FAQs on the Medical School Admissions Process

When is the best time to apply to medical school? So: you’ve decided to apply to medical school. You’ve completed all of your premedical requirements, prepared for the MCAT, and have slogged back and forth from your research gig. The application should be easy by comparison, right? Wrong. Between bucketing your school list, writing your personal statement, asking for your letters of recommendation, filling in your activities list, completing your secondary applications, and preparing for your interviews, your medical school applications will be yet another set of challenges. Luckily, you’re strong and smart, and your hard work will pay off once you’re receiving your acceptances next spring! As someone who has talked to countless medical school applicants about their timeline and process, I have noticed that there are a few questions that always crop up. Before you get started, you should know the answers – it can be the difference between an acceptance, waitlist, and rejection! When is the best time to apply to medical school? This is an easy one! With so many different variables that are difficult to control, timing is one you can get right. You should apply on June 1 (some of our applicants wait up on May 31st until midnight, which is quite ceremonious). If, for whatever reason, you cannot apply on June 1, you should submit your AMCAS as close to June 1 as possible. Anything after July 1st, and you should defer a year (trust me!). What if I am taking my MCAT in June? Can I submit my application on June 1, or do I have to wait? Ok, this one isn’t so straightforward. You have a few options, each of them with risks. You can submit your AMCAS on June 1 with pending MCAT scores, though keep in mind you’re locked in to this cycle (regardless of what you receive on your MCAT). This means you’re submitting your application with partial data. Though you’ll technically be on time, should you bomb your MCAT, you will have officially applied to all the schools that you’ve added to your list. Should you like to apply next year, you will be marked as a re-applicant, and will therefore be at a slight disadvantage. Another reason this is risky? An evenly distributed school list is essential to your application. It is impossible to evenly distribute your school list if you only have partial data. So, say you wait to take your MCAT on June 15 and then submit? Still risky. It takes around a month to get your MCAT scores back, meaning you would be â€Å"late† by our standards. You wouldn’t be able to submit your AMACS with all the information until July, which is when most of the on-time applicants receive their secondary applications. So, what to do? Whenever possible, you should take the MCAT in April, and give yourself a healthy month-long window to receive your scores. Then, once you receive your scores, you’ll be hitting submit with all the information on June 1st – best case scenario! When should I submit my secondary applications? A good rule of thumb is two weeks. Keep in mind that you should submit all of them within a two week window, and should prioritize the essays evenly across your buckets of safeties, targets, and reaches. Many people complete them in the strict order of: reach, target, safety; reach, target, safety; and so on. How do I know if I am competitive? You should start with your GPA (science and overall) and MCAT. These three numbers are gatekeepers, and you should take them very seriously. Then, you should look at the MSAR data for the incoming class of the previous year, and figure out where you are in the bell curve. You can determine your candidacy in respect to the schools on your list, and bucket your school list accordingly. How do I prepare for my interview? Your interview preparation depends on what type of interview you landed! You can usually find out whether your school is facilitating an MMI, group, or one-on-one interview by visiting their website. My main piece of advice for preparation? You should use your personal statement (and all the drafting and prewriting stuff that came with it) as fodder for your interview preparation. Use the same argument in your personal statement in your interview – the narrative thread from one to the other should be clear and apparent! Do you have more questions that haven't been covered here? You should schedule a free MD candidacy assessment with a member of our team. They're knowledgable, and can answer questions you have about the process, help you determine your candidacy, and connect you with a Harvard, Columbia, NYU, or Yale MD to guide you through the process! ;

