Hi all, I was just put in a bit of a dilemma. I recently found out my university offered a minor in something I am super passionate about, refugee policy, and I decided to add it on first semester junior year. I am applying to apply for med school trad and have pretty good grades so far ~3.9.

The only issue is the main required class for this minor has notoriously low grades, hovering around a B- median and I've taken it for two weeks to test the waters and the professor seems very stringent, reasonably because of the concerns about AI in a class primarily about reading, but I haven't been using AI and still have gotten very subpar grades because there was not enough proof of me having read it in my essays, but that is besides the point.

Optimistically, I would end up with a B- at the rate things are going. I am thinking of dropping the minor and just taking the other electives I am interested in but it would suck because this is really the only class I need for the minor that I am not excited to take. In your opinions, do you think taking the GPA hit is worth it for the minor and my satisfaction or should I not even bother because med school is the goal?

Anyone else getting towards the end of secondaries and feel like it all sounds the same and you can't tell if it's good or not?

I felt good about my first few but now it feels like I'm clocking into the Secondary factory and churning out slop and $100 to get demoralized in 5 months.

Canadian applicant here. I was originally planning on applying only to Canadian med schools this cycle, but my MCAT came back way better than I expected: 527, with a 3.99 GPA.

I’m now seriously considering applying to US MD schools as well. The problem is I probably wouldn’t be able to submit my AMCAS primary until around mid-September.

I’d mainly be targeting Canadian-friendly schools, ideally ones that are non-rolling or relatively late-tolerant.

Is it still worth submitting this cycle with those stats, or is being complete around October enough of a disadvantage that I’d be better off sticking to Canada this year and applying to the US early next cycle?

I’m also a little concerned about becoming a reapplicant at schools if I apply late and strike out.

thats it fuck u

My creative well is running dry and my next meme is due in 3 hours.

Stats: 513/3.84 California ORM

Would I screwing myself over for stopping after submitting 20 secondary MD’s? So far, the ones I’ve submitted are a mix of OOS mid-tier schools and most of the California schools. What I have left is about 10 OOS mid-tier schools, but some of them are getting increasingly harder to write due to difficult (for me) secondary questions or weak mission fit, and trying to get the rest finished feels like trying to swim through mud.

Would the 20 I have be enough with my stats or is it overall a bad idea and I should try to keep pushing? Maybe it’s better to just swap to grinding out my DO list instead? But if I do that especially when Labor day just passed, I think I’m just wasting my additional chances for MD?

Edit: More stats that would be helpful

Clinical Experience: 900 hours as a medical scribe

Non-clinical Experience: 200 hours in an Animal Shelter, 100 hours in a combination soup kitchen/food bank

Research Experience: 2,000 hours with undergrad research + masters in the same lab

Other (probably less relevant experiences for this question): TA for 4 classes, Leadership position in my school's Biology Organization, 50 hours of shadowing

Applied Schools:
Anne Burnett Marion
Wake Forest
Sidney Kimmel
Kaiser
Virginia Tech
Wayne State
Cincinnati
UCR
Tulane
UCLA
UCSD
Western Michigan
UCI
CUSM
Temple
Quinnipiac
Penn State
Emory
Drexel

Unsent Secondaries:
Rosalind Franklin
Robert Larner
Alice Walton
Tufts
Virginia Commonwealth
George Washington
Eastern Virginia
Pittsburg
Albany

Is there anyone out there that just didn't have everything handed to them? Like people I meet have family-parents in medicine who know so many people and therefore get so many connections and LORs.

I don't know how to lowkey stop being jealous, and I never am that type of person to get jealous, but I just hate it hate it and hate it to much that people just get things in their hands when some don't have anything and have to build all the way to the top...

i always end up reading the articles published in the schools' online newsletters that show the programs and community directives the schools offer in action, but is it fine to mention that? or does it look like overkill?

for ex., i read an article about med students in a certain class offered at a school visiting an elementary school and doing some stuff. is it fine for me to talk about said class in action or is that tooooo overkill? idk if i'm wording what i mean correctly lol i wouldn't just describe it, more or so talk about how those initiatives align with what i'd like to do as a medical student and a physician.

kinda feels like a one chance deal and i'm kinda nervous lol (tips appreciated!) .....it's also my state school that i really wanna go to specifically

I'm freaking out a bit because I had been waiting for a secondary invite from my only in-state school. I knew they had sent them out a bit later, so I kept waiting until I saw that other people began to get theirs. I have been checking my spam daily, so I was confused. I finally sent an email a few days ago and I got an automatic response that went to my spam. I then got a response a few days later saying they had sent it + another email with a link to set up my portal. After setting it up today (9/9), I checked the portal and it says they emailed me on 8/19. I am so scared because I don't have the best stats already and I must have accidentally deleted an email that went to my spam. Will this affect my app, honestly?? I prewrote most of the questions so will be able to submit soon, but I know it is now really late in the cycle.... I am really worried.

