When you apply to medical school, you’re applying alongside thousands of other applicants—many of whom are equally or more qualified than you. How do you stand out amongst so many similar applicants, and more importantly, how do you stand out while also not raising any red flags for admissions committees?
The following mistakes are made by premeds time and time again, and admissions committee members are on the lookout for these common oversights and blunders because they make their difficult job easier. In this post, we break down 10 medical school admissions red flags and how you can avoid them to create an application that stands out for all the right reasons.
1 | Not Following Adcom Instructions
It may sound a little obvious, but many students either ignore, don’t understand, or don’t bother to research the application instructions laid out by medical school admissions committees.
Rules and instructions are there for a reason, whether you agree with them or not. You aren’t above the rules set by admissions committees, and trying to get around them will definitely be frowned upon.
If a school says not to contact them at a certain point in the process, don’t. If they don’t accept thank you letters, don’t send them. Look up the instructions from each school, and follow them to the letter.
Don’t expect that every program will be the same, either. It’s up to you to understand the complete application process for each school you apply to.
2 | Downward Trending Performance Metrics
It doesn’t matter if your first semester was straight As; if your grades slip consistently in your second semester, it shows that your performance is not reliable. Admissions committees look at each potential student as an investment. If your performance metrics trend downwards, they will likely look elsewhere to a student who is a better investment.
Medical school is much more rigorous and demanding than undergraduate study. If your grades are trending downward, it shows you may not be in the best place to start medical school and take on its many and varied challenges. What looks better on paper? A student with consistently high marks, a student with previously middling marks who is improving their performance, or a student with previously good marks whose marks are steadily declining?
By far, admissions committees consider the latter to be the riskiest investment.
3 | A Checkbox Mentality
Of course, there are multiple aspects of the medical school application to check off. We even have a comprehensive medical school application checklist on the Med School Insiders blog.
But these checklists are only basic guidelines on where to begin. Admissions committee members are looking for more than whether or not you can check off the bare minimum application requirements. They want to see passion, determination, and drive. They want to see that you pursued interests both inside and outside of medicine.
Simply checking off the boxes of what you think admissions committees want to see will starve your application of any personality—you’ll look like every other premed. If you want to be a competitive applicant, you must find ways to move beyond a checkbox mentality to stand out amongst a sea of equally-talented premeds.
Take the time to figure out which aspects of medicine you are truly passionate about. Yes, showing a well-rounded list of extracurricular activities is an asset, but at the same time, it’s important to show commitment and passion toward your interests.
Admissions committees want to see that you dedicated yourself to at least a few extracurriculars, and the length of your commitment matters. A one-off volunteering event does not show dedication. Plus, the committee will want to hear why you felt passionate about those activities in secondaries and during interviews. You won’t have anything interesting to say if the only reason you pursued an extracurricular was because you thought you had to check it off the “premed list.”
4 | Generic or Bland Letters of Recommendation
Most students don’t realize the impact that just one neutral or bland letter of recommendation can have on their chances of getting into medical school.
Admissions committees expect each of your letters to be strong and written by people who clearly know you well and speak highly of you. Quality matters much more than quantity. You’re better off with four strong letters instead of adding a vague and bland fifth one.
Submitting strong letters is what matters most of all, even above the prestige of the writer. Don’t seek someone out who is well known in the industry just to have a letter from a big name. If they aren’t able to speak highly of you and provide specific examples of your skills and character, the letter won’t be strong.
How do you get strong letters? By building strong relationships throughout your premed years. Do not underestimate how long this will take. Start early by getting involved in extracurriculars and engaging with professors during their office hours. Continue to nurture and build upon those relationships with each passing month and year.
Learn more about How to Get Strong Medical School Letters of Recommendation.
Another way to ensure you have strong letters is by being careful who you ask. Watch out for genuine hesitation, as it could be a sign they believe they don’t know you well enough, can’t speak highly of you, or don’t have the time to write you a strong letter.
If it’s the latter, they may ask you to write your own letter. This can catch students by surprise, as the whole point of a letter of recommendation is that it’s written by somebody else, somebody with a great deal more experience than you. However, while intimidating, it’s important to remember that this is still a yes. They are telling you that while they may not have the time or the experience to write you a strong letter, they trust you to write it, and they’ll sign it. It’s still a major vote of confidence.
Writing your own letter may not be preferable, but you can definitely turn it to your advantage if you do it right. Learn How to Write Your Own Letter of Recommendation.
5 | Typos and Grammatical Errors
As a medical student and future doctor, you need to be able to pay attention to the details. Allowing careless typos or grammatical errors to slip through in your application is a big red flag for admissions committees.
These kinds of obvious errors show that you did not put time and care into editing and proofreading your personal statement, activities, or other aspects of your application.
Remember that you cannot rely on spellcheck and editing bots alone. These tools, such as Grammarly or Hemingway App, can certainly help you catch errors, but they can also miss context in your writing and make suggestions that add new errors in the process. Don’t accept suggested corrections blindly without reviewing them yourself and taking the time to understand each mistake.
Even if you believe you are a strong writer, it’s common to miss your own mistakes when proofreading. Ensure you have at least one or more capable editors proofread your work before hitting submit.
If writing is not your strong suit, seek extra help in editing your personal statement and other written application elements, and budget plenty of time for the editing process.
