Almost every medical student has taken the MCAT, which stands for Medical College Admission Test. It is the standardized test required to apply to medical schools.

  • Almost all U.S. medical schools and many Canadian schools require you to submit MCAT exam scores.
  • U.S. students who are looking to go to foreign medical schools do need to take the MCAT.
  • International students who are looking to go to medical school in their own country usually do not need to take the MCAT, but do take the equivalent exam in their country.
  • There may be other exceptionally rare cases when a student can get into medical school without taking the MCAT.

Many schools do not accept MCAT exam scores that are more than three years old.

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MCAT Facts

Although medical schools say clinical experience is not a strict requirement, it might as well be a prerequisite. An applicant with no clinical experience will be doing him or herself a huge disfavor. Medical schools are extremely hesitant to accept applicants who have little to no experience in a clinical health setting. In fact, if you have no clinical experience, your chances are almost zero that you will be accepted into medical school. Medical schools need to know that you are serious about medicine before they let you into their schools. If you have never worked inside a hospital, health clinic, or something of the like, they will write you off as an uninterested applicant.

Make sure you research all the positions available at your college. Freshmen year is not too early to explore extracurricular activities. Medical school is competitive and you must do everything you can to stand out from the crowd.

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Technically, no. Most medical schools do not have volunteer service as a requirement to apply to medical school. However, all medical schools highly recommend getting experience doing medical related work before you apply to medical school. In fact, you probably have close to zero percent chance if you have no experience in a health setting.

The reason for this is simple: medical schools cannot know if you are a serious doctor candidate unless you have worked for or with a doctor. How can an applicant be so sure they want to be a doctor if they have never seen a doctor in action?

So although volunteering is not a requirement, many applicants opt to do it because medical experience is pretty much required. You do not have to volunteer for a hospital or health clinic, but you do need to get some experience in the medical field.

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There is a great amount of extracurricular activities available for pre-med students and just as many opinions about which ones are the best. However, we believe the best way to determine what extracurricular activities a student should pursue is by asking him or herself three questions.

1. Do your extracurricular activities show that you are interested and knowledgeable about the field of medicine?
Just to be absolutely clear, a medical school will not accept an applicant who has no experience in the medical industry. This is common sense. There is no way that you can know if you truly want to (and can) be a doctor, unless you have seen them in action. If you apply to medical school with no medical experience, they will probably think you are in it just for the money or because your parents told you to apply.

Getting into medical school is extremely competitive. To be competitive, an applicant not only needs high grades and MCAT scores, but impressive medical experience as well. You can obtain valuable experience by doing volunteer work, doing clinical research, working as an EMT, working at a doctor’s office, etc. To be most competitive, it is best to choose extracurricular activities that give you the greatest amount of responsibility.

For example, if all you did was shadow a physician, it is not going to look impressive. If all you did was clean beakers and flasks for a research team, it is not going to look impressive. If all you did was volunteer for a hospital by greeting the patients as they walked in, it is not going to look impressive. The common factor in all three examples is that none of the positions gave the student an opportunity to do any hands-on medical work. Just because you worked in a health setting does not mean you did health-related work. Instead, try obtaining positions where you can interact with patients, where you can do actual research, where you can really learn about medicine. Obtaining these positions are not always easy for undergraduate students, but being a competitive medical school applicant was not meant to be easy.

2. Do your extracurricular activities portray you as a unique applicant?
Every year, about 80,000 students apply to medical school. A majority of these students will be competitive and have impressive extracurricular activities. Due to the overwhelming amount of applications, it will be easy for applicants to go fairly unnoticed. That is unless you do something unique. Do not get it wrong, it is good that you did research and it is good that you volunteered at a hospital. But if you want to go the extra mile, try to make yourself stand out in a sea of applicants.

What is considered unique? Try obtaining positions that not a lot of your peers would get. For example, try to become a supervisor of an EMT company or published as a researcher. How about starting your non-profit organization or building an iPhone app. There are endless possibilities but the goal here is to make yourself stand out.

3. Do your extracurricular activities portray you as an applicant with leadership skills?
Another important characteristic that medical schools value in their students is leadership skills. As a doctor, you will automatically be thrust upon a position of leadership. Medical schools want to accept applicants that have proven themselves to be leaders. If you are not a leader, it will be hard for you to become a successful doctor, no matter how high your GPA is.

