Get interview advice

When choosing your letter of recommendations, you do not want to choose letters all from doctors.  The same premise holds true for getting all letters from your class professors. At a very minimum you want to have one letter from a physician and at most two.  Do not have more than two.  You want to have other letters from your community service activities or from your research mentor.  

The goal of the letters is to add extra dimensions to your application.  You want to have each letter comment on a particular key aspect of your personality or your interests.  For example, a letter from a physician can comment on your patient interaction skills and maybe your skills in taking a complete history of present illness.  A letter from your research mentor could potentially comment on you inquisitive nature, work ethic, and independence in lab.  A letter from a director from a community service organization like Habitats for Humanities can attest to your volunteerism and team work in helping build houses etc.  Lastly, to round things off with the letters of recommendations, you should get a letter from a professor that taught you in undergraduate and who you visited frequently at office hours. That letter can comment on your studious nature.

In summary, don't collect letters from all physicians (that is what you have to do for residency applications).  Get a diverse range of letters who can put a spotlight to the different aspects of your application and you as a person.

the-academic-job-interview

Tis the season for medical school interviews.  One thing you should be doing is taking notes of your interview experiences.  This information will prove invaluable to you when you write personalized thank you emails to the medical school, write personalized emails to get yourself off a wait list, and help decide which medical school to choose if you recieve multiple offers.

Do:

  1. Take notes throughout the interview day.
  2. Take notes after an interview. Note your conversations with the interviewer so you can write a personal thank you email in the future
  3. Write down names of people you met during your interview including the tour guide's name, administrators, etc.
  4. Write down specifics on the curriculum and locations of the hospital and satellite clinics.

Don't:

  1. Don't take notes during an actual interview. You will break eye contact with your interviewer.
  2. Don't use a voice recorder (yes I've seen 2 people have a voice recorder during the welcoming orientation).

ApplyMD Philosophy

With advance preparation, all medical schools applicants can succeed.

However, let’s face it. The reality is that with over 42,500 applicants in 2010 for  18,665  seats in the incoming medical school class, not everyone can succeed.  Success comes to only those who are prepared.   

This website was created with the purpose of:

  1. Help premed undergraduates, international, and non-traditional students avoid the pitfalls in their AMCAS primary and secondary medical school
  2. Prepare students for applying to MD/PhD programs
  3. Give high school students interested in becoming doctors advice on picking courses
  4. Serve as a repository of useful links to websites and summer research programs

The content on this website is original and not found from other websites. The articles on this website express the sole beliefs of my own as an MD/PhD student and admissions committee member.  It is my hope that the content on the website will help you find success in your application to medical school.

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