Medical school application process

Your Medical School Application: Approaching Optional Secondary Essays

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

There are two optional secondary questions that are common to most applications, one that you can always answer and one that you should only answer if it is appropriate. Let us explain.

Is there anything else we should know about your candidacy? If you have no issues to address and the prompt is this open-ended, you could recycle a Secondary Essay from another school to highlight an experience that didn't fit into your W&A. Or, if they didn't ask in another Secondary, talk about why you love this program. 

But the secret purpose of this prompt is to give you a chance to take down some red flags. It is the school's nice way of saying: "What not-so-great thing did you do? Explain why we shouldn't be concerned about it." 

Some schools will ask about it more explicitly: Please explain any inconsistencies in your college or graduate school academic performance and/or MCAT scores. 

So, did you tank a class your freshman year? Does your lowish MCAT score not reflect your ability to thrive in a challenging academic environment? Don't make excuses. Instead, after you share your misstep, explain how you excelled in later courses or rigorous academic or work environments. You want to keep any answer concise: This is the issue. These are my accomplishments that mitigate that issue. 

Test scores and grades aside, is there something else in your school record that needs to be addressed? Did you get a citation for underage drinking at a campus music festival two years ago? For topics like this, keep your answer very brief. Going on and on about every circumstance and how this is not really your fault, etc. is weak. Go to the pain: This is the situation. This is the action I took afterward. This is the result of that action and what I learned. 

You do not have to max out this word count. And much like the adversity question that might pop up in your Secondary application, you want to avoid appearing too negative or overly critical of others here. 

Have you experienced any hardships? 

If you have experienced hardships regarding your health, family, finances, or any significant interruptions to your education, share them here. 

If you have not experienced such hardships, don't exaggerate a small hurdle or massage any facts to answer this question. A hardship prompt is different from an adversity prompt. We've all faced adversity in our own way. But an optional secondary question about hardships is exactly that —optional. 

We once had a client who considered writing about living in a medically underserved area. Her home state was in the top 10 medically underserved states, but this description applied to rural parts of the state and areas of her city deeply affected by poverty—not where she lived. 

She had access to a local primary care physician and was less than an hour away by reliable public transportation from a specialist she saw. Including this obvious exaggeration of affiliation in her submitted application might have led to an awkward interview moment (best case) or an immediate rejection (worst case). We cautioned our client then, as we caution you now: avoid using embellished responses to prompts and interview questions.

Your Medical School Application: Secondary Essay Tips for Applicants on a Gap Year and/or Re-Applicants

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

Here are some questions you can expect to encounter.

If you will not be enrolled as a full-time student, what will you be doing until matriculation? OR What have you done since graduating from college? You will have mentioned some of this information elsewhere in the application. While you don't have to max out the word or character count, it is important to account for all of your time, especially if you're not working or volunteering full-time. You want to detail exactly what your role entails and your experiences and takeaways.

Now for the "ifs":

  • If you're working full-time in a non-medical field, that's a-okay. Explain how the work has and will help you build skills that will prepare you for medical school. And plan to volunteer at health events or a free clinic with whatever time you do have. You want to show dedication to the field, even if you must make your money elsewhere.

  • If you haven't started the role you'll be working in until matriculation, give a detailed description of your duties and what you hope to get out of your experience.

  • If you have no idea what you'll be doing until matriculation, oh goodness, get one.

  • If you have some room left in your response, you can include a detail about something fun you're doing or plan to do.

Check out this example; it's perfect for a response with a 150-word limit:

"Since graduating from Private University, I have been a clinical research coordinator at Near-My-Hometown Children's Hospital, working on 10 studies. I will continue in this role until matriculation. Each day, I have patient-facing experiences and regularly explain key study processes in easy-to-understand ways to both children and their families. I hope to work in pediatrics as a physician, so honing this skill is very important to me. 

