The Anatomy of a Pre-med Student

Many of our pre-med students have a “checklist” approach to their pre-health journey – it goes something like this: pre-requisite courses, standardized exam (MCAT, PREview, etc.), clinical experience (ideally something beyond shadowing), research experience, community engagement, and so on. However, medical schools are not quite interested in looking at an applicant through this laundry list and are rather more focused on learning about how the things that the students have engaged in have enabled them to hone the skills they need to succeed in medical school and beyond.

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) has identified 17 pre-med competencies that medical schools utilize for the holistic review of their candidates. The key professional competencies emphasize continuous learning, cultural awareness and humility, empathy, ethical responsibility, interpersonal skills, oral communication, reliability, resilience, service orientation, and teamwork. The science competencies focus on understanding human behavior and living systems, while the thinking and reasoning competencies cover critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, scientific inquiry, and written communication. These essential attributes are important for a successful career as a physician.

So how would you, as a pre-med student, figure out where you stand on your journey to becoming a physician? Well, the answer is quite simple really. Many of your science as well as thinking and reasoning competencies are being nurtured through your pre-med coursework and occasionally enhanced through your research experience. The professional competencies, on the other hand, are most likely to be fostered through your activities outside of research and academics. As an exercise, try listing your experiences on the Activity Journal and see how many competencies you can tick off for each experience that you have engaged in. Beyond just the distribution of your activities, think about the depth and longevity of each of your experience. How have your engagements impacted your overall growth as a future physician and a person?

Once you have done that, you will then need to determine where you are on the path of being an applicant? The AAMC has an excellent resource called the Anatomy of an Applicant that can take your introspection one step farther. Use this resource to 1/ understand the application components and timeline and 2/ decipher how your activities and experiences have aided in your pursuit of the pre-med competencies that the medical schools are looking for. If everything looks good, you are probably ready to apply. If you feel that you are lacking in any of the areas, it might be a good idea to schedule a pre-health advising appointment with an advisor and dissect your portfolio, as well as talk about potential opportunities to fill those gaps.

See you around!

***Image generated using Gemini

By Doris Tabassum
Doris Tabassum Associate Director, Graduate School Advising