Rejection and Reapplication: How to Respond [Show summary]
Admissions guru Linda Abraham highlights four reasons that could cause a rejection and offers concrete, practical suggestions for moving forward.
Rejection and Reapplication: How to Respond [Show notes]
Some of you unfortunately are facing a fistful of dings. Some of you haven’t heard definitively. You are either in waitlist limbo or haven’t heard anything, but you know that rejection at this point in time for the previous application cycle is a distinct and increasingly likely possibility. How can you respond to rejection? How should you respond to rejection? How can you reapply successfully if that’s what you choose to do?
One of the challenges of admissions is showing that you both fit in at your target schools and are a standout in the applicant pool. Accepted’s free download, Fitting In and Standing Out, The Paradox at the Heart of Admissions, will show you how to do exactly that, and both of them. Master this paradox and you will be well on your way to acceptance.
I’m going to do a solo show today as I addressed the questions I raised a minute ago. It’s going to be one where I both give a little high-level encouragement and then get down to brass tacks advice on what you should do if you decide to reapply.
Rejection reality [1:42]
First of all, let’s face it, rejection is disappointing. It’s frustrating. It’s painful. It’s maybe even a little embarrassing. Acknowledge your negative feelings. It’s okay. You put a lot of effort into this year’s applications. You spent money and time on them. You invested emotionally in this whole project, and some of you may feel that this is the end of the road for your particular career dream. Maybe you’ve applied before. Maybe you find rejection to be a terrible blow.
Realize that rejection is disappointing. It is a setback. It is not a tragedy. No one has died, no blood has been spilled. You haven’t lost your livelihood.
What about my dreams and goals [2:23]
You may say, “But what about my dreams, my goals?” Well, I have two thoughts for you.
You may not need to give up your dreams and goals. You may decide to reapply and we’ll get to how you should do that more effectively in a few minutes. You may apply to different schools that are easier to get into and that still support your goals. You may decide to achieve your goals in another way that doesn’t require a graduate degree or perhaps would benefit from a different graduate degree.
You may need to modify your dreams and goals and replace them with new dreams. In other words, to re-dream instead of reapply.
I can tell you that there have been many times when my husband and I seemingly hit a dead end on a dream and had to re-dream, and things frankly worked out better than we had ever hoped.
For an example of someone who had to dream differently, please check out episode 234 for the story of Andrea Benedict, who had to abandon her dream of becoming a physician, became a PA instead, and absolutely loves her work and her career.
Handling the stress of reapplying [3:23]
If you are faced with a rejection, give yourself an hour or two, and if it’s the final rejection, maybe even a day or two to be a little down and then move on. In fact, pat yourself on the back for your effort and initiative in applying in the first place. You tried to improve your skills and education. You tried to move forward. You tried to grow and improve. That effort deserves to be acknowledged and praised. I, for one, salute you. And again, if nobody else is going to do it, take it from me or give yourself a pat on the back.
Now, some of you may believe that you just can’t handle the stress of another application process, and there are some for whom that is true either because of age, finances, or simply your personality, and if so, again, I’d encourage you to re-dream. Change your dreams so that you don’t need to reapply, but I would encourage most of you to learn how to deal with the stress so that it doesn’t stop you from striving to achieve awesome goals.
Most people apply to graduate school, especially professional schools, because they’re aiming at roles that are leadership positions. Leadership by definition requires an assumption of responsibility, so you’re aiming for positions of responsibility. Anyone assuming a position of responsibility or a leadership role is going to have stress. It simply goes with being a leader, with being a person of consequence.
There seems to be this drumbeat right now in society that we have to do anything and everything to eliminate stress. Well, you know, folks? We can’t eliminate it. We can learn to deal with it and in a limited sense, choose when to have it. If you are a skilled skier who thrills at black diamond runs, you have learned to deal with the stress of wondering whether you will arrive at the bottom in one piece. I personally hate the stress of wondering if I will arrive in time to catch a plane or train. I deal with that stress by arriving early.
So whether you use meditation or music, running or art, painting or prayer, socializing or solitude, mindfulness or yoga, learn how to deal with stress. It is a part of life. Everyone has it, and it is vital that you learn how to deal with it if you aim to be a leader and a person of consequence. Those who strive for positions of responsibility and impact have more stress than others because you are not doing what’s easy, but everyone has stress at different points in their life. Some of you choose to have it, some of you don’t. But if you’re going to have it, you might as well have it doing something you love.
Also, remember that any graduate education is a means to an end. If you have been rejected more than once, is there another way for you to achieve your professional goals, which is the end goal of a graduate education, assuming that the professional goals that motivate your applications still are your goals?
Four reasons for rejection
If there isn’t an alternative, do you want to reapply? Now, you might have an easier time responding to that last question at the end of this podcast, so let’s examine the four reasons for rejection, what you can do to change the outcome, and how you can address those causes of rejection. So let’s go over the four reasons for rejection.
Reason 1: Not being competitive at your target programs [6:32]
In other words, grades and test scores weren’t in range or were below average. You do not have the experience that programs look for, whether it’s professional, full-time work experience, which is extremely important in MBA applicants, clinical exposure and community service for those in healthcare fields, or some legally relevant experience for many, many law schools, research for PhD candidates. Those are all forms of experience. They’re basically requirements for those kinds of degrees. This is a very quick summary of them.So that’s the academic requirements and the experiential requirements. We’ll get to that a little bit later.
Reason 2: You failed to present your qualifications [7:11]
Well, what do I mean by that? You presumably were competitive. You had the stats and you had the experience that programs seek, but you didn’t present them well and effectively in your application. Maybe you wrote a resume in prose for your personal statement or statement of purpose. Maybe you did not provide examples to support assertions and declarative statements in your essay or essays. Maybe you provided examples and no indication of why they are important, so your essay read like a series of disconnected anecdotes. Maybe you failed to show fit with the program’s values, mission and strength, which is really, really important.
So even though on paper you were competitive, they didn’t see any passion or interest in their specific program or maybe even the career choices you were voicing. If there were multiple essays in the application, perhaps you focused all those essays or all those responses to different questions on one particular event in your life as opposed to highlighting different experiences in different essays.
Perhaps your writing was sloppy. It was not what it should have been. You hadn’t proofread effectively. Maybe you focused on the negative in your life or you spent the bulk of your essay criticizing and blaming others. That is not a very attractive approach to an application.
That’s the second reason, you failed to present your qualifications effectively. So again, number one, you didn’t show that you were qualified either academically or experientially. Two, you didn’t present your qualifications effectively.
Reason 3: Intense Competition [8:42]
The third reason for rejection is you are a victim of intense competition in the field and at the schools you applied to. This is particularly true for medical school and healthcare where competition is even more fierce than for a law school and business school, and acceptance rates of under 5% are not uncommon.
I’d caution you not to assume that competition is the sole factor for your rejection because it is the one factor you have zero control over. You cannot affect how many people apply to the schools that you are most interested in, so focus on the elements that you have more control over, but realize that competition is real and therefore choose your schools wisely and strategically.
Reason 4: Combination of factors [9:29]
The fourth reason of possible rejection — again, one is you weren’t qualified, two is you didn’t present your qualifications well, and three is the intense competition for the schools that you were applying to — is a combination of the above. It is possible that two or three of the factors I mentioned initially caused your rejection. Now, if you focus exclusively on stats, you may still not get in because you presented your qualifications poorly, or even if you raised your test score or improved your competitiveness, and so on paper you look competitive, but you still didn’t quite do it. You might have to address multiple issues.
How should the reasons for your rejection dictate your response? [10:08]
Let’s get to work and discuss what you need to do, and here I’m going to issue a caveat: There’s one thing you can do that is highly unlikely to change the outcome of your application if you’re reapplying, and that is reapplying with the same application. It didn’t work before, especially if you apply to the same schools, and there is no reason to think it will work well this time around. I think the definition of insanity is repeating the same activity over and over and expecting a different outcome. But worse than the definition of insanity, frankly, I think that when you reapply, and I’ve talked to many admissions directors about this, and you don’t change the essays and you don’t change the activity descriptions or the resume at all, it conveys a certain laziness and for sure a lack of growth. Even if you think that the written portion of your application was absolutely fantastic and your rejection was solely due to other elements, don’t just copy and paste last year’s written elements of the application.
First of all, there are very few writers who can’t improve their writing when they look at it a year later. Second of all, you are basically telling the schools if you do that, that you haven’t done anything particularly noteworthy or valuable in the last year. And again, you might just be conveying laziness if you do that, so don’t do it. Look at your essays and your activity descriptions, et cetera with a critical eye, or secondary applications if you have those. Now, your reasons for rejection, when you look at those four reasons and you say, “Okay, I could work on this. I need to improve my application or my interview skills, whatever it is, and maybe I should apply at a few schools where I’m more competitive.” Let’s see what you can do to change the outcome.
The number one cause was you weren’t competitive at your target programs. Let’s say you feel that your grades were below average. Can you take courses and show that today in your field of interest you can do well? For many fields, extension courses, online courses, graded accredited courses will do wonders for you. In the healthcare field, a postbac program can be highly effective and helpful. Maybe a relevant master’s degree, a specialized master’s if you’re talking about medical school. In other words, show the schools that you really can perform academically.
No graduate program wants to admit somebody who’s going to flunk out because they simply can’t hack it. Sometimes relevant certificates can be really helpful. For example, a CFA or CPA in business school can be really, really helpful. Again, a postbac program for healthcare.
