How To Get Into An Ivy League Medical School

Applying to medical school is a very different process than the undergraduate admissions process that students have already experienced. Often pre-med students feel that they have to have a science major in undergrad in order to be competitive in the med school admissions process. This has changed, however, over the last 15 years, as medical school admissions committees are looking for applicants with all educational backgrounds – including those in the humanities. If you're interested in medical school, but also wish to pursue a more social sciences or interdisciplinary major, it won't work against you in the med school admissions process. It's important for students to not only meet their major requirements, but also get their pre-med prerequisites done so that they have a solid pre-medical education before applying. Med school applicants often start the process only to find out that they lack the prerequisite courses, and it can set them back.

Your extracurriculars for medical schoolmust include activities that would highlight your individuality and show your dedication and passion for a career in medicine. Your AMCAS Work and Activitiessection must demonstrate your versatility and dedication. Demonstrate a variety of extracurriculars with a substantial time commitment; having only one extracurricular could hurt your chances of acceptance as it limits your experiences. According to the latest data, students who get accepted into Ivy League medical schools have incredibly impressive premedical experience. More than 90% of these schools' matriculants had in-depth research and lab experience. Over 50% of Dartmouth's medical school matriculants had medical or clinical paid employment experience!

And even though shadowing is not required but recommended, over 80% of the students who were accepted by these schools had shadowing experience. A high percentile of matriculants also had other community engagement and volunteering experiences. Beginning June 1, you can begin submitting your applications and your college transcripts.

Most U.S. medical schools participate in the American Medical College Application Service , which is the application process through the Association of American Medical Colleges , for application submission. It is recommended to apply early to the schools on your list, which will help you secure an interview spot and improve your chances of eventual admission. After submitting an application, some schools may send you a secondary application to further evaluate your qualifications for inclusion in their medical programs if you pass their initial merit benchmarks. It's getting harder to get in to medical school, and it's not just because more students are vying for a limited number of seats at top med schools. Just as with highly selective undergraduate admissions, with such volume of qualified applicants it's hard to distinguish one accomplished applicant from another.

This is where it's important to stand out on your med school application, whether it's through your courses of study, major, extracurricular experiences, or essays. With a top-15 med school, Northwestern offers lots of research and clinical opportunities. Unfortunately, there's no available info on pre-med acceptance rates to medical schools for students at Northwestern.

However, Northwestern does publish a list of medical schools that its graduates have been admitted to in the past five years, which includes top programs like Harvard's and Columbia's medical schools. Many students believe acceptance into medical school is based heavily on the popularity or academic acclaim of their undergraduate institution. The truth is, admissions committees don't regularly assess candidates based on undergraduate institutions, but rather on GPA and strong scores on the Medical College Admission Test . They also look for candidates who demonstrate an early commitment to a medical career through participation in extracurricular activities and volunteer work.

As I stated previously, shadowing is not required, but highly recommended by all Ivy League medical schools. Shadowing a physician can really help you grow as a future physician, since you'll be exposed to the everyday work and responsibilities of a practicing professional. An occasional shadow session will not add anything to your Ivy League applications. Be sure to review our blog to learn how many shadowing hours are required for medical school you need.

Remember, the amount of time you spend shadowing is important, but it's more important to focus on the quality of your experience. Although shadowing is a passive activity, use this opportunity to ask questions, take note of curious and memorable moments you witness and reflect on what you've learned from your experiences. These observations can become a part of your AMCAS most meaningful experiences. A rewarding shadowing experience can help boost your application. Furthermore, it can lead to further opportunities with the physician you shadowed!

Now, it can be difficult to know how to approach a physician with the request to shadow them so make sure to review our blog to learn how to ask to shadow a doctor the right way. To help ease your process, I've outlined some factors to consider when making your school list for the medical school application process. As a start, you can look over the top schools in the country and their acceptance rates, and you will immediately notice just how ridiculously low these stats are. I've also gone over prerequisites for medical schools, some of the specialties available at different schools, and the numbers you typically need to be accepted. Finally, I've talked about different policies and questions to consider in making your list as well as why you should also consider DO and Caribbean schools.

At IvyWise we provide medical school admissions counseling for students at any stage of their med school application process. Whether you've just declared a pre-med track, or you're in the midst of MCAT prep, we can help you prepare for the medical school application process and help gain admission to your best-fit med school program. For more information on IvyWise medical school admissions counseling, contact us today. Pre-med programs and BS/MD programs both serve to prepare students for medical school, but they achieve this end through different paths. Pre-med is not actually a major, but rather a standard set of courses that provides the proper academic grounding and theoretical basis to enter medical school. Students have to choose another major to accompany their pre-med coursework.

