5 Tips On How To Apply To Medical School

Medical School applications can be daunting. It is competitive, there are examinations such as UKCAT and BMAT, and there is the interviews. However, I offer these tips to prospective medical students so that they get the best out of their application.

1. Organise work experience EARLY:

Work experience in a healthcare setting, and seeing how healthcare teams work is essential for medical school application. However, work experience can be difficult and time-consuming to organise, and therefore the earlier the better. Send your CV to a local GP to ask if you could have some experience. Some hospitals organise dedicated days for prospective applicants. If you find organising work experience difficult, ask a careers advisor in a school. They may even organise one for an entire group of your fellow applicants, which brings me onto the next point........

2. Work as a team:

Almost every school has at least one person that wants to apply to study medicine. Work with them. Proof-read each other`s personal statements, suggest additions and changes, do group interview practice. You are competing with thousands of other students in the country, and helping each other as a group is an effective way of developing a good application. In fact, several studies show that learners learn better when they co-operate together than competing against each other.

3. ALSO do things OTHER THAN studying:

Medical schools have a "Work hard play hard" culture, where students invest a lot of free time into doing what they enjoy outside of work! If you play team sport, fantastic! If you are into arts and music, great! There is plenty of things you can enjoy doing with your peers when you get into medical school, creating friends and life-defining memories along the way. In addition to this, being a medical student is highly stressful, and medical schools look for candidates who have ways to deal with stress and stressful situations.

4. Prepare well

Yes this is a generic piece of advice, but deadlines for applications are most likely non-negotiable. Jot down all dates and deadlines in a calendar. Create a to-do-list of what else needs doing e.g. work experience, exam (UKCAT etc.) and interview prep. Don`t leave things last minute. If you feel that certain courses help with any aspect of application, integrate it into your schedule.

5. Don`t be disheartened if you did not make it.

Last of all, I don`t want to end on a sad note, but unfortunately, even the best applicants with the relevant experience and characteristics can be rejected from medical school, due to external factors that include bad luck. That said, however, it is not the end of the world. Taking a Gap Year can greatly help acquire the necessary experiential knowledge and time to organise further work experience, and can be used greatly in your favour. In fact, most students these days tend to be graduates in their 20`s as they possess both good academic background and both knowledge and skills to be a good adult.

I hope this guide has helped guide medical school application. Let me know if you have any thoughts and comments, and I am happy to answer. And finally,, good luck to all of you, and thank you for reading this article!