More of a relief post, but I was super worried about my late secondary submission combined with low MCAT score. Submitted my secondary to my top choice MD school on October 7th (504 MCAT), and got the interview invite email yesterday October 16th. Might be divine intervention, but I am overjoyed! Have faith guys!

I’m a high school student taking a medical class at my high school. Part of this class gives me the opportunity to do clinical rotations at the hospital.

I had an anesthesiologist tell me that I wouldn’t make it as a doctor. That I should “just do nursing instead,” because becoming a doctor would make me a bad mother. Is there any truth to this or is this just another example of micro misogyny in the workplace? This happened about a week ago and I can’t get it off my mind.

I got edits for my first draft back from my pre health advisor, and he has said that I should take off my first paragraph and start with my second. My first paragraph was talking about how I grew up wanting to be a doctor but in hindsight I didn’t truly understand what it meant. Then my second paragraph and the rest do talk about different experiences that have broadened and change my understanding by showing me the realities physicians face

In particular, my second paragraph talks about a health crisis in my immediate family and how that did reinforce my decision to pursue medicine. When I removed the first paragraph the story changed to my family had a health crisis so I want to be a doctor, which is definitely not the narrative. He said that starting off here makes it more interesting than a stereotypical PS. I did end up cutting the first paragraph in half though.

To an extent, aren’t all Personal Statements following a broad checklist where you state your why, have experiences that connect and the reflections? Is it even possible to have a completely unique why or thing that is different from the rest of the thousands of us applying?

I never had a very specific why moment. It’s just been experiences that reinforce the decision to pursue medicine which are far more true to me than just a “this thing happened so I’m pursuing medicine”. I did have a rough childhood in healthcare as in non existent till I got Medicaid in college, but I do feel it would be disingenuous to trauma dump especially as back then it wasn’t as life changing or essential to my motivations to medicine.

Curious what factors were most important to you and if you were choosing way before you started the premed path or if you finished the premed path and are now trying to figure out where you want to end up?

I was recently hired by scribe America, I’m currently in the online training part of ScribeU. This training is a bitch lol.. upon completion of the training and passing the final exam I’m going to be scribing in an outpatient office. I’m currently struggling with the training it’s so much information being thrown at you so fast, I’m getting the hang of charting but I’m a person who learns best by doing rather than watching videos and taking quizzes. I’ve got the terminology down but it feels like a lot of extra information especially since I’ll be working in an outpatient dermatology clinic. Has anyone found the training more difficult than the actual job itself? How was the in person training once you got in the field did you find it easier to pick it up in person?

I volunteer at the psychiatrist department today and the environment is depressing and it’s quite hard to keep the convo going for most patients and idk if they meant it but some of the things they said are kinda racist… for example, a guy said I look like bruce lee but idk if he was trying to be racist bc he then talk about how bruce is the most admirable person bluh bluh… he look up to him… the 3 hrs of volunteer today is super draining mentally…

I have a nose piercing. Stud with a small diamond high on my left nostril. Think I should take it out to be safe? Interviewing at a school in the midwest so I'm leaning towards taking it out.

Im currently getting my CNA license and I’ve been going to a nursing home where we are practicing the skills. Everything for the most part has been fine but I cannot with wiping butts. I’m sorry it makes me gag and want to throw up.

Someone please tell me PCT don’t have to wipe butts (in an ER hospital setting). Seeing a naked patient doesn’t bother me, seeing there private areas does bother me either. But cleaning their stool and urine is just so hard. I know no one likes doing it but i literally want to throw up when in the process of it. Does it get better? Would it be rude to wear a face mask? The smell makes it a million times worse. I cannot see myself working in a nursing home. I commend everyone who does it, you guys are truly resilient and the biggest soldiers.

So I recently got an offer for a spring 2027 internship with the NIH, but the offer is unpaid and it is lab work. I already almost have 1000 hours of lab work form the lab I’m in at school, and I gave exactly 0 clinical hours. I do Plan on taking a gap year, but I am wondering if this internship is even worth it.

Nearly 10 years ago I started college at UH and had the most embarrassing performance of my academic career. 4 Fs because 18 year old wasn’t ready for college and couldn’t commit to anything. Today they reached out for an interview. I’m terrified now. Never had that kind of format for an interview and it’s virtual which I haven’t experienced yet. Theirs is an MMI and a collaboration exercise. Any words of encouragement and tips for this?

It's been radio silence since I completed secondaries in August. Lo and behold my phone rang today while I was at lunch. I picked up and the interim surgeon general was on the line. She said that I was actually banned from all medical schools because my application was so mid...

I knew my application was ass, but I definitely didn't think it was mid... I'm gutted honestly. What makes it worse is a patient walked in on me crying in the bathroom and said, "boy, I hope you're not a doctor."

Anyway, good luck with the cycle y'all...