By studying on the pre-med track, students have some flexibility in their timeline and can pursue different opportunities before beginning formal medical training. Applying to medical school is a time intensive and competitive process. If you're not prepared, maybe because you're lacking prerequisite courses or you didn't perform as expected on the MCAT, don't be afraid to hold off applying for a year or two. Consult with your academic advisor, or a medical school counselor, in order to determine if you're really ready to apply – or if waiting is in your best interest. Just like students need to apply to a balanced list of best-fit undergraduate institutions, pre-med students need to craft a list of best-fit medical schools. This can be difficult, as many medical school applicants tend to focus primarily on selective name-brand programs.

This is where research and planning is important – along with some professional guidance. Take your time researching medical schools and build a balanced list so that you have the best chance of admission to the program of your choice. Additionally, Columbia provides pre-med students with a sample course curriculum to help them meet the minimum requirements for med school applications. This handy sheet—along with the top-tier advising services offered at the university—can help you get an edge on the competition when it comes to medical school admissions. Unfortunately, though, Columbia doesn't release statistics on how many of its undergraduates are admitted into medical school each year. Your personal statement should be a well-written account of your interest in, demonstrated commitment to, and vision for a career in medicine.

Have someone familiar with the medical school admissions process read and edit your statement before it is submitted. According to the Ivy League medical schools' profiles, recommendation letters play a vital role in their decision-making process. That is, if the school you're applying to has a minimum of 3 letters and a maximum of 6, aim to have more than 3 letters.

Though most schools require letters from science and non-science faculty, letters from other writers are highly encouraged. If you have substantial research experience, one of your letters must be written by the head of your research project or your principal investigator . If you have been involved in clinical practice or shadowing, make sure your supervisor writes you a glowing reference.

Other writers may include non-medical work and volunteer supervisors, employers, colleagues, athletics coaches, and so on. Your experiences and commitments will often determine who you choose to write your letters. Most Ivy League schools request individual letters but if your school provides its premed students with a committee letter, you should definitely get a letter from your premed committee. Your medical school recommendation letters can really boost your candidacy by providing an objective, external evaluation of your character, abilities, and accomplishments.

Like pre-med programs, BS/MDs prepare students for the academic rigors of medical school, but do so in only 3 years. As a result, they allot far less time for electives or other majors, if they allow them at all–the primary focus is the pre-medical and medical coursework. However, these programs last only 6-8 years overall, which is shorter than the standard track. They also allow students to avoid taking the MCAT or applying to medical schools, thus saving them some stress and hours of studying. It is important to choose an undergrad institution that understands the medical school application process and is equipped to help pre-med students navigate it.

Applying to medical school is a competitive, grueling process, especially for those hoping to enter the top tier. Earning excellent MCAT scores and superb grades, particularly from a first-rate institution like Harvard, will do the work of placing you in the realm of qualified applicants. Work hard to distinguish yourself from your competition and you'll be on your way to acceptances at the most selective and prestigious medical schools in the country.

With the average applicant applying to sixteen medical schools — we recommend that most students apply to schools — this can add up to a great deal of work. Unfortunately, UNC doesn't track specifics when it comes to med school acceptance rates for pre-meds. We can presume the number is fairly high given that UNC has a very good reputation across many health fields for both undergraduate and graduate students. They also offer specialization tracks, which can set you apart as you apply for medical school . Harvard's Office of Career Services estimates that 17% of any one of its classes will apply to med school—that's a huge fraction of the student body!

Pre-med applicants with a 3.5 GPA or higher had a 93% acceptance rate to med schools in 2013, whereas average acceptance rates that year were about 42%. There are a lot of requirements and activities to keep track of when preparing for medical school applications—something you'll be thinking about as soon as you start your freshman year . Special pre-med advising programs are really helpful when it comes to making sure you're on the right track. That's because pre-med advising programs specialize in helping students get into med school, which means they have the inside scoop when it comes to keeping you on the right track. CHOOSING A COLLEGE -- In admissions surveys, private medical schools list prestige as more important than public schools, and the limited available data on matriculants seems to corroborate this. If you're on a short list of the undergraduate feeder schools to these private medical programs, then you're much more likely to get an interview.

However, it's still not the most important factor to private medical schools, and it matters even less to public schools. CHOOSING A COLLEGE -- Most colleges with a sufficient number of biology majors will offer opportunities to do meaningful research with professors. CollegeMagazine.com lists Johns Hopkins University as the ideal school for research opportunities, due to its non-competitive environment, generous professors, and proximity to the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute. Again, you might want to consider smaller schools like Pomona College, where 52% of all students participate in research.