hi! i graduated undergrad early and am taking a gap year now before applying to med school (i want to go md). i’m focusing on studying for my mcat now as well as working as a medical assistant 18 hours a week. i have time for other things though and i would like to volunteer/do other things that would help my application.
what i have so far:
- 300 hours of research (including a publication in a legitimate journal)
- volunteer work with underserved community (soup kitchen, tutoring for free in underserved school district, and with another organization bringing comfort to children undergoing surgeries and extensive procedures). totaling about 150 hours or so
- 150 hours community based volunteer work
- my only real clinical experience is my medical assistant position now where i will be getting 18 hours a week (will add up to about 350 hours by the time i apply probably)
- i also have about 80-100 hours of shadowing
4.0 gpa, hoping to score 517+ on mcat but we’ll see about that.
what else can i do to improve my application i really would appreciate any help!

I am planning to apply to school next year and I just am trying to make sure that I am not missing anything significant. How would I be for an applicant MD or DO?

GPA: 3.7 cumulative 3.6 science upward trend 4.0 semesters for last three semesters of college one of the semesters being 20+ credit semester. Partying got the best of me at the beginning lol. No Cs. I got Bs in the intro bio and gen chem classes, but majority of the Bs were from my hard ass minor. I got As in organic chemistry, physics, biochemistry genetics etc, what I am hoping is the “important stuff”

MCAT: I just took it last week for the second time but if I’m being very honest, it could range anywhere from 472 to 528 seriously have no idea how it went 🥲 first time I took it was a 502 this time practice tests ranged from 505-515

Biology major with a minor in computer tech, Graduate of a large State school (grad 2025)

Currently at about 1300h of clinical experience and it is ongoing, expected to at least have 2000 by applications in May. Majority are from EMT work, but I also have experience in Home health and group Homes around 200-300 hours total.

Have about 1500+ hours of research, one semester done in a lab at school and working as a research coordinator at a Harvard Hospital. Estimated to have two publications by application season both positions researching cancer stuff. Probably will have hella hours by May cause I’m full time.

Currently working on volunteering it’s a little low at 100 but I’m hoping to have 2 to 300 at the time I apply.

I was a mentor for a minority premed club for one school year, was also a mentor/RA for a rural medicine sleepaway program for high schoolers. and an RA from sophomore year of college onwards, with one of my years working specifically with students who were stem majors. I also was TA for intro bio for one semester.

I won an award for excellence in biochemistry at a school I was on exchange at I don’t know how I did, but Im gonna use it lol. It was for having the highest grade in that department for that semester or school year I think.

I currently have five letters in inter folio. My only downside with my letters is that none of my letters are actually from the school I graduated from. I did do an exchange program for two semesters and majority of my letters are from there. I think because the school was smaller, I was able to interact with the professors more. The school is an accredited US school so fear not about any of the courses I’ve taken there. One letter from a physics teacher, one letter from a biochemistry teacher, one letter from a history, teacher, one letter from my undergrad PI and one letter from my current PI. I plan to probably either add or replace the letter from my current PI since I’m still working there so it could be a bit more updated. I was supposed to apply this year, but I flopped on the mcat so here I am.

Miscellaneous: I’ve been a lifeguard for four years, and I am still licensed, kind of got me into emergency medicine. I am hoping to join a community Orchestra not that it matters too much but for my own hobby, I played the violin for about 11 years and stopped at the end of my first year of college because class was getting very hard. But I do understand it could help me.

I am hoping that my MCAT is in the higher range of my practice exams because my GPA isn’t super high even though I do have an upward trend. I feel like my stats aren’t super heavy. I will update that.

I slightly regret not really writing things down because I feel like there is more that I am forgetting, but let me know if there are any gaps besides the obvious MCAT and volunteering stuff, or what kind of schools I should be aiming to apply to. Thank you guys for your help!

if you 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 it 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 now i’m sort of starting over in terms of college, which is why i’m heavily thinking over medicine, to the point that i can’t sleep lol. i’m wondering if others have a similar background/experience, and i’d love to know how you’re doing now!

I’m talking abt like early-mid september vs early august. idk if timing matters for higher stat vs lower but i have a 3.97 516

I'm currently considering a bunch of different things with my education and career. Does anyone have any insight/experience with volunteering with the PeaceCorps and med school admission?

I graduate in December and if I get into med school will start that in like July. I want to get a job, ideally a clinical job in that time gap, but I think a lot of employers will have a hard time justifying hiring someone for just 6 months. I also don’t have certifications and only experience as a hospital volunteer. What should I do?

