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I'm making this video because many people, like me, are the first person in their family to pursue medicine. You may not know any doctors. You may not know any medical students. You may not have anybody around who really understands
Dr. Bryan Malonga guides traditional and non-traditional applicants on how to decide if medicine is right for them and how to successfully get into med school.
Ask about this video. Answers come from its transcript only — with the timestamp, so you can check them.
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Key Takeaways
- Medicine requires more than science; empathy and communication are essential.
- Real healthcare experience is vital to understand the profession before applying.
- There is no rush to medical school; gap years and diverse experiences add value.
- Applicants should choose majors they enjoy and meet prerequisites, not just science.
- Non-traditional applicants bring valuable life experience and should articulate their reasons clearly.
What the video covers
- Dr. Malonga emphasizes the importance of deciding if medicine is the right career before focusing on applications.
- He highlights the need for empathy, patience, communication skills, and a love for lifelong learning in medicine.
- The video discusses the realities of the medical career path, including sacrifices, long training, and late gratification.
- Gaining real clinical experience through shadowing, volunteering, or working in healthcare is crucial before committing.
- Gap years are encouraged to gain maturity, experience, and confidence rather than rushing into medical school.
- Traditional applicants are advised to pick a major they enjoy and complete prerequisites, not necessarily science majors.
- Dr. Malonga advises on handling academic challenges and preparing thoroughly for the MCAT with a personalized study plan.
- Shadowing physicians in various specialties helps understand the physician's role beyond social media portrayals.
- Non-traditional applicants have unique advantages due to life experience and should clearly explain their motivation for medicine.
- The video encourages applicants not to compare timelines and to focus on becoming a well-prepared and confident future physician.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction and Why This Video Was Made
- 01:25Should You Become a Doctor? Key Considerations
- 02:57Qualities Needed for Medicine and Career Realities
- 04:28Importance of Gaining Real Medical Experience
- 06:03Value of Gap Years and Taking Your Time
- 07:26Choosing Your College Major and Prerequisites
- 09:04Handling Academic Challenges and MCAT Preparation
- 12:01Shadowing Physicians and Understanding the Job
- 13:45Non-Traditional Applicants: Advantages and Strategies
- 18:25Final Advice: Timelines and Becoming a Better Physician
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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the process enough to guide you. And one thing I realized is that we really do not do a great job of teaching young people how to choose a career. We ask people at 17, 18, 19 what they want to
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do for the rest of their lives, but many of them have never had meaningful exposure to different careers. A lot of people choose careers based on what their parents tell them to do, what sounds impressive, what they see on
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social media, and what's going to make the most money. I'm making the video that I wish I could have watched when I was trying to figure out whether medicine was the right career for me and how to actually get into medical school.
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My name is Dr. Malong. I'm a family medicine physician and hospitalist. In this video, I'm going to break down what I would do if I were trying to get into medical school today. So, first, I'm going to talk about the traditional
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applicant, meaning someone who's in college or recently graduated. Then later in the video, I'm going to talk specifically about non-traditional applicants and what I would do differently if I were applying after being out of school for several years or
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already having another career. But before we talk about how to get into medical school, I think there's an even more important question. Should I actually become a doctor?
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Before worrying about the MCAT, your GPA, extracurriculars, medical school applications, ask yourself if medicine is the right career for you. You should consider medicine if you genuinely enjoy helping people, especially during some of the most vulnerable moments of their
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lives. Patients are going to come to you when they are scared, sick, confused, frustrated, grieving, and sometimes experiencing the worst day of their life. Being a physician requires much more than knowing science. You need empathy. You need patience. You need
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communication skills. You need to be able to sit with people during uncomfortable and difficult situations.
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You should also consider medicine if you genuinely enjoy learning. Medicine is lifelong learning. Medical school is not the end of your education. Residency is not the end either. There's constantly new medications, new guidelines, new research, new technology, and new
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treatments. You are going to be learning throughout your entire career. You should consider medicine if you enjoy solving problems.
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Patients do not always walk into the hospital with their diagnosis written on their forehead. Sometimes you are putting together their symptoms, physical exam, lab findings, imaging, medical history, and everything else to figure out what is actually happening.
