Critical Thinking in the Time of Gen AI

In need of a restaurant recommendation for a client dinner? Improved flow in a long email? Data consolidated into an easy-to-ingest format? 

For all of this and more, you might turn to AI. And, while Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini are always waiting to answer, their very existence also prompts questions. Existential ones, like “How is my industry changing? What will my job look like in the next year… five years… 10 years? What skills will continue to matter? Am I prepared for my career now, and the one I’ll have in the future?”

In an article for Forbes, journalist Samantha Walravens honed in on how AI is affecting the current education space and workplace. “Colleges are racing to integrate AI, but students are entering a workforce that is evolving even faster,” she wrote. “For today’s graduates, survival in the job market will depend less on technical credentials alone and more on pairing AI literacy with judgment, adaptability, and the human skills that machines—as of yet—cannot replicate.”  

Moreover, while it may seem counterintuitive, it is our own innate intelligence and curiosity that is most complementary to AI. Anthropic’s Fourth Economic Index Report, published in January, describes research that found that the correlation between the sophistication of a person’s prompt and that of Claude’s response was “nearly perfect” at 0.92. In other words, Claude’s response met the intellectual level of the operator. Cornelia C. Walther Ph.D., who described this finding in Psychology Today, wrote, “AI mirrors human abilities, literally. In this new era, the most valuable technological skills for hybrid citizens will remain knowledge, critical thinking, and a quirky mind.” 

Alas, the very existence of generative AI may be robbing us of such gifts. A recent MIT study showed that as we increase our use of AI, we are prone to cognitive offloading—or letting the AI do the thinking for us. This, in turn negatively impacts our critical thinking skills as we engage less deeply in the work and/or decision-making and trust the machine more. 

Michel Gerlich, Ph.D., Head of Center for Strategic Corporate Foresight and Sustainability and Head of Executive Education and Senior Faculty at Swiss Business School, also led a research study on AI and critical thinking and garnered similar findings. He wrote, “The study highlighted that users who trust AI tools are more likely to rely on them for decision-making, thus reducing their engagement in critical thinking processes. This trust, fostered by the perceived reliability and convenience of AI tools, promotes a cognitive dependence that diminishes the need for active cognitive effort.” 

So, what can we do to stop our own disengagement? First, Walther urges us to change our philosophical conception of AI. She wrote, “We must stop viewing AI as a ‘magic box’ and start viewing it as a cognitive exoskeleton. An exoskeleton only moves as well as the person inside it. If the person is stationary, the suit does nothing.” 

Tactically, Wanqing Zhang, Educational Developer and Learning Experience Designer, provides three steps for actively engaging your critical thinking skills while you use AI on her Think to Learn YouTube channel. 

Her guidelines for making the most of AI: 

• Define your context. Zhang suggests starting with an active process of defining your goals for each query or project. What are you really looking to do? How will AI assist you? What are your criteria for success? What are your constraints? What will happen if things go wrong?

• Confirm the sources. Do not trust the sources provided by AI. Confirm their veracity, by going to listed sources and reviewing them. Do they say what AI is saying they do? Are they reputable? 

• Consider what would change your mind. What information would make you reject the AI recommendation? When might you decide that the strategy isn’t working? What new information could come to light that would make you consider alternatives? Zhang uses the example of an AI-generated marketing strategy: If engagement dips by X percent, will that spur you to pivot? 

AI might be changing the world around us in so many ways. But some things don’t change, including the need to meet each decision with our full curiosity, engagement, critical thinking, and humanity. If we can do that, we can make the most of AI as a tool. 

Your Work & Activities Section: Clinical Gigs that Medical Schools Love (Part 3)

Perhaps the most important W&A entries are about clinical experiences. Admissions committees need to know: Does this candidate have enough clinical experience to know what they're getting into? The roles that we highlight throughout this week will demonstrate that you have seen medical care in action and gained experience with patients.

Research Jobs with Clinical Exposure: A twofer! You'll learn about one area of medicine in-depth and get to know patients. As a hospital research coordinator, one client became a passionate advocate for sickle cell disease (SCD) patients' health and dignity. Through surveying patients at every appointment, he developed strong bonds with them and their families. He learned about the daily trials of the disease and the stigma surrounding its most common treatment: opioids. Hospital staff often treated patients in extreme pain as drug-seekers. One 19-year-old told our client: "I just want to be respected." It affected our client deeply. His involvement in this clinical research project spurred him to join two studies investigating new SCD drug treatments.

