The Medical School Application Process

The most important thing in the application process is to APPLY EARLY. Start and finish your applications as soon as you can. Obviously don’t sacrifice quality for the sake of submitting it quickly, but the sooner you send in your application the sooner it gets processed, and the sooner you get called for interviews. Another point to keep in mind is that most schools will not even look at your application until it is complete, with all required items turned in. This means you must submit the application itself, transcripts from all the schools you’ve attended, your recommendation letters, and anything else that’s required. Once all these materials are sent in, then the medical schools will start to review your application. So while you’re working on filling out the apps themselves, it’s a good idea to send in your transcript request forms to all institutions you’ve attended, because some schools are slower than others in sending them out.

Additionally, if your undergrad school offers med school mock interviews (or practice interviews of any kind), I’d advise taking full advantage of this. It’ll give you a good idea of the types of questions you may be asked and you’ll get acquainted with discussing difficult topics on the spot. If you’ve never actually been interviewed for anything before, you don’t want your first time to be while anxiously perspiring in front of a med school admissions committee.

For the recommendation letters, if your school’s pre-med advisors write a single committee letter, then all you have to do is request this (and always submit a brief resume to refresh their memories about you). If your school doesn’t do this, then you’ll have to request individual professors to write your letters (usually two or three letters are required depending on the med school). Regardless of whether it’s a committee letter or by individual request, it is crucial that you make good relationships with your professors from early on, something I highlighted in a prior section. The recommendation letters carry A LOT OF WEIGHT, and people often do not put enough stock in these. So if you haven’t been dropping by your professors’ offices every now and then, it’s time to start. If you want your rec letters to be meaningful, your professors have to have something meaningful to say about you.

One quick note about GPA calculation: I mentioned in a previous section that medical schools calculate your GPA a little differently. Let’s take me as an example: my TCU GPA after junior year (when I applied) as a 3.714. However, that included +/- grading, and didn’t take into account the Physics classes I took the summer after freshman year.  Medical schools don’t bother with +/- and they look at all your grades, so my GPA as calculated by the medical schools was actually 3.78. This came as a very pleasant surprise, because I didn’t actually know about this difference in calculation methods until I was doing my apps! So just keep in mind that the GPA medical schools look at may be slightly different than your undergrad GPA.

What about the application itself? There are 2 application services, TMDSAS and AMCAS. They basically compile all your application materials (you send your transcripts directly to them, not to the medical schools) and they send your completed file to the schools you designate (similar to the Common App in undergrad – the more schools you apply to, the more expensive it gets). The TMDSAS is only for the Texas public medical schools, and the AMCAS is for almost all other med schools in the nation, whether public or private. One thing to remember about public medical schools is that the majority of them accept roughly 80-90% of their students from the state they are located in. This means that as an applicant, you naturally have the best chance of getting accepted to a public medical school in your state (a big advantage to people from Texas or California, because of the sheer number of public med schools in those states; if your state doesn't have a med school, then usually there’s a deal struck up with a neighboring state that does have a medical school to accept a certain portion of applicants from your state; look it up if you fall in this category).

Because of this, getting accepted to an out-of-state public medical school is difficult. Therefore, you should apply to AT LEAST every single medical school in your state to give yourself the highest chance to get accepted SOMEWHERE. Keep in mind that the primary goal at this point is to just get in. The secondary goal, depending on your stats, application strength, and all the rest, is getting into one of your top choice schools. Thus you want to apply to a decent number of "safety" schools (anywhere between five to ten) so that you’ll have a high chance of getting accepted somewhere. Remember that every medical school lists their class averages for GPA and MCAT on their website, so this will give you a fairly good idea of how you stack up.

To provide you with an example, let’s use my home state. Good ol’ Texas (when I applied in 2011...several more schools have been made since) had eight public medical schools and one private medical school. The eight public schools all use TMDSAS, so if you’re an applicant from Texas it would be in your best interest to APPLY TO THEM ALL, because you just fill it out once and can send it to all eight schools. Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) was the lone private med school in Texas, and like most of the medical schools across the nation, BCM uses AMCAS as its application service. If you’re from Texas, it would be to your advantage to apply to BCM as well because even though they accept quite a few out-of-state students, they still accept a majority of applicants from Texas. And if you’re filling out the AMCAS, you might as well send it to some out-of-state schools to increase your chances. If you’re from a state that doesn’t have a plethora of med schools, use AMCAS to apply to some schools where you have a good chance, again using the med schools’ GPA and MCAT averages to screen out for “safety” schools.

