Pre-Health Application Process
Preparing for Your Application Cycle
Many things factor into your application cycle, and we strongly recommend having frank and open conversations with one of our pre-health advisors to discuss the optimal timeline for your entrance into medical, dental, veterinary, physician's assistant, or other health professional graduate programs. Some factors you need to consider include:
- Completing the required prerequisite courses for your professional program
- Complying with the pre-health committee letter evaluation processes and deadlines (medical and dental)
- Reviewing the timeline for appropriate admissions exams
- Considering your cumulative and BCPM GPA (download BCPM GPA calculator)
- Developing your personal statement
- Generating a list of schools
- Calculating the cost of applying
- Preparing for the appropriate centralized application service
- Understanding the submission and rolling admissions process
- Completing the secondary application process
Medical Schools follow a holistic review process. When considering applying, you want to keep in mind some important factors that are critical to your candidacy for admission:
- Your Major and GPA (includes both science and non-science courses)
- Your Standardized Test Score (includes the MCAT, DAT, OAT, PCAT, GRE)
- Clinical/Health Care Exposure (sustained engagement in health care settings)
- Community Service (commitment to serving others, volunteer/extracurricular)
- Research (independent scientific inquiry
- Leadership Qualities (taking on responsibilities and deeper level of involvement)
- Letters of Recommendation (committee letter/individual letters of recommendation)
- Strong MCAT Score (prepare early and prepare often; be familiar with MCAT content)
To review specific application processes, deadlines, and requirements, here is a list of centralized application services for health professional programs: