Best Medical Schools and Medical School Requirements

December is a great time to start looking for the best medical schools.  As a student, you should look for the most beneficial available funding options, whether it is in your particular field or the school you are considering.  Applications for the fall semester are generally considered during this period of time and close early in the following year.  It is best to get your application in early and start getting the necessary documentation together to complete it. While you are applying to to medical school, be sure to fill out the FASFA application for student loans.  This step is vital in funding your education and living expenses.

Some items which all schools, especially ones with medical programs require, whether you are applying as a phyician, dentist, PhD in Nursing, or DNP candidate.  These items include:

• Official certified transcripts from all of the schools you attended – regardless of subject, locations, or dates.
• Letters of recommendation; contact several of your former teachers, rather than relying on just one or two.  You will probably need 2-3 letters, depending on the medical school you will be attending.  Just be sure to request more than what you will need, as not all teachers will be able to accommodate you in a timely manner.  Be sure to have them send you a copy as well as sending an original off to your schools of choice.
• Personal intention: Why you want to go into the medical field and why you are choosing their school.  If you have an idea of what your specialty or major will be, be sure to include this in your letter.  Also state why you believe their school will satisfy your ambitions.
• List any volunteer work, extracurricular activities or clubs in which you participate.  It does not have to relate to medical school, although if it does – all the better!  If you served in a leadership position, include that and describe your role; what you accomplished,  how it benefited you and your group.

Regards the letter of recommendation, please not that it’s usually best to go prepared with an outline of your accomplishments while in school in order to refresh your former teacher’s memory about you.  It’s not a matter of them remembering your or not.  It’s because they did teach a lot of students and naturally can make a mistake, or have other things on their mind.  A lot of professors are sort of doing the same thing as you when they apply for grants. They too have to gather letters of recommendation and write a letter of intent.  It is likely that when you become a doctor, you too will have the same obligation to your students.  Consider the outline as a grocery list; while you think you will remember everything yuo need while shopping, you are bound to forget something if you don’t have a list to which you can refer.

When discussing or debating which is the best medical school for you among your friends, keep in mind that your situations and motivations are not always the same.  Each of you have specific  needs and goals, which factor into your own personal decision.  Yours might be for reasons of proximity to transportation, while your friend’s might be financial or climate based.  Keeping this in mind is important.  On the other hand, you might both be lucky and decide to attend the same medical school for all of the same reasons.  Again, don’t forget to apply for your student aid (FASFA) even before you decide on a school or medical program.

“Best Medical School Applications”  was written by Brenne Meirowitz, BA, MA, MS.
©2011 Brenne Meirowitz & Best Medical Schools & Medical School Requirements. All Rights Reserved.

AMA Best Medical Schools

Knowing what to look for when searching for the best medical schools that will meet your career goals is essential prior to application. There are hundreds of top medical schools throughout the United States, but certainly not all of them will cater to your career goals.  Secondly, you want to match these goals with your background and where you may want to settle in your practice once you graduate.  Doing this will take some time, but to get your started it is a good start to make sure that the schools to which you are applying are accredited.  A good starting point is to go by those schools that are members of the AMA (American Medical Association), which was established in 1976 to function as a forum for talking about and distributing information.

How the AMA makes decisions, certifies accreditation,  and qualifies the best medical schools:

The House of Associates may be the principal policy-making body of the AMA, which bases its decisions on the Article VI of the AMA Constitution.     The legislative and policy-making body of the Association is the House of Associates, which is made up of chosen member representatives as provided within the Bylaws. The House of Associates shall transact all business of the Association not otherwise particularly deliver to within this Constitution and Bylaws, and shall elect the overall officials except as otherwise provided within the Bylaws.

As healthcare system changes still confront medical teachers, so that as interaction between academic and community doctors increases, the Section will give you a forum for talking about issues of mutual interest and concern. As an ingredient of the AMA, which works as a national forum its medicine, the Section is distinctively situated to deal with key education and exercise issues affecting doctors as well as their patients.

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Best Medical Schools UCFS

When looking for the best medical schools, start looking at their clinic and research results.  I was quite impressed by the University of California at San Francisco’s latest statistics that showed that the UCSF Clinic has reduced hospital readmissions for older heart failure patients by nearly one third!  We can thank this outcome to a new program, which is designed specifically to identify techniques for doctors and their respective hospital colleagues to improve patients’ transitions from hospital to home. The 30% reflects those patients 65 and older.  The readmissions rate dropped for those patients who had stays of 30 and 90 days.  The UCSF’s Heart Failure Program was launched in 2008 after receiving a $575,000 grant, generously maid by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Data from 2006 was used as the point of comparison.

During the last 11 months, an average of only 16 percent of the hospital’s heart failure patients were readmitted within 30 days of discharge – 23 percent less than in 2006, which is 2 percent lower than the country’s 30-day readmission rate of 25 percent.  During the first four months of 2011, the readmission rate was only 11.6 percent – a tremendous improvement.  Compared to 2006 where the average was at 45 per cent, that is a tremendous drop of 31 per cent! With such a statistic, I would certainly nominate UCSF as one of the best medical schools in the county. (more…)