A Strategic Guide for Applying to Medical School
When premed students contact us about guiding them through the medical school application process, many of their questions relate to timing. “When should I…?” is a frequent question starter. Although no single answer applies to everyone, here are the guidelines we at Accepted use when advising our medical school clients.
Table of Contents
- When Should I Apply to Medical School?
- When Should I Take the MCAT?
- When Should I Retake the MCAT?
- When Should I Reapply to Medical School?
- When Is It Too Late to Apply to Medical School?
When Should I Apply to Medical School?
When you submit your application depends on several factors, including your undergraduate academic performance, when/whether you have taken the MCAT, the strength of your experiences, and your level of certainty about medicine. Review the following considerations to help you choose the best approach for your situation:
BS/MD or BA/MD Programs
For high school students who are absolutely certain that they want to pursue medicine, joint BS/MD and BA/MD programs provide an integrated learning experience that usually takes seven years to complete. Medical school admission is conditional on achieving certain levels of academic success (e.g., minimum GPA and MCAT scores), but these joint programs can relieve the pressure surrounding submitting a post-graduate application. Joint undergraduate/MD programs are very competitive and typically require applicants to submit the Common Application plus additional essays.
Early Assurance Programs (EAPs)
About a third of U.S. allopathic medical schools participate in early assurance programs. EAPs offer undergraduate students a conditional acceptance to medical school during their first or second year of college. These programs are primarily by invitation only; undergraduate universities solicit applications from qualified students who have performed exceedingly well academically. While students must still complete the AMCAS application and may be required to take the MCAT, they are assured matriculation in a participating medical school.
Early Decision Programs (EDPs)
If you’re absolutely certain about where you want to attend medical school, an EDP can save you time and effort during the application process. EDP applicants submit an application to a single school, and the school commits to rendering its decision early in the season. The timeline is similar to that for traditional applications (see the next subsection), but the deadline for these programs is early August.
The idea of applying to an EDP might be appealing, but understand that it can be difficult to gain acceptance this way. Although your chosen program will review your application first and give you a decision, the school might decide to review other applications. If you are not ultimately accepted, by the time you receive the school’s decision, it will be very late in the season to apply via the traditional route.
Early decision makes sense for some candidates but not for others. Do your research to determine whether your target program encourages early decision; some schools even offer advice on what makes a good candidate.
“Traditional” Med School Applications
Following what was once the traditional time frame, you will likely apply at the end of your junior year as a rising senior in college. This requires that you take the MCAT early in your junior year or even over the summer between your sophomore and junior years of college. Taking the MCAT early allows you to determine where you will be a competitive candidate and gives you a chance to retake the exam, if needed.
Following this timeline means that you must devote much of your spring and summer to completing applications, which can be tough to do when you are also taking advanced-level coursework and pursuing research and service activities. It also means that you will have interviews during your senior year.
For this reason, it is increasingly common for premeds to apply at the end of their senior year of college. This later application timeline allows candidates an extra year to take the MCAT (ideally in the summer after your junior year, so you have time to retake it, if needed). Applicants who go this route will complete secondary applications and interview during their gap year. This approach allows extra time for travel, research, and volunteer or work experience – all of which are highly valued by admissions committees.
Postbac Coursework and Programs
If you had a rough freshman year but achieved an upward trend in your GPA (and an overall GPA above 3.5), you might want to apply to medical school right out of college. However, if the upward trend in your grades did not start until your junior or senior year, you might consider completing postbaccalaureate coursework.
“Postbac” refers to any coursework taken after your undergraduate education, ranging from courses at your alma mater or a local college to the tailored postbac programs designed to prepare applicants for medical school. (These are sometimes referred to as special master’s programs or SMPs.) Either track can strengthen your application for medical school. If you want to demonstrate your potential in a certain subject, for instance, taking some coursework on your own can show your initiative and determination. But if you need to improve your GPA, completing postbac courses one at a time can take ages.
