In recent days, Canadian medical schools have begun spreading joy (through interview invites) and crushing dreams (through rejections) among students everywhere. Great for those invited to interviews, but feelings of disappointment, sadness, and sometimes anger for those who received bad news. As we all know, it’s never fun to be rejected for anything.

When you receive a rejection, many thoughts can go through your head, like: What did I do wrong? Was I not good enough? Boy, they really screwed up!

While some of these thoughts can end up leading to something positive (e.g. you work harder for next year’s application cycle), some of them can be quite destructive (e.g. you blame the medical school admissions process solely and spread a lot of negativity).

In perusing the Canadian premed forums this past week, it’s quite clear that all kinds of thoughts formed in response to rejections. In reacting to rejections, I think it helps to stand back and take an objective look at the medical school admissions process.

What happens every year around interview invite time is that students who hear back from medical schools post their “stats” and a status update for their application. For those unfamiliar with I’m talking about, here’s an example:

Rejected! 🙁
4th year applicant
3.91 GPA
PS12/VR14/BS10/WSQ
EC’s: 2 summers of research, started a club, lots of leadership positions, volunteered at a hospital every week
Application: Strong essay and reference letters

There are lots of good applicants with really good “stats” who get rejected from medical schools every year – stellar GPA, strong MCAT, lots of extracurriculars and leadership experience, etc. In their mind, they have put together a pretty darn good application and are shocked when they don’t get an interview – especially when they see other students with similar or even lower “stats” moving on in the admissions process. So what’s going on?

The easy way out would be to blame the admissions committee and say they screwed up. I see this a few times every year and unfortunately this is an unhealthy attitude. It suggests a sense of “entitlement” to the applicant when the reality is that there isn’t one. Understand this: the admissions committee can do whatever the heck they want. It is their process. Their goal isn’t to get you into medical school. Their goal is to create a medical school class that they and the medical school are happy with.

What do we really know about the process? Really, a whole lot of nothing

We are told some things about the medical school admissions process, but not a whole lot. We know that GPA matters more at UofT than it does at Western, for example, but there are many things we still don’t know. How is GPA scored? How much of a difference does it make if I’m a graduate student, 4th year student, or 3rd year student?

The same goes for other parts of the application. Sure we might be told that a school looks at our essay, reference letters, and autobiographical sketch – but in what way? Is the essay worth the most or the least? Are reference letters worth something or are they just a flag?

The truth is that as an outside applicant, you really have no idea. You might be an outstanding candidate, but if personal statements are your weakness, and you so happen to apply to a medical school where personal statements are, unknowingly to you, worth the most, then you might just not make it – unfortunately, you won’t know this. Which is why your goal should be to put forward the best application you can in all aspects.

Subjectivity in the process

Unless a computer does everything, there will always be subjectivity in the admissions process. Human beings read your applications and will have their own subjective interpretations of you as an applicant. It’s the reality, and we just have to deal with it. Maybe if you’re lucky you will have an evaluator who identifies with the same issues you speak passionately about, and maybe if you’re unlucky you will have someone who completely disagrees with your point of view.

Realize that there is only so much you can do as an applicant. All you can do is put your best foot forward, and hope things work out.

Is the process fair? It depends on how you look at it. If you look at it theoretically, it’s fair in the sense that everyone has an equal chance of getting lucky or unlucky. You just have to hope you’re on the right side of the coin when your application gets read. That’s not to say that the admissions process is completely based on luck (it’s not), but let’s face it, everyone needs a bit of luck sometimes to do well.

Being honest with the quality of your application

When people post “stats” like the example above, I often read things like “strong essay, good reference letters, stellar EC’s” – however, realize this is just your opinion and not necessarily a reflection of that of the admissions committee. What you might think is a strong essay might not hit any of the points the admissions committee is looking for. Just because you had a strong relationship with your referee doesn’t mean that they know how to write reference letters well (just like with essay writing, reference letter writing is a skill). And just because you had medical students and medical professors give you a thumbs up on your essay still doesn’t mean your essay is good enough to get in – the only people who decide that are the people who are assigned to read your essay and mark it. I am sure there are medical students who got in with their essays being the weakest part of their application, and medical professors who are now quite far removed from the current admissions process. And even if these are medical students and professors involved in the process, well unless they are the actual people reading your application for marking, then their subjective interpretation is only worth so much.

The admissions committee knows exactly what they are looking for in applicants. They might not agree with your perspective, but this is the reality.

My advice is to reflect on your application experience and work towards making your application better for the next cycle. Many people apply more than once before getting in, have a healthy attitude, and don’t give up!