- Hi everyone! Welcome
back to the channel. If you're new here, I'm Dr. Shemmassian and I've been helping students get into top med schools like Harvard, Stanford,
Johns Hopkins, and UCLA for over 15 years. Today, we're going to be talking about the program that tends to
most fascinate applicants: Harvard Medical School. We'll take a deep dive
into the requirements, acceptance rate, and admissions strategies to get into the number
one ranked medical school in the country. Harvard Medical School, or HMS, is the holy grail for
many pre-med hopefuls. It's routinely number one in the U.S. News & World
Report medical school ranking and this is no fluke. HMS's prestige is backed
by its world class faculty, diverse set of clinical
and research opportunities, and open access to an incredible network of CEOs and Nobel Laureates. Of course, the number
one ranked medical school can be an automatic long shot for even the most qualified pre-meds. Their median GPA and MCAT
score are astronomically high, their acceptance rate is tremendously low, and Harvard Medical Students
carry a shroud of mystery. What exactly does it
take to get into Harvard? Regardless of where you are
in your pre-med journey, understanding the admissions
process and requirements of the top medical school in the nation will be helpful as you work
toward becoming a doctor. My goal is not to make
you feel discouraged about your chances for HMS but rather to explain how the best do it. If you can understand how to get into HMS, you'll have all the information you need to become the kind of candidate medical schools love to admit. Before we did into the admissions
numbers and strategies, let's go over Harvard's two different medical
school curricular options: Pathways and HST. The HMS Pathways curriculum involves a more traditional
medical school education consisting of case-based
learning, clinical experiences, as early as the first few
weeks of your first year, advanced science courses, and a culminating research project. Around 80% of HMS students
are on this track. The Health Sciences and
Technology, or HST program, is a collaborative effort
between Harvard and MIT that provides specialized training in biomedical research, basic
science, and biotechnology. About 20% of the class is enrolled in this research-intensive track, approximately 40% of
whom pursue an MD-PhD. So if you have substantial
research experience and are interested in a
career in medical research, the HST program might be an
attractive option for you. Admission to Harvard Medical
School is extremely competitive and HMS updates their
admissions statistics annually. For the class of 2023, HMS had 6,815 applications, 948 interviews, which stands at 13.9%, and 165 matriculants, which comes out to 2.42%. Unfortunately, HMS doesn't
provide an exact acceptance rate, only a matriculation rate. However, based on data
from previous years, it's safe to say that the HMS
acceptance rate is below 5%. Let's delve even deeper into the academic data among matriculants. So, according to the HMS website, the average MCAT score
for matriculants is 519, in the 98th percentile. Average GPA for matriculants is 3.9. We can find a bit more
academic data from MSAR. MSAR reports a range of
513 to 525 for the MCAT, that's the 10th percentile
to the 90th percentile, 3.69 to 4.0 for science GPA, and 3.75 to 4.0 for overall GPA. Although the stats are quite high for HMS, the ranges demonstrate that not every Harvard medical student has a 3.9 GPA and a 519 MCAT score. Because the admissions
process is holistic, your odds of admission will be higher if you can also supplement your stats with a strong set of extracurriculars and compelling written materials. Harvard has a list of
required coursework available on their website. In short, they require you to complete the following courses prior to enrolling. Biology: They want one year with lab. It should include cellular
and molecular biology. Chemistry: They want two years with lab. It should include inorganic chemistry, organic chemistry, and biochemistry. For physics, they expect one year. Lab is preferred but it's not required. But note that HST
applicants should complete additional calculus-based physics courses. For math: One year, including
calculus and statistics. Again note: HST applicants should take additional math courses, such as differential
equations and linear algebra. And finally, for writing,
they expect a year. In addition to these required courses, Harvard also encourages courses in literature, languages, arts, humanities, and social sciences so that candidates are more well-rounded and are better able to
understand human behavior, appreciate societal
structure and function, and achieve cultural awareness. You'll want to ensure, not only that you complete all of the required courses, but that you also earn
high grades in them. It's not uncommon for Harvard admits to have near-perfect transcripts. HMS doesn't require
extracurricular activities that are any different from those required by other medical schools. They still want to see you shadow, gain meaningful patient
exposure experiences, serve your surrounding community, and partake in research activities. However, because HMS
applicants are involved in the same activities, the depth of extracurricular involvement is what matters most to
the Admissions Committee. So, you should demonstrate
a multiyear commitment to activities that you're passionate about but also demonstrate an
incredible level of accomplishment in those activities. HMS students select one or two areas that they're passionate
about and go all in. As an example, let's
say, you're a music major and you really enjoy
