Since I’m thinking about applying to med school this year (FlexMed), I attended the Health Professions Essential Meeting on October 10th to learn about all the “essential” things I need to know with regard to med school applications.
The meeting was decently informative. I learned about the pre-professional experience I need to gain and interpersonal skills I need to develop to be a strong applicant as well as about the process of actually applying (with having to request a Committee Letter, which requires an extensive meeting with the GCC).
Here are some of the notes I took on the meeting:
- Pre-professional experience:
- What have I done to gain familiarity with the profession
- Quality of shadowing/clinical experience:
- Have you observed health professionals and patient interactions
- Aware of demands/rewards
- Exposure to terminology, instruments, procedures
- Staying up to date on current issues in medical field of interest
- Sign up for AAMC, NIH, MedicalNewsToday, MedLine Plus, etc. newsletter
- Interpersonal skills:
- Able to communicate and listen effectively
- Ability to work with others collaboratively and respectfully
- Ability to develop relationships and connect with others
- Capacity for empathy
- Ability to work with individuals with backgrounds that are different from you own and show an appreciation for their perspectives (culture, ethnicity, race, religion, socio-economic, educational background, etc.)
- Do my community service, ECs and leadership experiences, skills, and personal qualities reflect my competencies (and the 15 core competencies)?
- Find Preparing for Admission workbook to see competencies (in GCC under Health Professions Resources)
- Skills gained from ECs and work
- leadership/initiative
- Team work
- Time management
- Reliability
- Communication
- Community Service
- Demonstrated commitment to service
- Sensitivity to the needs of others
I also learned, unfortunately, that Wesleyan does not have as high med school acceptance rates as I have heard in the past. In the past few years, our acceptance into med school rate has been just over 50%, which is not all that much higher than the national average. I do know that a lot of that likely has to do with the pandemic causing an increase in med school applications, but even at our highest, we are only in the 70s (percentage-wise) for med school acceptance. I guess that’s just all the more reason for me to shoot my shot with FlexMed!
