Getting admission into medical schools is quite challenging and competitive. According to Forbes, the acceptance rate of most medical schools in the US was only 6.7% in 2019. Considering some factors in your pre-medical days can help you prepare before applying to med schools.
Most of these factors serve as a gateway to medicine, offering students a clear idea of what the medical profession demands from healthcare professionals. You will identify the daily responsibilities of physicians and learn how patients and doctors interact with each other in a clinical environment.
Are you a medical school aspirant? Continue reading to know more about medical considerations that a student should know before applying to a med school.
1. Gain medical experience.
Admission committees do not expect students to have medical exposure before they become professionals. But it is a great experience that makes an application stand out. Shadowing a doctor, working at a research lab with a medical researcher, working as a medical scrub, or even volunteering to tend sick patients is an excellent experience to earn as a student. Admission committees see it as true passion, dedication, and determination of the student.
That is not all. Clinical exposure before applying to a medical school will help you attain valuable insights as to what happens in a clinical setting and the seriousness of the medical profession. Gaining clinical experience also will give you a certificate or a recommendation from a physician, which is sure to advance your application.
There is no better way to gain first-hand exposure into the field of medicine than shadowing a physician all day. This experience will also help you to understand if this is the right profession for you. That itself will save a lot of time and energy as a student. Coming to a realisation earlier is much better than realising it after years of med school training.
- Research experience: Undergraduate experience in medical research helps students to become great doctors in future. Medical schools also aspire to see students interested in learning, working hard, willing to do research studies, and invent new medical procedures. It also reflects that you take your job responsibly and have respect for the medical profession.
- Good Grades and other records: Your undergraduate performance is vital for your medical school application. Being a highly competitive area of study, medical schools usually use the national GPA averages as cut-offs in the primary selection process. However, many medical schools’ candidates score below the national average but get through if they excel in any other segments in their application.
The top schools also consider subjective aspects before choosing a candidate. It can be an excellent academic record, the difficulty level and type of courses they chose in schools, or a distinctive academic project. Most schools also take into account GPA trends.
What are the admission requirements in medical schools?
Admission requirements in most medical schools in the US require:
- a high school diploma.
- graduate degree in the sciences,
- undergraduate degree with a minimum GPA of 3.0
- a qualifying MCAT exam result
Some American schools also have other requirements, such as completing some pre-medical courses, like Biology with lab laboratory experience for a year, general Chemistry with the laboratory for a year, Mathematics consisting of Calculus or Statistics for one year. They may also consider college Physics with laboratory, and grades in Sciences( Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Maths), letter of recommendation, voluntary experience, or work experience in a healthcare setting, a minimum TOEFL and IELTS results for international students.