The first thing you'll write for us is an Intake Form, which asks you to reflect on your readiness for the application process. You can find it on our website under The HPA Pre-Application Interview Process. There are three written pieces that you’ll need to produce in the spring semester in preparation for your Pre-Application Interview (PAI) with HPA advisers: an autobiography, two short essays, and an activities list. The activities list is a good piece to get started on: you'll write a short paragraph describing each activity you've pursued in college (and you can include meaningful ones from high school if you'd like). Even if you don’t write up all of the required information over the summer, spend some time reflecting on your personal narrative—your motivation to become a physician, ways that you’ve tested that interest, ways that you’ve developed the core competencies that medical schools seek in applicants. Try to think beyond what looks good to medical schools; focus on what you will bring to patients and the healthcare system as a physician.

For some students, it helps to learn about others’ paths to medicine and how they frame their career interests. You could gain these insights by talking with physicians and older peers who are in medical school, reading memoirs (Atul Gawande, Danielle Ofri, and Perri Klass are a few authors that students have enjoyed), watching documentaries, or reading blogs and other online information (like the stories on the Aspiring Docs Diaries).

The world of medicine and med school admissions can seem intimidating because of these “insider” terms, so we’re glad that you asked!

• BCPM stands for  Biology-Chemistry-Physics-Math. Your BCPM or science GPA is evaluated separately from your overall GPA in the medical school admissions process, so it’s one of the numbers you should know before you decide to apply.
• The ACA is formally called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, but it’s often shortened to Affordable Care Act or ACA. Familiarity with the current state of the US health care system will help you know what you’re “getting yourself into” as a future physician.
• The PAI is shorthand the preapplication Interview. All Princeton applicants seeking a committee letter interview with one of the advisers as part of the HPA preapplication process.
• AMCAS, or American Medical College Application Service, is the “common application” for most allopathic medical school (MD) programs.

There are many costs associated with applications, but few are set – most will vary depending on the student. The MCAT costs $300, but preparation can range from a few hundred to a few thousand depending on your preparation method. Your primary (common) application will cost $160 for the first school, and $39 for each additional school. The average student applies to about 20 schools, so that’s about $850 for your primary application. You will receive secondary applications from most if not all of your schools, and those range from $0 to $100+ depending on the school; you’ll likely spend around $1500-2000 on secondaries. So, that’s in the neighborhood of $3000+ MCAT prep and interview expenses. You’re responsible for your interviews – professional clothes, travel, lodging – depending on the proximity of the interviews, this cost will vary widely.

This is one of the many reasons we advise students not to apply until they feel competitive enough to gain acceptance to medical school. We have seen more than one student worried about the strength of their candidacy, who applied to 50+ schools, hoping someone would take a chance on them. The cost for 50 applications will likely end up around $7000, money that would be better spent on taking some postbac courses to improve academic metrics, or supplement income to allow an applicant to accrue more volunteer hours, or otherwise be used to bringing the candidacy to a more competitive level before applying.

There are ways to help mitigate the expenses along the way. Students from low-income backgrounds can apply to the AAMC Fee Assistance Program (FAP; similar fee assistance is available for dental school applications and the DAT), which reduces some application costs. The FAP lasts for two years and provides a lot of benefits, including free MCAT prep materials, access to the MSAR (which is critical for school selection), and a number of free applications. Shopping consignment, outlets, and discount stores can reduce clothing costs (suits are most often on sale in January and July as the seasons change). Keeping your school list local can reduce interview travel costs. Saving up frequent flyer miles or credit card award points can help when you have to travel. Many medical schools have volunteer students who will host you during your interview visit so that you don’t have to stay in a hotel.

The most expensive and variable aspects of applying are MCAT prep and secondary applications. MCAT prep can range from around $500 to many thousands of dollars. Secondaries average around $100 per school, and it's common to apply to 20-25 schools. Maximizing free MCAT prep resources and choosing your school list carefully can save money. 

Many applicants work during their glide year to help finance applications (this year, 73% of new matriculants reported that a year or more had passed between their college graduation and medical school matriculation). See our HPA Financing Applications Expenses guide for more tips and our Financing Your Medical Education info session next week for advice from the Association of American Medical Colleges.

