I am starting a new series titled: “Adcom Advice.” This year, I have the opportunity to be involved with my school’s admission committee and an integral part of selecting future medical students. Looking back on my own application process, I now see so many things I could have done to make my application better. I also feel very lucky that I inadvertantly avoided the most common mistakes and pitfalls that applicants commit every cycle. Having this first-hand opportunity to see and understand how the medical school admissions process works from the “other” side, I want to give back some of the lessons I have learned to the community. The intent of my posts is to help students send in their best application, how to market their strengths, not to undersell themselves, or commit any fatal errors. That is why I am starting this adcom advice blog series.

Disclaimer: In no way am I trying to leak private information belonging to any medical school onto the internet. I will not be revealing any specific school weighting formulas or actual admissions logistics, all posts will have no relationships with any particular medical school. I respect the privacy of the admissions process and all applicants and I will protect this confidentiality. All examples used in my posts will be fictional, and any resemblance to real-life applicants will be purely coincidence.

Advice in my posts will not be anything new… you will have heard this advice frequently from professors, medical students, parents and friends. In fact, if you pick up a typical medical school admissions guide from any bookstore, they say EXACTLY the same thing. So what do I offer that’s new? What I believe I can give is a different and fresh perspective to the admissions process. I can offer both the viewpoints of an admissions committee member and a starting medical student. Furthermore, as a student who has very recently gone through the system, I understand the challenges and difficulties facing students today.

But the reason I hope this series will offer value to you, is YOU. I am just one person, I only have a finite amount of experiences to share. However, each of you have stories to share and advice that has worked for you. Why pay hundreds of dollars to admission consultants for information that people are willing to share for FREE. So I encourage readers to comment, to start a discussion and to help me understand how the admissions can be better. And together, maybe we can make sense of this whole process.

1. Don’t Lie

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