You Didn’t Get into Medical School, Now What?

Many hopeful international students put all of their hopes into passing the IMAT Exam and being accepted into the Medical School of their dreams. However, you may have stumbled upon this article because you either just found out you didn’t get into the Italian medical school you wanted, or maybe you want to read this ahead of time, just in case. Regardless, here I am to tell you it’s going to be okay, and also that I am a strong believer in a plan B. I usually have a plan C, D, and E, so here I am to help you out with planning for the after effects.

No one wants to talk about it, but sadly around 85% of the people that apply to the IMAT Exam will not get in. So what happens if you are part of the 85%? Don’t lose hope, it isn’t the end of the world. 85% of the other people just like you tried and didn’t get in.

Breathe in.

Breathe out.

Welcome to the group, and now let’s talk about it. Most people in this group find out that they have scored quite badly in the IMAT before the exam rankings come out, which personally made me end up going through the entire cycle of despair over not getting in ahead of time. (I got a 19.5, just to give some context.)

The 5 stages of grief: IMAT version

1. Denial

You either just saw your ranking or calculated what you scored after the exam, and it’s much lower than what you were anticipating. You are now thinking, “No way did I score that badly? That can’t be my score, it must be a mistake and I’m seeing someone else’s results.”

At first, you won’t want to accept that you f#c*ed up, and now most probably have no chance of getting in to a Medical School of your choice. You must gave calculated something incorrectly, it’s not possible, right? That’s okay, but denial probably won’t last very long, especially once you see the ranking in October with your own eyes. If you’re still denying it then, it’s okay, you will just have to go through the various stages.

Everyone goes through this process on their own and at their own pace. For example, I kind of absolutely skipped stages 2 and 3 (anger and bargaining) and went straight to number 4, the depression stage.

2. Anger

Now you’re angry because you’re thinking of all the things you could have done. All the times you got tired of studying and played with your cat (I am very guilty of this) or decided to binge watch a show (also guilty). You could have done more practice problems, read more books, lost your sanity a bit more, sold your soul to the Kreb’s Cycle god, but you didn’t do any of this and what did you expect? No wonder you didn’t score that well. You’re beating yourself up thinking about how you could have tried harder or studied harder. You’re thinking “if i had just suffered a bit more, I would have gotten in”.

You might be right, you could have tried harder. However, it is also just as likely that you could be wrong. You did really do your best with the knowledge and time you had. Either way it is now in the past and there’s no use in wasting time and energy on things that have long gone.

I could list you countless quotes telling you to let it go, but I know you will eventually move on. I hope so, now onto the fun stage!

3. Bargaining

This is the lovely part where you may try to bargain with the secretary and directors of the university you applied for. You may send emails back to back to get them to respond, despite the fact that all your efforts lead to a clear “no”.

There is a small chance another Medical University might offer free spots to non-Eu students, however this is quite unlikely.

You prayed and begged. You tried to figure out every single loop hole to get in. You messaged your second (and third, fourth, and so on) choice universities. These are all things you might feel like to do, because you never know and might be surprised if another university has free spots. However, after all of this effort to figure out a way, it might still result in nothing. If that is the case, you might move back again to the Anger stage, or you may move on forward to the stage I am trying to prepare you for, the depression stage.

4. Depression

This is when we hit rock bottom, and this is the stage that may last the longest. I hope you do not linger here too much.

Nice tips to cheer up a bit:

• If you have a bathtub, I suggest taking a nice long bath and using bath bombs or cool bath salts.
• If you are of legal age, I suggest champagne or a good glass of wine. Now don’t drink yourself into grief please, your liver will not appreciate this. If you’re not of legal age, a nice cup of tea does the job too 🙂
• Pick up a book or start watching a show. It lets you escape reality for a bit.
• For inspirational/motivational books, I highly recommend “When Breath becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi, “Tools of Titans” by Tim Ferris, “The Secret” by Rhonda Byrne, and “You Are a Badass” by Jen Sincero.
• Find other lovely people just like you that didn’t get in and motivate each other. Daydream about new future plans, or make study plans on how you are going to ace the IMAT next year.

5. Acceptance

Congratulations, dear friend! You have made it. You survived, now let’s get back to living the fruitful life you deserve. You have accepted the world isn’t ending and that it is going to continue spinning on its axis.

First, you have a very important decision to make. To either continue pursuing medicine or to try something else? Is medicine your calling? Is it what you have been wanting to do since you were a kid? If it is, and you still you got some fighter material in you, then you need to plan to take the IMAT once again next year or maybe pursue medicine in another country (I cannot help you in this department, but I do wish you lots of luck).

You can either take a gap year to relax and rewind, or do something else while you study for the exam again. For example: my friend Emna took a gap year and studied like a mad woman for the exam while also learning Italian. My plan was to go to back to engineering school and study for the IMAT at the same time.

If you decide to try again next year, then YAY! I recommend you assess the mistakes you made this year and try to work on them. If you noticed you lacked skills in a specific portion of the IMAT, then work on that a lot now. I would also recommend deciding maybe to apply to a different medical school, but this is a very personal decision.

If you applied to Milan or Pavia for example, and didn’t get in then maybe you should think of applying to a not as competitive university next year. However, I still support you if you strive for the most competitive universities, since now you will have an entire year to study for the IMAT. Whichever decision you make will be a good one simply because you made it for yourself, just reflect on it.

You should also try to stay in touch with all of your IMAT friends (if you made any, which I hope you did). The friends you made that got accepted into their universities will be the most helpful because they can help you prepare for enrollment and if you are applying to their university, you now have a person on the inside. 

I also recommend to take Italian language classes, so when you get in next year you don’t struggle as much with getting around Italy. Pick up new hobbies, whether med school related or not. I decided to get myself to exercise more and go for more outdoorsy activities.

If you decide not to go for it next year, that is okay too. I wish you the best of luck in all your endeavors and remember that you not getting accepted this round doesn’t reflect on you at all as a human being.

If you’ve never made mistakes in your life, it means you’ve never tried to do anything worthwhile. Trying to live up to your full potential may necessarily lead to making some mistakes and most importantly learning from them. Maybe you find a calling in something else. Maybe you try again in two years from now. Maybe you decide to go volunteer.  I know usually pre-med students believe that the only way to help the world is to save lives by being doctors, but there are countless ways to help this planet, besides stitching people up.

Anyway, I hope this article has been helpful and I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. I highly recommend to check out our testimonials since it makes this whole IMAT process more human and you get to meet other people that struggled just like you. Have a wonderful day in whatever longitude and latitude you are in!

Ciao,

Elisa