5 current and former students reveal what it takes to get accepted into Harvard Medical School

• Harvard Medical School was ranked first in US News & World Report's 2020 list of the best medical schools in the country.
• Last year, only 2.24% of the 6,815 people who applied were accepted to study at the school.
• Five students who are currently at or previously attended Harvard Medical School emphasized not trying to tick every box in the application, but excelling in your letter of recommendation and essay.
• Getting the right mentors around you and actively pursuing relevant training experiences will help you land an acceptance letter.
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Harvard Medical School was awarded top billing in US News & World Report's 2020 list of the best medical schools for research in the United States. This should come as no surprise to students aspiring to study there, as the third-oldest medical school in the country has long been considered one of the most prestigious.

The most recent intake of students, according to Harvard Medical School's website, saw 6,815 applications, with an average MCAT of 519.06 and GPA of 3.9. Of those applications, the school reported, 948 - roughly one in seven - were invited for an on-campus interview, and there was a final intake of just 165 candidates, meaning just over 2% of people who applied to Harvard Medical School went on to become students in 2019.

In such a competitive playing field, it's key to stand out from the crowd. The Committee on Admissions at Harvard Medical evaluates applications based on a number of factors after students have already achieved those expected lofty grades. Students will need to put together comprehensive application essays, letters of recommendation, and information about research, life experience, volunteer work, and other extracurricular activities.

But as five current and former students told Business Insider, a successful application is about so much more than ticking all the right boxes.

Harvard Medical School class of 2020 student Bliss Chang believes that the letter of recommendation was one of the most critical parts of his application. So much so that Chang and a former classmate have started a service called Super Admissions to help kids from disadvantaged backgrounds thoroughly plan their med school application and build their networks so that they can get the right people writing their recommendation.

"A common mistake students make is to target a professor and hope that they will say that you were the best student they had that year. The selection committee would much rather learn about who you are as a person and your skills outside of solving a problem or taking a test," he said.

Chang shared that the best recommendation letters demonstrate a detailed knowledge of the student and portray this through concrete examples. His strongest letter came from his undergraduate chemistry teacher, whom he had developed a strong personal relationship with through playing ping pong after class, which he said enabled them to develop a bond "beyond superficial things such as talking about grades."

"Using words like 'great student' doesn't hold as much weight as describing what makes the student great. What did they do exactly? As a tennis coach, seeing an athlete pick up stray balls for an elderly player with impaired mobility says a lot more than a letter describing a student as 'kind,'" he explained.

Chang emphasized getting a sense for which faculty members could be good letter writers - and passing on those who don't know how to write effectively or aren't willing to spend the time to make it good. Prospective students should also build out a strong team of supporters early on that they can count on regularly as they go to apply to med school.

"It is important to have a mentor who knows what it takes. Ideally, you want someone who has done what you want to accomplish and who genuinely cares about your success," he said.

In addition to its standard MD program, Harvard also has the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology (HST) program, a dual medical science degree that allows students to pursue an MD and PhD concurrently.

Blake Smith is in his second year of the HST program. He said that the admissions process requires two additional essays, one answering the question of why applicants want to study the dual degree and the other being a significant research essay outlining past experience.

"In my essay about why I should be admitted to the HST program, I wrote about my translational experiences that showed that I could go from bench to bedside to bench," he said. "The example I gave was how, in research, we hone in on a single cell or protein under the microscope and say, 'This is the cause of everything.' But in reality, when I was shadowing with a physician, I would see patients who have lung cancer, but maybe also autoimmune disease and the flu. It was through this that I appreciated that it's a much more complicated picture than just one protein mutation that is making the patient ill."

Smith said that he highlighted his high-level research work at Yale to demonstrate to the admissions board that he already had significant experience that he could build on at Harvard.

"I actually took two years out after graduating [from Yale] to work in a lab to finish a project on protein degradation," he shared. "By doing that, I was fortunate to have some research papers published that I used as part of my application. I was able to show that I was working on the front lines as part of research that every pharma company under the sun is now pursuing."

Eduardo Hariton, MD graduated from Harvard Medical School in 2015 and was a member of the admissions committee charged with interviewing prospective students during his time at the school. The committee is made up of 70 faculty and 16 second- to fourth-year students.

"We tried to put ourselves in the shoes of the applicant and see how they have done with the cards they have been dealt," he said. "As admissions committee members, we wanted to understand the distance applicants had travelled."

