How To Get Into Medical School (short edition)

What you need are a great university GPA, and good recommendation letters.  The letter writers should know you as an individual and speak about your interest in medicine.

Volunteering experience came up during interviews, but I'm not sure how it factored into my getting into medical school.  If I were on an admissions committee, I'd think volunteering makes an applicant look more "normal" and more selfless than someone who has a 4.0 and insanely high MCAT score.

Med schools want high academic performance, but also well-balanced people.  Unfortunately I think there's a focus on scores because they're predictors of future academic performance and residency programs need residents to do very well on their exams.  Also, you'll be a doctor making difficult life-altering decisions in the middle of the night, and you might not have back up in time.

I still believe that scores get you the interview, and that a combination of scores and interview performance ultimately get you the position.  I was pretty surprised to hear people say that scores still matter when programs rank residency applicants, because 99.96% of people said "You're all qualified to be here, we just want to get to know you."  At the time, that helped me relax  a lot, lol.  Too bad it's not really true everywhere.

To rapidly answer other questions you might have:

1. I took time off after college and it didn't come up during med school interviews.  It did come up during 2 residency interviews, which sort of surprised me.  I don't know how it affected ranking of me, but I did match at my number 1 choice.

2. I strongly don't believe taking time off negatively affects your chances of getting into med school. Just make sure you are doing something productive like research or employment.  If you had to take time for a serious problem, you'll be able to talk about it in your application or interview.

3. Account for all the time not in school.  That is, don't leave empty periods of time in your CV, say what you were doing and be honest.

4. You don't need a 4.0 and perfect MCAT score to get into medical school.

5. Don't risk applying late.  Have your application ready to submit as soon as the AMCAS deadline opens.

6.  Interviewers/admissions committee people meet the same day they interviewed you and they talk about you.  I know some residency programs have a living/running rank list where they rank applicants as they interview.  It makes sense doctors are already so busy.

7. Medical schools "overfill" their class with admissions offers because applicants may have multiple acceptances but they can only choose to attend one school.