Building Your List of Law Schools: Tuition

With nearly 200 ABA accredited law schools out there, picking 12 to 15 to apply to can feel daunting. This week, we’ll explore how to use rankings productively as well as some other relevant factors to keep in mind as you build your school list.  

Tuition. Depending on your goals and financial situation, including any undergraduate debt you carry, it may make sense to opt for a lower cost in-state program over an elite institution. Either way, calculate the expected cost-benefit of different categories of schools: private versus public as well as in-state versus out-of-state. 

Building Your List of Law Schools: Geography

With nearly 200 ABA accredited law schools out there, picking 12 to 15 to apply to can feel daunting. This week, we’ll explore how to use rankings productively as well as some other relevant factors to keep in mind as you build your school list.  

Geography. 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 specialize in a particular field (finance, tech, government) or a specific type of law (public service), consider applying to programs that are located near one of the industry’s hubs. This will likely allow you more opportunities to intern, volunteer, or network during the school year. 

Building Your List of Law Schools: Career Placement

With nearly 200 ABA accredited law schools out there, picking 12 to 15 to apply to can feel daunting. This week, we’ll explore how to use rankings productively as well as some other relevant factors to keep in mind as you build your school list.  

Career Placement. If you know what type of career you would like to pursue after law school, dig into the employment placement reports of each school you are considering. Where are graduates getting internships and jobs? Which organizations regularly come to campus for on-campus recruiting? Data is also available for easy comparison on the Law School Transparency website. 

Building Your List of Law Schools: Rankings & Prestige

With nearly 200 ABA accredited law schools out there, picking 12 to 15 to apply to can feel daunting. We can’t tell you that rankings don’t matter (spoiler alert: sometimes, they really do!), but we can tell you that there is more to consider than just published rankings. This week, we’ll explore how to use rankings productively as well as some other relevant factors to keep in mind.  

Rankings and Prestige. There’s been a lot of buzz over the past year about the efficacy of rankings. While rankings should not be your only metric, they are relevant. For students who know that they want to pursue a federal judicial clerkship or a position in a big law firm post-graduation (most 2023 graduates entering large law firms went to a school in the US News Top 20), attending a top-ranked law school can provide significant benefit. 

According to ABA data analyzed by Reuters this year, over 20 percent of the 2023 law graduates at University of Chicago, Yale, and Stanford (top schools in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Law Schools ranking) obtained federal clerkships upon graduation. But this does not mean that securing such a role would be impossible without having attended a “top” school. Several law schools outside of the top 20, including University of Kentucky, Brigham Young University, and George Mason University, have also placed students in federal clerkships. 

We encourage you to familiarize yourself with the rankings, paying particular attention to the metrics and outcomes that mean the most to you. They are a productive starting point for further investigation. And be sure to take a look at Princeton Review’s Category-Based Rankings, which can provide helpful insight into the various components of the law school experience (Best Classroom Experience, Best Career Prospects, Best Quality of Life, etc.). 

Overcoming Loneliness

In our next Emotional Intelligence (EI) Friday blog series, we will examine loneliness by considering research on social isolation in the workplace. We will discuss who is affected, the psychological effects of prolonged loneliness, and how you can support yourself or others who may need your help. We hope you enjoy this three-part series.

Click here to read Part 1 of this series. 

Click here to read Part 2 of this series.

So, what should you do if you are experiencing loneliness? Being aware of the dangers of prolonged loneliness is a starter. Below, we have also compiled suggestions for keeping loneliness at bay, for yourself or within your workplace or network.

1. Take cues from your loneliness. If you feel lonely at work or in your personal life, act on the emotional prompt! Do not ignore the feeling or focus on work to the detriment of your own professional, social, and physical well-being. Consider how you can find more consistent person-to-person interaction. If you work remotely or travel frequently, think about facilitating work discussions over video conference or the phone rather than relying on email or instant messaging.

2. Form personal relationships. While you’re at work, speak to people and don’t allow yourself to rely solely on emails or other technology to communicate. Ask people about their lives outside work and tell them about yours. Leave your desk to have lunch and invite someone to walk and/or eat with you. Take the occasional coffee break with peers. Join office committees or participate in community service activities. In the Work Connectivity survey, almost three-fourths of Gen Z and just under 70 percent of Millennials say that they would be more inclined to stay with their company if they had more friends. As a manager working to staunch loneliness on your team, Barsade and Ozcelik warn against falling into inauthentic means of relationship-building such as holiday parties or company picnics. Relationships are built in small groups by people sharing about their lives. Large parties often result in people feeling more isolated as they witness the socially connected enjoying the event.

3. Find shared meaning. According to a Harvard Business Review study, finding shared meaning with colleagues—understanding the meaning that they derive from the work and connecting it with the meaning that you find in the work—creates meaningful “social cohesion” and insulates team members from feeling isolated. This also addresses Barsade and Ozcelik’s point about the meaning and identity that younger generations are looking for in their careers. Younger generations are seeking to be part of something bigger, not just to receive a paycheck. This may also provide a way to connect with others when there are not obvious shared interests or a foundation for a relationship.

4. Work for companies and managers who take their emotional culture seriously. Some companies have cultures that are more prone to driving isolation than others. Consider this as you look for jobs. Do the employees seem connected beyond meeting corporate goals? Do they seem to know and care for each other on a more personal level? “Mandy O’Neill (management professor, George Mason University) and I have done some work in emotional culture—the norms around what emotions you’re allowed to express at work and what you’re better off suppressing. We found that in emotional cultures of companionate love [that include] care, compassion, and tenderness, even lonely employees were more likely to be perceived as approachable and committed to the organization… Anything that a manager can do in terms of creating a culture that sends out cues that are supportive is helpful,” Barsade said. When interviewing, look for signs that your manager and co-workers will be interested in forming real relationships with you that extend beyond your work together.

