Professional school applications present a challenge for most students, as they involve many application components that may require months, or even years, to prepare for. If you want to study to be a doctor, lawyer, dentist, or become a part of any other such profession, a significant investment of time, money, and effort is required on your side before you even get into a program. And yet, there’s some doubt about how fair and unbiased these professional school application processes really are. For example, we recently conducted a medical school admissions study which showed that, in general, medical school admissions practices appear to favor higher income applicants. In fact, many independent studies conducted over the years have pointed out the worrying lack of diversity in professional school programs. In an effort to correct this, many schools have prioritized diversity, equality, and representation and are looking for ways to make their admissions process fair and more equal.
Here at SortSmart, we believe in the importance of motivation-based screening practices and their effectiveness to help optimize admissions as well as the hiring processes. You might even have seen our blog about how medical school admissions boards can reduce bias while selecting higher performing more satisfied physicians.
There’s definitely a reassuring push to change. These new technologies and strategies to combat bias are an inspiring sign of hope for the future. But if you’re a student, the knowledge of the current social and economic obstacles in the admissions process might be worrying you. Moreover, your immediate interest would understandably be in the area of how applicants can currently deal with this situation. What can you, as a student, do to navigate the biases in professional school applications? What’s in your control?
While the implicit bias of the admissions committee and other obstacles you face are certainly concerning, it’s not all bleak! There are many factors which are in your control, and when handled right, can help maximize your chances of success. Keep these dos and don’ts in mind as you go about completing your professional school application:
Don’t: Crowdsource Your Advice
To figure out what they need and how to best complete their professional program applications, many students naturally turn to the internet as a source of information. This is especially true of newer components such as situational judgement tests or most challenging components such as standardized exams. That’s why, for instance, situational judgement test (SJT) reddit boards and MCAT reddit forums have so much traffic. But turning to Reddit premed and other professional program application forums might not be the optimal way to prepare for your applications. These forums are a source of unverified, unsubstantiated information coming from users who have no responsibility to be reliable and helpful. The “advice” you get here is highly subjective, informed by the personal experiences and opinions of specific users. Typically, it’s just misleading but occasionally, it can even be genuinely useful! The problem is, how can you tell which is which?
And even if the advice is based on strategies that worked in one specific scenario, can these online posters ensure that it will work for you? It’s likely that a strategy that makes sense for one student could be another student’s downfall. For example, you’ll often find students wondering whether expert coaching services, such as those offered by consulting services, are worth it, especially for SJTs, which are supposedly impossible or unnecessary to prepare for. But this is simply not true and can be easily verified outside of the world of Reddit – for example, some studies have shown a substantial improvement in applicant interview performance in response to targeted interview and SJT prep.
Sometimes people come out directly to make bold claims, supported by nothing but personal anecdotes. They may assert that paid prep services are a “scam” – why? Simply because the concerned posters could apparently manage to ace their interviews and SJTs with just a few hours of prep and do well! That might indeed be the case for some students – for instance, students from privileged backgrounds who have previously received coaching on the required skills in their expensive private schools – but it does not necessarily apply to everyone. Many naive students follow such advice, thinking it’s applicable to everyone, and then ultimately pay for it with poor results. And if you’re a student already facing significant social obstacles to admission, one unverified, inaccurate piece of advice could be the difference between success and failure.
That’s why we recommend always taking any advice and information you see in Reddit and other pre-med forums with a pinch of salt. Always verify for yourself. To continue our previous example, if you ONLY check reviews of consulting services on Reddit, you’ll see a mixed bag of comments, including glowing praise and genuine criticism, along with malicious targeted posts from competitors and inaccurate analyses. But if you step beyond the world of Reddit, you’ll find an overwhelming majority of students talking about their positive experiences with consulting services and how materially helpful they found it. Moreover, such malicious posts might even keep you from realizing that the internet is full of free resources, including blogs, videos, and webinars, that are available to everybody!
