What helped me get in:
My essay’s. My life wasn’t curated to getting into medical school so most of my EC’s were actually not medical at all, but I still tied it into medicine. For example, I coached my sport to younger kids and I discussed how I enjoyed being in a position of where I had the responsibility to cultivate a welcoming environment while still looking out for their safety and teaching them. Or, my research wasn’t medicine related either but we worked with living animals who caught a bug and got sick mid study. Although that wasn’t supposed to happen, it taught me what it means to have to set aside your personal desires to care for the wellbeings of the sick (i did not equivilate animals lives to human lives to be clear) because often I’d have to give p my weekends to come in due to emergencies or I’d be tired after school and still have to give my full attention to animal care.
I think this is really important because BS/MD programs for the most part want to attract strong and diverse applicants. Diverse not just in demographics but in experiences and skill sets. That’s why I think discussing EC’s outside of medicine works well. Plus, AO’s read a lot of similiar essay’s about HOSA and the like, it’s refreshing to read a new story once in a while I would assume.
Also, I didn’t exaggerate ANYTHING. Like I didn’t pretend to have a full understanding of everything in medicine because I shadowed a doctor for a week. Someone told me once that you only fulll=y understand what medicine is once you’re a practicing doctor, and I think that’s important to consider. You don’t want to sound like a know it all to career doctors and AO’s that know your experience was limited no matter how much of you had. I also didn’t have an epipheny for medicine (no life altering story that made me realize in a min i wanted to be a doctor) nor did I know I wanted to be a doctor since age 4. I was honest about my gradual process of figuring out that medicine is for me, which started with me wanting to work in the FBI lol.
Another thing I did in a few essay’s and interview questions is also discuss how I know other career paths aren’t of interest to me. I did have some experience outside of medicine to make my decision to become a doctor more solid. I think this is important as well because they don’t want you changing your mind in college when you grew up only ever knowing medicine and suddenly discovering that investment banking is more your forte.
I was also really enthusiastic about the schools I applied to, and I think that played a role as well. I chose programs and schools that truly aligned with my values and that’s something I miled as well- my compatilibity with the school’s and program’s mission.
Lastly, at the end of the day I probably got lucky to some extent. Whether it be a good interviewer that day or they wanted someone interested in my major, it worked out somehow.