7 Brutal Truths to Get Into Medical School (From 7 Years of Experience)

Medical school applicants must create a cohesive narrative showcasing their skills and experiences to increase admissions chances.

### 7 Brutal Truths for Premed Success
* 🎯 **Theme your application:**  Connect research, clinical experience, and extracurriculars for a clear narrative, maximizing your chances of acceptance even with similar stats.  One student with identical stats to others received eight interviews due to a cohesive application.
* 📈 **The 60s are over:**  Forget the past; today's medical school admissions are intensely competitive.  A high GPA and MCAT are essential, along with a polished application in all aspects.
* 📝 **Improve your writing:**  Avoid overly complex language; focus on clear, concise writing that lets your experiences shine.  Simple language highlights complex ideas, and a strong application is crucial.
* ✍️ **Master the 20-40-40 rule:**  Allocate your writing to 20% responsibilities, 40% impact (data and stories), and 40% reflection. Avoid focusing solely on what you did; emphasize impact and growth.
* ⏱️ **Don't rush your application:**  Avoid overloading yourself with commitments in your final year.  Protect time for writing your application, even if it means saying no to other opportunities.
* 📧 **Secondaries matter:**  Don't relax after submitting primaries; proactively work on secondary applications to avoid last-minute stress.  "Your application is submitted when secondaries are in, not primaries."
* 🧑‍⚕️ **Explore your passions:**  Pursue other interests outside of pre-med; mastery in any field is valuable and can translate to medicine.  "You are more than just a premed."

I'm going to compress the brutal truths and lessons from 7 years of helping others get into medical school into this

one video. In the last cycle, our students earned full-right acceptances to Kaiser and interviews at Harvard and

Stanford. And this is exactly how I got them there. Brutally honest truth number one: Make it make sense. It is your job as

the applicant to connect the dots for adcoms. If anything is confusing, the default is not to spend extra time

trying to figure it out. What happens is that adcoms skip it and move on. So if you do urology research and study

pharmaceutical conflicts of interest and are an endocrinology scribe, we have no idea who we're getting. Are we getting

a researcher, or an educator, or an advocate? I'm just confused, and I'm moving on. And I move on to the next

student who has research, community service, and clinical experience, all thematically aligned to closing healthcare disparities in Latino

communities. Ah, now that is a student I can clearly summarize in one sentence. The relief of simplicity, and to be frank,

this matters because that student is who I am going with, even if the GPA and MCAT scores are identical, and I can prove it

to you. We had three students last cycle, all with 3.96 GPAs and 514 MCAT scores.

One student got zero interviews; one student got two interviews; and one student got eight interviews, with a full-right acceptance to Kaiser. Obviously,

one outcome is better than the other two. If you're applying to medical school in the coming year or two, it would be an

honor to support you. But because we work so closely with students, we have a strict cutoff on how many we can

support. Click the application cycle advising link down below before we're full. Brutally honest truth number two: We

are done with the 60s. In 1966, nearly 80% of accepted students had a GPA somewhere

between 2.6 and 3.5. In that decade, acceptance rates hovered in the mid-50s,

going as high as 60%. You can't get into medical school anymore with a 2.9 GPA, a

firm handshake, and a nice smile. It's far too competitive now, and every part of our application—our GPA, our MCAT, our

extracurriculars, our letters of recommendation, our written application, and our interviews—all of it must be

dialed in. We're done with the 60s, and we have to be better on all fronts. That is

just the reality. And for most pre-meds, it is a surprise when I tell them explicitly that their application is not

as strong as they think it is, especially if you want to go to a T20 school or stay in

California, or whatever your medical school application goals are. That's why maybe in the '60s you didn't have to see

real medical school applications, but in the 21st century you certainly do. This is so you know exactly what works today,

not what worked for your uncle twice removed who became a doctor in the 60s. Our application database shows you the

exact extracurriculars, the exact personal statements, everything from beginning to end. They feature students who got a full ride to UCLA, got into

UCSF, UCSD, and many other schools. There is no ambiguity. And every time we review a new application, like this application

who earned a full ride scholarship to Kaiser, we add it to the database so you know exactly what is working right now.

Join over 11,400 pre-meds who are a part of our community. Click the application database link in the description box.

Below now, the brutally honest truth number three: you think you're a bad writer, but you're wrong. Many pre-meds misunderstand

medical school admissions writing. We're not writing a school essay in English class. Big words earn you big points in

medical school admissions. Big words make your writing confusing. Far too many pre-meds write like they're at Harvard Law, when in reality they should be

writing more like it's Harry Potter—simple language highlights complex ideas. When you have rich experiences and meaningful patient

interactions, you want your writing to just get out of the way and let the story speak for itself. We have to be

disciplined about every piece of writing. That's how our 16 students have already earned over 70 interviews. We only offer

four spots per month until we're full for the cycle. This allows us to give each and every student the attention

they deserve. So if you'd be interested in earning full-ride scholarships to Kaiser, or want to interview at

schools like Harvard, WashU, Cornell, UC San Diego, NYU, click the application cycle link in our description box to book a