Top Qualities Business School Admissions Committees are Looking for in Your MBA Application

At Apply Point, we often remind our applicants that MBA programs are looking for individuals, not just resumes. Admissions committees want to understand the full spectrum of experiences that have led you to this point of your life and career, and have informed your future goals. But while you brainstorm, in addition to poignant personal experiences, be sure to keep in mind the key tenets of the business school application: leadership, teamwork, innovation, and integrity. 

Leadership. Throughout your application, you will want to showcase your ability to influence a team in order to accomplish a common goal. And keep in mind that there are many ways to demonstrate effective leadership. You don’t need to be the captain of a sports team or a club president to be an inspirational and persuasive leader. 

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? What did you learn that you will incorporate into your leadership style in the future?

Teamwork. Conducting business is a team endeavor. Accordingly, business school is a highly collaborative place where you will spend a lot of your team working together with your classmates. Highlight instances where you have shown humility and elevated the voices of others. 

During what meaningful experiences did you work with a team or collaborate with others successfully? 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? Have you had experiences with teams that were unsuccessful? What did you learn (remember: failures can provide great insight too!)?

Innovation. The pace of change in business continues to speed up and business schools are looking for students who demonstrate skills in both critical and creative 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? What did you learn? How did you feel?

Integrity and a sense of community. Many leading business schools have missions that include educating principled leaders who will make a positive difference in the world. Business schools are, now more than ever, highly-attuned to applicants’ integrity and sense of civic responsibility. 

In what meaningful experiences did you elevate a community that you were a part of? What effect did you have on others? What effect did they have on you? What have you learned about finding common ground with those who are different from you?  What did you think about these things at the time? How did you feel? 

The Loneliness Epidemic

In our next Emotional Intelligence (EI) Friday blog series, we will examine loneliness by considering research on social isolation in the workplace. We will discuss who is affected, the psychological effects of prolonged loneliness, and how you can support yourself or others who may need your help. We hope you enjoy this three-part series.

Click here to read Part 1 of this series. 

The reasons for the rise in workplace loneliness are many, and in some ways, apparent. Technology has allowed us greater efficiency in reaching out to coworkers and peers, without truly interacting with them. The Work Connectivity study found that, “almost half of an employee’s day is spent using technology to communicate versus in-person.” Additionally, working remotely and having constant access to emails has not only decreased our likelihood of forming meaningful relationships with our co-workers, but also can negatively impact our relationships outside of the workplace. Consequently, based on the nature of the work, different professions have greater rates of reported loneliness. Lawyers, doctors, engineers, and scientists are the most lonely while those with more social jobs such as sales and marketing report lower levels of loneliness.

Sigal Barsade and Hakan Ozcelik, management professors at California State University, Sacramento, point also to the importance that careers have in shaping Millennials’ identities and creating relationship opportunities, in an interview with knowledge@Wharton. “I think employees have an increasing level of expectations from their organization simply because our professions make up a huge component of our identity. We are not doing our jobs just for a paycheck; we want to be a part of the group. We want to be respected. We want to feel that we are having a good quality of life. I think this is getting more profound with the new generation. They might be more relationship-oriented than we are, so it’s important for companies to take that into account. They need to create that relational environment and provide opportunities for employees to build relationships,” Ozcelik said.

Moreover, Barsade and Ozcelik observe that loneliness begets loneliness, meaning that prolonged feelings of isolation harm an individual’s social behaviors and impact their networks. Theoretically, loneliness should serve as a signal. It can and should be a transient emotional state that motivates a person to seek out connections with others, particularly useful when a person is in a new environment. However, prolonged loneliness causes behavioral changes that deter interactions. 

“What the psychology literature has shown is that once loneliness is an established sentiment—you’ve decided you’re lonely—you actually become less approachable. You don’t listen as well. You become more self-focused. All sorts of things happen that make you less of a desirable interaction partner to other people. We found that was one of the things that explained the lower performance. The co-workers of lonely people found them less approachable. Because of that, they didn’t share things and didn’t get the resources they needed. By the way, the literature showed it’s not that they have lower social skills. Loneliness makes it happen,” Barsade said.

Barsade and Ozcelik also point out that existing research shows that loneliness can be “contagious,” afflicting networks and driving negative changes in employee behaviors and interactions throughout teams and organizations. 

Learning to Value the Personal Side of Your Professional Life

In our next Emotional Intelligence (EI) Friday blog series, we will examine loneliness by considering research on social isolation in the workplace. We will discuss who is affected, the psychological effects of prolonged loneliness, and how you can support yourself or others who may need your help. We hope you enjoy this three-part series.

Being single. Living alone. Moving to a new city. Working remotely. Frequent work travel. Sound familiar? While Millennials and Gen Z are generally thought to be the most socially connected of generations, the truth is more nuanced. Many characteristics of the young professional lifestyle are triggers for loneliness, or “the distressing experience that occurs when one’s social relationships are perceived to be less in quantity, and especially in quality, than desired.”

