Application Series: So You Want To Go To Medical School

As I am going through my second cycle of applying to medical school, I wanted to make a post series about each step in the process. My goal with this series is to help maximize your organization, help you think of things you may have missed, and in the end, help you get accepted into medical school!

So You Want To Go To Medical School

Congrats! You have made it to the first step in your journey to becoming a physician. You look up and see a huge mountain in front of you, but you are super excited to begin climbing it.

From the beginning of college, you should be immersing yourself in the healthcare world. Sure, you know you want to go to medical school and become a physician, but you need to make sure the admissions committees know that too.

Admissions committees like to see commitment and dedication so find a volunteer experience or job that you enjoy during your first year of college and continue with it throughout college.

For ideas on healthcare experiences, check out this post I wrote about what qualifies as clinical healthcare experience and a sampling of jobs that you can do!

Find Your Tribe

Finding other students who want to go to medical school can be very helpful! You all are likely taking the same classes and are working toward the same goal: becoming a physician.

Find out if your school has a premed club. Most schools do and if yours doesn’t, start one!

My school’s premed society brought in current medical students to give presentations about their school and answer any questions we may have about the school, applying, and what we should focus on in college.

Connect with your science class classmates too. Study buddies are very helpful as we all have different strengths and weaknesses and talking through the material is a great way to retain the information!

Word of caution: it can be very easy to get into the trap of comparing yourself to other premeds. There will always be gunners who put competition over collaboration and just try to get ahead of everyone else. Don’t be that person, and don’t let that person get you down.

Start Strong

It is difficult recovering from a low GPA so it is best to start undergrad off strong. Take a good, hard look at your study habits from high school and figure out what is going to work now and what is not.

However, if you do struggle during your freshman year, dedicate yourself to doing better the following year. Admissions committees like an upward trend for grades and that proves that you can identify your weaknesses, and also work to improve them.

For more information on how you can succeed during your first year of undergrad, read this post where I go more in-depth on what you should do during your freshman year of college!

Be Excited!

While the path to medical school seems very long and daunting, enjoy the process and get excited! College will be some of the best years of your life, enjoy them. I always tried to have the mindset of I get to study and I get to work as a CNA, rather than I have to study.

Don’t forget to share this post with your premed tribe by clicking the share button below! As always, feel free to reach out to me on my Instagram, @medicineandmoscato!