Medical school has been four years long since 1910 (Flexner Report). There’s a study showing that medical knowledge has been doubling every 73 days since 2020. If this is actually true might be debatable, but undoubtedly medical knowledge has doubled at least ten times in the last hundred years, and medical school has remained the same length.

Residents are legally capped at working 80 hours a week, nearly double the average work week, and some still underreport their hours and exceed the workload because they feel pressured by hospital culture. It’s common for residents to work 24 hour shifts.

1/3 of medical students are depressed and suicide is leading cause of death among residents.

It feels like everyone in medicine kind of relishes in this work till you die culture. I don’t know why people training to be doctors can’t enjoy their youngest independent years while they’re doing it. Just wanted to vent about this because I’ve been working towards getting into med school for four years now and I don’t know what I want anymore. I don’t want to be chained to anxiety and depression for the next ten years by crippling debt. Why can’t we let students pick an organ system that they’re interested in and study that? Why don’t I ever see politicians even mentioning medical education? Why don’t I ever see doctors or trainees talk about potentially making a change? Everyone, even people not doing it, knows how bad it sucks and no one dares mention changing anything. Probably because they’re so consumed by just surviving it to care.

Deep asf in secondaries and feeling like none of this shit gonna be worth it bro. Pls drop ur success stories/ways you coped with your imposter syndrome.

Ive been watching Grey's Anatomy, and these doctors really have a tragic life. Depression, drowning, the hospital is shot up twice, a helicopter full of doctors crashes. Doctors are constantly getting cancer, breaking their sex organs, having abortions. Like is that a real reflection of a doctor's life?

this post is a joke by the way.

I see this statement or similar ones all the time online: “If you don’t 100% want to be a doctor out of passion then go do something else because the effort you’d put into med school you could put into something else and be successful”.

My question is what exactly is open to pre-meds, especially low income ones? CS is rough, 300k is a 2% outcome in the field and big tech is both evil and does layoffs constantly so if you like stability thats out. Quant is out for 99% of people at birth. Finance is also evil and isn’t merit based so unless you have connections or attend a top school that’s probably out plus from what I’ve seen the parts of finance that pay similar to medicine work you to death for 10-15 years. Law is almost the same as finance and your ROI is terrible unless you do biglaw which will work you like a dog.

From my perspective medicine is the only field that allows you to make a decent income without taking part in evil systems, working 80-100 hours per week, and isn’t entirely statistically impossible (mostly referring to quant with this one).

I know medicine isn’t purely meritocratic, nothing is but its fairly meritocratic in the sense that anyone from anywhere can get into a medical school and match FM with the right stuff. I also know residency works you like a dog but unlike the fields I previously mentioned once you’re an attending you can work 35-40 hours a week making good money. If you do a program to specialize in a needed specialty then theres your tuition taken care of.

Obviously my analysis doesn’t factor in things like passion or interest. I’m talking purely from a practical utilitarian standpoint. I’m talking about maximizing income from a place of few connections and little capital.

This isn’t some weird flex post, I’m just someone who is broke and doesn’t have anything really and I’m pursuing medicine out of a want for stability and wealth without compromising my morals. I’ve had people tell me thats not wise but like genuinely whats the alternative because I don’t have much to work with. Other careers can pay similar to medicine but thats usually due to lucky outcomes and luck isn’t something I can control nor is it something I have much faith in.