Now the question is, which schools other than “safety” schools should I apply to? This depends on two things: your credentials and personal preference. In regards to credentials, you have to be realistic with yourself. If you have a 3.4 GPA and a 50th percentile MCAT score, you probably shouldn’t apply to Johns Hopkins or Harvard, because your chances are slim. But if you’ve got a 3.9 GPA and 90th percentile MCAT, that definitely broadens the playing field. Once you make a list of schools where you’d be competitive at based on stats, it comes down to personal preference: what you’re looking for in a school. And this is different for everyone. For some people it’s location and weather. For others, it’s the prestige of an institution and how they measure on national rankings. For others still, it may be an acclaimed dual degree program. Take the list of schools that you’d be competitive at based on your stats and narrow it down further based on what you’re looking for. If you want warm sunny weather, eliminate schools from the Northeast and apply to California or Florida. If you want to pursue academic medicine, narrow your list to schools with high NIH funding, an exceptional MD/PhD program, etc. This part is solely up to you.

So I’ve told you how to pick which schools to apply to, first having your net of “safety” schools and then selecting a few competitive options. Now let’s talk about filling out the applications themselves. Both application services follow roughly the same format, with only a few minor differences. You will enter some standard demographic information, select the schools you want your application sent to (you can always add schools later), fill out an exhaustive list of every class you’ve taken at the college level (which is utterly redundant because you’re sending transcripts, but you have to do it anyways), complete a very long “activities” section, and write your personal statement.

Filling out the application is pretty self explanatory, but I want to comment on two things. First, the “activities” section. I put “activities” in quotes because it actually asks you about everything you feel is important enough to include in your application: all your health-related experiences, community service activities, leadership roles, extracurriculars, work experiences, awards and honors, etc. When filling out the “activities” section, there is a limit on the number of characters you can enter. And characters include everything: letters, numbers, spaces, periods, punctuation marks, all of it. The number of allowed characters was one difference between the TMDSAS and AMCAS. When I applied, TMDSAS allowed 300 characters per activity, while AMCAS allowed 700 (so take caution when Copy/Pasting so things don't get cut off). Another distinction is that AMCAS forces you to select three activities that you must designate as “Most Meaningful”, giving you an additional 1400 characters to write about each of these. But the MOST IMPORTANT THING when filling out the “activities” section, regardless of whether it’s TMDSAS or AMCAS, is to show the medical schools WHY THAT PARTICULAR ACTIVITY WAS IMPORTANT enough for you to include in your application.  Remember that this isn’t some Literature class essay; you’re limited by characters, so medical schools don’t expect you to have pristine grammar and syntax (but that doesn’t give you license to write like an idiot either). The important point to convey is WHY YOU DID IT (med schools want to see what your motivation was) and WHAT YOU GOT OUT OF IT (whether you learned anything or not); don't simply list what you did. I’ll provide you with an example (remember when I talked about the research I did in Costa Rica? This is what I put in AMCAS for the category of “Research/Lab”):

Took a Tropical Biology course in Spring 2011. As part of the course went to Costa Rica and conducted research on Leaf Cutter Ants. Although this was not a very complex or extensive research project, I did learn a lot about how the research process works, such as the steps involved in designing a project, collecting and interpreting data, performing statistical testing, and compiling and presenting the findings. The study looked at the characteristics of the ants, the leaves they carry, different forest habitats, and how the characteristics differ depending on habitat. Presented a poster at the TCU Student Research Symposium and received 1st place for undergraduate research in Biology.

Let’s look at this. It is 694 characters out of the 700 allowed. I clearly state why I did this research (as part of a class I took). There’s nothing fancy, nothing med school related, and not all your activities have to directly tie in to wanting to be a doctor. I then used the remaining characters to show what I learned from this research experience. And that’s it. This is far better than if I used the entire 700-character limit to discuss details of my research. That's for interviews. People can do a Google search to learn the specifics of Leaf Cutter Ants; I don’t need to explain it to them here. What’s crucial is to illustrate why that activity was meaningful to you.

