I had a few tricks up my sleeve when I was applying, and I’ve learned of a couple more great ways to learn about a prospective institution since enrolling in medical school. Our last article covered the basics of the legwork necessary to set yourself apart. This post goes a little deeper: If you have the patience to execute, these strategies are avenues to finding that all-important “wow” factor.
1. SDN posts about choosing between schools
Most people who go through the medical school application process will hear of the Student Doctor Network at some point. It hosts forums for interested premed applicants and can be a goldmine of useful information.
There’s one specific post type we especially recommend checking out: Under Forums -> PreMed Communities -> Pre-Medical (MD) -> Help Me Decide: X vs Y Medical School, you will find a forum designed for students who’ve received multiple acceptances and are trying to decide between schools. (Now that’s the kind of problem we’d all like to have!)
In their posts, accepted students often list the information about and special features of their possible schools that they consider most crucial as other forum-goers—who are sometimes current medical students—discuss those features that may serve as deciding factors. Searching for a medical school in these forums can help you discover useful little-known information while saving you the time of slogging through primary sources on the school’s site.
2. Overall university sites and recent news
Medical schools are almost always attached to an undergraduate institution. While medical schools may not be the best at advertising themselves, their current research, or their program initiatives, their connected institution will have plastered rankings and achievements all over their sites.
Try scrolling through the most recent university news for references to their medical school. (These will come in the form of announcements about new grants, members of the medical school faculty receiving leadership roles, and new programs being launched at the medical school.) Leveraging this information in your secondary application will imply that you keep up with the institution’s most recent news.
3. Community Health Needs Assessment from the local hospital
Ever heard of a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA)? It’s a “systematic process involving the community to identify and analyze community health needs,” and each Critical Access Hospital (CAH) must conduct one per the Affordable Care Act. And just as most medical schools are attached to an undergraduate institution, they are also usually attached to hospitals. This means prospective applicants can look up the CHNA for those hospitals that offer rotations to a given medical school. If you happen to have clinical experience with matching patient populations or with an illness identified in the CHNA, that would be an excellent tie-in in your secondary application.
4. Look through info listed for “current students” regarding rotations, faculty, etc.
Prospective students/applicants sections can be sparse, and rarely contain details about your potential daily schedule or the specific, novel ways a medical school has innovated their curriculum. By using the “current students” section to identify practices like early patient encounters, telemedicine exposure, ultrasound experience before rotations, clinical skills being taught in pre-clerkship, etc., you can find great topics and programs you’d be interested in exploring.
Bonus points for identifying the faculty in charge, the time of year, or which building would host, since only deeply interested prospective applicants would know that information!
5. LinkedIn search for med students at the school
This method is fairly similar to how business and tech students network. But instead of connecting with hiring managers, you’ll be connecting with current medical students at choice institutions.
First, if you haven’t already done so, sign up for LinkedIn, a popular networking social media platform. Then, search for the school you’re interested in to find the people who identify as current students. Send them a polite message requesting to connect and chat about their experience applying to and studying at that school. Talking to them about their experiences can help you learn a lot more about that institution—as well as grow your own professional network!
Note: This strategy works best if you put some time into your LinkedIn account prior to reaching out to strangers. Do your best to fill in information about yourself and your work history, so that they can have an idea of who you are during their conversation. Also, make sure to use a profile picture and connect to some friends and family to legitimize your account!
That’s all for background research! Feel free to email us or message us @GuysEdit on Reddit if you have any questions. Next up, we will be covering some powerful strategies for pre-writing essays. Follow our email list to be notified as soon as the article is available!