Many students applying to medical school wonder if a medical school advisor can help them with their medical school application. The short answer is yes, but it depends on which advisor you choose. Medical school advisors can be costly, so it’s only natural for you to wonder if using their services can increase your chances of acceptance. What precisely will they be able to help you with? And, what if a medical school advisor helped you with your applications and you didn't get accepted anywhere? In this blog, we'll answer these questions and tell you everything you need to know about advisor and medical school admissions consulting so you can make an informed decision.


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Article Contents
15 min read

What is a Medical School Advisor? What Does a Medical School Advisor Cost? The Benefits of Using a Medical School Advisor Who Can Benefit from a Medical School Advisor? Is a Medical School Advisor Right For Me? FAQs

What is a Medical School Advisor?

A medical school advisor provides advice, tools, and recommendations to help you with your medical school application and medical school interview preparation. This can include (but isn’t limited to) helping you decide which schools to apply to, write medical school secondary essays, prepare for the CASPer test and practice medical school interview questions with you ahead of your interview date(s). A medical school advisor can help you navigate your entire application process, and identify and address any challenges. Really, they act as your 1:1 contact for the multiple steps involved:

“I had a brainstorming session today with Nirusan Rajakulendran and it was extremely helpful in kickstarting my draft for my personal statement. He really helped me pinpoint my focus on what to write about and was a great listener. I am excited to keep working with BeMo throughout my medical school application process!” – Katie Edmonds, BeMo Student

You might be curious as to if you ask a trusted confidante to act as your (free) medical school advisor. In our honest opinion, the answer is no. You may think that your friends and family members, as well as anyone on the internet (i.e., residency reddit, or other medical school subreddits), may be the solution to help you brainstorm, practice and prepare for your medical school application process, but that isn’t the case. Seeking information and suggestions about your medical school application from underqualified, or anonymous people, is risky. Medical school advisors bring tried-and-true insight experience and professionalism to the table. 

What Does a Medical School Advisor Cost?

The truth is, a professional and qualified medical school advisor costs money. This is no different than any other service, whether you are getting a haircut, having your car cleaned or visiting the dentist.

It is extremely valuable to have someone experienced and knowledgeable, ultimately knowing more about the application and admissions process than you, help you with your application and we all know that value costs money. The cost of a medical school advisor varies, application review plans can start as low as $1,000, with some students spending between $3000-$10,000. Now that may seem expensive, but let's break it down and look into the cost of the application process:

First, let’s get into application fees. If you’re wondering, ‘how many medical schools should I apply to?’ you’re not alone: that’s a common question! The short answer is, on average, most students apply to 16 medical schools. AMCAS charges $170 for the first school and $40 for each additional school afterward. So that's $770 for 16 medical schools.

Secondary applications can also be pricey, on average, $100 per school. Now we're at $770 plus $1600 equalling $2370. Now, for tests. You'll have to write the MCAT at a cost of $325, plus cover your accommodation and travel expenses for any interviews you receive. Depending on where you apply to, some of these will be out of state involving a domestic flight which could be $500 alone (if not more, depending where you currently reside and where you’re traveling to). Hotels can cost around $150 per night, for one or two nights, then there is still transportation and food to consider; again, this varies greatly by city, state and country. Even if you only received two interviews that involved a domestic flight, the rough total cost is already over $4,000! All of this doesn't even factor in additional costs such as MCAT preparation, the cost to transfer your undergrad transcripts per school, the cost of re-writing the MCAT if needed, and so on.

Now, let’s say you spent all that money and you didn't get in. That's it, you're left with a hefty hole in your pocket with no success on the other end. Instead, you'll have to apply all over again, spending the same amount of money the following year.

