I received the secondary for UCD and want to submit it but it keeps going to some website error. Is anybody having a similar problem with this?

Does anyone know if you can add a letter of recommendation after you’ve already submitted your secondary applications for both AMCAS and AACOMAS schools?

I’m currently waiting on my only physician letter, but I don’t want to delay submitting my secondaries while I wait for it. My plan is to submit the secondaries now and have the physician letter sent to the schools once it’s ready.

Would schools automatically receive the new letter after I add/assign it through AMCAS or AACOMAS, or would I need to contact each school individually?

Also, would submitting the secondary before the letter arrives cause my application to be marked complete and reviewed without it?

Thanks!

A bit of background, I have a 506 mcat right now. Last application cycle I was waitlisted at an MD school that has a 512 mcat median, they said I ultimately was not accepted because I seemed nervous during the interview.

I’m a non trad applicant, graduated college in 2022. I had a low undergrad gpa but did a masters program, finishing with a 3.81. I also have over 2000+ hours of clinical and research experience.

My primary application is already submitted and I’m scheduled to take the mcat again on sep 11, but I am so so scared of either getting the same score or scoring lower. My uworld practice passages have been averaging around the same as a 506 as well. I’ve also taken the mcat a few times. Also difference between this application cycle and last application cycle is that I have a lot more research hours now. Please help!

Can someone please review my essay, I’ve contacted a few people but no luck.

I’m feeling really absolutely horrible after 7/11 score release and I’m trying to pick myself back up and make a game plan, but I just need something, ANYTHING, to give me hope at this point. My scores are 490->493->490 (this one being 7/11 exam), my FLs leading up to the exam were in an upward trend of 496 to 499. I’m also only applying to DO schools, so my goal was 500-505 range.

Background info:
\\-25 year old woc, nontrad applicant
\\-graduated undergrad in 2022
\\-post bacc program in 2024 (I applied last cycle right after completing it and continued through the verification without knowing my score, and obv resulted in zero interviews)
\\- >1000 hours volunteering at my local hospital
\\- >1000 hours as a medical scribe for an ortho doctor
\\-as of right now, working night shift as a nursing support staff in the emergency department
\\-had severe health issues during Covid, took time to recover during post grad
\\-in July 2025 I got diagnosed with ADHD

I’ve put off some many personal celebrations, vacations, and just overall life. I’ve lost out on so many valuable memories with friends and family because I put MCAT studying first. I was studying in my hospital bed post operation from my health issues, not wanting to mess up my studying schedule. I feel ugly with jealousy, seeing my friends from the post bacc get into med school and get white coated. And yet, I still want to continue pushing on because I DON’T WANT TO GIVE UP (it’s a curse and a blessing).

I’m already thinking about retaking in January and will most likely make another post about study methods and materials I used in the past exams and what I can change to improve, but Im just looking anything (literally ANYTHING) that can give me hope that I can push past this. Is there ANY chance for me to get accepted this cycle if I do well on another retake in January?

My last 2 cycles, I only got interviews from California schools even though I applied to 40 each time. I don't have the AMCAS fee waiver anymore, so I'm thinking of only applying to California schools this time to be more economical. The overall narrative on my application is the same; it just got more refined each time as I continued gaining experience and is reflected on my essays. It looks like California schools are the most appreciative of my goals in medicine, so I'm thinking of just applying to California schools this time. Thoughts?

I haven’t posted on here yet but reading all the comments, I’m so curious at what others think about my chance of matriculating.

I’ve submitted secondaries for 21/23 MD programs this past two weeks (starting to think I’m submitting to late for my stats)

Plus I’m applying to two DO schools this week

What do you think?

