Last week I talked about what a reasonable number of BS/MD program applications may be.  But what if you really want to attend a BS/MD program and you want to apply to every BS/MD program available? This is what several of my students have wanted to do.  Can you do so? Is it a good idea? The answer to both questions is no.

Although there are approximately 70 BS/MD programs a student can’t apply to all of them because many of the programs have geographic limitations on who can apply. Some programs are only available to students from a particular state while other programs are only open to students from a particular high school. Even if you wanted to, and had the time, there are many BS/MD programs that you just won’t qualify for.

OK, so you are willing to apply to only those programs that you are qualified for geographically. However, even that is not a good idea. Why?

The problem is that certain program have a particular focus. For example, the BS/MD program at Rennselaer Polytechnic Institute/Albany Medical College has a focus on the physician-scientist. The BS/MD program at Union College/Albany Medical College has a focus on leadership for the physician. If you apply to both programs your focus won’t be believable as both a physician/scientist and a physician leader. If you are accepted to both RPI and Union and they pass on your applications to Albany Medical College, Albany will see both applications and most likely not consider either.

There is also the issue of how many applications you can practically complete and do a thorough and complete job of. After a certain point, you just do not have the time to really do a good job on all of the applications. You will have a much better chance of admission doing a good job on a limited number of applications compared to an adequate job on more applications. These applications are so competitive that you must do everything as well as possible to have a chance of admission.

There is no one right answer to the question of how many is too many, but, even the most diligent student has to put a limit on the number of BS/MD programs to which they apply.

Want more information about BS/MD programs? Check out the Guide to BS/MD Programs.

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With students starting to work on their college applications in the next few months, I thought this would be a good time to look at the college application resume. What is it, what needs to be included and how long should it be? Most importantly, do you even need a supplemental resume?

Before discussing the resume, I want to discuss the question of whether you even need to have a resume included with your application. The answer, for most students, is NO.

Yes, I recognize that this is heresy. Everyone you know is putting together a resume. It would be application suicide for you not to do so.  But, let’s forget for a minute what everyone else is doing and look at this logically.

The vast majority of the most selective colleges use the common application as the application to their college. Colleges don’t have to use the common application; they choose to do so. The common application has a place to list up to 12 of your extracurricular activities. This list allows students to provide information as to which years they participated in each activity as well as the number of weeks per year and hours per week for each activity.  Finally, students can list the positions held and honors won for each activity.

By submitting a supplemental resume, you are saying to the college that your activities are so extraordinary that they can not be listed in the form that the college themselves have approved. Do you really think that everyone you know who is submitting that supplemental resume has qualifications that are so far beyond the normal applicant to the most selective colleges that they can’t use the form provided by the college?

Remember that the average application reader will spend 15 to 20 minutes reading your application. That includes reviewing your grades, classes taken and test scores as well as your application and all of the essays.  Do you really think they have time to review a 5 or 10 page detailed resume?

Does that mean that no one should submit a supplemental resume? No, there are a few students whose accomplishments really can not be adequately listed on the outline resume of the common application. It is not that there are too many activities, but rather that the involvement in each of a limited number of activities is so extensive that it can only be listed on a supplemental resume.

I know, you are still worried that not completing a supplemental resume will make you look less accomplished than your peers. I can tell you that the vast majority of the students with whom I work are applying to, and getting admitted to, some of the most selective colleges in the country.  Rarely, do my students submit a supplemental resume.

Still think you are one of the extraordinary students who require a supplemental resume?  In my next post, I will give more detail about what to do with a supplemental resume to make it enhance your application rather than distract from it.

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Just a quick note to let my readers know that the Common Application for the 2010-2011 application year is now open. Here is the link to the 2010-2011 Common App.

I recommend that students applying to colleges using the Common Application start working on the application at this time if you haven’t already started. You should be able to complete the biographical portion of the common application very quickly but you will want to spend some time on the essays of the common application. The more you can complete before returning for your senior year, the more pleasant your senior year will be.

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Articles on writing the college essay often tell students that they need to maintain their own “voice” in the essay. Great, but what do they mean. Why does it matter?

