Year+ in Review

A med school application cycle is longer than most people realize. Here's what's mine has been like...

January 2012

• Apply to AAMC's fee assistance program to get a discount on the MCAT and AMCAS. (TIP: If you have kids, you must do this or else you are just wasting good money.)
• Write personal statement.

February 2012

• Approach professors about potential letters of recommendation. (TIP: If they don't recognize you, go else where.)
• Revise personal statement.

March 2012

• Sign up for the MCAT (TIP: Do it earlier. I was surprised by how many dates were no longer available)
• Put on five pounds. (Hey, when you are the one studying for the MCAT at 1:00 in the morning, you'll understand.)
• Revise personal statement.

April 2012

• Freak out over MCAT
• Revise personal statement. (No, this isn't hyperbole.)

May 2012

• Take the MCAT (Holy cow! I was not prepared. Revisit my posts from mid-2012.)
• Start AMCAS application.
• Start TMDSAS application.
• Fill out letter of recommendation cover forms and forward to letter writers.
• Pretend that the MCAT couldn't have possibly gone as bad as I thought.
• Revise personal statement.

June 2012

• Get my official score. (Heartbreak and sorrow.)
• Despair for a while.
• Start AACOMAS application.
• Order transcripts (from FIVE schools--can you say "non-traditional"?) to be sent to each application service.
• Sign up for September MCAT (TIP: Only do this once if at all possible.)
• Send reminders to letter writers.
• Revise personal statement.
• Write (and revise, revise, revise) extracurricular activities sections.

July 2012

• Find a letter writer to replace one of my letter writers.
• Send more reminders to professor to submit to the other application service. (TIP: If you get all of your letters sent to Interfolio, you will avoid some of this mess.)
• Find another letter writer to tentatively replace the writer you are now stalking.
• Take four full-length, five-hour practice tests.
• Submit AMCAS.
• Submit TMDSAS.
• Submit AACOMAS.

August 2012

• Study for MCAT
• Get philosophical about where you are in life, what you've accomplished, and how you try to "live in the moment."
• Purchase "I'm a grown-up" suit. (Chocolate brown with turquoise top.)
• Preview secondary application essay prompts.

September 2012

• MCAT redoux.
• Start writing secondary applications.

October 2012

• Continue writing secondary applications.
• Get official MCAT score.
• Cry in relief.
• Get first interview invitation. Then second.
• Get first rejection.
• Get over it.

November 2012

• Buy the "right" purse. (Bright red.)
• Start interviewing.
• Freak out and apply to more schools. (TIP: Apply early so you don't do this! $170 down the drain.)

December 2012

• Keep interviewing.
• Send schools an "update." (TIP: You got to actually have something to update them with such as a new publication or a completed class.)
• Get in.
• Celebrate.
• Cancel interviews at "I'd rather go to accepted school than this one" schools.

January 2013

• Cancel another interview.
• Decline an invitation. (Oh, the table has turned and it feels so good!)
• Fail first biochemistry exam. (TIP: Don't!)

February 2013

• Start telling myself "I didn't want to there anyway" for the schools that have silently wait-listed me.
• Decline yet another invitation to interview.
• Join Facebook Group for Class of 2017 Totally Awesome University of MD Acceptance.
• Try to figure out my ambivalence over my state school (see Valentine).
• File federal tax return so that I can...
• File FAFSA. (Twice! One for me and one for Mini-Me. Looks like she'll get about a $700 Pell Grant.)

Didn't get in this time around?

Did you apply to medical school and only receive a few "unfortunately we are unable to..." letters?

It's bound to happen. There are simply too many well-qualified medical school applicants out there for everyone to find a seat. If you made it to an interview, chances are, you're well-qualified. Instead of beating yourself up or driving yourself crazy over what you should have done differently, you might want to take a Freakonomics time-out. Here's a great little (so, so sad) post to put things in perspective for you!

By the way, if you weren't a well-qualified applicant, there truly are things you can do to boost your odds of admission on your second try. Areas to review:

1. Your GPA. If your GPA is <3.5 and you are almost done with your bachelor's degree, you probably will not be able to make it move significantly. You might want to consider a master's degree program in medical sciences. Lots of schools offer these. 
2. Your MCAT score. What did you do to prep? In all honesty, do you think you can do better?
3. Your personal statement. Too many people forget that it is personal, meaning, don't just say the same thing all applicants say. (Some common cliches to avoid: I just love helping people; I find the human body fascinating; I've always wanted to do this; my science courses challenged and inspired me.)
4. The types of extracurricular activities you listed. Some schools are looking for specific activities such as research, volunteer work, and clinical experience. Find out what your schools are looking for and exceed their expectations. Volunteering in a hospital for a few four-hour shifts a month can take care of two of these requirements.
5. The way you wrote about those activities. Don't bother to list anything if all you are going to do is LIST them. As succinctly as possible, share how this experience has prepared you for a career in medicine. With 15 extracurriculars that you can write about, you certainly are not expected to give in-depth details for all of them, but don't waste this chance to convince them that you are just what they are looking for.