That’s where postbac medical programs and SMPs come in. These are one- or two-year programs designed to provide the foundational coursework one needs for medical school. Initially, these were designed for applicants in the workforce who wanted to change careers and for individuals who majored in a non-science field and needed to complete the required premed coursework (i.e., career changers). Now, there are also postbac programs for applicants who need to improve their GPA and MCAT scores (i.e., academic record-enhancers).
Postbac programs enable candidates to show their ability to perform well in higher-level science coursework. If you are undertaking a postbac program for academic enhancement, your goal should be to demonstrate a sustained upward trend in your GPA for more than two semesters. This usually necessitates a gap or “glide” year, during which people often do research.
Although completing a postbac program or SMP can show med schools that you are capable of high-level coursework, be prepared to dedicate a significant amount of time to the program. If you have a bad semester in a postbac program, this can work against you.
MS, MPH, or Other Postgraduate Programs
If you have been out of school for a year or more, did not get accepted the first time you applied, or are not entirely certain that medical school is for you, you might want to explore a graduate program before applying to medical school.
Master of Science (MS) programs give you advanced skills that you can use in medicine while also exposing you to other aspects of science and healthcare. Doing well academically in a master’s program will show medical schools that you are capable of graduate-level work, so you must get excellent grades throughout. In contrast to a postbac program, MS programs give you graduate-level coursework comparable to that of medical school, but they do not change your undergraduate GPA. MS programs are available in biomedical sciences, bioinformatics, biotechnology, genomics, physiology, stem cell biology, and many other subject areas.
Master of Public Health (MPH) programs focus on epidemiology, biostatistics, policy, environmental health, international health, disaster management, health services administration, and other such areas. You might have opportunities to do research and enhance your awareness of major public health issues critical to medicine. You can gain valuable skills working with data, designing experimental protocols, and analyzing results. You might also discover issues in healthcare that motivate you and help you focus your med school applications. Just be sure to maintain your basic science knowledge so you can apply with a strong MCAT score.
When Should I Take the MCAT?
Before you take the MCAT, make sure that all of the following are true:
- You’ve completed your prerequisites. We strongly advise aspiring medical school students to complete all prerequisites before taking the MCAT. However, you do not need to complete them before starting an MCAT prep course.
- You’ve taken a review course or done extensive independent preparation. Every year, we work with reapplicants who took the MCAT without preparing “just to see” how they would do. Some get lucky, but most do not. Those who don’t get lucky end up giving the impression that they tend to do things without preparing (which might be true). Don’t let that be your image!
- You’re confident you’ll do well – or at least as well as you can do. Although some applicants take the MCAT several times and succeed, your chances tend to decrease with successive retakes, as does your confidence – and your bank balance.
- You’ve aced the practice tests. Take practice tests over and over until you improve. Just as with anything else you want to do well, you need to dedicate the necessary time to it. And chance favors the prepared mind.
- You’ve prepared for the Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills (CARS) section. Do not skip practicing for CARS! This section involves skills that can’t be memorized or learned overnight, and it has been the downfall of many premeds. Consider this prep a way of stretching your brain. Most situations you will face in medicine involve critical reasoning, so CARS just might be the most practical thing you ever study!
When Should I Retake the MCAT?
This question doesn’t have an easy answer. It depends on your GPA, your previous MCAT score, and which schools you are hoping to get into. If you have areas of concern in your overall application, a lower MCAT score can take you out of the running. However, improving your MCAT score by just a few points might make the difference. The key here is that you should retake the MCAT based on the big picture not simply the score itself.
You should retake the MCAT if the following statements apply to you:
- You are sure you will do better. Your goal is to improve significantly. It’s time-consuming and expensive to prepare for this test, so if you are doing it more than once, devote the time and effort needed to see a real difference. If the first review course you took didn’t help you attain the score you wanted, find a new one. You might even consider hiring a private tutor or finding a postbac program that includes MCAT prep.
- Your score is already close to the median score of your target school. If your score is five percentile points below the median for the schools you are applying to, you should consider a retake. For good measure, you might want to use three percentile points as your guide.
- Unusual circumstances led to your initial low score. You might also consider a retake if you dealt with any unusual circumstances on MCAT test day, such as illness, a family emergency, or anything else that could have lowered your score. This does not usually include being nervous.