Last year, I collected and analyzed study data for an academic paper on pediatric asthma and was asked to draft a section of it. It will be published this fall in Impressive Kiddo Journal, and I will be credited as a co-author. Pediatric pulmonology is now a special area of interest for me, one I hope to explore in medical school. 

Besides this work, on Saturdays this summer, I'll be volunteering at a community farm. Spending time outdoors is my go-to stress reliever."

This answer is loaded with impressive, detailed info about the applicant's activities after college, what they'll do until matriculation, and the relevant skills and goals they've developed. That's the most important stuff for you to include. So, if you don't have any "fun" plans to close the response out, don't sweat it.

Have you applied to our program before? If so, how has your candidacy improved since your last application? This one is self-explanatory. Even if you have no idea why you were rejected last time, you do know that you've gained more clinical or research experience, other work experience, or a Master's degree. You have matured and deepened your interest in medicine. If none of those things are true, then perhaps you should be applying next year instead. 

Your Medical School Application: School-Specific Secondary Essays

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

Medical schools use school-specific questions to assess an applicant’s fit with the program. Use these common prompts to get a head start on brainstorming and drafting your responses.

Why our school? This is a place to mention courses you're excited to take, potential mentors you'd seek out, clubs you'd join, what the school's hospital affiliations and research opportunities mean to you, etc. And you want to share how those offerings are relevant to your past experiences and/or passions. If you've spent the last two years volunteering at a free clinic and doing community health outreach and the school has a brand-new mobile clinic serving the unhoused, you want to be working on it. If you aim to become an OB/GYN and Professor So-And-So just published a 10-year study on geriatric pregnancy, you want her as a mentor and to become involved in her current research. 

You also might share how the school's location will set you up for the kind of career you want. Say, for example, the school is in a city, and you ultimately want to practice in an urban area. If true, you could take your reasoning one step further, saying that you want to work in the school's city or state when you're a physician. State schools love applicants who are committed to practicing in their state post-residency. 

Mentioning that you find other aspects of the town or city appealing or that it is located near friends and relatives is also relevant here. Schools want to know if you have a local support system. 

Similar Q: Tell us about your special interest in the campus you selected. If a school has multiple campuses, à la The Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, they will likely ask you to choose a favorite. 

Again, you should share your interest in the local clinical opportunities and how the campus location relates to your career aspirations. A personal affinity for a larger or smaller city or rural campus is noteworthy too.

What about our mission statement resonates with you? How do or will you embody it? A version of this question might be phrased in several long-winded ways (you'll see what we mean), but this is what they are all asking. Mission alignment matters to schools. They want to know that you share their values and will be a proactive member of their community. 

Schools often hit similar themes: innovation, collaboration, and servant leadership. Health equity and social justice also frequently appear in mission statements. (Some schools have a separate question related to those topics.) Even if you're not drafting this answer yet, think about experiences you've had that involve those themes and jot down some notes. Hit up your brainstorm and find the times where you utilized critical thinking. When were you a leader? How have you been involved in social justice or what's a critical topic that you are making an effort to learn more about? 

If a question like this isn't in a school's Secondaries mix, you should be looking to reflect the mission statement back to the school in your other essay responses. For example, if a school especially values collegiality, you might include a story about how you collaborated on a class project in one of your answers. (This is another example of show don't tell.) 

While you should be researching schools individually to learn other specifics, AAMC has a tremendously convenient document that rounds up all allopathic schools' mission statements in one place.

Your Medical School Application: Common Secondary Essay Prompts (Part 2)

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

Use these common prompts to get a head start on brainstorming and drafting your responses.

What disparities in health will you try to address as a medical student and physician? A question about health disparities and inequity could be direct like this or the topics could come up in a question about your alignment with a program's mission statement. Many schools' statements tout their commitment to addressing these issues. There are plenty of health disparities to write about; explain why you're passionate about one or two and show your knowledge of them, preferably through previous experiences. Share the steps you have already taken regarding inequities and plot out the steps you plan on taking in the future. 