Here’s another example, this time about shadowing different doctors, which falls in the category of “Community Service/Volunteer – Medical/Clinical”. It was also one of the activities I chose as “Most Meaningful” for AMCAS, thus more allotted characters:

Shadowed internist Dr W the summer after freshman year. This was my first experience seeing what doctors do on a daily basis, because previously I had only been in a doctor’s office when I was the patient. Observed Dr W and learned about patient care first hand. I also shadowed an ophthalmologist (Dr G), cardiologist (Dr J), plastic surgeon (Dr K), and ER doctor (Dr B) for a day each. Although these were shorter experiences, I wanted to get some exposure to a few of the different fields in medicine, and I was able to do that.

With Dr W, I learned a lot about patient care, and saw how important spending time and getting to know patients is in helping to make them feel comfortable and establish trust. Dr W was a great mentor, and also taught me about the business side of medicine: running a practice. I had previously never realized that a doctor would have to deal with issues such as hiring and firing staff, compromising on issues with co-workers, dealing with insurance companies, etc. This opened my eyes to the fact that doctors have to be able to properly balance seeing patients with all the other factors that come with any job or business. While shadowing Dr G and Dr J I saw the importance of technology and different equipment in both diagnosis and treatment. In the ER I saw how treating patients rather than establishing relationships is paramount. Often the doctor is in a rush to get to the next patient, especially in larger urban hospitals, where there are more patients than the doctors can handle. In plastics, Dr K explained how unlike other fields many patients come to plastic surgeons by choice, and they can discuss with the doctor what is best for them. More than anything else, these shadowing experiences showed me that patient care is the most important thing in every field of medicine.

Looking at this, the first paragraph uses 560 of the original 700 characters, and the second uses 1307 of the additional 1400 characters provided for “Most Meaningful” activities. Again, I state why I did this: previously I'd only seen a doctor as a patient, and I also wanted to see different medical fields in practice. I then describe what I learned about healthcare as a business, the importance of patient care, and the differences in specialties, basically showing that I really took something from my experience.

The last example I’m going to give you is about my love for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (BJJ). The reason I’m providing this example is that applicants are often unsure whether they should put certain activities in their application, because they feel it won’t do anything to advance their cause. But from my experience, as long as you’re truly passionate about something, it’s going to go in your favor (and I was asked about Martial Arts and BJJ in literally every single interview). I put this in the AMCAS category of “Extracurricular/Hobbies/Avocations” and also selected it as another one of the “Most Meaningful” activities:

I have done martial arts since I was 11 years old (started with Tae Kwon Do, eventually earning my black belt; also did boxing for 2 years in high school). BJJ is also a martial art, and is somewhat similar to wrestling. One attempts to gain dominant position and utilize joint locks and chokes, collectively called submissions, to subdue an opponent. There are no forms or set movements like other martial arts; only sparring. The match is won when your opponent “taps out” from a submission, meaning they quickly tap either you or the mat signaling that they give up. A major philosophy of BJJ and other martial arts is that size does not matter, that skill and control will always trump strength.

BJJ is very physically taxing. You and your opponent are constantly grabbing, pulling, squeezing, scrambling, and most importantly, thinking. To an outside observer it may look like two people trying to kill each other in an all-out sweaty and chaotic brawl. But after training for some time, you realize that for every movement there is a counter movement, for every position a reversal, for each submission a defense. In my opinion, the most important part of BJJ is to learn humility and improve oneself. No matter how big or strong or athletic you are, there’s someone who can beat you, whether by their own expertise, your mistakes, or both. Initially, tapping out can be a very humbling experience, because in the simplest sense, you are surrendering. You acknowledge that your opponent could have broken your limb or made you pass out. You begin to respect and learn from everyone and every situation. Even if I submit my opponent easily and win, there is no way I fought a perfect fight. I made mistakes, even if they were small, and I will strive to correct them. That is the essence of BJJ. Even though no one can ever be perfect, it is important to aim for that, because it leads to self-betterment. That is why I do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, to improve myself in every way I can, and of course to just have fun.

The first paragraph is 699 out of 700 characters and the second is 1318 out of 1400 characters. Since this is not a very common activity, I do give a brief description of what BJJ is. I then basically just talk about why I love martial arts in general, what specifically BJJ had taught me, and how this can apply to other aspects of my life. But I want to emphasize that you should only put obscure sports or interests in the “activities” section if you actually love doing them. If you played intramural dodgeball for two weeks during freshman year, obviously don’t put that. But if you participated in dodgeball every semester throughout college, organized tournaments, and coached youth league teams, then it’s probably significant enough to add to your application. I was asked on every single interview about BJJ because most of my interviewers had never heard of it and were genuinely curious, and I was able to talk at length about it because I’ve done martial arts for literally half my life. So the point I’m stating is this:  it’s perfectly fine to put seemingly random things on your applications, as long as they are actually meaningful to you.