Your Work & Activities Section: Clinical Gigs that Medical Schools Love (Part 2)

Perhaps the most important W&A entries are about clinical experiences. Admissions committees need to know: Does this candidate have enough clinical experience to know what they're getting into? The roles that we highlight throughout this week will demonstrate that you have seen medical care in action and gained experience with patients.

Free Clinic Volunteer: You'll interact with patients, doctors, and other medical professionals while providing care essential to your community. You'll meet patients with a variety of medical needs, and your entry about working at the free clinic should be about direct patient interaction. (You need at least one patient-interaction in your W&A.) Runner up for the best entry focus is a learning experience you had with a staff member. Showing yourself as a problem-solver is great.

We had a client in charge of patient intake at a neighborhood free clinic. He spoke to many patients and observed a wide variety of minor ailments that sharpened his focus on becoming a general practitioner. We had another shy client who volunteered at a local college clinic administering COVID-19 tests, meeting with the same student athletes weekly, and developing her communication skills and personal relationships. She also took it upon herself to hop on the clinic's phone and assist parents and students in finding COVID-19 testing information on the university's confusing website. What she did in those instances was not medical but showed that she was a patient and caring person. It also allowed her to express in a Most Meaningful entry how having the testing information available only on the website, and in a hidden place at that, was a barrier to student care that is emblematic of a greater problem in the healthcare space. Her bottom line: Patients need easy access to accurate, understandable information regarding their own care.

Your Work & Activities Section: Clinical Gigs that Medical Schools Love (Part 1)

Perhaps the most important W&A entries are about clinical experiences. Admissions committees need to know: Does this candidate have enough clinical experience to know what they're getting into? The roles that we highlight throughout this week will demonstrate that you have seen medical care in action and gained experience with patients.

Medical Scribe: This is one of our favorite types of clinical experience. Working as a scribe allows you to see doctor patient interactions up close; you'll expand your medical vocabulary, read about things touched on in appointments (there's that intellectual curiosity!), and be a valuable part of a medical team. You can scribe at a top hospital or a CityMD clinic. What matters is exposure. Don't just describe the job to the school (they know what it is); share a meaningful story. One client, a head scribe, witnessed a death in the ER. It threw him—and he decided to create a guide for scribing in traumatic situations for the scribes he supervised. We've also had several clients discover a new field of interest through scribe work.

EMT: You'll learn basic life support (BLS) and work in high-pressure scenarios. We had a client who worked as an EMT, and on his second day, he arrived at the home of his third-grade teacher, who had taken a bad fall. He kept her calm while his superiors carefully moved her. What he did was not medical, but it prepared her to receive medical attention. Another client performed CPR on a patient, tag teaming with an experienced colleague so neither would become too fatigued and lag in compressions. Their persistence paid off; their patient survived. As an EMT, you'll have opportunities to help people and maybe even save lives. You can learn a lot from your colleagues, too. They've seen it all.

Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA): This job will require a 4-to-16-week state-approved training program at a local community college or through the Red Cross. It will also involve major grunt work. And guess what you need to get used to? You'll be responsible for multiple patients, taking their vitals, making sure they're moving, eating, and drinking water. You'll work closely with a medical team. You don't have to work full-time, and the hours are flexible. It's also a paid gig, and actual clinical jobs can look more impressive than volunteering. We've never had a client who was a CNA. And it's no wonder—it involves taking a test, it's low-paying, and it's hard. But that's why we'd like to see an applicant write about this role.

Your Work & Activities Section: Before You Start

Before we make a case for the kinds of experiences you should include in your W&A and get into the deep details you should be sharing, we're going to give you three super-basic tips for writing these entries. Bookmark/screenshot this page and keep it accessible because you are going to want to check that you're doing these three things in each entry that you write.

1. Use complete sentences. This is not a resume. You might have done an activity log when presenting your candidacy to your pre-med committee. That will be an excellent resource, but it's probably not polished, and these entries must be.

2. Go beyond the "what." Don't just describe a job you did. Share details about how this experience challenged, changed, or motivated you. Through anecdotes, show the qualities that medical schools are looking for, which include leadership and critical thinking abilities, empathy, strong communication skills, resilience, intellectual curiosity, and maturity.

3. Utilize your space well. For general entries, you'll have 700 characters with spaces to tell your story. Aim to max out that character count. Each experience should warrant it—700 is not that many characters. For the Most Meaningful entries, you'll have 700 characters with spaces, followed by an additional 1,325 with spaces. If you come up short on either section of the Most Meaningful entries, don't worry about it, so long as you have something compelling in each section.

