4 Ways to Cope with Medical School Rejections

You get an email notification from a medical school you have been eager to hear back from. You immediately open the email and read the first sentence: “Dear Applicant, It is with regret that we write to inform you that we are unable to offer you admission to the MD Class of 202X at XYZ College of Medicine.”

You are heartbroken, disappointed, and confused. What happened? I thought my application couldn’t be better! Or could it?

Reach Back Out to the Admission Office

As soon as you receive a rejection letter, the first thing that you should do is reach out to the medical school’s admission office. Some admissions set up one-on-one meetings with you and go through your entire application with you. They will help you view your own application through the admission’s point of view. Their perspective will shed some light on areas that you may need to work on or improve for when you apply in the next application cycle. Additionally, it shows the medical school you are eager to improve your application. When you apply again, admissions officers will notice your persistence, and they will be more inclined to pay closer attention to your application when making the decision about your admission into their school.

Overall, the point is to transform your rejection into constructive feedback for yourself. There are many ways to improve your application when you reapply. You can always get more letters of recommendations or more clinical experience, retake the MCAT if its low, work on your interviewing skills by practicing before the real deal, or improve your GPA by completing a post-bac program. I am not going to go into too many details about how to reapply to medical school, since that warrants a whole other article. The main point is to fill in gaps and not give up.

Take Some Time Off

After not receiving any acceptances during your application cycle, I personally think it’s best for you to take some time off to breathe. Go on a vacation, spend time with family, or pursue a hobby that you put on hold during your busy application cycle. It is important to take your mind off what happened. By giving yourself a break, you are refreshing your mindset and allowing yourself to see things from a whole new perspective!

Alternative Options

There is nothing wrong in evaluating alternative options, whether that is looking into different medical school options (Osteopathic Medicine or Caribbean Medical Schools) or entirely reevaluating your career goals. Take a step back and ask yourself why you really want to become a doctor. If you realize you are not as passionate about it as you thought you were, then it is okay to keep an open mind and look into other career fields. Changing career plans may seem scary at first, but it may be the best decision for you!

Don’t Blame Yourself

When faced with rejections from your dream school, it’s hard to not take it personally. Keep in mind that getting accepted into medical school is a very competitive process, and there are only a handful of seats. Medical schools evaluate thousands of applicants and only accept a couple hundred. Therefore, you are not the only one out there. Most pre-meds are in the same boat as you!  

Conclusion

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Hold your head up high, and keep marching towards your goals. Don’t let this year’s rejections take you down.  Have faith in yourself and trust the process. The rejections you receive this year can be turned into the acceptances you celebrate next year! Feel free to reach out to our AcceptMed advisors about any questions or concerns you may have. They are experienced and can help you get accepted into your dream medical school. Good luck!