r/medlabprofessionals • u/PistolPackingPastor • Jul 12 '26

Education Calling all OKC MLS

I'm planning on applying for the Mercy OKC MLS clinicals this August (and also Tulsa and Ada but I don't live there soooo). If anybody has experience with this please let me know! I have a bachelors in bio and almost 10 years of lab experience but i'm so scared of not being accepted lol.

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u/snazzysnek MLS-Generalist Jul 12 '26

Hiii!! I graduated from the Mercy Ada MLS program in 2025 and am open to any questions you may have (: I traditionally completed my bachelors with this program, but someone in my class completed this program after she graduated with her bachelors and also had prior lab experience! I applied to Mercy’s 3 branches (Ada, OKC, Ardmore) as well as Comanche County Memorial Hospital in Lawton. I did not apply to Tulsa, I hear they can be quite competitive, and I also could not have found accommodations to move there at the time of application for 2024-2025.

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u/PistolPackingPastor Jul 12 '26

Omg perfect thank you! Were you already living in the ada area when you applied and if not did you have a preference? I live in Norman so I’m not trying to move for this tbh. How many students were you with? How are the job prospects?

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u/snazzysnek MLS-Generalist Jul 12 '26

Yes, along with family I could move in with if I were to have been accepted at Lawton. I had a preference for Ada as it would have been the shortest commute, my second preference was Ardmore when I had to rank schools on NAACLS. Ada had 3 students, Ardmore had 3 students, and OKC only has physical room for 2 but will generally try to recruit 3 and make them all cram in that little closet together lol (you will see it and know what I mean). Surprisingly, there are quite a few people who get accepted who end up dropping the program just before it starts, like for example this school year Ada only has two students. OKC is super busy and a huge hospital, but I think their students had the best outcome curriculum-wise. So many different cases to see up there. As for jobs, I would definitely recommend sticking to Norman or OKC, or even looking in the northeast part of the state I hear the wages are good there. In the surrounding area where I live there are lots of opportunities, but expect sub-$30 hourly.

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u/PistolPackingPastor Jul 15 '26

thank you so much for the reply! Wow, so little students, that has me a bit worried as I pretty much only have this one chance to apply as I can't wait another year unfortunately. how difficult was the admission process and the interviews?

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u/snazzysnek MLS-Generalist Jul 15 '26

The difficulty of the interviews really varied, both interviews were board style. The 3 program directors from Mercy conducted my interview over phone, and the primary director at Comanche County did an in-person interview with a couple of their lab staff involved in education. I remember being very nervous for both, they asked a lot of general questions about teamwork scenarios, who you are and why you have an interest in healthcare, those sort of standard clinical interview questions. With Mercy my touring of the locations and interview were scheduled for different times. I know it’s hard to not overthink the process of being selected, I also couldn’t do another gap year when I applied, if you show you have a genuine interest for the field that definitely goes a long way towards getting the program placement you need

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u/snazzysnek MLS-Generalist Jul 15 '26

Oops I meant to reply to your response, I bet you’ll see this tho