Charting a Course to Medical School: The AMSA Map for Success

The seemingly endless and arduous path to becoming a physician has been worn out by the traffic of a homogeneous mass of "traditional" students. These sojourners were the ones who attended college the four years immediately after graduating from high school and then proceeded to enter medical school without taking time off to explore other interests. Recently, many detours have attracted potentially traditional students off the worn path into new fields. These forerunners have charted new pathways leading to the legendary treasures of medical schools. Nowadays, medical schools have the luxury of choosing their classes from a high quality applicant pool, the members of which can offer diversity, special talents, new perspectives and character to any university. Becoming more and more accepted are these students who break from the pack and take a year or more off from academics to satisfy other pursuits, stay an extra year at their undergraduate institutions to obtain a more encompassing background, or work for a while to earn money before applying. Others trek back to academics after taking time off to raise a family, realizing their discontent with their current occupation, or even being initially rejected. Still others are nontraditional in the sense that they decide to cross the oceans and apply to foreign medical schools.

• A Student's Experience
• Older Applicants

Pre-meds often wonder if it's a good idea to take a little time off from academics to reevaluate their commitment to medicine without it adversely affecting their application later. Other students consider it a risk to stay an extra semester or year at their undergraduate institutions in terms of both delaying their entrance into medical school and again affecting the application itself. Still others contemplate working for a year after graduating to either gain experience, put to rest their doubts about the medical profession, or earn some money for the expensive schooling that lies ahead. First year Stanford University medical student Amy Alkire has had a pre-med experience that addresses all these situations. Amy finished her first two undergraduate years at Smith College and then took a semester off to work, earn money, and reevaluate her goals. Then she transferred to the University of California at Berkeley, staying for two and a half years, and after graduating, worked for a year in the Department of Radiology in the University of California at San Francisco. During this time, her interests ranged from writing to animal research to neurobiology.

Amy's semester off was spent working two jobs: the first as a retail salesperson at a local variety store and the second as a receptionist at a medical office. This time off from academics helped reinforce for her the value of education. Then, while she was at UC-Berkeley, she took advantage of the educational opportunities by taking at least one humanities class per semester and staying an extra semester to get a complete education. Amy remembers thinking as an undergrad when she took time off, "How is this going to affect what the medical schools thing of my application?" She said that everyone had a different opinion. At a certain point she decided that she had to do whatever she needed, and if the medical schools had a problem, then she would just keep applying.

Aside from giving her experience and valuable talent, Amy's position in the Department of Radiology at UCSF during the year immediately following her graduation served as the final decision-making step in committing her to the medical profession. She admits that getting such a position should not be counted on, but don't take the opportunity lightly if it's offered to you. She adds, "people just really need to feel comfortable doing whatever they need to do and they need to make the decisions that are important to their lives as they see it rather than forcing themselves to figure it out when they ar twenty. If you decide you need to take the time out to figure out whether you want to go to medical school or not, then that's a very sincere thing to do. It's still very honest, and I think it will help more than it hinders."

What Amy learned from having that time off affected her views about the medical profession and her views of medicine as a job and a commitment, both of which made an impact on her perspective as a mature, experienced adult. Medicine became an occupational as well as an academic field. In this way, her "diversions" most affected her as an applicant. It's not a question of recommending this course of action. The message from medical schools in terms of admissions is that people shouldn't be afraid to do whatever they feel they need to do."

Once a student gets accepted to medical school, he/she will be in a class with perhaps a couple of nineteen year olds and several students over thirty, with most students between the ages of twenty-one and twenty-four. How does a "nontraditional" student fit in? Surprisingly well. Amy says that at Stanford, and probably at many other medical schools, most students actually have taken two years off away from academics to search out and develop a particular interest that they have.

Performance-wise, there are definite differences. "Traditional" students who may not have experienced much else outside the classroom tend to get more stressed. They are more critical of themselves in terms of how well they do. The older students may be a little anxious and unsure because they haven"t done this much studying for a while. But for them to consider beginning medical school at their age, they must be committed and could possibly contribute some experiences and talents that younger students cannot. Those who have taken perhaps a couple years off, such as Amy, realize that they can still turn to other professions if they need to. This helps them get through medical school without feeling overwhelmed.

The childhood longing to become a doctor has resurfaced, but this time it is here to stay. Now that the decision is final, there is one stop left, apply! The older student may experience more difficulties and criticism than traditional younger students. This is because they may have responsibilities to a family or a previous occupation. The admissions officials may question the late decision to enter medical school and the ability of older students to compete with intense, fresh students. On the other hand, older applicants have an edge over the naive traditional students. With the experience of life or another profession, many older applicants have unique talents to offer medical schools. Qualities and skills learned from other interests during the past years may be decisive assets to entrance into medical school. For example, Dr. Melvin Konner entered medical school at the age of 33. He had always wanted to be a physician, but early in his life decided to study human behavior by becoming an anthropologist and then a Harvard professor. He is a well-known scholar, tenured professor, respected writer (cf. The Tangled Wing and Becoming a Doctor), husband, and father. Using his life experiences and his versatility, Dr. Konner easily impressed all the admissions officers and accomplished his life goal of becoming a physician. His book, Becoming a Doctor, is inspiring and may be useful to those leaning towards a medical profession.

Financial Aid

Minority Applicants