What if low test scores were the cause? Well, one option is aiming for schools that don’t require a test score or have test waivers.If you’re applying to a school that has test waivers, realize that your academic transcript has to show you can do the work. If you are required to take a test, as is true in most healthcare fields, can you improve your test prep? Can you invest more time? Can you change from self-study to a course, from a course to a tutor? Can you do something to get that score up so it is more competitive?
If lack of experience is a problem, can you get the experience that your target schools would like to see? Clinical exposure is critical in applying to healthcare fields. Shadowing is really liked by many professionals. Not tons of shadowing, but at least some, so that you can say, “I followed a doctor around all day. I’ve talked to him about his or her day. I can really see that this is something I would love to do because….”
And then of course, the last thing, if you feel that you weren’t competitive, is to change the schools you’re applying to. Would you be competitive with current stats at other programs that support your goals? Well, apply to them. If you’re applying to medical school, consider a DO program maybe in addition to or instead of MD programs, again, depending upon where you fall in terms of your stats and your goals, et cetera. I do want to mention at this point that accepted.com offers rejection review for med school applicants, for law school applicants, for business school applicants, for various different graduate programs, and you can find that accept.com/services.
What if your presentation of your qualifications was weak or flawed? What if that second factor contributed to your rejection? Maybe your writing was sloppy or unclear. Maybe you didn’t really address the essay prompt. You wrote an answer to the last essay you were working on as opposed to the essay on this particular application. Maybe your resume and activity descriptions focused on tasks and responsibilities as opposed to achievements and contributions – which is what they should focus on – or a place and the times when you went above and beyond the norm.
Maybe you failed to show fit with the specific school you were applying to. That is critical. Certainly at any competitive program, whether it’s law school, med school, business school, any graduate program to speak of, you have to show that their program is going to, given what you’ve done in the past, is going to help you move towards your specific goal and that your interests matched the focus of the school and the professors, et cetera, especially in research-oriented programs.
Any and all of these application errors mean that you did not do a great job of presenting yourself to the school. If others did a better job and were otherwise qualified, even if your numbers were good, they got in and you didn’t.
The final presentation factor which we haven’t gone into is maybe you interviewed poorly, and yes, some schools have videos. Maybe your video wasn’t great. Okay, but that would come into the other stuff. Maybe you interviewed poorly. For those programs that interview, many publish their acceptance rates of interviewed applicants. If it’s one out of three and you had three interviews and failed to get an acceptance from any of the three schools that interviewed you, I strongly recommend interview prep if invited to interview this application cycle. And again, that is a service that Accepted provides. You’re so close when you’re invited to interview, the cost of interview prep, a mock interview is a relatively small investment at that point compared to the cost of another year of delayed application or another rejection and delayed increase in salary and the cost of a reapplication if you were to reapply again. You can access Accepted’s services if you need to improve your presentation.
The third reason is being a victim of intense competition in your field at the schools you applied to. This is the one factor you cannot change, and I suggest you focus least on it. It frequently plays a role when combined with one and two. Is it a factor though, and if you feel that it played a role but you were competitive, improve your presentation. The implication would be that you choose to apply to programs where you are more competitive, and I would say, obviously, depending upon the particulars, you don’t want to have to reapply a third time or fourth time or whatever would be this time plus one. I would suggest that you don’t just aim for the ones that are a stretch, that you aim for some programs where you’re fairly confident of acceptance, assuming that you make improvements. Be realistic. Again, you’re applying strategically. That’s the idea here.
How to choose between various next steps? [17:35]
What if it’s a combination? You weren’t quite qualified, you didn’t present yourself effectively, and there’s intense competition for the schools that you were aiming for. It’s a combo. That was the fourth factor, if you recall. You have your work cut out for you. You might want to consider waiting a year and reapplying not in this cycle for matriculation 2024, but applying in 2025. That would allow you to perhaps take some courses, really prep again for the test, whatever test it is, get that score up, and maybe get the experience you need. Again, I don’t know whether it’s full-time work experience, clinical exposure, some exposure to the legal process. Whatever it is. In your field it may be research, if you’re aiming for a research-oriented master’s or PhD program. Whatever it is, it might be wiser to take additional time, really get your ducks lined up and be ready to apply, than rush it and get another rejection. It’s just frustrating, expensive, time-consuming, painful, and you don’t need to do that.
If you’re really dealing with all four or the fourth element, which is a combo of the first three, I would strongly encourage you to consider, again, the particular matter. Obviously I don’t know the particulars of your specific situation, whether it’s wise to wait a year or not. Accepted does offer free consultations to potential clients, and you’re welcome to take advantage of that.
If you are rejected this cycle, recognize that you have options. Acknowledge but don’t focus on that disappointment. That is so normal and so natural. Focus on your destination. Focus on your determination to reach that destination. First, decide if you want to continue pursuing the goal that motivated you to apply or if you want to re-dream. Perfectly legitimate.
If you choose to continue down this path and pursuing this particular goal, this particular why that motivated you, think about various ways to achieve your goal. If you decide that graduate education is the best or the only route forward for you, consider the ways that you can improve your application and the outcome of that application. But whether you choose to re-dream or reapply, congratulate yourself on your effort and keep looking forward.
Good luck with your redreaming or reapplying. Again, if you’d like assistance with this task, we have rejection reviews, we have interview prep, and of course we have comprehensive advising services for applicants.
You have done your research, thought about your future, and are now ready to apply to graduate programs. While the prospect of doing research, engaging in academia, and starting a new career is exciting, the potential costs can feel like an insurmountable burden. However, that does not have to be the case! Whether you are planning to attend a PhD or master’s program in the humanities or social sciences, there are many steps you can take to reduce the cost of tuition and cover living expenses during your graduate studies. In this post, I will take you through some of the ways you can be proactive to ensure that your new career change is feasible and doesn’t leave you with massive debt along with your new degree.
Master’s Programs
Master’s programs and PhD programs differ quite a bit in terms of how long they are and how much independent funding you will need to secure, so let’s start with humanities and social sciences master’s programs. That said, if you are an aspiring PhD student, the following information will also be very useful for your purposes.
When to look
Master’s programs in the humanities and social sciences usually last one to two years and often provide little to no funding as part of the admissions package. Since the programs are short, you will need to apply to funding sources at the same time you apply to your chosen programs. This is because once you have entered the program, you might have already missed out on some helpful opportunities. That said, if you are currently in year one of a two-year program, it is not too late to think about funding for the second year. Obtaining funding is often a continuous process for graduate students.
Where to look
When looking for these sources of funding, start with the school and then move outward to make sure you don’t miss any opportunities. For example, let’s say you are applying to a two-year master’s in public policy program, and the department does not offer any funding. That does not mean that the university overall has no potential sources of funding. There could be scholarships and/or fellowships offered through think tanks, institutes, general graduate research funding, library fellowships, interdisciplinary studies, other departments, and so on. As you research the program you are planning to attend, research the university, as well! There might even be affiliations or special funding projects through government or private endowments from organizations such as the National Science Foundation or the Mellon Foundation. Search university webpages for information on these opportunities (beyond your program’s home page). Your other major resource are the graduate students currently in the program. If you plan to reach out to any of them for information about the program, don’t forget to ask them about their funding. You might also wish to check out any publicly available CVs from graduate students (found on websites such as LinkedIn or through departmental listings) to see what fellowships and scholarships they have won.
Besides fellowships and grants, which usually involve obtaining money for your research, there are often teaching opportunities, such as teaching assistantships. These can vary wildly depending on the school, but for some universities, you do not necessarily have to be in a particular department to be a teaching assistant (TA). So, even if there is no such opportunity through your chosen program, there might be opportunities available in adjacent programs related to your field of study. These TA-ships can often include tuition remission and a stipend, which makes them time-consuming but valuable ways to obtain money for school.
Next, think about professional organizations. Professionals in sociology have the American Sociological Association, history professionals have the American Historical Association, and so on. In addition, the major national associations usually have regional chapters, and smaller organizations (usually organized around a specific historical figure, theoretical school, time period, or research focus) also usually abound. Learning about these organizations can not only lead to you uncovering funding opportunities but also help you begin to network in your chosen profession.
PhD Programs
PhD programs differ from master’s programs in many ways, but for our purposes, the two most important are time to degree and funding expectations. PhD programs usually take at least four years. At the time of acceptance, applicants are usually offered a funding package that details a mix of fellowships, grants, and TA-ships intended to fund a portion of their graduate study. Sometimes, you will be accepted to a program without funding. Given the demands of graduate study and the long time to degree, it is generally ill-advised to enroll in a program without at least some of your years funded. However, having funding in place does not mean that you will not need to look for additional fellowships, grants, and other such funding options.
When to look
Just as for master’s programs, it is a good idea to start looking for funding opportunities at the same time you complete your admissions applications. However, in the case of PhD programs, you have many years ahead. Part of your professionalization is to learn the processes for obtaining funding (a common and necessary practice for students, professors, and researchers alike!). With this in mind, make searching for funding part of your academic responsibilities, in addition to coursework and research, throughout your time in school.
Where to look
Many of the places beyond your immediate program to look for funding have been outlined in the master’s program section, but there are some additional specifics to keep in mind for PhD programs:
Funding for PhD programs is generally categorized by stage of the program: the pre-dissertation stage, the dissertation stage, and the first few years after obtaining one’s PhD (aka postdoc). The same organization or department might offer funding for only one stage or for multiple stages of your graduate study. That is why it is important to look for funding consistently throughout your time in the program.