Wow...that was a lot longer than I thought I’d spend discussing the activities section. But hopefully it'll help you.  The other thing I want to comment on is the personal statement. This is your prime opportunity to express your desire, motivation, and calling to medicine. It’s the only chance you have to speak from your own voice, and you want it to be powerful. The personal statement does not have a prompt per se, but your answer should definitively address the question, “why do I want to become a doctor?” You can draw on past experience (death of a loved one, a personal struggle, or an eye-opening moment of clarity) to show the med school admissions committee that this is the right path for you. For TMDSAS you will have 5000 characters at your disposal, and for AMCAS you're allotted 5300. So unlike the “activities” section, proper grammar and style are expected, and your essay should flow vey smoothly.

The most important quality that distinguishes a great personal statement from the rest of pack is to vividly SHOW the reader why you want to be a doctor, RATHER THAN TELLING the reader why. If you’re using a community service experience, don’t just state that you volunteered at a hospital and helped people, which made you feel good and increased your desire to pursue medicine. Instead describe exactly what it was like to be there day to day. Mention a specific patient encounter. Talk about something unexpected that happened, how this changed your mindset, pushed you to seek more opportunities to help others, and how this led you to pick medicine as a career path. Really set the stage and intrigue the reader. But also know it'll take time to write a great personal statement. Most pre-meds are not English or Writing majors, and it will take many drafts before you get a solid essay. I probably wrote ten drafts before I was satisfied with it. So don’t be disheartened. One thing that helped me was I asked tons of people to read over my personal statement. The more opinions you get the better your statement will be, because each person sees something different. You want to appeal to all types of readers.  Here’s a copy of my personal statement:

Red balloons, blue shirts, and smiles. What on earth could this seemingly random combination of rubber, fabric, and facial muscle contractions possibly have in common? They are all an integral part of healing at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. A balloon graces the CMC logo and blue shirts are the required uniforms for all volunteers. Smiling is just something that you can’t help but do when you spend some time at CMC. In high school I always had a bent towards science and the human body, and medicine definitely sounded like an appealing career, but to be honest, I had no idea what being a doctor and caring for patients entailed. So I decided to volunteer at CMC throughout my senior year, spending time playing with children, and getting exposure to patient care along the way.

Who knew that playing XBOX games, coloring, and making crafts from paper and Popsicle sticks with six and seven year olds could be so much fun? There is nothing like seeing kids’ faces light up with excitement when I walked into the playroom, each one animatedly telling me what games they wanted to play. Every so often a doctor or nurse came into the playroom, and I was surprised to see that the kids weren’t afraid of them at all. I remember being terrified of my doctor as a child, but at CMC the doctors and nurses were different. They spent a lot of time with each patient, playing and coloring with them as they asked how the kids were doing. This really showed me the importance of relating to patients, and how far a simple gesture can go in establishing trust. I also spent some one-on-one time with kids who were in illness-associated isolation. I had to protect myself and the kids from any possible infections, and I wore quite the collection of protective gear including gloves, a gown, a mask, and a hairnet. It almost looked like I was preparing for brain surgery. These kids were in the hospital for months at a time, and their excitement at seeing me always put a smile on my face. I brought them toys to play with, talked with them about school and their families, and got to know some of them pretty well. I have always loved interacting with people, and during my time at CMC I really learned how I can apply this towards medicine.

CMC was instrumental in pointing me in the direction of medicine. However I wanted to get some experience seeing what doctors actually do day to day. In the summer following my freshman year of college I shadowed an internist, Dr. W. I have never seen anyone as enthusiastic about his profession. Dr. W was always beaming, full of energy and constantly joking around with his patients and staff. He spent so much time with each patient, answering every question without the slightest hint of irritation, one time even taking out a pencil and paper to draw a diagram for a patient on how arteries are clogged. By observing him, I learned that being a doctor is so much more than just knowing different diseases, symptoms, and drugs. It is first and foremost about patient care. He also taught me that a physician’s education is never finished; he is always a student, constantly learning and seeking to improve himself. Dr. W wanted me to become familiar with other areas of medicine, and arranged for me to shadow an ophthalmologist and a cardiologist. This showed me the vast range of possibilities as a doctor, but also further illustrated how crucial patient care is in every medical field.