A 2018 study by Cigna and Ipsos found that while most American adults are lonely, Generation Z and Millennials report higher levels of loneliness than older generations. Similarly, data collected by The Economist and the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that in the U.S., the majority of those between 18 and 49 were classified as lonely (59 percent) compared to less than half of those over 50 (41 percent). And, the negative effects of loneliness have been well-documented. In 2015, UCLA researchers found that social isolation triggers a physiological response causing chronic inflammation, which increases the risk for heart disease, stroke, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease. A 2015 meta-analysis out of Brigham Young University, which included 70 studies, found that lonely people have a 26 percent higher risk of dying, controlling for age and health status. Other studies have linked loneliness to eating disorders, drug abuse, sleep deprivation, depression, alcoholism, and anxiety.

But loneliness isn’t just a personal problem. Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor who researches workplace loneliness, says, “People tend to think that if you’re lonely, you’re lonely everywhere. But that’s not true. What research has shown is that you can be lonely in your private life, in your family life, in your romantic life—it depends on the place.” Certainly, you can be lonely in your professional life. And, just as loneliness is harmful to your health, it is also harmful to your career. 

Recent research on the effects of loneliness in the workplace show that loneliness brings detrimental consequences to an individual’s job performance, satisfaction, likelihood of promotion, and engagement and tenure with a company. And, not surprisingly, loneliness is pervasive amongst the youngest members of the workplace. The Work Connectivity study, published by Future Workplace in partnership with Virgin Pulse, surveyed 2,000 managers and employees and found that just over half feel lonely always or very often. At 47 percent, Millennials were the loneliest followed by Generation Z (45 percent). Generation X and Baby Boomers fared better at 36 percent and 29 percent, respectively. While loneliness can affect any demographic group, the survey found that men were more likely than women to report being lonely (57 percent versus 43 percent) and introverts were much more likely than extroverts (63 percent versus 37 percent).

Listening to Connect

We’re excited to introduce “Emotional Intelligence (EI) Fridays” on the blog, where we will hone in on how to develop and implement these softer skills. 

Our first topic of focus will be listening, a critical skill for doctors, lawyers, and (future) CEOs alike. We hope you enjoy this three-part series.

Click here to read Part 1 of this series. 

Click here to read Part 2 of this series. 

Learning to listen, as with any skill, takes practice and time. Julian Treasure in his Ted Talk on Conscious Listening, spoke compellingly on the power of sound to connect us to our world, and to each other. “I believe that every human being needs to listen consciously in order to live fully—connected in space and time to the physical world around us, connected in understanding to each other, not to mention spiritually connected, because every spiritual path I know of has listening and contemplation at its heart,” he said. 

Treasure recommended daily listening exercises, which may help to attune you once again to listening, to hearing the noise in your environment (much of which, you’re likely tuning out) and to promoting your ability to be mindful and connected in a loud and busy world.

1. Sit in three minutes of silence to “reset your ears and to recalibrate.” This will allow you to pay more attention to sounds that you do hear afterwards. Treasure notes that if silence is impossible (for you NYC residents!), quiet is good too. 

2. In a noisy environment with competing sounds, try to differentiate the sounds that you are hearing. Treasure uses the example of a coffee bar. Listen for the “channels” of noise: people having conversations, the grinding of the coffee, the door opening and closing, typing sounds, ringing of cellphones, shoes squeaking on the floor, etc.

3. Listen for and try to take pleasure in everyday sounds that you may routinely tune out. The dryer, birds chirping, kids playing in the park. Instead of filtering out sounds as you go through your day, seek to savor a few. 

4. Each day you use “filters” in your listening to pare down the multitude of sounds in the world to those which you give your attention to. For example, you may opt for passive listening at the beach to take in the many pleasant sounds: the ocean, birds, people laughing, etc. Alternatively, when your partner joins you, you may focus on their voice over the waves crashing. Similarly, when listening to others, we can choose different filters. A friend may garner empathetic listening with your focus on emotion and connection, while a coworker may receive a more critical filter where you seek to assess and validate their ideas. Treasure, who calls this exercise the most important, challenges you to become aware of the filters you use and when, and to proactively adjust them. Filters, he says, “actually create our reality in a way, because they tell us what we're paying attention to right now.” 

Your Medical School Application: Approaching Optional Secondary Essays

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

There are two optional secondary questions that are common to most applications, one that you can always answer and one that you should only answer if it is appropriate. Let us explain.

Is there anything else we should know about your candidacy? If you have no issues to address and the prompt is this open-ended, you could recycle a Secondary Essay from another school to highlight an experience that didn't fit into your W&A. Or, if they didn't ask in another Secondary, talk about why you love this program. 

But the secret purpose of this prompt is to give you a chance to take down some red flags. It is the school's nice way of saying: "What not-so-great thing did you do? Explain why we shouldn't be concerned about it." 

Some schools will ask about it more explicitly: Please explain any inconsistencies in your college or graduate school academic performance and/or MCAT scores. 

So, did you tank a class your freshman year? Does your lowish MCAT score not reflect your ability to thrive in a challenging academic environment? Don't make excuses. Instead, after you share your misstep, explain how you excelled in later courses or rigorous academic or work environments. You want to keep any answer concise: This is the issue. These are my accomplishments that mitigate that issue. 

Test scores and grades aside, is there something else in your school record that needs to be addressed? Did you get a citation for underage drinking at a campus music festival two years ago? For topics like this, keep your answer very brief. Going on and on about every circumstance and how this is not really your fault, etc. is weak. Go to the pain: This is the situation. This is the action I took afterward. This is the result of that action and what I learned. 

