The Med School Pulse

Kaplan Test Prep will host our fourth annual Medical School Insider on Monday, April 29th at 8pm ET.  This is our biggest event of the year for pre-meds and you absolutely don’t want to miss it!

The insights revealed at #medInsider are incredible, they’ll really change the way you look at the admissions process!  Be sure to mark your calendar now for this year’s live streaming event. Save your spot by clicking here now!

A sneak peak from one of the questions last year:

Do medical schools have a cutoff for GPA and MCAT scores?

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Kaplan Test Prep will host our fourth annual Medical School Insider on Monday, April 29th at 8pm ET.  This is our biggest event of the year for pre-meds and you absolutely don’t want to miss it!

The insights revealed at #medInsider are incredible, they’ll really change the way you look at the admissions process!  Be sure to mark your calendar now for this year’s live streaming event. Save your spot by clicking here now!

A sneak peak from one of the questions last year:

What is holistic review in medical school admissions?

…

Navigating the waters of medical school admissions can be rough; from the personal statement, to the interview, admissions can seem daunting and confusing before one even begins to apply.  

While many people have opinions about the best way to gain admission, in the end, the only opinions that really matter are those of the admissions committees; after all, they’re the ones that decide whether you’ll be accepted or not. Unfortunately, opportunities to pick the brain of a Dean of Admissions are few and far between. In an effort to shed some light on what admissions committees think about when …

When you need advice on something, who do you turn to?  Your friends, of course!

Medical schools don’t have “friends,” per se, so the professional equivalent is the Letter of Recommendation.  In other words, the letters you aggregate become the medical school’s “squad,” each highlighting different attributes of what would make you a great candidate for their medical school.  Luckily, they’re actually serving as mutual friends:  since they know you, they can represent you honestly and in the best possible way.

Here are some of the commonly-asked questions about Letters of Recommendation:

What’s a committee letter?

While you’ll be …

Happy New Year!

It’s that time of year again — as we look into the future and make New Years resolutions, what are you planning to do with 2013?  We hope that taking that next step to becoming an excellent physician is part of that plan, whether it’s taking names on  the MCAT (with the new MCAT 2015 unscored trial section of Psychology, Sociology and Biochemistry questions!), nailing a 4.0 both semesters, or writing a killer personal statement for that AMCAS application opening in less than five months!

And then there are just fun resolutions:  I’m planning on playing the …

The holidays are rapidly approaching, and if you’re applying this year — hopefully you’ll be rewarded by Santa by that “big envelope”:  you’ve been accepted to medical school!  I, for one, thoroughly enjoyed my eight nights of Chanukah:  a welcome break from the (extremely) busy life of a medical student.

Now, if you’re getting ready to apply, you may feel like you’re working eight nights a week!  The life of a pre-med student is no less busy this time of year, between finishing up all of the challenging courses you’re taking, setting a New Year’s resolution to destroy the …

Let’s start today with a simple (?) question:

“Who are you?”

With all respect to Roger Daltrey, this is actually one of the most challenging questions for pre-med students to answer.  And yet, this question is the basis of a major part of your application:  The Personal Statement.

While there just isn’t enough space in a single blog entry to cover every facet of the Personal Statement, there are a couple important themes to keep in mind as you’re coming up with what you plan to write in – what many admissions officers refer to as – “your …

Earlier this month, I had the great fortune of attending the 2012 AAMC Annual Conference in San Francisco, CA.  This meeting represents one of the largest gatherings of medical educators, premedical advisors, admissions officers, practicing physicians and students in the country, all with one common goal:  your education.  This is the group that writes the MCAT, runs the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS) and creates informative resources like Careers in Medicine to help you plan your future medical career.

One of the “hot topics” in medical admissions these days is holistic review.  While a full detailing of this …

Over the past two weeks, we’ve been taking a look at some of the medical school admissions statistics.  While we’ve tackled the question of how many people get into medical school and the average MCAT score, we turn our attention today to the average GPA.

Remember, AAMC keeps this information public through their FACTS tables.  In addition to what we’ve covered here, check out what other great information you can glean from these resources.  In the world of medical school admissions, knowledge is power! (credit:  Schoolhouse Rock!)

Interestingly, medical schools are actually given three GPAs when they look at your application.  Your …

If you’re like me, you spent last night watching the first Presidential debate of the 2012 election season.  Certainly with such big issues as healthcare and insurance reform on the table, we all as physicians-to-be have an important stake in this election.  Regardless of which side you’re on (or if you’re undecided!), statistics certainly play a crucial role in any presidential candidate’s platform.  With a shrewd mind, and our critical thinking skills, we can start to make sense of these statistics – and many others – that we face every day.

Two weeks ago, we took a look at …