Becoming a Competitive Applicant—Experiences

At some point in your pre-health journey, you may have heard the words “holistic review in admissions,” but students are often confused about what this practically means in the admissions process for health professional schools. Essentially, “holistic review” means admissions committees review applications with the whole person in mind.

There are many aspects of an application that matter to admissions committees. The AAMC’s Experiences - Attributes - Metrics (E-A-M) model explains the various components that make up a competitive professional school application. This blog will focus on the experiences part of the EAM Model.

Health Care Work Experience/Shadowing: Professional schools want applicants to demonstrate commitment to the profession. Putting in the effort to gain shadowing and work experience shows your commitment and shows that you understand the day-to-day life and challenges of the profession. In addition, shadowing helps you determine whether that particular healthcare profession is the right fit for you.

Community Service: Demonstrating a service mindset is an important aspect of any health professional school application—it shows professional schools that you have a desire to serve your fellow humans and communities. HandsOn K-State and the Flint Hills Volunteer Center are great places to start when looking for volunteer opportunities in the Manhattan area.

Leadership Experience: Health practitioners are leaders in their workplace and leaders in their community. Seek out opportunities to be a leader in your communities, whether that be at work, through club involvement, or through volunteer experience.

Research Experience: If you have an interest in conducting research, getting involved in undergraduate research opportunities can be a great way to develop your scientific inquiry, written communication, and critical thinking skills. Explore opportunities at K-State through the Office of Scholar Development and Undergraduate Research.

Life Experiences: We encourage you to think beyond work/volunteer/leadership/research experiences when you are filling out your professional school applications. Think about how your life experiences have impacted you and shaped you into the person you are. How have those experiences helped you develop the attributes that professional schools are looking for in applicants?

You will be given the opportunity to discuss your life experiences in your responses to application questions, in your personal statement, and/or in your program interview. For students who identify as part of a minoritized community, this conversation ties in with the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision on race-conscious admissions. It is important to note here that “nothing in [the Supreme Court’s] opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.” (Id. at 39).

As such, “institutions of higher education remain free to consider any quality or characteristic of a student that bears on the institution’s admission decision, such as courage, motivation, or determination, even if the student’s application ties that characteristic to their lived experience with race—provided that any benefit is tied to “that student’s” characteristics, and that the student is “treated based on his or her experiences as an individual[,]” and “not on the basis of race.” (Id. at 40; Department of Justice and Department of Education, Questions and Answers Regarding the Supreme Court’s Decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard College and University of North Carolina, 2023).

So, you are welcome and encouraged to reflect on how the intersection of your personal experiences and identity have impacted your development as a future professional, and then articulate those experiences on your application.

Based on these categories of experiences, we encourage you to reflect on the following questions:

• In what areas have I gained significant experience? What have I learned from those experiences? How have those experiences confirmed my choice of career path?
• In what areas do I want to gain more experience? How will I gain those experiences? When will I gain those experiences? What do I want to learn from those experiences?

We know that navigating professional school preparation can be a confusing process—please visit with your advisor in the Pre-Professional and Exploratory Advising Center if you have any questions!