Pre-med/Pre-health Advice

By: Alessandra Santiago For many pre-med students awaiting admission determinations from their medical schools, there can come a point where reapplying becomes a reality. But when do you know for certain that you’ll need to reapply? The critical factor for students deciding their reapplication strategy is whether or not they have received any interview invitations [...]

By: Alessandra Santiago Let’s talk secondaries. If you’ve followed the Ready, Set, Apply series until this point, you’ll be aware that the primary application opens on May 4, 2020 and you can submit your primary application as early as May 28, 2020.  After you have submitted the primary application, it typically takes 4-6 weeks for [...]

By: Alessandra Santiago At this point in the Ready, Set, Apply series, we have only covered material relevant to allopathic medical schools. In this article, we will do a brief overview of some of the relevant information for osteopathic applicants, including dates for the AACOMAS application as well as dual applying to allopathic and osteopathic [...]

By: Alessandra Santiago In our last article, we covered how to approach writing your Personal Statement and Activities Section of the primary application. This week, we will cover how to edit, who to ask to review your application, and other fine-tuning tips and tricks before hitting the submit button. Proof-reading is the name of the [...]

By: Alessandra Santiago Back in November, we covered the primary application and your personal statement. The written components of your primary application include your 15 extracurricular activities and personal statement, and these two components provide the application committee a full picture of who you are as a candidate. In January of your application cycle, the [...]

By: Alessandra Santiago Welcome back, pre-meds! It’s a New Year, and that can only mean one thing: the countdown to the 2020 application cycle begins! Now is the time when focus is key, when both short- and long-term planning are required in spades, and when you have the chance to encapsulate all of your experiences [...]

By: Alessandra Santiago Congratulations on making it through finals season and another Fall Semester! You've made it one step closer towards application time. We hope you’re feeling the excitement that goal progression can give. Before you embark on a well-deserved Winter Break, here’s a little check-in from us on a few key aspects of your [...]

By: Alessandra Santiago A very important—but infrequently discussed—component of applying to medical schools is how much that process costs. With so many purchases both large and small on the way to applying, it’s a good idea to have an estimate of what you might expect to spend. As you go along, you may find that [...]

By: Alessandra Santiago It’s heavy-hitter time: drafting your Personal Statement. This is the chance for you to provide a committee of strangers a full ‘picture’ of who you are as a candidate for medical school. By demonstrating your individual, unique qualifications for pursuing medicine, you can paint a picture as to why you would be [...]

By: Alessandra Santiago While the open date for the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) primary application is still many months away (think: late May), let's dive into what materials you will be asked to compile in this first round of applications to medical school. On top of completing your prerequisite and recommended coursework by the time [...]