Med School Application Process

The application process for med schools is quite extended with many steps.

The first step would be the MCAT. Before the MCAT though, you have to be sure you take all of the necessary pre-med courses in preparation. The MCAT is usually taken in spring of your junior year of college.

After the MCAT is the primary application, which happens early summer after your junior year. This application is through an organization called AMCAS and only needs to be filled out once for all MD schools to which you want to apply. (DO schools use a separate primary application.) The primary application is mostly basic information such as classes taken, grades, demographic information, and extracurricular activities.

Also included in the primary application is what is known as the personal statement. For this essay you are given 5,300 characters (about a page and a half) to tell them everything you want them to know about why they should let you in. This essay is your first shot to really connect with the admissions officers and convince them to let you in to their school. Obviously, the personal statement is very important and can have a huge impact on your application.

This year, the earliest date you can submit the primary application online is June 4. It is beneficial to submit the application as soon as possible because almost all med schools have rolling admissions, which means they admit qualified candidates as they come along, and once their class is full no one else can get in. The longer you wait to apply, the slimmer your chances are of getting admitted because some spots will have already been filled.

Once the primary applications are submitted, secondary applications begin to come in. These are applications exclusive to each school that contain anything the med schools want to know about you that wasn't asked on the universal primary application. Often the secondary applications will contain more essays such as, "Why do you want to come to this school?" or "Describe a memorable moment which led to your decision to pursue medicine." As with the primary applications, it is advantageous to submit these as soon as possible - especially for schools that you really want to attend.

Some schools will only send secondary applications to those applicants they feel are qualified after an initial screening of the primary applications. Most schools send secondary applications to everyone that applies because they want to collect the fees you have to pay to turn in the secondary applications. Most secondary applications will come in mid summer.

After schools look at your secondary applications, they will decide to either turn you down or invite you for an interview. If you are asked for an interview, you have to travel to the school and meet with their admissions committee. This gives the committee a chance to get a better sense of who you are with an in-person interview. These usually happen in late summer or early fall, but it depends on when you turned in your applications.

Once you've interviewed, schools will accept, deny, or wait list you. If you are accepted, you have a spot in their class if you want it. Typically you have two weeks from the time they let you know you are accepted to decide if you want to attend that school or not. If you are denied, there is nothing else you can do to get in to that particular school that year. If you are put on a wait list, it means that you weren't qualified enough to be guaranteed a spot, but if they end up having room once they get decisions from those they initially accepted, then you may get in. Acceptance notifications usually happen late fall or winter. If you are put on a wait list, you may not even find out if you get in until a week before classes start.

This whole process takes months and a lot of money. To take the MCAT, it costs $210. The primary application costs $160 for the first school and $30 for each school after that. I will probably apply to about 12 schools, which means it will cost me $490 just for the primary application. The secondary application fees vary by school but range from $25 to $100 each. For all 12 schools, it will cost me about $700. As you can see, the money adds up quickly! Once enrolled in a school, tuition is even more! (Tuition ranges from about $25,000 to $60,000 a year!)

I'm almost done with my primary application, which I will submit on June 4. I expect the secondary applications to come soon after. I'm going to post a list of the schools to which I am applying as soon as I finalize that list.