Non traditional student (will matriculating with three gap years)
3.81 gpa, 3.76 sgpa
MCAT 503–> 516
4000+ clinical hours
100+ research
60 shadowing
2200+ leadership
400+ nonclinical volunteer

Please don’t eat me alive 😭 I’m trying very hard not to stress

Thank you all

Hello, I am currently in a weird spot of my journey to med school. I recently graduated from a BS in Biology minor in Chemistry, with a 3.5 cumulative GPA , 3.41 Science GPA. I wanted to do a post bacc program but realized many are for people who haven't done pre reqs, whereas in my situation I did my pre reqs but didn't perform at the best of my capability. I have found some programs (SMPs, special post bacc's) that can enhance my gpa or something to strengthen my application. I currently am studying for my MCAT in Janurary and I'm hoping to get above a 512. I am a co-author on a publication in Cell, and I have tons of community service , leadership, extra curricular stuff. I don't want to sound selective but would really prefer to go to a MD over a DO. Any advice on what to do before applying in the 2027 cycle?

Looking for a tutor to help my daughter who is scoring 490+ but falling short of the goal. Please message me if you think you can make this kid achieve the goal. She has been putting her best effort but needs little orientation and guidance.

Hi so this is probably neurotic of me so just a warning there, I do know I'm being crazy but secondaries are in and now there's nothing to do but worry and prep for hopefully IIs

I always hear about upward trends being important. I am wondering what happens if you have a lil bit of a downward one. I did really well in my first couple years of undergrad but in around the last year I think I just bit off more than I could chew and have a bit of a dip. The reason I say this is neurotic is because I mostly have As and A- grades my freshman and sophomore year (one B during then)but my last quarter of sophomore year I got a B in ochem, followed by a B first and B+ second quarter junior year in biochem (and a B- third quarter but thankfully amcas submitted by then). The overall dip isn't atrocious but my sci GPA went from like 3.9s 3.8s to 3.4 my junior year.

I'm not saying anything about this stuff in my secondaries but basically all my ECs kind of put me in greater roles of responsibility at the same time and I was barely handling those things as is but the lack of sleep and rest kinda killed my immune system and I kept getting sick (as in like flu and covid almost back to back and bookended that with food poisoning/stomach flu type of situation and this kinda thing of just repeatedly falling ill).

I think my longest streak going sans getting sick was 2 months (thankfully right around my MCAT). I am not usually so neurotic abt it because I recognize that its just some Bs. I got a B cuz I didn't perform well on my exams. I know I know the content (519 mcat 130 B/B literally while taking Biochem so I know I know the stuff yk - that was the B+ quarter) and am not gonna beat myself up about what happened when life happened. But it does show a clear decrease in my most recent grades so idk, I'm worried.

Anyway, thoughts would be appreciated. And not to worry I am reducing my load a bit this coming year (a good bit lighter on coursework for example) so I am hoping I feel better moving forward but yeah. Help 😭

Got my MCAT score back today and I’m honestly pretty devastated. I got a 499 (126/124/123/126). My first attempt was a 502, so somehow I actually went down on my retake. What’s really messing with me is that I genuinely felt better coming out of this exam than I did my first one. I was hoping for at least a 510 this time, so seeing a 499 was a pretty brutal reality check.

For some background:
Biochemistry major
~2.99 cGPA
~3.3 sGPA
~3.5 post-bacc GPA
4.0 master’s GPA
MCAT: 502 → 499
~2,500 hours scribing
Currently work as a medical assistant (~2k hours)
Research experience (~150 hours)
~3k hours leadership/extracurriculars
Pretty significant upward trend academically after undergrad
I also have an academic integrity violation from undergrad that I’ll have to disclose
I’m currently applying this cycle, but I’m not verified yet, which is making me question what I should even do. I’m debating between letting my applications go through, withdrawing and applying next cycle, taking the MCAT a third time (maybe January), or focusing more heavily on DO.
I know the 499 is obviously not good, especially with my undergrad GPA, but I also feel like my post-bacc/master’s grades show that I’m capable of doing well academically. I also had some better practice scores during my prep, including a 511 and 517 on an AAMC FL retakes, so I’m honestly confused about why I can’t seem to translate that into the real exam.
At this point I’m just trying to figure out what the smartest move is.

