What You Need to Know About Medical School Admissions During the Coronavirus Pandemic
COVID-19 Series The Princeton Review
Hi, folks.
I’m Rob Franek, Editor-in-Chief at The Princeton Review, and today I want to pick up on what
we talked about yesterday.
Our video yesterday was about helping you be strategic in choosing your MCAT exam date.
Now let’s talk about how the Covid-19 pandemic could affect not only your test score, but
also the rest of your medical school application.
Let’s start with coursework.
This is, as you know—along with your MCAT score—the most important component of your
medical school application because your stellar coursework will be what will get you through
that first all-important screen at your dream school.
Usually medical schools are very strict about what coursework they will and will not accept—but,
due to the current extenuating circumstances, we are very likely to see additional flexibility
in what they will accept.
For instance, most undergraduate courses have transitioned to online learning for the spring
semester—and many have already announced that all summer courses will be online as
well.
So, most medical schools that previously did not accept online coursework will have to
make an exception this cycle—at least regarding courses taken during the spring of 2020 (and
again, probably summer 2020 as well).
With that said, if you can avoid completing any of your core prerequisites online, that
would be best—but if you are currently enrolled in any courses that have moved online, you
will have no other option.
Medical schools have already said they understand this and will make exceptions—again for
spring 2020 only (and potentially for summer 2020 as well).
Let’s also talk about pass/fail grades.
Many schools are allowing their students to take spring 2020 classes pass/fail.
This is fine—as long as those classes are not part of the core medical school prerequisites—specifically
Bio 1 and 2, Chem 1 and 2, Organic chem 1 and 2, Physics 1 and 2, and Biochem.
Those are all expected to be taken for a grade.
The reason is that core prereqs are considered a predictor of performance in the tough medical
science courses, and as such, MUST be passed with a grade of C or above (emphasis on the
“above” part, folks)—and at many colleges, “P” grades can be earned with a grade
of D or above.
IF your school is only allowing P/F grades for this semester and you are enrolled in
a one of those core pre-req courses, again, you will not have a choice—however, according
to the medical schools we have spoken to, there is the potential that they could grant
what they call a “conditional acceptance,” with the requirement that you repeat any of
these P/F pre-reqs for a grade prior to matriculating to their programs—especially if your MCAT
score is not strong in one of those areas.
So to summarize: Online will be fine for the current semester through at least June—especially
if you’ve got no other choice!—and if you can avoid taking pre-reqs or labs pass/fail,
DO take those for a grade, but other courses are fine to be taken P/F. And again, this
is for the current semester ONLY (and maybe summer 2020 as well, but we have not gotten
confirmation about that).
Now let’s move on to experiences.
As you know, the next critical component of a medical school’s screening process will
be your 15 experiences and 3 most meaningful activities.
Here, the medical schools have already said that there will be much less grace given.
Why?
Because MCAT test dates and the spring cancellations were out of your control.
The same is true for your spring classes going online, and possibly your school moving to
a pass/fail grading system.
But experiences and your ability to demonstrate the 15 core competencies should have been
in progress before March 2020—these don’t just happen on a single date or even typically
over a single semester.
You’ve had a long time to acquire these, and you should have been acquiring experiences
before now IF you intended to apply this year for the 2021 application cycle.
It would not be great to have left those until the very last couple of months prior to submitting
your medical school application.
Now, here again, there are exceptions.
Let’s say that you have been completing your shadowing but had lined up additional
paid clinical work that you were scheduled to start this spring, or in May, or after
graduating—in other words, experience that you would have had during your application
cycle.
Medical schools WILL be giving leniency for these, realizing that you may not have been
able to start prior to submitting your applications.
Also, if you had already started an experience, and had it placed on hold—there will also
be leniency for this gap time.
Do not stress about this.
You can still estimate your end date and hours.
It is also OK to say, “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this experience was placed on hold.”
HOWEVER, all of that being said: There will be no leniency in certain areas (such as unpaid
clinical shadowing and service experiences).
Medical schools feel that these are items that should have already been started prior
to the end of February, and you should not be using these last months to try and get
in all of your shadowing and service work.
If you were short on service and/or clinical experience and were working to get these going
before submitting, you’re now, unfortunately, in a difficult place.
You’ll have to make the decision of whether to proceed this year without those additional
experiences—realizing this could significantly affect your experiences screen.
Remember that for most schools, their second-line screen—after your GPA and MCAT score—are
these experiences.
If you feel you really don’t have enough to report for your experiences, you might
want to seriously consider waiting until the next cycle—and using the extra time to work
on enhancing all aspects of your application.
Our rule of thumb is: IF you are struggling to come up with even 12 experiences without
listing every honor society and award and hobby and shadowing experience separately—then
you may not be ready!
You want to be the very best applicant you can be.
Remember: the competition is fierce—with acceptance rates to medical school around
40% of the people who apply gaining an acceptance.
More people will be rejected than accepted, and of those 60% of people who are denied—about
50% of those students have a GPA and MCAT score to get through that first screen, but
their experiences keep many of them out.
We tell our students we work with that a “gap or glide year” between undergrad and medical
never hurt a student unless they did nothing but sit on their couches for that year.
Medical schools love the “older” applicant who has spent time outside the undergraduate
“academic bubble,” as we call it —working in the medical field as scribes and MAs, getting
more service or research, traveling and experiencing other cultures (post-Covid-19 of course),
and really learning what it is like to live and work and pay bills—because the people
you will be working alongside and engaging in service with could be your future patients!
Again—be the best applicant you can be.
Think about what that means FOR YOU, and then make your best choice.
Please know that we are sorry you’re in this situation where you have to make some
tough choices.
If we can support you, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our med admissions team, headed
up by the incomparable Dr. Anita Paschall.
And of course, please subscribe to our channel for all the latest news and updates about
how the coronavirus pandemic is affecting the MCAT and med admissions.
Wishing you and your families safety and good health.