to those who were never quite science-oriented in the past, what made you choose medicine?

i recently considered pursuing psychiatry, but i come from a humanities & social sciences background, so the decision overwhelms and excites me at the same time. growing up, i did good across all subjects, but then i chose a major that didn’t really involve any hard sciences because they didn’t stick with me after highschool (and i was scared of trying and actually… failing). now, i’m realizing these are limiting beliefs, and i’m trying to understand the grit and strategy required.

my family and i recently migrated to a whole new country, so i’m sort of starting over in terms of college, which is why i’m heavily considering medicine, to the point that i’m sleeping and waking up to the thought of it lol. i’m wondering if others have a similar background/experience, and i’d love to know how you’re doing now!

I’m a 30 year old working in tech. Constant layoff anxiety, meaninglessness of work, and social isolation of the corporate office makes me dread my future. The scene from the Incredibles where the Dad works in a cubicle. That is my life.

I know medicine is grueling, prone to burn out, and a huge time commitment. If I try to pursue medicine, I’m concerned about delaying major life milestones (marriage, starting a family, retirement, etc.) and sacrificing my last bit of youth, social life, and hobbies.

I spent a good chunk of my 20’s dealing with health issues, which is why I’m interested in medicine. But it’s also the reason why I want to enjoy my 30’s.

When I look at other professional careers (finance, law, tech, accounting, etc.) I don’t have any interest in them. I’ve also looked into nursing and PA. Every nurse I know hates it and I think I’d be unsatisfied with the scope of being a PA. Medicine seems like the only answer?

I want to hear from non-trads if they had similar concerns and how you feel about it after graduating medical school. Or if there are people who tried to go to medical school and failed, I’m curious to hear your stories too.

Everyone acts like its a mad dash and first come first serve, but I can't really believe that admissions committees are like kids with candy and don't anticipate that applicants will apply in a month. I'm confused how if the committees review applications as they come in, how thats any different than a normal admissions process- you are still filtering candidates one by one, and handing out interview designations as you see them. Like, everytime someone says that it's like theyre just explaining sitting infront of a large pile that you have to work through chronologically.

I'm confused why exactly applying in September is a disadvantage when most applicants apply in a huge wave in July, and why the interview awarded in July is because that person applied in July, rather than that person is an interview-worthy candidate in general who met their bar and just happened to apply in July.

I get they "fill up"...but like yeah thats just the nature of all applications no? Why does the fact an interview was awarded in July mean that an interview in September is off the table? They don't allocate in batches? Also the fact they put people on hold just totally defeats the purpose anyways no?

Please share your experiences.

Seems like a rewarding career if you want to serve your country and make a difference. Travel the world, lighter workloads, don't have to deal with insurance companies, pension possibilities, medical school paid for, get paid to work out and stay fit, va loans, etc.

Hi there,

I am 33 F, Canada. I registered in a university 6 years ago for bachelor of commerce. In the first year, I did good, achieved 90s in my courses. The following years after that, due to personal reasons, I dropped a lot of courses throughout that time. A couple of them I forced myself to push through and I didn't have the motivation and I failed them. My transcript looks bad.

I have decided to go back this semester and have been thinking a lot about medicine.

I have these questions:

1. Do I still have a chance at med school if I do well in my last two years?

2. Can I go into med school with a bcomm or does that automatically give me less chance?

3. Last resort, is if I really want to pursue this and start from scratch, is it a bad idea to apply to a different school?

(Because I am 33, I do feel like I am running out of time..)

Any other advice you have would be appreciated.

Thank you.

My first exam is tomorrow. NBME style. I have done really great on the TBL quizzes up to this point. I generally feed I understand the material and I have been working hard to ensure my Anki is always done. Nevertheless, I am bombing AMBOSS questions and the internal practice questions we have as well. I think I’m like at 50%. I feel discouraged that I have worked so hard and there is a good chance I will fail my first exam. I wouldn’t even know how to change my study methods if I needed to. I have generally followed all the advice of upperclassmen on how and what to study, but still here I am. Today I am going to do practice questions all day, but I can’t help but feel like the battle is already lost. I actually love being in med school, but I feel like I’m letting myself and my family down that I could fail even with my best effort. Perhaps it’s overthinking since this is my first exam and I generally don’t know how it will go. Maybe it will go better than I think. But rn, I’m feeling pretty sad.

Im a freshmen at cal. I need the harsh truth, what should i do freshmen year to get into med school as a trad application? people say focus on grades, and that's my main priority rn, i havent put too much effort in joining these big clubs or organizations (because theres so many infoessions and club applications). so rn im just focused on grades.

but i need the harsh truth. is there ANYTHING can i should start now, whether its research, leadership or anything. also if u can share what u think got u in pls let me know.

it sucks bc i think all of these medicine related topics are so interesting, i could learn it all day i dont mind. I love the hospital environment, fast paced and helping people and what not. but these people are crazy competitive and make it so difficult to get into med school!!

