As I write this, I am about to start my 4th and final year of medical school. The past year as a clinical clerk, working full time in the hospital and clinics, was the first time I ever came close to experiencing what it means to be a doctor. The amount I have learned about medicine in the past year – not just in terms of knowledge, but applying it like a physician – is sometimes hard to believe. Your first year of clerkship will be your hardest year in all of medical school, but it will also be the most eye opening.

Even though it’s been almost 4 years since I submitted my medical school applications, I still remember much of it. I know it’s that time of year again for many of you. Summer is coming to an end for many medhopefuls – a summer often full of stress and anxiety from writing the MCAT, doing research, volunteering or travelling. While that stress is soon to be followed by the normal stressors of the new school year, for many of you, this fall brings an additional pressure – completing your medical school applications.

For some of you, this may be your first time, and you are completely lost on what to do. For others, you have been through this before, and you’re hoping this is the last time you ever have to fill out these applications. Whatever the case may be, everyone has to go through this first step. It’s tough, it’s time consuming, and sometimes, extremely frustrating.

To try and help with that, today I present to you 7 tips to help you complete your medical school application.

7. Set yourself a due date of one week in advance

Many med students are procrastinators, and we were procrastinators long before being buried under thousands of pages of medical school notes. We’re all busy people, the application can be long and tedious, and it’s easy to keep putting it off. My advice: for one of the most important aspects in your journey of becoming a doctor, please take it seriously. You owe it to yourself. No matter how hard you have worked over the past several years, your application is your only chance to show that to the admissions committees. You’ve worked so hard to get to this point, so don’t neglect your application.

You never know what might happen on the last day to submit. The server might be overloaded with applicants. Your internet or electricity might go out. Your referee decides to ignore you or go on a last minute trip to the North Pole.

Whatever the case may be, finish your application as soon as you can (aiming for a week in advance of the due date is good), so you have time to deal with any unforeseen problems and so you have more time for edits and revisions.

6. Prioritize your application above everything else

You will have many stressors in your life this coming month. Especially for those of you starting school again, you have to deal with new classes, new assignments, etc. It can be overwhelming at times to balance both adjusting to new classes and completing your medical school application. But make your medical school application your priority.

If that means you need to stay in on a Friday night and write your essay or email verifiers, then do it. If it means sleeping at 2am in the morning, then so be it. It’s only going to be 1 month. You can do this.

5. Go through every aspect of the application meticulously

I know what it feels like to submit an application and realize right afterwards that you completely missed something. For those of you who don’t want to wade through that old post, basically it wasn’t until after I submitted my application that I realized I forgot to complete some information for my University of Ottawa application. So make sure you read the entire application carefully and fill in every single box. Again, you owe it to yourself to put in every extra bit of energy to submit a complete and excellent application.

4. Identify your actual position in the OMSAS 48-items titles

If you apply to an Ontario medical school, you must fill out a 48-item autobiographical sketch. One of tricks I used in my application was to include both my actual role and the description of the activity in the description line. This is because the only other place to include your role would be under “Responsibilities”, and I think there is a very good chance some medical schools don’t even read that additional section.

For example, for the Description of an activity, don’t just write “Debate Club”. If you were the president, write “President, Debate Club”.

3. Provide ample information to your letter referees, and remind them to write today

There’s never a better time to ask your referees for letters than today. Ideally you have already asked them, but now is the time to remind them. Provide them with ample information: your CV and a 1 page cover letter of examples from your experiences relevant to your referee (e.g. include examples from your research experience for your research supervisor referee) that high light key skills developed or lessons learned that relate to your interest in being a physician.

Your referees want to help you get into medical school, but providing them with as much information about you as possible will make their lives a lot easier, and your letter an even better one.

2. Email all your verifiers today

Stop and just do it. Right now. You’d be surprised how many of them will randomly be away for a week or two, and you’ll be glad you didn’t wait until the last week to email them.

How should you email them? If you’re stumped, feel free to use the template below:

Hi X,

How are you? I hope you’re doing well.

I am applying to medical school this fall. As part of the application, I am asked to include a list various accomplishments and experiences, as well as verifiers who could confirm those details if necessary.

I would like to mention {insert activity/accomplishment} in my application. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind being my verifier for that award/activity? If that’s okay, I would need a contact phone number and address.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks,
{your name}

1. Review the latest application guidelines before starting

Most of the time, medical schools don’t change their application. But at some point, they inevitably will. If you wrote your University of Toronto medical school essay based on last year’s guidelines and then finally got your OMSAS account on the last day possible, you would be in for a surprise (hint: UofT changed their medical school essays this year).

So make sure you get the latest details before you start doing all that work for nothing.

Go, go, go!

You will never have more time to work on your application than if you started today. Start today and spread out your work. Trust me, it’s a lot easier to write a strong application when you have 30 days to complete it instead of 24 hours.

Good luck!