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

명확성을 위한 애플리케이션 요소 연결

지원자는 경험을 명확하게 연결하여 입학 위원회에 일관된 내러티브를 보여줘야 합니다.

혼란스러운 지원서는 거절로 이어지고, 입학 위원회는 더 명확한 지원서로 넘어갑니다.

경험(연구, 커뮤니티 서비스, 임상)의 주제별 연계는 매우 중요합니다.

GPA와 MCAT 점수가 동일하더라도 간결하고 쉽게 요약된 지원서를 선호합니다.

점수는 비슷하지만 면접 결과가 크게 다른 세 학생의 사례는 지원서 일관성의 중요성을 강조합니다.

현재 의대 지원 절차는 과거에 비해 훨씬 더 경쟁이 치열해졌기 때문에 모든 면에서 강력한 지원서가 필요합니다.

지원서의 모든 측면(GPA, MCAT, 과외 활동, 편지, 에세이, 인터뷰)이 우수해야 합니다.

특히 상위권 학교의 경우, 많은 예비 의대생이 지원서의 강점을 과대평가합니다.

실제 적용 사례에 액세스하면 현재의 성공적인 전략을 이해하는 데 도움이 됩니다.

성공적인 애플리케이션의 데이터베이스를 통해 어떤 것이 효과적인지 명확한 예를 확인할 수 있습니다.

지나치게 복잡한 표현은 피하고 간단하고 명료하게 작성하는 것이 더 효과적입니다.

명확한 스토리텔링을 통해 경험이 스스로를 대변하도록 하는 데 집중하세요.

성공하려면 체계적인 글쓰기가 필수입니다.

이러한 방법을 사용한 학생들의 높은 인터뷰 횟수를 통해 성공이 입증되었습니다.

효과적인 글쓰기는 책임에 20%, 영향력(데이터와 스토리)에 40%, 성찰에 40%의 비중을 할당해야 합니다.

흔히 저지르는 실수는 영향력과 반성 대신 책임을 지나치게 강조하는 것입니다.

글은 이력서가 아니라 반성문으로 읽혀야 합니다.

지원 절차를 서두르면 지원서 품질에 부정적인 영향을 미칩니다.

예비 의사는 종종 마지막 해에 너무 많은 것을 하려다 지원서 품질을 떨어뜨리는 경우가 많습니다.

미리 계획을 세우고 글쓰기에 충분한 시간을 할당하세요.

작업의 우선순위를 정하고 덜 중요한 약속은 거절하세요.

일정이 너무 촉박하다면 신청을 연기하여 충분한 준비를 할 수 있도록 하세요.

많은 예비 의대생이 2차 지원서를 적절히 준비하지 못합니다.

대량의 보조 애플리케이션을 사용하려면 사전 준비가 필요합니다.

스트레스와 지연을 피하려면 보조 애플리케이션을 미리 작성하는 것이 중요합니다.

1차 지원서를 제출한 후 2차 지원서를 미루지 마세요.

의예과를 넘어서: 열정을 추구하다

예비 의사는 다른 관심사를 추구하고 다양한 분야에 대한 숙련도를 키워야 합니다.

모든 분야의 숙달은 가치 있고 전수할 수 있습니다.

다양한 배경을 가진 사람들이 성공적으로 의사가 된 사례.

다른 분야의 기술과 습관은 의학에 도움이 될 수 있습니다.

의학 이외의 분야에 대한 열정을 수용하면 애플리케이션과 전반적인 개발을 향상시킬 수 있습니다.