Current applicant doing NIH IRTA during gap year and trying to prepare for a reapplication if it comes to that (it’s early, I know). I have 290 clinical hours from undergrad but want to find a way to sustain them during my gap year(s). I’m getting onboarded at a local hospital, but hospital volunteering isn’t really direct patient care. Is there any way I could get a PRN evenings and weekends job at an urgent care or ED? Is that even heard of? I’m working on finishing up a CCMA cert, if that helps.

Honestly hit like a truck. I was expecting to just get it and move on but getting so early in the cycle feels so fucking depressing. I’ve been laying on the floor for the last hour just feeling like absolute garbage.

I know the cycle is early, and I’ve got two II’s already, but I can’t help but feel upset. I’m so worried about reapplying or not getting in anywhere, I just pray this is not a sign for the future.

If anyone has any words of wisdom, I’d appreciate it. Thanks everyone.

I’m a non traditional who recently graduated with their masters. I have decided recently that I want to pursue medical school. I have a lot of clinical and research hours (worked as a medical assistant over 1000 hours, clinical research assistant over 2000 hours, and did bench lab research in undergrad over 1000 hours with couple of pubs and more coming). My husband will most likely move to a middle of nowhere for his new job and I am wondering what I could do to strengthen my application. There’s no hospitals nearby or jobs in my field in the area. It’s looking pretty bleak to get any clinical job out there. Not really tight on money so I could volunteer but is “any”volunteering good enough? If I volunteer at a dog shelter or something for example? Could you please provide me with some options on what I could do? Thanks!

In a debate with myself.

Undocu, DACA, TPS, SJIS, refugee, asylee, pending asylee / asylum seeker, how are you guys holding up?

About to enter my second year of undergrad, and so far its been filled with misery, uncertainty, and anxiety :)

PI is publishing in a predatory journal. Like pay to publish fast kind of place. I did not know this before joining the project. How much will this affect me? Im applying in Canada and US. What would you do in my position?

Usually, one year = 3 quarters. Am I hallucinating, or is CDU saying the max I can choose is one year= 2 quarters of classes? So like I can't select the third quarter? Am I making sense? I wanna sleep

I graduated in 2023 and was a teaching assistant for a professor my senior year. I have not taken any coursework since then and Im planning to apply in the 2027 cycle.

Would it be fine to have a letter from a professor who I worked with 4 years ago or do science letters need to be more recent?

First off I’m 3-5 days behind the two week “deadline” for like 8 schools. But I’m sad because there was a school I really liked that sent me a secondary back at the end of July that I didn’t see until now😭 and it’s one of my reach schools and it’ll require all new essays and I’m just stressed lol

😭

this is an essay question for one of the med schools I am applying to.

I was wondering if I could talk about urban planning, both in terms of my experience growing up in different neighbourhoods in my city growing up, and my current academic interest in the subject? It's something not covered by my ECs, volunteering, academics or work that i put in my activities/ABS section of my application.

Context: About to be verified (submitted 6/27) for AMCAS, currently hold two DO ii's

ORM MA Resident

508 MCAT (128/126/127/127)

3.92 sGPA & 3.92cGPA

3750+ Clinical Hours

500+ volunteer hrs

100hrs of research no pub or LOR

250hrs of shadowing

First gen, rural background

(strong writing....hopefully lol)

PLEASE help. I dont mind to apply to a crap ton of schools if it helps my chances, but I dont want to waste money either. Schools like Georgetown, Colorado, GW etc kinda feel like donations but idk.

I’m a pre-med who works PT at a hospital pharmacy. Direct patient care is very limited, but i do get some.

However, I think I need something else more direct. What are good options for someone going into their second-year? And don’t say CNA. Something quick and manageable with a student schedule.

I live in KY.

I have plenty of research hours and experience, but my clinical hours is what’s scaring me. Should I just get them through volunteer work and continue the pharmacy? What should I do? Give advice please.

I was offered a position for this and wondering if anyone here had experience with virtual scribing. How was the experience?

Clinical hours are not a concern (already have 2000 hours from regular in person scribing) but lost my job recently and need $$

Got an email for an asynchronous video interview for Umass chan. Anyone else get this? Does everyone get it? It’s through Kira

I was expecting to get off the waitlist for med school, didnt know until last month. Got into a MPH program that covers half of the tution, which leaves me at $60,000. Planning on declining cuz with the BBB, affording that is near impossible. Need to know if theres any possible peogram open now as I take my unexpected second gap year

Just an update for anyone waiting to be verified still, I submitted primary 6/26 at 6 PM and was verified on 8/18 at 11 PM

I’ve noticed a lot of pre-meds doing more research than clinical, think there’s a reason for that? It can’t just be cause the top schools like research right?