It’s great practice to attend graduate school and job fairs before it “counts.” It helps to have developed a one-minute introduction that you can give of yourself (name, concentration, class year, where you’re from, one or two interesting things about you), and then have a couple of questions you want to ask. Some examples: “Do you have suggestions on how to spend the summer as a freshman – it can be hard to find internships without more experience,” or “What advice do you have about how to decide if medicine is right for me?” or “What have Princeton students liked about your school?” You should also be prepared to answer some questions about yourself and your interests. If you’re shy or anxious about attending, you can just sit and observe in the chatrooms. It’s okay to just go and check it out without engaging with the reps – at least you’ll know what a fair is like for future reference! 

See the Center for Career Development guides on attending in-person and virtual fairs for more tips. Also, check out the AAMC’s Do’s and Don’ts for Virtual Fair participants and the Student Doctor Network's 10 Tips for Making the Most of a Virtual Fair.

Unlike college admissions offices, few med schools have enough admissions staff capacity to offer these opportunities for prospective students. Check the websites of the schools you’re interested in to see if there are such opportunities, though – if you go to the Admissions Office page, there will often be information about potential visits either in the FAQ or the “Contact us” section of the website. In fact, setting aside a few afternoons this summer to surf med school admissions office websites would be a productive use of time since it will help you get a feel for the differences between schools.

There are some medical schools that offer open house/tour days on campus. During the academic year, we announce these in Vitals in Local Area Events or Educational Opportunities, depending on the proximity of the school to Princeton. During the summer, Vitals goes on vacation, so we post any open house announcements on our homepage under Events, and/or on Facebook.

If you have friends at medical schools, it’s appropriate to see if they can show you around the unrestricted areas of their schools, or set up ways for you to meet with current students and just talk about their experiences. Also, come to the info sessions we set up for you, where med school admissions deans and directors come to campus specifically to meet Princeton pre-meds and talk about their programs. This year, Hopkins, WashU, Weill-Cornell, Pritzker, Rutgers NJMS and Quinnipiac were here, to name a few. Doctor is In visits, particularly the ones with current medical students, can also provide insight into the schools.

Once you’re invited for interviews and visit schools as a prospective student, you’ll get a good feel for the various places. Interviewed applicants are given tours, meet faculty and students, and have access to admissions and financial aid staff for answers to their most pressing questions.

It is always wise to have questions about the particular medical school whose representative you're talking to.  It's best to do some quick research online before the event, and learn a little about the school's curriculum, location, student organizations, etc.  Then, come up with some questions based on what you would want to know if you were an M1 (first-year med student) walking the halls at that school.  In other words, put yourself in the position of a current med student and imagine what concerns you might have.  It can also be helpful to ask if any Princeton alumni at their school are available to correspond via email.

As for speaking about your individual record, it is fine to be straight with an admissions dean and share your "numbers" (MCAT, GPA), but only one-on-one, NOT in group sessions, where individual concerns shouldn't take over the group's time. Admittedly, one-on-one time is rare. Remember that the MSAR (Medical School Admissions Requirements, available at HPA) enumerates average MCAT scores and GPA's of accepted students at all U.S. medical schools, so you should be able to 'size yourself up' on your own.  In group situations, our advice would be to keep the conversation less numbers-based and more focused on the character, curriculum, and unique qualities of the med school in question.  It is certainly acceptable to ask for the contact information of the person you're talking to, and follow up with additional questions (within reason!) after the event.

It is our view that under no circumstances should you portray yourself in the application process as someone other than who you are. Self-awareness and authenticity/sincerity are big in medical school admissions. Besides, medical schools' admissions offices aren't really in the business of filling different specialties.  That would be a true exercise in futility since the majority of medical students enter a specialty other than the one they thought they would enter when they started med school.

You are not expected to know your specialty as a premed and if anyone at a medical school asks that question, they're most likely aiming to discover whether you're aware of the different specialties and whether you've thought of the personal/professional life balance that is a struggle for all busy physicians; or, they’re simply making conversation, perhaps in an attempt to share with you information about their own specialty.  If you have experience within specific specialties that have raised your interest, it's fine to share that information, but no one is looking for you to commit to any specialty, or even to primary care more generally.

First, we know from conversations we have with your peers that virtually every applicant feels like they are inferior to their peers. The phenomenon of comparing your insides to others' outsides runs rampant among premeds (and Princetonians in general: case in point, this article written by a very successful alum). Keep in mind that you have amazing strengths as an applicant (and person!), that medical schools value resilience and perseverance, and do your best to move forward in this process with confidence. If you don't yet feel confident in yourself as an applicant, admissions committees and interviewers are going to sense your self-doubt and doubt your readiness for the next step. 