To see medicine practiced from a different angle, I went on a medical mission trip to Guatemala to serve the local population. I never realized how useful my ability to speak Spanish was until I saw the doctors in our group struggle to communicate with the locals. I helped by working as a translator and assisting in procedures, but most importantly I discovered the true value of compassion in patient care. A smile and kind word can do wonders in easing fear and anxiety. If I saw a scared child or even adult, I knelt beside them and asked how they were, reassuring them that everything will be “ok.” There are few things as rewarding as helping someone who is really in need. I couldn’t help but smile when a patient came and embraced me so tightly out of gratitude. I hugged them just as warmly in return, listening as they whispered short prayers and thanks in my ear. These experiences in Guatemala fully exposed me to the humanistic side of medicine and demonstrated firsthand the power of compassion.

Whenever I drive by Children’s Medical Center I am reminded of my days as a blue-shirted volunteer, the days that set me on my path to medicine. My brief time spent with sick children at CMC, seeing patients with Dr. W, and helping poor locals in Guatemala solidified my desire to be a doctor. I have learned a lot through these experiences, but above all, I have learned the true value of compassion in healthcare. After all, treating someone with kindness is never a hard thing to do – often all it takes is a smile.

As long as you answer the “why medicine?” question, there are many different ways to write this statement. I decided to use the three health-related experiences that were most significant for me, demonstrating how each pointed me towards wanting to be a doctor. Regardless of your own writing style, just be conscious of the fact that you have to captivate the reader. By the time he/she finishes reading your essay, you want them to say, “we have to call this kid for an interview!”

The last thing regarding your application is the secondary. Secondary applications are somewhat random. Not all schools have them. Of the schools that do, some send them to all applicants, while others send them only to the more qualified applicants as an additional screening tool to determine who to invite for interviews. The individual secondaries also vary. Some are short and easy to fill out. Others are ridiculous and will take longer than the primary AMCAS or TMDSAS application. Some even ask silly things like “list the top 3 words that describe you”.  You’ll have to just go with the flow on these, be honest in your answers (otherwise there could be discrepancies with your primary app), and always "show" rather than "tell" when you write. There will also be a lot of redundant information that you’ll end up filling out, but that’s just the nature of the beast. Lastly, just like the primary app, the sooner you fill these out and send them, the better off you’ll be.

All your apps are in, you’ve submitted everything from your end, and now you wait for the gracious emails inviting you to interview. If you applied early like I advised, chances are you’ll get some interviews done even before your college starts up again (if you’re a traditional applicant of course). I submitted all my application materials by early June and had 4 interviews before TCU started up again for the fall semester. Some schools start their interview sessions as early as the end of July or the beginning of August, while others don’t begin interviewing until October or November. So don’t worry if you haven’t heard from a school; it may simply be early in the season. A lot of med schools will also give you several options of interview days. Check your schedule and respond as soon as possible, because the days get filled quickly. You don’t want to get stuck with a day that doesn’t suit your schedule. With respect to the interviews themselves, you may end up doing a lot of traveling so plan ahead by scheduling flights, booking hotels, or contacting student hosts, whatever you need to do. Remember - interviews are pretty much full day events with campus tours, Q&A sessions, lunch, and the interviews themselves. Plan accordingly. All that being said, let’s talk about the actual interview day.

Most medical schools follow the standard interviewing procedure. Two separate interviews, each lasting 30 minutes to an hour. Your interviewers can be any combination of professors, researchers, practicing physicians, current medical students, or any other random faculty members. Some med schools have started MMIs (multi mini interviews), but these are less common. You should do your homework and find out if your school does this.  Speaking of doing homework...a couple days before your interview, read everything on the school’s website, peruse the school’s Wikipedia page, and make sure you’re abreast of any new developments being undertaken. If the school is switching to a new systems-based curriculum and you don’t know about it, you won’t look so good if asked about this during your interview. Get a solid grasp on what’s going on with the school.