playing the saxophone. So, you start a music therapy program for children with
developmental disabilities. Then, you get involved with a research lab investigating the relationship between music and recovery
rates for stroke patients. Soon you're known as "that
musician researcher gal." Your goal is to stand out in this way. Admissions committees should
be able to identify you as "that stem cell researcher guy" or "the woman who started
a nonprofit in Rwanda." While HMS and many other
medical schools in the nation won't require research experiences, you should view it as a requirement. According to MSAR, 98% of HMS matriculants had some sort of research experience. What's more, given their
curriculum's focus on research, it only makes sense that
you have invested some time into scholarly pursuits. Therefore, join a research lab early on and aim to publish your
work in scientific journals. It's not necessary to
publish but it helps. HMS, like all medical schools, wants to better understand you through the lens of people
who have worked with you. They allow up to six
letters of recommendation with the following guidelines. At least two letters
from science professors. So, folks with whom you took
classes for a letter grade. At least one letter from
a non-science professor, again, for a letter grade. A committee letter or
packet from your school counts as one letter toward
your six letter allowance. You'll want to make sure
you choose letter writers who can submit strong
recommendations on your behalf. Such letters should
include specific anecdotes that highlight the qualities you want your application to communicate. And because you're applying
to the best medical school, your letters should also
contain superlatives. For example, "She has one
of the most analytical minds "I have ever encountered "as a professor at Boston University." To apply to HMS, you have to send an
application through AMCAS, the American Medical
College Application Service. AMCAS, otherwise known as
your primary application, will ask you to submit
a personal statement. The personal statement is
a 5,300-character essay that answers the prompt: "Use the space provided to explain "why you want to go to medical school." This written statement
should provide an overview of your personal, academic,
and extracurricular background, and detail how your experiences
have led you to medicine. And as I mentioned with your
extracurricular activities, your personal statement
should not try too hard to cover every single accomplishment. Instead you'll want to
select a few key qualities that you wish to highlight to adcoms and write about the experiences
that capture them well. After your AMCAS primary
is submitted and verified-- a process that involves a
review of your transcript-- you'll receive a secondary to HMS. Since the adcom doesn't
prescreen applicants based on GPA or MCAT cutoffs, this secondary application, which is specific to
Harvard Medical School, is an opportunity for you to show HMS that you're an excellent
fit to further their mission and are the type of
student they would like to invest training resources in over the next four years. A database of all medical
school secondary essay prompts, including Harvard's, can be found in the description box below. Another important thing to note is that Harvard doesn't
practice rolling admissions. So long as you submit your application prior to their final deadline, your entire application will receive a complete evaluation. Please note that this
approach is very different from the majority of medical schools which do practice rolling admissions. For those schools, it'll
be to your advantage to submit your secondary application and other necessary materials as early as possible so the admissions departments
can make a decision on your application when there are the most seats available. After your entire written
application has been evaluated, HMS will decide whether or not to send you an interview invitation. As I mentioned earlier in the video, HMS only interviews
about 13% of applicants, so receiving an invitation is an accomplishment in itself. Although there are a wide variety of medical school interviews, everything from multiple
mini interviews or MMIs to group interviews, HMS practices a traditional
interview format and invited students will meet with two different interviewers. Harvard interviews tend to be open file, meaning interviewers will have read through your entire
application before meeting you. The questions they ask will
help them learn more about you and how your background and
experiences led you to medicine. To prepare for this interview, make sure you know your
application inside and out. You'll also want to practice
some common responses with someone who's knowledgeable about the admissions process and ask for feedback on your delivery. Applicants who interview well are able to respond
thoughtfully to questions without sounding rehearsed. Above all, they come across
as genuine, likable people who would be great classmates
and future colleagues. If you've found this video helpful, give it a thumbs up and subscribe so you don't miss out on new videos. If you'd like to learn more about writing an amazing
personal statement and other critical aspects of the medical school admissions process, click the link in the description to get a free copy of
my comprehensive guide, "How to Get Into Medical School". It contains a number of
high-level strategies for every aspect of your
medical school application-- strategies that my team and I use to routinely help students
get into med schools like Harvard, Hopkins, Mayo, and UCSF. Alright, thanks again for watching. See you next time.
