You have taken all the right pre-med courses. You have worked diligently in a research lab for over a year. You have shadowed a neurosurgeon. You are on three volunteer committees — two of them in a leadership role.

Your personal statement for medical school is simply an opportunity for you to convey to an admissions reviewer: Why medicine? Remember, medicine is a helping career, and you will want to communicate what is unique about being a physician that you feel that you cannot find the same satisfaction in other helping professions such as a teacher, firefighter, minister, or counselor.

Medical schools are composed of many different types of students. Some, like me, didn’t know they wanted to become physicians or surgeons until they were in college, or even quite a bit later in their lives. (See this awesome list of post-baccalaureate programs for more details.) Others knew from an early age that their future was in medicine, and like the goddess Athena, they sprung forth as a fully formed premed with a four-color highlighter grasped tightly in their tiny baby hands.

Is applying to medical school on your agenda for this year? Much like undergraduate admissions, the medical school application process is multifaceted and comprehensive, so we always encourage applicants to prepare well in advance.

Applying to medical school is a very different process than the undergraduate admissions process that students have already experienced. While MCAT scores, applications, interviews, and prerequisite courses are important, it’s also critical for med school applicants inject their personality into their applications and find ways to stand out in the increasingly competitive medical school admissions process.

If you plan on attending graduate school, whether it’s business school, law school, medical school, or some other graduate program, you’ll most likely need to take one of several graduate admission exams as part of your application. Preparing to take graduate admission exams long after your initial undergraduate admissions process can seem daunting, but the sooner you get started the sooner you can be on your way to a rewarding graduate school experience.