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[quote]
During my tenure, I made certain that students had the information they needed to become strong applicants; however, they never received from me a checklist of what they needed to do to prepare for medicine. That would encourage a "check-list mentality"shadow a doctor? Check. Conduct research? Check. The result would be a group of cookie-cutter applicants, or what one former medical school admissions dean disparagingly called "perfect pre-meds." Instead, I encouraged students to pursue their own passions and to commit themselves deeply to their academic work, independent scholarship, and activities that are meaningful to themin other words, to distinguish themselves.</p>
<p>I encouraged them to pursue what most interests them and then ask, "Are my interests consonant with a career as a physician?" rather than to decide they want to be a physician and then pursue activities that would "look good" on their applications.
<p>I think med schools already do a decent job of weeding out cookie cutter premeds. This is not to say that research and clinical experience are not important but rather it's usually some other EC that gets you in. In other words, you need research, shadowing, hospital volunteering but I firmly believe it's ultimately the 2-3 unique extracurricular that each person has (or should have) that get them accepted. This can be a team sport or musical instrument or a business you founded or a special talent or a unique job (such as being a chef, investment banker, scub diving instructor, etc.). It's only in very rare situations that someone is able to stand out in research or clinical experience.</p>
<p>I think that the article is actually disingenuous, the vast majority of accepted students at the middle 100 medical schools are, more or less, cookie cutter candidates. You do have to 'check the boxes', the number of students who were also 'first horn in the philharmonic orchestra' is vanishingly small.</p>
<p>Thanks immensely for this article BDM. I'm going to have my parents read it before I try and tell them I want to take a year off. The article is also reassuring for me as a (future) applicant.</p>