You are this close to finishing your application, but in the section that asks you about your extracurricular activities, you freeze up. I don’t really have any extracurricular activities, you think. What should I do now? How will I be able to stand out from the competition? We’re glad you asked. Team Accepted has worked…
What to Include in the AMCAS Work and Activities Section [With Examples]
To give you a better idea of what to include in this section of the application, I am providing examples of activity descriptions and most meaningful essays at the bottom of this blog post. They were generously shared by students who were accepted into medical school. As you’ll see, these are exceptionally well-written pieces because…
Should I Take a Gap Year Before Medical School?
According to a 2019 study conducted by the American Medical Association, sixty-five percent of first-year medical students surveyed took gap years. Most students who took gap years did so for 1-2 years (44%), followed by those who did so for 3-4 years (13%), followed by those who did so for 5 plus years (8%). Clearly,…
Predoc & Premed Summer Undergraduate Research Programs
Often, top medical schools in the U.S. offer predoc and premed summer undergraduate research programs. We’ve compiled an all-you-need-to-know chart that includes school name, deadlines, and links to the specific predoc/premed programs for more information. Why do these undergraduate research programs exist? The purpose of these programs is to expose ambitious, talented college students to…
How Can I Continue Volunteering in the Age of COVID-19?
Many of our Accepted clients are asking how they can continue their volunteering given that many of their previous positions now only allow essential personnel in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. We’ve put together the table below to help in your efforts to find new volunteering positions. If you know of other helpful…
5 Ways to Stand Out in the AACOMAS Experience and Achievements Sections
The Experiences section in the AACOMAS application asks you to list your non-academic work, including healthcare-related work, non-healthcare work, volunteer work, and extracurricular activities. The Achievements section is the space for you to include academic honors, awards and scholarships. Below are five tips for completing this section of the AACOMAS. Categorize your activity by type….
Encore: Writing for Medical School: Personal Statements, Activities, and Secondaries [Episode 327]
I am taking a week off for family time this week. As a result I decided to air an encore of our most popular med podcast so far in 2019, and it is: Writing for Med School, which I presented at the end of January. It’s an excellent time for this podcast. Many of you…
Activity Descriptions for Med School: 4 Questions That Will Make Yours Awesome
Having worked in admissions for over a decade, I have probably read thousands of activity descriptions for medical school and related healthcare fields by now. While this part of the application may not seem very important, it can actually be the component that makes or breaks your chance of acceptance. It can be quite damaging…
How to Choose the Best Experiences for Your AMCAS Application
It’s that time of year when premeds across the world are gathering everything they need to put on their AMCAS application. In this article, I’ll walk through one facet (one of the largest) of this dainty little application, the experiences section. I will outline what makes a good experience to write about, which ones should be deemed…
How to Improve and Present Your Experiences for Your Med School Reapplication
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…
The Importance of Clinical Exposure
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 your profile, creating…
What I Learned from My Shadowing Experiences
As a pre-med, I was grateful to shadow seven physicians in different medical environments. Some were primary care doctors, others were D.O. physicians. I even had the opportunity to learn alongside an orthopedic surgeon. People constantly say shadowing is important for resumes, applications, and medical school acceptances– and that’s true. But shadowing is more than…
Writing for Medical School: Personal Statements, Activities, and Secondaries [Episode 296]
Accepted Founder Linda Abraham Talks Med School Admissions [Show Summary] Are you planning to apply to medical school this year? Worried about the personal statement, most meaningful experiences, activity descriptions, and secondary essays? They can be challenging! Let’s learn about the who, what, when, where, and why of impressive, engaging writing that will get you…
Teamwork in Medical School Admissions: How to Show You’ve Got It
“Doctors save lives, but they can sometimes be insufferable know-it-alls who bully nurses and do not listen to patients.” – NY Times, GARDINER HARRIS, JULY 10, 2011 Why do medical schools value teamwork? When the Institute of Medicine published “To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System” in 2000, medical schools were still training…
How to Shadow a Doctor
When looking for activities to include on your AMCAS application, shadowing is a powerful way to demonstrate your interest in and realistic knowledge of the field of medicine. Shadowing as many different kinds of doctors as you can is helpful; the only way to know whether you will enjoy a career in a particular area…
How Important is Volunteering for Medical School Admissions?
Volunteering is crucial for medical school applicants. Here’s why: Med schools aren’t just looking for science geeks who’ve never stepped outside the lab. They’re looking for students who will not just succeed in the classroom, but who have also had rich and varied experiences that will make them stand out as interesting and passionate individuals…
How to Show that YOU Want to be a Doctor
“My mom is a doctor, my dad is a doctor. How can I prove to the med school admissions committees that I really want to be a doctor?” Concerned that your application doesn’t demonstrate the extent of your personal commitment to medicine? An experienced admissions consultant can guide you as you craft an application…
Applying to Medical School: Selecting Extracurricular Activities
When considering your goal of attending medical school, you need to choose extracurricular activities that you will enjoy and that will also help you highlight the characteristics that med schools are seeking. 3 strategies for choosing the right extracurriculars Below we will provide you with strategies for finding and selecting activities that will set your…
What Do Scribes Do – And How to Become One [Episode 191]
Medical schools across the board want to know that the people they admit know what they’re getting into and have an understanding of clinical practice based on personal experience. Clinical exposure is virtually a requirement for acceptance to ALL U.S. medical schools. A great way to get such exposure is by working as a scribe….
Med Applicants: Be Strategic With Your Activities
This is the second post in our series on applying to med school in the most efficient and timely manner. You’ve got six months to make this happen. Make sure you do it right by following the tips in Med School Action Plan: 6 Steps for the 6 Months Before You Apply. In the time…