“Voice” is how the essay sounds when you read it. Think of it this way. When you read something, does it sound like someone you know? Some people talk, and write, very formally. Some talk informally while others may have a bit of sarcasm or a bit of humor in their normal speech.  We all have a certain sound to the way we talk.

Similarly, there is a certain sound to writing. You want to strive to have your writing sound like you talk.  Don’t get me wrong here. If you like, you know, like, talk, like your friends, you know, that is not something you want to follow in your writing.  Poor speech does not make for great writing.

Several years ago I worked with a young man whose father was a professional writer.  They sent me a copy of the essay written by the student and I knew right away that this was not the product of a high school student.  I work with many students who are great writers but high school students and older adults talk, and write, in different ways.  The words are different and the syntax is different. When I asked, it turned out that dad had done an edit on the essay which made it sound like a 50 year old man.  The voice of the student had been lost.

Why is this important?  Because the purposes of the essay is to communicate something about you and how you write.  If the essay doesn’t sound like your voice you are not communicating “you” to the college.  After reading thousands of essays, college admissions officers are very aware of what an authentic voice sounds like.

How do you make sure your “voice” is coming through. Read your essay out loud. Does it sound like you? Not sure?  Read it out loud to someone who knows you well. They will be able to easily tell if your writing sounds like you.

If you make sure that your “voice” comes through in your essay, you will be one step closer to being the strongest possible candidate for admission to that special college.

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Writing the college admission essay scares people. Students worry about what to write  and worry that they don’t write well enough.  I have written before on understanding the college essay to take some of the fear away.  But some people just don’t get it.

Inside Higher Ed recently had an article on a business that uses software to detect possible plagiarism in college essays.  The company tested 450,000 admissions essays and found the 36% had “significant matching text” to conclude that the essay was suspected of being plagiarized.

The company in question has an economic reason to have this number of plagiarized essays be as large as possible to try and sell their software. However, there are enough examples of plagiarism being detected on admissions essays to know that this is a problem.

Plagiarism of an admissions essay has two major problems for the student who is thinking about going this route. First, it is obviously cheating and if you are caught, it is difficult to imagine that the admissions department of the college would not reject your application immediately.

The second problem is a little more subtle.  Colleges don’t just use the essay to evaluate your writing ability.  They also use the essay to get some insight into who you are. If you are using a purchased or plagiarized essay, the essay will not really reflect you. It will either reflect someone else’s personality or more likely, will be so generic as to be of little value in convincing a college admissions officer that you are a good fit for their college.

Don’t cheat on the essay. It won’t help you and in many cases will actually hurt your chances for admissions. Take the extra time to understand the admission essay and to write from the heart. That is the best way to use the essay to convince the admissions department to send you a fat envelope in the spring.

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UPDATE: The common application is now active.

The Common Application, used by 414 colleges for their applications, has announced that the 2010-2011 application will not be available until August 1. This is a month later than the traditional July 1 release.

In the meantime there is a preview copy of the Common Application that students can review to understand what information they will need to complete the application.  The preview Common Application also allows students to review the essay prompts for the critical personal essay prompt.

I generally  advise students to begin working on their personal essay during the summer when they have more time. This is particularly important for those students that are applying to colleges that have their own required supplemental essays.

Looking for something to do this summer? Check out the preview Common Application.

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The best college essays are written from the heart of the student. That doesn’t mean that essays always have to be serious and deep. But it does mean that your essay could only have been written by you.

I recently read a book called “True Notebooks” that gave some of the best examples of writing from the heart that I have ever read.  “True Notebooks” is written by Mark Salzman and is his story about teaching writing to violent teenage offenders in a juvenile detention facility waiting to be sentenced.

The teenagers in this book are not well educated and not motivated to learn. They don’t know, or care about, proper English syntax. But the writing they produce is moving and heartfelt because they are writing about what they know.They are not writing about world changing events but rather are writing about the small things that their lives revolve around.

These teenagers are not worried about impressing a college admissions officer with their writing. They are just writing because there is not much else to do will waiting sentencing. I will caution readers that the language used by the teenagers is often crude and may offend some people. But in their world, that is how people communicate.

