Hey, WashU pre-med! No matter what stage youre at, congrats on making it this far though the process!

Its a long haul, but Ive had a lot of fun doing it, and I hope you will too. As a bit of background, I graduated in May 2013 with a major in anthropology and a minor in biology. I applied the summer before my senior year, so I will be going directly to Harvard Medical School in August 2013. In college, I was involved in the diversity and multicultural sphere, holding leadership positions in Connect Four, the Association of Mixed Students, and the Diversity Affairs Council. I did clinical research one summer in high school and basic science research in one lab through freshman year and another lab the summer after freshman year. After that, I decided basic science wasnt for me and got more involved with public health-type work. I worked with municipal governments in St. Louis County the summer after sophomore year, and the summer after junior year I got a grant through the Civic Scholars Program to develop and implement an obesity prevention program in a small, subsidized-housing community in Baltimore. I was an RA my junior and senior years, and I stayed involved with a couple public health projects in my senior year. Hopefully this gives some context to the thoughts Im about to share, but feel free to contact me if you have additional questions. For those NOT going directly into the application process: my main piece of advice is to do the things you want to do. Please dont structure your life around what you think a med school would want to see. The only way I was able to present an authentic narrative to medical schools was because everything I did in college was consistent with my interests. I didnt go out of my way to do basic science or clinical research after I decided I wasnt interested in it; I didnt join any pre-med groups; I hardly did any shadowing (just Medprep II and 10 hrs total with a few local physicians); and I only took bio classes to fulfill pre-requisites and so that I could get to know science professors who might write letters for me. I made sure that I did well in class, but my focus was really on activities outside the classroom that had little or nothing to do with clinical medicine. I loved them, and that was what mattered. I should note a couple caveats here. First, if science and medicine are your jam, then by all means spend your time in college doing that. All Im advocating is that you spend most of your time in college doing what you love. Its not just for your own health and happiness, but I also believe that itll make you a stronger med school candidate. Second, make sure you do the things necessary for your application. Most of these things are part of making an informed decision, such as shadowing. Interviewers will ask what youve done to explore medicine and know that its the right career path for you. Its also my impression that academic medical institutions want to train more academic physicians, so engaging in biomedical research (basic, translational or clinical) might be a good idea to show that youre open to academic pursuits beyond pure clinical practice. However, if youre not open to that, I think that makes you unique and you should stick to your guns. But, before you make a lot of these decisions, please talk to a prehealth advisor. For the MCAT: I decided to study on my own, after consulting with a pre-med advisor who said that was an OK idea for me. For those who arent taking a course, just be sure to do the following: start studying well in advance (Id recommend winter break if youre taking it in April), take practice tests early and often (I started with the free Princeton Review and Kaplan

ones online before going through all the AAMC ones), and find a buddy who can hold you accountable to the time you set aside for studying. For everyone: on test day, dont panic. The real MCAT often feels harder than the practice tests, but just keep your cool and know that youre still doing fine. For the applicants: Youre about to get to the fun part! Applications can be rough, but I had so much fun doing interviews, and I learned a lot about myself all along the way. For the personal statement: Expect many revisions. I went through four or five absolutely terrible drafts before piecing together the structure that I eventually submitted (on draft #16), with great care put into every word and phrase. The structure that worked for me was: an opening anecdote that highlighted what drew me to medicine, followed by three paragraphs about key experiences that tell my story (basic science research, multicultural student groups, and public health), and then a concluding paragraph. I think the key is to make sure your statement answers the questions Who are you? and Why do you want to be a doctor? in ways that are true to you. Its better to be authentic than to write for what you think committees want to hear. Im willing to share my personal statement with anyone whos curious just email me. For the primary application: Just two quick notes. (1) Its helpful to get a copy of your official transcript, so you can enter into the application exactly what AMCAS will be using to doublecheck your work. (2) Submit early! Time is truly of the essence. Make this a priority, and then you wont have to pay for it down the line, as I did, in the form of interviews very late in the season. For secondaries: Same thing submit them pronto! I sat on a couple secondaries until fall break, and I ended up getting a spot in the very last week of interviews at those schools. Not worth the risk! Many schools will ask you to turn the secondary around in two weeks, and I think you should set that as a personal deadline for all your secondaries. It can be a pain, depending on what youre doing over the summer, but its worth it, because once youre done, its smooth sailing. In terms of writing essays, I found it helpful to have one word document listing all the essay questions I had, and then I also had one document for each individual essay question. The reason is that some essays required a lot of background research (e.g. Why are you applying to this school in particular?) whereas others had lots of overlap (I had to write about overcoming adversity in 500, 300 and 150 words, because the same question came up on three different secondaries. Also, it might be helpful to get on Student/Doctor or one of those websites to find the secondary questions in advance. My understanding is that they tend not to change from year to year, so you can work on them while waiting for your primary to be processed by AMCAS. I didnt do that, but I wish I did. For interviews: This is the fun part! I met so many really cool people on my interview days, and I hope you will too. Theres not much to be nervous about, because the questions are almost always intended just to get to know you (the exception is at the multiple mini interview (MMI) schools, but I didnt have any so I cant comment on that). Theres a few questions that warrant preparation e.g., Why do you want to be a doctor? Why are you interested in this school in particular? Whats an ethical dilemma youve faced? Whats a challenge youve overcome? but in general I found my interviewers just wanted to paint a more complete picture of me as an

individual. They typically asked me to tell the story of my college experience, or they inquired about particular activities on my application. The only prep you can do for those is to make sure you know whats in your application and to be prepared to tell your story. Please bear with me while I emphasize: THE KEY to the whole application process is to paint a powerful, complete, consistent and genuine picture of yourself. Your primary application, secondary application, and interview responses should all fit together and leave the admissions committee feeling like they know who you are and how you would fit into their next class. Then, its up to the school to decide whether you would fit in or not, and, if they accept you, its up to you to decide which fits best for you. I really think the best favor you can do yourself is to be consistent in the answers you give, and the way to do that is to be authentic. Thats all Ive got! Good luck! Im sure I missed a great deal of things that you might be interested in, so please feel free to get in touch with me (andreas.h.mitchell@gmail.com). I hope you find this process fun and meaningful; while some parts are tedious, I learned a great deal about myself and my vision for myself as a physician as I went along. I wish you the same!