June 28, 2006

Helpful Pre-Med links

As I went through my application process for med school, I found a number of online resources to be very helpful. In some cases, more helpful than the Career Services center at my University. I regretted the fact that I discovered some of these sources too late... they would have been useful in my first round of applications. Hopefully this compiled list will help out at least one aspiring applicant and make all the difference in their journey. :-)


The AMCAS and the AAMC website will be your starting points. They come with vital information like the college timeline you should expect to have, post-bacc programs you can take to explore your options, along with links to various applications you might have to fill out.

The Student Doctor Network is a great place to find a forum for students of all types -- dentistry, osteopathy, pre-meds, residents... they all have their own niche in the network. The essay section has a few sample personal statements that you can peruse for style and content tips. Interview Feedback has detailed info on what to expect from each school that you interview with.

Speaking of personal statements, here is a Xanga blog resource you can use to help you learn what to write! TheReporter was written (and possibly abandoned) by a medical school interviewer and adcom member. It includes tips on what to write for your personal statement, how to approach volunteer work and how to recover when you don't get that "absolutely essential A" for organic chemistry. ;-)

Accepted.com is a commercial website... there is some useful stuff here, but don't get sucked into spending more money than you really need to. There's tons of free stuff on the internet.

Kaplan and Princeton Review have a few MCAT thingamabobs. I didn't do too much internet scrounging for questions; I just took the Kaplan course to get a better grip on what to expect on the test.

MDapplicants.com is list of anonymous profiles of med school applicants. You can search by med school, MCAT scores and GPA to figure out whether or not your med school of choice is a safety school, a reach school or an "IN YOUR DREAMS" school. I'm listed here. In some effort to preserve my psuedonymity, while still getting to brag a bit... suffice it to say that I scored a 34 on my MCATs (somehow I got a 13 BS) and I had a 3.9 cum/science GPA.

Well, that's it for now.
Please comment and add your own links to this blog if you feel that there is something I have missed!

2 comments:

  1. great collection of links. if i had listened to my college's premed advisor i would have given up on myself years ago.

    ReplyDelete
  2. holycowyouaresmart. i got a 9,9,10q mkat skore and a 3.3 science GPA.

    ReplyDelete