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If you enjoy that process of solving problems and thinking through complicated situations, medicine may be a good fit for you. But enjoying science alone is not enough. There are many careers where you can enjoy science without becoming a physician. You also
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need to enjoy working with people. You have to be comfortable with taking responsibility. You have to communicate difficult information, and sometimes you have to make important decisions without having the perfect information. You should also understand the late gratification because the path is very
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long. You have 4 years of college, 4 years of medical school, then residency, which is usually anywhere from 3 to 7 years depending on your specialty. And if you decide on a fellowship, you can add even more years on to that.
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Meanwhile, many of your friends may already be making money, buying houses, traveling, getting married, starting families, moving forward in their careers.
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That does not mean medicine is not worth it, but you need to understand what you're signing up for. You should ask yourself whether you are willing to accept the sacrifices that come with medicine. You may work weekends. You may
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work holidays. You may miss birthdays or family events. Depending on your specialty, you may also work nights.
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Yes, there will be student loan debt, and there are years where schedules are not completely under your control. So, I would never recommend pursuing medicine only because your parents want you to become a doctor. I do not recommend doing it just because a physician sounds
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prestigious. I definitely would not recommend doing it only for the money. Yes, doctors can make a very good income, but there are many careers where you can make significant money with fewer years of training and less student debt. Make sure you actually want to do
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the job, and one of the best ways to figure out if it's for you is getting experience.
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It's important you get real experience before committing to medicine. This is something I think is extremely important. You need to actually see what medicine looks like. Shadow physicians, volunteer in a hospital, work in a clinic, become a medical assistant, CNA,
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EMT, scribe, patient care technician, or do something where you actually get exposed to patients and health care. Do not make a decision based only on what you see on social media because social media shows the white coat, the
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graduation pictures, maybe the paycheck. It does not always show the paperwork, the difficult conversations, long days, complicated patients, the emotional side of medicine. Spend time around real physicians. Talk to medical students.
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Talk to residents. Ask people what they like about the job and what they do not like about their careers. And understand you do not need to rush. Gap years are okay. I think sometimes people believe that if they do not go directly from
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college into medical school, they're falling behind. But you're not behind. There is value in gaining experience in the real world. There's value in working a full-time job. There's value in learning how to communicate with people. There's value in managing
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responsibilities, paying bills, traveling, volunteering, conducting research, and simply growing as a person. Those experiences can make you more mature and sometimes even a better future physician. A gap year could be used to work clinically, to do research, volunteer, improve your GPA, prepare for
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the MCAT, or simply just need more time to determine whether medicine is actually what you want to do for the rest of your life. Medical school is not a race. There's no award for getting to medical school at the youngest age
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possible. It's better to start medical school when you're ready and confident about your decision than rushing into it because you feel like you have to stay on somebody else's timeline. And this is one of the reasons I think
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non-traditional applicants can sometimes have the advantage. They may have already spent several years working.
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They may have managed financial responsibilities. They may have families. They may have changed careers.
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They may have served in the military. They may have worked directly with patients. Those experiences can give you maturity, perspective, communication skills, and a better understanding of why you actually want to become a physician. We'll talk more about that later, but first let's
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talk about the traditional applicant. First, for traditional applicants, step one is making sure you choose the right major. One of the biggest misconceptions I hear is that you have to major in biology or chemistry to get into medical
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school. No, you do not. You can major in almost anything and become a doctor as long as you complete the prerequisites required by the medical school you're applying to. You can major in biology, chemistry, psychology, engineering, English, music. You can even major in
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business. Pick something you genuinely enjoy. I personally majored in business administration because I genuinely enjoyed learning about business. I remember thinking if I didn't get into medical school, I wasn't going to become a chemistry, biology teacher or researcher. That was not
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to do. I wanted a degree that I actually enjoyed that could potentially use if medicine didn't work out which it does not for many of us. So, I majored in business and complete my medical school prerequisites at the same time. I also
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think having a different major can help you stand out from other applicants. Many medical schools receive thousands of applications from people who have very similar backgrounds. Having a unique major, career experience, hobby, or life story can make your application
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much more memorable. That does not mean you should choose a random major just to be different. Choose something you generally enjoy and something you believe you could perform well in because your GPA still matters. Step two, make sure you protect that GPA. If
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you're currently in college and you know you want to go into medical school, take your grades seriously from the beginning. Your overall GPA matters and your science GPA matters. You do not have to have a perfect 4.0. You do need
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to demonstrate you can handle challenging academic coursework. Do not wait until your junior year to start caring about your grades. If you're struggling, ask for help early. Go to those office hours. Get a tutor. Study with your classmates. Change your study
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strategies. One of the biggest lessons I learned during my own education is that what worked for you in high school may not work in college. What worked in college may not work in medical school.