When Should I Reapply to Medical School?
Simply put, you should reapply to med school when your application is stronger. This means you need to reflect critically on your strengths and your weaknesses. Here are some examples to consider:
- If you are lacking clinical exposure, spend more time in a patient care setting.
- If your application comes across as repetitive or sloppy, work on refining your presentation and checking for errors.
- If your essay was focused on experiences from long ago (in high school, or in college if you’re applying after postbac studies), spend time creating a more current personal story.
- If your GPA is on the low side, an above-average MCAT score might overcome it, but this is not guaranteed. You might need to take postbac classes or complete a master’s program to show that you are capable of higher-level academics.
Reapplicants might consider having a medical school admissions consultant review their application (see our Medical School and Healthcare Program Rejection Review) to determine which areas will offer the greatest payoff in terms of improved likelihood of acceptance. There are many ways to better your overall application, but not all have the same – or the necessary – impact.
When Is It Too Late to Apply to Medical School?
The average age of first-year med students has remained steady over the past few years at 24. However, in a recent study, the AAMC reported that “matriculants ranged in age from 17 to 53 years old, including 677 people over age 30.” Older medical students often do just as well as or better than their younger classmates. This could be due to maturity, better organizational skills, or just the wisdom that comes with life experience. In an AAMC article, Athena R. Ganchorre from the University of Arizona College of Medicine says, “Things that might worry a 20-something just kind of roll off [older medical students]. They have extreme maturity.”
Still, as an older applicant, your application will be reviewed differently from a 22-year-old’s. Admissions committees will scrutinize your commitment, your skill set, and whether you have the stamina to handle the years of training required and still have time and energy to practice.
If you graduated less than three years ago, make a point of doing the following:
- Get organized. Schedule your MCAT, collect your transcripts, and reach out to potential recommenders. Do this early so you’re not scrambling at the last minute.
- Work in your life experiences. Make sure your time away from school gives you something worthwhile to write about in your essays. Be careful not to focus on undergraduate or earlier experiences, and never recycle an old, unsuccessful personal statement.
- Write about your personal growth. Make sure your essays reflect the maturity you have gained over the past few years. If you do this, medical schools will see this as time well spent.
If you graduated three or more years ago, consider doing the following:
- Update your GPA. Admissions committees want to know that you’re still able to handle academic studies after being out of school for a while. You might want to consider a postbac or special master’s program.
- Take the MCAT when you’re ready. Your recollection of subjects you studied years earlier will need to be refreshed if you want to do well. If possible, find an MCAT preparation course to help you succeed.
- Find new ways to strengthen your application. Update your experiences to show that you’ve stayed connected to the world around you. This could be through clinical work, research, and/or volunteer experiences. Ideally, you will have invested considerable time in two or more of these areas.
- Maintain or renew connections with mentors. Although you will hopefully find new mentors along the way, your past ones can still be helpful. Keep in touch with your mentors, and update them on your progress. Make sure they are supportive of your career goals, and if not, find new ones.
- Spend time reflecting on your experiences. Your life changes after graduation, so share your post-college experiences. It helps to keep track of significant or memorable events as you go. Don’t worry about the quality of your writing at this point; just get your ideas down so you can use them later to craft your essays.
- Be flexible. Keep your goal in mind, but be willing to chart a new course if needed. Allied health schools (e.g., physician assistant, nurse practitioner, certified nurse-midwife) can sometimes be more welcoming to older applicants, and the training time is shorter, so you will be out doing what you love that much sooner.
The common thread throughout all our advice here is to proceed in a focused and calm manner. It never pays to rush things – whether you’re taking the MCAT, submitting your application, or completing any of the other key steps. Make every move count, and don’t give up! The world needs more dedicated and compassionate physicians, and medical schools are hoping to find them. Your job is to demonstrate that you have the qualities they are looking for.
Do you need help with your medical school application? Work one-on-one with an Accepted advisor who will help you create a strong, successful, admission-worthy application. Request your free consultation today!
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