By Jeremiah Fleenor, MD, MBA, author of The Medical School Interview: Secrets and a System for Success

Another admissions cycle is in the history books. For those of you who got accepted, congratulations! I hope medicine is everything you thought it would be and more. For those of you who didn’t, I’m sorry this wasn’t your year. This article is for you.

As any great athlete knows, performance level during the season is largely determined by the choices made during the off-season. Here are some options to consider as you make your summer plans.

What Worked and What Didn’t

In a perfect world you would be able to find out what a given admissions committee thought about your application, both good and bad. Fortunately, many schools offer such a service. This feedback is worth its weight in gold. If any of the schools you interviewed offer post-interview feedback, make sure to get it.

Even one school’s feedback can provide great insight into their evaluation of your strengths and weaknesses, but trends across multiple schools hold even more power. For example, if several schools comment on a low course grade or a particular letter of recommendation, this is likely a critical focal point for your efforts. This sort of information is especially useful if you have multiple weaknesses in your application, because it allows you to improve the most limiting area.

Critical Evaluation

It is paramount to spend some time looking over all aspects of your application. This is where the rubber meets the road. It can be hard to honestly evaluate the shortcomings of an application. Nevertheless, the best chance for success next time around lies in addressing these very issues. Consider sitting down with an advisor or other qualified person and ask questions like these:

• What are the strengths I bring to the table?
• How am I a unique applicant?
• What are the weaknesses of my application?
• Which can I reasonably fix in the short term? Long term?

For example, if you determine you lack medically relevant experience, then the best course of action is to focus your summer activities in this area. Try to set up internships or ask if you can shadow your family physician.

If there is a particularly damaging course grade, consider re-taking the class during the summer semester.

If you discover you struggle communicating during interviews, practice mock interviews in front of a video camera. Replay the tapes and work on expressing yourself more clearly.

Multi-Task

One skill almost every physician possesses is the ability to multi-task. At the risk of preaching to the choir on this topic, wise planning of your summer activities can be a great way to kill many birds with one stone. For example, when I’m evaluating an applicant I’m usually very pleased when I see he or she has traveled abroad. It’s almost impossible to go to another country and not be changed for the better. With this in mind, if you lack medical experience, consider doing clinic work in a foreign country. There are many short and long term medical trips to destinations across the globe. These outings are often set up through churches or charitable organizations; most are usually very happy to have extra help. This sort of activity can broaden your life experiences, add to your medical repertoire and, possibly, provide a great letter of recommendation.

Sit Under the Apple Tree

Most medical schools have a summer break between the first and second years. Historically, it has been a challenge to decide on an activity covering that time. (This may be analogous to the choices facing you this summer.) In the process of informing me and my classmates of the various options available to us, our Dean of Student Affairs kindly said it was fine to “sit under the apple tree” and do nothing. I’m glad she gave that option because I think it’s very viable. It holds and important, yet underappreciated, place on the list of things to do. Here’s a story to help illustrate the concept.

There once was a competition between two teams. The goal of each team was to be the first to saw through an enormous, thick tree. Each team had two men and one long saw with a handle on each end. The men were opposite one another and pulled and pushed the saw back and forth in the cutting process. The competition began early in the morning and was expected to last most of the day.

Close to mid-day, the first team decided to take a break. They rested for a bit, ate some food and sharpened their saw blade.

The second team saw the first team taking a break and viewed this as their chance to win the competition. They kept sawing with even more intensity in hopes of distancing themselves from the first team. Unfortunately, the more the second team would saw the duller their blade became. As the day wore on they had to work harder and harder just to keep the same cutting pace.

In contrast, when the first team returned from their break they found themselves sawing with ease. The sharp teeth of the blade allowed them to put forth less effort for each cut. The food and the rest fueled their bodies for the remainder of the long day.

In the end, the first team won by a substantial margin. The reason they won was because they stopped to rest and sharpen their saw blade.

Is this the summer for you to sharpen your saw blade for the long road ahead? Only you can answer this important question.

Summary

The summer break offers many things to the applicant: respite from the storm, time to strengthen weak areas and a chance to take inventory and refocus. What you choose to do in this off-season can make a world of difference when the next application cycle roles around. I hope this information helps you make the best choices possible for your particular situation. Good luck in your summer plans.

Please email your medical school interview questions to
Dr. Fleenor at jdfleenor – at- gmail.com