So, what should you do instead? Well, first of all, start with completing your own thorough research. You can check out the admissions websites of the schools you’re applying to as well as MSAR to get all the latest data about required application components. You can supplement this with information from reliable blogs, videos, and informational articles on the internet. After reviewing the requirements and assessing your own needs, if you feel you can benefit from some expert coaching or advice, then consider working with a qualified, professional medical school advisor with a proven track record of success. Before you sign up for any service, make sure they can offer tailored programs that meet your specific needs. Remember, the goal here is to create and follow a strategy that works for you and helps you present your best self to the admissions committee. Avoid generic, unverifiable guidance that does not take into account your specific limitations and strengths.
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Do: Know Yourself
If you’re a professional school applicant, it’s crucial that you have spent some time on self-reflection, thinking deeply about your life experiences, strengths, weaknesses, ambitions, and major areas for improvement. Think of yourself as the admissions committee might consider you. Identify your “USPs” or Unique Selling Points and then focus on how to communicate these to your colleges. Remember, at the level of professional program applications, colleges are looking for students who are highly motivated and have the skills and experiences to handle the challenging curriculum that lies ahead of them. Even if certain elements, like your GPA, standardized test scores, or history of extracurriculars aren’t as impressive as you’d like, remember that there are still plenty of other avenues to communicate your strengths, whether it’s your personal statement, supplemental college essays, letters of recommendation, or diversity essay. You can check out our blog about how to advocate for yourself in your college application to learn more about this topic.
Additionally, though it may seem counter-intuitive, there are many positive “biases” that could work in your favor. For example, many colleges are choosing to make diversity a priority and their admissions process, as well as the composition of their matriculating classes, reflects that. When you’re choosing which programs to apply to, keep these factors in mind and select the ones where you have the best chance of getting accepted.
Don’t: Focus on Numbers Rather Than Skills
The professional school application process is very often a long slog. It goes on for many months and involves working simultaneously on numerous application components. At some point, you may feel overwhelmed by this “checklist” of never-ending tasks, and indeed start thinking of yourself only as a collection of facts, figures, and minimum requirements! But there’s actually a secret benefit to this entire process you may not have guessed – you now have the chance to build long-term skills that will benefit you for the rest of your life, and might in fact prove essential in your future profession. For example, while studying for the MCAT, students often get caught up in chasing some specific “MCAT score”, and focus too much on the “important” MCAT sections like MCAT Biology. First of all, every section of the MCAT is equally important in terms of scoring. Secondly, all sections have a purpose, and that goes beyond just testing your scientific knowledge. While trying to improve your MCAT CARS score, for example, you can build critical thinking and analysis skills which are extremely important in your future career as a physician. While these skills can definitely be learnt, they take time to build. So why not use your MCAT prep time to focus on that? Similarly, when studying for tricky situational judgement tests and interviews, you should focus on building your communication skills and improving your ability to think under pressure, rather than trying to memorize answers to all the expected questions.
There is a three-fold benefit to this type of thinking: one, focusing on building skills as opposed to chasing results reduces some of the stress and pressure of application season. Two, it prepares you to actually handle the final test or exam much better. And finally, self-improvement is important no matter what stage of life you’re in, and the long-term benefits of these skills will stay with you forever.
Do: Use Examples, Actions, and Evidence
Our final piece of advice to help you make your application as strong as possible and to navigate away from likely sources of bias is to support every assertion about yourself with evidence in the form of details about your actions, experiences, and activities. Make it as hard as possible for any application reviewer to deny the merits of your claims. For example, if you have an average GPA due to specific personal circumstances that you have expanded upon in your supplemental essays, but can prove your academic ability via your excellent research work, then ensure that at least one of your letters of recommendation are from an academic mentor who can meaningfully support your claims. If you have fewer traditional extracurriculars because of the economic demands of your circumstances, make sure you talk about your work experiences and focus on how, specifically, these helped you build skills and gain meaningful experience that make you unique.
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Conclusion
The ultimate responsibility to make professional program applications completely fair and remove all biases lies in the hands of schools and their admissions committees. However, that doesn’t mean that, as an applicant, you simply have to accept these biases. The actions and strategies we’ve outlined above can help you optimize your chances of success and overcome at least some of these obstacles. As we know, real change can sometimes take a long time. But, in this case, it can start with you!