We had a client who went to college where Black maternal healthcare was ranked the worst in the country. While this was attributable to multiple factors, physician bias certainly played a role, she wrote. After college, she participated in several unconscious bias trainings. Discussing implicit bias raised her awareness of how dangerous it is in a healthcare setting and caused her to pause and consider where beliefs she had originated. She's going to take that practice with her throughout her career. And on campus and in her future practice, she plans to organize implicit bias training sessions. 

Describe a time where you worked on a team. Teamwork is a huge part of working in medicine, so make this example count. Choose the best anecdote from your Teamwork and Collaboration Bucket in your brainstorm. Be detailed: What was your team's goal? What problem did you solve together? If the team was small, include everyone's first name. (It shows that you valued these people as collaborators.) What did each bring to the table? How did you delegate tasks? When did you choose to lead and when did you choose to follow? Did a conflict arise? How did you solve it? If you didn't, is there anything you would do differently if faced with that situation today? 

What are the most important attributes a physician should possess? Which one do you embody? This question is self-explanatory, but again, don't just tell, show. Share a story (or, better yet, more than one instance) where you exemplified an attribute that means a lot to you. 

Your Medical School Application: Common Secondary Essay Prompts (Part 1)

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

Use these common prompts to get a head start on brainstorming and drafting your responses.

How will you add to the diversity of our student population? Your response doesn't have to be about race, sexuality, or religion. (Of course, it can be.) What unique experiences and perspectives can you share? And how have you thrived in and learned from diverse environments in the past? 

We had one client write about how she chose to spend her gap years between graduating college and matriculating to med school in a corporate setting. Working at a consulting firm that advised biotech and pharmaceutical companies gave her a better understanding of disease etiology and product pipelines and insights into healthcare inequity. Part of her job involved speaking with doctors and researchers from around the world; between this and working in a hectic office environment, she improved her communication skills—vital to contributing to a medical school community, never mind in her career. And her atypical premed job meant she'd bring unique knowledge and experiences to her medical school class. 

Tell us about a time you faced adversity. This prompt can be a trap because it tempts you to be very negative. Obviously, you don't have to be all sunshine and smiles in your essay about facing adversity. But be careful not to paint yourself as pitiable or overly criticize others, even those who deserve it—let their actions speak for themselves. Present the event in detail, but you want about 80% of your answer to focus on the actions you took, lessons you learned, and how you grew through facing adversity. How did this incident affect your long-term view of something? How will it affect your future actions? How will having navigated this experience make you a better healthcare provider? 

This tone to strike and structure to follow applies to other common questions, such as, "Describe a conflict you've had. How did you resolve it?" and "Reflect on a time when you had to show resilience.” 

Tell us about a time you failed. Talking about a failure or weakness can make you feel vulnerable—good. To get a little Brené Brown: Vulnerability leads to bravery. When you share a failure, you want to spend about 20% of your answer explaining what happened and 80% on what you learned and what you've done since to improve. Lastly, how are you feeling now? Hit these beats: Situation. Action. Result. You don't need to seem ever-resilient and impervious to future failure, just like you've grown. 

Related: Your Medical School Application: Getting Ready for Secondary Essays

Your Medical School Application: Getting Ready for Secondary Essays

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

You may not want to hear this, but… you should start your Secondaries as soon as you complete your Personal Statement and W&A—before the schools have even sent you their questions. There are recurring themes that you can bet will come up, and prepping things you can polish once you have the exact questions will make the Secondaries process much easier. You want to submit your answers within two weeks of receiving the questions to ensure you get one of a school's limited interview slots.

The good news is: You will be able to recycle your Secondary answers for different prompts and use aspects of your Secondary drafts for your super-short answers too. But to do this more effectively, you'll need to get organized. 

We suggest that clients keep school-specific folders holding all of their responses. Having separate folders for specific topics is helpful too. For example, keep a Diversity Essay folder. School A's diversity prompt might require a response of 500 words or less. Save that edited doc to the school folder as "School A Diversity 500." Also, save it as "Diversity 500" in the Diversity folder. Perhaps much later, when School M's diversity prompt calls for the same word count, you can find your finished and edited 500-word essay in the Diversity folder and tailor it to fit School M. 

