If you’re a nontraditional applicant who wants to be a doctor but who hasn’t taken the vast majority of the prereqs for medical school, then keep reading. I’m going to assume you have a reasonably good GPA and a reasonably good SAT/ACT score. You’ve read online about traditional premed postbac programs and are convinced that this is the best route for you to get into medical school as compared to the DIY approach. But now what? What can you do to make yourself as competitive an applicant as possible?
At this point, many of our advisees assume (incorrectly) that what they should focus on next is writing their personal statement. While the personal statement is important, don’t put the cart before the horse! Before starting to write your personal statement, you need to expose yourself to 3 essential experiences. This will do two things: first, these experiences will confirm to yourself that medicine is the right path for you. Second, these will convince premed postbac program directors and medical school admissions officers that you’re serious about medicine and have explored it sufficiently well to know what it means to be a physician.
As an added bonus, these experiences will help you write your personal statement! Including anecdotes from these experiences is an easy way to demonstrate that medicine is the right path for you without sounding too cliché.
The 3 essential experiences needed to get into a top premed post-baccalaureate program are:
1. Shadowing
2. Clinical Experiences
3. Volunteering
In our experience, many applicants overlook one or more of these because they assume that postbac program directors don’t care about them or that they will be able to gain these experiences later. That’s not the case. These are ABSOLUTELY critical to success in getting into a top premed postbac program.
Here’s why they matter and what they communicate in the admissions cycle:
1. Shadowing. Shadowing is observing physicians being physicians. This is a passive experience. Why does this matter? This demonstrates to admissions committees (and to yourself) that you know what physicians do. After shadowing, there’s good evidence you know what you’re getting yourself into. This is something you should be sure to get prior to applying as it will be more compelling in your personal statement to say you were interested in medicine but after seeing what physicians do you’re now more interested in becoming a physician. Working these sorts of anecdotes into your personal statement may be of great value!
In terms of how many physicians you should shadow, our recommendation is a few different types of physicians. The goal is to see patients speaking with physicians. You may enjoy the OR, and watching surgeons at work, but focus your anecdotes on watching physicians who are speaking to conscious patients.
2. Clinical experience. This is a confusing one. If I am shadowing, why do I also need clinical experience? What differentiates this from volunteering or shadowing? Clinical experience is active experience in a clinical setting. This could be a paid experience like being a scribe, EMT or medical assistant. It could overlap some with volunteering such as being in the ER or at a hospice. However, the importance of clinical experience is that you are actively contributing to patient care. These experiences demonstrate that you know how to comport yourself with patients and have proof of having done so.
Ideally, these experiences should be in a hospital, hospice, or other clinical setting. If it is completely impossible for whatever reason to be in person, a therapeutic setting — such as being a suicide hotline worker can suffice. However, ideally, you would be in person. Just as medical schools seek applicants with diverse backgrounds who are interested in different specialities (pediatrics, surgery, OB/GYN, etc), premed postbac programs seek applicants who are interested and have had experiences in different fields.
3. Volunteering. This demonstrates that you are the sort of person who ought to be a physician – a kind, caring individual. “I am someone who is willing to sacrifice my time for the benefit of others” is what this communicates. Medical schools and postbac programs are trying to select for altruism. Obviously by virtue of making this a requirement, it makes it a poor metric for actual altruism. No matter. You have to get some volunteering, and preferably you should get a substantial number of hours. Most of all you need consistency, meaning a few hours a week for many months rather than a few days of 15-hour shifts. Longevity is more persuasive than simply large-dose time commitments.
Volunteering shows programs you are the sort of person who wants to help communities. Of note, this does not need to be medically related! Some popular ideas include working at a food bank, working with children with disabilities, tutoring, or volunteering at a nursing home. The list is endless and these should be relatively easy to find.
Conclusion
Premed postbac programs — especially the top 10 programs — really want to understand your story. They see clinical experience, volunteering, and shadowing as components of that story. I cannot overstate how important it is to get shadowing, volunteering, and clinical experiences. If you want to maximize your chances of getting into a top premed postbac program you ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY need all three.
Be mindful that clinical experiences, volunteering, and shadowing are not add-ons. They are absolute musts! Do them whenever you have time — be that during the week, or on the weekends. These experiences will help guide your why medicine narrative.
If you have any questions, feel free to email us at [email protected]