Fee Assistance Program

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Liza

The Fee Assistance Program (FAP), sponsored by the Association of American Medical Colleges, provides financial relief to those who cannot afford to take the MCAT or apply to medical school. In addition, receiving a fee waiver usually qualifies applicants to have the fee associated with medical schools’ secondary applications waived. The FAP process is outlined on the AAMC’s FAP page.

In addition, the AAMC offers financial information for those intending to go to medical school. There are many resources on the Financial Information, Resources, Services, and Tools (FIRST) website about loans, financing options, repayment information, etc.

Applying to and going to medical school takes financial responsibility. Take advantage of the resources on the FIRST site to plan well for the financial commitment of both the application process and medical school training.

–Liza Thompson, Expert Medical School Admissions Consulting

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AAMC Traffic Rules for Medical Schools: Application and Acceptance Protocols

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Liza

Rules

 

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has established “traffic rules” which describe appropriate behavior for both applicants and medical school admissions officers to adhere to during the AMCAS application process. Please refer to another blog post on the AMCAS traffic rules for applicants. The AMCAS traffic rules for medical schools are as important as those which apply to applicants. In 2015 the traffic rules were given a new name:  Application and Acceptance Protocols.

These rules help ensure that applicants are treated both uniformly and fairly.  Included in the protocols are the following requirements:

  • Schools must publish and adhere to their admission procedures and if they participate in an application service they must honor its requirements. In plain English this means that medical schools have to follow the rules set by AMCAS. Continue reading →
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Shadowing Experiences

Posted on January 30, 2015 by Liza

It is imperative for all premeds to spend time learning about the medical profession through a variety of experiences. Premed students can volunteer in hospitals, free clinics, or other sites to gain experience in a medical setting and show that they have at least a rudimentary understanding of the medical profession and patient care. It is important to commit time to a health care facility to show your dedication to your chosen path.

In addition to volunteering in a medical setting, many premeds spend time shadowing physicians to learn about their particular field of medicine and the doctor-patient relationship. While shadowing can be both educational and beneficial, it has relatively limited value in that most of it is short-term, spanning only a few days to a few weeks. Regular volunteering in a medical setting—at least four hours per week over many months—allows premeds to see a hospital or other facility over a longer period of time and thereby understand its rhythms and daily flow on a sustained basis.

A medical student at Stanford shares her reflections on shadowing and the insights she gained from it in this post on AM Rounds, the blog sponsored by the journal Academic Medicine.

No matter whether you shadow or volunteer on a regular basis, the more experience you have within medicine, the more you will learn about the medical profession.

–Liza Thompson, Expert Medical School Admissions Consulting

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Stress Relief for Premeds and Medical Students

Posted on January 21, 2015 by Liza

Photo courtesy of hivehealthmedia.com

Photo courtesy of hivehealthmedia.com

Stress is ever present in our busy, frantic lives. Premed students juggle heavy course loads, extracurricular activities, and clinical experiences–sometimes with a job or two thrown in. Medical students are under a considerable amount of stress, having to master a large volume of material and learn clinical skills in four years. And that’s only the beginning: internship and residency training are stressful, as is being an attending physician or running a practice. We’re all under a considerable amount of stress. Figuring how to control stress—and to decompress—is an important skill for premeds and med students to learn as it’ll make your professional and personal life both more enjoyable and manageable.

The Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital offers tools on managing stress, many of which premeds and med students might find useful. Some medical schools are even incorporating stress relief classes into their curricula or as an add-on optional feature for students. Michigan State University used therapy dogs during exam week to help med students de-stress. Professors at Georgetown presented information on using mind-body skills to reduce med students’ stress. At Virginia Commonwealth University, med students got involved in a specific project to help relieve their stress. And at GW Medical School, students engage in a range of activities to help them minimize stress.  At Wake Forest students learn meditation techniques to manage and ease their stress. Continue reading →

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Top 10 Medical Schools with the Fewest Applicants

Posted on January 5, 2015 by Liza

In the 2014 application cycle, medical schools on the US mainland with the fewest applicants were:

1. University of Mississippi = 334 applicants. In-state applicants comprised 99.7% of the total group and 100% of matriculants were state residents. Bottom line: it’s not wise to apply to the University of Mississippi if you’re not a state resident.

2. University of South Dakota = 508 applicants. Only 25.8% were in-state applicants but 82.8% of matriculants were state residents. The state clearly favors state residents and their odds of admission are favorable.

3. East Carolina Brody School of Medicine = 926 applicants. 100% of applicants and matriculants are state residents; Brody accepts no applications from non-residents. Applying to Brody is not an option unless you reside in North Carolina.

4. Mercer = 1146 applicants. Like East Carolina, Mercer accepts no applications from non-Georgia residents. As such, 100% of the applicants and matriculants are state residents.

5. LSU-Shreveport = 1181 applicants. In-state applicants made up 52.3% of the group but 97.6% of the matriculants were state residents in 2014. These numbers clearly show that LSU-Shreveport heavily favors Louisiana residents.

6. University of Massachusetts = 1190 applicants.  86.8% of applicants were in-state and 96% of matriculants were state residents. It’s nearly impossible to get into UMass unless you’re a resident.

7. University of New Mexico = 1198 applicants. The stats are similar to those of the University of South Dakota: Only 24.5% of the applicant pool was from New Mexico but 90.3% of the matriculants were state residents.