When you pare down your 500-word essay to suit School Q's 250-word or 1,000-character diversity short answer (and you likely will), save that to the Diversity folder as "Diversity 250" or "Diversity 1,000 Characters." You're applying to so many schools that when you read your 40th prompt, you're going to ask yourself, "I know I wrote this as 500 words already, but for what school?!" You want all your hard work to be in easily findable locations.

Common AMCAS Questions: You Asked, We Answered.

We’re going to answer some of the most frequently asked AMCAS questions here.  Let’s dive in!

Who should I ask to write recommendation letters?

You should go a step beyond a school's expectations when you request recommendations. We suggest you aim for:

  • At least two science professors 

  • At least one non-science professor

  • Medical professionals. Note: You don't have to stick to M.D.s; osteopathic physicians, nurse practitioners, EMTs, medical students—anyone who supervised you is gold.

  • Supervisors at your job, volunteer posts, and extracurricular activities.

Review our blog for more on this topic. 

How do I select my Work & Activities “Most Meaningful Experiences” entries?

Ah, the "Most Meaningful," your chance to share more about what you most value and have learned from—in seemingly random character limits of 700 and 1,325 with spaces. 

We like for two of the three Most Meaningful entries to be about clinical or research experiences. If you took a gap year to work, you might make the third entry about that job. More and more applicants are working full-time after college. Even if your full-time work experience is outside the medical field, you're learning in a competitive, stressful environment. This is attractive to schools. 

Our advice for drafting your Most Meaningful entries: In the initial 700, share your role and duties, what you valued about the role, and start to say what you gained from it through a singular example. In the 1,325, deepen the anecdote that exemplifies what you brought to and took from the experience. 

Review our blog for more on writing your W&A section. 

Should I answer the “Other Impactful Experiences” question?

This question text states that not all candidates are expected to respond. Rather, it is for those who have had “major challenges or obstacles.” We urge you to consider any significant challenges that you have faced, using the following questions:

  1. Did this experience impact my life in a way that provides meaningful context to my application? Examples of such adversity include: Facing a significant health challenge such as cancer or a disability; serving as the guardian to your younger siblings, while also attending classes (likely, negatively impacting your resume); living in an underserved medical community that made it difficult to gain shadowing or clinical experiences, but also inspired your interest in rural medicine. 

  2. What did I learn from the experience? Your essay response should detail the adversity, but should focus on what you learned from going through the experience. Did this experience provide you with an “ah-ha!” moment that changed your perspective and impacted your life? If the take-aways from the adversity do not feel relevant to your application (i.e., your learnings do not clearly make you a stronger candidate for a medical school), you should reconsider the take-aways or including the experience.

  3. Have I already spoken to this experience in my personal statement? You will want to avoid redundancy by sharing different stories and anecdotes in this essay and your personal statement. If you fully explored the experience in your personal statement, do not feel compelled to re-write about the experience here. Not all applicants are expected to have responses to this question.

Review our blog on this question for additional context.

When do I need to submit the AMCAS application?

We recommend that you submit your application no later than early to mid-June because your application will go through a verification process prior to the data being released to medical schools. This can take anywhere from a couple of weeks early in the process, to over a month during peak application submission periods. Note, in order to complete verification, your application must contain your official transcript, so request this document as well as your letters of recommendation a month or two before your planned submission date. 

You also want to submit your AMCAS application early because this step triggers schools to send out secondary application materials, either automatically, or after a pre-screen of your application.

Review our blog with suggested application timing.

Your Premed Priorities: Non-Clinical Experiences that Medical Schools Love

For a strong W&A section, you’ll want to highlight both clinical and non-clinical experiences. Your non-clinical experiences are an excellent way to demonstrate some of the traits and characteristics that will lead to your success in medical school, while also showing some personality. Here are a few of the non-clinical experiences that medical schools love to see.