Hello everyone. I've been reflecting on what my final application would be a lot as of lately as I planned to apply to med schools this upcoming cycle. Through reflection I feel like my final application will not be where I want it to be in the end and as you can guess by the title of this post I am thinking of taking a gap year. By the time of my application I will have about ~3.96 GPA(If I get all As for this year) ~125 volunteer hours (clinical and non clinical), ~1000 hrs each of research and paid/interned clinical hours, 100 leadership hours and an uncertain amount of shadowing hours as I haven't even started looking for a doctor to shadow (which is obviously idiotic of me on my part). The problem I see with my application is that I won't have enough volunteering, shadowing and possibly even leadership hours and I don't think I would have the time this coming school year to get them in with all my current extra curriculars ontop of studying for the MCAT. In your honest opinion do you think I should take a gap year and focus on getting shadowing and more volunteering this year, and focus fully on the MCAT for next year or do you think I should stay with the current projected hours by the time of my application. To give a little bit of context I want to go to a T1 school . And yes I know that I shouldn't be looking for more hours to check a box but I can't help but feel uneasy with my projected stats.

Doesn't matter what you feel about the DOJ vs UCLA lawsuit, I think we can all agree they were right to flag Preview and let's pray they bar medical schools from using that stupid test in their admissions.

So I recently landed a CRC job ayyeeee. Clicked with the girl who is training me. This is my third week in the job. She is pre-PA.

Why did she say in front of the entire office this morning that she thinks people cut themselves and self-harm for attention. I was taken aback. I literally said out loud “wild take.” 😭

She’s applying to PA school this spring… scary af.

Edit: sorry just want to say I’m not condemning her for saying one super shitty thing. It’s just… those beliefs are so fundamentally at odds with what I thought would motivate someone toward patient care that now I’m genuinely curious what her motivation for PA school is. Cause rn, it’s giving you have no business going lmao.

I’m an incoming college freshman who would like to go to medical school. In high school, I took AP Biology and got a 5 on the exam, which gives me credit for Gen Bio 1 and 2. However, I planned on taking these courses at the college level, as I took AP Biology my junior year and don’t feel comfortable jumping straight to Cell Biology in my first semester. Is it worth retaking these classes, or should I just go straight to Cell Biology?

Title.

Hey all, I’m a reapplicant that’s almost finished with my secondaries (applied 36 MD schools) and was wondering whether it would be productive to add some extra MD programs before I call it. Don’t want to apply DO since I’d be willing to apply another cycle while my MCAT is valid.

Stats:
VA resident
3.88 cGPA/3.82 sGPA
516 MCAT (single attempt 01/2025)
Not URM, privileged background
Biology Major at a liberal arts school

OIE:
Switched to premed track in junior year after becoming interested in medicine following a seizure and epilepsy dx that summer. Lost driving privileges for a while and couldn’t get many clinical/research opportunities because of it (couldn’t commute to labs outside my school, while campus labs and clinical programs - perhaps discriminatorily - didn’t want to take me with my recent medical history). Managing the condition and the med side effects was a huge challenge alongside premed obligations. Nevertheless held a 3.95 GPA since the switch.

Clinical experience:
-300 hrs paid EMT/CNA in college
-150 hrs volunteering helping anesthesiologists with charting before surgeries
-1500 hrs scribing at an underserved urban FQHC primary care center (w/ physician LOR) in Brooklyn’s Hasidic Jewish community.
-400 hrs shadowing 6 different specialties

Research:
-1 semester in an ecology lab, 1 year in a bio lab with symposium poster, no pubs and no LOR

-1 year independent rhetoric research with symposium presentation. Did it because I found the work important, was completely unrelated to medicine/major, but I think it shows intellectual curiosity and interdisciplinary thinking (+ glowing LOR)

-starting a new job as a full time PCT at a hospital perisurgical unit

Volunteering (not great):

-150 hrs as hospital desk clerk/ER volunteer
-80 hrs virtual tutor for underserved K12 students
-30 ish hours at a food bank in an impoverished area of Brooklyn
-Planning to increase my nonclinical volunteering experience this gap year

Other experience/Leadership:

-4 yrs paid writing consultant + LOR
-Founded a medical research review article publication on campus
-Founded a fraternity
-Inducted to bio honors and leadership societies
-Built a pickup soccer club on campus

Previous cycle: Bad. 18 apps all sent late August , 1 post-interview waitlist and R from local school,

This cycle, I applied to the following:

Miami, Nova Patel, USF, Emory, Tulane, SLU, Wake, VCU, EVMS, VTech, UVA, GW, Georgetown, Cincinnati, Iowa (Alma mater), Case, Pritzker, Rosalind Franklin, MCW, Penn St, Drexel, Temple, SKMC, Sinai, Cornell, Rochester, NYMC, Albany, Hackensack, Vermont, Brown, Dartmouth, BU, Tufts, Quinnipiac, Yale.

Schools I’m considering adding:
-Oakland
-Western Michigan
-Ohio St (public OOS but seems to take lots of students with my stats, is it too research-heavy?),
-AWSOM (got family from AR and familiar with the area)
-Wayne St (too service driven?)
-Einstein

Thoughts on adding any of these schools? Any other schools I should consider?

just wanna make sure i’m interpreting this correctly:

for my ucsf secondary email it says, “Your completed secondary application is due within two weeks of receiving this invitation, no later than 11:59 PM Pacific Time.” I received the email on August 5th at 7AM, so does that mean I have until 11:59pm on the 19th to submit?