You do not have to max out this word count. And much like the adversity question that might pop up in your Secondary application, you want to avoid appearing too negative or overly critical of others here. 

Have you experienced any hardships? 

If you have experienced hardships regarding your health, family, finances, or any significant interruptions to your education, share them here. 

If you have not experienced such hardships, don't exaggerate a small hurdle or massage any facts to answer this question. A hardship prompt is different from an adversity prompt. We've all faced adversity in our own way. But an optional secondary question about hardships is exactly that —optional. 

We once had a client who considered writing about living in a medically underserved area. Her home state was in the top 10 medically underserved states, but this description applied to rural parts of the state and areas of her city deeply affected by poverty—not where she lived. 

She had access to a local primary care physician and was less than an hour away by reliable public transportation from a specialist she saw. Including this obvious exaggeration of affiliation in her submitted application might have led to an awkward interview moment (best case) or an immediate rejection (worst case). We cautioned our client then, as we caution you now: avoid using embellished responses to prompts and interview questions.

Your Medical School Application: Secondary Essay Tips for Applicants on a Gap Year and/or Re-Applicants

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

Here are some questions you can expect to encounter.

If you will not be enrolled as a full-time student, what will you be doing until matriculation? OR What have you done since graduating from college? You will have mentioned some of this information elsewhere in the application. While you don't have to max out the word or character count, it is important to account for all of your time, especially if you're not working or volunteering full-time. You want to detail exactly what your role entails and your experiences and takeaways.

Now for the "ifs":

• If you're working full-time in a non-medical field, that's a-okay. Explain how the work has and will help you build skills that will prepare you for medical school. And plan to volunteer at health events or a free clinic with whatever time you do have. You want to show dedication to the field, even if you must make your money elsewhere.

• If you haven't started the role you'll be working in until matriculation, give a detailed description of your duties and what you hope to get out of your experience.

• If you have no idea what you'll be doing until matriculation, oh goodness, get one.

• If you have some room left in your response, you can include a detail about something fun you're doing or plan to do.

Check out this example; it's perfect for a response with a 150-word limit:

"Since graduating from Private University, I have been a clinical research coordinator at Near-My-Hometown Children's Hospital, working on 10 studies. I will continue in this role until matriculation. Each day, I have patient-facing experiences and regularly explain key study processes in easy-to-understand ways to both children and their families. I hope to work in pediatrics as a physician, so honing this skill is very important to me. 

Last year, I collected and analyzed study data for an academic paper on pediatric asthma and was asked to draft a section of it. It will be published this fall in Impressive Kiddo Journal, and I will be credited as a co-author. Pediatric pulmonology is now a special area of interest for me, one I hope to explore in medical school. 

Besides this work, on Saturdays this summer, I'll be volunteering at a community farm. Spending time outdoors is my go-to stress reliever."

This answer is loaded with impressive, detailed info about the applicant's activities after college, what they'll do until matriculation, and the relevant skills and goals they've developed. That's the most important stuff for you to include. So, if you don't have any "fun" plans to close the response out, don't sweat it.

Have you applied to our program before? If so, how has your candidacy improved since your last application? This one is self-explanatory. Even if you have no idea why you were rejected last time, you do know that you've gained more clinical or research experience, other work experience, or a Master's degree. You have matured and deepened your interest in medicine. If none of those things are true, then perhaps you should be applying next year instead. 

Activate Your Listening Skills

We’re excited to introduce “Emotional Intelligence (EI) Fridays” on the blog, where we will hone in on how to develop and implement these softer skills. 

Our first topic of focus will be listening, a critical skill for doctors, lawyers, and (future) CEOs alike. We hope you enjoy this three-part series.

Click here to read Part 1 of this series. 

To become a more effective listener, keep in mind that listening requires engaging on multiple dimensions. Robin Abrahams and Boris Groysberg described the three components of listening in a Harvard Business Review article: Cognitive (taking in and comprehending the information); Emotional (maintaining calm to receive the information and managing emotional reactions to the information or its delivery); and Behavioral (demonstrating interest and picking up verbal and nonverbal cues). Maintaining awareness and control in these three dimensions promotes good listening. 

In the same article, Abrahams and Groysberg provide a “cheat sheet” of nine actions you can do to improve your listening in the short term. 

1. Repeat the speaker’s last few words back to them. The authors note that this practice demonstrates to people that you’re listening, keeps you engaged, and can provide moments to “gather thoughts or recover from an emotional reaction.” 

2. Steer clear of restating or summarizing in your own words what the speaker said— unless you need to. This practice should only be used if you are not sure that you’re understanding. Abrahams and Groysberg suggest that if you do use it, explicitly state that you’re restating to confirm your own comprehension.

3. Offer nonverbal communication if you are comfortable doing so. If it feels natural, use eye contact and nodding to demonstrate that you’re listening. If not, don’t distract yourself with internal reminders to nod or make eye contact. 

4. Look for nonverbal communication from the speaker. Take note of the speaker’s tone of voice, posture, facial expressions, and other body language or unspoken cues. The authors note the nonverbal can provide additional insight into the emotion and/or motivation behind the information.

5. Ask questions—more than you think you need to. Asking questions not only allows the speaker to feel listened to, it ensures that you comprehended the message and are not overlooking aspects of the information. 

6. Be aware of distractions and try to minimize them. In addition to the digital and workplace distractions we all face, when you’re listening, try to focus on the conversation and speaker, rather than allowing your growing to-do list or another conversation to take over your mind. 