Or, you could have invested the money into a medical school advisor with near-perfect success rates to ensure you secure a spot the first time. This can save you the cost of re-applying and the immense amounts of time involved with re-applying. Our student Citra certainly learned this lesson the hard way:

“I was a non-traditional medical school applicant this year and I'm happy to say that I was successful in getting accepted to my top school. This was the second year I was applying. I applied last year, but found that I hadn't been invited to the interview. This really taught me that I need to up my game… This year when I applied, I approached and connected with [BeMo] and found them really helpful and really useful and I really appreciated the support that was given to me. There were different advisors who help you through the process for interview prep. Although there were different advisors, they all had their own personality and way of giving advice and feedback. They all had a game plan which was very consistent. I found the whole process quite useful. I found I appreciated the fact that it was diverse in terms of different personalities because when you go to an interview you just don't interview with one person now, you have different kinds of people who interview you, so I appreciated the fact that rather than having one person or two people that I practice with there were different advisors. I'm very happy, this is very exciting because I'm a non-traditional student I had been working in an industry which is quite different from medicine for quite a few years and then I decided to apply to medical school and just to have this kind of support was really meaningful to me.” – Citra, BeMo student

While working with a medical school advisor in no way guarantees your acceptance, it gives you a competitive advantage in the sense that you’ll have insight and guidance throughout your entire application and interview process. That $1,000-10,000 range might be broad, and it certainly may feel like an intimidating investment at first, but when you’re already committing to spending thousands of dollars on the process, a few thousand more can be worthwhile in the end.

Remember: you’re investing in your future career. This is a challenging, exciting, and very crucial part of your life.

The Benefits of Using a Medical School Advisor

There are plenty of potential benefits to working with a medical school advisor during your application process. Let’s break them down:

Medical school advisors help you choose the right school(s) to apply to

Selecting the right medical school can be a tough path to navigate on your own. Relying on Google, Reddit, and personal narratives be overwhelming… and misleading. A medical school advisor can gauge which schools would be the potential best fit for you based on your goals and stats. Remember, they do this everyday and are experienced themselves. Medical school advisors also help students spend less time preparing their applications because they provide clear, easy to follow advice and recommendations. The entire application process can be overwhelming and knowing how to start, what to include, and how to stand out isn't easy.

Students who use an established, reputable, professional, expert medical school advisor often have strong applications and strong interview skills. Therefore, they are more likely to get invited for interviews and accepted into medical school, depending on the advisor and that advisor's evidence-backed success rates.

“I used BeMo both for my application and interview prep. I am from Ontario and applied to 11 Canadian medical schools. BeMo helped me prep my applications and present myself so that I managed to get 4 interviews. The interview prep was amazing - they taught me how to understand and break down a question so that I could present my own ideas well, and they helped me come up with ways to best describe my own personal experiences.” – Jesse, BeMo Student

It’s important to note that although there are anomalies and underdog stories in every field, most top performers, including athletes, successful entrepreneurs and even vocalists, work with coaches or mentors to rise to the top. A medical school advisor can help you present the best version of yourself and ensure your application stands out.

Want to get into medical school fast? Find out the secret:

Medical school advisors help you prepare a strong application

Medical school advisors take your strengths and make them stronger; this is crucial when it comes to submitting an application that allows you to shine brighter than the rest! One of our former students, Ray, found working with a medical school advisor particularly helpful when it came to:

Learning how to really articulate your own self-narrative; not just listing your cv or listing your activity. Finding out who you are and being about to convincingly demonstrate it to your interviewers to the people reviewing the applications.” -- Ray, BeMo student.

Why does this all matter? Well, having your medical school application stand out requires more than just good grades or a test scores and having achievable goals. Your medical school advisor can help you write your medical school personal statement understand how to navigate AMCAS, tackle any shortcomings and weaknesses, review your activities section, and assist with essays, MCAT or CASPer test prep and practice questions. Take it from our former student, Brenda Gois, there are plenty of benefits (throughout the entire process) to having an advisor in your corner:

“From hosting webinars that provide students with tips on how to succeed, to experts that guide you through the AMCAS application, BeMo consulting is the ultimate support system for anyone that dreams of that hard to achieve acceptance letter. As someone that struggles writing, they were a huge help to getting my personal statement where I wanted it to be. I feel a lot more confident about my application and it's all thanks to BeMo.” – Brenda, Former BeMo Student

If you have a more untraditional application, or, specific weaknesses (such as a low GPA, low MCAT score, etc.) a medical School Advisors will advise on how to take your weaknesses and strengthen or eliminate them, ultimately making you the best candidate you can be. One of our BeMo students, a medical school applicant Brian, told us:

“They [BeMo Advisor] helped me extract meaning in my experiences, and, they helped me strategize my diversity essay for secondaries, which is something I struggled to do on my own and really appreciated the help.” -- Brian, BeMo student.

