10 Tips for a Stress-Free Medical School Application

By: A Medical Mentality

1. Don’t apply over apply to Medical Schools

Don’t apply to too many schools (20-30 is probably a lot but doable) – instead, do a little bit more research on each school that you are considering. Think to yourself about places that you wouldn’t mind moving to. Think to yourself about your reach and safety schools based on your MCAT and GPA. PUT THIS RESEARCH DOWN ON PAPER. It will make it so much easier come secondary time to form coherent thoughts on commonly asked questions “what makes you a good fit for this school” and “why do you want to come here”.

You may think it makes you less likely to get into schools if you apply to less, but I”m not sure that’s what is most important. I think if you’re thoughtful about where you apply and focus on writing 20 really strong apps instead of 45 mediocre ones you’ll be much better off.

2. Stay Flexible

Make your plans and schedules during the early part of the application cycle extra flexible. Remember that a bulk of your time writing secondary applications will be right after you submit your application. If you do this early, like I think you should, then make sure you have a flexible July and August that allows you to focus as much time as you have (but don’t quit your day job or fail your summer classes…) on writing these applications. Just prepare!

What does this mean for leisure? For travel, consider June, right after you’ve submitted your primaries. There are usually a few weeks of buffer before secondaries come in. Or plan travel later in the year – understanding it may depend on your individual situation – whether you’ve been accepted at your top choice, you haven’t heard anything from anyone, or you have interviews but you’ve been waitlisted will matter.

3. Budget

Budget for EVERYTHING! Don’t be shortsighted like I was and just focus on the application costs. Money is a significant source of stress for a lot of people and being prepared will mitigate this a lot. This means being really thorough in all sources of potential spending during the application cycle. Factor in as many things as you can think of. Some examples of things that were substantial but I didn’t consider were:

The income you may lose from taking days off to go on interviews.
Uber or other transportation costs while on interviews (housing too, but try to stay with a host).
The cost of buying professional clothing and having it cleaned regularly.

4. Avoid Extra Travel

Travel is NOT always a break – please do not schedule in travel as break time during interviews. It may be a break for the moment, but it is often not restful. You need mechanisms integrated into your schedule that allow for true rest!

5. Failure isn’t the End

Just because you don’t get into a med school (or the med school you really wanted) doesn’t mean you aren’t qualified!! This one took me SO LONG to realize. The age-old saying “a true measure of a person’s character is how one handles failures, not success” really rings true here. Many of the re-applicants (including myself) at my school came in with such a chip on their shoulder (and imposter syndrome, which I will talk about at length in a future blog) work really hard and are doing well in school.

It is not productive to think that you aren’t qualified. It IS productive to look back at things that can be improved because ANYONE (seriously, anyone) can improve their application. It’s not always easy, but you can improve your application in so many ways, which I will talk about more in the next blog. Please don’t give up on your dream, if it is your dream. I didn’t! It’s hard and frustrating 90% of the time but if this is your calling you gotta follow your heart 🙂

6. Strong Support Systems

Find your support systems! This might be the most important point of them all. I really try to emphasize proactive planning in this post, because I am a strong believer in trying channeling productivity. In spite of this, the reality is that having a good support system is really what will help with stress the most, and will help you be productive in ways you might not expect.

Remember, applying to medical school is a hard time and inevitably not all of it is under your control. Your support system doesn’t just have to be family or friends – it can be fellow applicants you meet on the trail or forums, or it could even be an anonymous blogger on this post you read. Heck, it could even be a dog, cat, or fish! And any time you’re feeling insecure, just ask for some attention and validation so you can be reminded of how valuable you really are.

7. Stay focused on what YOU can Control

Focus on things in your application that are within your control! You can’t go back and be the president of 6 clubs, or get 300 more shadowing hours, or 3 more publications right before you hit submit. What you can do is make sure your application shows off a very refined, polished version of yourself. You can make sure your test scores are where you want them to be. You can make sure that the people writing your letters are writing you strong letters by asking “Can you write me a strong letter of recommendation?” One tip that I was given is to look up the program objectives for those schools you’re applying to and discuss how you are personally prepared to tackle those objectives. I did this and it helped me frame my personal statement a bit as well as stand out on interviews.

8. What are Your “Key Messages”

Think about the key points you want to convey in your application. This is MUCH easier said than done, and I recommend that you take at least a week just to focus on this. Talk to your friends and family about what 6-7 major themes you really want to convey in your application that are individual to you. The classic “I just realllllllly want to be a doctor” should not be one of them! Really operationalize what it would mean for you and your future to succeed in being a doctor.

9. Keep Your Support System Involved

Remember to involve your support system throughout the whole process. This doesn’t mean let them write your essay for you, but do solicit their thoughts. They know you, and they may have a more objective perception of you than you do yourself (especially if you’re really hard on yourself like I am). Also, as I said in the previous section, always know that you can lean on them in difficult times.

10. Practice, Practice, Practice

Practice your interview, with someone qualified. Practicing in situations like these seem to add extra stress, but it will mitigate the real stress during the actual day and help you feel more prepared. Someone qualified can give you targeted feedback that you can improve on, and that feedback will likely be more representative of how your interviewers will be thinking.

“A Medical Mentality” is a US medical student who was tired of feeling overwhelmed by all the stress and anxiety that future doctors experience throughout the course of training. During downtime in the COVID-19 madness, I decided to start a blog about my own arc, and summarize what lessons I had learned from it that help me mitigate stress and anxiety daily. Read more at AMedicalMentality.wordpress.com.

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10 Tips for a Stress-Free Medical School Application