7. Acknowledge your shortcomings to the speaker. Let the speaker know where you are coming from. Have you been in too many meetings today? Did you not have time to read the pre-meeting brief? Are you distracted by your roommate or kids in the next room? Let them know what you’re dealing with so you can both do your best to overcome existing obstacles.

8. Don’t rehearse your response while the other person is talking. The authors note that you think faster than others speak, but don’t fall prey to the temptation to prepare your response in advance. Take a few moments after they’ve spoken to compose your thoughts and use any extraneous brainpower to listen fully. 

9. Monitor your emotions. Emotions can make it difficult to listen. Our brains can quickly engage in defensive behavior, pointing out the ways that the speaker is wrong and we’re correct. So, be aware of your emotions, acknowledge that you’re feeling emotional, breathe through it, and try to stay engaged with what the speaker is saying. 

Your Medical School Application: School-Specific Secondary Essays

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

Medical schools use school-specific questions to assess an applicant’s fit with the program. Use these common prompts to get a head start on brainstorming and drafting your responses.

Why our school? This is a place to mention courses you're excited to take, potential mentors you'd seek out, clubs you'd join, what the school's hospital affiliations and research opportunities mean to you, etc. And you want to share how those offerings are relevant to your past experiences and/or passions. If you've spent the last two years volunteering at a free clinic and doing community health outreach and the school has a brand-new mobile clinic serving the unhoused, you want to be working on it. If you aim to become an OB/GYN and Professor So-And-So just published a 10-year study on geriatric pregnancy, you want her as a mentor and to become involved in her current research. 

You also might share how the school's location will set you up for the kind of career you want. Say, for example, the school is in a city, and you ultimately want to practice in an urban area. If true, you could take your reasoning one step further, saying that you want to work in the school's city or state when you're a physician. State schools love applicants who are committed to practicing in their state post-residency. 

Mentioning that you find other aspects of the town or city appealing or that it is located near friends and relatives is also relevant here. Schools want to know if you have a local support system. 

Similar Q: Tell us about your special interest in the campus you selected. If a school has multiple campuses, à la The Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, they will likely ask you to choose a favorite. 

Again, you should share your interest in the local clinical opportunities and how the campus location relates to your career aspirations. A personal affinity for a larger or smaller city or rural campus is noteworthy too.

What about our mission statement resonates with you? How do or will you embody it? A version of this question might be phrased in several long-winded ways (you'll see what we mean), but this is what they are all asking. Mission alignment matters to schools. They want to know that you share their values and will be a proactive member of their community. 

Schools often hit similar themes: innovation, collaboration, and servant leadership. Health equity and social justice also frequently appear in mission statements. (Some schools have a separate question related to those topics.) Even if you're not drafting this answer yet, think about experiences you've had that involve those themes and jot down some notes. Hit up your brainstorm and find the times where you utilized critical thinking. When were you a leader? How have you been involved in social justice or what's a critical topic that you are making an effort to learn more about? 

If a question like this isn't in a school's Secondaries mix, you should be looking to reflect the mission statement back to the school in your other essay responses. For example, if a school especially values collegiality, you might include a story about how you collaborated on a class project in one of your answers. (This is another example of show don't tell.) 

While you should be researching schools individually to learn other specifics, AAMC has a tremendously convenient document that rounds up all allopathic schools' mission statements in one place.

Your Medical School Application: Common Secondary Essay Prompts (Part 2)

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

Use these common prompts to get a head start on brainstorming and drafting your responses.

What disparities in health will you try to address as a medical student and physician? A question about health disparities and inequity could be direct like this or the topics could come up in a question about your alignment with a program's mission statement. Many schools' statements tout their commitment to addressing these issues. There are plenty of health disparities to write about; explain why you're passionate about one or two and show your knowledge of them, preferably through previous experiences. Share the steps you have already taken regarding inequities and plot out the steps you plan on taking in the future. 

We had a client who went to college where Black maternal healthcare was ranked the worst in the country. While this was attributable to multiple factors, physician bias certainly played a role, she wrote. After college, she participated in several unconscious bias trainings. Discussing implicit bias raised her awareness of how dangerous it is in a healthcare setting and caused her to pause and consider where beliefs she had originated. She's going to take that practice with her throughout her career. And on campus and in her future practice, she plans to organize implicit bias training sessions. 

Describe a time where you worked on a team. Teamwork is a huge part of working in medicine, so make this example count. Choose the best anecdote from your Teamwork and Collaboration Bucket in your brainstorm. Be detailed: What was your team's goal? What problem did you solve together? If the team was small, include everyone's first name. (It shows that you valued these people as collaborators.) What did each bring to the table? How did you delegate tasks? When did you choose to lead and when did you choose to follow? Did a conflict arise? How did you solve it? If you didn't, is there anything you would do differently if faced with that situation today? 

What are the most important attributes a physician should possess? Which one do you embody? This question is self-explanatory, but again, don't just tell, show. Share a story (or, better yet, more than one instance) where you exemplified an attribute that means a lot to you. 

Let’s Get (Inter)Personal: Hearing and Listening

We’re excited to introduce “Emotional Intelligence (EI) Fridays” on the blog, where we will hone in on how to develop and implement these softer skills. 

Our first topic of focus will be listening, a critical skill for doctors, lawyers, and (future) CEOs alike. We hope you enjoy this three-part series.