It can be challenging to reflect and deconstruct your own personal strengths and weaknesses; having an unbiased, expert opinion can make all the difference in terms of providing direction and clarity when it comes to medical school applications.

Why not just rely on a family member or friend? Well, they may rave about your personal essay, or feel your CV is excellent, when in actuality, it doesn’t quite hit the mark. They might not know any better, as their opinions will be subjective and extremely biased. They may also have no experience giving honest, constructive feedback on medical school applications materials and may feel pressured to only provide you with praise

A top medical school advisor, on the other hand, will provide honest, objective and expert feedback.

Medical school advisors help you prepare for medical school interviews

It’s no secret that medical school interviews are daunting, and challenging, to many. They’re also crucial, as you only get one shot at making a lasting impression. Often, students benefit tremendously from working with an advisor to review medical school interview questions and MMI questions. Advisors can help students prepare for each and every scenario they may find themselves faced with during their interviews, whether it's an MMIpanel, traditional or conversational interview. One of our BeMo students (who was accepted to medical school after working with a medical school advisor) particularly struggled with her MMI experience, and found working with a medical school advisor helped her overcome her challenges…

“I hated my first MMI experience because I didn't really know what to expect, besides what I had read online. During [the MMI] I always had too much time and it was super uncomfortable. The mock MMI [with BeMo’s advisor] really helped me figure out the timing and I had a much better experience this time around I'm really happy I chose BeMo because I ended up getting more than one acceptance and I highly recommend them to anyone applying to medical school!” – Melissa, Former BeMo Student.

Working with an advisor will increase your chances of getting into a medical school or matching to your top choice residency program. Not only will they be able to provide you with residency personal statement examples to give you ideas for your own, but also go over the most important residency interview questions to prepare you to tackle your interviews authentically and professionally with complete confidence and achieve higher scores.

“The mock interviews prepared me to present my best self to the admissions committee during my medical school interviews.” – Michael Schmitz, BeMo student

Medical school advisors can help avoid reapplication

Medical school advisors can ALSO help you if you’ve applied to medical school in the past, but weren’t accepted. However, working with an advisor during your first attempt significantly reduces the likeliness of you having to reapply in the future! It’s an expensive and taxing process, and nobody wants to do it twice!

If you’re a reapplicant, fret not, a medical school advisor can help your next attempt be a more successful one. Rishi Patel (a former BeMo student) worked with our medical school advisors as a reapplicant. Rishi, who is now a student at the Carver College of Medicine, noted in an interview with us that the interview question “What would you do differently” is "often a dreaded one among reapplicants.” If you’re in Rishi’s position, working with a medical school advisor can help you as a reapplicant – understanding how to tackle awkward questions and see them as unique opportunities is key:

“It's emphasized that re-applicants should think about what they have done since their last application that is relevant to medicine. The advice is to concentrate on one or two significant experiences or improvements, rather than trying to list everything. The key is to show how the experiences of the past year have changed the applicant and made them a better candidate for medical school. This involves narrating a specific story or highlighting a particular skill or attribute gained, which shows increased qualification over the previous application.” – Rishi, BeMo student, current student at the Carver College of Medicine

 Working with a medical school advisor can help you understand which improvements should be touched on in medical school interviews as reapplicants, and what you should avoid talking about. Their goal is to help you present yourself as appealing and relevant, and learn how to ‘show’ improvements rather than just talk about them. It goes without saying that avoiding reapplication is best – so working with a medical school advisor during your first attempt at applications can help reduce the chances you’ll have to reapply. But, if you are a reapplicant, working with an expert can certainly help you prepare for a more successful second attempt!

