A Beginner's Guide to Premed

General Timeline

UpLIFT Guide
Roadmap to Med
Reddit: Step-by-Step Q & A Series
MD: AAMC Recommended Timeline
DO: AACOM Recommended Timeline

Recommended Coursework

  1. Biology with Lab [Cellular, Molecular Biology] (1 year)
  2. General Chemistry with Lab (1 year)
  3. Organic Chemistry with Lab (1 year)
  4. Physics with Lab (1 year)
  5. English (1 year)
  6. Math [Calculus, Statistics] (1 year) *
  7. Arts and Humanities [Psychology/Sociology, Economics, Performance/Studio Arts, Language, etc] (1 year) *
  8. Biochemistry (1 semester)*

Sample Schedule

Consult with your premed advisors as soon as you start your premed journey. Work through your schedule together and learn about the resources and opportunities at/near by your campus

Resources

Physics (videos): YouTube channel - Matt AndersonBiology (videos): Khan AcademyOrganic Chemistry + Physics (videos): YouTube channel - The Organic Chemistry TutorOrganic Chemistry (book): Organic Chemistry as a Second Language by David KleinOrganic Chemistry (videos): YouTube channel - Leah4sciMental Math Tricks
Principles of Biochemistry
Physics (videos): Khan AcademyChemistry (videos): Khan Academy

Clinical Experiences

Volunteering, shadowing, and working in clinical settings provide you the opportunities to understand the physician-patient relationship from different perspectives. These experiences might give you some ideas/inspirations for why you would want to go into medicine. It can be difficult to fit all of these activities into your schedule, but consider using your summer vocations or take gap years as needed. A journal describing important moments that have helped you shape your interests in medicine can become handy when you begin writing your application.

Volunteering

Seek opportunities in your local hospitals/clinics (by asking your premed advisor, googling, etc). A general feature that defines clinical volunteering from the rest is being able to "smell the patients," aka directly interact with them. Seats might be competitive depending on your location, try to apply to a few and commit to 1-2 activities.
Apply to volunteer positions in local hospitals/clinics/hospices/nursing homes. Below are some mobile clinics.
Remote Area Medical (mobile)MobileMed (Maryland)

Shadowing

Active shadowing is preferred over passive and virtual shadowing. It's recommended to have some shadowing experiences with primary care physicians. You can shadow physicians in as many specialties as you'd like. If you are applying to osteopathic schools, try to shadow a few DOs. Similarly, if you are applying to allopathic schools, shadow MDs. Same goes for MD/PhD.
Start by asking your primary physicians and physician mentors. You can also email physicians at your college-affiliated hospital. Some institutions may offer shadowing programs (check out the NAAHP website below).
Virtual ShadowingPreHealth ShadowingClinical Shadowing

Employment

Employment that involves direct patient care is valuable but not required. Many work as EMTs, CNAs, scribes, MAs, and phlebotomists during their gap years. You can also earn and save money for your applications/travels.
To get certified for EMT and CNA, you typically have to pay for a course and take a test. Check with your school or local institutions to see if such training is available.
Common Jobs

Community Involvement

Community service is a significant part of the preparation process for a service-oriented profession. Volunteering allows you to work with your community, serve groups that you might not be familiar with, and grow as a leader. It can be a creative outlet for continuing your habits or sharpening your skills. What you've learned and what you've contributed are more important than the nature of these activities. You can look for community services opportunities through your institution, local events, and online browsing, or you can even start a group yourself. Commit to 1-2 activities that you enjoy and care about.

AmeriCorpsDo somethingSavvy PremedMore Ideas (COVID-19)

Research

Research allows you to both investigate a topic of interest outside a classroom setting and develop your scientific thinking skills. Scientific thinking is a core competency and is highly valued by research-heavy medical schools. Research is crucial if you are applying to MD/PhD programs. Presentations and publications are valuable but not necessary. To look for opportunities, start by asking your professors. Check below for a list of summer internships.

MCAT

PLAN AHEAD. Most people take 3-6 months to prepare. To secure a spot, register on AAMC at least three months prior to testing. Read the AAMC Essentials and the content list. Go through content review and practice extensively. Since medical schools can see all your scores, make sure you feel sufficiently prepared before taking the test.
The raw score of each section is converted to a scaled score ranging from 118 to 132. The total therefore goes from 472 to 528, with 500 at ~50 percentile.