You might be able to teach beyond what is offered in your funding package. There could be opportunities to teach in your department or in other departments on campus beyond the initial offer. Ask early on about what additional teaching opportunities exist to make sure you’ll be prepared to take advantage of them. After you have obtained your master’s degree (which usually happens partway through a PhD program), you are often qualified to lecture at some universities and colleges. Find those institutions nearby and check out their hiring requirements for temporary lecturers.
Professors often have a long-standing knowledge of funding sources in their field of study. Talk with your advisors to learn this insider knowledge.
Find funding based on your research interests! For example, if you are a history PhD student who focuses on religion, your interests might intersect with language study, gender, politics, literature, or other such area. Each area of interest has organizations and research funding opportunities for which you might be eligible.
Overall, obtaining funding can be a time-consuming process. However, by working on it consistently, you will gain not only money to support your studies but also valuable skills and professional acknowledgments that will help you build your CV and advance your career upon graduation.
Vanessa Febo has ten years of experience teaching academic and professional writing at UCLA, with a special certification in teaching writing techniques. She has drawn on this expertise to guide clients to placements at top institutions, including Harvard, Stanford, and USC. Before joining Accepted, Vanessa coached UCLA students through the application process for graduate programs, major grants, fellowships, and scholarships, including the Fulbright, Stanford Knight-Hennessey, and the Ford Foundation Fellowship. Additionally, Vanessa has extensive experience successfully guiding clients through applications for a diverse range of programs, including those in business, humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields. Want Vanessa to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!
After the initial excitement of taking the leap to apply to graduate programs in engineering, you might be faced with sticker shock after realizing the cost involved. How will you be able to pay for this crucial next step in your career? Luckily, there are some methods you can employ to help subsidize the cost of attending an advanced degree in engineering program. In this article, I will focus mainly on master’s programs (given that applying for a PhD in engineering is rarer), but I will spend some time at the end discussing PhD funding options for individuals considering that degree.
The first place to look is your target program and, more generally, the parent university. While master’s programs typically don’t offer a robust funding package, there could still be some opportunities. For this reason, it is very important to pay close attention to any supplemental essays or concurrent fellowship applications available while you are completing the program’s application for admission. For example, a diversity statement might flag you for potential eligibility for certain scholarships/fellowships for incoming students. Likewise, you should research opportunities that might be available on campus from the general engineering school (which usually houses all engineering programs). You can do this by searching through the school’s webpage, contacting admissions, speaking with students to ask about their funding experience, and even checking out student CVs on LinkedIn or in the program’s directory to see what funding awards others have won.
However, most scholarships/fellowships available for master’s programs will be private – granted through a nonprofit, association, or corporation. To find these opportunities, you might start again with your target program’s webpage that discusses funding because these pages sometimes provide links to external awards. In engineering, professional associations and corporations for your chosen field are especially valuable. Professional associations for specific areas of study, such as the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, or specific demographics, such as the American Indian Science and Engineering Society, are great places to look for funding. Likewise, many corporations who need talented engineers have nonprofit arms that provide scholarship/fellowship/paid internship opportunities. The Intel Foundation, for example, provides all three.
You might also wish to consider working while you are in your master’s program. If you already are an engineer or work for a company in your desired field, there might be programs in place to help subsidize your advanced education, especially if you can make the case that doing so would better your abilities as an employee. Another working option is teaching, which can often be done within the engineering department, regardless of your prior experience (this depends, of course, on the school). Teaching can be especially helpful because it can sometimes come with compensation in the form of tuition reimbursement. Finally, paid internships are another way of gaining experience and helping pay for school. Spend some time considering what types of companies you would like to work for upon graduation. Look up the firms and see whether they have internship opportunities available and/or a special relationship with your university.
The biggest differences between master’s and PhD programs in engineering are focus and length. While master’s programs are often geared toward professional development, PhD programs are much more intensely focused on research. Your fellowships/scholarships could come from all the avenues we just discussed for master’s programs. However, make sure to spend extra time looking into research opportunities related to your field. In addition, there could be more research-associated funding opportunities available for PhDs from departments, universities, and even the government. You might also wish to explore corporate research arms/divisions because they will be most interested in funding your work.
Although obtaining an advanced degree in engineering can be expensive, it is often a logical and necessary next step in advancing your career. Hopefully, keeping some of these tips in mind will make the step more feasible, despite the cost of tuition.
Vanessa Febo has ten years of experience teaching academic and professional writing at UCLA, with a special certification in teaching writing techniques. She has drawn on this expertise to guide clients to placements at top institutions, including Harvard, Stanford, and USC. Before joining Accepted, Vanessa coached UCLA students through the application process for graduate programs, major grants, fellowships, and scholarships, including the Fulbright, Stanford Knight-Hennessey, and the Ford Foundation Fellowship. Additionally, Vanessa has extensive experience successfully guiding clients through applications for a diverse range of programs, including those in business, humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields. Want Vanessa to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!
I was thinking about how best to advise my clients who are applying to STEM graduate programs. Since I have had many clients who gained admission to their target programs, I decided to send them some questions about their experience. I’ve compiled most of their responses into the following summary.
If you were starting the process now to apply to graduate school, what would you think about or do prior to beginning the applications?
I would start thinking about applying much earlier as an undergrad – maybe even as early as sophomore year. I made the decision during my senior year, and while everything worked out, I was very anxious and stressed. Also, by starting to think about grad school earlier, you could tailor your undergrad program accordingly. For example, if you are applying for CS [computer science], you can fulfill all the prerequisite coursework, engage in faculty-led or independent research, and publish papers.
Spend a lot of time thinking about what you want to do career-wise after grad school. Go meditate or whatever you like to do when thinking through ideas. Talk to your parents, but take their words as advice, not orders! Make sure you believe in the programs you are applying to so that authenticity is apparent in your writing.
Prior to beginning the application, brainstorm how you will tackle each section of the application and write your plan down. Keeping the applications at the forefront of your mind allows you to come up with creative ideas when you’re least expecting it.
What would you do differently (or alternatively, do again) if you were applying now, knowing what you learned from the process:
Because I applied so late in the process, I completed my applications over winter break. It was not easy to get it all done in such a short time period. I would also have used admissions advising services earlier in the process. I recommend that others use their advisors to formulate concrete ways to maximize their chances for admission.
I would spend more time brainstorming and refining my personal statement and supplemental questions. This part of the application is arguably the most important. Write an outline, get feedback from multiple sources, write a draft, and iterate as much as possible prior to submitting.
I would spend more time thinking about the schools I want to apply to and then narrow down the list. I applied to 12. I had friends who only applied to five and ended up not getting accepted anywhere. Also, take time to reach out to professors at your target schools.
How much time do you recommend an applicant reserve for the application process?
At least 20 hours in total.
I recommend spending an average of two to four hours per week for three months. You also want to take time to foster relationships with your recommenders.
After building a template for an essay with my admissions consultant, each subsequent essay and application took about four hours. It doesn’t sound like it’s that much time, but it was mentally draining, and I found it took me about a week per school despite the four hours of actual work.
Which part of the application took you the longest to complete?
Writing my first statement of purpose.
Trying to make personal statements personal.
Read about admissions essays on the internet to understand what schools are looking for. Read articles, watch videos, listen to podcasts. Think about what makes you unique as a candidate and be consistent with that theme throughout your statement. Be succinct – make a point and use a brief story or example to support it.
Any advice concerning letters of recommendation?
Initiate the process as early as possible. Carefully select recommenders who will be able to provide quantifiable information regarding your strengths as a candidate.
Doing research with a professor will give you one solid letter.
Hopefully you developed relationships with a few professors over your four years. Give them the opportunity to say “no” as you do not want a weak letter.
Choose only those professors or work/internship supervisors who know you well, can speak to your accomplishments with examples, are able to compare you to your peers and vouch for your academic success in your target programs.
How do you recommend approaching the statement of purpose?
Think about what you want your readers to know. Clearly communicate why you want to pursue your program of choice, how you are the right candidate because of your accomplishments and interests, how you will maximize your potential in the program.
Hire an expert in admissions to help you with your essays. Figure out how to best communicate who you are and the goals you want to accomplish in school and beyond.
Discuss how this school and this program align with your interests. Be specific.
Any other advice you would offer a prospective applicant?
Applying to graduate school can be very anxiety inducing. It becomes much more manageable with professional help.
It isn’t sufficient to have high grades or a high GRE score. The admissions committee is evaluating you on how you fit in and how you stand out. It is your job to communicate both of these critical factors, mostly through your statement of purpose.
With 30 years of career/admissions experience at four universities, including Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Business and College of Engineering, Dr. Karin Ash has met with thousands of recruiters seeking to hire the best students from leading schools. She has served as a member of the admissions committee, ensuring that the applicants who ultimately enroll are a good fit for the program and prime candidates for employers. Karin has been a Consultant with Accepted for 8 years and has facilitated students’ entry into top engineering, data science, MBA, and other STEM graduate MEng, MS, and PhD programs. Her clients have been accepted into MIT, the University of Chicago, Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, UPenn, and USC. Want Karin to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!
In just a few days, many of you will want to submit your medical school primary application. You’ve probably heard that you need to click “send” on the first day possible – May 30, 2023 – if you want your best shot. But just how true is that?
The AMCAS primary deadline: Myth vs. reality
It is true that an early primary submission offers an advantage – with fewer applications ahead of it and an open slate of interview spots, your application has a better chance to shine.
