With thousands of med school applicants, you can expect fierce competition when it comes to admission in premed school. Though you can use a med school calculator to guide your application process, standing out in the crowd is no easy task. You must go the extra mile to get supplemental materials that support your application to increase the chances of admission to your dream med school. But how exactly do you plan for it? What can you do to set yourself apart from other applicants and elevate your chances of admission to medical schools? Well, here’s how
Thorough Preparation For the MCAT exams
The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) is one of the hurdles you must overcome to secure admission in nearly all the best medical schools in the U.S and several in Canada. As a serious pre-med student, you understand that there are no shortcuts for the MCAT exam. Realize that the MCAT score is a critical determiner of the med school that will accept your application. Therefore, put more effort into the test preparation. Buy relevant books and take courses to master the content. Do plenty of exercises to test content mastery and capability to retain information. More importantly, know the specific areas the MCAT exam covers.
Above all, don’t memorize the content. Instead, understand it, which is to say, your motive for studying shouldn’t be for the sake of the MCAT exam. Your aim should be the ability to give an in-depth explanation of concepts based on what you’ve learned. All in all, you’ll still get good MCAT scores that can secure your admission to a decent med school.
Invest time in Research Projects
Research is the pillar of science. It demonstrates how deep your scientific knowledge goes, and therefore, pre-med research can make your application shine and make you unique. In return, standing out over your competitors is much easier, thus increasing the chances of admission to the med school you desire. The thing is, medical schools are looking for students interested in experimentation, research, and testing scientific concepts. If you can prove your participation in other people’s or your own research projects, the medical school admissions committee can easily consider your application.
Volunteer to serve others and Gain Some Medical Experience
Remember that medical school admission committees don’t expect you to have real experience treating or taking care of patients. What they want to know is that you understand the expectations of a career in medicine. The admission committees need assurance that you know what your future job will look like. Volunteer to serve others in the medical field is crucial. This way, you’ll convince the admission committee that you have a great interest in venturing into the field of medicine. Even better, the act of volunteering is solid proof that you have the drive to contribute to the community’s well-being. Also, it stretches your connection with people and can land you useful recommendations that get you to the med school you desire.
With dozens of applicants, standing out is the best way you can secure a place in the best med schools. And to do that, your application must be unique.
