Insider Medical Admissions: Safety Schools

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Safety Schools

Whether you call me a pessimist or a realist, I am an advocate of having a large number of safety schools on your list when applying to medical school.

I have some clients with good GPAs and mediocre MCATs and vice versa. Ensure that your safety schools include those whose averages are the same and lower than your weakest numbers. In other words, if you have a strong MCAT but a weaker GPA, pick safety schools that reflect the GPA.

Remember: You can always decline a medical school's offer of admission; you do not want to be without options.

About Me

Years of candidate selection at Harvard taught me what characteristics comprise a desirable applicant and how even bright candidates make mistakes that undermine their admissions success. I am a practicing Emergency Physician with nine years of experience training medical students, residents and fellows. I won three teaching and mentorship awards while at Harvard. Please see Insider Medical Admissions for the full array of personalized services I offer to clients applying to medical school, residency, fellowship and post baccalaureate programs.

Dr. Finkel thanks David Presser, MD, MPH for his contributions to the content of her blog entries. Dr. Presser is a practicing Emergency Physician who has written several primers for applicants to medical school and Emergency Medicine residency. Dr. Presser is a graduate of Stanford University, UCSF Medical School, the UCLA/Olive View-UCLA Emergency Medicine Residency Program and the Harvard School of Public Health.

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