But an inferior application cancels out that advantage, no matter how early you submit it. If you’re rushing to meet an arbitrary deadline, the quality of your personal statement and extracurricular activities could suffer, or you might incorrectly enter information about your coursework, resulting in a verification delay.
Also, keep in mind that AMCAS does not transmit anything to medical schools until June 30, 2023. On that date, all verified primary applications will be forwarded, whether they were submitted on the first possible day or a few days later. In previous years, applications submitted at any time during the first week made this first release. In other words, the applications of candidates who spent an extra week polishing their primary reached the schools on the same day as those of applicants who rushed to submit on the first day.
Submit your AMCAS primary as early as possible, when it is as strong as it can possibly be. This might mean later in June or even July. And if you’re a truly outstanding candidate, it’s not impossible to be accepted with an even later submission, though it does get progressively more difficult as the competition increases. Just keep in mind that AMCAS can take up to six weeks to verify primary applications during the busy season.
Use the school selection section strategically. Only a single school is required to kick-start the verification process, and additional schools can be added later without delaying your application. If you’re waiting on your MCAT score, you might want to apply to one school initially and add more after you see how you did. Or you might stagger your school choices, adding two or three each week, so you aren’t overwhelmed with secondaries coming all at once. Your primary application is forwarded to the chosen program immediately, once your initial AMCAS verification is completed.
When you feel confident that your primary application is strong, take time to double- and triple-check everything. Once you hit the submit button, you’re not allowed to change most parts of your application.
What Accepted can do for you
Submitting your AMCAS primary is an important step in your journey to become a doctor. Here are some of the many ways we can help make sure your first step is successful:
School selection – Helping you find the best programs where you are competitive
Personal Statement – Making your personal statement stand out with a compelling story that highlights your individuality and shows your commitment to medicine
Activities and Most Meaningful Experiences – Ensuring that your experiences complement your personal statement and demonstrate the qualities medical schools want to see
Check out our AMCAS Admissions Services and work one-on-one with an advisor to create an impressive, well-written, compelling application that will highlight your competitive edge and help you get ACCEPTED.
Since 2001, Cydney Foote has advised hundreds of successful applicants for medical and dental education, residency and fellowship training, and other health-related degrees. Admissions consulting combines her many years of creating marketing content with five years on fellowship and research selection committees at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She’s also shared her strategy for impressing interviewers in a popular webinar and written three books and numerous articles on the admissions process.Want Cydney to help you get Accepted? Click here to get in touch!
What is the diversity question in a school application, and why does it matter when applying to leading programs and universities? Most importantly, how should you respond?
Diversity is of supreme value in higher education, and schools want to know how every student will contribute to it in their community. A diversity essay is an essay that encourages applicants with disadvantaged or underrepresented backgrounds, an unusual education, a distinctive experience, or a unique family history to write about how these elements of their background have prepared them to play a useful role in increasing and encouraging diversity among their target program’s student body and broader community.
If you are an immigrant to the United States, the child of immigrants, or someone whose ethnicity is underrepresented in the States, your response to “How will you add to the diversity of our class/community?” and similar questions might help your application efforts. Why? Because you can use it to show how your background will add a distinctive perspective to the program you are applying to.
Of course, if you’re not from a group that is underrepresented in your field or a disadvantaged group, that doesn’t mean that you don’t have anything to write about in a diversity essay.
For example, you might have an unusual or special experience to share, such as serving in the military, being a member of a dance troupe, or caring for a disabled relative. These and other distinctive experiences can convey how you will contribute to the diversity of the school’s campus.
You could be the first member of your family to apply to college or the first to learn English in your household. Perhaps you have worked your way through college or helped raise your siblings.
You might also have been an ally to those who are underrepresented, disadvantaged, or marginalized in your community, at your previous school, or in an earlier work experience.
As you can see, diversity is not limited to one’s religion, ethnicity, culture, language, or sexual orientation. It refers to whatever element of your identity distinguishes you from others and shows that you, too, value diversity.
Why diversity matters at school
Admissions officers believe diversity in the classroom improves the educational experience of all the students involved. They also believe that having a diverse workforce better serves society as a whole.
The more diverse perspectives found in the classroom, throughout the dorms, in the dining halls, and mixed into study groups, the richer the discussions will be.
Plus, learning and growing in this kind of multicultural environment will prepare students for working in our increasingly multicultural and global world.
In medicine, for example, a heterogeneous workforce benefits people from previously underrepresented cultures. Businesses realize they will market more effectively if they can speak to different audiences and markets, which is possible when members of their workforce come from different backgrounds and cultures. Schools simply want to prepare graduates for the 21st century job market.
Seven examples that reveal diversity
Adcoms want to know about your personal diversity elements and the way they have helped you develop particular character and personality traits, as well as the unusual experiences that have shaped you.
Here are seven examples an applicant could write about:
They grew up with a strong insistence on respecting elders, attending family events, or learning their parents’ native language and culture.
They are close to grandparents and extended family members who have taught them how teamwork can help everyone thrive.
They have had to face difficulties that stem from their parents’ values being in conflict with theirs or those of their peers.
Teachers have not always understood the elements of their culture or lifestyle and how those elements influence their performance.
They suffered from discrimination and succeeded despite it because of their grit, values, and character.
They learned skills from a lifestyle that is outside the norm (e.g., living in foreign countries as the child of a diplomat or contractor; performing professionally in theater, dance, music, or sports; having a deaf sibling).
They’ve encountered racism or other prejudice (either toward themselves or others) and responded by actively promoting diverse, tolerant values.
And remember, it’s not just about who your parents are. It’s about who you are – at the core.
Your background, influences, religious observances, language, ideas, work environment, community experiences – all these factors come together to create a unique individual, one who will contribute to a varied class of distinct individuals taking their place in a diverse world.
How to write about your diversity
Your answer to the diversity question should focus on how your experiences have built your empathy for others, your embrace of differences, your resilience, your character, and your perspective.
The school might well ask how you think of diversity or how you can bring or add to the diversity of your school, chosen profession, or community. Make sure you answer the specific question posed by highlighting distinctive elements of your profile that will add to the class mosaic every adcom is trying to create. You don’t want to blend in; you want to stand out in a positive way while also complementing the school’s canvas.
Here’s a simple, three-part framework that will help you think of diversity more, well, diversely:
Identity: Who are you? What has contributed to your identity? How do you distinguish yourself? Your identity can include any of the following: gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, religion, nontraditional work experience, nontraditional educational background, multicultural background, and family’s educational level.
Deeds: What have you done? What have you accomplished? This could include any of the following: achievements inside and/or outside your field of study, leadership opportunities, community service, , internship or professional experience, research opportunities, hobbies, and travel. Any or all of these could be unique. Also, what life-derailing, throw-you-for-a-loop challenges have you faced and overcome?
Ideas: How do you think? How do you approach things? What drives you? What influences you? Are you the person who can break up a tense meeting with some well-timed humor? Are you the one who intuitively sees how to bring people together?
Think about each question within this framework and how you could apply your diversity elements to the classroom, your school, or your community. Any of these elements will serve as the framework for your essay.
Don’t worry if you can’t think of something totally “out there.” You don’t need to be a tightrope walker living in the Andes or a Buddhist monk from Japan to pass the diversity test!
And please remember, the examples I have listed are not exhaustive. There are many other ways to show diversity!
All you need to write successfully about how you will contribute to the rich diversity of your target school’s community is to examine your identity, deeds, and ideas, with an eye toward your personal distinctiveness and individuality. There is only one you.
Want our advice on how you can best show diversity?
Take a look at this sample diversity essay, and pay attention to how the writer underscores their appreciation for and experience with diversity.
Diversity essay example
When I was starting 11thgrade, my dad, an agricultural scientist, was assigned to a 3-month research project in a farm village in Niigata (northwest Honshu in Japan). Rather than stay behind with my mom and siblings, I begged to go with him. As a straight-A student, I convinced my parents and the principal that I could handle my schoolwork remotely (pre-COVID) for that stretch. It was time to leap beyond my comfortable suburban Wisconsin life—and my Western orientation, reinforced by travel to Europe the year before.
We roomed in a sprawling farmhouse with a family participating in my dad’s study. I thought I’d experience an “English-free zone,” but the high school students all studied and wanted to practice English, so I did meet peers even though I didn’t attend their school. Of the many eye-opening, influential, cultural experiences, the one that resonates most powerfully to me is experiencing their community. It was a living, organic whole. Elementary school kids spent time helping with the rice harvest. People who foraged for seasonal wild edibles gave them to acquaintances throughout the town. In fact, there was a constant sharing of food among residents—garden veggies carried in straw baskets, fish or meat in coolers. The pharmacist would drive prescriptions to people who couldn’t easily get out—new mothers, the elderly—not as a business service but as a good neighbor. If rain suddenly threatened, neighbors would bring in each other’s drying laundry. When an empty-nest 50-year-old woman had to be hospitalized suddenly for a near-fatal snakebite, neighbors maintained her veggie patch until she returned. The community embodied constant awareness of others’ needs and circumstances. The community flowed!
Yet, people there lamented that this lifestyle was vanishing; more young people left than stayed or came. And it wasn’t idyllic: I heard about ubiquitous gossip, long-standing personal enmities, busybody-ness. But these very human foibles didn’t dam the flow. This dynamic community organism couldn’t have been more different from my suburban life back home, with its insular nuclear families. We nod hello to neighbors in passing.
