Obviously there is no single “legal” undergraduate school. Successful medical school applicants reach from a wide range of schools. Basically, you should enroll in a four-year university or college where you are comfortable, challenged and given opportunities to pursue meaningful extracurricular activities. In short, you should enroll at a school where you can excel academically and recreationally.

You may be able to begin at a community college, but make sure that most, if not all, of your prerequisites (generally two years of each of the following with a lab: biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics) are completed at a four-year school. Most medical school admissions offices will tell you that they prefer your core science prerequisites be taken at four-year schools.

Pick the right undergraduate course of study:

The right course of study is one in which you are generally interested – one that engages you intellectually for the many hours you will have to devote to it. You do not have to major in biology, chemistry or physics to be a competitive applicant. If you earn good grades and master the underlying concepts in the science prerequisites you may major in anything you want.

Some majors other than biology, chemistry and physics to consider are anthropology, sociology and psychology (i.e., disciplines concerning people). You may also consider majoring in Spanish, an increasingly useful language for clinicians.

Some of the classes outside of the core science prerequisites that are required or recommended by some schools include English, biochemistry, genetics and calculus. To make sure that you meet a school’s specific requirements, contact the school directly.

Pick the legal extracurricular activities:

Medical School Admissions officers want to know that you know what you’re getting into. Therefore, they want to glance that you’ve had some exposure to the field of medicine. So, volunteering or working in a setting that allows you to experience firsthand what physicians do on a daily basis is highly recommended.

Keep in mind that admissions officers also want to know that you know how to adeptly interact with people who are sick or otherwise disadvantaged. You should, therefore, seek patient contact in your clinical experiences.

Ideally you will be able to find a part-time job working with doctors and patients. But such a gig is not easy to accumulate if you have no qualifications-don’t rule out volunteering your time. Think volunteering at a free clinic, where more opportunities may be available for you than in a hospital.

If you have additional time for extra-curricular activities, gather involved in an activity or organization-something-that interests and motivates you. Try to gain a leadership role in this activity/organization. Doctors are leaders, and medical schools are looking to recruit leaders.

Pick the right people to ask for letters of recommendation:

The best letters of recommendation come from people who know you and your motivations well. But, more importantly, they come from someone who will praise you and your motivations in the letter. So, when asking someone to write for you, you should begin by asking the person explicitly if they are willing to write a letter that portrays you in a wonderful light.

If your school does not have a pre-medical committee, you generally need at least two letters from a science professor (usually Bio, Chemistry, or Physics) and one letter from a non-science professor. Because this requirement is specific to individual schools, you should always contact the school directly to verify that you meet their requirements.

Getting letters of recommendation is generally easier if you are at a cramped college than if you are at a sizable university. However, very good letters can be obtained from professors of large classes. Some strategies: launch visiting the professor in their office hours at the beginning of the semester to develop a long term relationship; volunteer to assist the professor with their research (note: meaningful research is a great, but not necessary, asset to your application); after taking the class, volunteer to work as a supplemental instructor/tutor if the same professor will be teaching the same class in a future semester (this will give you more face time and help you master the class’s core concepts in preparation for the MCAT).

Get a head start on the personal statement that you must submit with your primary (AMCAS) application and give this to those whom you solicit for letters. Doing so may aid your writer to create a more personal letter and it will give you a working draft that you can continually tweak until it’s time to submit your AMCAS.

Do well on the MCAT:

The MCAT, an exceedingly important exam for your application, will almost certainly be the hardest test that you have taken to date. This exam is intimidating and thoroughly exhausting. The GRE and LSAT (and probably every other graduate school entrance exam) are child’s play in comparison.

Commence preparing for the MCAT by mastering the core concepts of your basic science courses as you’re taking them. Note: the concepts and facts tested by the MCAT are supposed to be covered during your two semesters of biology, physics and general and organic chemistry. It is best to consult the AAMC (Association of American Medical Colleges) or a reputable prep book/course to make sure that you have learned all of the concepts and facts that the MCAT will require you to know. Generally, the concepts in your pre-requisites classes that are really hard to understand and take the most effort to capture are the ones that you will be expected to have mastered by the MCAT. Learn them while taking your basic pre-requisites-even if your classes are so easy that you can ace them w/o mastering the difficult concepts.

