In the final section of our Medical School Reapplicant Advice: 6 Tips for Success series, we’ll discuss how reapplicants should improve, and then present, their experiences. One last factor that can seriously hurt your chances is a lack of substantive, ongoing experiences. Medical schools want students who are passionate and committed – to the world…
Med School Rejection Doesn’t Need to Be the End of Your MD Dreams
There’s still time to register for The Reapplicant’s Guide to Med School Acceptance! This is your chance to learn from what went wrong with this year’s med school application and to strengthen your profile and application for next year. If you’re still dreaming of a career as a physician, don’t miss this opportunity to learn…
Improve Your MCAT Score for Medical School Acceptance
Fortunately, it’s easier to tackle a poor MCAT score than a poor GPA. While you should not retake the exam too many times, a better-prepared second or possibly third attempt can be a sound strategy. Many people find that studying independently or with a group of friends works well. Reviewing your old class notes and…
What Went Wrong with Your Med School App This Year?
They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If you were rejected from med school this year and are planning to reapply, you can’t realistically expect a good result if you simply do the same thing again. Instead, you need to know what…
Boost Your GPA for Medical School Acceptance
In our last post, we talked about how to best present yourself in your secondaries and interviews. Today we’ll move forward and discuss ways to boost your GPA, another important feature of your med school application profile. Feeling a bit fragile after those intense last few blog posts? That’s to be expected – you’ve just…
Rejected? How to Make Next Year Your Year
It’s a fact: med school admissions are extremely competitive. If you’ve had an unsuccessful application season, it’s natural to feel disappointed. But if you’re still dreaming of a career as a physician, you can’t spend too much time moping. To boost your chances of success next year, it’s time to conduct an honest appraisal of…
Reapplying to Medical School: Secondaries, Interviews, School Selection & Application Timing
With the multi-staged admissions process, applicants can make an impact at each step – or be weeded out. Your assessment continues by looking at other ways you communicated with the admissions committee, and whether or not they helped you past the next hurdle. Secondaries Your secondary essays go beyond the initial introduction and flesh out your application….
Reapplying to Med School: Your Primary Application
The next part of your assessment will examine how you presented yourself to the admissions committees. (You can review part 1 of your assessment in our earlier post, Reapplying to Med School: Evaluating Your Medical School Profile.) Keep in mind that this part of your application is necessarily subjective – there are often no right…
Reapplying to Med School: Evaluating Your Medical School Profile
You knew there was a possibility that this would happen, but that doesn’t erase the sting. What can you do now? How can you move forward? What should you do if all you’ve received are rejections? To start with, know you’re not alone. Last year (2018-2019), only 40.9% of allopathic applicants made the cut. Osteopathic…
Why Were You Rejected from Medical School?
You worked your tail off as an undergrad to have an amazing GPA, took MCAT review courses to get a high score, participated in hours of clinical experience, and still were rejected from medical school! Where did you go wrong? How can you get it right the next time? Here’s some advice for you from…
The Dreaded Med School Rejection: What Now?
“Dear Incredibly Hard Working Premed and Hopeful Doctor, Our admissions committee has met, and we regret to inform you that you were not selected as a student for our entering class. There were many qualified blah blah blah…” Ouch. I worked hard. I shadowed. I volunteered. My GPA was great! I gave everything I had…
Help, I Was Rejected by All the Med Schools I Applied To!
Here’s my 2-minute answer to the question I hear every application season: “I was rejected by every single medical school I applied to. What can I change?” There’s a simple 2-step process that rejected med school applicants need to follow: 1. Assess what went wrong, 2. Fix it! What exactly was your application weakness? Did…
Rejected From Medical School 3x – Today a Pediatric Resident and Mom [Episode 238]
You’ve taken the MCAT, maybe even applied and been rejected. Discouraged? Don’t be. Hear Dr. Allie’s story. Allie Lyle had wanted to be a doctor since she was 14. More specifically she wanted to be a pediatrician. And she pursued this path diligently. But the MCAT and a few mistakes got in her way. She…
Moving Forward After Medical School Rejection
It is devastating to receive a rejection. We actually experience physical pain; the same parts of the brain that are activated when we are kicked or punched, light up when we experience rejection. Given the very real physical and emotional pain of rejection, as anyone who has been through it before can attest, there are…
3 Ways to Avoid Becoming a Med School Reapplicant
Over the years, I’ve noticed that reapplicants to medical school share similar characteristics. They tend to rush the process and miss opportunities for improvement. Many students end up reapplying because they are over confident—it may be the tone reflected in their essays or in a lower than average number of activities or both. Reapplicants also…
Your Past Doesn’t Define You [Episode 209]
Today’s one of those shows where I’m going to be the sole presenter. I actually started preparing this show during the World Series way back in October. Yes, folks, after 108 years of losing, the Chicago Cubs finally won the World Series. At the same time, we were working (and have worked in the past)…
Should You Reapply to Medical School?
You’ve taken the MCAT, completed all the pre-reqs, and maybe shadowed a physician, done some research, and volunteered. Now it’s time to make sure you’re all in for the last legs of this long journey. In this series, we’ll discuss how you can continue to navigate your way to a med school acceptance by analyzing…
