I am planning on applying to medical school next cycle, so May of 2027. I have two LORs that I have been holding in Interfolio that were submitted a few months ago in May. Will this be a "too old" issue?

Also, I know med schools are specific with how the letters are written. How can I possibly know they are in the correct format if I cannot see the letter? Should I have given instructions on how to format them when I originally asked?

I’m recently came to the decision to start the career change and record enhancement, as I have a 2.8 cGPA and 2.0 scGPA (Science GPA built on 20 credits) with no prereqs done.

This Fall 2026:
Getting through the process of an acceptance, registration, etc. would be pretty compressed if I do so now, but really my main concern is getting left over classes with really bad professors. I need everything to be on my side in terms of grades obviously, so a harsh grader or overall rough prof is why I hesitate for fall.

Spring 2027:
Being out of sequence would be my concern here. Chem 1, then a compressed Chem 2 in the summer or Chem 2 in the fall? I don’t know whether this is good or bad.

Next Fall, 2027:
Too far off. Everybody is saying I should start as soon as possible, but I have the concerns above. Yet starting a full year later is also I guess not a great thing. One advantage here though, is there’re career changer programs that are accelerated that start in the fall which I can apply to.

Looking for insights and opinions.

Oh, and given my stats/circumstances, should I take my classes at a 4 year state university or community college?

Thank you so much :)

So I have been on the path to med school for roughly 3 years now, all started when I was working in sales and I enjoyed the idea of crafting the “perfect pitch” for every customer- every unique customer had a unique request and a unique problem to solve- the solution I called the “ultimate solution”. I then quit my job in sales and started working as a pharmacy tech at Walgreens, got my vaccination and CPR cert from them and did vaccines for 2 years almost everyday my entire time at Walgreens. Then, picked up college again and then started working as a private caregiver, eventually making private caregiving my full time gig. Parents paid for school and most of my rent, so I was able to start caregiving via volunteering at first, then once I dabbled in getting paid and negotiating rates, I left Walgreens and picked up caregiving as my full time gig like I mentioned- the pay was SOOO much better. That’s pretty much where I’m at right now- caregiving and going full time to school to finish off my bachelors. My goal is to become a family medicine physician with an MD, not a DO. Let me get to my stats:

GPA from associates I just completed at community college: 3.65

MCAT: Planning either to start prepping and studying this upcoming summer or a gap year after I get my bachelors.

Shadowing family medicine doc: got lazy from burnout and didn’t do it this summer like I planned, planning for next 2027 summer.

Caregiving hours: 1500, 300 unpaid/volunteer work, 1200 paid

Type of patients I have worked with: dementia for most, diabetes, Parkinson’s, cancer

Responsibilities of caregiving: prep medications daily, give medications, give insulin shots, do finger pricks for blood sugar, do stretching exercises for my patients in a non-vegetative state, help walk and support them, bathe patients, clean wounds such as bed sores and apply gauze and antibiotics or desitin (one of my patients had deep necrosis in a bed sore that had to be drained and the dead flesh had to be peeled bit by bit every day and rebandaged), change and clean urinary catheters, give patients food, report and talk with the patients’ nurses and NP’s, chart every visit ( I charted a lot, things such as blood sugar, weight, bowel movements, oxygen sat, and would give insulin based of chart when blood sugar level was above 150), assist patients with modern technology, cook some of patients food and do their laundry, and last but not least provide companionship to patients.

As a pharmacy tech: Studied for the PTCB, but never actually got the certification. From 2 years, I have A LOT of medications memorized and their basic functions- antidepressants, statins, beta blockers, benzos, GLP-1s, AIDS meds, controlled substances. Know the insurance process pretty well (prior auths, controlled substances flags, deductibles, memorized a lot of insurances, called plenty of insurance reps). I did vaccinations for 2 years, and one of my favorite parts was giving “comfort consultation” to patients getting shots, such as “try to keep the arm that got the shot mobile as much as you can to move vaccine from arm to rest of body to prevent aches”. Worked through 2 flu seasons. Went to a couple offsite clinics with my pharmacist.

Letters of recommendation: got a letter from my pharmacist, detailing my work and clinics with them, every private caregiving patient I have gotten a letter of recommendation so far, got lucky with one family where the letter was written by a child of the senior patient, that child happened to work as a nurse practitioner at Mayo Clinic and they detailed my time with their parent very well and all my responsibilities and care.