Who Can Benefit from a Medical School Advisor?

The short answer is, everyone! No one is perfect, just because you have excellent grades and an excellent MCAT score, unbeknownst to you, your writing or interview skills may be below average compared with other applicants. The admissions committee is looking for a well-rounded applicant, and unfortunately, grades alone are not enough to guarantee you a spot.

While it is true that not all accepted individuals take advantage of a medical school advisor, anyone who is looking for extra confidence in the strength of their application can certainly benefit. If you have any weaknesses in your application, are wondering how you can get into medical school with a low GPA, have a low MCAT score, a lack of research experience, or few extracurriculars for medical school, you need every other area of your application to stand out to be accepted. A medical school advisor, in most cases, is your best course of action. One of our former students, Kannan, was a medical school applicant who came to BeMo for application help due to his low MCAT score.

"My [MCAT] goal [was] anything over median of 510 so anything over that was honestly good with me... first one was a 497 so not too hot but I took some time off and I prepped for a longer time I was able to jump 13 points.”

Kannan utilized the knowledge and experience of his medical school advisor to help him make decisions about which schools to apply to (based on his MCAT score and goals), and, to make other components of his application – such as his personal statement – stand out as much as possible.

"I decided to get some professional help because [of] proofreading. Just making sure they're really well written because stats, you know, they can get you so far, but making sure you can present yourself a certain way ultimately helps you land acceptance and the interview. When we're writing our personal statements we don't realize how much telling rather than showing we're doing... so it helps having a third party making sure you kind of flush out everything support by showing.” – Kannan, BeMo student, Western University of Health Sciences

Is a Medical School Advisor Right For Me?

When considering if a medical school advisor is right for you, it's helpful to begin by weighing the pros and cons and first deciding if a medical school advisor isn’t for you.

Simply put, a medical school advisor can save you time and energy in the long run by helping you succeed in your medical school application endeavour the first time; but they can’t do all the work. If you're not willing to spend the time or the money required to work with a medical school advisor, then using one is not right for you. If it isn’t financially feasible, don’t fret; medical school advisors are extremely helpful but not having one doesn’t mean you’ll face certain rejection.

Working with a medical school advisor isn’t an ‘a la carte’ service (in most cases). Sometimes students are just looking for a few quick tricks and tips to get accepted to medical school, but the reality is, a few tips here and there is not going to ensure your acceptance. Think of it like a puzzle, every bit of true verified advice you receive is one piece to the puzzle, but if you collect only a few pieces, you’ll never have enough to complete it. If you want thorough, in-depth feedback and advice for your medical school application, you have to work for it, just the same way a good advisor will have to work to get you there. Both practice and perfection take time, it’s not something you can achieve overnight (or, in a quick one-time session). A medical school advisor is also not right for you if you're not open and willing to receive constructive criticism and feedback. If you already think that you know everything and believe that you've perfected your skills and application, there’s a good chance you won’t benefit from working with an advisor.

If, however, you believe that you can always learn something and have areas of your application that can be improved upon, a medical school advisor can help you. Our former student Candace found her sessions with BeMo particularly helpful:

“[I had a] very good experience with Dr. Dilukshi Fernando! She was so kind and objective in her feedback. She shared her resources with me. I had trouble with umming while thinking and suggested some strategies and resources. I didn't even know I could address that, but I'm willing to try it out to improve the quality of my answers. My MMI interview is asynchronous and we successfully simulated that experience in today's session. I'm expecting an invitation to my school's MMI soon and felt that Dr. Fernando tried her best to prepare me. Her feedback was very specific to my case and I appreciate the extra time she spent with me. She answered my questions after our feedback session and gave additional tips and strategies and other potential questions. She's an excellent coach! I'm very pleased with my sessions. I don't feel as stressed out as I did before my BeMo sessions. I'm extremely satisfied. Give it a try! You won't be disappointed!” – Candace, Former BeMo Student

Once you've reviewed our blog, how hard it is to get into medical school, you'll realize that expert help is critical and if you're serious about having the best chance of getting into medical school and are willing to spend the time, effort and money required, (and accept ample constructive criticism and tons of feedback that will help you improve) then a medical school advisor is right for you.