free strategy call before we're full for the cycle. Brutal honest truth number four: 20-40-40. That's all you need to

know for every piece of writing: 20% responsibilities (or what you do), 40% impact (show me through data and real

stories), 40% reflection (tell me why it matters, tell me how you grew from the experience). The number one mistake pre-meds

make with their writing is that they spend 80% of it telling me what they do. I know what scribes do; I've read

thousands of EMT experiences by now. What you do should not be the focus of your writing. If it reads more like a resume

than a reflection, then it needs to be rewritten. Brutal honest truth number five: don't take the MCAT, 21 units and a

job promotion and expect to have a strong written application. There are some things that you just cannot rush. For example, when a woman becomes

pregnant, that baby is going to take nine months. Sometimes pre-meds aren't ready to apply to medical school, but they rush

every single thing in that final year. They take the MCAT in February and in the spring quarter they take 21 units

and in their scribe position they're promoted to lead scribe and now they work 25 hours a week instead of 15.

Something has to go, and most often it's the quality of your written application. Again, none of this is a surprise. Take a

look at the year you have ahead, look at your commitments, and look at your calendar. Figure out when in the year

you'll focus on writing and protect that entire season for it, because you'll need it. That means you say no to the extra

responsibilities in your research lab, your extracurriculars, your job, and your classwork. These will be difficult

decisions, but they're made easier if you make them ahead of time. Cut your EMT shifts in half; drop Spanish 4 because

Spanish 4 isn't going to get you into medical school; your written application will. And ultimately, if you look at the

calendar and you see that the timeline is too tight with too little wiggle room, then push your application back a year

to give it the time and space that it deserves. You will always regret rushing into the application cycle. Brutally

honest truth number six: your application is submitted when secondaries are in, not primaries. Did you know that every single

year tens of thousands of pre-meds lose their wings and it's because pre-meds relax after they submit their primary

application? There's calm; nothing in the inbox for weeks until 15 schools, each with five secondaries, flood your inbox.

And they ask you to submit it within two weeks, and oh, the premed is so surprised. There's no surprise; you knew exactly

that this was coming. Pre-write your secondary applications; the job is not done, so don't rest. You will be burned by

the sheer volume of secondaries, and you need to get ahead of it. Don't be the premed who submits the primary on day one

and then submits the secondary one month later. Brutally honest truth number seven: You are more than just a premed. As

I've met more people in medicine, I've come to understand that there are just some people that you go to when you need

something specific. For example, if my shoulder is hurting, I go to Brian, my physical therapist friend. People have

their own corners that they've grown to own. If you're interested in anything else—the arts, language, business,

communications, computer science—consider pursuing them seriously. Mastery is welcome in any domain. In medicine, there are former firefighters who become

doctors. Mastery is often translatable; the skills, habits, and mental spaces that elite performers have, they carry over in

whatever they decide to focus on. So lean into your passions, even if someone says they're not directly related to medicine.

These were the seven brutal truths and lessons from seven years of helping people get into their dream medical schools.

7 Years of Brutally Honest Premed Application Advice

Michael Minh Le, MD

Connecting Application Elements for Clarity

Applicants must clearly connect experiences to show a cohesive narrative to admissions committees.

Confusing applications lead to rejection; admissions committees move on to clearer applications.

Thematic alignment of experiences (research, community service, clinical) is crucial.

A concise, easily summarized application is preferred, even with identical GPA and MCAT scores.

Example of three students with similar scores but vastly different interview outcomes highlights the importance of application coherence.

The current medical school application process is far more competitive than in the past; a strong application in all aspects is necessary.

All aspects of the application (GPA, MCAT, extracurriculars, letters, essays, interviews) must be strong.

Many pre-meds overestimate the strength of their applications, especially for top schools.

Access to real-world application examples is beneficial to understand current successful strategies.

A database of successful applications provides clear examples of what works.

Avoid overly complex language; simple, clear writing is more effective.

Focus on letting experiences speak for themselves through clear storytelling.

Disciplined writing is essential for success.

Success is demonstrated through the high number of interviews earned by students using these methods.

Effective writing should allocate 20% to responsibilities, 40% to impact (data and stories), and 40% to reflection.

The common mistake is overemphasizing responsibilities instead of impact and reflection.

Writing should read as a reflection, not a resume.

Rushing the application process negatively impacts the quality of the written application.

Pre-meds often try to do too much in their final year, sacrificing application quality.

Plan ahead and allocate sufficient time for writing.

Prioritize tasks; say no to less important commitments.

If the timeline is too tight, postpone the application to allow for sufficient preparation.

Many pre-meds fail to adequately prepare for secondary applications.

The large volume of secondary applications requires advance preparation.

Pre-writing secondary applications is crucial to avoid stress and delays.

Don't delay secondary applications after submitting the primary application.

Pre-meds should pursue other interests and develop mastery in different areas.

Mastery in any field is valuable and transferable.

Examples of individuals with diverse backgrounds successfully becoming doctors.

Skills and habits from other fields can be beneficial in medicine.

Embrace passions outside of medicine; they can enhance your application and overall development.