Applying to Graduate School: General Calendar and Advice
Source: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Topics: College Information Resources, Career Planning and Development
Here is some information on general calendars for grad school applications and advice on how to apply.
Med School
Your first step in applying to med school is to familiarize yourself with the application process. Almost all medical schools use an initial "universal" application produced and managed by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) and its American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS). You can review the list of AMCAS member schools that use this universal application on the AMCAS Web site (www.amcas.org). This universal online application provides a common format for detailing all your academic and extracurricular credentials, and can then be distributed to all the AMCAS member schools of your choosing.
Individual schools then review this primary application and determine whether they wish to send you a secondary application. Thus, the "first cut" in the medical school admissions game is whether or not you get a secondary application.
Each medical school crafts its own secondary application. Once your prospective schools receive your secondary application (and, yes, an additional application fee), they decide whether to offer you an interview. This is the second cut in the process. Getting an interview puts you in the final round of applicants under consideration. After the interview, schools will admit, reject, or wait-list your application.
The table here is a visual outline of the road ahead.
Med School Application Calendar
| Month | Activity |
| Summer after sophomore year (or one year prior to application) |
Start researching Web sites and blogs to get the lay of the land and the latest tips and trends. Do some research to determine whether med school is the right choice and to develop application strategies. |
| August of junior year (or one year prior to application) | Evaluate AMCAS requirements, identify personal weaknesses, and begin pulling materials together. |
| September of junior year (or one year prior to application) |
Go to AAMC Web site and gather information about MCAT. Consult premed adviser for list of recommended resources. Develop personal MCAT study plan. Enroll in MCAT review course (if chosen). |
| December of junior year (or one year prior to application) |
Research test centers for MCAT administration on AAMC Web site. Identify and record MCAT registration date. Scope out various test centers and choose one. |
| January of application year | Register for MCAT. |
| March of application year |
Meet with premed adviser to discuss application process. Solicit letters of recommendation from faculty. |
| April of application year | Take MCAT. |
| May of application year | Begin researching medical schools. |
| June of application year |
Evaluate MCAT scores and begin finalizing application list. Begin drafting personal statement. |
| July of application year | Ensure that all faculty letters of recommendation have been received by college premed committee. |
| August of application year | Upload completed AMCAS universal application. |
| October of application year | Complete all secondary applications. |
| Fall and winter of application year | Conduct interviews. |
| Fall and winter of application year |
Evaluate and rank acceptances Keep in touch with schools where wait-listed. |
| Winter of application year | Make a decision and celebrate! |
The AAMC Web site (www.aamc.org) provides a bewildering array of tools and tables to help you assess your strengths and weaknesses as a candidate (for example, how your undergraduate GPA stacks up nationally or at a particular school), and also allows you to search and compare the attributes of every program in the country (for example, how innovative the curriculum is at your favorite school). Spend some time exploring this Web site and get familiar with it. As you march through the application process, it can be a very useful resource.
The AAMC also produces a book called Medical School Admission Requirements (also known as the MSAR). This is a fairly comprehensive collection of both the general requirements for medical school admission and all the individual, school-specific requirements, which will be very helpful to you in preparing your spreadsheet of individual application requirements and helping you stay organized. Purchase a copy, or at least consult a copy in any college library or career services or premed office. You can order your copy from the AAMC's Web site (www.aamc.org/medicalschools.htm).
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