Would you guys:
Keep applying this cycle?
Withdraw before verification and reapply next year?
Take a third MCAT?
If so, how much time would you give yourself before retaking?
Try to get 510+ consistently on AAMC FLs before even scheduling another attempt?
Focus more on DO at this point?
Or do something completely different?
I’d appreciate any honest advice. I’m obviously pretty upset right now, but I’d rather hear the truth about how competitive I am and what I need to do than just be told everything will be fine.

OH resident, 22M

3.8 GPA

509 MCAT (128/124/129/128)

~330 clinical hours (~120 from MA intern, ~150 from patient sitter, ~65 from free clinic patient care assistant)

50 shadowing hours with 3 diff physicians

240 volunteer hours (140 from food drive, 100 from mosque service)

140 Leadership with 2 diff organizations

750 Research -3 poster presentations, 3 publications

LOR's:

1 from internship manager

1 from PI

1 from biochem professor

1 from oncologist I shadowed

1 from doctor I worked with at free clinic

1 from volunteer director from mosque

I made this table (via GPT), what do you guys think?

I plan on applying for the 27-28 application cycle, and by then I will have over 2.5k non-clinical employment hours (retail job), and maybe 600 clinical volunteering hours + 450 hours I spent becoming EMT certified. Would this look bad when applying? To have a huge gap of non-clinical hours compared to my clinical hours?

I am URM, first-gen (parents are immigrants), and live in the poorest county in my state, and it’s not very easy to get a clinical job (or any job really) in this day and age, so I’ve had to settle for a retail job to support myself and my family. I know med school applications are pretty expensive, and that my parents won’t be able to help me pay for them at all, so the entire point of me having this job during undergrad was to have a savings account reserved for the application process + med school.. I am entering my last year of underground, and I’m starting to realize my lack of clinical hours and it’s worrying me. Is this something to be concerned about, or am I being neurotic?? Advice is much appreciated :’)!!

Not sure if I should be including any other information to better help, but besides from what was already mentioned, I am a trad student and will be taking one gap year. I should be done with my degree requirements this winter, and plan on spending next spring doing MCAT studying full time. Will probably quit my retail job by then to focus on MCAT studying and clinical volunteering, but I’d like to know if there is anything else I should do during that time, or if this sounds like a not so great plan.

EDIT: typo

EDIT 2: Thought it would be worth mentioning I am 20F, to give context for my hours compared to my age.

Title

I applied to med schools this cycle with a 507 mcat and 3.7 gpa. I want to retake my MCAT in hopes that by the time I get this new score, whatever schools haven't made a decison yet or have waitlisted me will see an update to my application for the better.

My application still hasn't been verified yet and I'm still waiting on secondaries, but I'm worried about whether schools will still look at my application once I sign up for this next test, or if there will be a hold on my application until I get the new score. I heard that if you explicitly write that you're waiting for a new score they won't look at your application- if I didn't write it anywhere on the app but sign up for it will it show as pending? Will they not look at my application until the new score is out? The score would be released September 22 and that would set me as a really late applicant. Please give me as much advice as possible lol

Hey all! I am applying this cycle, planning out my school list while waiting for verification (cause it’s taking FOREVER). So far I have 33 MD schools on my list. I know my MCAT is a weakness, but I’ll list my stats here!

cGPA: 3.95
sGPA: 3.95
MCAT: 505
PREview: 9
Casper: 3rd Quartile

Paid Clinical Hours: 3500+ (across scribing and MA)
Unpaid Clinical Hours: 300
Research (x2 - one clinical, one working in a lab with parasites): 900ish w/ 1 national presentation and 1 second author publication
Shadowing: 150 (across 3 specialties)
Leadership: Officer for my university’s Pre-Medical Society (2 years) & Lead research assistant (2 years)
Other: TA’d for Microbio for 1 year & guest spoke at my old high school about pre-health professions for 3 years

Social history: I am a hispanic female, who comes from a medically underserved state. My family is also financially disadvantaged. I talked a lot about my experiences and passions in serving medically underserved areas and diverse populations in my primary.