Study Plan

  1. Look through different resources (MCAT courses, books, video channels/websites, practice tests, etc) and pick a few to try out. Settle on at least two resources that you'll be using extensively. Be sure to include in your study plan content review, question banks, and practice exams.
  2. Content Review: most people use books (from Kaplan, Princeton, Examcrackers, etc. If you are on a tight budget, use this MCATBros group), in addition to Khan Academy videos and Anki cards. Subjects include Biology, Biochemistry, General Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Psychology/Sociology, and CARS.
    Question Banks: AAMC official materials are must-haves. UWorld and Jack Westin are also preferred
  3. Before you dive into content review, take a practice exam (best to use one from a third party and save AAMC's practice tests for later). Use this test as a baseline and a guide for studying. Go through the answers and write down subjects and topics that you would like to review. Use this printable comprehensive list of topics as a guide.
  4. Know high-yield topics thoroughly. Use a monthly calendar to plan out broader topics, and then plan specific topics weekly as you progress. Take one day off every week to avoid burnout. Here are some free resources for planning:
    ‍    MCAT Self Study                       
    ‍    MCAT Study Hub             
    ‍    Magoosh's Study Plans                                           
    Study Schedule Planner
  5. Do practice questions frequently. Use question banks a few times a week and do a practice test every 2-3 weeks. Thoroughly review answers and use them to guide your study plan. Aim to complete 4-8 practice tests in total
  6. About 1-2 months prior to your exam date, start using your AAMC practice tests and question banks extensively. Review questions you've missed and go over your high yield content review sheets or some Anki Flashcards

Practice, Notes, Flashcards

Free half/full-length practice tests are available at AAMC, Varsity Tutor, Kaplan, Princeton Review, blueprint, Altius, Magoosh, etc. You should consider buying AAMC MCAT materials.
You can locate formula/review sheets from resources on the previous page.

Science Strategies

  1. When studying a topic (especially high yield content) that involves complex diagrams/pathways, follow along the video/book and draw those diagrams out yourself. Practice drawing amino acid, simple sugars, and DNA structures. For physics, familiarize yourself with both concepts/formulas and units. For chemistry, know the basic constituents and categories (i.e. amide vs. amine) and learn to balance equations and read reactions.
  2. Analysis and application skills are heavily tested. Try to make connections between topics. (i.e. understand the cathode/anode in gel electrophoresis, fluid dynamic in gas exchange, etc)
  3. Read each passage to understand the main idea (don't need to understand everything), spend more time on understanding figures and dissecting questions.
  4. For questions that need calculation, check how many significant digits are in the answers and then estimate using numbers that are easy to work with.
  5. Sometimes it's helpful to glance at the choices and use elimination to quickly find the answer.

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CARS Strategies

  1. You have about 10 minutes for each passage. Spend 5-6 minutes on reading and the rest on answering questions. Skip difficult passages and use the navigation tool to come back to them later. Complete passages that are easier to work with, flag challenging questions as you prefer.
  2. ‍Read actively. Try to understand the purpose of each passage and its tone. Avoid getting lost in details (you can come back to the passage later). Jog down and/or highlight the main idea of each paragraph.
  3. Save challenging questions for later. Use your notes and the question stem as guides to locate information necessary for answering the questions. Apply process of elimination. If a choice is only partially correct, it's not the answer. Sometimes the information in the choice might sound accurate, but it might not answer the question. Find a choice that matches the tone of the passage and answers the question.
    Types of questions: comprehension, reasoning within the text, reasoning beyond the text
  4. The ultimate way to improve is through practice. Maybe spend 20-30 minutes a few times a week on CARS. Find a strategy that fits you and then practice timing. Jack Westin offers free practices.

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More resources: MCAT CARS

Psych/Soc Strategies

1) Memorize vocabulary/concepts

2) Understand the subtle differences between similar concepts (i.e. different branches of thinking or theories)

3) Learn how to interpret a research study and apply concepts in a study
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Here are two free helpful guides for studying this section. The 86 page notes is usually sufficient if you have taken some psych/soc classes.
KA P/S 300 page notes
KA P/S 86 page notes

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Gap Years

Gap years are common among premeds and are positively viewed if well spent. You can continue to polish your resume and improve your GPA/MCAT by attending a post-bac program or doing research or other activities that you are passionate about. Some people complete a special Master's Program (an intensive year-long program where premeds take classes with med students) to improve their GPAs (usually if <3.0). Most premeds take 1-2 gap year(s). Some are non-traditional career changers.
Gap year is also a great time for personal growth and is desirable as long as you have a legitimate reason for it and that you are still working on meaningful activities to some degree.

