Please note, not all services are available in-person in all locations as our advisors specialize. However, we help the majority of our clients virtually!
Medical School Reapplicants
Ensuring acceptance the second time around
Understand Your Rejection, Plan for Your Reapplication
Being rejected from medical school is a painful feeling. No one wants to be a medical school reapplicant, but the reality is plenty of premeds are. As a reapplicant, you have both advantages and disadvantages. Perhaps you now know what medical schools are looking for, but perhaps you now realize you do not have it. Do not be discouraged though. As a medical school reapplicant, there are several steps you can take to improve your application and be successful the second time around (or third, or maybe even fourth). A reapplication does not mean another rejection if you go about things correctly.
At MedSchoolCoach, we have successfully helped many applicants in the process of reapplying. We take an all inclusive approach to our reapplicants in understanding what went wrong the first time around.
We start the process with a thorough review of your prior AMCAS application. We look into your grades, timing, essays, schools you applied to, activities, LOR writers, etc in order to understand what you did right and what you did wrong as a first time applicant. As a medical school reapplicant, you cannot afford to make the same mistakes and we will make sure you do not!
As a medical school reapplicant, you now have an additional year to increase your exposure to research, clinical work or volunteer work. We will help you understand what parts of your application were lacking the first time around and come up with a game plan for you to increase your chances of admission the next time around. You have a golden opportunity to make your application stronger, do not waste it!
If the weak point in your application was your GPA, you have an opportunity to make up for it with a post baccalaureate or master’s program. We will examine your situation and figure out the best program for your. Our post-bac advisors can help you pin point the correct program for you, including exploring linkage programs.
Every reapplicant needs to rewrite their personal statement whether they like it or not. Dean Dr. Quin Capers from Ohio State says it best:
“One of my personal pet peeves is when a reapplicant submits the exact same AMCAS personal statement, word for word. You don’t want to be a “boomerang applicant”– someone who responds to a rejection by simply sending out the same application the very next cycle– the same experiences, the same personal statement, the same grades, the same MCAT. This is disrespectful to the medical school to which you are applying, and gives the impression that you do not care about the process. It is also a missed opportunity to show what you have learned. Even if you do not apply to the same medical school, the admissions committee will likely know that you were unsuccessful the last time around.
You have an excellent opportunity to take the negative and turn it into a positive. Since being rejected from medical school, what did you learn about your perceived shortcomings? What have you done to improve upon them? In the interval between your medical school rejection and your reapplication, what did you learn about yourself? Maybe you learned that you are an “overcomer,” a person with resilience and persistence, someone who simply will not give up on his/her dreams. All of this is GOLDEN material for your essay — use it. Many applicants in this position never mention that they were rejected the first time around. I understand this; it is not a pleasant memory, and it is easy to ignore, or at least not dwell upon.
Some mistakenly think that the medical school reviewers are unaware of this fact, and that if you don’t mention it, they will never know. Most of the time they will know. In fact, if you are reapplying to the same school, they will likely review your old application and your new application side by side to see what you have improved upon. Step up to the plate, bare your feelings about being rejected, and paint a picture of how you methodically went about improving your portfolio. The admissions committee will likely be positively impressed”
MedSchoolCoach will help you understand if this is the right time to reapply or if you need to wait an additional year. Remember, you do not want to simply resubmit an application that is the same. You need time to make your application stronger. What was lacking the first time around and where can you improve? Medical schools will see right through a quick reapplication that has not improved. If you need to retake the MCAT, perhaps it is best to wait another year. If you need to improve your clinical or volunteer experience, you may also need to wait. Or perhaps you have a great application and as a reapplicant you should be successful. We will help you figure that out.
No one likes being a medical school reapplicant. People like even less being a re-re applicant! We will make sure you put into place the correct back up plan, whether that includes DO (osteopathic) schools or international MD schools. Our goal is to make you become a physician and we will explore the right opportunities for you.
Reapplicant Packages
As a reapplicant, we recommend a comprehensive package in order to be sure your second application is successful. What we tell every medical school reapplicant is that we cannot guarantee you an admission, but we can guarantee that your second application to medical school will be the best it can be!
Call Us: (617) 651-0672
info@medschoolcoach.com