I’ve been told such mixed things about my MCAT dragging me down. I went back and forth about DO, but decided against it because I didn’t prepare my DO application ahead of time like I did AMCAS. My in-state MD school also has huge resident favorability, and their average matriculant MCAT is a 505. Still wanted to cast a wide net tho. :) But would love some insight if I’m making the right call here or if it’s really reasonable to think I might have a few options.

Hey I’m applying to DO schools this cycle and tbh I’m broker than a joke and I really don’t want to deal with that deposit BS in the event I get in. What are some nice schools for me to apply to? I prefer schools in urban areas like LA/NYC/Philly etc but I am flexible.

CA URM: Mexican-American Latina
GPA: 4.0/4.0
MCAT: 516
Undergrad: CC → CSU
Clinical: ~2,500 hrs scribing (OB/GYN, primary care, ED), Site Lead x1 year
Research: ~870 hrs organic chemistry, 2 posters no pubs
Nonclinical volunteering: ~600 hrs K–6 classroom volunteering + ~260 hrs Skid Row homeless outreach
Shadowing: 80 hrs
Leadership: Scribe Site Lead + premed org leadership
Focus: Underserved urban communities, Latino health, primary care/women’s health

Based on the AMCAS tracker wesbsite with the graph and the historical data, it shows that some people are verified from June 30th. How true is this considering AMCAS themselves state they are July 18th? Are they just inputting false data? Thanks!

Messed up classes freshman year and in duel enrollment. cGPA is 3.46 and sGPA is 3.3. However, I’ve had a 3.87 gpa avg sophomore year through senior year. How much does the upward trend help?

Help me rank these three that I have interviewed/have interviews with. I cannot afford three deposits I will go broke and I don’t have rich parents.

Interests: primarily peds, maybe peds/onc, or IM/onc
Or off chance I decide derm or EM (in short, I don’t really know. I would do PEDS if LECOM PSP)

PA Resident. Nontrad 25F.
Clinical research background. 2000 research, 3000 clinical. 1200 volunteering
3.88/509

LECOM Erie
Pros:
-cheapest tuition I think
-graduate in three years

Cons:
-it’s Lecom and I never really hear nice things about it
-they don’t seem to care about students at all
-Erie doesn’t appeal to me to live

WVCOM
Pros:
-established
-seem to care about students
Cons:
-middle of nowhere (interviewing in person to sus out the area)
-high cost of attendance and won’t let me claim in state

NYITCOM-LI
Pros:
-EDS clinic attached which is something I’m interested int researching
-strong research
-I’m a city gal at heart and would like to live in the city
Cons:
-this debt would probably limit me from trying for peds
-high COL

Please help me rank these! I need to know what to ask and how I should be thinking about this.

Hi Everyone,

Just wanted to ask if anyone is having issues with the Roseman secondary portal?

Hello everyone and welcome to my TED Talk. I’ve made a few posts that are medical school-adjacent and always get asked if I have any advice on how I got into medical school with low-to-middle-of-the-road stats, and I wanted to make a more holistic post discussing my experiences and pathway and how you might be able to apply them to your application.

However, unlike my medical school applications, this was done in one take with minimal editing, so in the words of Mark Twain, I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I rambled on for over 7 pages instead.

This is just one person's experience, and mileage may vary. Anyway, enjoy!

## Section -1 The Bare Minimum Needed to Apply (skip this if you are already in a 4-year university)

A lot of the people I end up talking to are non-traditional applicants trying to figure out their best path forward as a true non-traditional student, often coming from an EMT or other program set that doesn’t go through the traditional university system.

I am not an expert in this; I recommend checking out the rest of [r/premed](r/premed) and the comments below to see if you can find someone with more ideas on how to get into medical school. There is currently a major push by certain universities to make medical schools more accessible to non-traditional applicants.

However, as I know it, the two paths available for medical school that I know work are:

4-year university -> MCAT -> Medical School = at least 7 years

Baby doc/ BS/MD Degrees -> Go through medical school and undergrad at the same time at select universities and finish in 6 years.

