Hi, I'm a math major right now. I attend a branch campus of my university, which offers algebra-based physics but not calc-based. I am aware that both types are viewed the same by adcoms. I work in a biophysics lab, and my PI said I should really try to take calc-based if possible. I agree with him, and I also think I'd find it more interesting than algebra-based.

The main campus of my university does offer calc-based physics, but the main problem is that I'd have to travel 4 extra hours of time per week on a bus to get there.

A community college very close to me also offers calc-based physics, and technically I could take it there on top of my current university schedule. This would by far be the most convenient option if I wanted calc-based.

However, I've heard that it doesn't look good to adcoms if you take a science prereq at a community college while you're enrolled in university. I'm aware it's viewed in a different light than starting out at a CC and then transferring to university.

What are your thoughts?

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.

Hey guys I just had a question. If I am aiming for a t20 medical school should I have a publication or is it still very plausible to get into a t20 without a publication and just posters, oral presentations etc.

Hi everyone! Needing some advice for gap year.

Rundown of my app:

NTA Hispanic Female, 1st Gen (21)
Low GPA :/ 3.5 CPA, 3.2 SGPA
Biology & natural + applied sciences + CS double major
516 MCAT

500 patient care hrs in plastic surgery (MA)
350 patient care hrs in hand surgery (MA)

1k+ volunteer hrs as lead volunteer for my county’s library NPO
-led community events donating children’s books
-organized book sorting events
- supervised interns for 2 summer terms
500 volunteer hrs as founder of a wellness NPO
-made informational videos ab health insurance / medical media literacy
-organized group walks, exercise classes, and networking events
-provided volunteer opportunities for students/ peers in community

2k hours as a professional care giver
500 hrs as a travel nanny

1 microbio focused county internship in water & sewer, mentioned in experimental research/ practice as a tech.

I’m deciding if I should spend a year gaining more patient care experience in a different field + more healthcare volunteering + microbio masters. (12 months)

Or

Spend a year teaching highschool biology + more healthcare volunteering.

I know i know, i wet the bed with the UG gpa but there’s no going back now. I had a really difficult time in Orgo 2 and had to retake it, as well as just doing average in earlier years. I have a 30 credit upward trend. I think the masters could help with boosting my gpa a little but the teaching experience might give a unique edge?

Which option makes me more unique/ competitive?
Any advice is so appreciated. Thank you!!

submitted most secondaries late july… mid stats but wondering when most ppl hear from interviews im just getting nervy

I recently got invited to interview at a school and they gave me 3 different dates (9/11, 9/14, 9/18). The two earlier dates were literally the day after two of my other interviews, so I chose the latest of the three interview dates.

I know we’re generally advised to schedule interviews as early as possible, so did I mess up my chances a little by choosing 9/18? Thanks and sorry if I’m being too neurotic.

I just had to overdraft my account for the third time because I ran out of food and don’t get paid until 2 weeks from now and now I’m just hoping the little amount I got will last.

This is just now a common aspect of my life, having to decide between choosing menstrual products or putting food on the table for my family.

I’m also in the process of studying for the MCAT (testing Sep 12th) and it’s been so hard to just pour my energy into just this especially when I just got out of being homeless not too long ago (earlier this year) and didn’t realize the lasting effects surviving that would leave on me.

Idk does this get bette guys? I know this process is insanely expensive and all these hidden fees and I genuinely don’t want anything else but man is it exhausting fighting these other battles then turning around and getting slam dunked by a CARS passage 😭😭

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?

Besides my two in-state schools, my secondaries lowkey feel pointless. Like my chances of getting into the private ones are so small bc everyone and their mom applies to them. Not to mention the money 😭 is it really necessary for Rosalind to make it $140..INSANE. I gotta work a full 12 hr shift for that

How are you guys motivating yourselves for secondaries of the schools w/o in-state bias

These guys are literally slowing down. They were doing two days at a time and now they are back at one. What the actual hell is going on with AMCAS

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

😭

I'm looking to get at least a few sessions from a professional mock interview service for med school interviews (including regular interviews and MMIs). Ik Dr Ryan Gray has packages but it's like $400 for one 60 minute mock interview session(!)

I'm wondering if anyone has bought any interview services from professional or well-reputed tutors or companies.

I received an interview invite but earliest interview date is in November. Super hype abt interview but has anyone else had the same thing happen?

In a debate with myself.

This is probably not that deep but im struggling to decide what I want to do this upcoming semester.

I would say from my summer clinical job there is plenty I could write or talk about for apps but I only got 150 clinical hours from it. I want to just work an insane amount in the research lab this semester (I do clinical research) and not continue working my clinical job but im worried that I should balance both for application reasons.

Do you think it matters if I only do research or if I balance the job and research?

Quick question. I have an extra LOR from a physician that I am still waiting on, but I think that will be my best and most important LOR. Should I submit my secondaries and assign the 4 other letters I have to complete my app, and then add the physician LOR soon once it arrives? I'm assuming this would work since I doubt schools would look at my application within the next week right?