It’s also a good idea the night before to read over your primary and (if they had one) secondary application to refresh yourself on what you said. I had interviews where my interviewer read me a direct quote from my application and asked me to elaborate. On your actual interview day, you naturally want to look your best. I’m all for self-expression and everyone doing their own thing, but for interviews there’s certain norms you have to adhere to. For guys, definitely wear a suit, and stick to conservative colors. If you have earrings, take them out.  And go with a somewhat normal hairstyle (no lime green Mohawks, gentlemen). For girls, wear something that’s formal and classy (as much as we love it, no cleavage or short skirts on this particular occasion), cover up any tattoos, and go easy on the makeup. Trust me, you don't want to be the one kid remembered for wearing a Batman tie clip or Hello Kitty necklace.

The number one secret to doing well on interviews is to be CONFIDENT in yourself, your abilities, and what you’ve done in the past. The fact that you’re here for an interview shows that the medical school is already interested in you. So don’t be nervous and jittery. This interview is as much a chance for you to get to know the school as it is for the school to get to know you. It’s a two-way street. Don’t feel like you’re being put on the spot. But remember that being confident doesn’t mean you start acting arrogant. That is probably the easiest way to get a big fat rejection letter. Be friendly and remain calm and collected even if they throw you a curveball question, which many schools will. Also, BE HONEST with your interviewer. Don’t try to “BS” your way through the interview. You’re not a con man. You’re a pre-med student who wants to get into medical school, and that is what needs to be on display.  With respect to the specific questions that’ll be asked, it really differs per school and per interviewer. Some will spend 5 to 10 minutes trying to get to know you first; others will jump right in and grill you with questions. The most common questions I was asked:

• Why do you want to be a doctor?

• Tell me about “X” activity/experience (directly from my app)

• What would you do if you didn’t get accepted?

• What are your strengths and weaknesses?

• What do you think about the current healthcare situation?

• How would you respond to “X” situation (insert some ridiculous ethical scenario)?

• What was your favorite class from undergrad?

Looking back, I must say that the majority of my interviews were very laid back and conversational. There were of course some difficult and completely random questions, but that is to be expected. Other than the questions above, some moments stick out to me:

• What’s your favorite color? (when I said “blue” my interviewer looked at me, said “Nice!” and wrote something down. I still have no clue why I was asked this; maybe my interviewer was just trying to mess with me)

• Why I don’t just forget about medicine and start a hedge fund? (I responded that “I don’t want to be evil”, which launched us into a lengthy discussion about corruption on Wall Street, corporate lobbying, the military-industrial complex, and unjust wars for profit, ultimately arriving at the conclusion that money is the root of our problems - at which point we both started laughing at how in depth yet off topic this conversation was)

• What’s the most numerous cell type in the human body (I guessed “red blood cell”, but my interviewer corrected me, saying that technically it’s bacteria, which outnumber our own cells 10:1…guess I got a Biology lesson even on an interview!)

• Would I rather have no arms or no legs? (I said no legs, because I can do more things with my arms)

• What would be my exact step-by-step guide to reforming healthcare? (don’t remember my exact response, but I’m willing to bet it won’t be enacted anytime soon)

• What are the top 3 problems facing the world? (I said “war, poverty, and Kim Kardashian”, which got a good laugh)

I will also say that student interviewers are the most chill, and those are probably everyone’s best interviews. I didn’t have any condescending, rude, or arrogant interviewers, and I think for the most part the people that volunteer to be interviewers are nice and genuinely want to find applicants who would be the best fit for their school. As I’m sure you know, always have some questions to ask the interviewer as well. And don’t just ask something for the sake of asking a question. You should ask them specifics about their medical school (you may be going there for the next four years after all!). Some good questions:

• What’s the curriculum like? Is it systems-based? Block schedule? Etc. (look up the different types of med school curricula beforehand)

• How are grades determined (A/B/C/D, pure pass/fail, honors/high pass/low pass/fail, etc)?

• How do the students perform on the Step (USMLE) and residency matches?

• How’s the city/do you like living here?

Your questions should show that you are interested beyond just the surface level. Ask about things as far down the road as Residency Matching (isn't that the ultimate goal of medical school?). You should also challenge them a little bit, to the point that they start selling the school to you, discussing its strengths and how it measures up to other schools. Once all your interviews are over, there’s nothing to do but relax and wait. As long as you’ve done everything correctly, you should be hearing back from schools in no time at all!

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