the university’s pre-health department. This is how I became involved in medical school admissions – I served as a pre-med tutor at Harvard’s Eliot House and spent my days helping pre-meds get in. However, not all universities have Harvard’s level of commitment to the admissions process. Many pre-health advisors serve hundreds of students and simply don’t have the time to provide individualized information. This has left the door open for admissions consultants to provide targeted, personal help. A simple web search reveals medical school admissions consultants of every expertise and price level. There are even multi-day, intensive medical admissions bootcamps dedicated to helping pre-meds gain acceptance to medical school. Premed parents need not feel helpless; support is all around.

Though the pre-med process is arduous, understanding what is required removes much of the stress surrounding being a pre-med and a pre-med parent. Pre-meds should do more than just check the boxes in order to get into medical school. As future physicians, they should embrace the beauty of curiosity, joy of discovery, compassion for those in need, and satisfaction of helping others. By following these tips, pre-med parents can guide their pre-med and turn medical school preparation from a time of apprehension to one of enlightenment.

Dr. Suzanne M. Miller is an emergency physician, CEO of MDadmit, and author of three books, including the newest release How to be Pre-Med: A Harvard MD’s Medical School Preparation Guide for Students and Parents.

Medical School Admissions (2013-2014 Cycle): The AMCAS is Coming!

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It’s April! Spring is in the air. And the American Medical College Application Service, or “AMCAS,” will let you start filling out your application in less than a month. AMCAS is a centralized application processing service for those applying to medical schools in the United States. AMCAS has nothing to do with the admissions decisions – that’s the job of each school’s individual admissions committee. The vast majority of medical schools use this service. But in true Texas style, many schools in that state use another system called TMDSAS. To make it even more confusing, some Texas schools MD-PhD programs go through AMCAS. If you are applying to schools Texas, be sure to check early to determine which application processing service to use. For most up-to-date information on AMCAS participating schools, visit: www.aamc.org/students/amcas/participatingschools.htm. 

Even though the AMCAS doesn’t let you see the application until May, you can get a head start by checking out the 2014 AMCAS instructions manual, a free download found here https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/amcas/how_to_apply/. It may be a long, relatively boring read, but understanding the application is a must!

If you are applying to DO or Canadian schools, separate application services exist. To determine which schools accept which service and gain a sense of each school’s competitiveness, purchase the Medical School Admission Requirements (MSAR). It is available in print or electronic form at: https://www.aamc.org/students/applying/requirements/msar/. Everyone heading to medical school should obtain and read this book. 

Happy reading!

--Dr. Miller

info@MDadmit.com

415.939.5251

10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Prepare for Medical School Admissions

It's April and the medical school AMCAS application will be opening in a few short months. Time to get ready!

Please see my latest guest post on Future MD's blog: "10 Things You Can Do Right Now to Prepare for Medical School Admissions."

 

 

MDadmit Admissions Bootcamps: Only 2 Spots Left

The MDadmit's Admissions Bootcamp on May 30-31 only has two spots left. Visit MDadmit to find out more and sign up.

New US Medical School Focuses on Primary Care

Interested in primary care? Frank H. Netter School of Medicine at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Conn. is looking for you. http://ow.ly/jGnqy