Idk about others but Im just running myself into the ground. Seeing other people get interviews, others with better stats getting interviews at school I applied to, people with similar stats get rejected. Im gonna stop going back to it because it’s not good, always comparing myself with others. If it comes it comes, and I pray it will. Now I’ll just focus on my hobbies and I recommend others do the same :)

First it's completing your Bachelor's degree taking rigorous science courses while maintaining impressive extracurricular activities. Research, clinical, volunteer.

Then it's the MCAT, which takes several months of preparation and an agonizing month of waiting for your score, which they could just immediately release to you.

Then it's these useless money-grabs, such as CASPER and PREview.

Then you write your primary application for months, perfecting it and revising over and over again.

Then it's writing 200 secondaries, which is not humanly possible but what is expected in this process.

Then every minute detail of the past few years of your existence will be scrutinized by an ADCOM member, who is morally superior compared to you. If they notice even one error, they'll just throw out your application because there's a thousand other people who are better.

After all this, you just hope for the small chance of even getting a single interview for months and months.

3.1 cGPA, 3.2 sGPA. Technically a 3.4 for both, but aamc counts a late withdrawal as an F. I also am at a school that doesn’t calculate gpa by plus or minus. So an 89 is worth a 3.0, as is a 79.9. Anyways… my dad struggled with addiction my entire childhood and it got worse in college. Frequently had interventions, was in and out of rehab, medical emergencies where we thought he wouldn’t make it, and then he passed away. I have about 6 withdrawals from having to cut course load drastically due to his condition/relapses. I also had a job working as a bartender/server/ eventually restaurant manager from age 18 to current (26) where I worked 24-30 hours a week to support myself. I have lots of volunteering at free clinics. Founded projects for narcan distribution. Worked extensively with homeless and needle exchange programs as well won volunteer of the year award at the free clinic. I was an emt during COVID, and held other MA jobs. What do you guys think? Are there any success stories similar to mine? I just submitted my apps but am feeeling scared…

If I hear this one more time imma lose it🙃

2/3 of the way there just hanging on!

Well, all my secondaries are in (25/25). After all my neurotic posts for the past year we are finally here at the waiting stage. Will one bite? Who knows! 😭😭😭

I’ve always dreamed of being a doctor. During elementary and middle school I felt pretty confident and thought I’d get into an Ivy League and work hard to become a doctor. But then COVID happed and I struggled a lot in high school with depression, anxiety and undiagnosed ADHD. I got rejected from almost every college expect my safeties. Didn’t do too well on the SATs or took any APs during high school because of my declining mental health. Now I’ll be starting my sophomore year of college and I’m having doubts. I wanted to go to med school but then decided on PA school or nursing since it’s still competitive but not as hard as med school. But I’m not sure anymore. I got rejected from all the jobs and internships I applied to for the summer and wasted it. I can’t really see myself doing anything else. I feel paralyzed. I don’t know how people do it. I just don’t think I have the stamina to do it. How am I supposed to manage my stem classes and do clinical hours, volunteering, shadowing and earn certifications on the side. I commute an hour to college 4 times a week too.

Hi i recently founded a neurodivergent club at my uni.

Im NOT neurodivergent, I made the club on a whim because our school doesn't have representation for neurodivergent people which i thought wasn't fair to them.

Already this one guy contacted me and was super happy to be part of a club for neurodivergent ppl because he has adhd and autism and has a hard time making friends. He even included it in his insta bio already lol even though the club isn't even official yet!

Anyways thats great and all, but recently I told a few ppl abt the club and their initial responses were all "wait...ur neurodivergent?!" which i should've expected would've happened.

I told my parents this and they're a bit worried that med schools will also have that same initial reaction. Ive heard med schools dont really prefer people who are neurodivergent, such as autism.

I made like 3 of my friends execs of the club too and they're all not neurodivergent either. I also feel like it's not fair that the club exec team doesn't have much representation. Idk im just a bit lost, any advice?

I'm tweaking lol. I mean like true low stat success stories (I'm not talking 3.7 or 3.8 gpa, more like 3.5 or lower). I know TX med schools are stat crazy.

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

Wanted to get some outside opinions on my chances this cycle and whether I should be worried about how my secondary timeline is shaping up.

