I may not be in medical school right now, but this information is a synthesis of advice that I have gotten from neurosurgeons at Stanford, a former Dean at John Hopkins/NIH branch chief, the Dean of Admissions at UT Health San Antonio, the former Dean of Admissions at the Mayo Clinic, and medical students from Duke, the Mayo Clinic, the University of Virginia, UT Health San Antonio, University of Utah, and Stanford. I’m only including the advice that was universal from each of these people. I’ve spent a great deal thinking about this topic and hope that you will find this useful.

Getting into medical school can seem like a overwhelming process. Especially when you are just getting started. This pyramid above might seem like a mountain. But don’t get intimidated because forward momentum starts to pick up quickly when you are on the medical school track.

Just like how pushing a bolder is incredibly hard when you are getting started, building the base of our pyramid is the most difficult part of the process. But just like how a bolder starts to pick up momentum and eventually starts to roll on its own, the same happens with the pre-med process.

First you need to get started by getting good grades. Your grades are your currency! The way you get to the next step is by having sufficient currency. Good grades will make it easier to get jobs and volunteer experiences that give you clinical hours. As you get clinical hours, you will be able to shadow more and develop more volunteer experiences. The people you meet shadowing and volunteering will help connect you with other opportunities. Eventually, the process becomes an upward spiral.

The idea is that the base of your pyramid needs to lead to the next step which is Leadership | Letters of Recommendation | MCAT. It’s not enough just to get a good GPA, a lot of clinical hours, and volunteer experiences. You should be doing it with purpose that it will lead you to a great MCAT score, leaderships opportunities, and great letters of recommendation. Each level in the pyramid should add to the next level and increase the importance of it. Some people act like the letters of recommendation are a last second thing in order to complete an application. Those who have this mentality tend to struggle with getting interviews.

The next step of the process is your personal statement and interviews. Everything you do should be adding to your reason of WHY you want to become a doctor. You need to be developing your “personal brand” that allows you to stand out as an applicant. Each activity you do should connect with what you’ve previously done. For example, if you served a mission Spanish speaking, then interviewers will want to see what you did after your mission to build off that experiences. It’s important to connect the dots.

As you go through each experiences, take the time to write down impactful stories that will feed into your narrative. Think about how it fits into the picture of you wanting to go to medical school. Ask yourself what you learned from the experience.

STAND OUT! BYU advisors won’t tell you this because not everyone can stand out. But those who make it into Stanford, Duke, or the Mayo Clinic did something to stand out. Think about your passions and what you could do to be unique from all of the other 4.0 BYU students who also got 519’s on their MCATs. If you can do something unique, you’ll be remembered and your interviews will be easier because it will be clear what you’ll want to talk about.

Here’s a list of what counts for each activity:

Research: On or off of campus. Ideally this should be medical related research but it doesn’t have to be. Research in many medical school is optional. But what Med schools want to see more than just doing research is being productive in the lab. This will also make it easier to get good letters of recommendation. One person got into Stanford because he published 1st author as an undergraduate.

Volunteer: BYU recommends getting over 200 hours of volunteer experiences. But more important than the quantity is the quality. Think about how this volunteer experience will feed into your personal narrative. it’s better to be highly involved in volunteer experience at one place for a long time than a lot of places for a short amount of time. It’s great to volunteer in a clinical setting, but be careful double dipping with volunteering and clinical hours.

Clinical Hours: You can get clinical hours by shadowing, scribing, working as a EKG tech, or EMT. Some medical schools are okay with working in a nursing home but not all. Make sure what you spend your time doing counts. While shadowing is good, it tends to not be enough because it is not a hands-on experience. However, getting a lot of hours shadowing can be easier than you think once you get started. Many people have a hard time getting started because they can never get around to filling out the paper work.

Good Grades: Medical schools don’t always post their cut offs. But Medical school ranks are based on the grades of their incoming class. So there’s a lot of incentive to bring in people with great grades. Be careful, however, if getting good grades is stoping you from doing anything else. Having a 4.0 will not guarantee you an interview with even the smallest of schools.