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

The decision to apply to medical school forces many students to review their values and ethics. It is essential that students aspiring to be physicians have great dedication and motivation. With the arrival of rejection notices, it is expected that the self-confidence of students may begin to deteriorate. In this case, the dedication and motivation within the student must revive the self-confidence. Once the initial decision to apply to medical school has been made, tenacious students must pursue their dreams and reapply.

• What if I don't get in the first time?
• Studying at Foreign Medical Schools
• Other Health Careers

What if I don't get in the first time?

If you do not get accepted the first time that you apply to medical school, do not worry. It is NOT the end of the world. Take some time off, reevaluate your goals and make sure that becoming a physician is indeed the path you want to pursue. If you know medicine is for you, apply the following year. Medical schools often have so many excellent applicants that it is difficult for admissions committees to determine who will be in their entering class. Not being accepted does not necessarily reflect on your ability to become a physician. It is important for you to be confident about yourself and your desire to become a physician. When you reapply, your confidence and dedication will undoubtedly be even stronger.

In a study undertaken at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston (1), medical school performances of initially-rejected students were evaluated. In contrasting the initially accepted and initially rejected groups, academic and demographic factors made up only 28% of the group difference. The remaining 72% of the group difference was related to admissions committee preference. The procedure of admissions was standard, including faculty interview of applicants with final choice of acceptable students by the admissions committee. Approximately three-fourths of the difference can be attributed to a subjective impression created in the short period of one interview. By accepting fifty initially rejected pre-medical students, the study revealed that there were no meaningful differences in academic performance between initially-rejected and initially-accepted students. This observation implies that the traditional interview process may overlook many qualified applicants. "There are no generally accepted criteria for identification of the 'good physicians,' nor are there valid predictions of effective performance." (2) With this in mind, it is possible for any pre-medical student who is absolutely sure that medicine is her or his future to reapply to a variety of schools with a spectrum of good qualities to find the school that can accommodate what the student has to offer.

If you thought there was a particular area in which you were weak, and this was the primary reason why you were not accepted, you may want to try to improve that area. For example, if your MCAT scores were very low, but all other aspects of your application were outstanding, you may want to consider retaking the MCATs. If your grades were low, then taking more challenging courses and doing well in them may help you to prove yourself academically.

Studying at Foreign Medical Schools

It is widely believed that pre-medical students apply to foreign medical schools only after being rejected from several U.S. schools. In a special article printed in the New England Journal of Medicine, analysts disprove this myth by revealing that fifty-five percent of a study group did not even apply to a U.S. medical school. A possible explanation is that substantial numbers of U.S. citizens study abroad because of the inability of the U.S. medical education system to accommodate them. Students who are interested in studying in a foreign medical school must take a test administered by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG). The study shows that the number of U.S. students applying to foreign schools is steadily increasing. In fact, at least ten new medical schools with curricula designed to attract applicants from the U.S. opened in the Caribbean Island countries during the 1970s. The most popular foreign countries are Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, the Philippines and Israel. There seems to be a fair chance of acceptance to a foreign medical school since the overall pass rate was 68% in 1982 for those U.S. students taking the ECFMG. Students looking at foreign medical schools, though, should be aware that getting into the residency of their choice may be tougher coming from a foreign medical school. Be sure to ask any foreign medical schools that you are interested in for some statistics regarding their students' success in "the match" (the process by which medical students are placed in residencies).

Other Health Careers

If you decide that being a physician is not what you really wanted to do, but you still want to be in a situation where you can care for people in a medical setting, there are still numerous opportunities available. You could follow the academic route, pursue a graduate degree, do research in the biomedical sciences and more! Careers in the clinical setting include public health, physical and occupational therapy, pharmacy, nutrition, nursing, and more. In addition, you could have a profound effect on health care through health policy, epidemiology, and public health. The possibilities are limitless.

Caring for people requires the cooperative efforts of persons in many different areas. Whether you are in a clinical or academic setting, the most important thing is that you are enjoying what you are doing and are dedicated toward improving the care of people in both sickness and health. A physician is only one of many who help to accomplish this goal.

1. "U.S. Citizens Studying Abroad: Their Backgrounds and Test Performance." D.G. Johnson and others. New England Journal of Medicine. Dec. 11, 1986.

2. "Medical School Performance of Initially Rejected Students." R.A. Devaul and others. Journal of American Medical Association. Jan. 2, 1987.

Applying

Interviewing