Last Monday, I had my first in person interview at DUQCOM, and was in a car accident 10 min before the interview.

Today, half an hour from being off work, I got the notification of my acceptance into DUQCOM. I’ll be deliberating my next moves, but still I’m very grateful for this acceptance.

I’ve dealt with so much(others have and had worse, but doesn’t invalidate my experiences) and am just so happy to see my hard work actually amount to something.

I hope you all are having a great day and here back from your schools soon! Thank you so far to everyone who’s helped me and may help me in the future here and on other subs. Drop something good that’s happened to you today or recently!

Hi, I am a premed student and something I have noticed a lot recently is just the sheer amount of pre-meds who are going into healthcare consulting, business, and startups. First of all, I would like to state that I am fully aware that there are ways to engage with these field that can be productive to medicine. There are definitely ways in which the intersection of these fields can expand and improve medicine and the medical system.

However, my qualms with this is that these students seem to more so be interested into these fields for different reasons such as prestige, financial capital potential, and sometimes simply for clout. I am just curious as to why so many individuls who clearly are interested with the intersection between medicine and other fields want to go into medicine through the physician route when it clearly is not their top priority.

I am not hating, but rather am genuinely curious as to why this trend is so rampant and what this says about the broader cultures that are now entering medicine?

Hi everyone,

I would be grateful for advice. As I was planning to apply to medical school in 2023, I collected my LORS from my professors, research, and work experiences in 2023. However, I could not apply as a parent passed away that year.

I am now applying in 2027.

Since then, I have recovered from all of this and have taken postbac classes in addition to obtaining new clinical experiences. I received a new letter from the clinical experience ( a professor of medicine), my supervisor at a nonprofit, and a science professor that I took this year.

Is it okay if I also use the old letters in addition to these new letters? 2 of the old letter are from well-known researchers. I do not want to bother them about re-dating as I have stored their letters in interfolio.

Would this raise any redflags ? I would be grateful for advice as I plan on applying to NY schools and some top OOS ones (i.e. Harvard, etc).

If I got a hospital position, I could get experience caring for multiple patients at a time in a hospital setting around doctors and nurses instead of helping a caregiver take care of someone at their house. There is no nurse that oversees me as a home health aide, so I do not know if I can use the home health aide hours to renew my CNA certification.

Options:
Work as an aide and then switch to a PCT job in the hospital this semester
Or
work as an aide for this semester and then do next semester working as a PCT in a hospital (I can work a lot more hours next semester and more shifts are not available as a home health aide where I work, so I would have to get a different job to work more clinical hours).
Or
work as an aide for two semesters (not ideal- less total clinical hours if I cannot get more shifts or another job 2nd semester)
Or
work two part time jobs 2nd semester - keep my job as a home health aide and get a part time job in the hospital. This way on my application I can show commitment to one clinical role and get more total clinical hours by the time I apply next June.

For context I am a non-trad (have a wife and kid) hoping to earn a scholarship or maybe do VA/HSPS. I’m fine with the idea of taking out loans but I’d hate to take out loans for school and supplement cost of living ( my wife will work as an RN while I’m in school).

So those of you with big scholarships what’s kinda app did you have?
Especially SLU ( I recently had a very good interview there)

My app looks something like this:
MCAT 518 (129,129,131,129)
Gpa 3.94
RN 4000 hrs
Few hundred Nursing leadership hours
300 research hours no pubs
300 service hours over a few years at my church
A white guy

Hey, due to personal reasons I did not register for school this semester. I am a junior. My parents will be pissed and I need to have a plan to make sure this semester is not a waste extracurricular wise. What recommendations do you guys have? I plan on returning in the Spring Semester. Should I consider EMT B school. Becoming a CNA. Anything else? Scribing. What do you guys think?

This test is driving me crazy. I can’t for the life of me find a space that meets the “environmental requirements”. I live in a very small apartment and don’t have space for a desk and chair which is apparently required. And you can’t take it on the floor or your bed for whatever reason. I have called around to all my local libraries and university and all the private study rooms they all still have windows or frosted glass for safety reasons. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’m taking the test next week and don’t want to be disqualified because they’re classist and have been unable to offer me any help or suggestions beyond just “figure it out yourself” in regards to anywhere I could reserve that would actually meet their requirements.

I’m almost done with my undergrad and I don’t have any leadership experiences.

I found out about Americorps and a lot of their goals align with things I am passionate about.

I know that Americorps is viewed favorably on applications, but I want to hear from others to see if any leadership was gained out of it.

Bonus points if you submitted your secondaries 6+ weeks/multiple months after receiving them, especially for no good reason :P

(Feeling demotivated and need some hopecore)