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You have to constantly adjust how you study. And if you do get a bad grade, do not convince yourself that your dream of medicine is over. One bad grade is not going to destroy your application. Even a difficult semester does not
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necessarily destroy your chances. What matters is what happens moving afterwards. Can you show improvement?
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Can you show an upward trend? Can you demonstrate you recognize the weakness, made change, and became a better, stronger student? Admission committees understand that people are human, but you have to show growth.
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Step three, make sure you complete those prerequisite courses. Every medical school may have slightly different requirements, so you need to research the schools you're interested in.
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Traditionally, you're going to need courses like biology, general chemistry, organic chemistry, physics, and usually biochemistry. They may also be English, math, statistics, and other requirements depending on the school. Do not assume every medical school has exactly the same prerequisites. Look them up and
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plan early so you are not getting ready to graduate and suddenly realize you're missing a required class.
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Step four, very important, prepare for the MCAT. The MCAT is one of the most important parts of your application. My biggest piece of advice is do not take the MCAT until you're ready. Do not take it just because all your friends are
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taking it in May. Do not take it because you told your family you're going to take it. Do not take it when your practice scores show you are not ready to take the MCAT. Start with a diagnostic exam. Find out what your
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weaknesses are. Create a realistic study schedule and do a lot of practice questions. Content review is important, but eventually you need to move into actively answering the questions and taking full length exams. When you get questions wrong, find out why you got
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them wrong and why the correct answer is what it is. And ask yourself why you missed it. Did you not know the content?
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Did you misunderstand the passage? Did you simply run out of time? Did you overthink the question? Understanding why you are missing questions is how you improve. If you need additional time, take additional time. Again, medical school is not a race.
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Step five, make sure you get clinical experience. You need clinical experience. Medical schools want to know that you actually spent time around patients. You can get this through volunteering or employment. Maybe you become a scribe, an ENT, CNA, or medical
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assistant. Maybe you work as a patient transporter, patient care technician. There are many ways to do this. The exact title is less important than what you learn from the experience. You should be able to talk about specific experiences with patients and explain
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how these moments shape your understanding of medicine. Do not just collect hours, reflect on those experiences. That reflection eventually is going to help you write your personal statement and answer those interview questions.
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Step six, which I know can be challenging, is shadow physicians. You need to understand what the actual job of physician looks like. Shadow doctors in different specialties. You do not need to shadow every specialty in medicine. But I think it's valuable to
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see different environments. Maybe you shadow primary care. Maybe you shadow surgery. Maybe you shadow a hospitalist.
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Maybe you shadow emergency medicine physician. Pay attention to what their day actually looks like. Look at the patient interactions, but also look at the documentations, phone call, administrative work, difficult conversation, and everything else that comes with the job. And ask yourself,
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can I actually see myself doing this? Step seven, volunteer and serve your community. Medicine is ultimately a service profession. You should also have experience demonstrating that you actually care about other people. And volunteering does not necessarily have to be medical. You can volunteer at a
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food pantry, mentor young students, tutor, work with underserved communities, volunteer at a homeless shelter. Find something you actually care about. I would much rather see somebody volunteer at one organization consistently years than to join 10 organizations for a few days or weeks
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just so they can add them to their application. Consistency and genuine interest matter. Step eight, research. Research can definitely strengthen your application, particularly if you're interested in a very research-heavy medical school. But, I would not tell every single applicant
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that they absolutely have to do research. If you have the opportunity and it interests you, do it. Try to understand the project. Try to contribute meaningfully. Maybe you eventually get a poster presentation publication, but do not join a research
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lab solely because someone told you it looks good. There are many ways to demonstrate curiosity and academic interest.
