What Are The Mistakes To Be Avoided During Med School Admissions?

As human beings, we are prone to make mistakes. But sometimes committing missteps can be very costly, especially if you’re in a situation where you have to undergo the process of med school admissions.

Surely enough, committing such slip-ups is something that you don’t want to happen. After all, you’ve spent a great deal of time and effort building your application and make it look as impressive as possible. And it’s more likely that you’ve also studied very hard to prepare for this day as well. So we’ve come up with a list of the common mistakes that should be avoided during the process for admission in the medical school of your choice.

And we urge you to strongly consider these tips as all the things we are about to share based on the observations and experiences of some experts who have either coached pre-med applicants or handled the admissions process in the past.

Let’s begin.

Limiting Your Choices On Selected Medical Schools

Word of mouth is a good aspect of consideration when choosing a medical school that provides good education. But nonetheless, you still have to do your own research as according to Joseph Franza, the Asst. Director of Admission and Alumni Admission Specialist at St. George University, some applicants and prospective medical students tend to overlook on medical schools with a reputation being hard on the admissions process.

He further stressed out that some applicants in medical schools only look at the negative comments but don’t make an effort to investigate even more. And this could prevent them from applying at such programs which can be a suitable for them.

So in a sense, they are missing out on an opportunity to be accepted at a school which can be a good fit in terms of their career goals. And this is a mistake that you have to avoid so you can explore your options even more and determine which is the most appropriate med school program for you.

Outlining Your Application To Please One Medical Program Only

One medical school might emphasize on volunteer experience and extracurricular activities, which is entirely okay on their part. But other schools might hold more value on the GPA requirements of their students.

So basically, what we’re trying to say here is that your med school admissions application should not be patterned to please one medical program only. Rather, it should highlight other important areas which you think will catch the interest of other medical schools as well.

Sending Too Few Applications

Mr. Franza also stressed out that another common mistake that some medical school hopefuls make is by sending too few applications to their schools of choice. This is a big no-no as US medical school applicants send up to 16 applications according to a data of applicants for the school year 2017-2018.

So it’s better to keep an open mind and broaden your options when you can.

Being Too Confident That You Are A Highly Competitive Applicant

Allow us to quote this saying from Pragati Bhat:

“Sometimes overconfidence can lead to a recipe of disaster…”

Think about this, the process of admission in medical school gets more and more difficult each year. Yet, the number of seats (admissions) being offered does not correspond to the increase in applicants. In fact, in a period of 10 years the number of pre-medical students who want to be accepted in med schools has increased to 9,449 (from 42,231 to 51,680). So with that being said, you should carefully assess yourself on how well do you stand out amongst other applicants.

Basically, what we’re trying to say here is that being confident that you’re qualified is okay, but don’t overdo it. For instance, if you think one bad semester doesn’t really matter, then you’re just submitting yourself to failure as most (if not, all) admissions committees also look closely into this aspect of your application.

Not Exerting More Effort In Writing Your Personal Statement

According to Kim Lifton, President and writing coach of WWW (Wow Writing Workshop), med school applicants should not conform with a simple “cookie-cutter formula”.

She also shared that when writing a personal statement, you should be able to answer this question first: “What are the things I want to share to the med school admissions committee that they won’t find out right away from my application?”

So we suggest that you carefully choose which stories you want to include in your personal statement. It should be something that would demonstrate your unique qualities and why would you become a good doctor someday.

Pretending Somebody You’re Not

There are times when med school admissions personnel can also struggle to see distinctions after going through many applications. So if this is the case, you may be tempted to exaggerate your competencies by writing some inflated details in your personal statement for the sake of being noticed. But misrepresenting yourself only leads to nowhere as you are reflecting something that you are not.

As much as possible, try to write in your own style, be creative, think about your defining traits, and learn express to yourself “in your own words”.

Taking The Admissions Interview For Granted

And last but definitely not the least, is when applicants tend to take the med school admissions interview for granted. Sure, it’s an honor to receive invitations for interviews considering how selective medical schools are these days. But it also means that you have to prepare and take this process very seriously.

To be specific your personal statement and interview accounts for 60% of the overall score of your application. So it’s a must that you’ll have to do certain steps to get ready for this process as much as possible.

Franza suggests that you search online for some common questions in an admissions interview and try answering these questions as you look at the mirror.

Moreover, we also recommend that you consider getting help from a professional medical school admissions consultant as they will provide proven strategies to ace out the admissions interview with flying colors.