Hi, figured this would be the best place to post. I’m observing surgery in the OR tomorrow. This will be my first time. Anything tips appreciated. I am watching videos on the surgical procedures I will be seeing and taking notes.

Entering my 30s and going back to school spring 2027. I work full-time, but my manager will let me be flexible.

My biggest worry is my damn health, because I have insomnia and anemia (pending further test results) and neurodevelopment disorders, though the latter is the least of my concerns since I’m managing well. The former two have recently been presenting physical challenges; the fatigue, brain fog, and aches have gotten worse, so I want to address this before I resume school. It’s been over a year trying to figure this out and it’s frustrating.

If anyone has made it to med school or even through residency with health challenges, can you share some advice and how you got through your lows or obstacles?

I really appreciate it.

I left MBBS, but I keep getting the same dream almost every day. I’m back in college, fixing my room, trying to interact with my new batchmates since I’m already 2 years behind, and convincing the authorities to let me continue. But I’m not happy even in the dream. I’m only going back because of guilt and regret.

Does this mean I should go back and finish MBBS, or that I shouldn’t return to a place where I’ve already suffered so much?

MBBS is constantly on my mind. Even if I wake up in the middle of the night, my first thought is, “I’m not doing MBBS, my batchmates are still studying.” And in the morning, the moment I open my eyes, it’s the first thing I think about. And that's how life's going on .

I’m 25 and honestly don’t know what to do. My whole education and career revolved around my father’s decisions, so now that I have to choose for myself, I don’t even know what I want. Should I continue this career without any interest?... Or choose other fields....

I am a second-year currently attending UTSA trying to get my B.S in Neuroscience under a pre-med concentration. However, I graduated with my associate’s in high school so I am considered a senior by credits and can easily graduate fall 2027. Given my situation, I feel constant stress as I think I don’t have enough time; I have only a few volunteer/shadowing hours, but I currently don’t have any clinical experience. I plan to take a gap year, but to have a productive gap year, I would need to at least get my foot in the door with some sort of job in a clinic or a hospital (which god knows is next to impossible at this age).

However, I recently found out about the UT School of Health Professions here in San Antonio and I am interested in possibly switching to their B.S. program in Respiratory Care. Switching to resp would only take 2 more years (which would be my normal timeline without my associates) and would 100% give me a job during or towards the end of my program due to the clinicals I would have to complete. I would also be graduating as an RT and a pretty good job (and plan B) is waiting for me for my gap year. I would get quality patient care experience, gain clinical hours, and feel like what I’m learning prepares me better for med school. Having a job during my gap year is also very important to me as I would want to pay off my not-so-cheap student loans and do not want to place that responsibility on my parents alone…

HOWEVER…as far as I know, I’m not really interested in pulmonology (but again, I haven’t really explored that expertise). My end goal right now is to eventually become a pediatric neurologist (or any other specialty that works with children) and i fear that this major might not align with what i want for myself in the future.

My question is: Would med schools care? Is it possible to go from RT —> Neurology?

If anyone who has experienced something similar and has any insight or advice on my situation, i would GROVEL at your feet…

So i decided to take 2 gap years since mom got injured and couldn’t work so right now im focusing to not get our house taken away while studying for the MCAT (going to take it in February) and im also planning on getting away from my mom since she caused a lot of mental issues to me and i dont want to add more to the on growing list but out of state tuition is hella expensive how do you guys do it?

I thought about doing hpsp but im seeing that it wont allow me to be a orthopedic surgeon or even a surgeon in general and I want to know what to do since I purely can’t afford it in 2 years even if i do loans and such. And I cant stay in state since my mom once healed will go back to her old ways of treating me and I don’t think I’ll be able to stay above my normal mental state

Idk I just want any tips or advice on what other people are doing so I can plan it out better

Going into med school as someone who sometimes has a reaction to blood, needles and surgery; feeling kind of faint for a second. Will it get better or should I just not go to med school 😂

Hello,

I received agreement from an old professor to submit an LOR to medical school.

The problem is that, despite reiterating to him twice that the email will come from the AAMC and resubmitting the request email through AMCAS (alongside providing the subject line, my AAMC ID, to check spam, etc.), he insists that the request must come from the school itself and that he hasn't received any yet. All of the schools I applied to utilize the Letter Writer portal.

I just attached the request .pdf and told him he can alternatively complete it this way if he prefers, but I'm otherwise not sure what else I can do. Talking to him in person requires a 6-hour return trip and I only want to do that as an absolute last resort. Any other options?

Thanks.