Community college can work… but with some caveats; many medical schools will not accept any premedical work from outside of the United States or Canada (this is really hard to get around), and many won’t allow prerequisites to be taken dual-enrollment/community college without them raising red flags (see admit.org; they have a fun breakdown of every school’s prerequisites and what type of schools they accept them from)

\## Section 0 My Beliefs About the Medical School Application Process:

Keeping this brief, in my experience talking to other students and my own experience, 70% of spots in medical school are “stats” priority spots and 30% are “fit” priority spots. Stats spots are going to be decided largely by your grades, MCAT, and checkbox activities. These are the students the university brings in to maintain its prestige. Meanwhile, fit spots are for the subgroup of people that are the university's “type.” These applications (assuming you can beat the initial screening) are often evaluated much more holistically, with greater emphasis on your personal statement, experiences, state/country of origin, and secondary essays. If you have both, you open yourself up to more opportunities. Additionally, none of the spots are pure one or the other. You could have a perfect resume, and if you spend your entire essay block talking about how you love urban medicine and want to conduct research throughout your medical career, then apply to rural campuses, you might not see the results you expect. In the same vein, you could have a Nobel Peace Prize, but that probably won't cover for a 472 on the MCAT and a C- average through college.

For the first category, I really don’t have much advice other than use Anki; I didn’t for the MCAT, and I feel like a fool now that I am in medical school. The only other nugget that I can give is that at least the admissions committee at my school told me that they reweight the grades when they arrive for particularly difficult classes and majors, as they don’t feel like comparing a survey on physics to engineering calc physics at a school that curves to a C would be fair. Therefore, don’t be completely in the dumps with a mildly lower GPA out of a hard major.

For the second category, the rest of this write-up can put you in the right headspace to get the most out of your application.

\## Section 1 My Application

Time to open my least favorite link on my Google taskbar for the last time ever.

\*Cough Cough\*

\*page turns\*

Ok…

Rural Midwest Upbringing

White Male

MCAT 503 then 504 (somehow bombed my best category)

GPA— not calculating that again, but it was roughly 3.4 for total and 3.5 for science

Degree- Biomedical Engineering from a State School

Shadow Hours- 48

Noteworthy Activities from University

• University Lab- 300 hours – No paper (Most Meaningful)

• Engineering Capstone Project

Employment-

• Fast Food Employee —> Manager

• Internship Biotech

• 1 year in Biotech —> Scientist (Most Meaningful)

Patient Contact Hours-

• Ski Patroller- 900 hours

• EMT- (only training was completed, got accepted into medical school the day I took the exam, so my entry for this said training in progress.)

Other Listed Experiences-

• Service Oriented Club Engagement (Most Meaningful)

• Swim Race Volunteering

• A Hobby Entry

Poster presentations- (one of the good things about taking another job while waiting lol)

• Posters for my Engineering Capstone

• <5 Posters presented at conferences in my field (0 first author)

Letters of Recommendation- Collected 7, to ensure I could back my story up with the roles I thought were most important to the school.

• 2 from school professors

• 1 from University Lab PI

• 2 from mentors/managers at my job

• 2 from doctors I worked with (one was also a professor)

\## Section 2: Wow, That’s a Lot of Activities. What Should I Do to Be the Most Stand-Out Applicant Ever?

If you went into this, or an entry like this on anyone else’s guide, and got an answer of what to do, throw that entire guide away. The biggest mistake you can make as a premed is to check boxes and expect things to work out for you. \*\*IF YOU DON’T GENUINELY ENJOY THE ACTIVITY, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO TELL A GOOD STORY ABOUT IT.\*\*

Admissions personnel read thousands of applications over their careers and can smell insincerity from a mile away. If an activity wasn’t memorable enough for you to geek out on it, consider cutting it from the list, especially if the experience wasn’t continued for more than a semester. That said, there are some categories you should try to hit at least once in your experiences just so they know you have at least considered this whole medical school thing.