That said, it's helpful to know what areas of your application may benefit from additional context and enhancement. With a disciplinary action, one of the best remedies is just time--the further in the past the incident was (with no repeated issues), the less of a concern it will be. If there are lessons learned from the situation that you can parlay into actions, that can demonstrate a lot of personal awareness and growth--for example, if it was an alcohol violation, going through BASICS training and then becoming a peer educator who helps others understand healthy behaviors. It may also help to have one of your recommendation letter writers address the situation if they worked with you through it, talk about what you learned and how you matured from it. Plus, you'll talk with HPA about the situation and we'll provide additional context and information in your committee letter packet. This holds true for other areas of concern where context and advocacy could help, like a single semester where your grades slipped, a low section score on the MCAT, or a need to pursue postbac coursework: reflecting on what went wrong, taking action to address it, and having recommenders and HPA explain in more detail (while also highlighting the strengths of your candidacy) can help to allay concerns that admissions committees may have.

The osteopathic (DO) medical school common application (AACOMAS) has specific prompts and space for a short essay for applicants to address this. The allopathic (MD) medical school application (AMCAS) does not, so there are a few places you can include this information: 

1. In the common application, you can include up to 15 work/activities entries and write a short essay about each one. You could include “response to Covid19" as one of your work/activities entries.
2. In secondary applications, many medical schools are including a question whose prompt would allow you to address the pandemic. This may be a prompt asking for a time you faced a challenge, or one about ways you’ve demonstrated resilience, or one that simply asks you if there’s any additional information that you’d like to share that was not addressed elsewhere in the application.
3. HPA will include information about the changes in grading policies that will be sent to schools with each applicant’s committee letter. We will also ask applicants to share information about the impact of the pandemic on their lives and work with them to incorporate this into the committee letter if they would like us to do so.

It is statistically more difficult for students who are not US citizens to be accepted into medical school, and once a student is accepted, there are also financial considerations that can create a barrier.

According to AAMC statistics, in 2021, there were 1,450 allopathic medical school (MD) applicants whose legal residence was outside of the US. Of those, 136 matriculated to medical school, for a matriculation rate of about 9% (vs.36 % for all applicants).

There are some US medical schools that do not accept international students and some that limit international acceptances to Canadian citizens. Once an international student is admitted, the financial aid options at many schools are more limited than they are for US citizens.

Over the 2017-2021 application cycles, 20 international/DACA Princeton applicants were accepted to US/Canadian MD and DO (osteopathic medical) schools, so it certainly isn’t impossible, but it is important to have a realistic understanding of the obstacles that international students may face. Please refer to the International Students and DACA Students sections of the HPA website for more information, or come in to meet with an adviser to discuss your plans.

There is rarely a single, solitary factor that keeps a student from gaining acceptance to medical school -- it's generally a more holistic, nuanced, complicated situation. If we had to pinpoint the most common factors that contribute to not being accepted, they would be:

• low academic metrics (overall GPA, science GPA, overall MCAT, MCAT subscores);
• generic letters of recommendation; 
• applying to too narrow a range of schools;
• applying late;
• lacking clinical experience;
• weak written or oral communication with schools (in application materials and interview);
• issues with professionalism; 
• serious/recent disciplinary action. 

We try to provide tools for self-reflection to applicants, and we are happy to advise any student at any point in their academic career regarding the strengths and weaknesses of their candidacies relative to their career goals. Of course, we can't be 100% sure of every candidate's likelihood of success in the application process, but we try to provide an honest opinion based on our experience.

About 10-15% of our applicants in a given year apply MD/PhD; Princeton gives you a better taste of what it might be like to carry out independent research at the doctoral level than most colleges and universities, and many students develop a passion for inquiry within their discipline.

That said, some of the students most passionate about their research also choose to apply MD only with plans to incorporate research into their four years in medical school. Students applying MD/PhD complete the same “common application” (the AMCAS), but some of the details are a little different:

• Essays: MD/PhD candidates write two additional essays: one about their rationale for pursuing the dual degree and the other detailing their research experiences.
• Standardized tests: most programs will only require the MCAT, but some may ask for a GRE score – be sure to check your prospective schools’ requirements.
• School Selection: your research interests will come into play as you decide where to apply. Some of our applicants choose to apply to some schools MD only and some schools MD/PhD, depending on what a given medical school offers.
• Letters of recommendation: some programs will ask for letters from each of your significant research experiences.
• Interviews: most interviews will be over two days while MD only interviews are one day. You’ll meet with potential research mentors as part of the MD/PhD interview process.

