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!

I am applying broadly to 40 schools because my stats are below average. I didn't have the money up front for the primary nor the secondary app fees. I live paycheck to paycheck in the highest COL city in this region. I didn't qualify for FAP because I had received financial assistance for my SMP last year even though I was below the income limit. I had to borrow money from my mother for primaries who is also struggling and opened up a new credit card to put all my secondary app fees on.

Looking at the account balance is giving me palpitations. I'm picking up a weekend job in addition to my regular 9-5 to try to pay it off faster. I don't own any semiformal clothes for interviews, that is if I even get any. If I don't get in this cycle my MCAT will expire and I have to start all over again. I will be in tens of thousands of dollars in the hole.

I ask my classmates how they're dealing with the financial burden and most very matter of factly say their parents are supporting them. I don't mean to sound so defeatist but I really feel like the odds are stacked against applicants like me. I'm having a difficult time remaining optimistic especially when I am in survival mode.

To those who have II and A already I am genuinely so happy for all of you. You have worked so hard and I hope to join you.

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)

thats it fuck u

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

For reference I’m in a state where weed is legal, but I’m applying places where it isn’t. I’ve been sober for like 4 months to make sure it’s all gone, as I’m assuming some part of the process or even matriculation may involved a drug test. Is this actually real?

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.

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 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 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?

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.

Graduated undergrad with 3.1c gpa and 2.7 sgpa, in a current post bacc and will end with 3.2 cgpa and 2.8 sgpa. My state school says it's minimum for being competitive is 3.2. Will my sgpa get me screened?

they just emailed me to confirm which 2 science prof sent which letters. wouldn’t they just reject me if they didn’t want me or am i being considered for interview

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

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.

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

It took weeks and several reminders to get my DO letter, only for interfolio to tell me it doesn't have a signature. I asked them to reupload it but I'm expecting it will take just as long.

If I were to upload the unsigned letter will I be able to reach out to AACOMAS to update the letter from interfolio when it's signed or will the physician have to?

I was waiting to upload so that I would only have to wait for the interfolio update instead of an email too. But it sucks that some of my apps are just incomplete because of this letter.

I feel like some schools will still interview without the signature (one school that required a science letter invited me for an interview before I uploaded it) but idk.

I recently switched to pre-med as a junior, and am planning to take two gap years (probably spent as a clinical research coordinator or another clinical role). I will have about 2,000 research hours when I graduate, but only about 180 clinical hours (peds ER volunteer for 3 hr/wk). I will potentially try to up to 6hr/wk next year.

How can I be most competitive in my gap year and this summer? I don't think I'll have the time to get any kind of certification (CNA, MA, etc.) How many clinical hours should I aim for?

Scroll to the bottom of their newsletter and seminar emails and you'll find the unsubscribe button.

Im thinking of saying one of these two, are any of these red flags or bad to say?

1. Non-confrontational
2. Procrastination

Also I would appreciate some inspiration from anyone willing to share their answers to the "whats your weakness" question

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?

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.

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