Anatomy of a Successful MBA Application: Show Compatibility in Close Knit and Collaborative Communities

In this three-part blog series, we’re taking a deep dive into what admissions committees are looking for in your MBA application. Each post will highlight one question your application must answer effectively for admissions success. 

After you’ve demonstrated your academic readiness and high quality and quantity of professional experience, one question will remain in the minds of admissions committees: Will this applicant be compatible in our program’s collaborative and close-knit community?  

To answer this question the admissions committee will pay particular attention to:  

• Essay responses. Do not use your essay and/or short answer responses as additional resume space. Instead go deep into a story that allows the reader to come to their own conclusions about some of your character traits and abilities. Highlight how you’ve struggled, triumphed, learned, and how these experiences have developed you into the person you are now. Keep in mind that listing off your qualities is meaningless if you're not backing them up with real-life examples.

Review our blog on using lessons from memoir to write your personal statement.

• Interview responses. Use nearly every response to tell a story, rather than making general claims about your abilities. Anyone can speak in generalities. How boring! But no one has your set of unique experiences. Through anecdote, your values and character will come alive.   

Review our blog series on the MBA interview. 

• Recommendations. While these responses are not within your control, they are within your influence. Provide each of your recommenders with a portfolio of information that includes illustrative anecdotes that will show your ability to thrive in a collaborative environment and grow from constructive criticism.  

Review our blog on obtaining high-quality recommendations.

Anatomy of a Successful MBA Application: Show Meaningful Professional Experience

In this three-part blog series, we’re taking a deep dive into what admissions committees are looking for in your MBA application. Each post will highlight one question your application must answer effectively for admissions success. 

After you’ve demonstrated academic readiness, the MBA admissions committee will assess the quality and quantity of your full-time, post-baccalaureate work experience. They want to know: Does this applicant have the professional experience they need to accomplish their short-term post-MBA goals? 

To get their answer, the admissions committee will pay closest attention to your:

• Resume and Essays. Think of your resume as a general overview of your life from the start of college until today, that articulates clearly the results you’ve achieved and impact you’ve had in each role or involvement. In contrast, your essay responses should be deep dives that will show the reader, through anecdote, your abilities in the areas of innovation and/or leadership and/or teamwork. On average, business school matriculants have about four years of work experience. If you’ve spent less than four years working, provide an explanation as to why you want to get your MBA now. 

Review our blog on crafting a results-driven resume. 

Review our blog on key mistakes to avoid when writing your MBA application essays.

• Your stated career goals. Provide the admissions committee with specific short-term, post MBA goals that make sense given what you’ve done in the past. This will convince them that you will hit the ground running securing an internship and job as soon as you enter the program.

  A common mistake we see in MBA admissions is applicants who, unknowingly, position themselves as an employment risk. This can happen when you articulate a goal set that is too vague or unrelated to any of your past experiences. Once you are admitted, you will have the opportunity to reevaluate your goals. You’re allowed to change your mind! But your first goal, of course, is getting into business school. 

Anatomy of a Successful MBA Application: Demonstrate Academic Readiness

In this three-part blog series, we’re taking a deep dive into what admissions committees are looking for in your MBA application. Each post will highlight one question your application must answer effectively for admissions success. 

The first question that an MBA admissions committee will ask when they look at your application is simple: Will this applicant be able to compete in the academic rigor of our program?

Elite MBA programs are academically challenging. You must be able to thrive amidst the inevitable analytical and quantitative challenges. Since the best predictor of future success is how you’ve handled rigorous academics in the past, to answer this question, the admissions committee will pay closest attention to your: 

• Undergraduate (and graduate if you have them) Transcripts. They will consider not only your GPA, but also the quality of your course load. Does your GPA fall into the average range for the schools where you are applying (typically between a 3.3 and a 3.7)? Did you take on challenging courses and do well? Did you succeed in classes that required analytical or quantitative work? 

  If your answer to any of these questions is “no” or even “...maybe,” consider taking an analytical course or two, prior to applying to business school. Succeeding in these additional classes will provide the dual benefit of shoring up your confidence and case for admission, as well as giving you a chance to confirm that you’ll enjoy the MBA curriculum. 

• Standardized Test Scores. Submitting a strong GRE/GMAT/Executive Assessment score will reassure the admissions committee that you have the critical thinking, verbal reasoning, and quantitative skills necessary to succeed in the program. A strong quantitative score is particularly beneficial if your undergraduate major or professional experience did not require much in the way of analytics.