Application

Medical school applications are divided into two parts: primary/centralized and secondary (specific for each school). Dr. Shemmassian wrote a guide, Getting into Medical School (you can also retrieve a copy from their website, under free guides), that discusses multiple aspects of the application process, including personal statement, recommendation letter, and school selection. Also check out roadmaptomed's guide

PRIMARY APPLICATION (AMCAS - MD, AACOMAS - DO, TMDSAS - schools in Texas) requires undergraduate (and grad school/postbac if applicable) transcript(s), personal statement, 2-6 letters of recommendation or a committee letter, an activity list with description, and a list of medical schools. There's also an optional disadvantaged essay (where you'll elaborate on how your status, often socioeconomic, affects your educational path) on AAMC.
* DOs (osteopathic medicine) can practice as physicians just like MDs. DO program places a greater emphasis on holistic approaches and requires training in osteopathic manipulative treatment. The average GPA and MCAT for matriculants in DO programs are lower than MD matriculants, but that does not mean it's easier to get in. Many people apply to both DO and MD programs.
* MD/PhD (MSTP) programs follow a similar timeline. In addition to the MD part of the AMCAS, you will submit two additional essays on why you would like to pursue a dual degree (3000 characters) and on your significant research experiences (10,000 characters).

SECONDARY APPLICATIONS are school specific and will be sent out by schools immediately or within a week of their receipt of your primary application. Most schools filter based on MCAT or GPA cutoffs. You can prewrite secondaries using prompts from this database and general prompts like such. Try to submit your secondaries within a month. Most likely you'll write short essays on why that school and how you'll fit its mission, how you've overcome a challenge, how can you add to the school's diversity, gap year activities, etc.

MedTrackr
AMCAS (allopathic)
Statistics of Matriculants
What's on AMCAS
MD Explorer: MSAR
School Reports
Med-Reqs: Free MD/DO Program Search Engine
AACOMAS (OSTEOPATHIC)
Statistics of Matriculants
What's on AACOMAS
DO Explorer
Website

Transcript

Submit your official transcript ASAP because it needs to be verified by AAMC (which can take up to a month) before your application can be submitted to individual schools. Type what's exactly shown on your transcript. For your reference, AAMC standardizes grades so you can convert yours using the following methods.
AMCAS: Convert your GPAAll: Convert your GPA

Personal Statement

Reflect on your experiences and pick out 2-4 formative experiences to write about. Personal statement typically includes
1) an experience that has initially driven you to become a physician (aka. initial motivation) or a response to why you want to become a physician (not other medical professions),
2) experiences that demonstrate how you have been working toward this goal and how you have prepared for medical school (ex. clinical exposure, research, etc).
A good PS might not get you in, but a bad one can definitely hurt your app.
This is a 5300-character academic, persuasive essay. You want to focus on why physician specifically (avoid writing excessively about patients). Find a theme. Start broad, then dedicate 2-4 key paragraphs to specify the steps you've taken or the path you've travelled, and wrap up in another paragraph. Ask your friends/mentors/med school students to review your essays.
Core CompetenciesArnold's AdviceSample EssaysSDN's Personal Statement Thread (2021) [google thread for new cycle]

Letter of Recommendation

Ask professors/mentors/
supervisors who know you well and can testify your good qualities, especially those listed under AAMC core competencies. You need your recommenders to write you strong letters.
Many schools prefer a committee letter, which is a composite letter from your undergraduate premed counseling center, that's usually based on an interview and all your letters of reference. You typically need to request six months to a year prior to your application cycle, check with your school's premed center.
Request at least a month before your due date. Provide your recommenders a resume/CV, personal statement (if available), and most importantly, a guide to writing a letter of rec (because these letters need to have proper letterhead and signature and should persuade medical school committees why you are a competitive applicant)
See requirements from different medical schools here.

Activities/
Experiences

You should list activities that you've been committed to during your undergrad/gap years. You will need to estimate total hours (projected hours are fine if it's an ongoing activity), name a supervisor/contact person, and write a description for each activity. This description should be about 3-5 sentences long (600-700 characters) and should summarize your responsibilities, what you've learned, and how you've contributed. This section allows up to 15 activities, so consider merging a few similar experiences if you have a long list. In AMCAS, you will pick three as your most significant activities and then write short essays on why they are particularly impactful for you and how you've grown. You should dedicate at least one of these slots to a clinical experience.

Medical Schools List

On average, an applicant applies to about 16 medical schools. You'll need a balanced list of safety, match, and reach schools. You should make this list based on your statistics (GPA and MCAT) and mission match with certain programs. A good match school should have an average matriculant profile similar to yours and optimistically, shares a mission that you can see yourself pursuing. Mission fit means your experiences and future pursuits align with a school's' mission. Some schools highly value research, while others prefer services.
Certain schools rarely accept out-of-state students, use explorers like MSAR and school websites to check the number of out-of-state matriculants. For example, University of Washington rarely accepts students outside of the WWAMI region.