Therefore, try to obtain positions that show off your leadership skills. For example, consider running for your president of your school, or being the editor of your newspaper. How about starting an organization or TAing for a class? All of these activities can develop the leadership within you and portray to medical schools that you are a leader.

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Some medical schools require a certain minimum GPA to apply and other schools do not. In reality however, this minimum cutoff GPA is absolutely irrelevant. The GPA needed to be a competitive applicant at a particular school and the GPA required to apply to that school are never even remotely similar.
For example, the University of Utah School of Medicine has a minimum GPA et at 3.0. This means that they will not consider any applicants with a GPA under 3.0. However, if you apply to this school with a 3.0 GPA, you have about a zero percent chance at gaining admissions at this school.

For most medical schools, you will need at least a 3.5 GPA to be just somewhat competitive. In 2012, the mean science and overall GPA of matriculants were 3.63 and 3.75 respectively. The mean and overall GPA of applicants was 3.44 and 3.66 respectively.

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Yes, most students are going to need to take the Medical College Admission Test, also known as the MCAT. Medical schools require all traditional applicants to take this exam. It is very rare that a student gets accepted to medical school without it.

To learn more about the MCAT, view AAMC’s page on the MCAT.

Related Resource:

Medical College Admission Test (MCAT)

What classes are required for medical school?
Generally, the following courses are required for all medical schools:

One year of biology with lab
One year of physics with lab
One year of English
Two years of chemistry with lab (general and organic)

Many schools also require or strongly recommend the following courses:

One year of college level mathematics
One quarter of statistics
Courses in humanities or social sciences
Courses that will enhance computer skills
One quarter of biochemistry with lab
Foreign Language (highly recommended in states with high foreign language speakers)

Please note that these requirements are generalizations. It is the responsibility of each applicant to research the exact requirements of each medical school. AAMC has compiled a list of school-specific requirements in a publication called the MSAR, which is available for purchase online.

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Medical School Application Requirements (MSAR) || Is research experience required for medical school? || Should I take all prerequisite classes before MCAT? ||

Technically no. However, having research experience, in addition to clinical experience, can help strengthen a pre-med’s application to medical school. Medical school is extremely competitive and doing quality research work can boost a student’s resume. Start looking around for potential labs that are hiring and need research associates. Freshmen year is not too early to start research work. Medical schools will appreciate an applicant who has spent many years in the same laboratory.

One word of caution is to stay away from labs and professors who only want you to do the lab’s “dirty work.” In other words, they just want you to clean beakers and flasks and do data entry. This type of work, though it is in a research lab, is not research work. Many labs require you to do this before you are given more responsibilities which are fine. However, be wary of labs that give no opportunity for upward responsibility. Make sure to talk to your employer before you agree to join their team. Make sure he or she knows that you are applying to medical school and would eventually want actual research responsibilities.

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You need to take your pre-requisite classes at a U.S. or Canadian college or university. Medical schools do not accept premedical classes taken abroad especially because those classes are usually taken in series.

No, but it is recommended at some medical schools. Schools that are located in states where foreign-language speakers are widely prevalent will probably recommend its applicants to learn a foreign language. For example, medical schools in California highly recommend that its applicants have some knowledge of Spanish.

Note that learning a foreign language can only help strengthen one’s application. If time persists, learning a foreign language might be something worth investing in if you want to be a doctor.

What are the most important factors for admissions?
Without a doubt, the two most important factors are GPA (science and overall) and MCAT score. Many medical schools do not even consider applicants whose GPA and MCAT scores fall well below their averages.

Other important factors are letters of recommendations, personal statements, and extracurricular activities.

There are also factors that students have no control over. These factors include race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, citizenship status, and state residency.

Lastly, it is important to note that these factors are most important in determining whether an applicant gets invited to an interview at a medical school. Medical schools only give interviews to applicants who they believe are highly qualified. Once invited to the interview, an applicant’s performance at the interview seems to be the most important factor that affects admissions.

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You can enter up to 15 experiences but you only want to include significant experiences. Do not include information just to fill up all 15 spots. Medical schools prefer quality than quantity.

In the Works/Activities section, you may also identify up to 3 most meaningful experiences out of the 15 possible experiences. When you designate an experience as a meaningful, you will be given an additional 1325 characters to explain why. In this section, include how the activity helped you grow, what impact you made, and why it was important to you.

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But I Don’t Have 15 Activities!

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