If I have around 250 non-clinical volunteer hours (most are not with underserved) and 600 research hours, should I Taylor my application towards schools that are not service heavy? I have thought about this and my stats match up well with service schools and not as well with others. How should I go about creating a school list for application? Would my chances be not as good with service?

So I just found out that applicants who wrote a disadvantaged essay or qualify for FAP, are marked and grouped separately in their application cycle. What does this mean? Am I being put on a separate pile when I apply and how does that affect my chance of getting an interview? Will the reviewer have some bias about me because of such grouping or it’s just for potential financial scholarship aid considerations?

Hello All!

I've been asking my one M1 friend and a currently admitted student for a lot of advice but I really don't want to burn him out with dumb questions so I was going to ask you all.

1. When do I request my transcripts from my undergraduate/graduate school? Does the school automatically send them to AMCAS/AACOMAS or do I need to upload a PDF that the school would send me?
2. (I don't have access to committee letter). Do I have my individual LOR writers submit their letters to AMCAS/ACCOMAS directly? The admitted friend stated that interfolio kept spamming the letters saying they weren't formatted correctly.
3. How should I/did you prepare for Casper/Preview? Like I'm not going to pay anyone but I don't want to just go in blind.
4. Do you plan on having any free time in May/June/July or have you preemptively cancelled plans or not made any for that time?
5. How are you doing today?

Has anyone ever ran into issues regarding small nose piercings during interviews? I have a small silver stud on the right side of my nose, and my parents think I should take it out during an interview I have coming up. I usually leave it in since it’s the same color as my glasses and the stud earrings I usually wear. Most people don’t even notice it unless they look at my nose directly. I tried taking it out just to see what it would look like, and there’s a visible little hole where it usually sits. Would it be fine to keep it in? TIA

I am currently a sophomore majoring in health science, which I only recently settled on after 3 other humanities focused majors (one for every semester in college). Before I started college, I thought I'd wanted to become a doctor but I was struggling academically and didn't think it a possibility. For the last 3 semesters I thought I was going to apply for law school and become a medical malpractice attorney, but I became interested in practicing medicine at the beginning of this school year. Because of my indecisiveness I haven't done any prereqs, and I barely have the time to finish my degree, so adding these classes is out of the question. Theres also the issue of my grades. I have been struggling all throughout college with depression and ADHD, I'm finally starting to turn things around, but my gpa is currently a 2.7. Realistically, I know that I will have to take at least a couple of gap years, and I'm also not the best test taker so the MCAT will be a struggle for me. Right now at least, I know that I want to study medicine, and public health so I'm hoping to go to grad school and get my M.P.H sometime in the future. I'm currently trying to find work as a medical assistant to make sure that a career in patient care is right for me. I just want to know if, there's anything else I should consider or if medical school will ever be an option for me.

I’m currently a prospective neuroscience major planning to switch from psych to neuro 2026 spring semester. However, I’m currently taking a neuroscience course on fundamentals and it’s killing me. I passed and failed the first two exams so far and I have one coming up that’s on a very difficult unit.

I want to know what I should do if I get a C in this course. I’m barely touching a B- (81.25). I already calculated my GPA and if things go right I’ll still have a 3.5-3.7 with the C if it happens. But I’m a freshman. Is this a bad look, and if it is, should I look into retaking the course at some point?

I will either be putting hospital volunteering/ caregiving as one, nonclinical volunteering as the other and need to pick a third: working as a counselor at a summer camp or study abroad

I talk about being a counselor and nonclinical volunteer in my personal statement as well as the caregiving and I mention study abroad so they are all included in some way, but I don't know which one to choose. I would say my application is clinical heavy, am interested in primary care and I am mostly applying to more service oriented schools due to my MCAT. I am worried about repeating activities too many times because then my app will be too repetitive?

