Medical school hopefuls are getting ready to work on those applications. This can be an awfully hectic time as you try to stay on top of everything. Here are ten tips to help you hit the ground running: 1. Get cozy with the AMCAS/AACOMAS. These two services (the acronyms stand for the American Medical Colleges…
How Do You Compare to Last Year’s Admitted Med School Applicants
In reviewing the matriculation data for the 2016-17 cycle from AMCAS, there are several trends that can be used to inform your application strategy and increase your chances of acceptance. For last cycle, 830,016 applications were submitted by 53,042 applicants, and 21,030 were accepted. In other words, 39.6% of applicants matriculated. AAMC data provided about…
Med Schools Increase Enrollment by 25% Since 2002
Enrollment at U.S. medical schools has increased by 25% since 2002, according to the results of the annual American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) report. This increase translates to an additional 4,143 new students annually. Here are the highlights of the report: • According to AAMC President and CEO Darrell G Kirch, MD, the nation’s…
The New MCAT Topic that Nobody is Talking About
When the AAMC revamped the MCAT in April 2015, there was a lot of discussion and hype surrounding new subjects on the exam: biochemistry, sociology and psychology. While those new topics are important, the AAMC actually added another new topic to the exam that most students are unaware of: the design and implications of scientific…
Why Are Psychology And Sociology On The New MCAT?
Until this year, the MCAT hadn’t had any major revisions since 1991. Since then, lots has changed in the medical world, and the new MCAT2015 aims to address some of those dramatic changes with its new Psychological, Social, and Biological Foundations of Behavior section. In today’s world, physicians need to know how to communicate with…
What Does The AAMC Post-MCAT Questionnaire Tell Us About Premeds?
AAMC has published its summary report of the Post-MCAT Questionnaire (PMQ), a survey that collects information from MCAT test-takers in order to help med schools and medical educators better understand their prospective students. Here are some highlights from the PMQ, from questionnaires filled out in 2013-2014. • There were 40,820 PMQ respondents in 2013 and…
Medical Minority Applicant Registry: Who, How, & Why?
AAMC’s Medical Minority Applicant Registry (Med-MAR) is specifically designed to improve admissions opportunities for students from groups underrepresented in the medical field or who have an economically disadvantaged background. Who: Med-MAR is for U.S. citizens or Permanent Resident Visa holders who identify as economically disadvantaged or who come from the following historically underrepresented ethnic or…
The AAMC Fee Assistance Program: How & Who Should Apply
Applying to med school isn’t cheap (see our breakdown of costs here), and the AAMC understands that not all applicants will be able to cover these costs. AAMC’s Fee Assistance Program was created with the conviction that application fees shouldn’t prevent serious aspiring doctors from pursuing their dreams because of financial obstacles. Let’s take a…
Medical School Enrollment Volume Reaches New High
According to an AAMC press release, 20,343 students enrolled in U.S. medical schools for the first time in 2014, an all time high for med school enrollment. There was a record 49,480 total applicants to med school (a 3.1% increase over last year), with first time applicants totaling 36,697 (an increase of 2.7%). Since 2002,…
AAMC Schedules Last-Minute MCAT Time Slots
A Kaplan news release reports that AAMC will be scheduling additional testing dates in October and November of 2014 as a last-minute chance for pre-meds to take the exam before the planned 2015 test changes. This is the first time in recent history that the exam will be offered that late in the fall, but…
9 Interesting Facts about Med School Application and Matriculation Volumes
Here are some fun facts from AAMC’s latest data on U.S. medical school applications and matriculants by school, state of legal residence, and sex, 2012. 1. New York State has by far the most med schools, at 13. 2. The five U.S. med schools that received the fewest applications were: Missouri Kansas City (111 applicants),…
AAMC Announces New Cross-Border Engagement Initiative
Last week the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) announced a new program – the Global Health Learning Opportunities (GHLO) Collaborative – an initiative to address cross-cultural understanding and the need to treat different patient populations in the U.S. and around the world through faculty engagement and increased global awareness. GHLO (pronounced “glow”) will consist…
Med School Enrollment and Diversity on the Rise
According to an AAMC press release, 45,266 applicants applied to med school this year, which is an increase of 3.1% over last year. 33.772 of these were first-time applicants with a 3.4% increase since 2011. First-time enrollment hit an all-time high of 19,517 students, up 1.5% since last year. At this rate, notes the press…
Know How to Overcome a Low GPA or MCAT Score
GPA and MCAT scores are usually the first items that an admissions committee looks at when evaluating a student’s application. Grades and MCATs combined may carry 65% to 70% of the weight in the admissions decision. Admissions committees want be sure that, if you are accepted, you will be successful academically in medical school and…
Be Realistic About the Number of Schools that You Apply to
It is appropriate to apply to fifteen to twenty medical schools, but select them carefully. Talk to your pre-health advisor or use the MSAR to see which schools are the best for you to apply to, based on location, grades, test scores, type of teaching, tuition, and any other factors that are important to you….
Are You Ready to Run a Medical Practice?
According to “Med Students Feel Unprepared for Health Care System,” an article appearing on the AAMC website, many new medical school graduates do not feel ready for the “business” of medicine. Data culled from nearly 60,000 AAMC graduating student surveys completed between 2003 and 2007 led investigators at the University of Michigan Medical School to…
Medical School Curriculum Reform
Inside Higher Ed reports that medical schools are increasingly using new technology in conjunction with a greater emphasis on the behavioral sciences. Motivated by advances in medicine, med schools have started to utilize creative approaches to enable students to view patients as human beings rather than collections of symptoms. M. Brownell Anderson, senior director of…
Financing Your Medical Education
You’re undoubtedly familiar with the customary ways of financing medical education – loans, grants and scholarships. Service commitment programs, which provide financial assistance to enrolled medical students or residents in return for physician services after completion of training, may be news to you. Perhaps you’ve heard of the Armed Forces Health Professions Scholarship Program and…
Medical School Applicant Resources: New Ebook, Online Chat
AAMC just opened its 2010 medical school application, and you will be able to submit your application “on or about June 2, 2009.” We have two new resources to help you with your medical school application: Write Your Way to Medical School, our brand new, hot-off-the-virtual-presses ebook. Cyd Foote and I are collaborating once again…
MSAR now available for 2010-2011
The AAMC announced: The 2010-2011 MSAR guidebook now available The AAMC’s 2010-2011 “Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR)” guidebook, the primary source of information on all U.S. and Canadian medical schools, is now available. Often called the “bible of medical school guides,” the MSAR provides medical school applicants with the most up-to-date information on: newly accredited…