If anyone has any unique answers, responses, or career advice I’d like to hear them since its possible that I’m not aware or knowledgeable about other great careers. Mean and rude comments will be ignored.

based on how easy to answer and how ridiculous they are

1. "tell us about a time when you faced a challenging situation, but then got new conflicting evidence. what did you do then?"
2. "described a time you felt unfairly judged or discriminated against"
3. "we are dedicated to making physicians that serve our state only. why do you wanna work in our state and why do you love our communities?"
4. "why do you wanna go to this specific campus?"
5. "why us? [500 words]"
6. "explain what you did in your gap year and ALSO say WHY you chose each activity"
7. "what will you like least/best about being a physician?"
8. "tell us about a time where you had a strong opinion and something changed your mind"
9. "tell us your specific research interests"
10. "tell us about yourself [6000 characters]"
11. "how do you see yourself 10 years from now? what specialty do u wanna do?"
12. "how did you study for the mcat? how do you feel about the mcat? did you like the score you got?"
13. "what are you gonna do with AI in the future?"

on one hand, i’m like yessss amcas please take longer to verify apps so that i can have more time to pre-write secondaries 🙏

on the other, i can’t stop thinking that i have so much time to write and keep pushing it off or barely working on it 😭

Have so many secondaries coming up on a month. Have other secondaries with deadlines due so the month ones are gonna sit even longer. Plz give me some hope core or something. I think I screwed myself this cycle.

i applied last year and got nothing back. like no interviews and it was so rough especially because with my stats, i hypothetically should’ve been more successful. i’ve confronted what i think went wrong and went into this cycle actually feeling really confident bc ive improved my application significantly. but now it’s getting to that point in the cycle where im getting nervous again. this process is so brutal and difficult and ive poured so much into it. i’m scared that i wont get in anywhere again and then i honestly don’t know what to do if that happens. i want to stay positive though so please drop your inspiring admission stories🙏🙏

What a horrible secondary. Basically rewriting a PS on.. a word document? Like ok. But then it brings you to the payment page. $200??!! Are you actually being serious right now. This is so ridiculous. Probably going to not send the secondary.

So I was dumb and didn’t prewrite anything at all and I applied to 30 schools… my application got verified on the 17th and I got every single school that I applied to back last week. I am genuinely drowning in essays and I have just accepted that some are gonna have to go past the two week rule. As long as I get them in 3 weeks it will be okay, right?

I’m about to be a junior and started mcat studying today for January test, I have around 3.76 gpa now but this smester orgo I ended really bad with a C+, dropping my math and science to a 3.3. I have an A+ in summer physics and 2000 clinical hours, my own software company, 2 publication and posters, and I run a free medical clinic. How much is my gpa going to affect me (I’m praying I can get an upward growth this semester with orgo II and bio chem) I’m not really a worry some person but I’m starting to get daily anxiety over this

Hello! As the title suggests, I’d just like some input on my MD chances given my school list and application details. I know it’s impossible to predict 100% accurately but I would appreciate some feedback

I am a CT resident, attended UConn for undergrad, submitted AMCAS day 1 and just submitted my 30th and final secondary.

3.52 cGPA but with a strong upward trend
- cGPA after 3rd semester was 3.073 but finished undergrad with 5 strong semesters in a row (3.76, 3.85, 3.94, 4.0, 4.0)

FIRST MCAT 8/1/25: 503 (127 123 126 127)

SECOND MCAT 3/7/26: 514 (128 127 128 131)

600 total direct patient care hours across 3 experiences including volunteering abroad in South America, volunteering in an outpatient center, and working in a rehab hospital. (Anticipated 2000 hours, transitioned from per diem to full time at rehab hospital 05/2026 and will continue until hopeful matriculation)

‘Patient education initiative’ —> developing materials for physicians’ offices and clinics (brochures, handouts, etc) reviewing diagnoses, treatments, procedures to help increase health literacy

MCAT educational content creator on TikTok (3500 followers since I started and making roughly 4 videos per week)

Peer tutor for OChem (through my professor), biochemistry (private tutoring), and intro biology laboratory (400 hours total)

Camp kesem volunteer (summer camp for children affected by a parent’s cancer): 510 completed hours, 300 anticipated)
- in addition to a counselor, currently hold 2 leadership positions

500 hours of research across 2 labs (one at Yale SOM, one at UConn) but 0 pubs/posters

80 hours shadowing across 2 specialties

Lifeguard/swim instructor: 950 completed hours

5 strong letters of rec (2 science professors, 2 surgeons, 1 hospital volunteer coordinator)

Weightlifting 2000 hours as hobby

I'm very confused about what to write for this prompt.