  The good news for business school applicants is that admissions committees will only use your highest submitted score. So, re-take it. You’ll likely do better the next time around.  Not only will a higher score benefit you from an admissions perspective, you will be more likely to get one of those sought after merit-based scholarships. 

MBAs come from a variety of academic and professional backgrounds. That’s the fun of business school! Just be sure you can convince them that you’ll thrive in their classroom.

Getting Started on Your W&A Entries

If you’re feeling stuck or if you just want to improve your W&A writing experience and the quality of your entries, start here:

Raid your brainstorm. Your brainstorm serves every part of your application process. If you're having a hard time with W&A entries, copy and paste info directly from a brainstorm bucket or two and cut and sew together the first draft of an entry from that material.

Do a dirty draft—and re-read it later. You don't have to refine your first draft text right away. If it were us, we'd write all 15 first drafts (that doesn't have to happen in one sitting) and then go back to the entries with fresh eyes later. Sometimes when you're reading one entry repeatedly back to-back, you see what's in your head and not what is on the page. So, you might think a description isn't missing words or makes perfect sense. But later, you'll read it, discover issues, and ask, "Who wrote this?"

Start with the easy ones. Do you know what your takeaway was from shadowing a pediatrician? Did working on a poster presentation with a group help you learn to manage conflict? Have you been swimming competitively since you were a guppy? Instead of writing W&A entries in the order of their occurrence or importance, start with whatever comes naturally.

Craft your stories. You'll always share some basic duties and details; and they can be pretty cut and dry. For example, "At the free clinic, I checked in patients and learned how to take vitals. I interacted with approximately 20 patients during every four-hour shift." But you must also include what you got out of this experience, preferably using an engaging anecdote. "One patient, Linda…" If you don't think you have a specific story to tell, dig deep and find one. You'll be surprised at how much of a story you can fit into 700 characters. But don't worry about going over your character count in your first draft. You can always pare down later, if necessary.

Using Hobbies to Enhance Your AMCAS Work & Activities Section

Hobbies. They are not a make or break component of the medical school (and later, residency) application, but they are an opportunity to provide the admissions committee with a view of the person beyond the test scores. Hobbies are also an effective way to demonstrate how you will add to the diversity of the incoming class, showcase qualities you will need as a medical student/physician, and/or provide insight into how you may relieve stress during medical school. 

Within the AMCAS application, hobbies belong in the Work & Activities section under the extracurriculars category. Applicants can provide up to four experiences under each category type, with a 700 character (with spaces) count, unless the experience is designated “most meaningful” (requires an additional 1,325 characters with spaces). 

Below are our guidelines for adding hobbies to your AMCAS application:

• Be current. If you played the trumpet in the high school band, but haven’t picked it up since then, consider what hobbies are more relevant to your life now. What do you turn to for fun, and what do you see yourself doing for stress relief in medical school?

• Be specific in your description. Provide a sense of how often, and how long you have been pursuing the hobby, as well as what the hobby entails. It’s great that you love to read, do yoga, and travel, but so do many others. In what unique ways have you engaged with your interests? Did you launch a monthly book club for discussing the NYT best sellers? Write book reviews for the school paper? Did you gain a yoga teaching certification or take part in a unique yoga retreat? Do you travel to particular destinations or participate in medical experiences abroad?

• State how your hobby has impacted your personal growth. Did an experience within your hobby contribute to a change in your perspective or influence your decision to apply to medical school? What attributes have you developed through your hobby that will benefit you as a medical student and physician (resilience, effective communication and collaboration skills, empathy, the ability to thrive in a diverse environment, etc.)? 

• When possible, provide an experience or milestone that differentiates your involvement in the hobby. Many people play an instrument, but fewer start a quartet or play in the university band. Many people enjoy running or fitness, fewer run the NY marathon to support a favorite cause/organization or start a running club. Providing the specific way(s) that you’ve engaged with your hobby will demonstrate to the admissions committee what you may offer to your incoming class. 

What to Know if You’re a Pre-Law Student Considering Paralegal Work

Only about one-third of first-year law students in the U.S. went directly to law school from undergrad. At Yale, only about 15 percent of the law class of 2025 matriculated immediately after graduation. The majority of law applicants choose to take a gap year, or several, prior to applying. And, every year, we receive a lot of questions about the value of paralegal experience for applicants. Should you pursue it in your gap year? In a word: maybe. Let’s review the pros and cons to see if it might be the right fit for you. 