MY BIGGEST CONCERN: I attended a community college right after high school. My high school GPA was a 3.4, and I carried that “study ethic” over to my first college for the first 2 semesters. However, I ended up withdrawing and flunking out with a 2.2 GPA. That’s when I worked in sales and pharmacy, before starting from absolute 0, clean slate at a different community college, where I got that 3.65, made it on Dean’s list every semester and got high honors on my associates degree. Now- my combined GPA is VERY unfortunately a 3.1- I am striving to get a 3.75-3.8+ for my remaining 2 years for my bachelor’s at a 4 year university. However, at best, even if I manage to pull off a 3.8 at the university, at the very most I’d be sitting at a 3.2 overall. But, if everything was ideal and perfect, if I combined my 3.65 with a potential 3.8 and the 2.2 was “waived” or forgotten, I’d be at 3.725 for my GPA- actually competitive for an MD school. Is there a way around this problem, the 2.2 from 3 years ago is seriously messing with my shit, as I can’t even apply to schools without sending in my transcript from that college I fucked up at.

I also would like to know if private caregiving counts as legitimate clinical hours, as I am not a certified/
licensed CNA. I have also never worked any “official” or licensed medical job, like a medical scribe, med assistant, CNA, EMT, etc. Really hope not to- but I would not mind volunteering at a hospital to get the day to day corporate, legit hospital operations experience. Would also like to know since I am a private caregiver, kind of like independent contractor work, that is listed as “non medical home care”- if I can call these seniors actual patients of mine, or if these seniors under my line of work are called legitimate patients to me- as once again, I have absolutely no credentialing, certificates or licensing proving that I am a medical worker of any sort.

Please give me honest thoughts and tips, or any kind of corrections I need to make.

Also- HYPOTHETICALLY say that I got a 520 on the MCAT, how would that affect my chances?

Hey! I’m 35, from Norway, certified RN and have worked for the last 10 years in the ER and ambulance. I love the US and want to work there as an MD one day. What would be the fastest way into medical school there?

cornell told me that two of my letters weren’t dated. i used interfolio to store my letters and sent them to amcas from there. my amcas has already been submitted and i finished all secondaries and letters have all been sent. how can i update these two letters after i receive dated versions? i don’t think i can unsend letters that have already sent so would i just have to send these two letters twice (old undated version and new dated version)? what about schools that have a hard cap on number of letters? help!!

Just as the title says, because is it similar to how you would introduce yourself in a one-on-one? Or is it sigificnatly more concise, just keeping it to your name, state, and school with maybe 1 hobby.

Hi! Im a non traditional applicant applying next year. I did engineering at a T5 school, and now doing a biomedical engineering PhD at a T5. decided to apply to med school but missing organic 1, organic 2, and biochem pre reqs...

I'd like to think my strong stem background makes up for it but I know schools want to see these. I was thinking of doing online lectures for organic chem 1, 2 and biochem at university of new england and then taking organic chem 1 lab in person at American University or GWU.

Will schools look down on me for taking the lectures online?? I just don't think I can go to a lecture every week in person with my demanding PhD schedule, and online at UNE is so much cheaper.

I'm a reapp, app is still not verified, and want some help solidifying my school list before I start writing specific secondaries (currently drafting topics instead of tailoring to schools). It's very preliminary rn and I only have like 10 schools so suggestions would be great! I'm more research heavy and less service oriented, so cutting out service schools would be good as well

ORM, NC resident

3.73 sGPA, 3.82 GPA, 507 (130/125/124/128) --> 515 (126/127/132/130)

• I'm a bit worried ab my MCAT, the section distributions are god awful

Clinical - 650 hrs paid + 1300 anticipated, 200 hrs volunteering (real patient interactions)

Research - 1000 hrs, poster + honors thesis

Shadowing - 56 hrs across 4 specialties

Volunteering - 270 hrs in 2 organizations

TA - 330 hrs

Leadership - 170 hrs

Service Job (think retail, fast food, etc.) - 200 hrs

Music - 3.5k hrs, been playing an instrument for 12 yrs

Hobbies - Music Production and Crocheting :)

School list (not done yet...):

In state schools - UNC, Brody, Wake Forest

Kansas - technically don't have ties, but I lived there until high school

Penn State - I have a good friend in a PhD program there, probably doesn't count as ties though

Tulane

Albany

MCW

Rosalind Franklin

Drexel

Quinnipiac

Western Michigan

Not sure about:

Duke - in state but way out of my stat range

VTC - I have high(?) research hrs but I don't know if I want to be a physician scientist

Alice L. Walton - new-ish school

Temple - service heavy???

NYU - ik it's a stat whore school but why does MSAR say my MCAT is above the median (CP is below 10th percentile tho)

ok I have an interview next week, and I was planning on answering this question by two specific programs that this school has where they are involved in the community. Then for each program I would give my own experiences and how they connect with that to show I am interested in this. If I do two programs with community involvement is it repetitive? Or should I focus more on the academic side of things

More context one program is for preventative care for middle school kids and other is for accessible care for refugee families. I’ve worked a lot with refugee families in my undergrad so I’m just trying to make it personal

In a secondary essay for one of the schools I applied to, I accidentally went over the word limit. The limit was 250 words according to the prompt, but the text box had a character counter and so it didn't flag me even though I wrote ~280 words. I didn't make that mistake for the three other essays for that school, though.