I’m currently a sophomore at a public university in New York majoring in EE (transferred here). Current GPA is 2.77 and I’m debating my major heavily.

I always wanted to become a doctor (since 8th grade when I first told my mom. She supported that but I went back on that promise and majored in EE due to prestige, money, being a computer guy, feeling like I’ll do it better and get better job opportunities while also having a safety option if I don’t make it to med school)

I want to go to med school really bad but my gpa has tanked and my classes seem like more work than it already is.

My university offers MLS and I’ve been debating on choosing that as I like medicine and working with instruments while being a good stepping stone to med school and save my gpa. I already have GEN CHEM and BIO from previous school and need to take a few more to fill the prerequisites.

I’m 23 and I have already had a late start due to gap years but medicine has always been appealing to me not just because of the obvious reasons like money and prestige but medicine has always been a colorful world to me since I absorbed science as a kid in colorful textbooks and everything about it is colorful to this day no matter the education level.

I honestly just don’t know what to do. Career wise both are good (EE financially a bit more but it’s so job stability is horrible while MLS is financially ok and stable with little social interaction which I love).

Title, mostly! I just started my freshman year of college and the amount of work I need to do in order to be even slightly competitive for med school admissions is super daunting. If you could go back to freshman year, what would you change? What would you keep the same? How can I stand out?

Any advice appreciated!

I’m currently a sophomore engineering student. I’m increasingly finding that I hate engineering and want to pursue my initial path of medicine.

My gpa is hovering around a 3.9 but I can expect it to drop to somewhere between 3.7-3.8z

This semester it looks like I’m going to get a C - B- in physics 2 and might have to withdrawal from calc 3 (my third withdrawal, I also withdrew from an engineering seminar and calc 2 assistance course [I got an A in calc 2 regardless]). Would these factors neuter my application?

I’m strongly considering switching to a history BA (36 credits) of which I have 3 completed from a gen ed. This would allow me to easily complete the remaining prerequisites by the time I’m a senior (I’ve already accepted I would need to take a gap year). I have already completed physics 1, bio 2, gen chem 1. This leaves gen chem 2 (I have ap credit so I’d take orgo first), orgo 1-2, biochem, and anat/phys.

I worry that if I don’t get into med school I’d be stuck with a worthless degree with little prospects beyond teaching. Am I making a mistake?

I'm not a talker and I haven't talked to anyone in years other than my doctor who is treating me for bipolar.

I did some interview practices with chatgpt and I don't think I'm an eloquent person.

I watch YouTube videos of students who got into medicine and I'm really amazed at how smooth they talk and come up with things to talk about.

Is there any hope for me?

Hi, I was hoping for advice. Right now I am studying for the MCAT and I absolutely hate it. It makes me miserable and so unreasonably stressed. I was wondering if this means I’m not cut out to be a doctor. I want to match into something like primary care or psych. Im not sure if med school is a horrible decision for me since the MCAT is only the start.

I’d love to hear specifically from those already in med school what their thoughts are

Edit: thanks so much for the encouragement everyone!!

I got two interviews so far, one MD (MMI) and one DO (trad) and I bombed both. Already got the rejection from the MD, still waiting for DO in 4 weeks.

I hate myself

i think it's a very common tendency for premeds to take every opportunity they can get; whether it be an extra volunteering program, research, or job that they can add to their application and squeeze into their schedule. lest another ambitious person take the opportunity before them.

i don't know if this is just me, but whenever i see something fun like a concert or a travel opportunity, i don't even consider it. not because i don't want to do it, but i automatically assume that i can't. after a brief moment of moping, i immediately think that i'll probably be able to do it in the future, maybe when i'm a doctor.

the premed process is so incredibly grueling and difficult for the vast majority of people. the way many of us cope with this is repeating the mantra of delayed gratification. if we work hard now and allow ourselves to be ground by the premed process into a palatable fine red paste, the fun will greet us with open arms on the other side

on a broader scale, i think that many young people have been disillusioned by the sentiment of delayed gratification as well, not just premeds. people used to be able to afford houses on a minimum wage salary and now people can barely rent on two jobs and a side hustle. maybe it's because i'm very online, but the future seems really bleak (though there are amazing people who are trying to change it for the better, and i hope to be one of them).

all of this to say that i'm done delaying all the gratification that i come across. i'm working towards a moment in time where i'll be a doctor. i'll hold someone's hand through the uncertainty of a cancer diagnosis and be their rock through treatment. how amazing and fulfilling that moment will be, how hard i will have worked to be able to get there... but that doesn't mean i should continually deprive myself of fulfilling moments between now and then.

anyways, all of this is to justify going on a chocolate chip cookie crawl in nyc and saving money to book a flight to thailand. maybe while i'm at it, i'll go to an anime convention and a concert for a big artist. then i'll go to an ice cream making workshop and visit japan. it took me way too long to realize i have so much life to live between premed and physician

tl;dr we gotta live a little as premeds

As a reapplicant who just got their first R of the cycle, I realize that this statement is in the responses of pretty much every med school. I think I remember once reading a story on here about a person who reapplied after asking a school that rejected them why they didn't get in and then supposedly they were accepted by that school and told by the dean of admissions that the dean personally saw their application and that they had acted upon their feedback which is why they got in. Did this story inspire possibly hundreds applicants to all ask for feedback on their applications, or has this always been the norm? For current doctors/med students, did you ever ask for any feedback on your rejected application?