Ok you filthy animals help me out here. I am 35. I have a Bachelors of science(2.8, 2012), an MBA(3.8, 2017), an MS is health leadership(total bull crap degree but it got me a nice hospital c suite gig), and a Doctorate in Business Administration (3.82, 2021). As a 20 something there was no conceivable way for me to follow this path for so many reasons. Now my life is settling into a place where becoming a doctor is somewhat possible. What I need advice on is this, as someone who is older and honestly not as flexible what are my options? I supported my wife in our 20s and now she runs her own firm 100% remotely. She's agreed that if we have to move so be it, but I struggle with that. Maybe that's my age showing. People talk me out of OUM or ROSS because personally I've always studied better alone and the idea of being remote for the first 2 years is a big deal for me. I know traditional programs would be better but other than horrible match rates and 3rd tier expert educational material, am I missing anything else? Are these places legit? My other options would be to apply to PCOM ga and commute / fly in. I own a plane so flying isn't an issue but that pigeon holes me to a single school or move entirely. I am knocking out the labs now as a non degree seeking student but my mcat was 508. I took those labs as a would be pre med student over a decade ago so I've been refreshing as many have suggested. Thanks for the help and be nice I'm an old man here.

A DO doctor recently allowed me to do shadowing with them at a hospital. There's some documents/videos I have to complete before i start. I just now saw that one of the requirements is a drug test and background check, that has a combined non refundable $95.00 fee. Is it worth continuing with this? Unfortunately it is incredibly difficult finding DOs in my area and the majority either work at this particular hospital group or are much farther away. I'm looking at DO schools as an option and was hoping to get a DO letter.

Super stoked to have the above three schools. I am also sitting on WL at BU and Utah and waiting for final decision from Kaiser and Vermont. For now, I can only see an acceptance from Kaiser really shaking things up. Nonetheless, I will focus on choosing from the acceptances in front of me.

Creighton ($450k for all four years)

Pros: -Matches well all over the country -super supportive student body and faculty -cheap COL -I enjoyed Omaha’s vibe -I loved the service focus and Jesuit approach to care. -Ranks higher than UNLV but not sure how it compares to UAPHX (see below)

Cons: -Expensive ahh tuition -far from home (have lived away from home so can adjust)

University of Arizona - Phoenix ($340k for all four years) Pros: -Close to home! -Matches well to CA and AZ (especially to the home program) -Cheapest and cheap COL -Students seem to really love it there -Can find housing within walking distance of campus -small pro: they were my first A and called on the first day I could hear back. Did not expect the A at all especially as an OOS.

Cons: -It is not officially ranked so is hard to compare to other schools

University of Nevada Las Vegas ($380k for all four years) Pros: -Best friend lives here -Students seem to love it here as well -Faculty and admin is super committed to student success -Lot of growth in the next few years. Children’s hospital in the next 2-3 years being built. 5-year plan is to have their own UNLV hospital. -I connected well with my faculty interviewer and they got me hyped up on UNLV -They are new but growing FAST -Vegas seems like a fun spot to be for med school

Cons: -Not as strong of a match list compared to the other schools -program is ~6 years old

I am leaning one way but would love to hear thoughts and insights!

Edit: Should I heavily consider Utah if I get off the WL? They have a solid ortho residency and I am interested in ortho at this time. The drawbacks would be it is $$$ to go to Utah as an OOS the first year and while the school is very liberal it is in a red state doing very red activities.

Hi r/premed

I am 17, permanent residents, male Hispanic background, semi poor background, I have over 110 college credits at an honors college and a cumulative GPA of around 3.74.  This should go up to about 3.8 or at least High 3.7 if I lock in.

I'll be done with my bachelor's degree at around the age of 18 I have over 1,500 research hours two posters one talk and publications (plural) are highly likely in the future I have little over 100 hours of shadowing and plan to do EMT work. I will as well do obviously as good as I can on my MCAT as I know that I have more time than the average pre-med due to my young age.

What should I do with this time?

and what are realistic medical schools that I could get into with a 3.8 and possibly a high MCAT score (I really hope to get 520 plus of course 😭)?

the reason I didn't do so hot in some of my classes (hence the 3.74) is because 15-year-old me didn't take honors organic chemistry to seriously and ended up with an A minus along with a lot of other A minuses that just STACKED TF UP. I appreciate any responses of what I should do with all of this time.

Much love. I'll answer any questions to clarify stuff.

