An Early Decision Program to Get into Medical School
And avoid the MCAT!
The FlexMed Program
I came across this early assurance program on Instagram and thought it was an amazing opportunity to ensure an acceptance early in your college journey and subsequently, spend your junior and senior years knowing you’re going to medical school and enjoying your time. The Donald and Vera Blinken FlexMed Program invites sophomores in college to apply for an “early assurance of acceptance” (as the school’s website states) to Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
About ISMMS
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, a prestigious medical school in New York, offers an organic approach to medical education, through employing medical students in clinical situations from day one, for instance, as well as research opportunities that push the current boundaries of scientific accomplishments in healthcare (“Facts and Figures”). These two aspects resonate deeply with me, personally, making this a top choice medical school that I hope to get into. This program, therefore, seems like a great opportunity.
Prerequisites and How to Apply
Here are the links to the website pages of the overview of the program and the specifics on applying! There is a lot to cover on the specifics, so I thought linking the pages would be best.
Overview of the FlexMed Program
This second link shows everything about the program like the timeline for applying, what classes you need to take, what the application requires, the process of the interviews, and the terms of acceptance if you are chosen to be in the program. The page also shows another type of early assurance program called the US Military Institutional Partnership; make sure to look for the requirements of the FlexMed program.
Pros
Getting into medical school from your sophomore year…which is the biggest relief as a pre-med student!!!
NO MCAT! Yes, you do not have to take the dreaded MCAT. You do still have to show an ACT or SAT score.
You can spend your junior and senior years without the stress of applying to several schools and with full attention to your classes and extracurriculars. HOWEVER, you still have to maintain decent grades, meet the program requirements for your courses, and have sufficient clinical experience. You also have to fill out the standard AMCAS application, but the process for it will be a little different. All of this information is included in that second link above.
Cons (or just one con, really)
You cannot apply to any other medical school. This may not be a con if you are 100% committed to going to this school. If you are accepted to this program and you choose to take the MCAT and apply to other medical schools, you can no longer participate in the FlexMed program. You can still apply in their regular decision process later.
Final Tips
If you do decide to apply to FlexMed, that is awesome! I would strongly recommend reviewing the 15 Core Competencies that the Association of American Medical Colleges lists (linked here: AAMC Core Competencies). The competencies are what all medical schools look for in their applicants. You should show in your application how your activities contribute towards building your character and personality in terms of those competencies. They will surely come up in the interviews as well. Lastly, I would encourage studying ISMMS’s specific competencies that it looks for. You can find these all the way at the bottom of the second link I included above, “Specifics on How to Apply.” Treat these like the 15 Core Competencies, highlighting them in your application and interview.
Finally,
if you have any questions, reach out to me and I will help out the best I can. I will also share some very helpful pre-med resources I have found in a future post!
Works Cited:
“Early Assurance Admissions Process.” Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, https://icahn.mssm.edu/education/admissions/application/flexmed.
“Early Assurance Programs.” Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, https://icahn.mssm.edu/education/medical/md-program/early-assurance.
“Fact and Figures.” Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, https://icahn.mssm.edu/about/facts.