This past month, Application Architect celebrated its first birthday! This has been a major milestone for both the company and for me personally. A little over a year ago, I quit my job at a larger BS/MD consulting firm to start my Application Architect. While it was one of the biggest risks I’ve taken, and solely based on my bet on myself as a mentor, I’ve been so privileged to connect with so many students in the BS/MD and premed communities.
A major philosophy that has guided Application Architect has been my vision for access to better resources— whether or not you are working directly with me. While I understand that costs can sometimes be a barrier for many, I view my blog as a resource that students can rely on for accurate information and expert opinions. With that, I like to annually reflect on what I’ve learned as a premed consultant and what I want future BS/MD applicants to take away from my experiences.
This college application cycle was undeniably tough. In fact, it felt more competitive than previous years. Even BS/DO programs like LECOM saw an influx of applications, delaying their acceptances this year. Collectively, Application Architect students saw acceptances at almost every major BS/MD, and even at some prestigious premedical programs! While this post reflects my experiences of the 2024-2025 BS/MD application cycle with my small cohort of students, there may also be students who had a drastically different experience than what I’ve described. Here’s what I think went well for my students, and what future seniors can learn from.
If you want to work with Application Architect on BS/MD applications or premed planning, click the link here to get started. Hear from students about their experience working with us.
Define Your Goals Early On
If you’re new to this blog, you must be thinking “obviously my goal is to be a doctor”. Students who work closely with me, however, know that there’s two things I’ll always recommend in the BS/MD application process: know your goals and know your strengths. For anyone applying to medical school, wanting to help people and liking science should always be your baseline reason for pursuing medicine. But, with over a decade in education and training— not to mention the six-figure debt— these reasons alone make it really difficult to be resilient in the face of challenges and burnout you’ll undoubtedly face in your journey.
When I coach my students through the brainstorming and essay writing process for BS/MD applications, the first question I ask them is to define their goals. Beyond pursuing a specific specialty, I challenged them to think about what impact they hope to make as a physician. This goal is then interwoven throughout their application and interviews for consistency.
While making your goals apparent is crucial, simply having a goal isn’t enough. Your app must show that you’ve been actively working towards it. For example, one of my students discussed her interest in improving healthcare for marginalized communities. Surely many people say this in their applications to medical school, but my student worked with different under-resourced communities like veterans, refugees, and immigrants through her volunteer experiences. It is evident how these experiences influenced her goals as she had proven her interest through her work.
Having a plan (even if you ultimately change your mind later on) can show the admissions officers your focus and determination. Once you have a goal in mind, consider how you would pursue your goals as a college student, medical student, and as a physician.
Read More: How My Students Secured Several Top BS/MD Interviews
Quality Over Quantity
Most people would probably agree that the ideal BS/MD candidate has perfect grades, 1600 SAT/ 36 ACT, and a stacked resume. While there’s some truth to this, the reality is that there are hundreds (probably thousands) of applicants with the “perfect” application that don’t get admitted into BS/MD programs.
This year was a perfect example of this. I worked with an incredibly driven student who was extremely passionate about innovation in medicine. He had significant leadership at the local and state level, created his own start up, and balanced these activities advocacy and community service. He also had several research projects at well known universities. His letter of recommendations were also from mentors in very high places. While he did get three BS/MD interviews, he ultimately didn’t gain any acceptances (he’s still nailed it with his T20 acceptances though!).
On the other hand, my other student, whom I’ve worked with for several years, had a vastly different resume. She had two research internships: one entry level research internship and one long-term internship at a prestigious university. She was the president of a club at a school, but didn’t start a non-profit like many others. She also had an average number of volunteer hours (around 400 hours compared to some of my other students who had well over 1000 volunteer hours). This student comfortably had 5 interviews and was accepted to a top 5 BS/MD program.
So what made the difference? At a first glance, you may expect the first student to have a very successful application season— I did too. However, I think what made the second student so successful was the way the application conveyed her interests. She arguably had fewer activities and awards, but she had spent a lot of time in niche experiences. This ultimately narrowed her goal and this perhaps made her interests more clearly defined in the application. Whereas the first student discussed interests in advocacy, innovation, education, and research, the second student focused solely on improving community health.
Another aspect that I still mull over (yes, I do take the outcomes of my students’ apps personally) is the personal statement. The first student had written about how neuroplasticity relates to their life. While the essay was still well-written and the student felt that the final version of the essay best represented his story, ultimately students with more creative and relatable essays obtained more interviews at better programs.
In comparison, the second student wrote about her experiences with traveling. Even though some consultants are afraid of using this topic, out of fear of their student seeming “wealthy”, the student wrote it in a reflective manner that portrayed her curiosity and immersion into various cultures. Remember, your admissions officer is likely not in the science or medical field. If you come across as unrelatable or as a student who only cares about science, it makes it more difficult for your admission officer to advocate for your candidacy amongst a competitive pool of students with interesting non-medical perspectives.
Your Personal Story Matters
BS/MD interview invites can feel very random, as many students are denied the opportunity to further discuss their passion for medicine to admissions. However, my students on average had about 3-5 BS/MD interviews each. I do admit that luck may play some component in this, but I also think that there’s a reason why my students were consistently chosen. For instance, out of the 12 applications I worked on, 9 were chosen for the NJIT BSMD interview. 7 of those went on to interview for the NJMS BS/MD program. Additionally, the REMS BS/MD program had 1700 applications this year. Out of the 50 students chosen to interview, I personally worked with 3 of those students.
