Kaplan - Get Into Medical School: A Strategic Approach

Get Into
Medical School

A Strategic Approach

Third Edition

Selection Admissions Financial

by Maria Lofftus, Thomas C. Taylor, and Houman Hemmati
with a nationwide team
of medical school admissions advisers

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Is Medical School
for You?

Deciding to be a doctor is probably one of the most intimidating decisions you can make. As a premed student, youll be working for at least two years without guarantee of a spot in medical school. It means publicly stating that you want something that in 2002 only 52 percent of those applying gota position in medical school. After an arduous application process, that decision means committing to a labor-intensive course of study, including four years of medical school and three to twelve years of residency and fellowship.

It can be daunting. Following six straight years of significant declines in medical school applications that began in 1997, application numbers have increased from 2003 through 2005. In 2007, there were 42,315 applicants for the class entering medical school in the fall of 2006. Although this number is still far off from a record high of 46,965 applications in 1996, the number of first-time enrollment positions at medical schools remains a mere 17,759. That means that there are more than twice as many applicants as there are spots in medical schools.

The recent rise in applications to medical school will, of course, make the admissions process slightly more competitive for applicants. This situation would primarily hurt applicants with borderline qualifications for admissions, by decreasing their chances of being offered a secondary application or interview. But dont let yourself be fooled by these numbers. The rise in the number of applicants is not large enough to worsen any one applicants chances of acceptance to medical school significantly.

There is no way to predict how the application numbers will change in any given year, let alone how any changes might affect your chances of admission (if at all). The medical school admissions process is not a statistical guessing game, and therefore you should not base your decisions regarding whether and when to apply to medical school based on fluctuations in competition.

Getting into medical school will be one of your most difficult challenges in seeking a career in medicine. It is reasonable to assume that many of the applicants who are not admitted each year are good candidates who would make good doctors. Obviously you will need dedication and careful planning to be successful in this competitive situation.

One important element of preparing your application campaign is articulating why you want to be a doctor; its likely that youll have to voice your desire in your personal statement, as well as in your interview. This also involves demonstrating that you have glimpsed the reality of what it is to practice medicine, not the glamorized versions on Greys Anatomy.

While some students have a clear vision regarding their career goal that they can movingly relate, many students have a more difficult time deciding whether to enter medicine. Some find themselves daydreaming in organic chemistry class, still trying to decide two years into the prerequisites if this is the career for them. Complicating matters is the fact that many people want to be doctors for reasons that are not purely altruisticfor example, money, job security, or parental approval.

Are there legitimate reasons to decide to become a doctor? How can you figure out whats important to an admissions committee? How can you be honest about goals and aspirations that arent particularly noble? Its important to address these questions as early as you can in the application process, and think through your own personal goals before you apply.

There are a number of compelling reasons to become a doctor.

An Intimate Rapport

Being a physician gives you the most privileged listening post a human being can have. A doctor gets to hear the innermost issues of a patient, and is privileged to weave those hints and facts into a diagnosis and treatment.

Personal Tragedy

I was 8 years old when my mother died of ovarian cancer. I remember dreaming of being a doctor then, thinking that maybe I could save her. I grew up without her guidance, but losing her sensitized me to the pain of others and played an important part in my decision to become a doctor.

Univ. of Iowa College of Medicine student; adapted from Newsweek /Kaplans How to Choose a Career and Graduate School

Unique Responsibility

Doctors are at the top of the medical food chain. At the hospital level, physicians work on a team with nurses, therapists, and technicians. The physicians voice, however, carries the most weight. Physicians are expected to make the difficult decisions: to decide when to stop life support, to declare that the slide under the microscope shows cancerous cells, even to carry the weight of prescribing a common antibiotic that can sometimes cause lethal reactions. This responsibility can also extend outside of the professional realm. On a plane or at a cocktail party, people will come up to you as a doctor and start telling you things about their skin you never wanted to know!

Special Authority

Many people pursue medicine because they want the knowledge of what to do in an emergency, and the ability to personally provide care for those in need. Some like the idea of being able to control things that were frightening or nebulous to them as children, while for others, the idea of being in a small town and being the one charged to take care of the whole towns health is appealing.

Other Reasons

In a recent poll, physicians reported other elements that lured them into the profession, among them:

Continuing intellectual challenge

Intelligent colleagues

Joy of helping/taking care of people

Respect of others in community

Diversity of opportunities

Enjoyment of working with science or contributing to research

Job autonomy and security

Financial reward

As you think about why you are interested in medicine, make sure that you can articulate a goal. While financial reward and job security are indeed important, numerous other careers provide these elements as well. Whats important is that you can explain why medicine is your chosen profession.

Many people experience the desire to be a doctor well before they are in a position to draw up any conscious list of goals. Although it may seem desirable to make a commitment early in life, its important that you reconsider decisions you may have made as a child from an adult perspective. If youre applying to med school for any of the reasons listed below, examine your motivations before you take the plunge.

Gotta Love It

A college senior we recently spoke to said that he wanted to be a doctor because it was the most difficult thing he could do. He worked hard to ace his MCAT, became volunteer coordinator of his fraternity, and selected his courses on the basis of how theyd look to an admissions committee. Sadly, a real desire to enter the field wasnt there, and admissions committees could tell: He hasnt yet gotten into med school.

Parental Approval

Saying you want to be a doctor, even as a child, evokes pleased responses from adults. If youre someone whos always wanted to be a doctor, you might be able to remember how your goal was received early in your life. Making your career decision early isnt necessarily bad, as long as youve progressed beyond the approval-seeking stage. Until youve analyzed your commitment with an adult mind, you cant really argue successfully why you believe in it. You need to have a realistic sense of the profession, and of why you want to be a doctor, to convince a committee they should let you in.