Research and/or Lab Work: AMCAS matriculation data for the 2018 entering class at Johns Hopkins stated that 96% had research or lab experience. If you want to attend a school famous for its research, you need more than one of these gigs. Even schools that aren't explicitly known for research love seeing multiple research positions in your W&A.

There's so much critical thinking involved in research. And there's the opportunity to be published—a slam dunk. In research work, you will collaborate with a team to accomplish a measurable and valuable task. The cooperation and diligence you need to be a part of such projects are exactly the qualities you want to highlight in your W&A and Personal Statement. Even being a small part of something can make a huge impact. We had a client who essentially did data entry for a research project, but her careful work caught two mistakes that would have ruined the data set. Her team credited her on a scientific paper for her contributions, an unexpected peacock-sized feather in her cap.

Non-Clinical Volunteering: Service is a huge part of medicine—but not all your service has to be medical. Schools like Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine that emphasize caring for the whole person will especially value roles in which you interacted with your community. Volunteering shows compassion and often builds communication and collaboration skills. Share a story where you connected with another person or collaborated with a team of other volunteers.

Such a position can also prove ingenuity. One of our clients volunteered at a non-profit that helped families register for SNAP benefits. After a couple of weeks on the job, she suggested changes to the organization's method for approaching people at family court hearings. She was able to connect with more caregivers who needed help as a result.

Big Academic Wins: To include awards and accolades in the W&A, you must go beyond listing them. Give some background about what you had to achieve to be recognized. If you did a thesis as part of your school's Honors College program, share the process, skills you learned, and how you felt upon accomplishing this goal. If you had any help reaching your goal, say so. Did a mentor work with you during office hours? Did a librarian help you track down a rare manuscript? Medical schools love it when a candidate seeks, accepts, and appreciates help.

Science-Related Anything: A science-related club or volunteering experience will be attractive to schools because it shows a passion for scientific study. Tutoring and mentoring looks especially good because teaching is a big part of medicine. We had a client who spent a year's worth of Tuesday afternoons helping high school students learn about physiology. It improved his ability to break down information. You'll be teaching med students as a resident, residents as a fellow, fellows as an attending, and you'll be translating complexities for a layman patient daily. 

Conferences: Attending a conference is typically only a one-day time commitment, but it shows an interest in learning about the current state and future of medicine. Conferences can be very inspiring. These speakers were selected for a reason. Networking with doctors is great, and talking to any patients in attendance is even better. When you're writing this entry, don't just list what you did or heard at the conference, tell us how it affected you after that one day. 

Outside of the W&A, having attended a conference can come in handy during an interview. You might be asked if there are any new developments in healthcare that you find riveting. If you attended a conference and subsequently read more about the topics discussed, you're going to have a lot of thoughts to share.

Campus Organizations: If you've dedicated years to the same organization, highlight your biggest accomplishments. What did you change as part of this organization, or what important tradition did you carry on? Did you bring anything medical into the mix? For example, when your sorority did charity work, was it for a medicine-related cause? If you have some control over your organization's next event, see if you can swing things in that direction. Incidentally, if your school has a pre-med club and you're not in it, join it now.

Hobbies: Hobbies are not superficial. Yes, your medical experiences, volunteer work, noteworthy club positions, and academic accolades are going to outrank this in the W&A. But you have fifteen unique entries to fill, and you want to show different dimensions of yourself. We believe a hobby is a must in a W&A. Read our blog post dedicated to hobbies. 

Related: 

Your Pre-Med Priorities: Clinical Experiences that Medical Schools Love

Your Work & Activities Section Series

Your Work & Activities Section: Two Problems You Don't Really Have

"Help, I have too many experiences!" 

We've heard it before: "How am I going to keep this at 15 entries? I have 20 options." Here's the thing, you probably don't. You can and should bundle certain activities. Doing so reduces repetition and allows you to include a wider variety of experiences. Say, you were secretary of your student council for one year and vice president for two—that's material for one entry. Even if one of those roles produced one of your Most Meaningful experiences, you can likely cover both in one write-up.