Commercial prep courses are good for keeping you focused on MCAT-specific material and keeping you on a tight scrutinize schedule. The breadth of material covered by the MCAT begs that you effect a schedule for studying. The commercial prep courses are good for keeping you on a schedule. If you do take a prep course, make sure that (along with the practice tests administered by the course) that you take some of the real MCAT exams offered by the AAMC. The scores that you make on your prep course practice exams are not always a good indicator of what you will actually get on your MCAT.

Keep a light load the semester before you take the MCAT to allow yourself as much time as possible to study it. Have your core pre-requisites in the bag by this point.

Don’t neglect preparing for the Verbal Reasoning section of the exam. Verbal Reasoning on the MCAT is not reading comprehension. It is challenging-don’t underestimate it. Doing poorly on Verbal Reasoning can atomize you cumulative score.

Good luck!

Pick the right medical schools to apply to:

First, begin by knowing the wrong schools to apply to. Some public schools (Yeah, you, West Virginia!) admit very few, if any, non-resident applicants who cannot demonstrate meaningful ties to the state. Applying to these schools can be a waste of time and money. To know if a school gives irregular or strong preference to in-state applicants, you can either contact the school directly and ask them about their criteria or consult the Medical School Admissions Requirements (MSAR, published by the AAMC). The MSAR is also a valuable tool for helping you to match your statistics/numbers (MCAT and GPA) to schools you are considering.

Apply to all of your state schools. At your state schools, you are at a competitive advantage to out-of-state applicants (all else being equal).

If your statistics and extra-curricular experiences are only satisfactory, average or marginal: 1) Don’t send applications exclusively to selective schools; 2) Reflect applying to as many schools as you can afford; 3) Consider applying to osteopathic medical schools (in recruiting, they are generally forgiving of marginal statistics if you have good extra-curricular/life experiences and are willing to learn about osteopathy and present as powerful to them).

Write a good personal statement:

Admissions officers read thousands of these. Make yours stand out in some way. Don’t be terrified to get creative (without getting inappropriate). Don’t write anything that is untrue or anything that are not prepared to take questions about during your interview.

As with all essays that you write in your applications, have a few people (who have good writing skills and a sound knowledge of grammar) proof read this for you.

This is an important part of your application. It is your first opportunity to introduce yourself to the admissions committee. Don’t blow it off!

Pick the right time in the application cycle to submit your application:

This one is easy: Apply as early as possible!

Several schools have rolling admissions policy. The sooner you submit your AMCAS (primary) application, the sooner you can get secondary applications. The sooner you can get secondary applications, the sooner you can find interviews. The sooner you get interviews the more practice you will get and the sooner you can get offers of admission. The sooner you get offers of admission, the less stress you will experience and the more confident you will be at your subsequent interviews.

Prepare for your interviews:

No one but the members of the admissions committee at each school really knows how important your interview is in deciding whether or not you will be accepted to a given school. Don’t worry about that. Just be prepared to sell yourself, talk intelligently about recent events, think your way through ethical dilemmas and show your genuine interest in the school (or schools) that interviews you.

Approach your interviewer in this way: Your interviewer(s) will be your advocate during the admission committee’s meeting. Give your interviewer(s) material with which to give you a compelling representation before the committee.

What will you interviewer(s) ask you? You can’t know for certain, but, nine times out of ten, you will be asked: “So, why medicine? “; “Why, this school? “; “Do you have any questions for us? ”

Sometimes you will be presented with a hypothetical dwelling presenting an ethical dilemma and asked how you would respond in the situation. There are no “right” answers, but the “contemptible” answer is “I don’t know.” Reflect through the situation (if you can do so “out loud” and still sound intelligent, go ahead) and consider more than one viewpoint. The cognitive skill required for answering the seek information from is very similar to the one that you should have mastered for the MCAT writing sample.

Include in your interview preparations a visit to www.studentdoctor.net/interview/interview_read.asp where you will glean a link to interview feedback posts by people who have already interviewed at a given school. This is the single best resource for helping you to anticipate the nature of questions that you may encounter. Be distinct to contribute to the site after your interview!

Research the school. When you are preparing for and visiting the school for your interview treat it as if it’s your top choice (but don’t tell your interviewer that it is if it’s not). Learn the schools uniquely appealing aspects, seize on them and them excite you about the school during your interview. Knowing the school well will assist you to explain to your interviewer why you want to attend the school and it will aid you to generate meaningful, intelligent questions for your interviewer. Don’t waste your interviewer’s time by asking generic and/or obvious questions.