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Step nine, leadership. Medical schools also want people who can demonstrate leadership. This does not mean you have to be president of five clubs.
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Leadership can come from anywhere. Maybe you have a leadership position at work. Maybe you coach a team. Maybe you organize a volunteer project. Maybe you mentor other students. Maybe you have leadership through a fraternity, sorority, church, student organizations,
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athletics, or your community. Build those relationships for those letters of recommendations. Do not await until application season to suddenly introduce yourself to your professors.
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Build those relationships throughout college. Go to office hours. Ask questions. Participate. Let professors and mentors get to know you. A strong letter should say more than, "This student got a A in my class." You want someone who can talk about your
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character, work ethic, maturity, curiosity, communication skills, and potential as a future physician. Step 11, tell a story. Application needs to answer one major question. Why do you want a doctor? Please do not simply say because I love science and I want to
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help people. That describes a lot of careers. What specifically happened in your life that made you choose medicine?
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Was it interaction with the patient? Was it something you witnessed with a family member? Was it your clinical experience?
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Your physician mentor? Your community? Something from your childhood? Your application should tell a story. It does not have to be some unbelievable dramatic story. It needs to be authentic to you.
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You want the person reviewing your application to understand who you are and why becoming a physician makes sense for you.
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Step 12 is apply strategically. Do not only apply to medical schools based on the name recognition, the rankings. Research the schools. Look at their mission. Look at the type of students they accept. Look at their average GPA and MCAT. Look at whether
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they emphasize research, primary care, community service, rural medicine, or care for underserved populations. Apply broadly and intelligently. Do not underestimate the importance of applying early. You do not need to submit a terrible application on the first day application opens. Quality is more
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important than being first, but you also do not want to procrastinate for months. Get that personal statement finished.
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Request those letters early and get those transcripts ready and start thinking about secondary essays.
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Step 13, prepare for interviews. If you receive an interview, that means the medical school already believes you could potentially succeed there.
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Now they are trying to figure out who you are as a person. You need to be prepared to answer "Tell me about yourself. Why medicine?
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Why our medical school? Tell me about a failure. Tell me about difficult situations. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership. What are your strengths?
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What are your weaknesses? Practice answering these questions, but do not memorize a speech word for word.
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You want to sound prepared, but still human. Now, what if you're a non-traditional applicant? Let's say you already graduated from college. Maybe you're a 27 30 35. Maybe you have already had an entirely different career. Maybe you have children and a mortgage. Maybe
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you've been working for 10 years before deciding you want to be a physician. This is why I think non-traditional applicants can actually have some advantage. They have lived life. They probably have responsibilities that many traditional applicants have not yet
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experienced. They may have worked full-time, managed employees, raised children. They may have been responsible for paying bills. They may have dealt with difficult people in professional environments already. And all those experiences can help you become a more mature applicant. If I were applying as
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a non-traditional student, this exactly what I would do. Evaluate your academic record. I will start by pulling my transcript. What's my overall GPA?
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What's my science GPA? Have I completed the prerequisite courses? How long ago did I take them? How did I perform? If you graduate with excellent grades, you may not need to do additional coursework. And if you have a weak GPA,
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especially a weak science GPA, you may need to demonstrate you're academically capable today. That may be doing a post-bac program. It could mean doing a special master's program. You can do a DIY post-bac. Just take additional upper-level science courses
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independently. The goal is to create evidence that I'm not the same student I was 5 or 10 years ago. You want to show an academic comeback.
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Make sure your prerequisites are current. Look at the specific medical schools you want to apply to. Some schools may accept prerequisite courses that are many years old. Others prefer more recent coursework. Do not assume.
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Make a spreadsheet. List the schools. List the requirements and make sure you know exactly what you need.
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Step three, create a MCAT schedule that fits your life. If you're non-traditional, you may have responsibilities that 21-year-old college student does not have. You may work full-time, have children, have a spouse, have a mortgage, have financial responsibilities.
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You need to create a study schedule that actually works for your life. Maybe you study before work or at night or study more heavily on weekends. Maybe instead of preparing for 3 months, you may have to prepare for 6 months, and
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that's okay. The goal is not to study on somebody else's timeline. The goal is to be ready.