This wonderful experience contained a personal challenge. Blond and blue-eyed, I became “the other” for the first time. Except for my dad, I saw no Westerner there. Curious eyes followed me. Stepping into a market or walking down the street, I drew gazes. People swiftly looked away if they accidentally caught my eye. It was not at all hostile, I knew, but I felt like an object. I began making extra sure to appear “presentable” before going outside. The sense of being watched sometimes generated mild stress or resentment. Returning to my lovely tatami room, I would decompress, grateful to be alone. I realized this challenge was a minute fraction of what others experience in my own country. The toll that feeling—and being— “other” takes on non-white and visibly different people in the US can be extremely painful. Experiencing it firsthand, albeit briefly, benignly, and in relative comfort, I got it.
Unlike the organic Niigata community, work teams, and the workplace itself, have externally driven purposes. Within this different environment, I will strive to exemplify the ongoing mutual awareness that fueled the community life in Niigata. Does it benefit the bottom line, improve the results? I don’t know. But it helps me be the mature, engaged person I want to be, and to appreciate the individuals who are my colleagues and who comprise my professional community. I am now far more conscious of people feeling their “otherness”—even when it’s not in response to negative treatment, it can arise simply from awareness of being in some way different.
What did you think of this essay? Does this middle class Midwesterner have the unique experience of being different from the surrounding majority, something she had not experienced in the United States? Did she encounter diversity from the perspective of “the other”?
Here a few things to note about why this diversity essay works so well:
The writer comes from “a comfortable, suburban, Wisconsin life,” suggesting that her own background might not be ethnically, racially, or in other ways diverse.
The diversity “points” scored all come from her fascinating experience of having lived in a Japanese farm village, where she immersed herself in a totally different culture.
The lessons learned about the meaning of community are what broaden and deepen the writer’s perspective about life, about a purpose-driven life, and about the concept of “otherness.”
By writing about a time when you experienced diversity in one of its many forms, you can write a memorable and meaningful diversity essay.
Working on your diversity essay?
Want to ensure that your application demonstrates the diversity that your dream school is seeking? Work with one of our admissions experts and . This checklist includes more than 30 different ways to think about diversity to jump-start your creative engines.
By Linda Abraham, founder of Accepted. Linda earned her bachelor’s and MBA at UCLA and has been advising applicants since 1994, when she founded Accepted. Linda is the co-founder and first president of AIGAC. She has written or co-authored 13 e-books on the admissions process and has been quoted by the Wall Street Journal, U.S. News & World Report, Poets&Quants, Bloomberg Businessweek, CBS News, and others. Linda is the host of Admissions Straight Talk, a podcast for graduate school applicants. Want an admissions expert to help you get accepted? Click here to get in touch!
In this episode, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean of Admissions at Michigan State’s College of Human Medicine discusses ChatGPT in the admissions process, gives advice for reapplicants, and explains how med school applicants should choose where to apply. [SHOW SUMMARY]
Michigan State’s College of Human Medicine provides an innovative, patient-centered curriculum with multiple specialties and multiple opportunities for clinical exposure. Sound appealing? Read on because today I am speaking with the Assistant Dean of Admissions at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine.
An interview with Dr. Joel Maurer, the Assistant Dean for Admissions at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine and an Associate Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology. [Show Notes]
Welcome to the 522nd episode of Admissions Straight Talk. Are you ready to apply to your dream Medical Schools? Are you competitive at your target programs? Accepted’s Med School Admissions Quiz can give you a quick reality check. You’ll not only get an assessment, but tips on how to improve your chances of acceptance. Plus, it’s all free.
Our guest today is Dr. Joel Maurer, Assistant Dean of Admissions at Michigan State University’s College of Human Medicine, and an associate professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Biology at MSUCHM, or College of Human Medicine.
Dr. Maurer, welcome to Admissions Straight Talk. [1:34]
Thank you very much. Thank you for having me.
I’m delighted to speak with you today. Can you give an overview of MSU’s MD program focusing on its more distinctive elements and specifically the shared discovery curriculum? [1:38]
There’s a lot going on there and I’ll do my best to sort of give you a quick overview. College of Human Medicine is an allopathic medical school, so it grants the MD degree. It was founded in the mid ’60s as a response from the people of the state of Michigan to create a brand new medical school that would initially have its primary focus on primary care physician development. The needs of the state at that time were very much in the line of primary care, frontline care. As the college grew and matured, the needs of the state became more encompassing. And so it is a medical school, that although primary care remains a critical component of what they hope to make contributions to, it’s a school that appreciates the need of physicians across the wide spectrum of healthcare. The other thing of note, historically: it was the very first four-year MD granting medical school that used the community-based model as its foundation.
And so Michigan State has always had a long history of looking at pedagogical approaches and teaching, and how to teach people to teach others. And at that time, they had an opportunity to create a medical school that looked at how everyone else was doing it and trying to figure out, “Is there a way that we can do it differently and maybe better?” One of the key tenets is that it always wanted its students to learn medicine out on the front line where it was happening. And so in order to do that, they decided that maybe it was best in those formative clinical years, years three and four, to put its students more out on the frontline all across the state of Michigan in order to see medicine happening as symptoms were coming forth and not a preexisting diagnosis. And so it’s been a medical school that felt that it was always important to have strategic community partners spread throughout the state, such that the first two years of medical school could be conducted on Michigan State Home Campus.
But then years three and four, let’s have our students learn in our existing community. So as such, we’ve never had our own tertiary based hospital. We’ve never had the Michigan State University hospitals and clinics. It’s always been a school that wanted to create strategic relationships with the people and the communities across the state of Michigan, so that’s been its foundational format. The thing I think that’s interesting, or moving on a little bit to what we call our Shared Discovery Curriculum, that came about as, again, Michigan State always looks at, “How are they doing things, how can we do them better, maybe differently in a way that others aren’t doing it?” And it came up with an idea based in the education literature of, “How could we reorganize our curriculum, particularly as it relates to years one and two in such a way that it helps our students start to think about, and think like a doctor starting on day one and less so waiting until year three.
And so in doing a bunch of research on how young adult learners learn best, those behind the development of this curriculum said, “Well, what if we were to present a curriculum that’s actually based on patient symptoms?” Again, harkening back to the foundations of our medical school, “Let’s put our students out on the front line where symptoms are happening and not necessarily a diagnosis. Can we do the same thing starting in year one and two?” And so what our curriculum developers did is they tried to figure out, or they looked at the top 100 or so reasons why patients seek healthcare, and what they decided is that, “Well, is there a way that we can use these top reasons to form a week’s worth or a couple of weeks worth of curriculum?” So for example, maybe in the first year, the student will have a week that’s called fever.
So we’re going to learn the anatomy behind fever. We’re going to learn the physiology, the cell biology, initiate some of the disease pathology, the immunology, how vaccines are involved in all of that. And we present it with more of a clinical lens so that when a student hears fever, they’re starting to think about all of those things as maybe as a physician out in the real world, you may not have a diagnosis, but we’re going to start to get them to think about the basic sciences and the disease sciences and the social sciences and humanities behind fever and build upon that. So that’s the interesting, unique thing about our shared discovery curriculum, it’s not systems based.
It breaks down the traditional ivory towers, so there is no Anatomy class, there is no Physiology class. It’s all blended together, and each semester is one giant 16 credit course. So that’s the unique thing about that. I would say the other thing that’s an interesting element or a distinctive element about our curriculum is that its assessments are based on progress testing. I think medical schools have a history of using more traditional assessment models where every month you’re going to have a high stakes exam and you have to be able to pick the right answer at a high enough level to pass.
That’s not how it works at the College of Human Medicine. Every semester, regardless if you are a first year, first semester student or an out the door second semester, fourth year student, everybody sits down and takes the same exam. Well, it’s not quite that. So first and second year students will take a standardized exam that is representative of the step one licensing exam. Years three and four, they will take an exam that is representative of their step two licensing exam, so there are some subtle differences. But say if you’re a first-semester first-year student, you’re going to sit down and you’re going to take a standardized exam that covers all the material that is in theory testable on a step one licensing exam. And students who are used to being test crushers now find that they scored a 40 on an exam.
But they haven’t been educated on all the topics, right? [8:55]
Right. So they score 40 on that initial exam and that’s some culture shock to them, whereas the rest of us behind the scenes are going, “Woo-hoo. All right, you only got another 40 or 50 points to go, so you’re already 40 points there, so good job,” but that takes some adjustment. And the thing about what progress testing does is that it eliminates the binge learning. Traditional assessment strategies, students cram. They cram and cram and cram, they take their exam, they’re exhausted, they go party afterwards, they forget it until they have to relearn it again. In a progress testing environment, there is no cramming. You can’t cram for these exams. You have to develop learning strategies that promote retention and long-term learning in order to continue to build on what we’re trying to do in the first two years and beyond, so there’s a lot going on there in answering that first question. But I think there’s so many things that are unique about us from a pedagogical lens that I think that it was worth spending just a few moments highlighting a couple of those.
I appreciate it. I appreciate it because you gave the reasoning behind it as well as examples, so that was a great answer. Thank you very much.
You mentioned the community-based medicine and how important that is to MSU, and there are seven regional campuses, and are they offering- [10:14]
Now eight.
Now, we recently added a second campus in southeast Michigan in the Detroit area, so we now have two Detroit based campuses.