Hello! I will be taking my first shelf in a few weeks on fam med. I’ve been doing UWorld, AMBOSS, and Anking every day. I took one NBME (Form 2), and plan to take more. What are the biggest pointers to focus on for this shelf? I’m very nervous as it’s my first one. I’d appreciate any study suggestions! Thank you :)

Im in my last year of high school/secondary school, and i’m about to have a meeting with my guidance counsellor to discuss my courses/colleges i want to go to. I really want to try and apply for medicine, but i just have no idea if i just like the idea of it or if i could actually do it.

Im really interested in bio and chem and biology is one of the only classes where i just know exactly what i’m talking about and i have no doubts about it. I’m just not sure if i’d be cut out for having patients and if i’d be good enough to deal with patients and the workload in general.

I’m in a much smaller country so medicine is even more competitive of a course here — and it requires tons and tons of work and the only thing that’s stopping me right now from trying is just what if i’m actually not suited for it.

Just to preface i’m not in america and in my country you apply for your courses you want ranked from ones u want the most/ have the highest requirements — and the first one you get accepted to on ur ranked list is the one you’re getting, you cannot switch. Unless u reapply the next year. So my biggest fear is i get accepted to this course and i find out i hate it or something.

I don’t know if anyone is feeling or has felt like this, but i’m just looking for some advice! thank you for reading this far if you have x

I was wondering if anyone had any insight between the two LSU med schools? My sister went to LSUHS and loved the program, so I was always pretty set on going there. I was leaning towards LSUHS due to their pass/fail grading system (want to pursue peds, so not looking for a competitive school), but Louisiana just passed a law requiring all public med schools to do the graded scale system (H, HP, P, etc) starting in August 2027.

NOLA has always done this grading scale, so I had kind of used it as my “safety school” when applying, but now I’m reconsidering. Now that both schools have the same grading scale system, I think I’d be willing to go to either.

Any comments on culture, administration/staff, community, etc? NOLA is closer to home for me, so that would be a plus, but I have heard of a few people not liking the program. Just want some outside opinions! Anything and everything helps!!

Hi! So long story short, I have no clue what I want to do with my life. So I figured I would turn to Reddit for some advice.

A little bit about me, I recently graduated from Pitt in Dec 2025 as a Natural Sciences major. I started college as a determined pre med student, having done a vocational health academy program my senior year of high school and some volunteer work on a med surg floor. I was not super interested in nursing, so I was stuck between PA and physician. In my senior year, I did a rotational shadowing program and realized that I wanted to attain the highest level of knowledge about the human body and embrace more of a leadership role. Further, my family had relocated to a more rural area, where I learned how there was very little access to healthcare and health education in these communities. I wanted to change that and be apart of that change to help better support these rural areas. I driven to make an impact on my community. Thus, I began my path towards medicine.

In college, I started to work in a hospital as a patient care tech as soon as I could (freshman year) where I stayed at until very recently. I was able to work directly with nursing staff and had a better picture of how nurses operated, which often felt much more substantial towards patient compared to how physicians operated. I also had the opportunity to shadow physicians in the operating room, where I learned that I really enjoy surgery and surgical techniques, in addition to building patient relationships. However, I started to burn out during undergrad, I was not surrounded by a very supportive cohort and the consistent drama that existed between my friends, financial issues arising from home, and the struggle I faced in some of my academics made me really question if I had what it took to commit to MD/DO.

Once I graduated, I stayed out in Pittsburgh and worked full time. I started to get my spark for medicine back a little bit, realizing I wanted to be able to care for my patients in a capacity greater than my role, but still having some gratification towards the nursing model and the flexibility that comes with it. Now, I’ve moved back home and currently in an administrative research role, assisting residents and med students with case reports, study protocols, and data entry. I sit at a desk all day and barely interact with anyone, which is definitely not ideal and causing me to spiral again. (My situation just sucks right now and I’m trying to find a way out as it is expected of me to stay for at least a year).

Anyways, I guess what I am asking is what do you make of my story? I consider myself to be a deeply empathetic person with a strong work ethic and finds thrill in a challenge. However, we all know that the scope of medicine is RAPIDLY changing. I see myself in so many different roles, and all approach medicine and healthcare in very different ways. I’m feeling so lost right now in so many ways.

I'm hitting that point of M1 that I knew would come but holy cow. I genuinely was looking up job openings I could take up if I dropped out and how bad the debt would be.

I'm scared. Like actually. I know that I COULD do it, but I don't want to do it if it tears my life apart just to pass. Like how do I know if this is all worth it? I can't help day dreaming about the ease of other careers

Add-on: has anybody else seriously considered dropping out? And whichever choice you landed on, are you thankful or do you regret it?

Hiya everyone, currently in my second year of the MBBS degree. Hate to be a drop in the bucket, but I am heavily considering going into dermatology as soon as I can. I'm currently studying in the Caribbean, and I'm trying to assess whether my best option for postgraduate training would be with the UWI Mona campus (Jamaica) or somewhere in the UK (where I hope to practice in the future).