The Pros:

• If you are interested in a career at a law firm, work as a paralegal will provide an up-close view of your life as an associate. You will see what the hours, work, and intra-firm relationships will look like.

• You’ll build a personal network within the firm, which may benefit you as you go through the recruitment process.

• While your work as an early-career paralegal will be administrative in nature, you will develop skills that will benefit you in law school and beyond including legal research and writing.

• You’ll earn a reasonable salary, and some firms pay for paralegals to attend LSAT test preparation courses. You may even be able to continue working throughout law school if you attend a local university and have time. 

The Cons:

• As mentioned above, your early-career paralegal work will be more administrative than substantive in content.

• Paralegal experience is fairly common among law applicants, so you will want to find additional ways to stand out. Inquire about taking on a challenging long-term research project at your firm or a leadership role in a firm-wide charitable initiative.

• If you need to earn money to pay for law school, jobs in industries that you’re interested in (e.g. tech, finance) may provide meaningful and challenging experiences, while also  paying you a higher salary.  

Alternative Routes to Becoming a Physician: Podiatry School

We’re exploring alternatives to the MD. Check back throughout the week as we provide some facts and figures and guidance on osteopathic, Caribbean, and podiatry programs.

Podiatry School

A podiatrist is a physician or surgeon who treats the feet. Podiatric programs cost less than MD and DO programs, and the surgical residencies are not as long. After graduation, you'd be entering a secure, lucrative field that usually has a humane number of work hours per week.

The average GPA and MCAT requirements for Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM) programs are lower than U.S. MD and DO programs. In 2024, the American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine (AACPM) reported that the mean overall GPA for matriculants was 3.4 (Science: 3.3, Non-Science: 3.6), and the mean MCAT was 495.4

When You Should Apply:

If you’re applying to podiatry school, you want to apply the August before or early fall of your senior year. (If you plan on going to podiatry school right after undergrad.) The American Association of Colleges of Podiatric Medicine Application Service (AACPMAS) begins processing primary applications in August for fall admission the following year. For priority consideration, the AACPMAS says you should submit before March. The final application deadline date is June 30th for fall admission of the same year. But don’t be on this last train out of town!

Where You Should Apply:

The AACPM website is an incredible resource for information on podiatry schools. We're talking breakdowns of each accredited school's mission, cost, special programs and services, demographics, and social media handles. If you're interested in podiatry, check out the info on all 11 accredited schools.

Alternative Routes to Becoming a Physician: Caribbean MD programs

We’re exploring alternatives to the MD. Check back throughout the week as we provide some facts and figures and guidance on osteopathic, Caribbean, and podiatry programs.

Caribbean MD Programs

Students with lower MCAT scores and GPAs are more likely to be accepted to allopathic schools abroad than in the U.S. Schools in the Caribbean are especially interested in students from the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Canada.

It's likely that way more doctors than you think graduated from international schools. In 2023, the number of active physicians who graduated from international medical schools totaled 24.7 percent, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

When You Should Apply:

Off-shore schools have rolling admissions (and have multiple start dates). We think you should start submitting applications to these programs with your U.S.-based allopathic applications in June.

Where You Should Apply:

Of the 80 Caribbean medical schools, we recommend "The Big Four" to clients. All have key international accreditations; they are recognized by the World Federation for Medical Education/Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (WFME/ FAIMER). They are also recognized by stricter state medical boards (like California's). These top Caribbean schools also have competitive residency placement rates and other boast-worthy qualities.

St. George's University / Grenada, West Indies: As of December 2020, the average MCAT score of matriculants was 498. Their average undergraduate GPA was 3.3. St. George's has a strong reputation for students passing the USMLE Step 1 (95%), USMLE Step 2 (91%), and for residency placement. SGU secured more than 990 U.S. residencies in 2022. The Grenada-based program has been the largest provider of doctors into first-year U.S. residencies for the last eight years.

Saba University School of Medicine / Saba: Saba told us that as of April 2022, the average GPA of matriculants was 3.19 and the average MCAT was 497. Saba is smaller than SGU, so it has fewer graduates becoming residents—but their stats are strong. Between 2019 and 2021, 94% of graduates obtained residencies. The average first-time pass rate for the USMLE between 2015 and 2020 was 99%.