MCAT (take 2) Scores Released!

Verbal Reasoning went down by one point to 11--big whoop, still sizzlin'.

Physical Sciences went up by one point to 8--that's good enough for me.

Biological Science--bam!--jumped up FOUR points to an 11.

Sweet, sweet, sweet satisfaction. 26o to 30p.

Mini-Me

Mini-Me is 17 and a senior in high school. Needless to say, she resembles her mother. Though she is convinced that I have no idea what she is going through, I'd say that we are both in the same boat. Or at least, we rented our canoes from the same place.

Mini is feeling a bit overwhelmed at the prospect of applying to college. It doesn't help that I keep telling her she needs to get her applications in right away. How nice it must be to decide if you want to apply to three places or stretch yourself and apply to five! (Jealously point #1.) So far, I think she has decided to exclude schools that have an essay section on their applications. (Jealousy point #2.)

She took her first ACT exam this spring. With a score of 29, Mini believed that she could have done better if she had actually gone through the prep book I bought her. Frankly, I think a 29 is a great score, but I'm always delighted to hear my kids say they want to best themselves. So, Mini registered to take the ACT a week after I was scheduled to retake the MCAT.

M's scores arrived at our house yesterday, two weeks earlier than expected. She opened the envelope with a big smile on her face, but it quickly faded. She scored a 30 on the second go-round. "That's awesome!" I said. She just glared at me.

The day of her retake, Mini came home happy. "I know that I did so much better," she told her dad and me. "I finished all of the questions, not leaving a single one blank this time. I think I'm going to get a 33." She's a smart girl, and math is her forte, but her dad and I were quick to remind her that scoring in the 94th percentile (jealousy point #3) didn't give her much room for growth. Her score of 29 meant that she'd definitely get scholarships at the state schools (JP #4). That said, her optimism was inspiring. I had taken my test a week earlier and loved the idea of having my score increase by 4 points. I, too, felt like I had done so much better on the second test.

Mothering has got to be the best way to find yourself face-to-face with your own issues. On one hand, I'm reassuring my daughter, trying to get her to be OK with her score and see it as a victory. On the other hand, my fear of not doing better on the MCAT suddenly jumped out of the closet. Really, truly, honestly, I thought I was fine with it. I thought I was in a comfortable, wait-and-see sort of place. Mini's disappointment has given me a new dread for Tuesday.

Retakes, Anyone?

With my second test scores yet-to-be-revealed, I can say with confidence that I'm glad I retook the MCAT. According to AAMC, you have about a 50/50 chance of improving your MCAT score with a retake. That's right, my friends, that means you could actually do worse. Before retaking it, be honest with yourself about your ability to raise that score.

It took me almost two weeks to make peace with my first MCAT score. Could I be content with it? Were there clear challenges I could overcome? If I didn't find time to study like I wanted to for the first test, would I really find more time before the second? How likely is my score to fall instead of improve?

• I know I could be content with my scores. If I get the same scores on the retake, I'll be OK with that. It just means I'll most likely need to change the name from "MD at 43" to something that doesn't quite rhyme. ("DO at forty-fo"?)
• I was able to identify clear challenges for me to overcome. I realized that the actual test was the first time I sat through the complete exam, including the writing. None of my practice exams were the mock tests I intended them to be. It was hard finding a place to sequester myself for 5 hours, but I did it. I even packed myself a little cooler bag of snacks and kept my potty breaks to the allotted time.
• I realized that I wouldn't magically find extra study time, so I made it, and I was pretty ferocious about it, too. "Sorry, honey, I want to help you," I said to my teen-ager who wanted to practice driving, "but I feel like I already failed the MCAT once and don't want to do that again. Go ask Dad." My kids came around, and became my cheerleaders.
• My verbal score is likely to be lower the second time around. But you know what? That's only because 12 is pretty dang high and if it fell to a 10, that would still be really solid. I had to take that risk in order to bring up my biology score from a 7. (And I'm fairly certain I bottomed out on the 7. Hopefully, I could only go up from there.)

If you really have your heart set on an MD program instead of a DO program, you will definitely want to retake the MCAT if you didn't score at least an 8 in each section. Not all eights are created equal; an 8 in biological sciences will actually put you at a lower percentile than an 8 in physical sciences, and there are a few schools who will look at you with a 7 in physical sciences. But even with an 8 in each section, a total score of 24 is not competitive for the vast majority of MD programs.

As nerve-wracking as it seems, you've got to be OK with that bit of reality. If you are scoring outside of a competitive range on your practice exams and on your initial MCAT, I don't know if it is worth putting yourself through the wringer to try to bump up your score by a couple of points. Apply for the MD schools that you like, but be sure to hit the osteopathic medicine programs early. I know that there are people who don't get into an MD program and so they spend a year trying to strengthen their applications by focusing on MCAT prep. The MCAT is just one piece of the puzzle. If it is the only place where you are weak, why wait another year?