Tips for your med school AMCAS essay

“Why do I want to be a doctor?”

Surely this is an important question to answer in your own mind and address in your personal statement. That assumption doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that you should begin the essay by answering the question or that your answer should be the focus of the piece.

Some applicants have compelling stories to tell about an illness or injury, an inspiring mentor or a memorable service experience that pointed them in the direction of medicine. If you have such a story, you’re set with your opening paragraph and your theme; your challenge is to draw readers in and make them want to know what happened next.

If you’re like most applicants – an intelligent person who has an aptitude for science, a strong inclination toward service and no life-altering experiences or “light bulb moments” that led you to choose medicine – your focus should be on what sets you apart from the rest. Is your college major a bit offbeat for a premed? Did you or your family face economic or other hardships and obstacles? Do you have any unusual jobs, interests or hobbies? (Consider the candidate who taught classical Indian dance at her college while she was an undergrad and studied the discipline in India for a year before applying to medical school.) If you devote the valuable and very limited space AMCAS provides for the essay to those qualities and accomplishments that make you unique, admissions committees will gain a better understanding of the kind of person you are.

And that’s exactly what they want to do when they read your AMCAS essay.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Admissions tip: An interview is a two-way street

Usually when applicants prepare for their admissions interviews, they spend their time trying to figure out what questions will be asked and how they can best answer them. This is important and a good idea. But it’s not the only step to prepping for an admissions interview.

An interview is a two-way street.

Your interviewer will ask you questions and listen your answers, and then will turn the asking over to you. When your interviewer says, “Do you have any questions?” you don’t want to shut the interview down by saying, “Nope, I’m set” but want to keep the flow of the conversation going by taking the reins of the interview into your hands and asking some questions of your own.

There are two things you can do before your interview to help you come up with intelligent questions:

1. Familiarize yourself with the program’s website and other literature. Never ask a question that can be answered easily online.
2. Review your application. Your questions should be specific to your unique situation – your skills, interests, and goals. Questions about the faculty or clubs, for example, should relate to your own education, career, and goals.

Since your goal should be to come up with questions that are specific to your situation, I can’t give you a list of must-ask questions without knowing who YOU are. But here are a few sample questions that you can review and tweak so that the questions are more appropriate for YOU:

• How difficult is it to enroll in a popular class like XYZ? (Insert a class that appeals to you. Not a required course.)
• Do recruiters from XYZ (a company or a particular field that interests you) visit the school? How do students get interviews with recruiters?
• Are business plan competitions (or something else that’s relevant to you) open to all students, or are there certain requirements to qualify?

If you are interviewing with school alum or a second-year student, then you should ask questions about their experiences, for example:

• Who were some of your favorite professors? Favorite classes?
• What is/was a typical day like for you?
• Are there clubs or activities that you would recommend for someone interested in XYZ? What clubs are you involved in? How important do you think it is to be involved in extracurricular activities?
• If you could change anything about your experience at this program, what would it be?

You get the idea. You want to come up with questions that personalize you and that show you have an interest in your interviewer’s experience (if relevant). Be specific, show that you’ve done your research, and most importantly, relax!

Good luck and let us know how we can further help you prepare for your interviews!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

The trap of marginal thinking in admissions

Are you considering padding your resume or record as you apply to college, graduate school, or a job? Think again. This past week I came across several articles at different times and on different topics that you should know about.

Obviously there are the stories about Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson’s embellished college record. Just a few hours ago Yahoo confirmed the inevitable: Scott Thomas is now the former CEO of Yahoo. Non-existent degrees on resumes are a hard thing to claim “oops!” about. He is out.

What does a falsehood from thirty years ago reflect on his competence to run Yahoo today? Whether he had the degree or not, don’t his recent accomplishments speak more loudly about his abilities than some stale studies from three decades ago?

That phony degree in computer science may not reflect one iota on his managerial skill, but it speaks volumes about his integrity. In all likelihood if he had just told the truth, he would still have been chosen to be Yahoo CEO, and there would have been no easy target for activist shareholder, Dan Loeb, the CEO of Third Point, to go after Thompson, much less win three seats for the Third Point group on Yahoo’s board.

But Thompson didn’t tell the truth and apparently hasn’t been consistently telling the truth about his academic record for years. Consequently, he is no longer CEO, and could be facing problems with the SEC, and his reputation is in tatters.

That leads to the second story I saw this week. It didn’t generate the headlines of Yahoo’s board shakeup, but the questions and conclusion are surprisingly similar.

Back in January prestigious Claremont-McKenna College acknowledged that a senior administrator had falsified data reported to U.S. News for its highly influential college rankings. The administrator resigned in disgrace. Claremont apologized and hired O’Melveny & Myers LLP to provide the correct data and to detail the extent of the misrepresentation since 2004. Per the Morse Code, the blog of Robert Morse, director of data research for U.S.News & World Report, and based on the newly verified data, Claremont McKenna’s 2012 rank is correct and will not change.

That’s mind boggling! That administrator lied, lost his job, damaged a top school’s name and for what? Nothing. The ranking with the lower, accurate data is unchanged.

While the saints among us may be feeling very smug at this point — “The bad guys got their due, and I would never make up something on my resume.” — I’d like to point out a third article I read this week – this one from Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge. In the fascinating “How Will You Measure Your Life?” Dr. Clayton Christensen writes about the “trap of marginal thinking” both on bottom-line and ethical decisions. In his attempts to teach students how to live a life of integrity he writes, “The marginal cost of doing something ‘just this once’ always seems to be negligible, but the full cost will typically be much higher.” He is so right.

Applicants (and applicant parents): Please, please, put your best foot forward in your applications BUT make sure it’s your foot. Don’t embellish. Don’t falsify. Don’t lie. You should have learned this in kindergarten, but if you didn’t, realize that the long-term cost of these falsehoods can be far higher than whatever pain or small cost is exacted by simply telling the truth.