I think every student should read “True Notebooks” before beginning to write their college essays. It will help you understand what writing from the heart really means and it will also make you understand how blessed you are to have the life you have. So stop by your local library and pick up a copy. You will be glad you did.

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Last time we spoke about the college essay for the BS/MD applicant. Today we are going to discuss what is important for the medical school essay for the BS/MD programs.

The medical school questions may change from year to year but in my experience they will fall into one of four general categories. The first question looks at your motivation for becoming a physician.  To answer this question you might look at a personal experience you had that provided your motivation.  Or you might find your motivation from one or more of the activities you have been involved in.

The second general essay question attempts to confirm your seriousness about becoming a physician. This essay question allows you to address in more detail your involvement in your volunteer activities, your reseaach experience or your experience in shadowing a doctor.

The third general medical school essay focuses on your interest in the particular program you are applying to. To answer this question you need to understand the specifics on the BS/MD program. Different programs have different focuses and this question is trying to confirm that you have chosen the proper program for your interests.

The fourth, and final, general type of medical school essay you may have to answer tries to confirm your level of maturity. Here is one example from Northwestern HPME: “How did you deal with a situation where you didn’t achieve the outcome you desired?”To show maturity in your essays, keep the focus on your beliefs and actions rather than on you.

The medical school essay is a critical component of the BS/MD application process.  The students with whom I work often spend as much time working on these essays as the rest of the process combined. Although you may not know the specific questions until you receive the medical school portion of the application, you should start framing answers to these general questions early on in the process.

Getting an early start is helpful for most aspects of the college admissions process, but for the BS/MD programs an early start is particularly important. Now that you have some basic idea of the categories of questions, you can start thinking about your answers.

Want more information about BS/MD programs? Check out the Guide to BS/MD Programs.

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Students applying to BS/MD programs need to write essays for the undergraduate college as well as the medical school. Today I want to talk about what you need to consider to write the best college essay.

I am not talking about general things to consider when you write a college essay. Instead, I am discussing the specifics you need to consider as a BS/MD applicant. When writing the college essay, remember what is important for admissions to BS/MD programs.  The programs are looking for students with a long standing passion for medicine as well as students who have leadership abilities, maturity and compassion.

Your college essay does not need to talk directly about the number of years you have wanted to become a physician but it should address at least one of the topics that are important to the BS/MD programs.  If you founded a business club and a club to find volunteers for the local nursing home, write about the nursing home club.  Or write about some volunteer activity that shows the compassion you have for others.  Do you have experience with medical care in another country? That might make an interesting essay.

The bottom line for the college essay is to keep the focus on something important to the BS/MD program. Next post I will be talking about the medical school essay for the BS/MD program.

Want more information about BS/MD programs? Check out the Guide to BS/MD Programs.

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Tufts University has been in the news recently because of the supplement to their application that allows a student to “Share a one-minute video that says something about you.”

For Tufts optional essay, they allowed students to write on 7 different topics.  But they also had a creative option that allowed students to create something out of a piece of paper or submit a one-minute video on YouTube. About 1,000 people choose to submit video.

Many people in the admissions world are lamenting the end of the world as we know it because of Tufts video option. Personally, I think it is great.  Tufts did not require students to make a video. You can’t afford the equipment to make a video? No problem, do one of the other optional essays or actions. But student who wished to show their creativity that way could do so.

The director of Tufts undergraduate admissions, Lee Coffin, unfortunately made the comment after watching one of the videos that he was ready to admit the student without seeing the rest of the student’s application.  OK, maybe he was overstating a bit. But should Tufts be willing to consider admitting a student with slightly lower grades or test scores who is incredibly creative? I think they should.

Creativity should not replace hard work and good grades in deciding who to admit to highly selective colleges like Tufts.  But to use creativity as part of the consideration of who to accept is a good thing.  The University of Chicago has done it for years with many of their essays.  No one has suggested that Chicago is any the worse for doing so.

Not everyone is at their best in writing a creative essay. Some have strengths in more visual media, like video. Video is here to stay. Why shouldn’t it be allowed as one possible consideration in the college admissions decision making process?

Good for Tufts for letting those students shine.

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