Member of Tier-1 Med School AdCom Sharing some Advice
Hello my friends! My name is Hunter, an M4 that is about to start Cardiothoracic Surgery residency in the fall! As a former member of the Admissions Committee at Ohio State, I've reviewed literally hundreds of applications and seen the same mistakes made over-and-over again in applications. For this reason, I want to list some of those mistakes to help you all avoid them.
- The purpose of your personal statement is to convey why you want to be a physician - this is the thesis and main point of your essay.
- DO:
- Answer the question of why you want to a physician specifically - not a PA, not an EMT, not an NP, not a PhD - an MD/DO.
- Make the essay skim-friendly if possible - most AdCom members are physicians or medical students that are incredibly busy. Make sure that the most important highlights are conveyed at the beginning of each paragraph. Hate to say this, but I've seen so many folks simply skim these essays.
- Write an engaging essay that is story-focused.
- DO NOT:
- Restate your resume.
- Overemphasize elements of your personal background that are not relevant to why you want to be a physician - you almost certainly will get a secondary essay about challenges that you've faced growing up.
- Save the "crescendo" of why you want to be a physician until the very end of the essay. This is an extremely common mistake - you don't have to speak in chronological order. This is an essay - put the reason right after your HOOK and then use the subsequent stories to underscore the reason you stated in the first point.
- Deploy your activities strategically.
- Nobody is expecting you to have 10 publications in Nature as an undergrad. However, making sure that you explain the impact of what you learned from research and demonstrating that you actually did more than "surface level" work is very impactful.
- If you're running out of space, I would recommend lumping your shadowing if at all possible. The purpose of shadowing is to ensure that you know you want to be a physician. Same with awards.
- Don't over-rely on updates to your application.
- Your main application is what is going to do the bulk of the lifting. As a deliberator, I only see the updates to your application if they were submitted prior to the deliberation. If your application has already been scored following your interview, I don't ever see your updates.
- If there is something that is in the works that will be impactful, it is best to list this as a future accomplishment, even if you haven't accomplished that goal yet. If it is a deciding factor in your admission, it will prompt us, as the committee, to look to see if you've updated us on that accomplishment.
A bit about me: I applied to medical school during the "Dr. Fauci" year (2021) and was admitted to multiple T10 and "tier-1" medical schools. Prior to medical school, I was an electrical engineering major and self-studied for the MCAT, achieving a >95th percentile score. For family reasons (my grandmother was ill), I chose to stay at a great medical school that was both cheapest for me and close to my home. I served on the AdCom while in medical school and have been running a small business reviewing applications since 2024. As mentioned, I will be starting Cardiothoracic Surgery residency in the fall and I'm passionate about helping pre-med students get into medical school.
If you want personalized help with your application, please DM me. Because I know the struggle, I have a *"*name your price" policy if my rate is too expensive for what you can afford.