"Help, I Don't Have Enough Experiences!" 

You may insist: "I have had three clinical experiences, two volunteer posts, and was in one club in college. I don't have 15 options!" 

Here's the thing, you probably do. Did you take a weekend long improv class with some friends? It might have teased out a braver you or helped you to think on your feet. Do or did you have a non-medical job? Obviously, you're going to include all medical work or volunteering experiences as well as impressive internships or jobs in any industry. But even working as an office temp, swiping cards at the college food court, and ringing up retail at the local bookstore exemplifies your work ethic and commitment. It also implies that you're not spoiled. Facts are facts: A lot of med school applicants are privileged. Earning your own money can set you apart because it shows personal responsibility and that you know how to balance work and studying. 

Hobbies count too. It is not a waste of space to share that you're an artist or love to garden. You can angle these activities to be more relevant to your application by explaining what transferable qualities—creativity, dedication, patience—you can apply to medicine. Your hobby write-ups also can highlight different strengths than your other entries, have a passionate delivery, and show some personality. 

"No, I really don't have enough experiences."

If you don't have enough experiences, now is the time to get them. Put together a group to clean up tree pits in your neighborhood to practice leadership. Take a hip-hop dance class to become less stiff and stern. If you're interested in mental health, volunteer for a crisis hotline. Exercising empathy and learning to talk to people on the worst days of their lives is useful for a future physician. Last-minute shadowing experiences are an option, too. They in no way should replace clinical experiences, but, if you are light on clinical experience or want to get some career goal-related shadowing experiences in, this is the ticket. Attending a conference or volunteering at a community health fair are one-day events that can lead to impactful encounters. Pursuing and sharing education is very valuable to medical schools.

Your Work & Activities Section: Where to Begin

To improve your W&A writing experience and the quality of your entries, try this: 

Raid your brainstorm. As we’ve frequently mentioned, your brainstorm serves every part of your application process. If you're having a hard time with W&A entries, copy and paste info directly from a brainstorm bucket or two and cut and sew together the first draft of an entry from that material.

One client began a W&A entry on her time as an EMT by briefly sharing salient details about things she did and skills she acquired while working on an ambulance. She then copied (literally control-C) a poignant story from her brainstorm's ah-ha bucket wherein she showed compassion for a patient who had miscarried. She pasted it directly into her W&A draft document. She proceeded to trim unnecessary parts of the story (what day it was, what her partner was doing), and add a takeaway about seeing the importance of caring for a patient's mental health.

Start with the easy ones. Do you know what your takeaway was from shadowing a pediatrician? Did working on a poster presentation with a group help you learn to manage conflict? Have you been swimming competitively since you were a guppy? Instead of writing W&A entries in the order of their occurrence or importance, start with whatever comes naturally.

Do a dirty draft—and re-read it later. You don't have to refine your first draft text right away. In fact, we’d recommend that you write all 15 first drafts (that doesn't have to happen in one sitting) and then go back to the entries with fresh eyes later. Sometimes when you're reading one entry repeatedly back-to-back, you see what's in your head and not what is on the page. So, you might think a description makes perfect sense. But later, you'll read it, discover issues, and revise it accordingly.

Craft your stories. You'll always share some basic duties and details; and they can be pretty cut and dry. For example, "At the free clinic, I checked in patients and learned how to take vitals. I interacted with approximately 20 patients during every four-hour shift." But you must also include what you got out of this experience, preferably using an engaging anecdote. "One patient, Linda…" If you don't think you have a specific story to tell, schedule time with an Apply Point consultant and we'll talk things over and find one. You'll be surprised at how much of a story you can fit into 700 characters. But don't worry about going over the word count in your first draft. We're here to help you pare down, if necessary.