Does that mean that students pick a regional campus and they focus on that one, or do they hop around from different campuses to have different experiences, or does it depend on the student’s preferences? [10:45]
Yeah. I mean, in the end it’s assigned as a home-based campus for them. So in the second year of medical school, for the majority of our students, they have an opportunity to vet all these different campuses and what are their strengths? What are their environments? What’s the learning environment? And they go through a process that ultimately it’s the college’s responsibility to assign them to a campus, but we do bend over backwards to try to listen to the student, what are their preferences, give them opportunities to end up hopefully in that first choice campus where they hope to be. But the idea is that in year three and four, say you get assigned to the Flint Campus, the idea is that you’ll consider Flint as your home base campus for the next two years.
If there are clinical experiences as a student that you want, that Flint isn’t the best place to achieve them, we do create opportunities within our multi-campus system for students to get those experiences. But the thing that’s common and that we have to be able to demonstrate to maintain our accreditation is that regardless of whether or not you are doing year three and four in Lansing or Marquette, or Midland or Detroit, there is a baseline curriculum that each one of those campuses have to meet in order to assure a standardization of educational experience for all students regardless of what campus they’re assigned.
Let’s turn to the application since the people we’re addressing here really are applicants. I do think it’s important that they know what’s special about the school before they apply. So again, I really appreciate you going into that. But in terms of, obviously they provide a primary application, does MSU screen before sending out secondaries? [12:35]
We actually don’t.
So it’s automatic. [12:56]
It is automatic, and our logic behind it is that we believe that the common application doesn’t allow a student to tell us their whole story, and we’re a school that really takes the mission of our college really seriously. It’s a mission that focuses on promoting dignity and respect of all people and responding to the needs of the medically underserved. And I think that we can get some insights to that on a common application, but the secondary application really helps us look for those applicants in which we feel that our mission and their values are a good alignment with each other in a way that screening on the front end probably doesn’t help us out.
Are you looking for ties to Michigan? Are you looking for experiences serving the underserved or working in different communities? [13:48]
Yeah. I mean, as a state-supported medical school, so much of our educational funding does come from public resources, and so we do give significant preference to applicants who are from the state of Michigan. In any given year, that number will run anywhere from 80 to 85% of our income costs.
That’s for a class of 190 every year. Having said that, I would say that my experience for our out-of-state applicants is that ties to the state of Michigan may not really be as important. I think our mission, that piece in which we walk the walk and the application is consistent with a desire to serve underserved communities and address significant healthcare disparities in our society really is the piece that sets that applicant pool apart. And the truth of the matter, that’s an important piece for our in-state applicant pool as well. There’s lots of applicants from the state of Michigan who are excellent looking future physicians on paper, but if we don’t feel like we’ve got a connection with them, and particularly with our mission, it’s an application that probably isn’t going to go very far, so we really take that mission seriously.
MSU had five, very interesting, thought-provoking questions in its secondary. I like them. Are you planning to keep the same questions this year? [15:22]
Yeah, that’s a good question. I think that there will probably not be a lot of changes. I think one of the things that we might consider, we do have a question that is directly related to our recent pandemic. I think that in talking with our admissions committee, I think it’s possible that one might become an optional question as opposed to one that we want everyone to answer. This much I will say, in reviewing with the committee, there’s one that asks applicants to think about 10 personal characteristics and then talk about three of them. It’s interesting. I think for most of our committee, they felt that one wasn’t as helpful as the other ones. And so it is possible we will either drop that or replace it with a different one, or maybe modify one of them so that it gets down to three questions plus one optional.
I think in a perfect world, I’d like to see it go that way just because I know we ask so much of our applicants to share and jump hoops and that sort of thing. I think anytime that we have an opportunity to make our secondary application more efficient, we will. But short of that, I don’t think the questions are going to change significantly this year, so if any of you out there want to take a look at it and start practicing some responses from written responses, I’d say go ahead and go for it.
We’ll actually have links in the show notes to them. Getting back to the application, are you concerned at all about the impact of ChatGPT and the essay component of the application? [17:04]
Yeah. I am. Everybody is. And everybody, I don’t mean that all inclusively, but I do think that the vast majority of us who are in admissions are really concerned about that, and how are we going to address that down the road? I think in the short term, we don’t have a lot of quick answers. I think some of us are likely going to have our applicants on an honor code system, at least check off an attestation statement that says that the content and the writing of a written response to anything within our application, whether or not it’s the secondary or a part of the common application, that these are your own words and that they were not created by someone else or another entity. I don’t know that universally we’ve got the bandwidth to enforce that or to follow up on that, but this is an issue of professionalism. Becoming a future healthcare provider is a professional career that requires certain behaviors from those who ultimately want to go out and serve and care for others.
And so I would say in the short term, I don’t think we have a good solution or a good way to address it. I know that there are some that are leaning towards the possibility of abandoning a written response secondary and have it be a video response secondary. I don’t think that that still is the solution to a ChatGPT mainly because we all know that our questions do get out there. They get disseminated whether we want them or not, they’re going to get out there. And so I think the difference is, if they’re using ChatGPT in a video-based response to a secondary, can they pull it off with the camera on without people being suspicious that they have either rehearsed and memorized that answer, or that their eyes are moving and gazing to a right response for reading back to us? So I suspect it may move in that direction, and I think it would be unwise of applicants to apply those sorts of methodologies to try to game this piece of the application.
I, like almost every person on the planet, has played with it a little bit, and I took an MBA essay question and threw some information in and saw what came up. It was not terribly impressive. It was very superficial, cliche-filled, banal, and wouldn’t have been interesting… And I didn’t do this, but if I had provided more substance, could it have put together an essay? I didn’t try that, but the first attempt was nothing that would scare me because it was extremely superficial. It would not have impressed any admissions committee member that I’ve talked to. [20:02]
Yeah. Well, I think you touch on something that’s interesting and important because I think the piece that we worry about in the admissions world is that those applicants who come from resource-rich backgrounds will likely, if they use ChatGPT, will likely be able to pull it off. And those who come from resource-stressed backgrounds may not have the mentoring and the resources themselves, and if they try to do it like you just said that you did with just a little bit of information, it’ll be a relatively unimpressive response.
And so I think we worry that yet again, it will be an example in which it will create an inequity within our applicant pool, particularly for schools like ours that… And we didn’t touch on this, but with regards to our admissions diversity statement, we do give some preference to applicants who come from disadvantaged backgrounds in our process. And so we worry that, again, this’ll be a tool and an instrument in which those who have a lot of resources will be able to use it and use it effectively and be able to use it in a way that is believable than those who are less resourced, if they choose to use it may not help them.
Right. It’s a valid concern. Moving on to the application process, which is a different element of it, what is the role of the situational judgment test, whether it’s the CASPER or PREview in your evaluation process? You didn’t like that question. [22:16]
No, it’s challenging. A few years ago, we started requiring Casper mainly because we felt that there was some validity to the results, at least on the front end. I think we still struggle to figure out and understand, are there long-term predictive results from situational judgment tests? And so we initiated it using it mainly on the front end just to try to see, would this help us if we’ve got 9,000 applicants and we can get it narrowed down to 3000 for 550 interviews, could CASPER help us figure out which of those 3000 to bring in for those interviews? I think for us it’s been hard to use it in that capacity. I think it’s helpful on the screening side.
Our committee has been really reluctant to look at it super closely, again for those same reasons, what data do we have that shows that someone who does well on a situational judgment test stays out of professionalism problems with state licensing boards down the road and that sort of thing? Or advances through a four-year curriculum on time, or that they don’t have professionalism issues in medical school. I think we’re still struggling to try to find that answer. I think the other thing why I am internally tormented by it is that this year, there’s also a second one.
There’s PREview. [24:14]
Yep. So it’s called PREview. And this year we’re the only medical school, to the best of my knowledge, that if we were going to require an SJT, we allowed either/or.
Okay. And the reason being is that, again, it’s an equity issue. If I’m going to take the heat for requiring a student to take another exam and pay a hundred dollars to do it, I certainly don’t want to be the one that says, “Well, you only can take Casper,” when I know I’ve got a colleague down the road or in another state that says, “Well, we’re only a PREview school, and so if you want to apply to us, you’ve got to take it too.”
And so I wasn’t going to play that game, and I told both parties, I said, “If I’m going to continue to use SJT, I’m not going to dictate which one to take.” Now here, the thing that we’re going to be looking at this year, and in fact I just got my IRB approval today, which I’m really excited about. We’re going to look internally at our applicant pool with regards to CASPER, if they took CASPER only, if they took PREview only, and if they took both. And because I think the thing that I’m starting to see a little bit anecdotally is that I’m not seeing a lot… If they took both, I’m not always seeing a consistent correlation of the results, and that bothers me and that concerns me because if you do bad on one, but well on the other, what does that mean?
You’re measuring different things. [24:14]
Well, exactly. And I think both parties would say they’re measuring different things, but the problem is people are using this in the mindset of, “Well, isn’t it supposed to give me some baseline understanding of the professionalism and the character that already exists that we would want in the future?” At least in a medical student, a future care provider. And so the fact that I’m starting to see some inconsistencies with these two tests, it really bothers me that we now have a system in which if someone does poorly on one, what does that really mean? It may not mean anything. I think we think that if they take both and they do well on both, they probably mean something. If they take both and they bomb both of them, it probably means something, but I’m seeing enough of some discordance between the two that it makes me really uncomfortable maybe about using SJT down the road. So right now, we’re still going to require it for this upcoming cycle, but I would say stay tuned.