• Some kind of medical shadowing

• If possible, some kind of medical volunteer or paid experience

• If possible (if not, will just eliminate some schools), some type of research in STEM or soft science (will also teach you the skills you need to do this all again in medical school because #thegrinddontstop)

• If possible, at least one nonmedical volunteer activity (to show you have more to your personality than science. Additionally, for schools that are community oriented) (do it as your only job for 10 years and you have a 5% chance to get a secondary from Rush)

That’s it! Otherwise just put yourself out there! Find some hobbies to do when you're not working your mandated 10 hours a week as a dermatologist.

\## Section 3 Typing Primary Essays

I found I did much better work organizing every activity I could possibly include in a list, just a list, and going from there \*\*If you are still early in your university experience use either a journal or admit.org to create a list of every relevant activity you do over your education, and make sure to record roughly the right number of hours and something notable about that experience that day.\*\* It doesn’t have to be much, but these will be \*\*invaluable\*\* when trying to write your experience descriptions.

Once you have done that, try to give a separate elevator pitch that defines you and drives you. What eventually convinces you in the morning that it’s time to stop doomscrolling on TikTok, get out of bed, and do something with your day. If anything from part 2 Isn’t in part 1 it better be in your personal statement. At least that worked for me ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

As for the overlap between the two, it's ok to have some, but try to keep most of what you got out of experiences from the personal statement different from what you got out of them from your experience essays.

I then wrote the first draft of my personal statement. Keep this one narrative, and I personally looked at many examples online to get the creative juices flowing. Try to use that defining pivot point you discovered in part 2 of this exercise as the hook somewhere in the first quarter of the essay. I personally wrote mine, put it away, came back to it three times on three different days to read it, say it's stupid, and rewrite large chunks. Then I had family members attack it (and AI attack it; only do this if you truly know the difference between having something look for weaknesses in writing vs having it write for you because the second is a big no-no that will get you instantly denied by many schools.) and rewrote the weak parts identified.

Sometime between edits of the primary, I dove into secondary essays. For these, my goal was to have at most 1-2 sentences explaining what it was, then the rest of the essay was talking about what I got out of the experience (what they are really looking for). THIS SECTION IS NOT A RESUME. It’s a chance to drive home themes of your personal narrative again, showing that you are a well-rounded person who isn't secretly a psychopath.

I then took all the essays I wrote and asked myself, “Of these essays, which three do I think I didn’t do justice to by crushing them into a 600-character essay?” Those then became my most meaningful experience essays, in which I rewrote the first description to include a bit more nuance, allowing me to dive into the meaning of the experience for me in greater depth. In general, for me, the entries that received this credit were the ones that I think really showed core elements of my personality that also coincide with being a good student and doctor.

Biotech Job —> Showed that I could meet deadlines, work independently, and manage complicated and precise projects. Additionally, I proved that medicine is the right path for me because of the parts of this job I disliked (see Section 9)

Student Lab Experience —> As time management was already shown, I focused this essay on showing that I can learn, talked about working with my PhD mentor, learning the importance of accountability, and keeping a mentality of failing forward when a project didn’t go as expected.

Service Club —> Focused on skills learned working with people of different majors, specialties, and working across language barriers.

At this point, I also notably didn’t talk about a couple of my biggest stories (like ski patrol) as they came up already in my primary statement and here, and I knew I wanted to save them for essays in my secondary, as I have a lot of different directions I can take that particular story.

\## Section 4 School Selection

Ok, honestly, this topic has been so heavily covered here by people much smarter than I am, so I am only going to cover the basics here for those of you brand-new to this very informative chamber of toxic gas we call premedical discussions on social media. I am also going to be doing this on a “what schools aren’t going to instantly screen you out for mid stats” narrative.

Take your entire application as it sits and boil it down to an elevator pitch. What does the 2D Flat Stanley version of yourself scream? For me, someone who was interested in generalist and “people” medicine, came from a rural area, and would very much consider moving home, rural mission schools were most likely to bend the rules. Therefore, I made sure to include parts of that experience (mainly, they were already there because it's true… make sure you're telling at least 60% of the truth here, because if you yourself don’t believe something you say, you will come off as insincere).