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Step four, make sure you get that clinical experience. If you have not been around health care recently, I would make sure you gain recent clinical exposure. Shadow physicians, volunteer, work in health care if possible. You need to show medical schools that your
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decision is informed. If you worked in finance for 10 years and suddenly decide to become a doctor, they are naturally going to want to know why. Your experience would need to demonstrate that this is a thoughtful decision, not
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something decided last week. Step five, use your previous career as an advantage. Do not hide your previous career, use it to your advantage. If you worked in business, maybe you developed leadership communication management skills. If you're a teacher, maybe you
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learned patience, how to communicate complicated information. If you're in the military, maybe you developed discipline, leadership, and teamwork. If you worked in tech, maybe you developed a unique understanding of innovation and problem-solving. Whatever your previous career was, ask yourself, what skills
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did I gain that will make me a better physician? That is part of your story.
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Step six, be able to explain why medicine and why now. This is probably one of the biggest questions a non-traditional applicant needs to answer. Why medicine and why now? Maybe there was experience. Maybe you worked around health care. Maybe had a family
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experience. Maybe you gradually realized that your previous career was not in line with what you wanted out of your life. Whatever the reason is, you need to be able to explain it clearly, and I would avoid spending your entire
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personal statement talking negatively about your previous career. The story should not be, "Man, I hated my old job." The story should be about what drew you towards medicine.
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Step seven, you need to understand the financial commitment. You may already have financial responsibilities. Medical school can mean 4 years with limited income followed by several years of residency where your salary is much lower than what you were making at your
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established profession. You need to understand the opportunity cost. You need to understand tuition. Consider student loans. Consider your family's financial situation. You need to have these conversations before beginning the process.
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That does not mean you should not pursue medicine. It just means you should understand what the decision means financially.
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Next step is finding mentors. Find people who understand the journey you're trying to take. Talk to physicians, current medical schools. Find other non-traditional students. Ask them what they would have done differently. A good mentor can sometimes save you from years
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of making unnecessary mistakes. Step nine, do not compare your timeline. This is probably one of the biggest things I would tell non-traditional applicants. Stop comparing yourself to a 22-year-old who just graduated college.
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Your life is different. Maybe you'll start medical school at 30, maybe 35, maybe 50, maybe even later. That does not automatically mean you're too old.
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You do, however, need to think about this realistically about the length of training, your finances, your family, and what you want your life to look like. Being older does not automatically eliminate you.
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You're bringing something different to the classroom. Again, this is where being non-traditional may actually be an advantage. You have experiences that other applicants may not have. The question is whether you can explain how those experiences prepared you to become
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a physician. My final thoughts, whether you're a traditional or non-traditional applicant, you do not need a perfect score to get into medical school. You do not need a perfect GPA. You do not need to have known that you want to be a
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doctor since you were 5 years old. You do not need to follow the exact same path that everybody else followed. What you do need to do is have a clear reason for pursuing medicine and evidence that you prepared yourself for the journey.
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Get the academic foundation, prepare seriously for the MCAT, get clinical experience, serve people, shadow physicians, build relationships, and most importantly, spend enough time around medicine to make sure you actually want this career. The path may take 4 years, it may take 6 years, it
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may take 10 years, and that is okay. There's nothing wrong with gaining experience and spending some time in the real world before medical school. In many cases, those experiences may actually help you become a better physician. Do not focus so much on how
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quickly you can become a doctor that you forget you could potentially spend the next 30 or 40 years practicing medicine.
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Choose your career intentionally. And if you decide that medicine is truly what you want to do, create a plan and go after it. If you found this video helpful, make sure you like, subscribe, and leave a comment. If you're currently
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trying to get into medical school, let me know where you are in the process.
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Are you in college, studying for the MCAT, taking a gap year? Or if you're a non-traditional applicant thinking about making the transition to medicine, let me know in the comments. I'll see you in the next video. Dr. Malunga is out.
Topics:medical schoolhow to get into med schoolmedical school applicationpre-med advicenon-traditional medical studentMCAT preparationmedical career guidanceshadowing physiciansgap yearchoosing a medical career