I understand the concept of, you want to see if the test is predictive of good judgment. You want to see if it’s predictive of professionalism or the ability to be a good doctor, but I don’t think the test has been devised yet that really can predict who’s going to be a good doctor. [27:04]
No, it doesn’t. And like all standardized tests, they all have the same problems. Inherently, people who come from marginalized and disadvantaged backgrounds tend not to do as well on standardized tests, and the same data comes forth in situational judgment. There are some small cohorts within those communities that do better based on really strict criteria, but what I’m discovering is that, yet again, it is a standardized test in which those who are resource blessed do have a better chance of doing well than those who aren’t, so it really bothers me.
One thing I asked her about at the interview, and I’m still questioning in my own mind is, how can you objectively measure something that’s as subjective as judgment? [28:20]
And I don’t pretend that I have a great answer for that either, but I will say in defense of both of these, I mean, these two instruments have been at least extensively studied with regards to internal consistency on how they’re scored. And so however they are training their scorers from one person to the next, and the next, there’s at least a level of validity in the exam in how it’s being scored. I think in the end the question is, how well is it giving its information that’s going to be predictive of an outcome down the road that is meaningful?
What is a common mistake that you see applicants make in either the primary or secondary? [29:20]
No, it’s too many to… No, I shouldn’t say it like that. But there are some common mistakes. So for example, for reapplicants, I think one of the common mistakes that they’ll make is recycling a personal statement.
I’m so glad you said that. Go ahead. [29:47]
Yeah. I mean, here’s the thing. Who knows if that personal statement contributed to the outcome or not? But I think in the end, whatever you wrote last time didn’t make a threshold for people to want to look more closely. So if you’re a reapplicant, I would really rethink how you write that personal statement. I think the topics are fair for you to not change around. I mean, if these are seminal life experiences that you’ve had, you don’t want to necessarily change the content, but I think that you might want to re-look at how you put it together so that at least a reader doesn’t go back and check last year or the application two years ago and say, “Oh, they just recycled this.” Because what that does is it says, it does send a message that you’re just going through the motion.
Recycling. [30:50]
Yeah, you’re recycling. And then granted, I get it. I understand there’s a lot that you’ve got to do to put together an application portfolio, but I would probably err on the side of not recycling an application. I just think it gives an impression and a vibe to the reader that makes you vulnerable, so I think that’s a big piece. Here’s the other thing I would say with regards to re applicants, I think one of the biggest mistakes re applicants make is they don’t solicit feedback. Now, having said, I understand that many in my medical school admissions community don’t provide a feedback service to unsuccessful applicants. It doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t ask though because some of us do like College of Human Medicine Admissions, we will, upon request, offer a consultative appointment with an unsuccessful applicant, and it’s done in such a way that we try to help them find the answers themselves.
You don’t say, “You got rejected because of this, but you might ask questions.” [31:53]
We ask questions in a way and create a document, or help them create a document that helps them reflect upon their application, and it depends on how far they get through the cycle. So if someone gives a written application, they don’t get an interview, so we help them go through that to help maybe help identify areas that need further development if they get an interview and they don’t get in, so that can be a little more challenging as well because… Well, here’s what I usually tell these applicants, “If you get an interview, you’re close then.”
I assume about half your interviewees get offers. I’m just guessing from the numbers I saw. [32:33]
Yeah. About half and maybe even a little more than half by the time August rolls around, and so it’s not uncommon for us in the end to have about, if we do 540 or so interviews a year, about 330, we will maybe ultimately get an offer. So I mean, the odds are in your favor, at least at our school, that if you get an interview, you’re at least close. But at the end, the committee looks at everything. They look at the written application, they look at the interviews that you’ve had and things that we’re measuring in the interview, and sometimes in the end, it’s a little bit of all three or all of those things. And so trying to help an applicant better understand the areas that didn’t come forth as strong in the eyes of the committee can be a little challenging without actually spoon feeding them too, but we try hard to not give that kind of information because there is a need for the committee to be able to make some of those really tough decisions without necessarily protecting the way in which they make those decisions.
Just going back to the personal statement comment for reapplicants, the other thing I think that’s bad about just recycling a personal statement is it prohibits you from showing growth during the preceding year. [33:54]
Yeah, totally.
It also sends a message that you’re lazy.
I mean, if you don’t get in and you’re a reapplicant, you want that application next time around to answer the question, “Well, what is different about me this time?”
New and improved. [34:33]
Right. And if you don’t take the time to really point that out, then you increase the chance that it’ll get overlooked. So I would say anything… I will tell you this much, and this is jumping to our secondary, one of the questions that has not changed in eons with us is, “Is there anything more you want the committee to know?” I mean, I think anytime an applicant sees that question asked of them, a couple of things that the light bulb should go off, one is, “This is an opportunity for me to highlight what’s different about me.”
And if they haven’t talked about it elsewhere. [35:10]
They haven’t talked about elsewhere, or if they have, make sure I really want to emphasize this.
And go into more depth. [35:22]
Right. Go into a little bit more depth, or at least make sure you’ve highlighted and say, “I know I talked about this in my personal statement, but I really want it to hit the drive home that this is how I’m a different applicant this time around.” I think the other thing that question lends itself to is, I tell pre-meds all around the state and around the country, admissions committees are like cats and dogs. They like to be petted, they like to be stroked. They like to be told why is it that you love me? And so if you have a question like that, or I would say even anywhere in the secondary, one of the things that you absolutely have to do, and this gets back to what are some of the mistakes that maybe people make universally, so they don’t take the time to share with an admissions office and the committee, why us?
Why are you applying to it? I mean, I think that there’s too much advising out there that it’s based on someone’s academic metrics and they say, “Well, you’re competitive, but there’s a lot of better competitive applicants, unfortunately, because of your grades and your MCAT, and as such, you’re going to have to cast a really huge net.” I think that’s really bad advice. I think what needs to happen is a pre-med applicant needs to look at the package that they have, the portfolio they have, what is important to you?
What are you trying to accomplish in your career? Find those medical schools out there that you think have that similar value system, and instead of applying to 50, you apply to 20, or between 15 and 20. And you say, “I specifically applied to the College of Human Medicine because of these two reasons.” It sends a message to the committee that you have at least done your homework on us, and based on your life experiences that you’ve shared with us, I can see why it is that you’re interested in us, and I think that’s a big mistake that applicants don’t do. They don’t take the time to share, “Why is it that I specifically applied to Northwestern or University of Iowa?” They don’t take the time to do that, and I think that’s a mistake.
Great. Thank you so much. That was wonderful. [37:50]
Yeah. Well, it’s true.
So there’s a side of me that says, if you apply to 20 medical schools and you don’t get in, the likelihood that you would’ve gotten a bite from someone by applying to 40 or 60, I think is pretty small. And so if you’ve done your homework and you’ve selected, “These are the 20 schools that I think I have the best chance of getting in,” and you don’t, then that tells me that there’s something going on in that written application. Or if you did get an interview, something that happened in the interview or in the context of all of that together. And so I just think this idea of casting a huge net is not the best way to approach this. I think pre-med students will be much better off doing their homework leading up to an application cycle, “Which are the 20 schools that I think I have a competing chance with, and that I have something in common with,” and if you tell us that, I bet you might get a few more interviews than what you might have otherwise.
Great advice. Thank you so much. Speaking of the interviews, will your interviews be online next year, do you know? [39:31]
Yes.
They’ll be virtual? [39:37]
They will stay online, yes. And they will stay that way until either someone above me tells me otherwise, or I come to a different conclusion, but for us, it’s all about an equity issue. So we understand that in the pre-pandemic when we had people travel to East Lansing and Grand Rapids for their interviews, that’s an expense, and that’s an expense that not everyone can prepare for. And I also understand having technological equipment may also be an obstacle for some, but it’s an easier piece, I think, to solve than, “Where am I going to come up with a thousand dollars to fly to East Lansing, Michigan and have two nights in a hotel or a rental car.
It makes sense. [40:27]
For us, it is.
Are you going to make any changes to the format? I know it’s a mixture of traditional one-on-one with MMI? [40:31]
Right now, we don’t anticipate making any changes to that framework. It’ll still be a 30 minute or so interview with a current medical student one-on-one, and then an eight station MMI.
What makes a great interview? [40:50]
I just think if someone is themselves and genuine, then it’s an easy process for people. I think when people try to be something that they’re not, I think that makes it hard. I will tell you, for us, we’re not trying to trip anybody up in any of our interviews. And I’m not saying that we’re looking for extroverts and people that can have an outgoing conversation with people, whether or not it’s over 30 minutes or over eight minutes, but I think, can you develop a rapport with someone and can you respond in a way that genuine reflects the lens in which you view the world around you? And I think that’s what really makes a great interview.
When does MSU typically stop sending out interview invitations? [41:45]
Yeah, great question. We tend to interview well into February, actually. On occasion, we will have a few March dates, but we do try hard to wrap up the general interview season in February. So I would say if the last week of February’s rolled around and you’ve not heard from us, you’re probably not going to get an interview. But I will say this much, we do give everyone the courtesy of a formal notification that if you did not get an interview, your application with us has ended.
No, that’s, I’m sure, appreciated by the applicants. Not knowing is worse than to know. [42:29]
Well, it is. And we try to let people know as those decisions are made. So we’ll have applicants that’ll apply early, and the one thing that I do tell people is that we will not give anyone formal notification of the end of an application at least until mid-October.