Statistically speaking, the acceptance rate for MD/PhD candidates is not too different from MDonly candidates. In 2019, there were 1,813 applicants and 708 matriculants, so about 39% of students who applied eventually matriculated into an MD/PhD program, and we can assume (based on our experience with our own applicants) that some of applicants who were not accepted MD/PhD joined MD only programs. MCAT and GPA metrics for MD/PhD were a touch higher than for MD only applicants nationally (see AAMC FACTS Data), and we’ve seen the same for our Princeton applicants, but we’ve also seen success for students from a range of academic metrics, from a 3.1 GPA supplemented with postbac science coursework, up to a 4.0, with MCAT scores from the 84th through 100th percentile (512-526). The commitment to research, as demonstrated through experience and supported by letters of recommendation, can make a significant impact on the success of an MD/PhD candidate. You can find more specifics in our Explore Careers: Physician Scientist page on the HPA website. This FAQ is particularly useful.

This is a serious matter.  Please come in and talk to us about your reasons for not wanting to attend School X.  We’ve advised you from the beginning to apply only to schools you would attend and to keep an open mind throughout. In general, we never advise former applicants to reapply when they were accepted to at least one U.S. medical school. Aside from the logistical issues of going through the process again when you already have an opportunity awaiting you, most schools feel, as we do, that enrollment in a U.S. medical school is a privilege and a wonderful thing.

The only time we can think of where such a reapplication might be OK is if a serious personal crisis led you away from your goal in the midst of this application cycle (a death in the family, an illness, etc), and a number of years passed before you came back as an applicant; depending on the uniqueness of the situation, we suspect that med schools would understand why you stepped away from the chance to attend med school the first time around.  But even in that scenario, we would advise you to ask first for a one-year deferral and try to renew that deferral if you needed more time to get back on track.

Of the approximately 50 students who were not accepted over the past four years, about 2/3 of them reapplied in a later year and were accepted. Most, but not all of them took two years – it is common to take a year to address any areas of the candidacy that needed strengthening (and take a step away from a long, stressful to reflect and regroup), then put the application in at the end of that year to go through the interview year. Commonly students need additional academic preparation to bring their metrics up, time to retake the MCAT, time to gain more clinical exposure or just time to be out in the real world and gain new perspectives and personal growth. We’ve had students reapply up to four times who were eventually accepted, and some who have expanded their school list to osteopathic (DO) schools or overseas MD programs to expand their options.

Of those who chose not to continue in the application process, some went into other health careers (dentistry, physician assistant, public health, nurse practitioner), some attended masters or doctoral programs to focus on the research aspect of health, some are approaching health as consultants, sales associates, or device makers in health-related companies, and some followed other passions to go into finance, software engineering, or law. It can be hard to track students who are not accepted since they often lose touch with our office, but we’re always happy to hear from past applicants about the directions in which life took them.

Every year, there are more than twice as many applicants as there are seats available in medical school. Admissions deans tell us that there are far more qualified applicants than they can interview or accept. So, it’s not surprising that some applicants will have to reapply. 

When a reapplicant is not successful in a second (or third) application, it often comes down to not understanding the weaknesses that prevented them from being successful the first time, or not addressing those weaknesses before reapplying. This is especially true when applicants try to apply in back to back cycles. Unless you’ve been actively addressing potential weaknesses during the first application cycle, there probably isn’t enough of a change in your candidacy to go into a second application right away. This is especially true of metrics and clinical/service experiences, which are the top factors(Link is external) that admissions officers consider when deciding whom to interview and accept. This advice from admissions officers for reapplicants(Link is external) emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and intentional preparation for reapplication, which can take time. 

If you haven’t applied yet, prevention is key! There are so many things within your control that can help you avoid having to be a reapplicant in the first place. We work closely with each prospective applicant to help you develop an application strategy that will set you for success—to apply for the first time when your candidacy is strong enough to reach the goals you’ve set for yourself in terms of experiences, metrics, timing, mindset, and other factors. We can’t 100% predict who will get in and who won’t, but we will do our best to help you minimize the risk of not gaining admission.