Blog Archives

Avoid These Ten Common AMCAS Mistakes

Here’s a brief list of AMCAS Work and Activities section errors to avoid at all costs:

1. Don’t write to write. While you want to include many strong achievements, you do not want your AMCAS to be so wordy that your reader is tempted to skim.

2. While you need to be brief, don’t write in phrases; use full sentences. It’s a formal application, and you want to make your written materials as readable as possible.

3. Don’t assume your reader will carefully study the “header” section (including the title of the activity, hours, etc.). Make sure your descriptor could stand alone: Instead of “As an assistant, I conducted experiments…” use “As a research assistant at a Stanford Medical School neuroscience lab, I conducted experiments…”

4. Don’t be vague, dramatic, or trite. Make sure you spell out your accomplishments clearly and substantively. If your reader doesn’t understand an activity, you will not get “full credit” for what you’ve done. Make no assumptions.

5. Avoid abbreviations. Again, you want to be formal; plus, abbreviations you think are common might not be familiar to the reader.

6. Write about yourself and your role – not an organization. For example, don’t use the space to discuss Doctors without Borders. Use it to discuss the specifics of your role at Doctors without Borders.

7. Avoid generalities and consider using numbers to be persuasive. Saying that the conference you organized had 300 participants says it all.

8. Don’t merge the descriptors with the most meaningful paragraphs because they are separate sections: You can complete descriptors for up to 15 activities with up to 700 characters each plus up to three most meaningful paragraphs of up to 1325 characters each.

9. Unless your PI won the Nobel, avoid using supervisors’ and/or doctors’ names in your descriptors as they will be meaningless to the majority of your readers.

10. Choose the right category for each activity, so you get “full credit.” (Please note AMCAS added a category last year called “Social Justice/Advocacy.”)

Bonus: Get help. Do not submit your medical school application without having it reviewed by someone with a lot of experience. You do not want to showcase suboptimal materials for a process that is this important and competitive.

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The Future Is Now: Using AI to Evaluate Medical School Applicants

The AAMC recently published a piece regarding the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to assess medical school applications: Multiple institutions, including the Zucker School of Medicine and NYU, use AI for initial screening of medical school applications. Others, like the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and GW, are developing AI capabilities to pilot within the next couple of years.

Admissions officers say the amount of time necessary to review the thousands of applications they receive is overwhelming and that they can teach AI – using years of successful applications to the school – how to effectively assess candidates. Of course, one big downside is that if an AI platform is based on past human decisions, it will inherently propagate and reflect previous biases that produced admissions results.

See the AAMC article here.

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More Medical Students, Fewer Applicants, and a 3.86 (!) GPA Mean

The AAMC published information recently demonstrating several trends about last year’s cycle:

1) The number of medical students has expanded because of new medical schools. First-year matriculants increased 0.8% from the previous academic year to 23,048.

2) On the other hand, the number of applicants decreased for the third year in a row. There was a 1.2% decline versus 4.7% the previous year and 11.6% two years ago. Remember, though, that there had been a huge increase in numbers during the height of the COVID pandemic.

3) Underrepresented minority group matriculant numbers generally declined.

4) What impressed me was that the current incoming class had a mean GPA of 3.86. Wow!

You can see all of the numbers and the AAMC’s conclusions here.

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Mistake or Needed Break: Should You Take a Gap Year?

Recently, I’ve advised several premeds who are trying to make decisions about the utility of a “gap year” – an elective, non-curricular period between college and medical school. There are important professional, financial, and personal consequences to consider before making the decision. Here’s a piece I wrote for Wolters Kluwer that offers guidance. 

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A Great Opportunity for College Students Interested in Medicine

Applications for the Summer Healthcare Professionals Education Program (SHPEP), a Robert Wood Johnson funded opportunity for college students interested in healthcare professions, are open. SHPEP specifically targets students from economically or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds and those with demonstrated interest in issues affecting underserved populations. The goal is to help college freshmen, sophomores, and juniors apply and matriculate successfully to health professions schools. SHPEP is housed at 11 universities across the country with different start dates – but all over the summer. Housing, meals, stipend, and travel expenses are all paid.

Take a look at the program in more detail here. The application deadline is February 5.

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About Dr. Michelle Finkel

Dr. Michelle Finkel

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

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Listen to Dr. Finkel’s interview on the White Coat Investor podcast:

Listen to Dr. Finkel’s interview on the FeminEm podcast: