No Medical School Interviews Yet?

Are you still waiting for a medical school interview invite? If so, it’s time to get to work. Here are some suggestions:

1. Call each school that you have applied to and returned a secondary application. Ask if your application is complete and if all interview invites have been given.
   
2. Call each school that you have applied to and not received a secondary from and ensure the school has everything it needs prior to sending a secondary application. Also inquire about whether any more secondaries will be sent out (quite unlikely at this stage in the interview process but it doesn’t hurt to ask).
   
3. Contact your undergraduate or post-baccalaureate pre-med advisor and update him/her on your situation. If there is a particular school that you are interested in and have not received an interview, some pre-med advisors will make a call on your behalf.

Medical School Interviews – Letter of Intent

Some rolling admissions schools have already given you their decision. You may be on waitlists or have not heard anything from schools yet. This time of year, the question often arises: “Do I tell my top choice that they are my top choice?”

The answer is yes.

If you have an absolute top choice and have not been accepted, writing a “letter on intent” can improve your chances of acceptance. Medical schools want students who want them. You can only tell one school that they are “the one,” so be sure it really is your top choice.

Write a letter to the dean of admissions explaining why the school is your top choice. Include specifics on why the school is your top choice (curriculum, research opportunities, location, etc.) and reiterate your strengths. This should be a short letter and can be hand-written on a card or more formally typed.

Medical School Secondary Applications Diversity

Diversity is one of the most popular secondary essay topics. The point of these types of questions is to prove how you will make a unique contribution to the medical school class.

Here are some examples from recent secondary applications:

1. At the XXX Medical School, we are committed to building a superb educational community with students of diverse talents, experiences, opinions, and backgrounds. What would you as an individual bring to our medical school community?

2. How will you add a unique dimension to our medical school community? In answering this question, please also describe your greatest strength? What is your most significant vulnerability? Please understand that the "strength/vulnerability" questions will in fact require two distinct/separate responses; they are two different questions.

3. If Applicable, describe a situation where you were not in the majority.

When the word “diversity” is used, many think of racial diversity. But this is a very limited view. Think outside the box. Do you speak a foreign language? Are you a non-traditional applicant with significant “real world” experience? Other possibilities include athletic achievements, musical/art/dance talent, and international experience. Everyone can add diversity to a class.

Medical School Secondary Applications

Medicine is a challenging profession. Admission committees want to ensure you know how to meet challenges and handle ethical dilemmas.  For example:

1. Please describe to the Admissions Committee a challenge you have overcome and what you learned about yourself from that experience.

2. Please describe an experience or situation that you found personally challenging and discuss how it helped to shape you as a person. You may discuss a moral or ethical dilemma, situation of personal adversity, or other life-event you believe to have been important in your personal development.

3. What has been the most humbling experience in your life?

Everyone has overcome a challenge.  It is not acceptable to state that your life has been peachy keen and nothing has ever gone wrong.  In others words, you can’t leave this one blank.  You can provide an answer from any area of your life – personal, professional, extracurricular, etc.  The key is to show how you came to a decision during a challenging situation and what you learned from it.