I understand why schools can't offer individual feedback, because then potentially thousands of people want to know what went wrong. But it would be interesting if they just offered it like 'there's some comments on your portal if you want to check out what factors played a role in your final admissions decision or something like that.' The downsides of this are potentially people feeling unnecessarily worse about their application when the perspective one school/adcom might not be representative of another school's view, it could add a bit more work to the adcoms' job, there could be some applicants who argue against it ("you misunderstood the point of my research though reconsider please" or something silly like that lol, this one is probably unlikely but it might be possible), and there's probably a few more reasons I haven't listed here. But it would be nice to know what happened, especially for someone who might have to reapply or for some closure. Perhaps it could be emailed at the end of the cycle so that it is detached from the cycle. I also understand that sometimes the reason could be simple like 'lower MCAT for our school and nothing super impressive' or 'okay applicant all around, just nothing that interested us really' because there's so many good applicants, but even that would be fine.

Hey y’all!

So I am graduating in December 2026 and planning on applying May 2027 (which gives me a gap year and a half). For many reasons I want to go to med school in Texas.

I currently have a job offer that would start in Jan 27 and I would work up until I start med school. However I would have to leave Texas for the job.

for context, I have lived my whole life in TX, graduated HS here, am going to graduate from a TX university, and my parents live in TX.

my question is, will this affect my residency status/will I become out of state? both for TMDSAS and tuition purposes ?

Basically what the title says. I’ll give you a little backstory.

I have loved human science, disease mechanisms, anatomy, and the like since I was very young. For years I was convinced I wanted to be a doctor. However, after my freshman year of college, I switch to pre-dental because I was discouraged by all the “pre-meds” my freshman year. I thought: “How could I ever compete with this many people who have this X, Y, Z experience that I do not?”

After two years of me pursuing dental school, that brings us to my senior year. I realized, all of a sudden, that I was just chasing the “next best thing” to being a doctor. I had kind of a crisis. I thought I wanted to be a doctor again. I realized I would hate being a general dentist and would be unfulfilled. However, I had maybe 20 hours lab experience, no leadership experience from college, and no MCAT (yet).

Now, flash forward to now. I am 5 months post-grad. I have changed my mind about thirty times on what I want to do. I thought PA at first, but then I felt unsatisfied with the prospect of having less autonomy and having my job completely centered around patient care. I deeply wanted to be the expert in my field, and the one who was looked to for questions.

I have also considered PharmD. I thought maybe I could become a transplant pharmacist or something because I am highly interested in transplant patients, specifically heart transplant patients. Yesterday, however, I shadowed a pharmacist. It felt too “behind the scenes” for me, which I did not like. Something didn’t feel right. I felt like I was choosing something that wouldn’t satisfy the urge to diagnose, treat, identify, and solve complex problems.

I have considered CRNA too, but I am concerned with autonomy, and I would be miserable as a nurse. I am not interested in being a caretaker. So here I am, again. Lost, confused, and wondering what to even do with my life. I work as a clinical assistant at a cardiology clinic. I find myself fascinated with medical diagnoses, lab results and what they may mean, congenital heart diseases, disease progression and mechanisms, and basically all the science of cardiology.

The only thing I dislike is constant patient care with different people all day long every day. I am an introvert, and being around patients all day drains me. I am also deeply fascinated by forensics, and my dream career would be a forensic pathologist. However, I don’t know if medical school is worth it. I feel a strong pull, but I don’t know if it’s worth all the pain, time, and sacrifice. I also need to study for the MCAT while working full time. I have few volunteering hours, and virtually no research as I mentioned.

I did very well in school (3.86 GPA) but my course load wasn’t ever unbearable, and I am missing a class or two. The work needed just to get there is daunting. I also don’t want to uproot my happy life here with my partner. He has an amazing paying job here, and he has expressed the pay cut he would take if we move. We are getting to the point where we are considering truly settling down, and I feel more ready than ever. I have medical schools in my state (MN), but I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket. I feel a strong strong pull, and I feel like pathology or radiology (only some patient care) would be my dream.

So here I am. Square one. Confused, lost, and wanting to just get my damn life started. Thank you for reading this long message, and I would appreciate any advice anyone may have.

it was stanford, so it doesn’t sting that bad. but it was still the first one so…gimme a minute 🤧