In our rushed and noisy daily lives, it has become common to use the words “hear” and “listen” interchangeably. We ask, “Can you hear me?” presuming that if a person can hear us, they’re listening. But, Julian Treasure, author of How to be Heard: Secrets of Powerful Speaking and Listening, provides us with a key point of differentiation between the two in his Ted Talk on Conscious Listening. “My definition of listening is making meaning from sound. All the sound around us. And there are three stages to that process. The first stage is a physical stage: sound waves hit your body. All over. But in particular, they go deep inside your head, and the sound waves touch your eardrums. In the second stage, that physical relationship is translated into neural activity, electrical activity in the brain. In the third part of the process, mental activity takes place and that, I suggest, is when listening really happens,” he said.

This definition is important because it makes clear that listening goes beyond the physical act of hearing. For many, we have so conflated the two that we assume that not only do we know how to listen properly, but that we’re good at it. Yes, we say, I can hear you. But hearing doesn’t mean listening. 

In fact, a good portion of us are not listening much at all, and we don’t even realize it. An Accenture study found that 96 percent of global professionals surveyed believe they are good listeners. But another study, described in Scientific American, found that, directly after listening to a 10-minute talk, about half of adult participants could not describe the talk’s subject matter and after 48 hours that percentage ballooned to 75 percent. In the Harvard Business Review, Tijs Besieux reported that, “Studies show people are distracted, forgetful, or preoccupied 75% of the time when listening.” The magnitude of that 75 percent increases upon consideration of how much of the workday is spent listening. On the Wharton Business Daily podcast, Oscar Trimboli, author of How to Listen: Discover the Hidden Key to Better Communication, said that 55 percent of most people’s workdays are spent listening. And that percentage increases along with seniority. For most managers, listening makes up 63 percent of the day, and for executives, a whooping 83 percent.

Because most people consider listening as a physical sense rather than a skill, it is rare to receive formal training on how to listen. Besieux wrote, “Less than two percent of the worldwide population has received formal education on listening effectively, and research points to a ‘crisis in listening’ as organizations spend 80 percent of their corporate communication resources on speaking.” This lack of instruction becomes more poignant when combined with workplaces that tend to be rife with distractions that make conscious listening difficult—Accenture found that 98 percent of global respondents spend at least part of their day multitasking—and reward decisive action more than mindful listening. 

Regardless of your field, the “crisis in listening” affects you. Dr. Howard Luks, orthopedic surgeon and sports medicine specialist, wrote in his blog, “Most patients are interrupted by their physicians after 18 seconds. Yes, 18 seconds. Poor communication and listening skills are likely at the heart of this emerging high-tech, low-touch method of treating patients these days. Physicians feel rushed because they’re trying to maintain their income as their reimbursements decline and they need to spend more time filling out reams of paperwork to justify many of their requests or actions.” Fiona Martin, Director and Head of Employment Law at Martin Searle Solicitors, highlighted a similar challenge. “Every lawyer knows that understanding client needs is an essential part of the service. Too often, the process is geared to identifying what legal services can be provided. Instead of really listening to what the client is saying, you’re waiting for them to stop talking so that you can get started,” she told Law Firm Ambition. And according to the Accenture study referenced earlier, 64 percent of global respondents felt that the digital workplace has made listening significantly more difficult, and 36 percent said “the many distractions prevent them from doing their best, resulting in a loss of focus, lower-quality work, and diminished team relationships.” 

Your Medical School Application: Common Secondary Essay Prompts (Part 1)

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

Use these common prompts to get a head start on brainstorming and drafting your responses.

How will you add to the diversity of our student population? Your response doesn't have to be about race, sexuality, or religion. (Of course, it can be.) What unique experiences and perspectives can you share? And how have you thrived in and learned from diverse environments in the past? 

We had one client write about how she chose to spend her gap years between graduating college and matriculating to med school in a corporate setting. Working at a consulting firm that advised biotech and pharmaceutical companies gave her a better understanding of disease etiology and product pipelines and insights into healthcare inequity. Part of her job involved speaking with doctors and researchers from around the world; between this and working in a hectic office environment, she improved her communication skills—vital to contributing to a medical school community, never mind in her career. And her atypical premed job meant she'd bring unique knowledge and experiences to her medical school class. 

Tell us about a time you faced adversity. This prompt can be a trap because it tempts you to be very negative. Obviously, you don't have to be all sunshine and smiles in your essay about facing adversity. But be careful not to paint yourself as pitiable or overly criticize others, even those who deserve it—let their actions speak for themselves. Present the event in detail, but you want about 80% of your answer to focus on the actions you took, lessons you learned, and how you grew through facing adversity. How did this incident affect your long-term view of something? How will it affect your future actions? How will having navigated this experience make you a better healthcare provider? 

This tone to strike and structure to follow applies to other common questions, such as, "Describe a conflict you've had. How did you resolve it?" and "Reflect on a time when you had to show resilience.” 

Tell us about a time you failed. Talking about a failure or weakness can make you feel vulnerable—good. To get a little Brené Brown: Vulnerability leads to bravery. When you share a failure, you want to spend about 20% of your answer explaining what happened and 80% on what you learned and what you've done since to improve. Lastly, how are you feeling now? Hit these beats: Situation. Action. Result. You don't need to seem ever-resilient and impervious to future failure, just like you've grown. 

Related: Your Medical School Application: Getting Ready for Secondary Essays

Your Medical School Application: Getting Ready for Secondary Essays

In this blog series we will be covering all aspects of Secondary Essays. Stay tuned over the coming weeks for guidance on writing compelling essays that will earn you a coveted interview spot. 