American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine / St. Maarten: In January 2022, the average GPA for matriculants was 3.27; the average MCAT score was 496. AUC has a 93.2% pass rate for the USMLE Step 1, a 92.8% pass rate for the USMLE Step 2 CK, and 96% of 20212022 graduates attained residencies. AUC's clinical rotations take place at Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education-approved hospitals. It has clinical teaching affiliates in the U.S. and the U.K., and students can take global health electives in the Dominican Republic, Russia, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.

Ross University School of Medicine / Bridgetown, Barbados: RUSM emphasizes remedying systemic bias in healthcare in their curriculum—and on campus. Diversity in the student body and faculty is highly valued. They have rolling admissions; prospective students can apply anytime. Matriculants can start school in January, May, or September. The majority of clinical training takes place in the United States. 2022 graduates had a residency match rate of 96% and the school has consistently had a 91% first-time pass rate for the USMLE Step 1 and Step 2.

Alternative Routes to Becoming a Physician: Osteopathic Programs

If your GPA or MCAT is low-ish, it's time to consider all of your options. Osteopathic schools, off-shore MD programs, and podiatry schools are all roads that lead to you becoming a physician. And they are open to folks with lower GPAs and MCAT scores. It's not that these programs aren't competitive—they are—they're just not as competitive as many allopathic schools in the U.S.

This week, we’ll provide some facts and figures and guidance on osteopathic, Caribbean, and podiatry programs.

Osteopathic Programs

Plenty of applicants apply to osteopathic programs because they know they want to be DOs. You may have visions of that MD after your name. But if you're interested in holistic medical practices and primary care especially, one of the 42 accredited DO programs in the United States might be right for you.

In May 2021, the American Osteopathic Association's Physician Masterfile reported that 56.5% of osteopathic doctors practiced primary care. That covers a broad set of opportunities, including becoming an OB/GYN and a pediatrician. In 2022, nine Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine were in U.S. News & World Report's list of the top 10 schools with the most graduates practicing primary care. (Yep, them and one allopathic school.)

There is no shame in the DO game. One in four medical students in the United States attends an osteopathic program, according to the AOA. Much of an osteopathic classroom and clinical medical education is like an allopathic one. Additionally, osteopathic programs involve 200 hours of osteopathic manipulative medicine (OMM) training, which focuses on the spine, bones, and muscles.

You can find out more about osteopathic programs by attending an American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) virtual fair. Their ChooseDo.org website for prospective students can also give you valuable info on programs, tuition, application deadlines, etc.

Shadowing an osteopathic doctor will give you an idea of their day-to-day practice. And you'll have plenty of DOs to choose from: The 2025 Osteopathic Medical Profession (OMP) Report stated that there were 167,216 osteopathic physicians in America in 2025. DOs make up 11% of physicians and over 25 percent of medical students in the country. And according to the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine, 99.1 percent of 2025 DO graduates were placed in residencies.

If you're applying to an osteopathic program, you should have shadowed a DO or better yet worked with one. You'll also need a recommendation letter from an osteopathic physician—and we mean need—you must show a real interest here.

When You Should Apply:

The AACOM application opens in May. Deadlines for osteopathic programs are in February and March. You can check out the AACOM Choose DO Explorer for exact dates for each school. But we’d like to see you apply to these programs in October, just as allopathic schools start getting back to applicants.

Where You Should Apply:

No exaggeration: All U.S. osteopathic programs are good. The Commission on Osteopathic College Accreditation (COCA)'s standards are strict. Check out the AACOM site for more information on the 42 accredited colleges of osteopathic medicine, which have 67 teaching locations in 36 states.

Prospective MBA Students: Start Building Your School List

We advise our MBA applicants to apply to between six and eight schools. Here’s what to keep in mind: 

• Rankings / Prestige. There’s been a lot of buzz over the past year about the efficacy of rankings. So, while this is an area that we encourage you to review for the programs you’re considering, we would discourage you from making it your top/only priority. Delve into the publicly available data, studying the metrics that are most important to you. This information will be a wonderful starting point for further investigation.   

• Geography / Network. Where you are located plays an important role in your ability to network. If you know where you want to live post-graduation, consider applying to programs that are within that city or state. Similarly, if your goal is to enter into a particular industry, consider applying to programs that are located near one of the industry’s hubs.

• Career Placement. Take a close look at what industries and/or companies are recruiting at the MBA programs that you’re considering. Or, if you are very interested in a particular company, consider the programs where they recruit most heavily. You can review each school’s career placement report and/or engage with the school’s career services team to learn more. You may also want to confirm that the school’s MBA program facilitates clubs and activities that are relevant to your career goals (e.g., Finance Club, Luxury Goods Club, Marketing Club), as they will often host events connecting potential employers with interested students, as well as providing other resources.