Your Work & Activities Section: Before You Start

Before we make a case for the kinds of experiences you should include in your W&A and get into the deep details you should be sharing, we're going to give you three super-basic tips for writing these entries. Bookmark this page and keep it accessible because you are going to want to check that you're doing these three things in each entry that you write.

  1. Use complete sentences. This is not a resume. You might have done an activity log when presenting your candidacy to your pre-med committee. That will be an excellent resource, but it's probably not polished, and these entries must be.

  2. Go beyond the "what." Don't just describe a job you did. Share details about how this experience challenged, changed, or motivated you. Through anecdotes, show the qualities that medical schools are looking for, which include leadership and critical thinking abilities, empathy, strong communication skills, resilience, intellectual curiosity, and maturity.

  3. Utilize your space well. For general entries, you'll have 700 characters with spaces to tell your story. Aim to max out that character count. Each experience should warrant it—700 is not that many characters. For the Most Meaningful entries, you'll have 700 characters with spaces, followed by an additional 1,325 with spaces. If you come up short on either section of the Most Meaningful entries, don't worry about it, so long as you have something compelling in each section.

Preparing for the MCAT: Tips and Advice from an Expert

In the tutoring world, Dr. Stuart Donnelly is known as “Dr. MCAT.” With 24 years of teaching experience, a unique take on MCAT prep, and a great sense of humor, he has become a favorite tutor of Apply Point clients (and consultants). 

We asked him to answer some of our clients’ most frequently asked questions. 

When should I begin studying for the MCAT? “I would say six months before you take it—though, some students leave it until a little later, say, five months before the test. It depends on how strong your background knowledge is in chemistry, physics, biology, biochemistry, psychology, and sociology. If you’re not feeling confident in these areas, start six months before because it will take three months just to get through the material.” 

What’s the biggest mistake I could make when prepping for the MCAT? “A major mistake students make: They wait to take the practice test until they get through all the material. And because it takes three months to read the material the first time, by the time they take a practice test, their score is nowhere near where they want to be, and they freak out. So, they go back to reading the material again for another month or two. They’re putting off that next practice test often until the week before the real thing. And their score is still terrible. I think students can begin taking practice tests as soon as two weeks into the studying process. When you’re taking a practice test for the first time, you don’t know how to take the test yet. The first two or three practice tests are going to be just awful. So, get used to it and get it out of the way quickly.”  

Is there a "best way" to take a practice test? “When you’re taking a practice test, take it at the same time in the morning as when the tests are; have your routine be the same as it will be on test day.

The MCAT is such a long exam—the “seat time,” including breaks, is about seven and a half hours. How can I build my stamina? “By doing lots and lots of practice tests. Seriously, that is the only way to do it. Early into practice, students don't have the stamina yet and lose concentration. They don’t have any time management skills yet either. It's only when you've taken three, four, or five practice tests that your score starts to improve. And when you’ve taken seven or eight of them, you get closer to your target figure. I would say nine or 10 tests into it, you start to score in the ballpark you're looking for. And then you want to do that at least two or three times more to make sure that it wasn't a fluke. Then you're ready to take the test. We’re talking about 20 weeks—at least—of preparation. You could take the test every other week.”

Any advice for test day? “Keep your schedule the same as it normally is. If you’d normally have a cup of coffee in the morning, make sure you get your cup of coffee. You'll also want to be familiar with the testing center. Go the day or week before just to make sure you know what train to catch or where to park, and which room the test is in. On the day of the exam, you want to get there as calm and relaxed as you can be.”

Related: Thinking of Retaking the MCAT? Here’s What You Need to Know.

The 2024-2025 Allopathic Medical School Application: An Overview with Suggested Timing

If you’re looking to start medical school in the Fall of 2025, now is the time to get started with the application process! Applying to medical school is arduous, but proper planning can reduce your stress and help you to maintain a manageable task load.

The four components of the medical school application include:

  • Standardized tests: MCAT and Situational Judgment Exams

  • AMCAS application 

  • Secondary Applications

  • Interviews

Standardized Tests

MCAT: Your MCAT scores are typically valid for three years prior to matriculation, and you can take the exam up to three times.