You may not want to hear this, but… you should start your Secondaries as soon as you complete your Personal Statement and W&A—before the schools have even sent you their questions. There are recurring themes that you can bet will come up, and prepping things you can polish once you have the exact questions will make the Secondaries process much easier. You want to submit your answers within two weeks of receiving the questions to ensure you get one of a school's limited interview slots.

The good news is: You will be able to recycle your Secondary answers for different prompts and use aspects of your Secondary drafts for your super-short answers too. But to do this more effectively, you'll need to get organized. 

We suggest that clients keep school-specific folders holding all of their responses. Having separate folders for specific topics is helpful too. For example, keep a Diversity Essay folder. School A's diversity prompt might require a response of 500 words or less. Save that edited doc to the school folder as "School A Diversity 500." Also, save it as "Diversity 500" in the Diversity folder. Perhaps much later, when School M's diversity prompt calls for the same word count, you can find your finished and edited 500-word essay in the Diversity folder and tailor it to fit School M. 

When you pare down your 500-word essay to suit School Q's 250-word or 1,000-character diversity short answer (and you likely will), save that to the Diversity folder as "Diversity 250" or "Diversity 1,000 Characters." You're applying to so many schools that when you read your 40th prompt, you're going to ask yourself, "I know I wrote this as 500 words already, but for what school?!" You want all your hard work to be in easily findable locations.

Common AMCAS Questions: You Asked, We Answered.

We’re going to answer some of the most frequently asked AMCAS questions here.  Let’s dive in!

Who should I ask to write recommendation letters?

You should go a step beyond a school's expectations when you request recommendations. We suggest you aim for:

• At least two science professors 

• At least one non-science professor

• Medical professionals. Note: You don't have to stick to M.D.s; osteopathic physicians, nurse practitioners, EMTs, medical students—anyone who supervised you is gold.

• Supervisors at your job, volunteer posts, and extracurricular activities.

Review our blog for more on this topic. 

How do I select my Work & Activities “Most Meaningful Experiences” entries?

Ah, the "Most Meaningful," your chance to share more about what you most value and have learned from—in seemingly random character limits of 700 and 1,325 with spaces. 

We like for two of the three Most Meaningful entries to be about clinical or research experiences. If you took a gap year to work, you might make the third entry about that job. More and more applicants are working full-time after college. Even if your full-time work experience is outside the medical field, you're learning in a competitive, stressful environment. This is attractive to schools. 

Our advice for drafting your Most Meaningful entries: In the initial 700, share your role and duties, what you valued about the role, and start to say what you gained from it through a singular example. In the 1,325, deepen the anecdote that exemplifies what you brought to and took from the experience. 

Review our blog for more on writing your W&A section. 

Should I answer the “Other Impactful Experiences” question?

This question text states that not all candidates are expected to respond. Rather, it is for those who have had “major challenges or obstacles.” We urge you to consider any significant challenges that you have faced, using the following questions:

1. Did this experience impact my life in a way that provides meaningful context to my application? Examples of such adversity include: Facing a significant health challenge such as cancer or a disability; serving as the guardian to your younger siblings, while also attending classes (likely, negatively impacting your resume); living in an underserved medical community that made it difficult to gain shadowing or clinical experiences, but also inspired your interest in rural medicine. 

2. What did I learn from the experience? Your essay response should detail the adversity, but should focus on what you learned from going through the experience. Did this experience provide you with an “ah-ha!” moment that changed your perspective and impacted your life? If the take-aways from the adversity do not feel relevant to your application (i.e., your learnings do not clearly make you a stronger candidate for a medical school), you should reconsider the take-aways or including the experience.

3. Have I already spoken to this experience in my personal statement? You will want to avoid redundancy by sharing different stories and anecdotes in this essay and your personal statement. If you fully explored the experience in your personal statement, do not feel compelled to re-write about the experience here. Not all applicants are expected to have responses to this question.

Review our blog on this question for additional context.

When do I need to submit the AMCAS application?

We recommend that you submit your application no later than early to mid-June because your application will go through a verification process prior to the data being released to medical schools. This can take anywhere from a couple of weeks early in the process, to over a month during peak application submission periods. Note, in order to complete verification, your application must contain your official transcript, so request this document as well as your letters of recommendation a month or two before your planned submission date. 

You also want to submit your AMCAS application early because this step triggers schools to send out secondary application materials, either automatically, or after a pre-screen of your application.

Review our blog with suggested application timing.

Your Round One MBA Application Timeline

MBA Round One application deadlines will be released this summer, but It’s never too early to create your business school application strategy. Apply Point's ideal schedule looks something like this timeline. 

Never too early 

• If you haven't connected with us yet, do it as soon as you can. We can guide you on school selection, provide an initial assessment of your transcripts and work experience, and advise you on ways to bolster your candidacy. 

• Solidify your plans to take the GMAT or GRE. Taking your standardized test in the spring or early summer before your application deadline gives you some wiggle room if you must retake it. The latest you should retake this test is two weeks prior to the application submission date. We recommend no later than mid-August for Round One applicants and December for Round Two applicants.  

• Start a journal. You'll raid your journal for details for your School-Specific Essays and, later, for interview preparation. Make notes on your current experiences as they happen and past ones whenever you have a moment to ponder them. You can keep a paper or digital diary or even record audio and text notes on your phone as they come to you, and organize them into a document later. (You will eventually want all of your experiences in one place.) 