8. University of Missouri–Kansas City = 1266 applicants. In contrast to some other public institutions, 85% of the applicants were from out of state and 56.2% of matriculants were from within Missouri. Continue reading →

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Colleges with the Most Medical School Applicants

Posted on December 22, 2014 by Liza

I recently saw a posting on the Premed Life website which gave a list of the top 25 colleges and universities, ranked by the number of medical school applicants. As expected, many large universities are on the list (UCLA, the University of Michigan, UC-Berkeley, the University of Florida, and UT-Austin are the top five). Looking over the list prompted some thought in regard to what kind of environment is most conducive to premedical studies and to succeeding as a medical school applicant. Here are five elements to consider and/or questions to ask when weighing what college/university might be best for premed students.

If a school produces a large number of medical school applicants is it a positive environment?  There may be intense competition in very large premedical classes if there are hordes of premed students. Of course this depends on the individual school and its atmosphere. But this is something to consider (and ask current students about) when weighing one school against another. Make sure the school’s environment is a good fit for your learning style, as well. Are you an independent learner?

Will a large environment and lots of premedical students make it more difficult to get to know professors and find mentors?  If there are hundreds of premedical students are there too many seeking guidance/mentorship from professors? Mentorship is incredibly important in college (and in medical school!)  Are professors too overburdened with teaching loads and with the number of students they teach to have time left to mentor individual students? This is important to consider since an education entails more than classes alone.

Will the classes be too large and impersonal to be able to get meaningful letters of recommendation?  Letters of recommendation are an important component of the medical school application process. Consider who might be able to write your letters, especially if the class sizes are huge. The best letters of recommendation are written by individuals who know applicants well and can attest to their capabilities/strengths. Continue reading →

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Tolerance for Ambiguity in Medical School Applicants and Students

Posted on November 13, 2014 by Liza

An article published in 2013 in Academic Medicine posed a novel and interesting way to select medical students based on their tolerance for ambiguity (TFA). The upcoming changes to the 2015 MCAT, with its inclusion of new sections on behavioral and social science, are designed in part to include broader ways to assess medical school applicants. The authors of this article claim that the MCAT changes may not be comprehensive enough to select students who will become humanistic physicians.

Instead, the authors believe that testing applicants for their ability to handle imprecise situations–with no black and white answers–would be a good way to assess their capability for providing high-quality care in ambiguous medical situations. They also theorize that students’ comfort with unclear situations would help foster their humility and that this, in turn, would help develop their moral character.

A subsequent article in Academic Medicine examined matriculating medical students’ tolerance for ambiguity and found that it was higher in men and nontraditional, older students. Those who scored higher on the TFA scale also indicated a stronger desire to work in underserved areas.

In commentary on this article, Dr. Vera Luther states that the results of the TFA survey raise more questions than they answer. For example, she believes that there are some positive traits associated with a low tolerance for ambiguity.

Continue reading →

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Applications to MD Schools Reach Record High

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Liza

The Association of American Medical Colleges has announced that applications to medical school hit an all-time high of 49,480 in the last application cycle (2014). This represents a 3.1% increase in applicants over the prior year.

Diversity has also increased; Hispanic or Latino enrolled medical students jumped 1.8 percent; African American medical students increased by 1.1 percent; and American Indian and Alaskan Native populations in medical school made big gains of nearly 17 percent.

Gender balances in medical school remained approximately what they have been in recent years, at 52% male and 48% female. But women outpaced men in the number of first-time applicants, at an increase of 3.3% for women and only 2.1% for men.

In the last 10 years several new medical schools have opened, which partially accounts for the increase in the number of enrollees. In addition, some medical schools have expanded to try to meet the need for more physicians. Since 2002 medical school enrollment has increased overall by 23.4 percent.

One problem remains, though: while the number of medical school graduates has increased, residency positions have remained static, creating a clog in the system. Continue reading →

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Applications to Osteopathic Schools Increase…Again

Posted on October 28, 2014 by Liza

 

Applications to the nation’s osteopathic schools have increased again this year. In fact, since 2002 applications to DO schools have increased steadily; there were approximately 7,000 applicants to DO schools in 2002 and by 2012 that number had nearly doubled. Since 2012 applications have continued to rise.

As a result it has become more competitive to gain entry to DO schools and the GPAs and MCAT scores of accepted applicants have gone up in the last 10 years. For the most recent year in which data is available (the 2013 entering class) the average cumulative GPA of DO school matriculants was 3.5 while the median MCAT score was 27. (For more details read the AACOM’s report here.)

Enrollments in DO schools increased by 6.7% from 2013 to 2014. Part of this increase is due to new DO schools and branches which have opened. Much has been reported in the press about osteopathic school graduates fulfilling a dire need for more primary care physicians. According to the most recently available survey of graduating DO students, 32% intend to pursue primary care while one-third of DO graduates also state that they intend to practice in underserved areas.

–Liza Thompson, Expert Medical School Admissions Consulting

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Acceptance Protocol: First Medical School Acceptances Issued on October 15th

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Liza

Oct15

 

October 15th is fast approaching! Why is this significant in the life cycle of a medical school applicant? Because it’s the first day that medical schools are allowed to issue acceptances. According to the “Application and Acceptance Protocols,” which are a set of guidelines for both medical school applicants and admissions officers, no acceptance can be issued prior to this date.

For medical school applicants who entered the application process early in the cycle (June) it’s entirely possible that this date could be the long awaited one in which they get their first acceptance to medical school. Some schools, like the University of Michigan, issue acceptances with great pomp and circumstance (the video that Michigan sends to accepted applicants is legendary!). No matter how or where the acceptance is issued, getting that first acceptance (or any acceptance) is incredibly exciting for applicants who have worked incredibly hard to get to that day.

Protocols for medical school applicants also set guidelines as to expectations and have dates to which applicants must adhere. Applicants should be aware of these rules prior to entering the application cycle. A different blog post goes into detail regarding these rules.

–Liza Thompson, Expert Medical School Admissions Consulting

 

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