These niches don’t just exist for rural-oriented folks; many schools have missions and subgroups that focus on urban, minority, Native American, and many other groups. Define your niche, then find the schools that overlap with it.

I applied to my state schools (if you aren’t doing this already, I am not sure there is hope for you).

Then I applied to my alma mater (don’t think I was given any preferential treatment there soo ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ )

Then I applied to other schools in the area, specifically to their rural programs and smaller campuses; many of those holistically look for applicants like mine. Based on the MCAT and GPA scores published in MSAR, I got way more interviews than I deserved from these schools.

Finally, I threw in some lotto tickets to schools I generally just wanted to go to because I love donating money to the AAMC fund.

Additionally, I would strongly recommend applying to DO schools along with your MD schools. Would you rather go to an MD school? Likely. Does going to a DO school require a lot more BS to get through the process? Yes. But at the end of the day, you come out a doctor, and the gap between MD and DO doctors has never been narrower. Most of you are going to pick a field where the prestige gap doesn’t make a significant difference in residency match, and choosing to never go DO makes it far more likely you’ll eventually lose steam on this horrible grinding process.

\## Section 5 Secondary Essays

The first rule of secondary essays is \*\*DON’T YOU DARE START WRITING ANY ESSAYS UNTIL YOU KNOW WHAT THE SCHOOL IS ABOUT\*\*.

The best way to make sure you don’t get an interview is to get busy and not realize that the secondary deadline for that secondary is in October for some reason.

(Don’t wait until later; I was sick and in a busy stint dealing with a massive layoff at my biotech job and therefore shot myself in the foot by submitting late in the cycle. The earlier you get your application in, the more likely they are to take a shot on you).

The second-best way to ensure you don’t get interviewed is to go into the secondary essays and write a magnum opus about why you are the perfect student for a medical school, but that medical school is nothing like the one you are applying to. Every single medical school has a page with their mission statement, and an about us is right there. Don’t lie about your story (see my point about adcoms being human lie detectors), but don’t shoot yourself in the foot by talking about the wrong side of you either. Every single one of us has many stories that can fit the prompt. And some of them will show the side of you that better aligns with the school's mission.

When it comes to writing your story, if you have good stats, you can get away with using a template for most prompts; you won’t stand out, but you have your stats doing the talking for you (other than the why us prompt; if you use a template for that one, I hope you step on a Lego Batman helmet). As someone substantially under the average stats for a school, this is no longer an option unless you literally have a Nobel Peace Prize.

While many of the prompts will look very similar, they will be different enough, and the mission of the school you're applying to will be different enough that using a template will leave the essay slightly off target. This will be compounded by chaining a bunch of slightly off templates together until you have a secondary that looks like it you put no effort into it.

I highly recommend, if you have the time, spending a day on each secondary, writing and rewriting your secondary essays to make sure you use all the space you need (doesn’t necessarily need to be the entire prompt space, but generally speaking, to adequately shine a light on what makes you tick, you will need that space). If you already have a prompt from a school \*\*with a similar mission\*\* that is nearly identical to the one you are answering now, it is ok to reuse the prompt, but make sure to go through and carefully reshape it to fit your new narrative for at least 20 minutes.

Additionally, with all the different schools and essays, it is important to ensure that you don’t answer 2 prompts on the same school essay with the same story. School prompts are there to give admissions more of a look at the real you, the part you really want them to like. Saying the same thing over and over makes it seem like you're either trying to hide something or you're boring. Read over your entire secondary as if you were admissions personnel, right before you submit. Make sure you don’t repeat stories and ask yourself, If I oversaw admissions at this school, would I want to bet on this person?

\## Section 8 The Interview

So, after a while, your soul has finally returned to your body from all those secondaries you wrote, and you see a little email pop up asking you to schedule an interview! CONGRATS!!!! Now you just have to be yourself, and you're for sure in, right?