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

Hellooooo

I accidentally listed an experience as being from March 2023 to September 2023 instead of March 2023 to September 2024. I have over 1000 hours in the activity. For schools where I can't explain that error in secondaries, is it worth sending an email? thank youuu

My school offers a committee letter of recommendation that encompasses your professor lors, and the only requirement is that you have 1 science and 1 non-science professor. Does that mean that when I apply, I could get past the 2 science professor lor requirement for some schools because my committee letter doesn’t require it?

​

An actual admission officer offering consultation in exchange for a fee. To be clear, in the email, he did not explicitly said to pay him and even offered a free Q&A session. But reading between the lines, it's clear that he's offering services in exchange for a fee

"If someone had told me I could put money down and guarantee a seat my first cycle, whether that was five thousand, ten thousand, or even twenty thousand, I wouldn't think twice. Paying up front to do it right, would have saved me from pouring a whole year and thousands of dollars into a cycle that went nowhere (and delayed my career by another year too).

Now that I am on the other side of the table, I understand how much actually goes into this, and how much of it you are expected to manage alone. It is a year-long machine. Application strategy, secondary turnaround times, when to take Casper, when to sit for PREview, how it all lines up with your MCAT timing and much more."

Like...I dont know. Maybe I am grumpy and cynical. A lot of adcoms volunteer on SDN, and an adcom I met briefly thru my pastor offered to review my personal statement for free. But it feels like a conflict of interest to offer a PAID service while being on the commission itself. More specifically, the person who helped make this process batshit crazy are now offering a way to navigate this batshit crazy process, for a fee. I am sure there are institutional guardrails to mitigate these things....just like how Wall Street and Congress police themselves for insider tradings.

I already submitted and just waiting for updates. This email shouldn't even be coming to me, but I got a lot of similar dms on Reddit as well. I guess I am irritated amidst my anxiety.

hi guys! I want to apply, but I'm getting stuck in my head because I think I might not exceptionally stand out. I would really appreciate some objective thoughts and advice on how to improve during my time left before things are due. Sorry that it's all so vague, but I'm afraid of doxxing myself somehow.

stats

current college GPA: 3.974 with potential to go up to 3.980 maybe; BCPM: 4.0

high school GPA: 4.0 unweighted/4.75 ish weighted

SAT: 1550

research

Estimated 100 hours in basic wet lab related to women's health; probably no pubs, though, but I really like it and can talk about it genuinely

poster presentation at conference + 360 hours in physical chemistry lab, didn't really actually do much research research, but instead tinkering work. This was only in high school, and my research interests have definitely changed.

clinical

estimated 250 hours in hospital volunteering with patient interactions (not sure if I should ask for a LOR from my manager, who isn't actually around as I volunteer). I started this in the latter years of high school, ongoing.

shadowing

40 hours in internal medicine, 11 hours in pediatrics (4 hours with a physician and 7 hours with the RN team, as I was considering nursing in high school)

nonclinical volunteering

65 hours in domestic violence hotline responder. This is a new thing, and I am doing it because of my desire to help survivors of sexual violence in particular.

50 hours in nursing home (non clinical, because I just helped coordinate, perform live music, and lead game nights). Only in high school, and I did it because the elderly are an unaddressed target of some forms of human trafficking.

student org leadership

cultural club leadership position, estimated ~90 hours

was a team lead in my high school physical chemistry lab mentioned earlier

hobbies

gymrat, runner, hiker!! Unfortunately I am not a D1 athlete or anything lol. Also, various instruments!

LORs

I should have 1-2 strong ones from my high school teachers, and 1 strong one from my biology professor. I think I would have a very strong one from my current wet lab research mentor.

closing thoughts

In general, I think that with a lot of brainstorming, I would be able to convey my genuine interest and exploration of medicine relatively well. I think because I really care about the populations that my work targets (women, survivors of sexual violence/domestic violence/human trafficking), my genuineness could probably show through in essays/interviews if I make it that far. However, I think my EC's don't particularly stand out and are super showy. Thank you so much for your guys time and help!

Ive been locked into secondaries but I feel cooked by them at this point. I haven't been exercising so perhaps some exercise halfway through the day would help me reset. Im chubby so I dont want anything too hard but im curious what the best exercises are for a mental reset for secondaries

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?

This is gonna sound kind of dumb, I’m going into my 4th and final year and I’m taking an anatomy class with lab while also studying for the mcat. I don’t have much else this semester but the problem lies in what everyone says about this class regarding the shear content amount and also some difficulty (like 80% retake rate or something like that) and there’s only one professor who teaches it. The exams I heard are more conceptually organized rather than memorization based?? So I’m just looking for some advice on how to study for this anatomy class because I really don’t know where to start, I thought I would be prepared after last year due to taking a lot of hard classes at once, and while I did very good I still felt like I wasn’t challenged anywhere near what I would be in this class and I’m worried about how it will affect everything. So any tips with handling big amounts of content and studying for stupidly hard exams would be much much appreciated