A common theme among my students was how they told their story in the application. One mistake I often see is students simply listing their achievements in their essays, such as publishing in a journal or participating in an internship. It’s not that these things don’t matter, but the admissions officer can easily see this data from your activities list or resume. Essays should be explain your motivations and approach— your “why” and “how” — to specific activities. Think of it this way: if a student volunteers for the sake of collecting hours, would you choose that student over someone who has demonstrated how they’ve made a tangible change in their community?
Aside from your resume, balance your objective achievements with your life experiences. This may be my personal style, but there’s nothing more boring than reading about someone who has never truly experienced life. Medical school admissions has become increasingly more focused on balance and wellness among students given the worsening burnout rates. Therefore, BS/MD applicants are inherently subjected to these same standards as medical schools recruit future medical students. I recommend talking about experiences that contributed to your growth, non-medical passions, or hobbies. Some of my favorite essays this year discussed skateboarding, creating elaborate art pieces, traveling, and cooking. While these might not seem like particularly unique topics, my students discussed these activities through their own perspectives. This likely gave admissions more insight into who they were as people.
BS/MD Interviews Don’t Guarantee Acceptances— Practice for Them!
This year, when one student received her 7th interview, she asked me if I’ve ever seen someone with that many interviews not get accepted to any BS/MD program. I have. Two years ago, I had an applicant who struggled with interviewing and did not master questions like “Why Medicine”. His answer to this major question was that he wanted to pursue medicine to make people happy. Becoming a doctor requires endurance; it’s difficult to believe that wanting to make people happy would be enough to hinder the emotional and physical burdens of pursuing a medical career.
While two of my students this year earned several BS/MD interviews invites (3 and 5, respectively), they didn’t gain any acceptances to places they interviewed at. Naturally, they asked me what I thought was wrong with their application. If a students is invited to 3-5 programs are actually, there was likely nothing wrong with their application. In fact, the majority of students don’t even get 1 offer. Having this many interviews also increases your changes of gaining an acceptance. However, these students both did not do any mock interviews with me, so I couldn’t attest to their actual interview skills.
They could have been great interviewers, but from my experience over the past four years, even my best interviewers have needed coaching in understanding what medical schools are looking for in interviews and how to frame their answers to align with the school’s mission. I’ve read several times on forums of people advising against interview prep, but in reality, the majority of the students admitted to top tier programs had coaching. At Case Western, 1 out of the 7 students admitted practiced with me. For Albany, 3 out of the 15 Union students and 2 of the 15 Siena students had worked with. Out of 142 collective interviews between all of my students, I only saw 18 rejections. My point of these statistics is to point out that these students entered their interviews with the advantage of understanding how to navigate difficult or nuanced questions and clearly conveying their fit for the program they were interviewing at.
If you make it this far into the admissions cycle, don’t become confident about getting an acceptance until you have the acceptance letter in your hand. Even if you’re familiar with your resume, you need to be able to articulate your story clearly. Many students will mentally plan what they want to say, only to butcher their delivery in a mock interview. My advice is to practice with a trusted teacher, physician mentor, or someone can who gives constructive feedback or record yourself on Zoom and rewatch it.
Read More: How To Nail Your BS/MD Interviews
Not All Advice is Good Advice
What I wish more people knew about consulting is how much marketing goes into building an “expert”. As I have successfully finished my first year in building Application Architect, I am reminded of why I started this company in the first place. As more and more BS/MD consulting firms charge upwards for $300/hour and require over $5000 for their retainers, it makes me question what actually makes their prices justified especially since they rarely are run by physicians.
My favorite story of this season is a student who previously worked with another BS/MD counselor, a previous college admission officer who worked at a larger consulting firm. She had already written seven essays that were edited by the “expert”. However, my professional opinion was that the essays were entirely unusable. The personal statement compared the student’s personality traits to different corn seasonings. When I read the essay, I couldn’t fathom how anyone could give a student the green light to submit this essay. The student didn’t even like barbecuing, so how could the essay possibly convey her interests? Needless to say, I made my student change all seven essays.
Another source of misinformation are the BS/MD threads on forums like Reddit and College Confidential. I never tell my students to avoid those forums— in fact, I’m active on them myself. However, I do encourage them to stay vigilant and take what they read with a grain of salt. This year, especially on Reddit, there was an unprecedented amount of sabotaging. Someone had written that UPitt BS/MD only allows for 3 experiences per category on their supplemental application. While my students knew this was not true because I had personally verified this information with UPitt, many students later wrote how they didn’t realize they were able to submit an unlimited number of activities. Another student had said that APME and REMS were toxic programs, discouraging other students to apply. As I told my families, I don’t believe information like this unless I hear it from a verified source. It later turned out that the poster had a history of writing false information.
There are certainly good advisors and advice out there. The best ones are not always former college counselors or students who have recently been admitted to a BS/MD (don’t get me started about the college sophomore charging $10,000 to edit essays for 6 schools). Trusted teachers and physician mentors can be incredibly helpful in supporting you through the application process. If you feel like you need additional help with your application, do your homework, ask for credentials, and look beyond the marketing tactics!
Final Thoughts
It’s no secret that BS/MD admissions are unpredictable— this year was no exception. Having mentored students through the past four BS/MD admissions cycles, I’ve seen how BS/MD admissions dramatically evolve between program changes and closures.
Overall, I think my student’s success came from introspecting on their strengths earlier on in the cycle, demonstrating their personality through their writing, and exuding passion and enthusiasm for medicine in their interviews. These factors may seem straightforward, but mastering an application is truly an art that takes time and practice.
For any rising seniors who are about the embark in their own BS/MD journey in the 2025-2026 application cycle, I wish you luck in the process. My final piece of advice is start early, stay organized, and lean your support system throughout the process. It will likely be another long, tough, and competitive season, but it can be done! Know that wherever, you end up, you can still become a great doctor someday.
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