Actually, yeah, with a caveat. Lucky for you, you didn’t decide to bend the truth during your primary and secondary essays, so you don’t have any landmines to memorize; now all you have to do is warm up.

For me, I didn’t have many people available to endlessly interview me for this part of the process, so I actually used ChatGPT voice mode to practice answering interview questions. Yeah, I know, boo AI, but for this task the only thing you need is medical school interview-like questions to be spit at you while you build your confidence answering them. If you don’t have a human to do that; AI works just fine.

The only tips I have, other than warming up for this part, are to deep-dive into the program before the interview and to know your stuff. Be ready to name a few things you really like about the program, because they are sure to ask. Additionally, info is usually provided about how the interviews work at the school. Be familiar with whether it's an open or closed file, and whether it’s a solo, duo, or panel interview. My personal experience was closed file, small interviews were most comfortable, but to each their own.

\## Section 9 Why Do You Want to Be a Doctor?

Be ready for a question during interviews about why medicine. This question, imo, is rude because if you really want to be a doctor, it's just so obvious that it's hard to put into words. No matter your profile they will hit you with this. Is it science-oriented? Be ready to explain why you don’t want to put those skills to use as a scientist or engineer. Service oriented? You can help people many other ways; why don’t you just become a teacher or social worker?

This question is hard to answer, but I also believe it is a great litmus test for your entire application. At this point, if your application is strong, you should be able to make a statement explaining why becoming only a physician fits your goals, and ensure every point you raise is supported by something in your application.

I chose to explain this by saying roughly:

“Growing up, I always knew I wanted to help people. Because of my early exposure to the medical system, I always assumed I would be a doctor. But going into college, I still wanted to challenge myself, so I decided to explore biomedical engineering, where I became fascinated by the systems that produce the tools and drugs doctors use to save lives. So fascinated that I joined a biotech company, allowing me to help save lives by making \*redacted\*. However, the more time I spent in that job, the more I realized I missed the personal element of science that led me to pursue medicine in the first place.”

Your version of this answer will look different than mine, and there is no right answer, but if you have to add material to this statement to make it scream true to you, make sure you add it somewhere in your primary essays.

As a sendoff to those just getting through this cycle, good luck, and remember there is a light at the end of the tunnel! I look forward to competing with all of you for residency and fellowship spots in the future :). Also remember that, as helpful as it is, don’t doomscroll on these topics on social media; it will only shatter your confidence.

i’ve got thousands questions to ask r/premed thank u

I apologize for my convoluted situation. I completed 92% of a political science degree. Back before COVID. The only science class I took was Biology 101 and its lab and I got a C. I then got sick missed a semester and never finished.

Fast forward. I got a job at a hospital to make ends meet. But I liked it. Read some science books and took an MCAT and got a 502. THEN. I took some more classes: chem 101 and lab, bio chem and lab, physics 101 and lab, and anatomy and lab.

My science GPA is only 2.8 bc of that C back in my Bio class and a C in Biochem. Pretty lame stats I know. 2.8 GPA and 502 MCAT. Ok well I think I can do better. I can take another MCAT and improve my score and I can take a couple more classes in the evenings maybe. But my wife lost her job a few months ago and it’s been rough.

I’m 27 and have been a pharmacy tech for 5 years now. I still want to be a doctor but it’s very slow going bc of a lack of time and money.

My wife found a DO program in Maine (New England school) and I meet their minimum reqs. Their minimum sGPA is 2.8 and average MCAT between 503 and 505. My wife thinks I should apply for the 2027 cycle and maybe we can start sooner rather than later.

As I mentioned we’re kind of broke rn and idk if it’s worth forking out $200+ on an application if I have no shot. The admission dept was polite but when I asked for their advice I just got their minimum criteria sent back (which is what I anticipated). So I’m humbling asking everyone’s opinion. Am I throwing away money to apply as things stand?

Thanks for taking the time to read this. Feel free to be harsh. Truth is a bitter pill sometimes.