FAQs

1. What is a Medical School Advisor and What Do They Do?

A medical school advisor is a professional who specializes in guiding students through the medical school application process. They offer personalized advice on how to strengthen your application, including academic and extracurricular planning, MCAT preparation, school selection, and interview techniques. Their expertise comes from a deep understanding of the admissions process and often, firsthand experience from serving on admissions committees or working in medical education.

2. How Can a Medical School Advisor Improve My Application?

A medical school advisor can significantly enhance your application by offering tailored feedback and strategies. They can help you highlight your unique strengths, address any shortcomings, and craft a compelling narrative in your personal statement. Advisors also provide practice and feedback for interviews, ensuring you present yourself confidently and effectively. Their insights into the preferences of specific medical schools can help tailor your application to resonate with the institutions you're applying to.

3. When Should I Consider Hiring a Medical School Advisor?

Ideally, you should consider hiring a medical school advisor early in your undergraduate education. This allows you to benefit from strategic planning over a longer period, ensuring you take the right courses, engage in meaningful extracurricular activities, and build a strong application profile. However, even if you're closer to applying, an advisor can still offer substantial guidance in fine-tuning your application and preparing for interviews.

4. What Criteria Should I Use to Choose the Right Advisor?

When choosing a medical school advisor, consider their experience and success rate in helping students gain admissions. Look for advisors who have a thorough understanding of the admissions process and possibly a background in medical education. Ensure their advising style matches your preferences, and seek testimonials or references from past clients. It's also crucial that they understand and respect your individual goals and values in the medical school journey.

5. Are There Any Downsides to Using a Medical School Advisor?

While there are many benefits, there are also potential downsides to consider. The cost can be significant, which might not be feasible for everyone. Relying too heavily on an advisor may lead to an application that feels less personal or authentic. It's important to ensure that the final application truly reflects your voice and experiences. Lastly, not all advisors may be equally knowledgeable or ethical, so it's crucial to choose someone reputable.

6. What's the Difference Between a Medical School Advisor and a College Academic Advisor?

A medical school advisor provides specialized guidance focused exclusively on medical school admissions. They are experts in the specific requirements, expectations, and nuances of medical schools. In contrast, a college academic advisor offers broader advice on course selection, degree requirements, and general academic planning. While academic advisors are valuable resources, they may not have the specialized knowledge that a medical school advisor offers.

7. Can a Medical School Advisor Guarantee My Admission?

No advisor can guarantee admission to medical school, as the process is highly competitive and influenced by numerous factors beyond anyone's control. A reputable advisor will never promise guaranteed admission. Instead, they focus on significantly improving your chances by optimizing your application and interview performance.

8. How Can I Maximize the Benefits of Working with a Medical School Advisor?

To maximize the benefits, be proactive and engaged in the process. Clearly communicate your goals, strengths, and weaknesses to your advisor. Be open to feedback and willing to put in the work to implement their suggestions. Regularly update your advisor on your progress and stay open to adjusting your strategies based on their guidance. Ultimately, while your advisor is a valuable resource, your dedication and effort are key to making the most of the relationship.

To your success,

Your friends at BeMo

BeMo Academic Consulting


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1 Comments

Noor Kabakibou

Hello, I am interested in signing up for a package for medical school counseling.

Reply

BeMo Academic Consulting

Hello Noor! Thanks so much for your message. Please feel free to sign up here https://bemoacademicconsulting.com/Medical-School-Application-Help.html or schedule a free initial call with us https://bemoacademicconsulting.com/free-initials-calendar-med-programs. Hope to hear from you soon!

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