The months after submission are not a reason to manufacture activity or contact schools without a purpose. They are an opportunity to continue meaningful work, deepen relationships, document real progress, communicate strategically, and prepare before an invitation arrives.

Use this five-part framework to decide what deserves your time: Engage, Connect, Grow, Communicate, and Prepare.

The Five-Part Plan

01

Engage

What am I continuing?

Stay active in the academic, research, clinical, service, employment, and community commitments that matter.

02

Connect

Who should remain in the loop?

Maintain genuine relationships with mentors, supervisors, letter writers, and appropriate school contacts.

03

Grow

Where can I show development?

Look first for initiative, responsibility, skill, and depth within work you already do.

04

Communicate

Is there a reason to contact this school?

Follow the school’s policy and send concise, useful information through the correct channel.

05

Prepare

What can I do before an invitation?

Learn likely formats, research schools, maintain a story bank, and follow current healthcare issues.

01

Engage

Keep doing the work that made your application credible. If you are still in school, remain academically engaged. If you are working, volunteering, conducting research, or gaining clinical exposure, continue showing up and look for useful ways to contribute.

The goal is not constant activity for its own sake. It is evidence that your interests and commitments continued after you pressed Submit.

  • Sustain your academic performance and choose an appropriate level of challenge.
  • Continue research and learn to explain what you are contributing.
  • Take on greater responsibility in clinical, service, community, or workplace settings.
  • Follow through on projects or goals already described in your application.
  • Record outcomes, milestones, and lessons that may later support an update or interview response.

Consistency still matters if the current cycle does not end in an acceptance. Continued work can strengthen a future application. More importantly, it shows that your path to medicine does not depend on one admissions result.

02

Connect

The people who supported your application remain part of your professional community. Mentors, faculty members, supervisors, principal investigators, physicians, employers, and letter writers may want to hear how the cycle is progressing.

A brief, genuine update can maintain a relationship without turning every interaction into a request.

  • Thank people who supported the application and share meaningful milestones when appropriate.
  • Keep letter writers informed when your work with them has developed since the original letter.
  • Ask mentors for perspective when your circumstances change or you face a difficult decision.
  • Use information sessions and virtual fairs to learn. If a representative gives specific advice, an appropriate later follow-up can acknowledge how you used it.
  • Do not treat access to someone as a shortcut around the admissions process.

03

Grow

Growth does not have to mean adding another activity. Before expanding your schedule, ask whether you can go deeper in work that already matters to you.

Initiative, stronger judgment, sustained contribution, and increased responsibility often tell a more coherent story than a late collection of unrelated experiences.

Go deeper before wider

Deeper growth might mean leading a defined part of an existing project, improving a process, coordinating follow-through, training a newer team member, or developing a skill that lets you contribute more effectively.

Wider growth can still be appropriate when a new role fills a real gap in your preparation and you can sustain the commitment. The distinction is coherent development versus activity added for appearances.

  1. What responsibility or skill am I developing?
  2. Who benefits from the work, and how am I contributing?
  3. What evidence will show that the work has changed or deepened?
  4. Would this development add useful new information to my application?

04

Communicate

Admissions communication should have a job. Before contacting a school, identify the new information, the purpose of the message, the school’s current policy, and the correct submission channel.

If the message does not help the reader understand a meaningful development or resolve a real logistical issue, it may not need to be sent.

School-specific policies come first

Update rules vary. Some schools accept materials through an applicant portal, some use email, and some do not accept additional material. Recommendation updates may follow different instructions.

Check the school’s official admissions website or applicant portal before every submission. Record the policy, method, and date checked in your tracker.

Meaningful updates

An update letter should update. It is most useful when it provides substantive information that was not available in the original application.

  • A new role, responsibility, or sustained achievement in clinical work, research, service, employment, or academics.
  • A significant project milestone, publication, presentation, award, certification, or academic result.
  • A change in applicant status, such as being placed on a waitlist, when the school permits further communication.
  • A new or updated recommendation from someone who can discuss substantial recent work, when the school accepts it.

A strong update generally does five things

  1. States the purpose of the message and identifies the development.
  2. Explains what changed, what you contributed, and why it matters.
  3. Connects the development to your preparation for medicine or a quality already visible in your candidacy.
  4. Briefly explains school-specific interest and the contribution you hope to make.
  5. Closes with appreciation and the identifying information the school requests.

There is no universal submission schedule. Write when something meaningful has changed and the school allows the communication. Track every message so later decisions depend on facts rather than memory.

Interest and intent

A general expression of interest is not a substitute for new information. Applying already communicates interest.

Terminology and weight vary by school. Language saying that a school is your first choice should be used sparingly and truthfully, only when your status and the school’s process make it relevant. Never make the same exclusive commitment to more than one school.

05

Prepare

Interview invitations can arrive with limited lead time. Preparation is easier when it begins before the invitation.

  • Learn which interview formats your schools may use.
  • Review each school’s mission, curriculum, clinical setting, communities served, student opportunities, and interview format.
  • Prepare thoughtful questions that help you evaluate the program.
  • Follow primary professional sources and credible reporting about current healthcare issues.
  • Practice clear communication on camera and in person.

Maintain a story bank

Build a small set of experiences that you know well enough to use flexibly. Do not memorize speeches. Record the situation, your role, your action, the result, and what you learned.

Map the stories to qualities commonly explored in interviews, such as teamwork, adaptability, service, scientific inquiry, cultural humility, leadership, resilience, and ethical judgment.

Research for fit

Do not reduce school fit to specialty placement. Learn how the school describes its priorities and the community it is building. Then consider how your experiences, interests, and intended contributions align with those priorities.

Prepare questions that help you decide whether the program supports the physician and community member you hope to become.

What Not to Do

  • Do not stop meaningful commitments because the application was submitted.
  • Do not manufacture updates or add activities merely to create something to report.
  • Do not send a note that only asks a school to review your file.
  • Do not ignore school-specific rules or use the wrong channel.
  • Do not send frequent communications containing trivial changes.
  • Do not retell your entire biography in every message.
  • Do not treat a personal connection as a route around the process.
  • Do not tell multiple schools that each is your only first choice.
  • Do not wait for an invitation to begin basic interview preparation.

Your Next 30 Days

  1. Audit your current commitments and choose one realistic way to deepen your contribution.
  2. Send appropriate progress notes to mentors or letter writers you want to keep informed.
  3. Check and record the update policy and submission method for every school.
  4. Start a development log with dates, responsibilities, outcomes, and lessons.
  5. Review a few schools each week and record questions for interviews or information sessions.
  6. Build or refresh your story bank.
  7. Set a recurring date to review the tracker and choose the next action for every school.

Put it to work

Run the cycle from one tracker.

Record school policies, communications, meaningful developments, interview preparation, and dated next actions throughout the cycle.

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