How Do Admissions Committees Evaluate Med School Applications?

Applying to medical school is a complicated process that requires you to sell yourself to discerning and particularly particular customers. Medical school admissions committees (adcoms) aim to admit well-rounded applicants who embody a laundry list of sought-after qualities. Furthermore, each medical school looks for slightly different personal attributes that fit their school’s nuanced mission.

Attempting to sell yourself to every medical school is a Sisyphean exercise, and it’s not recommended. However, there are some general criteria to follow that will pique the attention of admissions committees.

1 | High Degree of Academic Achievement—Hard Scores

There is no getting around the fact that your GPA (both your overall and science GPA) and MCAT score must be above average. Medical schools want to admit students with a high degree of scholastic achievement who have proven they can handle challenging course loads and excel on exams.

That being said, having a high GPA and MCAT score only gets your foot in the door; it certainly does not guarantee admission. However, the majority of medical schools have GPA or MCAT cutoffs, which means a low GPA and/or MCAT score makes it unlikely you will receive a secondary application or an interview invitation.

For the best chance of medical school acceptance, it’s vital that every premed student maintains a high undergraduate GPA and aces the MCAT. If one of those scores is lacking, you must make sure the rest of your application makes up for it.

Learn what medical schools expect from your GPA and MCAT score.

2 | Diverse Set of Extracurricular Experiences (And Commitment to Them)

Curating a diverse portfolio of extracurricular experiences is your main ticket to making an impression on adcoms. You can list up to fifteen different Work and Activities on AMCAS; of those, you can highlight up to three as your Most Meaningful Experiences.

The key to this section of your application is to both display a diverse set of interests (i.e., show that you are well-rounded), as well as length of commitment to activities. Medicine is a long path, and adcoms look for applicants who can show sustained commitment to their key activities.

It’s okay to try new things, and you should get a feel for what you’re most interested in, but at some point, it’s important to commit to at least a few activities you can say you participated in for a notable length of time.

When curating your experiences, make sure one or more of your three Meaningful Experiences is a clinical, research, or service activity. Adcoms want to see you’ve taken the time to understand what being a doctor is all about. Additionally, research experience is sought-after by many schools.

A | Recommended Experiences

1. Clinical experience—Shadowing physicians, being a medical scribe, or being an emergency medical technician.
2. Research—Preferably related to medicine or healthcare. Research experience can be basic, translational, clinical, or social science research.
3. Service—Volunteering at clinics or hospitals, working with the homeless, etc.
4. Leadership—Starting a group, captaining a sports team, or being the president or officer of a club.

B | Optional (But Recommended) Experiences

1. Studying Abroad—Not everyone is presented with this opportunity. But if you have the opportunity, studying abroad is a great way to demonstrate cultural competency, independence, and communication skills.
2. Teaching—Being a good teacher requires advanced communication and organizational skills and is a common attribute found in many medical students and physicians who become leaders amongst their peers. Thus, teaching experience is looked upon favorably by adcoms.

Keep in mind that these are only suggestions. It’s up to you to determine what will best aid the overall narrative of your application. Adcoms don’t pay attention to checklist applicants who don’t have any clear passions or interests. Save some space in your Work and Activities section to showcase your interests and accomplishments outside of medicine or science, especially if they are particularly meaningful to you. Sharing your unique skills, hobbies, and interests will make you more memorable to adcoms.

Learn how to tackle the often overlooked Work and Activities section of your application.

3 | Admirable Personal Attributes

Conveying your personal attributes is a task split between your personal statement, your Work and Activities section, and your letters of recommendation.

There is a laundry list of pre-professional competencies listed by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Some examples of these competencies include being culturally competent, a team player, and a good communicator.

The key to humblebragging is showing, not telling. Avoid making claims like “I am a culturally competent team player who is a good communicator.” Instead, demonstrate these three personal attributes, for example, by describing an experience where you helped organize an outreach event to increase access to free diabetes screening amongst an underserved, non-English speaking population.

In terms of your letters of recommendation, select professors or supervisors who know you well. Ask them if they are willing to write you a strong letter of recommendation for medical school. The critical word here is strong.

Your letters give adcoms insight into what other people think of you, which they find especially valuable since the rest of your application is from your own perspective. Even one generic or bland letter is a red flag to admissions committees. It shows you haven’t taken the time to make strong connections or that the people you did connect with can’t think of anything notable to say about you.

Take time choosing your letter writers and work on building and maintaining strong relationships early on as a premed. These letters provide unbiased insight into your character and admirable attributes.

4 | Clear Motivation for Pursuing Medicine

You must communicate very clear reasons for why you want to become a physician in your personal statement and throughout your application, including during interviews.

You don’t want adcoms to get the impression you’re only pursuing medicine because your parents want you to or because you think you can make a lot of money as a doctor. Here are four signs that becoming a doctor isn’t for you—Do NOT Go to Medical School (If This is You).

The bulk of your personal statement should be focused on describing what drives you, what your passions and career goals are, and why you are committed to the difficult pathway of medicine. Adcoms want to ensure applicants understand what they are getting themselves into and have an adequate understanding of what it means to be a physician. Your familiarity with medicine and continued passion for becoming a doctor should also be on display throughout your Work and Activities section.

5 | Diversity and Unique Life Experiences

Adcoms are seeming to make their student body as diverse as possible. However, diversity doesn’t just revolve around race, gender, and sexual orientation. Diversity comes in all shapes and sizes. Your story of diversity might be based on economic status, a learning disability, challenges you faced as a kid, a death or illness in your family, etc. Diversity also includes the positive attributes and aspects of your life that make your path to medical school unique.

If you had particularly challenging life experiences, discussing how they have shaped your personal attributes and/or desire to pursue medicine might take center stage in your personal statement. Adcoms value students who have overcome significant adversity. However, do not feel obligated to share such experiences if you do not want to—and never embellish your life story to make yourself look like an underdog.

Remember, anything you mention in your application is fair game for you to be asked about during interviews. If you don’t feel comfortable talking about an aspect of your life or past in person, don’t include it in your application.

6 | School Fit

Beyond all of the aspects we’ve already discussed, every admissions committee is looking for students who fit well with their school. This could mean sharing similar goals, being interested in pursuing an aspect of medicine the school is known for, or aligning on values.

School fit will naturally be different for each school, which is why you may get interviews or acceptances at some schools but not others, even if you have the appropriate grades and credentials.

And you should be looking for the same thing from the school you’re applying to. Prestige is far from everything. You will enjoy yourself more and be more successful in medical school if you can match with a school that aligns with your own interests, values, and goals.

Learn more: How to Decide Which Medical Schools to Apply to (12 Important Factors).

Final Remarks

Being a well-rounded applicant certainly does not mean you must be amazing at everything; however, you should take into account what the people on the other end of your application are looking for. Fulfill your requirements, but don’t treat your application like it’s a simple checklist. Doing so will make you appear like every other candidate on paper.

The most successful premeds see their application as an opportunity to share their own unique journey and craft an intentional narrative. It’s important to be yourself and to honestly speak about your passions and goals so that you can find schools that are an ideal fit for your own needs.

Read our Guide to Understanding the Medical School Application Process, which includes an application timeline, what you need to include in your application, mistakes to avoid, and what happens next.