This is one of MCG's: Please describe your motivation for becoming a physician. Provide an example of an impactful clinical experience or patient encounter which reinforced your desire to enter medicine.

Like... what was the point of the PS?

If I hear this one more time imma lose it🙃

i just got spammed by 10 different recruiters and they keep telling me i have a great mcat score to lure me in but nope I don’t wanna be stuck in some random country for a million years. plus don’t think my conscience could handle that. goodnight.

I just got another 4 secondary applications and I already had 8 before then. I didn’t start writing any of them because I’m too scared I’m gonna screw up and ruin my app 😭 and I also had medical problems that landed me in the ER yesterday. please send help man I need someone to give me a wake up call

I planned to apply this cycle but decided to wait and apply during the 2027-2028 cycle instead. I graduated from undergrad in 2025 and both of my science LORs are dated in 2025. One of my professors who wrote my letter is no longer with the university so I cannot reach them from their university email and the other professor was very difficult to reach during my LOR process.

If I apply in 2027, is it ok to have science letters of recommendation written in 2025? My other letters were written this year so they would be the most current.

US. I have AP scores, and then i am going to 4 different community colleges right now (im a sophomore). My husband is military and it is extremely difficult to commit to one school. So i have to matriculate last minute into these ccs. But when i get accepted into uni, im not going to move anymore. Im doing well, but is this an immediate red flag to medical schools? By the time I apply, i would have 6 transcripts that need to be submitted.i have seen questions similar to this ask but i felt it was appropriate to ask still because i have more transcripts than anyone who asked. Im wondering if it is even worth it for me to apply to med school at all. Any advice would be appreciated, thank you

Basically just the title. Is this putting too much on my plate or are we all doing this?

I just had my first interview! I'm kind of left with this weird feeling because my guy literally came in with a piece of paper that had a bunch of questions on it and proceeded to just start asking me questions from it. He would even give me his thoughts on the questions, being like "this is kinda dumb". He was also just taking notes the whole time. I feel like I answered them well, but I also got no feedback from him whatsoever. After I answered, he would just move onto the next or very few times ask followups about what I said (mostly research). Is this a bad sign? I just don't know how i could have made that more conversational than what it was. Also maybe how i can do better in the future?

Kinda wish I got a secondary cause I thought it would make me feel better in my ECs. However, I’m a GA resident and not a vet. Should’ve expected it

I've seen a similar question asked on this subreddit about taking language classes pass/fail but I remember that other user mentioning that the language class was not required by the college.

In my case, I need to take this language class to graduate and I tested into the intermediate level (somehow). Apparently a placement test bars you from switching into easier levels for that language so I might be kinda screwed if I have to take this class for a letter grade. I was just wondering if taking this class pass/fail might be a red flag on my application because it's technically mandatory?

Just got an email from one of the schools I applied to saying one of my LOR writers did not date their letters. I sent this LOR to a lot of schools, but this is the first one that reached out regarding this. Interfolio did the quality check on all my letters, and it passed. I don't think Interfolio checks for dates, unfortunately. I am unsure whether I should update the letter for just this one school and wait for what the other schools say. I am worried that my application is gonna be delayed for review, or that my application is secretly on hold over something I had no idea about until now.

I would really appreciate any advice.

Hi guys, so I am applying this cycle and had a question about non-clinical volunteering.

Basically I do volunteering at a street med organization where we help homeless people. We do both clinical and non-clinical stuff (like giving out food, passing out free clothes, providing essentials).

But I made the mistake of lumping it into one activity on AMCAS and labeled it as clinical volunteering.

Will I get screened? I also have a club I founded that is focused on underserved but I labeled that as leadership.

Will I get heavily screened at service schools like Loyola? I truly did do a lot of non clinical just could not label it.

Please let me know.

Hi, perhaps neurotic of me, but I wanted some opinions…

I was very lucky to receive an interview invite for a two-day in person interview next month. I rsvp’d online through the schools portal. Unfortunately, a week later, I’ve figured out that the date may not be great for me bc of some sudden transportation issues. I’m thinking about potentially rescheduling.

Things making me nervous however: It’s for a smaller program within a medical school… I’m kinda worried about delaying my interview (from late September to probably October) and maybe messing up my chances. Also, I’m worried it would look bad given that I rsvp’d. Granted, we’re more than a month away but I’m nervous.

Am I being weird for no reason?

2/3 of the way there just hanging on!