• Gain meaningful professional experiences and seek out leadership opportunities in internship and/or volunteer settings. 

June 2024

• Be all about GMAT / GRE preparation. Take a prep course and/or work with a tutor to prepare for the test. 

• Reach out to your recommenders. We'd like you to get two letters of recommendation, one from a current supervisor (if possible) and another from a supervisor who can speak to your performance in full-time post-baccalaureate employment.  

• Visit MBA programs of interest, and gain an understanding of their offerings and how they align with your goals. 

• Continue keeping a journal. This is repetitive for a reason—never stop doing this. It is so helpful. 

July 2024

• Take the GMAT or GRE.

• Finalize your school list. You want a hearty list of "I could go here" schools and you’ll ultimately want to apply to between six and eight schools. 

• Move all of your journaled experiences into a brainstorming document. 

• Update your resume to showcase the results you’ve achieved and impact you’ve had. 

August 2024

• Request your transcripts—and this includes those from schools abroad. 

• Start drafting your essays. This is going to take a while. If you blast through them all in one week, you haven't done it right. Give yourself time for outlining, writing, revisions, and re-writing. 

• Fill out the school applications. 

• Follow up with your recommenders to ensure that they have plans to submit their Letters of Recommendation prior to the deadlines.

September - October 2024

• Submit your applications no later than the deadline (confirm the submission time and time zone).  

September-December 2024

• Prepare for and participate in interviews. Your brainstorming document will continue to be useful here. Interviews are a great way for the admissions committee to get to know you as a person (beyond your application) and for you to learn more about a program’s student experience, experiential learning opportunities, and/or alumni network.

Your Premed Priorities: Non-Clinical Experiences that Medical Schools Love

For a strong W&A section, you’ll want to highlight both clinical and non-clinical experiences. Your non-clinical experiences are an excellent way to demonstrate some of the traits and characteristics that will lead to your success in medical school, while also showing some personality. Here are a few of the non-clinical experiences that medical schools love to see.

Research and/or Lab Work: AMCAS matriculation data for the 2018 entering class at Johns Hopkins stated that 96% had research or lab experience. If you want to attend a school famous for its research, you need more than one of these gigs. Even schools that aren't explicitly known for research love seeing multiple research positions in your W&A.

There's so much critical thinking involved in research. And there's the opportunity to be published—a slam dunk. In research work, you will collaborate with a team to accomplish a measurable and valuable task. The cooperation and diligence you need to be a part of such projects are exactly the qualities you want to highlight in your W&A and Personal Statement. Even being a small part of something can make a huge impact. We had a client who essentially did data entry for a research project, but her careful work caught two mistakes that would have ruined the data set. Her team credited her on a scientific paper for her contributions, an unexpected peacock-sized feather in her cap.

Non-Clinical Volunteering: Service is a huge part of medicine—but not all your service has to be medical. Schools like Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine that emphasize caring for the whole person will especially value roles in which you interacted with your community. Volunteering shows compassion and often builds communication and collaboration skills. Share a story where you connected with another person or collaborated with a team of other volunteers.

Such a position can also prove ingenuity. One of our clients volunteered at a non-profit that helped families register for SNAP benefits. After a couple of weeks on the job, she suggested changes to the organization's method for approaching people at family court hearings. She was able to connect with more caregivers who needed help as a result.

Big Academic Wins: To include awards and accolades in the W&A, you must go beyond listing them. Give some background about what you had to achieve to be recognized. If you did a thesis as part of your school's Honors College program, share the process, skills you learned, and how you felt upon accomplishing this goal. If you had any help reaching your goal, say so. Did a mentor work with you during office hours? Did a librarian help you track down a rare manuscript? Medical schools love it when a candidate seeks, accepts, and appreciates help.

Science-Related Anything: A science-related club or volunteering experience will be attractive to schools because it shows a passion for scientific study. Tutoring and mentoring looks especially good because teaching is a big part of medicine. We had a client who spent a year's worth of Tuesday afternoons helping high school students learn about physiology. It improved his ability to break down information. You'll be teaching med students as a resident, residents as a fellow, fellows as an attending, and you'll be translating complexities for a layman patient daily. 

Conferences: Attending a conference is typically only a one-day time commitment, but it shows an interest in learning about the current state and future of medicine. Conferences can be very inspiring. These speakers were selected for a reason. Networking with doctors is great, and talking to any patients in attendance is even better. When you're writing this entry, don't just list what you did or heard at the conference, tell us how it affected you after that one day. 

Outside of the W&A, having attended a conference can come in handy during an interview. You might be asked if there are any new developments in healthcare that you find riveting. If you attended a conference and subsequently read more about the topics discussed, you're going to have a lot of thoughts to share.

Campus Organizations: If you've dedicated years to the same organization, highlight your biggest accomplishments. What did you change as part of this organization, or what important tradition did you carry on? Did you bring anything medical into the mix? For example, when your sorority did charity work, was it for a medicine-related cause? If you have some control over your organization's next event, see if you can swing things in that direction. Incidentally, if your school has a pre-med club and you're not in it, join it now.

Hobbies: Hobbies are not superficial. Yes, your medical experiences, volunteer work, noteworthy club positions, and academic accolades are going to outrank this in the W&A. But you have fifteen unique entries to fill, and you want to show different dimensions of yourself. We believe a hobby is a must in a W&A. Read our blog post dedicated to hobbies. 

Related: 

Your Pre-Med Priorities: Clinical Experiences that Medical Schools Love

Your Work & Activities Section Series