Prospective Doctor (from MedSchoolCoach)

Max Ruge is a 4th year medical student who will be hosting a PreMed Virtual Summit in September! He recently sat down with Dr. Lipsit to discuss the medical school application process. This is a sneak preview of the great information that will be shared in the PreMed Virtual Summit. Stay tuned for more recordings and visit thepremedsummit.com to learn more about the event!

[1:20] What is the primary application?

It consists of undergraduate and graduate transcripts. Note that each school has its own required coursework that needs to be completed in order to matriculate in their school. It’s a good idea to have these prerequisites completed at the time of application.

The MCAT and GPA scores are critical in the primary application. Medicine is a very popular career that is extremely competitive. The rest of your application won’t be looked at if these metrics aren’t superb.

There’s a personal statement in which you talk about yourself which happens near the end. Earlier in the process you must include an activity list that fills specific categories.

[7:18] The activities list.

It contains up to fifteen activities. The five categories are volunteer work, medically related activities, teaching/tutoring, research, and leadership.

Volunteer work can include medical or non-medical work, and medically related activities show that you know what you’re getting yourself into. Teaching and tutoring experience shows that you can constantly educate, while research shows several skills and can satisfy the researchers on the committee. Finally, leadership shows that you are more than just a follower.

Dr. Lipsit likes to see triple digit amounts of hours in these categories. It’s important to show that you have passion and can connect with people.

[19:07] Filling out the activities list.

There are fifteen slots, and Dr. Lipsit recommends filling them all out. He has seen candidates with good credentials be deferred because the committee was concerned about an insufficient activities list.