Besides traditional research like molecular biology, it also offers the Bernard Field Station, an 85-acre natural habitat near campus that doubles as an outdoor laboratory. You don't have to limit your research to the sciences, either; medical schools value research in fields as diverse as economics, psychology, and public health as well. It's also important to consider whether you truly want to commit to a BS/MD, or whether the traditional pre-med route would better suit your goals. Many students are strong applicants to elite schools but lack the extra edge needed to win admission to BS/MD programs. If you don't end up getting into any BS/MDs, there's no need to be down on yourself–remember, you're part of the 95-99% of applicants who didn't secure a spot. You can always set yourself up for admittance to elite medical schools by excelling in your pre-med coursework at a strong undergraduate institution.

My college career was a great success, and I was a strong medical school applicant, interviewing and getting acceptance offers at multiple top 5 medical schools. In short, we've found that when medical schools look at your application, the reputation of your undergraduate institution is not high on the list in terms of importance. If a student's GPA, MCAT, extracurriculars, personal statement, secondary essays, and letters of recommendation are all strong, then this is simply a strong applicant, regardless of the school they attended. At the most prestigious medical schools, the odds are even more daunting.

The vast majority of top-tier medical schools have acceptance rates under five percent, and the average GPA and MCAT score of accepted students tends to be high (around 3.8 and 518, respectively). The admissions committee carefully reviews the entire application with attention to personal, academic, scientific, and community engagement considerations. We seek to select a group of students each year who are reflective of our nation and who will contribute positively to, and benefit from, our institutional mission. Applying to pre-med school takes more than simply having top grades and competitive test scores.

Extracurriculars can help distinguish pre-med applicants during the admissions process and show they are passionate about the medical field. The pre-health track is incredibly competitive no matter the school you apply to, and these activities demonstrate a commitment to medical studies beyond the classroom. The personal statement and secondary essays for your Ivy League medical school applications must be outstanding. While it's true that many premed students have similar journeys, your personal statement delivery and content must stand out. It can be difficult to organize all your hard work and accomplishments into a coherent story in the space provided by the AMCAS application. Personal statements are limited to 5300 characters, including spaces.

So, it's important to prioritize and choose three to four talking points for your personal statement. Remember, your essay should have a captivating first sentence, as well as a memorable conclusion. If you're having trouble prioritizing what to include in your statement, you might want to seek help of a medical school advisor.

Review our medical school personal statement examplesand Harvard Medical School personal statement examples blogs to help you create a stand out statement. Although each of the seven schools listed fall under the "Ivy League medical school" category, there is some variability with respect to average GPA and MCAT scores. For example, students whose stats approach the Dartmouth Medical School averages will not enjoy the same admissions odds at Harvard Medical School. Therefore, instead of taking a blanket approach and applying to as many Ivy League medical schools as possible, make sure to carefully evaluate the stats for each school as you develop your medical school list. Depends on the school, but generally students have to take at least one year of biology, one year of physics, one year of English, and two years of chemistry. The schools on your list should also depend on the courses you have taken, as you cannot apply without them.

Don't even think about applying to medical school until you have conquered the prereqs! Most schools will not read your application if you haven't completed their necessary courses, so don't underestimate required classes. Applying to below 20 schools reduces your chances of acceptance into any school because the process is so selective. There is literally no "safety" school in the medical school application process.

While some are clearly more selective than others, the admissions process for any medical school is cutthroat. It is of course okay to want to go to a top school, but do not get too attached to the idea of attending Harvard until you've been accepted. The medical school application process can be intimidating, but it doesn't have to be! If you plan early, develop an application strategy, and develop a list of best-fit medical schools, you should be in a good position to gain admission to one of your top-choice programs. Attention to detail is extremely important when doing your medical school applications, so be thorough when filling out and proofreading your applications.

Check for spelling errors or missing information, and ensure that all application elements, like MCAT scores and recommendations, are included. Im not comparing med school acceptance rate to ivy ug acceptance rate, what im doing is comparing med school applicants when they applied to college vs when they applied to med school. Among this pool of applicants, a higher percentage of them were accepted to med school (50%) than were accepted, or had the numbers to be accepted to ivy colleges. To put another way, medical school applicants have a lower average SAT, then the average SAT for any IVY or other top college. To go with their prestige, the Ivy League colleges are highly competitive and very expensive. They have some of the lowest acceptance rates but year in year out, they get a large number of students applying for their programs.

So, you see getting admission into any of these schools could be an achievement on its own. The school's Health Careers Program provides specialized advising, programs, information, and an Evaluation Committee to pre-med students. This Committee is particularly helpful when it comes to getting letters of recommendation for medical school applications. The med school acceptance rates for Duke undergrads are phenomenal—according to Duke, 70-80% of its college students get into med school, which is nearly twice the national average. This likely has partly to do with the fact that Duke hosts a top-10 medical school.