Beware of last minute changes to your application, as this is often when typos and errors sneak through. If you make changes to the written elements, make time for another round of proofreading.
Learn more: How to Edit Your Personal Statement (7 Review Tips).
6 | Boring Personal Statements
Admissions committee members read hundreds of personal statements each year, which means they’ve heard “I want to become a doctor because I’m passionate about helping others” countless times before. While this is likely very true about you, there are more compelling ways to demonstrate this passion than blandly declaring it at the top of your personal statement.
Admissions committees already have your CV. They know your achievements. Your personal statement is about what drives you. Where does that passion for helping others come from? Think about it this way: What’s your superhero origin story? Is there someone in your life who inspired you to take this path with their own integrity and self-sacrifice? Did someone close to you pass away, forever endowing you with the drive to spare other people that pain?
Your personal statement is a chance to tell your story and show the admissions committee the person behind your accomplishments. It’s vital that you establish a cohesive narrative that’s carried through the rest of your application. Grab the admissions committee with a hook and keep them intrigued with humorous or moving anecdotes taken directly from your past. Choose anecdotes that exemplify your skills and admirable personal qualities. Show, don’t tell.
Learn what not to do with our guide to Bad Personal Statement Examples and What to Do Instead, and read our guide on How to Write a Medical School Personal Statement (11 Steps).
7 | Only Having Short-Lived Work and Activities
The Work and Activities section summarizes the wide range of extracurricular activities you participated in during undergrad, and along with your personal statement, it’s the first place admissions committees look to get a sense of who you are and if you fit the mold of their ideal medical student.
You can select up to 15 premed experiences, which will include extracurricular activities, volunteering experiences, jobs, and much more. You have 700 characters to discuss each of these activities and how they impacted your decision to become a doctor. Of those 15, you can choose up to three most meaningful experiences. This provides you with another 1325 characters of space to discuss your meaningful experiences in more detail.
Admissions committees are primarily looking at your clinical exposure, research experience, and community involvement, as this shows you have the kind of well-rounded experience needed to know whether or not medicine is for you. But along with showing experience in these areas, what’s most important about the activities you choose is demonstrating longitudinal commitment.
Do not include one-off volunteering experiences or activities you only tried out for a couple of weeks. Admissions committees want to see the depth of your commitment, as medical education is very far from a one-and-done process. If all of your activities are short-lived, it may suggest to admissions committees that you could flake out on your medical education, thus ruining their investment in you.
It takes a long, long time to become a doctor. After your four years of undergrad, you’ll face four years of medical school and three to seven years of residency. Use your work and activities to show you have what it takes to stay the course.
8 | Exaggerating Hours and Accomplishments
Exaggerating your hours and accomplishments in the activities section is tantamount to lying, so don’t do it. Now, that’s not to say you should ever sell yourself short or be overly modest. After all, the whole point of your application is to present the best possible version of yourself and convince admissions committees that you’re the kind of well-rounded and capable applicant they’re looking for.
You won’t accomplish this by either downplaying your skills or by lying about them. The best course is an honest one. It’s tough to keep up with a lie, and you will be asked to speak about your experiences later on in detail when responding to secondary questions and during interviews. You’re far better off being honest so that you can answer freely without having to cover your tracks.
Plus, it should go without saying that integrity is a trait schools are looking for in future doctors. If you’re considering exaggerating or lying about your hours or any other aspect of your medical school application, you may want to reconsider your career path.
9 | Not Explaining Gaps or Nontraditional Paths
This point is geared toward nontraditional applicants who elected to take extra time before applying to medical school.
Did you take a gap year? Did you take time off to travel or pursue passions and interests outside of medicine? Did you have to take time away from your studies due to extenuating circumstances, such as a personal illness, a death in the family, or financial concerns?
No matter the reason for taking time off, it’s important to address and explain any significant gaps. Why did you want or need to take time away? What did you do during this time? What did you learn from the experience?
Depending on the length of time you took off and the impact it had on you, you may choose to address this gap in your personal statement or in smaller essay answers. Your time off is part of your story, so don’t try to hide it. Build it into the narrative of your application by illustrating how that time off has helped prepare you for medical school and made you who you are today.
10 | Naming the Wrong School in Secondaries
As obvious a mistake as this may seem, it happens a lot more than you think. At Med School Insiders, we recommend you apply to at least 20 different medical schools. If you’re a very competitive applicant, you may have to submit up to 20 secondary applications. No big deal, right? Wrong.
Since you’ve just applied to 20 different programs at once, you can expect your secondary applications to arrive all around the same time. And here’s the kicker: it’s vital that you submit your secondaries as soon as possible after you receive them—within 7 to 14 days.
This is why we recommend drafting answers to common secondary questions in advance. While the questions may be worded differently depending on the school, most medical schools use very similar or exactly the same questions from the previous year, and most schools will ask the same kinds of generic questions as other schools. You can recycle a number of your answers, enabling you to submit them quickly within the extremely short one to two week time frame.
However, there’s a risk that comes with recycling your answers. Using copy and paste is certainly expedient, but it could mean the wrong school name slips through. Obviously, misnaming the school on your secondary application is an automatic and deadly serious red flag. (Imagine saying your ex’s name when you’re down on one knee proposing to your current partner. What do you think their answer will be?)
Always proofread your work, and always double and triple-check the school name for each of your secondary applications.
Learn more in our comprehensive Medical School Secondary Application Guide.
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