How to stand out as a medical school applicant

medical school admissions strategy writing
By Wilton

You’ve worked for several years to ready yourself for applying to medical school. Perhaps you’ve taken gap years to beef up your experiences or made a career change. But as you stand on the verge of applying to medical school, one question looms: will it all be enough? 

There’s no question that it is becoming increasingly more difficult to stand out in the medical school applicant pool. Among the top applicants, nearly everyone has a combination of a high GPA/MCAT score, and a slew of research, clinical, and volunteer experiences. In fact, many applicants often have identical activities and experiences on their AMCAS. So, how do you differentiate yourself? 

When you are applying to medical school, your essays are your last chance to create value for yourself as an applicant before the admissions committee determines your fate. Your activities and experiences themselves are obviously important, but it is how you describe them that makes you stand out. As such, an equal amount of time and effort should be devoted to them as you did on your MCAT or clinical experiences. Below are a few tips as you begin drafting your essays: 

1. Show, don't tell

No one will take your word for it if you tell the admissions committee that you are compassionate, hard-working, or resilient. If you want to convey those things to the committee, you must demonstrate it in your writing through a particular patient interaction, anecdote, or other example. Showing through stories makes you more personable on paper, and it allows the committee to come to their own conclusions about your attributes as opposed to being forced to believe something about you. As you begin drafting your essays, really spend some quality time thinking about your experiences. Was there a very memorable patient you encountered while volunteering at the hospital? Did you have a “eureka” moment while working on a research project? These memories are a great starting point. 

2. Reflect on what you have learned 

When talking about a particular story, one of the biggest mistakes that people make is spending too much time on what happened. For example, if a core memory of your desire to become a physician stemmed from shadowing a physician, it can be easy and tempting to get carried away with describing every detail about them. The details are certainly important, but the essay needs to focus on you. After all, admissions committees are trying to paint a picture of who you are. For every story you describe in your essays and every experience you list on your application, you should be able to articulate lessons you learned from those experiences. Perhaps you learned about the importance of teamwork in medicine or gained a critical insight into the issues in our healthcare system. This information lets committees know how you think and creates opportunities for you to impress them with your insights.  

3. Tie your experiences to your future career as a physician 

This tip is obvious when describing clinical or research experiences, but chances are that not every single experience on your application is medically related. However, the skills you gain or lessons you learn from nonclinical experiences can also have clinical relevance. In fact, your nonclinical experiences or interests are an opportunity to convey to the admissions committee something you can contribute that few other applicants can. Medicine overlaps with multiple other fields, and those that come from non-science or non-traditional backgrounds or have other unique experiences should highlight how their unique background can relate to medicine. Someone who is passionate about religious studies can articulate how they plan to use their background to relate to patients with differing faiths or make patient-centered decisions. Someone who has a background in dance may have knowledge on common foot and leg injuries. Most importantly, this tip reinforces the fact that there is no one path to medical school—you create your own! 

Keeping in mind that admissions committees only spend a fixed amount of time on your application, selling yourself on paper is not an easy task. Tutors from Cambridge Coaching can provide critical edits of your essays, as well as guidance on your readiness to apply, so will be you well prepared to stand out.

Wilton is pursuing an MD at Yale School of Medicine (expected graduation in 2026). Previously, he graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

Comments

topicTopics
academics study skills medical school admissions MCAT SAT college admissions expository writing strategy English MD/PhD admissions writing LSAT physics GMAT GRE chemistry graduate admissions biology academic advice math law school admissions ACT interview prep language learning test anxiety personal statements premed career advice MBA admissions AP exams homework help test prep creative writing MD study schedules Common Application computer science mathematics summer activities history secondary applications philosophy organic chemistry research economics supplements 1L grammar statistics & probability PSAT admissions coaching dental admissions psychology law legal studies ESL CARS PhD admissions SSAT covid-19 logic games reading comprehension calculus engineering USMLE medical school mentorship Latin Spanish parents AMCAS admissions advice biochemistry case coaching verbal reasoning DAT English literature STEM excel political science skills French Linguistics MBA coursework Tutoring Approaches academic integrity astrophysics chinese classics dental school gap year genetics letters of recommendation mechanical engineering units Anki DO Social Advocacy algebra art history artificial intelligence business careers cell biology data science diversity statement first generation student freewriting geometry graphing kinematics linear algebra mental health presentations quantitative reasoning study abroad tech industry technical interviews time management work and activities 2L AAMC DMD IB exams ISEE MD/PhD programs MMI Sentence Correction adjusting to college algorithms amino acids analysis essay athletics business skills cold emails executive function fellowships finance functions genomics information sessions international students internships logic networking office hours poetry pre-dental proofs resume revising scholarships science social sciences software engineering trigonometry writer's block 3L Academic Interest EMT FlexMed Fourier Series Greek Health Professional Shortage Area Italian JD/MBA admissions Lagrange multipliers London MD vs PhD Montessori National Health Service Corps Pythagorean Theorem Python Shakespeare Step 2 TMDSAS Taylor Series Truss Analysis Zoom acids and bases active learning architecture argumentative writing art art and design schools art portfolios bacteriology bibliographies biomedicine brain teaser burnout campus visits cantonese capacitors capital markets central limit theorem centrifugal force chem/phys chemical engineering chess chromatography class participation climate change clinical experience community service constitutional law consulting cover letters curriculum dementia demonstrated interest dimensional analysis distance learning econometrics electric engineering electricity and magnetism entropy escape velocity evolution extracurriculars fundraising harmonics health policy history of medicine history of science hybrid vehicles hydrophobic effect ideal gas law immunology induction infinite institutional actions integrated reasoning intermolecular forces intern investing investment banking lab reports letter of continued interest linear maps mandarin chinese matrices mba