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Ten Ways to Improve your Medical School Application

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As we know, New Year’s resolutions are notoriously hard to realize. But there are smart tips for executing them, including making sure goals are specific and truly achievable within a reasonable time frame. That’s why starting early with your candidacy for medical school is important. The beginning of the year is a great time for pre-meds to redouble their efforts toward their medical school goals. This past cycle, applications to medical school increased again, so the process has gotten even more competitive.

As always, I recommend a very focused approach that allows you to do more of what you want and less of what you don’t. Think research will help your candidacy but don’t like being in the lab? Consider public health or clinical investigations. Think volunteerism will bolster your application but don’t like being one of a crowd in a group project? Start your own social justice initiative.

There are definitely necessary elements to any robust medical school candidacy (clinical experience, strong grades), but being a pre-med can also be fun, mind-broadening, and career-affirming.

Here are ten ways to improve your medical school application that will give you direction but also leeway to be a happy applicant – not just a strong one.

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I’m Worried about Emergency Medicine

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While my career has been a good one until now, I’m increasingly worried about the field of emergency medicine. See my October 21 blog on the current dearth of emergency medicine jobs. The American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) recently published a report on the future of the field’s workforce, concluding that there will be nearly 10,000 too many emergency physicians by 2030.

Dr. Thomas Cook published a piece recently called A Few Feasible Solutions to EM’s Workforce Crisis. He demonstrates a healthy skepticism for the possible solutions that ACEP proposed. See his piece here.

In the meantime, corporate emergency medicine is depleting some physicians. A group has even considered unionizing.

In addition, burnout has been a big problem for the field – even before the pandemic. 

Medical students, as great as the specialty of emergency medicine is in many ways, I would be remiss if I didn’t tell you to consider these issues seriously when making a decision about your future field.

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AAMC Report on Residents 2021

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The AAMC recently published their Report on Residents 2021. Of note,

  • The percentage of medical residents who identify as Black or African American and as Hispanic, Latino, or of Spanish origin has increased since last year.
  • Women make up the vast majority in obstetrics and gynecology (85.2%) and pediatrics (72.7%).
  • Only 27.0% of the 2020-21 graduates intended to train in the specialties they had listed as their preference when they began medical school.
  • The majority of medical residents (57.1%) who completed residency training from 2011 through 2020 practice in the state where they completed their residencies.
  • In a tip of the hat to my favorite state, physician retention after medical residency is highest in California (77.8%).

There are more goodies; the information is summed up in this table.

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Happiness

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As you interview now for medical school, dental school, residency, or fellowship, it’s important to think about what will make you happy in the next phase of your career.

When I was a medical student applying for emergency medicine residency programs, a well-meaning dean gave me some bad advice. I was determining the order of my rank list and was particularly concerned about one program that had an excellent reputation but was in a city I didn’t like. The dean told me, “You’ll be so busy during residency it won’t matter where you live.” Luckily, the advice rubbed me the wrong way, and I wholeheartedly disregarded it. Where you live for your training is as important as the quality of your training program. The reasons are several-fold:

1. Training is time-consuming, and you want to be in a city you can enjoy fully when you’re able to blow off steam. 

2. Training is stressful, and you want to be in a city where you have social support.

3. Training is not completed in a vacuum. Your personal life continues. If you’re single, you may meet someone and end up staying in the city where you’ve trained for the rest of your life. If you’re in a long-term relationship, you may decide to have children (or already have them); down the road you might not want to relocate your family.

Not everyone gets the opportunity to train at an institution in a city s/he likes. But prioritizing your contentment will increase your opportunity for well-being and career longevity.

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Emergency Medicine: A Career That’s Currently Taking a Lot of Hits

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Having been in the field of emergency medicine since I started my residency in 1996, I can tell you that the discipline has had its ups and downs. Currently, the specialty is facing a lot of challenges: COVID has driven some physicians out (to utilization review, administration, research) and has adversely affected others emotionally. Additionally, there’s a tremendous dearth of positions currently for emergency physicians. I’ve had friends and colleagues lose promised hours or their jobs entirely in the last 18 months. 

Here’s a short piece on the job scarcity issue. Those choosing a specialty must consider the atmosphere of the job market (while recognizing it might improve in a few years).

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About Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Finkel is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School. On completing her residency at Harvard, she was asked to stay on as faculty at Harvard Medical School and spent five years teaching at the world-renowned Massachusetts General Hospital. She was appointed to the Assistant Residency Director position for the Harvard Affiliated Emergency Medicine Residency where she reviewed countless applications, personal statements and resumes. Read more

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Listen to Dr. Finkel’s interview on The Visible Voices podcast: 

 

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