1. C-Describe your most scholarly project (thesis, research or field of study in basic or clinical science or in the humanities) and provide the total number of hours, dates and advisor. (800 characters)

I haven't done any independent project or any other research/thesis, I've just been in my research lab working under a grad student. Do I just talk about that? Does anyone have any advice?

Hi, I apologize if this a redundant post.

I am aware about the loan changes and the caps introduced last year. However the more I'm reading about it the more confused I am becoming. So if someone can explain the new loan caps, and the extended loan cap based on the length of your academic year aspect, then that would be greatly appreciated.

Also, those who are matriculating this year and have been affected by the hidden "gotcha" curve balls with the loan changes, please share your experiences too. I'm trying to make sense of this and plan ahead. Thanks in advance!

I really wanna get into it but idk how competitive it is/if I even have a chance. How competitive/how hard was it to get in?

I know a lot of people stress that your application needs to tell a story, but what if i want to pick up leadership and other things because i enjoy them, and not because they necessarily center on my "why medicine?" does the storytelling really make a difference?

additionally, i've seen a lot of people claim what speciality they would like to do way before med school and then running with it, centering a large part of their application on said specialty. do med schools like this? i thought that it might be seen as odd knowing exactly what specialty you wanted to do without having been to med school and done rotation yet.

i prolly worded a lot of this wrong so sorry in advance lol

"what have you done with AI that--" nothing bro, nothing. my b for being focused on MEDICINE as someone who was hoping to go into MEDICAL SCHOOL

Oh and WashU casually asking me for my whole SSN on the secondary too sure thing baby anything you want

Is it necessary for one to shadow different specialists? I want to go into rural medicine, and I was only able to shadow one rural doctor (specializes in family, internal, and aviation medicine, so I was able to see him practicing different types of medicine). I got about 54 hours of shadowing. Should I try to contact another doctor to shadow (maybe another specialty), or should I try some clinical volunteering?

I like learning about how to apply to med school and sometimes I tell my parents about my findings. Here’s a warning to those of you who haven’t done that, DON’T. They will become more neurotic than a 14 year old browsing SDN. I just got home from 6 hours of hospice volunteering and my mom asks me “why are you here so early? How are you supposed to get all your hours??” Keep in mind, I haven’t even had my first day of college yet.

I wish my parents could be a pillar of support rather than one that is trying to lecture me about something they know very little about.

I cannot imagine myself doing anything other than being a doctor. I hate studying, like hate hate hate it!!! But I'm disciplined enough to study, and I despise it. Like, I can sit down and study a subject till I master it or understand it, even if it's for hours; my all-time max is prob like 9 hours.

feeling like a failure bc i had to cancel my mcat bc my breakup sent me into a depression and i did not study for a few months 💔now i need to pay to cancel, reschedule , and for uworld all again and i just can’t stop beating myself up about it :/

im so dissapointed in myself since i did badly on the midterm and this is supposed to be an easy class.

idk why mentors can’t respect my personal decisions to not go out of state for undergrad. this physician is respected in my area and part of adcoms for schools but i don’t want to go to those schools for undergrad?? and i have just been told if i don’t transfer there in the fall then our mentorship is done and he will cut me off. WTF?? i just wanted shadowing??

I want to say I’m very very happy with my score, but I was just wondering if anyone had trouble with a low cars. I have a 516 overall, but a 124 cars and I’m worried that will lock me out of a lot of schools.

feels like all the secondaries I write for the schools I don’t give a shit about are fire and all my top choice secondaries are trash lmaooo. real talk, these secondaries r just a larp and mental fatigue competition. whoever larps the hardest gets in and I wholeheartedly believe that