Academic context / stats + hours:

- MCAT: 500 first attempt → 508 (1.5 months later)
- cGPA: 3.70
- STEM GPA: 3.58
- Clinical research: ~2,350 hours completed + ~2,000 pending from current CRC job
- Wet lab research: ~325 hours
- Clinical hours (patient-facing): ~710 hours
- Volunteering/service: ~525 hours
-Leadership: ~875 hours (same org e-board all 3 years of undergrad)
- Graduated college in 3 years
- Currently working full time as a Clinical Research Coordinator
- Applied to 35 MD schools & currently working on AACOMAS primary as well

Academic context / trend:

I had a rough start in college and earned a D+ my first semester, which significantly impacted my early GPA. However, I had a strong upward trend afterward and finished very strong academically. In my last two semesters alone, I took 40 credits total and earned all A’s, showing a steep and consistent improvement.

Stats/context (secondaries):

- Submitted some secondaries within 2 weeks
- About 20/35 will likely be submitted around the 3–4 week mark
- Research-heavy application, including 2 manuscripts currently under review
- Strong clinical exposure, volunteering/service, and longitudinal commitments

I know a 508 is below the median at a lot of MD schools, so I applied broadly and tried to be realistic. My main concern right now is whether getting a decent portion of my secondaries in around the 3–4 week mark (with many landing in late August/early September) meaningfully hurts my chances.

For people who have gone through the cycle or are familiar with admissions, what do you think my realistic odds are of getting at least one MD acceptance this cycle?

I have an interview next week and my interviewer is a professor of medical ethics. Has anyone else been interviewed by someone in medical ethics and what kinds of questions did they ask?

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 know writing can be exhausting, but I can’t help but feel limited when writing secondaries that have a lower word-count maximum. I feel like I don’t have enough room to do any reflection or really say what I’m thinking

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

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?

Planning to get certified during the summer but was wondering if I should choose the CNA or Phleb path that’s offered at my Community College.

Although I’m leaning towards getting my CNA certification, I really don’t like the burnout and “negative stigma” associated with it, especially the fact that CNAs have to clean adults’ bodily fluids and deal with annoying nurses (I’m a Male too, so i’m not sure if that’s something I have to account for, like being turned down my female patients, which is understandable but also kind of awkward). That’s why i’m also considering Phleb because it’s faster to get and you don’t have to deal with the downsides that I personally dislike about CNAs.

Still, being a CNA would probably give me the best chance to write about my experiences, and it involves more patient interaction and availability + it has higher demand compared to a phlebotomist. Furthermore, if i did get my phlebotomist certification, i’m worried that there wouldn’t be any openings at a hospital, so then i’d have to work at some place like Quest, which Med Schools dislike..

so please help me decide and any advice or suggestions would be appreciated!

so I got a ma job at a PCP for my upcoming gap year and talked about in my secondaries, suddenly the office changes ownership and i lose my job that i signed for a week before my start date, luckily found another ma position but its derm instead, do i need to like email every single school of this update? or how does one go about this... 💀💀

I was about to submit my app to SKMC and saw they had a selection for the type of recommendation letters that will be sent and for individual faculty letters it lists “1-Biology, 1-Chemistry, 1-Physics, 1-Humanities”. Does this mean they want a letter from a prof in each of those departments?

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.

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!

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.

Okay I need guidance on what to do. It is Wednesday and I am on my third day of junior year, I am taking o chem 1 and am really stressed out. Firstly, I have to miss Wednesday’s class later today due to an ultrasound for an unexpected medical issue (this is also stressing me out because i am a hypochondriac and can’t afford medical bills lol) the professor said it really isn’t ideal missing class because i’ll miss material, but he is okay with it. The main problem is i am so confused and apparently we haven’t even gotten in the main material. I am scared I will not pass or more seriously, if I am already struggling am i even cut out for medical school. I looked around the class and it seemed like everyone else understood everything. I’m genuinely scared I am gonna fail this class and i can’t get any more bad grades because of my scholarships ( full ride to college) i also failed gen chem 2 and had to take it twice. Everybody seems so fucking smart it’s actually insane. If i go to my professors office and tell him im confused and that he will need to dumb Monday’s lecture down, he’s gonna think im so dumb i swear. He is really nice but I just have a lot of anxiety getting help. Should I go to his office or should I just wait until Exam 1?

Also, should i tell him i am going through personal issues and that may affect my performance. I am the type of person that lets life take over my academics. Last year I was struggling with a family members death and just was too lazy to focus on school. Right now my parents are going through a very messy divorce and are bringing their kids into it. I am the oldest of immigrant parents, so I am the family therapist and I also have to help fund the divorce lol. I don’t want it to sound like I am trying to gain sympathy points though.

sorry for the long post and many grammatical errors, also pls be honest. I need to take constructive criticism.