So that decision might get made before then, but from a standardization lens, people will not hear any earlier than mid-October.
How do you view prerequisites if they’re taking it at a community college, is that a negative? [43:11]
No. In fact, we actually look positively on that, not for the reason, maybe why you’re asking though. But I think I would say from the lens of higher ed, I mean, everyone’s got a different journey, has a different pathway to an end point. And for some, that means starting off at a two-year degree granting institution, and there’s lots of reasons why that happens. And I think if we’re going to respect the ideology of higher ed and a course of Introductory Biology at a community college versus one from a four-year institution, I think we need to look at that as being valid. Now, in the end, there is also a standardized test that pretty much everyone is making people take.
But I will say this much, if someone applies to us and they’ve had a circuitous pathway to a final degree, and it’s taken them seven years to get there because they did three years of community college while working full-time, and then another three years of at a four-year granting institution because they had to work part-time in order to get through that, and they have a MCAT score that indicates that they should be successful, then we’re cool with it. We like it. And again, I think it falls within our mission. We understand that people that come from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely than others to return to those communities in which they grew up in and had disadvantaged commonality, and those are often healthcare resource challenged communities. And so some of our institutional relationships within the state of Michigan actually are formally with community colleges.
How do you view shadowing and virtual shadowing? [45:27]
I mean, I don’t think that they’re necessarily the same, but obviously in this most recent pandemic, people had to resort to doing very creative things. I’m hopeful that we’re starting to move out of a pandemic society to one that’s at least under control endemically, and so I’m hopeful that future applicants resort, I don’t want to say resort back, but at least return to an idea and the mindset that an actual in-person live experience is probably more insightful than one that is captured on a two-dimensional video screen. Because with shadowing, you’re hanging out with a healthcare provider, but you’re also given the opportunity to look around.
You look at waiting rooms, look at the staff, what are the roles that they play? You’re not going to see that from a virtual shadowing experience, and so I guess, it would also be remiss if I didn’t say shadowing is just one way in which you can get clinical experience. And I think there are a lot of other ways in which you can get meaningful clinical experiences. But do I think that the two of them are the same? I don’t. I think if your last resort is still shadowing, do it, but I think you’re going to, at least from this point moving forward, I think you’re going to have a hard time convincing an admissions committee that you’ve had the kind of meaningful clinical experiences, that they were all done online.
I’ve talked to some admissions professionals, committee members, and they basically say, “Shadowing is really something I want to see in an application.” And other admissions committee members say, “I’d much rather see you doing something as opposed to just watching. It’s passive.” Where do you stand on that? [47:11]
Well, we like both. Having said, I mean, I think that there is a sense that shadowing tends to be, more often than not, opportunities that are offered to people that have connections. It’s become much more challenging and hard for people, even with connections to get shadowing experiences, mainly because of HIPAA and some of the hoops that people that aren’t employed in an office or a healthcare environment have to negotiate with regards to those regulations. I think more often than not, our committee, I would say, tends to really appreciate more hands-on things. So things like nurses aides, EMT, volunteering in an emergency room.
Scribing? [48:27]
I love when I see someone who’s got scribing. I mean, that tells me that not only do they have a good feel for what’s going on in a doctor-patient engagement, but if you can do that and get paid to do it at the same time, why wouldn’t you do that? I mean, I understand there’s this sense of volunteering and giving and that sort of thing, but I think our take on it is, where we really see value in volunteering is, are you willing to volunteer in a non-clinical environment? Because that actually tells us something about what might actually be going on in your heart. Anyone can volunteer in a medical field, I don’t want to say anyone, but volunteering in a clinically related environment, it’s a little self-serving because people know that, “I’ve got to get the clinical experiences under my belt, so I’m going to volunteer doing this.”
And again, I don’t want to badmouth that much at all, but I think that if all of your volunteering is clinically related and there isn’t that same sense of giving in a nonclinical related environment, it does give the impression that, you only have the volunteer as long as it meets their long-term goal or long-term need. And so my take on it is, I think my committee just would much rather see, “Do you have enough clinical experiences under your belt to at least have some reasonable idea of what you’re getting yourself into, whether or not it’s paid or volunteer.” But for that volunteer piece, man, if you can show that you’ve volunteered Habitat for Humanity at the local soup kitchen or an underserved healthcare facility, or you scoop the snow from the next door neighbor who is 80 years old and can’t afford to pay someone to do it, I mean, those are the sorts of things that I think really speak loudly about someone’s character that committees want to see.
Here’s a listener question, it was once sent to me a few months ago. In addition to being an Admissions Dean, you’re also a physician. So if you are a pre-med student, traditional or otherwise, planning to apply in 2024, 2025, what is the one thing you would want yourself to be doing to prepare yourself for medical school? What would you tell your younger self today? [50:30]
I think the younger self is, “Just really be sure that this is what you want to do.”
Really be sure because if it’s not, it can be a challenge to really find your niche in the healthcare world, and I’ll give you an example.
And this is me sharing a bit of my life. So I went to medical school, I got my degree at the University of Nebraska Medical Center back in 1993. I’m not sure that I had really vetted that career well enough beforehand to really have an idea of what I was asking myself to do, and it’s not that I think I necessarily picked the wrong career, but I’m not sure that I had a full appreciation of the life commitment that it takes to be a healthcare provider in a way that makes an impact in the world around you. Initially, I went into family medicine. I thought that that was where I had the best connection and personality fit and that sort of thing.
And about a year into my first year of residency, I started to question my decision. I wasn’t happy. There were things that I didn’t necessarily make the connection that I’d have to do a lot of in family medicine when my experience as a med student was, “I hate doing that stuff.” And so it was like, “Why didn’t I make that connection? I should have,” but I always knew I had to draw to delivering babies and going to the operating room. Unfortunately, the experiences that I had as a medical student didn’t necessarily reinforce my desire to pick that career, but it took family medicine for me to see people that had chosen those careers that were fulfilled. They were happy, they loved what they were doing. And I went, “Oh, you mean if I was to be an OB/GYN doc, then there’s a chance I could actually be really happy doing that?”
I think as a med student, I didn’t recognize how much I really had an affinity for that material, and I thought it was really fascinating. But I had some pretty toxic experiences as it related to some of those things, and it just wasn’t on my radar. But I tested it out again as a family medicine resident, and so about halfway through my family medicine residency, I made the decision to change specialties. But I talked with my program director and said, “I’m not leaving. I’m going to finish this out,” which I did. And so in my third year of residency, I reapplied for the match and was fortunate enough to rematch into an OB/GYN residency.
So I graduated from my family medicine program on a Friday night, I loaded the car and drove to Columbia, Missouri where I started my four-year OB/GYN residency. So I think part of that talking to your younger self is, make sure that this is really the right career and make sure that you pick a specialty, or an area within medicine that you’re going to get excited to get up and go to work every day, and that’s what that did for me in the end. And those are the lessons that I learned, that it may be hard to find the right space for you to make a contribution in healthcare, but take the time to do it. Be really thoughtful about it. Ask yourself why are you ruling some things out and other things in, and are you doing it for the right reasons?
What would you have liked me to ask you? [54:46]
Oh, are you going to ask me about SCOTUS?
Oh, yeah. Because you covered ChatGPT which is also a big topic in the admissions community.
Sure. [55:04]
Right now, the admissions community is on pins and needles about the anticipated Supreme Court ruling that is going to be released probably late May or sometime in June that has to do with affirmative action in admissions across the country. And I would say, and I’m saying that actually from a lens in which in Michigan, we’re a non-affirmative action state. We’re one of the nine that are non-affirmative action states. But even then, I think the potential exists that this ruling could even delineate and be more specific to what kinds of information are available to admissions, whether or not it’s part of a formal process or not, is that information going to be available on the front end, and two committees to make decisions? And I think the admissions communities, not only in medicine, but across the whole gamut of higher education are a bit on pins and needles right now about how this is all going to play out.
Will you be able to collect certain information? [56:21]
Here’s the thing, I think you’ll be able to collect it. You just won’t be able to see it until they matriculate.
Or you won’t be able to see it until the committee or whatever the process in place offers an acceptance, or the opposite if you offer a rejection, will you be able to see that information then? And I think that that has the admissions world really concerned because I do think that there are compelling arguments that justify the value of diversity within a student body that you just can’t incorporate in the same level in a curriculum. And the values of that I think are so beneficial to society in the long run that the idea that we will no longer be able to see that information and to help have that information at least be available to apply context to the story that someone is telling. Now, having said that, there’s also the side that will be First Amendment Free Speech Rights, and so will a student or an applicant with certain marginalized identities still be able to share that?
I am hopeful that that is the case. So I think my message to all of you pre-meds out there is, pay close attention to this. If on a common application you are allowed to share personal identities as it relates to demographic information, I would still encourage you to fill it out. And if you also identify in a community in which you believe society has discriminated against historically and ongoingly, figure out a way to share that if the SCOTUS decision allows you to do so. I think if you don’t, you’re making a big mistake.
Again, excellent advice.
Dr. Maurer, I think we’re almost out of time, maybe even over time. I want to thank you so much for joining me and sharing your expertise. You’ve been really generous and your answers have been phenomenal. Is there a URL that you’d like to share for Michigan State Universities Human College of Medicine? [58:26]
If anybody has questions or wants to learn more about MSU’s College of Human Medicine, just go to mdadmissions.msu.edu.