Intro To Business And Technology - Free Essay Example

Intro To Business And Technology The career that I have in mind was becoming a veterinarian since I was in middle school. Once I started high school I was doing much more research than before. Luckily this career was my interest and type in any way possible. Im most definitely interested in this career. Although there are many more choices I can choose, I still would like to go to more detail with becoming a vet. People may not know what are veterinarians but they treat animal health problems. They work to prevent, control, and cure animal diseases. Veterinarians examine animals and ask the animal owners questions. They also give animals shots to prevent them against any type of diseases. Veterinarians talk to the owners that own the animal about the care and feeding of their animal and they keep detailed record about the animals and their treatments. Ive always had an interest in taking care of animal in any type of way. Even when I was small I use to find a way to help animals. Still in this point if I see a hurt animal I will try and make it feel better. The idea of just helping animals out make my lifestyle feel important. The thought of just imagining an animal trying to say thank you because I would save his/her life just make me feel connected and grateful. I love the idea of being a Veterinarian. I see this career as being helpful and appreciated. I know that if I become a Veterinarian I should know my responsibilities. Veterinarians also perform lab test and exams of sick animals which I need to be careful. They explain test results and review treatment options with animal owners. Although if there is more than one options available, veterinarians help owners decide which option to choose. Veterinarians often prescribe medicines for animals that are ill which they stay in contact with the owners to monitor the condition of the animal and make changes in the treatment. There are so many types of medications for sick animals such as steroids, pain relievers, doxycycline, and antiparasitic, these medications are the most common uses in America. Steroids are given to pets for inflammation and relief pain. Pain relievers help reduce swelling, stiffness, and joint pain. Doxycycline is used to treat many different bacterial infections including leptospirosis, toxoplasmosis, mycoplasma, psittacosis, and tick-borne disease. Antiparasitic help with hookworm. The prescription for that is oral medication. For a veterinarian you should definitely have skills and abilities. One skill I should learn is to work with people including, looking for ways to help people, be aware of others’ reactions and understand the possible causes, teach others how to do something, and use several methods to learn or teach new things. Another skill is to use math and science such as using scientific methods to solve problems. One ability is communicating including, speaking clearly so listeners can understand, understand spoken information, understand written information, and read and understand work-related materials. Another ability is to identify reasons and problems, notice when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong, combine several pieces of information and draw conclusions, use reasoning to discover answers to problems, analyze ideas and use logic to determine their strengths and weakness, recognize the nature of a problem, judge the costs and benefits of a possible action, understand new information or materials by studying and working with them, follow guidelines to arrange objects or actions in a certain order, concentrate and not be distracted while performing a task, develop rules that group items in various ways, think of new ideas about a topic, think of original, unusual, or creative ways to solve problem. Becoming a veterinarian, I need to have a very strong background in math and science. Helpful electives to take in high school that well prepare anyone for these occupations are animal science, computer application, food and nutrition, anatomy and physiology, safety and first aid. Some other classes I can take are advanced courses in high school includes Advanced Placement (AP) and International Baccalaureate (IB) courses if they are available. A veterinarian should know medicine and dentistry, biology, customer and personal service, English language, mathematics, administration and management, chemistry, and sales and marketing. Medicine and Dentistry is used for injuries and illnesses and plans for treatment. Biology is used for cells, plants, and animals and how they function. Customer and Personal service is used to provide special services to customers based on their needs. English language is used for proper English. Mathematics is used for rules and uses of numbers. Administra tion and Management is used for how to run a business or group. Chemistry is used for properties of substances and the changes that occur when they interact. Sales and Marketing is used for the methods for selling products and services. The reason I want to become a veterinarian is because when I was around six or seven I use to live in a farm. In that farm there was a lot of animal such as pig, horses, dogs, cats, sheeps, chickens, rosters, and etc. One day I went outside and found my dog where we would put the horses and he was laying there with his broken hand. I wanted to tell my dad but when I went to check where he was at my mom said he went somewhere, so I went back with some bandages and tape and wrapped it around his hand then took him inside. The next few days I helped him out and every night I wrapped the bandage around his hand. Later on, I was so proud because he was better and that’s one reason I love animals. Conclusion I have learned quite a bit about my career of choice in becoming a veterinarian. Im even more impressed with my research Ive done. At the same time, Im a bit overwhelmed, if I decide to definitely pursue this career, I have many, many years of school ahead of me. I feel like I would provide excellent opportunity and will be helpful on the road to achieving my goals.