Scott Thompson just learned this lesson. That Claremont McKenna administrator learned this lesson. It would be wonderful if applicants and their parents could also learn this lesson — before their names find their way into the headlines for some long-ago “inadvertent error” that clearly was intentional.

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new, definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.

This article originally appeared on Technorati.

Clinical exposure is critical in med school admissions

Want to know how important clinical exposure is to your med school profile? You can have a GPA in the high 3′s and an MCAT score in the high 30′s and still get rejected from a top med school. Throw in some clinical exposure or shadowing with those top marks and you’re practically a shoo-in.

According to most admissions members at top-ranked medical schools, clinical volunteer work is absolutely necessary; an absence of such experience can literally kill an application. Without it you fail to show the adcom that you have investigated the medical field, thereby failing to prove that you know that it’s the right field for you.

Saying that you want to “save lives” or “work in pediatric hematology oncology” is noble and admirable, but do you understand what doctors do on a day-to-day basis to fulfill such a goal? Do you have what it takes to save lives PLUS work 24-hour shifts? Do you like working in a hospital environment? Can you handle dealing with sick people and their families?

Furthermore, if you indicate that you are interested in a particular specialty field, then you MUST be able to discuss what you’ve seen and what you’ve experienced and how those things have contributed to your calling and your desire to enter that specialty field.

An additional tip: If you are the child of a physician, you most likely have more shadowing experience than the average non-child-of-a-physician applicant. However, it is crucial that you acquire clinical experience with doctors who are NOT your parents in fields that are NOT your parents’ fields so that you are certain that your decision to enter a field is because you truly desire that role and those responsibilities and not simply because you are blindly following in the footsteps of your mom or dad.

Remember, if all things are equal—high test scores, high GPA, excellent references, and a solid application—the applicant with the clinical exposure, with the hands-on knowledge that being a doctor is his or her true calling, is the one who will get the fat letter of acceptance.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

The webinar will take place on Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 5:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM ET.

Get the advice you need to ace your AMCAS applications and gain the med school acceptance of your dreams when you register for Writing for Your Medical School Application today!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Birthday Book Sale Ends Tomorrow!

Yesterday was my birthday, and today is your day to celebrate with super bookstore savings! Today and tomorrow are the last days of Accepted’s birthday blowout book sale, during which you can save 50% on ALL Accepted books with promo code SAVE50!

Browse our growing collection of books, choose the ones that match your admissions goals, and save 50% by using SAVE50 at checkout!

This is an important time for all of us – I’m one year older and wiser, and you’re one step closer to gaining admission at your top choice undergraduate or graduate program! Congratulations to us all!

Choose your MBA, med school, law school, grad school, or college admissions books now!

The Accepted.com staff wishes Linda a very happy birthday!

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new, definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.

Tips for choosing the right med school for you

What is the right number of schools to apply to? 10? 20? 40? Each applicant’s list will be different. The number of schools that an applicant applies to should take into account several factors including state of residency, strength of credentials, and the match between personal goals with the school’s mission.

The simple answer would be to aim to apply to approximately 20-25 schools. Here are some thoughts to be considered when selecting schools:

1. Apply to your state school(s) and any other nearby medical schools that may have reciprocity between states.
2. Apply to your undergraduate institution if they have a medical school especially if you have had the opportunity to do research or clinical work at the school or an affiliated hospital.
3. Apply to private schools that are a good match academically with your credentials
4. Explore the mission of each school and select schools that you match well in terms of your experiences, goals, and focus.
5. Consider finances when applying – application costs rise dramatically the more schools you apply to.

There are many factors involved, and you need to balance a realistic number of schools with your best chance of success. Your residency, minority or disadvantaged status, and financial restraints are all important factors in addition to those I’ve mentioned above. But remember, you never know what a school will be attracted to in your application – some schools value research, some have a strong mission working with the underserved, some have primary care focus…. so don’t limit too much, but rather select 25 schools that align well with your strengths.

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

If you answered “yes” to any of those questions, then you won’t want to miss our upcoming webinar, Writing for Your Medical School Application. In this FREE webinar, Linda Abraham, Accepted.com’s CEO and med school admissions expert, will teach you everything you need to know to ace the written section of the AMCAS application!

The webinar will air live on Wednesday, May 16, 2012 at 5:00 PM PT / 8:00 PM ET.

The webinar is free, but spaces are limited.

Reserve your spot for Writing for Your Medical School Application now!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Med School Services Sale Starts Now!

Applying to med school? We have one tip for you, and one tip only: Start NOW. The earlier you submit your medical school application, the better your chances are of landing an interview and getting accepted to a top program.

To encourage you to get an early start on your AMCAS application, we’re offering 10% off all non-rush medical school essay editing & consulting services during the month of May.

Enter coupon code MD10 at checkout to save big and to apply early with a personal statement that represents you at your best.

Check out our catalog of medical school services now!

Accepted.com ~ Helping You Write Your Best

Birthday Book Sale!

To celebrate my birthday (May 10th) we’re giving you a present!

Buy any Accepted.com books between now and Sunday, May 12th and save 50% when you use promo code SAVE50!

Browse our bookstore to choose the best admissions books for you!

• MBA Admissions Books
• Medical School Admissions Books
• Law School Admissions Books
• Graduate School Admissions Books
• College Admissions Books

Note: My new book, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Top Business Schools, is included in the sale!

Happy birthday to me, and happy book sale to you!

By Linda Abraham, president and founder of Accepted.com and co-author of the new, definitive book on MBA admissions, MBA Admission for Smarties: The No-Nonsense Guide to Acceptance at Top Business Schools.