The Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) has become a very common med school interview format – one that is meant to provide a fairer, more comprehensive assessment of applicants. It’s grown in popularity since 2004, when Canada’s McMaster University published a study illustrating the flaws in the traditional interview format, especially in the ways that interviewers …
For many residency applicants, writing the first draft of their personal statement is the most difficult part of the entire application process. And the most difficult part of composing that first draft is often getting the first few words on the page. Don’t fret – even accomplished novelists and famous journalists struggle to get started …
Before he was Joshua Wienczkowski, MD, a prevention and addiction medicine specialist, he was a premed juggling coursework and extracurriculars and trying to make the right choices for his best shot at medical school. During his first year of medical school, he looked back on these choices with a critical eye. “When you burn through …
Based on the hundreds of letters of recommendation we’ve read, we’ve identified five key elements that make a recommendation stand out from the rest and help the applicant shine. If you’re writing a recommendation for someone, or you’re drafting your own recommendation for your recommender to edit, these elements will help you structure your letter …
GPAs. MCATs. CARS. AACOMAS. AMCAS. PREview. The abbreviations and acronyms you need to wade through on your journey to medical school can seem endless. Here’s another one: the Computer-based Assessment for Sampling Personal Characteristics – Casper for short. This situational judgment test (SJT) is designed to assess core competencies related to social intelligence and professionalism, …
In this post: Why do medical schools value teamwork? When the Institute of Medicine Committee on Quality of Health Care in America published its 2000 report “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” the authors attributed most medical errors to two key deficits: (1) a lack of communication and (2) dysfunctional teamwork. It …
In just a few days, many of you will want to submit your medical school primary application. You’ve probably heard that you have to click “send” on the first day possible – which this year is May 28, 2024 – if you want your best shot. But just how true is that? The AMCAS primary …
One factor that can seriously hurt your chances of getting accepted to med school is a lack of substantive, ongoing service experiences, both clinical and nonclinical. Community service is not just another hoop you need to jump through to get admitted to medical school. After asking admissions officers in 2021 to rank the relative importance …
You worked your tail off as an undergrad to earn an amazing GPA, took MCAT review courses to get a high score, and engaged in many hours of clinical experience and community service, but you were still rejected from medical school! Where did you go wrong? How can you get it right next time? Three …
You’ve spent months in an MCAT review course, taken practice test after practice test, and finally sat for the exam. Your results are in. Are they good enough to get you into your target medical school? Let’s take a look at what your scores mean. MCAT scores and your grades are weighted differently. The primary …
Almost everybody has a blemish on their GPA. Usually it’s a failed class or a semester of poor grades. But there’s also the issue of how a “W” on your transcript will affect your chance of admission to medical school. The truth is that withdrawing from one or two classes is not going to hurt …
One of the most popular secondary questions asked by medical schools is “why our program?” Saying why you’re attracted to a particular school can be a hard thing to explain, especially when you’ve looked at so many programs that they’ve all begun to blur. I think that’s why I so often see the same answer: …
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