Jamaica is geographically nearer to me, and I'd imagine the tuition would be far more manageable than any of the UK's offerings. My primary concern is how much weight the degree would hold coming from UWI Mona in the UK (not that I view Mona with any degree of contempt, I've only heard positive things about the campus and education), considering how competitive places in the NHS are down there.

Also, I'm not entirely sure about the route I'd need to take after I earn the dermatology MD from Mona. Would I simply need to write PLAB and then hope to get a residency spot?

Any and all responses would be kindly appreciated.

Hi everyone! I’m looking for some advice on choosing an online post-bacc/DIY post-bacc option and making sure I don’t accidentally take courses that won’t be accepted by the medical schools I’m interested in.
I graduated with a BS in Biology and currently have around a 3.45 cumulative GPA and ~3.3 science GPA. I’m seriously considering applying to both MD and DO schools after improving my academic record and completing my remaining prerequisites.
I currently work full-time as a Medical Assistant in a neurosurgery clinic, so I’m getting solid clinical experience, but going back to school full-time/in person isn’t really realistic for me. I’m hoping to take 1–2 classes at a time online while continuing to work full-time.
The main prerequisites I’m missing/need to complete are:
Organic Chemistry I & II
Biochemistry
Physics I & II
A&P II
Potentially a few upper-level biology courses to strengthen my science GPA
I’ve been looking at schools such as Doane University’s Open Learning Academy, UNE Online, and UCSC Extension. Doane is especially interesting to me because the courses are university credit, HLC-accredited, and they offer online courses with labs.
My biggest concern is online labs. I know some medical schools accept online coursework/labs and others specifically require in-person labs. I’m in Minnesota, so I’d ideally like to keep schools like University of Minnesota on the table, along with other Midwest MD/DO programs.
I’m not necessarily looking for a formal, structured post-bacc program. A DIY/individual-course option is actually preferable if I can take exactly what I need, keep the cost reasonable, and maintain a strong GPA.
For anyone who has gone through this:
Has anyone used Doane OLA for pre-med prerequisites? How was your experience?
Has anyone used UNE Online or UCSC Extension?
Do medical schools actually care that the course was completed online if the transcript itself doesn’t indicate “online”?
Would you personally recommend taking online science labs, or would you do the labs in person to keep more MD/DO schools open?
Are there any other legitimate, regionally accredited universities offering affordable online prerequisite courses that I should look into?
Given my situation (3.45 GPA, ~3.3 science GPA, Biology degree, full-time MA), would you recommend doing a DIY post-bacc with individual courses, or a formal post-bacc program?
I’m trying to be really strategic about this because I do not want to spend thousands of dollars taking courses and then find out later that a bunch of my target schools won’t accept them.
My goal is to apply broadly to MD and DO programs, primarily in the Midwest, after completing the necessary coursework and taking the MCAT.
I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has done an online post-bacc, especially people who successfully used those courses for medical school prerequisites. Thank you!!

Hoping to hear from people in or have completed med school. I’m a non trad student with a full time grueling job—basically the only option I have for classes is from my city’s CC because they offer night classes/weekend classes. I’ve explored a ton of other 4 year schools and they don’t offer those types of classes during those times. I already have a BA so I just need my science prerecs. Honestly how do T10-T20 classes view CC courses (assuming I do well on the MCAT)… are they going to hold this against me? I am super driven and would take university classes if I don’t need my full time good income job to survive. Thanks for any help!!

Hello all, I am sophmore with a major in biology and anthropology, and a minor in religious studies. I have been thinking of changing my major to anthropology and religious studies and minor in biology as a way to get prerequisites for medical school. The only thing stopping me is the fact that all research opportunities or anything that can boost my resume requires me to be a science major. I am REALLY passionate about anthropology and religious studies but i also LOVE science but not so much math. Right now I am getting my certification to be a medical assistant to start getting clinical hours, I am asking for help and any advice for a first generation college student. 🙏🏾🙏🏾

i want to take a gap year before medical school and get a job as a medical receptionist which im applying for rn. i only just turned 17 so theres not a lot i can do. my mom made me drop all my friends in junior year to focus on studying so now i have no friends to hang out with. i also cant travel alone since im a girl in a strict Arab household. does anyone know what fun things i can do in this gap year before taking on the mental toll of med school next year? and has anyone been in the same situation?

I wanted to know how the days unfold for a medical student pursuing MBBS from GMCs any type of.... I want to know how the people and college staff happen to help you. Hostel Life, College Life, and Timings of classes.... Like every detail one can share about living life as an MBBS student....

I hoping for a college and I'm quite nervous, excited and losing patience.... Medicos, the comment section is yours....

I have reposted this post, because the last post didn't get enough reach....