Keep in mind that your top-ranked schools may not overlap exactly with the U.S. News and World Report or Financial Times. And that is just fine.

Laying the Foundation for Your Med School Application: Build a Brainstorm Document

Before you begin work on your medical school application, we recommend that you create a brainstorm document where you will explore your formative experiences—what you thought, felt, said, and did. This brainstorm will be your touchstone for everything about this application process. It will help you discover what meaningful experiences and qualities you want to highlight in your Work and Activities, Personal Statement, and Secondary essays, and discuss during your interviews.

This brainstorm could end up being seven pages or 25—you want to be free and generous in your writing. While your brainstorm text does not need to be polished, your unfinished thoughts should be organized for greater ease when writing. Putting meaningful experiences into different "buckets" helps a lot. You might have some crossover with experiences technically fitting into two buckets or more—don't worry about that; put them in one bucket, for now, to keep things grouped. Maybe write: "This is also a leadership experience" or "Integrity/Critical Thinking" in your notes.

An important note: Eighty percent of these experiences should be from adulthood (college and beyond). Twenty percent can be from before then if they established foundational skills or led to evolutions in perspective. For example, if you taught wilderness first aid as an Eagle Scout. If your interest in medicine sprung from your prolonged childhood illness, that is relevant information.

Bucket 1: A-ha Moments: What meaningful experiences changed your mind about or expanded your perspective on something? Some could be spectacular successes, others, catastrophic failures. Have you learned from a mistake? What skills of yours did you discover in a challenging time? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? (Prepare yourself, we're going to ask those last two repeatedly.) 

Bucket 2: Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving: In what meaningful experiences did you utilize critical thinking and problem-solving skills? How did you determine the best course of action? Did you approach something one way at first and then correct yourself? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? 

Bucket 3: Leadership Abilities: In what meaningful experiences did you show your leadership abilities? Did leadership come naturally to you, or did you work to get to this place? (Both things are great!) How did you support your team? Did you encourage collaboration or independence? Did you feel supported by your team? Did you experience any pushback, and how did you handle that if you did? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? 

Bucket 4: Teamwork and Collaboration: During what meaningful experiences did you work with a team or collaborate with others? Were you working with people unlike yourself? Was there a struggle for balance in the beginning? Any confusion? What did you appreciate about your team members? How did they influence and impact you and your actions? Did one or two team members step up in a way you admired? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? 

Bucket 5: Empathy and Connection: Fill this bucket. You must have multiple experiences that touch on empathy and connection somewhere in your application. In what meaningful experiences did you empathize and connect with others? What effect did you have on others? What effect did they have on you? What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? 

Bucket 6: Experiences that Reinforced Your Commitment to Medicine: What meaningful experiences reinforced your commitment to studying medicine? You've probably known that you've wanted to be a doctor for some time—what let you know you were on the right track? Was it meeting a doctor you admired? Was it accomplishing something academically or in research work? While volunteering abroad? What did you think of these things at the time? How did you feel?

Bucket 7: Miscellaneous: What experiences have you had that you can't quite categorize? What else should we know about you? What do you think we don't necessarily have to know? Don’t be afraid to expose some vulnerability and use everything you’ve got. You should even include things about yourself and what you care about that you don't imagine will be a factor in an essay. You might be able to weave aspects of your personality or some fun facts into your Personal Statement, Work and Activities, or Secondaries to add some color—or something even better.

Prospective Law School Students: How to Spend Your Gap Year

For prospective law students who wish to take a gap year, there are many jobs and activities that will improve your resume, provide clarity on your future career path, and ultimately bolster your candidacy in the application process. We’ve listed a few ideas below:

• Management consulting/investment banking: For future applicants with a passion for business or an interest in corporate law, spending time at a consulting or investment banking group can increase your baseline knowledge, and understanding of the work.

• Policy analysis/research: If your interests are in constitutional or immigration law, working directly in this space can provide you experience with relevant stakeholders, as well as the ability to speak to your future goals more specifically within your law school application. It may also assist you to more strategically select law school programs that will best position you to do the work you love.

• Non-profit work: If you have identified an interest in public interest law or just in gaining professional skills quickly, working for a non-profit organization could be a sound next step. Typically, nonprofits have lean workforces and, as a result, even recent college graduates are asked to work outside their comfort zone to acquire new skills. Further, it is important to note that some organizations like Teach for America have relationships and scholarship programs with select law schools.

