Being turned down from a medical school is not a good feeling. No one likes to be rejected. But the truth of the matter is that about half of all medical school applicants don’t get in. So, don’t feel bad if you need to reapply to medical school.

The medical school reapplication process is an opportunity for you to get a second chance and fix any mistakes that you made the first time around.

Mistakes to Avoid on Your Medical School Reapplication

1. Failing to Reflect

The first mistake that you can make when reapplying to medical school is failing to reflect on your first application. Being able to access yourself and see what needs to be changed is by far the most important step of this process.

Seek outside advice if this feels like something that you can’t do. Find an advisor, mentor, or an admissions consultant to help identify what changes you need to make so that you get accepted this time around.

2. Failing to Change

Now that you have made the time to reflect on what went wrong, you need to make the effort to make the change.

If you noticed that your GPA was too low to be admitted then think about taking some advanced elective or enrolling in a masters of science program in order to improve your grades.

If you had a weak MCAT but your grades were good, retake the test.

If you got invitations for interviews but didn’t get any offers, you need to improve upon your interviewing skills.

Also, make sure that you make changes to your personal statement. The medical school admissions offices will know that you didn’t get accepted the first time around. Don’t try to hide that from them. Be open and let them know what you learned from the experience, that will go a lot further than you trying to pretend like it never happened.

3. Failing to Know When To Walk Away

This can be a difficult one for people to accept. You will need to put in some research to find out where you stand in terms of your MCAT scores and GPA. If you find the numbers and see that where you lie has less than a 10% acceptance rate, your chances of getting in are very slim.