1. You can't study at home
2. You shouldn't study in bed
3. You have to finish all your pre-med classes before taking the MCAT
4. You shouldn't contact the admissions office to make yourself more visible
5. You should attend EVERY class lecture
6. You have to get at least a 30 on the MCAT
7. Caribbean schools are less prestigious and you can't get a decent residency
8. You should get only science professors to write your letter of recommendation
9. You have to have A's in your pre-med classes
10. You have to have "volunteer" hours or "community service" in order to be accepted to med school
11. You have to study in groups
12. You should take an MCAT prep course
13. You should get a Master's instead of completing a post-bacc pre-med program
14. Research is useless unless you are published
15. You should write "thank you " notes to your interviewers
16. Only wear dark conservative outfits during interviews
17. Buy all the books
18. Buy none of the books
19. Study 2 hours a day
20. Study 4 hours a day
So these are just a few of the billion things I was told. But my point is not to pass this "glorious" list of advice onto you for your use. My point is that it's all bunk. The fact is that there is no "recipe" for getting into med school or for being a success once you get there. Otherwise... everyone would get into med school and everyone would be the perfect student, right? And we all clearly know that acceptance of anyone candidate and success in med school is highly unpredictable. I'm sure everyone knows someone with a 40 MCAT that was rejected by every school (I do!), and people with horrendous scores who made it solely based on connections. And there are people in med school who study every day and fail tests... and people who cram for exams and pass. So there is NO RECIPE!!! The point is that your overall package has to convey that you are mature, capable, and a good learner. Once in med school, you have to find what works for YOU.
However, I do believe there are a few things that you MUST do (or not do)... and here they are.
This is my "success" recipe...
For Pre-Med:
1. Make yourself unique, and then show who you are to the admissions committee. You don't have to have a perfect set of credentials... but you MUST show that you will be an asset to their med school and that you are capable. So if your undergrad or pre-med grades are crappy... SHOW them SOMEHOW that you can do the work. That might mean showing that you can run with the big dogs by designing and implementing your own research project and getting published in a prestigious journal.... or maybe that you've taught pre-med material (as a tutor, etc.) or maybe you've rocked the MCAT. If you don't have even one official volunteer hour to speak of, show them that your last job was working for a non-profit agency where you were highly invested in the community.
Med schools are looking for a well-rounded, interesting, valuable package with high potential for success in med school. If you can show that you can do the academic work, that you have a commitment to healthcare and humanity as a whole, that you socialize and learn well with other people, that you are interested in expanding your own horizons while contributing to the education of your classmates, and that you don't have 2 heads.... you're golden. Who cares if you didn't volunteer in the oncology ward for at least 300 hours?
For Med School:
1. Do not procrastinate. No matter how you decide to study, when, or with whatever frequency... do not be a procrastinator. You can get away with it in pre-med... but it won't work in med school. Plus, life is so much nicer without that stress.
For Pre-Med, Med School, and Life in General:
1. Be humble in all that you do. In other words, check your ego. No matter how smart you think you are, there will ALWAYS be someone smarter with a bigger ego. If you approach everything in life with humility, you will go so much further, and you won't risk losing everything because of your ego once you are there. It really is true that the more you learn, the more you realize that you don't know anything... so I would suggest that if you constantly have that feeling that you know everything, you might want to work on that before med school. Because at this stage of the game, everyone is relatively intelligent. You didn't get to med school or through your pre-med classes because you weren't bright. What separates people at this level of education is attitude, and how your interactions with other people facilitate your advancement.
2. Know that you aren't growing as a person unless you push your comfort zone and unless you fail. If you are overwhelmed with material that you are studying, that's good. You're actually learning something new. If you're nervous because you don't know if you can handle the pressure of dealing with life and death situations, perfect. You're pushing your own boundaries, acquiring new skills, and becoming a stronger person. I look back at my post around my second week of med school (where I was panicking)... and I know that was one of these times. I was so out of my comfort zone it was ridiculous. I passed it, and here I am still in med school. If I'd have refused to experience that, I would have dropped out the second week.
If you're always comfortable and you never fail, then you haven't "tapped out" (as I use to tell my students)... meaning that you haven't reached your full potential in that situation. The example I used to give was about applying to colleges out of high school. If you apply to 10 middle tier schools and are accepted to all 10, have you reached your full potential? Certainly not. You'll never know because you didn't tap out, you didn't fail at anything, and you didn't push your limits. If you apply to 10 schools (7 middle tier and 3 top tier), and are only accepted to the 7 middle tier schools, did you reach your full potential? Yes, at this stage in your life. You TRIED your best, tapped out, and are going to a middle tier school because at this point in life that is the best you could do.
My point? Get out of your comfort zone, or you'll be a stale cookie.
3. View difficult people as a challenge. A challenge to get them to like you. I decided to do this with Dr. Kovec. And it's been what, a week now... and he's already called me "smart girl" a couple of times. It's having those difficult people on your side which can really save your ass sometimes.
Ok, that's all for now...
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