Hariton said that there are times when HMS will take people with lower scores, less research, or lower volunteer experience if they have shown that within challenging circumstances, they have succeeded.

"Look at what you've done and what you are passionate about and try to draw a line across those things to build a story about how, after everything you've done, that medicine is the right path for you," he explained. "If you try to do it the other way around, it doesn't usually work."

He added that when you are drawing this line, you need to support what you have done by showing a track record of years, or the committee will see through it.

"I was involved in a research lab for behavioral psychology over four years and made it to a leadership position," he shared. "[And] as head of the Venezulean student association as an undergraduate, I managed to triple our budget. I used these examples to show that I had a track record of taking on leadership positions and delivering results."

Harvard Medical School class of 2015 graduate Nworah Ayogu said that while your application should speak for itself in terms of what you have achieved, it's in your essay that you need to demonstrate the logistics of those achievements.

He added that as a candidate you have to show that you understand healthcare and patients at a systemic level, such as considering inequalities in the healthcare system, and also on a personal level, such as detailing how you formed a bond with someone in spite of personal differences.

"For my essay, I wrote about a patient who[m] I had interacted with in South Africa who was very memorable," he shared. "I wrote about the work I had done with this person and its effect on me. I talked about the bond we formed talking about music. I also put on a camp for children at the clinic I was working at, and [talked about] how I had also connected with that patient's family members at the camp. I explained how to connect and serve people brings me joy, and medicine is somewhere in which that is possible."

He added that you shouldn't just be restating information found in your application, but "describe your motivations behind your achievements."

"It's facta non verba - actions not words," he said. "Who you are, your work ethic, and your values will shine through."

Hariton added that a typical Harvard Medical School student doesn't just seek to learn the right answer to pass a test, but rather wants to have a good grasp of the mechanisms behind what they are learning.

"For example, when learning about the brain's pituitary hormones, it is easy to just memorize what each hormone does and pass the test," he said. "However, good students will seek a deeper understanding of how each hormone is created and why the system evolved, what each hormone does and in response to what signal, and how the change in levels lead to a specific clinical presentation - and often by tying the case to a patient."

He said that this depth of knowledge ought to shine through in both your essay and interview, with a prospective student showing not only that they are inquisitive, but they care about "the why" in what they are learning.

Samyukta Mullangi was majoring in creative writing and biology when she applied for Harvard Medical School - and she said that she wasn't even a straight-A student.

"There's a sense with many pre-medical students that schools are looking for a mix of certain activities, such as research at a science lab, volunteering at a hospital, leadership of college clubs. But I think your involvement in these should all convey a certain story about you: Who are you and what do you get excited about?" she said.

She said that she identified her "niche" and told a story of how good physicians and writers have a lot in common - both are successful only when they pair critical thinking with empathy, listening with an open mind, and paying attention to detail.

"In my application, I focused on the archetype of a physician writer, and read Atul Gawande, Rafael Campo, Jerome Groopman, and Oliver Sacks," she explained. "I also read up on the emerging field of the medical humanities, which suggests that the humanities can be used to cultivate a physician's sense of empathy, ethics, and discernment. In my interviews, I showed that my interests were uniquely compelling, rather than a liability."

When it comes to how to convey an "atypical" story, she argued that "articulating your authenticity" is critical.

"Most applicants are authentic in their aspirations toward a fulfilling career and the chance at meaningfully contributing to society. But articulating this requires deep experience in the desired space," she said.

For an applicant, that means being well-read, connecting with experts and thought leaders in the field for mentorship, and seeking out work experiences.

"All of these activities will allow an applicant to gain the insight to craft a narrative and the persuasive language to fortify it," Mullangi said.

In an interview with University of Utah Health's radio station in 2014, Robert Mayer, MD, faculty associate dean for admissions at HMS, said that it is important to "write from the heart," outlining what is important to you and how your experiences have defined your personality.

"Don't make it boastful because that turns people off," he added. "On the other side, an essay that is so polished, one really wonders whether the candidate actually wrote it."

If you make it to the interview stage, Nworah Ayogu explained, it's imperative to show that you have strong interpersonal skills.

"In the people-centric field of medicine, Harvard interviewers know that humility and the ability to connect with another human being are so important," he said.

One way that Ayogu ensured he connected with the interviewers was by making the process a two-way conversation, where he interviewed the school as much as it interviewed him.

"I was careful to ascertain the school's values, the students it was looking for, and how it could create the right environment for me to succeed in periods of difficult training and dealing with people who are suffering," he said.

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