Situational Judgement Tests and Interviews

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TYPES OF SCENARIO-BASED ASSESSMENTS
Only certain schools will require/recommend these tests. In general, schools don't really use the results to determine your qualification. For now, your data will most likely be used for pilot studies to evaluate the test's efficacy.
1. CASPER: a 60-90 minute assessment that evaluates behavioral tendencies and attributes. You will be given 12 scenarios, each is consisted of 3 prompts, usually. You will have 5 minutes to type up your responses to each scenario.
2. AAMC Situational Judgemental Test (SJT): a 50-75 minute assessment that presents 23 scenarios aimed to test eight preprofessional competencies. It's formatted like a multiple-choices survey.
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INTERVIEWS
1. Video Interview Tool for Admissions (VITA): a centralized, video-based (asynchronous and unidirectional) interview. It takes 30-45 minutes to complete. You will be given 6 questions, 1 minute to read/think and 3 minutes to record for each question. This is often done before the interview day.
2. Multiple Mini-Interview (MMI): offered by many schools as part of the interview day experience. You will go through multiple stations to answer situational/behavioral questions as well as questions based on your personal experiences. Instructions differ slightly from school to school. The best way to prepare is to practice answering questions with someone or by yourself - learn how to structure and approach different ethical questions.
3. Traditional Interview: the most common type of interview on interview day. You will have one or two 1-on-1 interview(s) with faculty or admission officers. Do mock interviews with others.
4. Group Interview: you will interview with a group of applicants
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Interview Tips from Arnold, Ultimate Premed Package, MS #1, MS #2‍

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Keep yourself updated on current medical issues and healthcare news. Check out the list of podcasts

Situational Judgement Tests

CASPER PrepMatchCASPER PrepCASPER GuideASTROFF's CASPER PracticeSJT PrepBeMo's CASPER Practice

Interviews

VITA Sample TestMMI: Winning StrategiesMedicPortal's MMI PracticeMedicine Answered's MMI PracticeMedical Ethics: A Very Short IntroductionEthics in MedicineList of MMI Questions

Post-Interview

(Unofficial) Post-Interview Acceptance Rates: Chart 1 (2018), Chart 2

‍SDN's Interview Feedback Threads

Update Letter and Letter of Interest can be sent to schools before and after interview. Send one when you have significant update(s) (i.e. new publication, new activity), make sure to tight it back to how you will fit that school's mission. Letter of intent is often sent near the end of the cycle (around March/April) and after being waitlisted. You should only send to one school that you'll definitely go if accepted. Letters should be one-page. Here's an example. Check in your portals to ensure schools welcome letters before you send.

Finances

Applying to medical school is expensive:

  • MCAT Studying $200-$2,000
  • MCAT $320 (plus additional fees if you change the date/location)
  • AMCAS $170 + $40 additional per school
  • AACOMAS $196 + $46 additional per school
  • TMDSAS $185
  • Secondary application per school is ~$100
  • CASPER $10 + $10 per school
  • On average, an applicant applying to 16 schools will spend about $2,700 on applications and tests. Traveling and professional wear will cost ~$1,000. One application cycle can cost about $3,700-$5,000.

SDN's Application Cost Calculator
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Fee Assistance Programs

Check your eligibility. Apply ASAP.

  • ‍AAMC Fee Assistance Program benefits: official MCAT prep products (max 2 years), reduced MCAT registration fee, free MSAR, free AMCAS for up to 20 schools, usually waive secondary fees. Application is open in Jan/Feb and benefits will last until the end of the following year. Have to renew every 1-2 year, lifetime max: 5 times

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Medical School Finances

Unfortunately there aren't many scholarships for medical schools. Apply to FAFSA when it opens in October. Most schools use FAFSA to evaluate your loan qualifications. Typically, students take out federal loans (Direct Unsubsidized Loans, Direct PLUS loans) before choosing a private loan. Both direct unsubsidized loans and direct PLUS loans have a fixed interest rate for the lifetime of that loan, though you will be taking out a different loan every year and its fixed interest rate changes every summer. Direct unsubsidized loans cap at ~$200,000. There's no limit to direct PLUS loans but they have higher fixed interest rates and require good credit.

You may consider private loans offered by your school, banks, and companies like Juno.

Read more at Loan Repayment Options, Finance 101 for Med Students, Financial Roadmap, and personalpremed's blog.

Reach out to the financial officers at your prospective school early on to figure out a plan.

Loan repayment programs such as the Health Professions Scholarship Program (HPSP) exist, but it's important to carefully consider the long-term pros and cons before making a commitment.

Mentorship Programs

Pre-Med Mentoring
Pre-Med Mentoring at Partner Schools
Pre-Physician-Scientists Mentoring
Free Pre-Med and Pre-Grad Counseling
Pre-Med Mentoring

FORUMS

Reddit: r/premedReddit: r/McatFacebook: MCAT BrosFacebook: MCAT Preparation Study Group + Premed + Med ApplicationFacebook: Getting into medical school (but make it wholesome)Student Doctor Network

Podcasts: Premed

The Premed YearsAsk Dr. Gray Premed Q&AAll Access: Med School Admissions

HEALTHCARE NEWS

Healthcare Triage (youtube)What the Health (podcast)Facebook: Socratic Med