• Paralegal/legal assistant/legal administrator: For applicants interested in learning more about working within a law firm, this type of experience will broaden your understanding of the day-to-day life of a lawyer and will also likely show meaningful commitment to both law schools and future legal recruiters.

While it isn’t necessary to take a gap-year between undergraduate and law school, if you do, it is of vital importance to spend your time thoughtfully and productively.  It may seem appealing, in those months after college, to solely focus on LSAT and application preparations.  But remember, admissions committees will be looking very closely. Meaningful and productive work will help you to construct a narrative that will bolster your story as an applicant and positively contribute to your law school class and experience.  

Prospective Law School Students: When to Consider a Gap Year

Prospective law students often wonder if they should take time off between finishing their undergraduate work and applying to law school. While there is no one size fits all answer, the trend shows that many law schools are expecting and even rewarding students who take at least a brief interlude prior to starting school. 

According to ABA data, the majority of 2024 matriculants did report a gap prior to starting law school (65 percent). Among four of the top five ranked law schools by U.S. News and World Report in 2024, the incoming classes showed that between 70 and 90 percent of incoming students took at least one year off before matriculation. At Yale, 89 percent of the Class of 2027 was at least one year out from undergraduate and 46 percent were at least three years out.

While, it isn’t necessary for all students to take a gap year, it can be a beneficial use of time for the following types of applicants:

• Those with a general interest in the study of law, but without experience in the day-to-day operations of a law firm and/or those who do not yet feel comfortable selecting a career path within the legal industry

• Those who have a passion they would like to pursue, who can spend some time in the field to confirm law school is the right next step to help them achieve their goals

• Those who need to enhance the competitiveness of their application with additional experiences and insight into their future goals

• Those who may benefit from a year of earnings prior to taking on the financial burden of law school

• Those interested in working at a firm post- law school, as prior work experience can be looked upon quite favorably by hiring managers

Check back tomorrow as we discuss productive ways to spend your gap year. 

Are You a Pre-Med Struggling With a “Should-I” Question? We’re Here to Help. (Part 3)

If you’re planning to apply to medical school, you likely have a few “Should-I” questions on your mind. Stay tuned, as this week we’ll review the three most common pre-med questions and provide guidance and related resources.

Should I Take a Gap Year?

Maybe. In 2023, 73.2 percent of matriculating medical students had taken a gap year or more before medical school, according to the AAMC 2023 Matriculating Student Questionnaire. Fun fact: The average age of a 2025 Perelman School of Medicine at University of Pennsylvania matriculant was 23—ranging between 21 and 28. 

So, why might you want to take some time between undergrad and med school? You can use a gap year to beef up your transcript with a post-bacc or master's degree. Or you might take a break from academics to immerse yourself in a clinical or research experience. 

If you're light on clinical or research experience, we highly recommend a gap year. Longer-term clinical and research roles will teach you things a short stint cannot. And, if you work full-time in a clinical or research environment, that will further enhance your candidacy. 

Maybe you want to put away more money before attending medical school. Never a bad idea. Whatever work you do—it doesn’t have to be medical, you could be a bond trader or consultant—should challenge you in the areas of leadership, critical and creative thinking, and problem-solving. This is a transferable skill set to medical school and residency. What a gap year cannot be: A year of nothing but MCAT prep and vacation. Schools need to know you can handle multiple priorities and that you value learning and helping others.

Related:

Blog Series: Earning Another Degree or Certification Before Med School

Clinical Experiences that Medical Schools Love

How to Find Clinical Experiences for Your Gap Year(s)

Are You a Pre-Med Struggling With a “Should-I” Question? We’re Here to Help. (Part 2)

If you’re planning to apply to medical school, you likely have a few “Should-I” questions on your mind. Stay tuned, as this week we’ll review the three most common pre-med questions and provide guidance and related resources.

Should I Apply Early Decision? 

We rarely advise clients to apply early decision. Not only do you have to be 100% ready to commit to the school where you apply early if admitted, but you must be an absolute all-star. If you’re an average applicant, you will not improve your chances of admission. If you want to apply for early decision, August 1st is the Early Decision Program (EDP) deadline for all medical schools that use the AMCAS submission system. (And most do.) The EDP will tell you if you were accepted or not by October 1st, so you will still have time to apply to other medical schools if you’re rejected.