  • Register: Select your preferred date, as well as a few alternative dates that would work. You can register for the test here. The ten-day deadline prior to the test is your last opportunity to schedule, reschedule, or cancel.

  • Prep: Start preparing for the MCAT at least six months prior to your planned test date. And sit for the exam no later than May 24, 2024 (scores released June 25th): This will avoid application delays. Keep in mind that we recommend that you take your exam by mid-April so that you can re-direct your attention to preparing the AMCAS application. 

Review our blog posts on the MCAT:

Situational Judgment Exams: There are two exams (CASPer and AAMC’s PREview) that fall under this umbrella. Depending upon the specific application requirements at the schools where you apply, you may need to take one, or possibly both. Currently, CASPer is the most commonly required of the two. 

CASPer: This test gauges your ability to critically evaluate complex scenarios and employ sound judgment and communication skills. Not all medical schools require applicants to take the CASPer, however, a growing number of allopathic programs do, currently over 40. Your CASPer score is generally only valid for one application cycle. 

The CASPer score is often requested alongside your secondary application or prior to an invitation to interview. Opting to take the test earlier in the cycle, rather than later, will allow you to have your scores readily available when requested, meaning that you can dedicate that time to preparing your secondary application materials or for mock interviews. It will also ensure that your application is not delayed as you wait for your scores.

Review our blog post on CASPer.

AAMC’s PREview Exam: Similar to the CASPer, the Preview exam gauges professional readiness by assessing your judgment in nine competency areas identified as critical for medical school success. It is unique in that it was created specifically for use in medical school admissions. Currently, only six allopathic schools require the Preview exam, while an additional seven allopathic schools and one DO program recommend it.

  • Register: Find instructions for registering for the test here. You are able to reschedule your test up to 24 hours prior to your scheduled test time. Be sure to sit for the exam during the spring or summer of 2024.

  • Prep: Familiarize yourself with the test format and content before you take the exam. Once you have registered for the test, you will gain access to an exam tutorial. 

Review our blog post on the AAMC PREview Exam.

AMCAS Application: 

Submit no later than mid-June.

  • The AMCAS application opens and will be available here on May 1, 2024.

  • The first date to submit the AMCAS application is May 28, 2024.

  • The first date that processed applications will be released to medical schools is June 28, 2024.

We recommend that you submit your application in early to mid-June because your application will go through a verification process prior to the data being released to medical schools. This can take anywhere from a couple of weeks early in the process, to over a month during peak application submission periods. Note, in order to complete verification, your application must contain your official transcript, so request this document as well as your letters of recommendation a month or two before your planned submission date (by March 28, 2024). You also want to submit your AMCAS application early because this step triggers schools to send out secondary application materials, either automatically, or after a pre-screen of your application. 

Review our blog posts on the AMCAS application:

Secondary Applications:

Submit within two weeks of receipt. 

Secondary applications are typically sent between June and August, although they can come later depending upon the timing of your AMCAS submission. Many schools will not review your application file until you have submitted your secondary application. And, because most schools review applications on a rolling basis, and invite applicants to interview accordingly, it is important to send in your secondary application materials promptly, which we define as within two weeks of receipt. 

Additionally, because many of the schools will use at least some of the same prompts, you can start preparing responses to the most commonly asked questions as soon as you’ve submitted your AMCAS application. 

Review our blog post on common secondary application questions. 

Medical School Interviews: 

Fall through Spring 2025 (by invitation only)

Many applicants receive invitations to interview following their submission of secondary applications and/or CASPer or Preview Exam scores. Schedule yours as early as possible. And before solidifying your travel plans, you should contact nearby schools to which you’ve applied and let them know you have an interview in the area in case they have availability. This serves the dual purpose of letting the other school know that you are “in demand,” while also showcasing your strong interest in their program.

Review our blog posts on medical school interviews:

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