Hey everyone! I would love a little help with my school list. Biggest red flag is that I have no research so I am trying to avoid research heavy schools (I know Colorado is, but that is my in-state school). Aiming to apply to around 25 schools. Any suggestions would be appreciated! Thank you!!

CO URM

3.8 cGPA, 3.76 sGPA, 520 MCAT

~2000 hours clinical experience (750 from caregiving job I did during college, 1000+ from ER tech job I am currently working during my gap year, projected another 1000 hours)

250 hours non-clinical volunteering (not cookie-cutter, one involves a leadership position)

50 hours shadowing across 3 specialities

2 semesters as scholarship chair for fraternity (leadership position)

No research :(

School List:

MD: Colorado, Utah, Vermont, Iowa, Wayne State, NYMC, Indiana, Jefferson, Wake Forest, VCU, EVMS, Quinnipiac, Wisconsin, MC Wisconsin, Creighton, Western Michigan, PSU, Tulane, Dartmouth (reach), Rochester (reach) 

DO: ~5 (unsure which)

I was part of my schools “medical response unit” essentially first aid on campus. And put about 100 hours of clinical volunteering and training into it. But after awhile I realized I genuinely disliked it because I did not feel prepared to handle it which made me very anxious as well as the fact that it took me away from the experience I was getting working as a PCA in the hospital. I now work in the ER and realize I could’ve handled the stuff I was worried about at the time, I just wasn’t mature enough. My main worry is that the people who run the program from my Alma mater may have ties to the med school as well and may totally decline my application bc I “quit”. I don’t think I left on bad terms necessarily as I explained why I didn’t enjoy the program, but I’m afraid it could be seen as a possible red flag. EDIT: technically speaking the unit “required” or late last wanted you to serve two full semesters after training which I did not do.

It’s looking like I have a scribe job lined up for my gap years where I’d be working with one specific doctor. However, I currently have no shadowing hours. I do have 200+ hours in EMS. Will my application be fine in terms of clinical experience/shadowing?

I don't really know how to even explain it? I am currently failing a trig class and the highest score possible for me to get is a mid C. I don't have a special reason why I got a bad score like some people have (medical reasons etc.), I guess I just overestimated my comprehension and it ended up hurting me anyways.

I know this is dumb for me to say, but I've always gotten by previously, and although I do study (with the textbook and notes), this recent test really hit me hard, I did worse than I thought (which I am really pissed about because I really studied for this one and shit) and it tanked my grade. This class will tank my GPA, I know it. The end of next week is the final day to decide whether I withdraw from a class or not, should I just withdraw? A mid C is the highest I can get but that is not guaranteed.

Will med schools dislike like a W? I will retake the class during the summer time either at a local community college or just at the university again. I understand that this is really bad and I don't plan on something like this happening again, so this would be my only W.

I will be a junior next semester and will start my MCAT review. Stats: 4.0 GPA (currently lol), Cell and molecular biology major, will have 400 hours of paid research this summer (REU), volunteer research with an independent scientist about invasive plants with goals of minimizing our city’s expenses in eliminating them (mostly field work), 64 hours clinical shadowing during my gap year after HS (OB, pediatrics, NICU) but was done in Southeast asia and also tutored kids from remote areas for free.

Im from CC and will be transferring in the fall. I also work at a fastfood part time and have around 1000 hours. Also have 100 hours of beach clean up and volunteer work.

Can I get suggestions on my application? What areas should i improve and work on? How do i maximize my chances of getting accepted in my MD cycle?

Thank you.

Hi everyone- was hoping I wouldn't have to do this again but here we are. Any support or advice is greatly appreciated.

This cycle I received 4 MD interviews. 3 interviews turned into WLs and one I am still awaiting decision from. I applied to 37 schools. Below are my stats from my application last cycle followed by updates.

OLD APPLICATION

1. cGPA and sGPA as calculated by AMCAS or AACOMAS
   1. cGPA= 3.59, sGPA= 3.457 (strong upward trend, had difficulty after COVID during freshman/sophomore year)
   2. Freshman GPA- 3.48 Sophomore GPA- 3.41 Junior GPA-3.60 Senior GPA- 3.84
2. MCAT score(s) and breakdown
   1. 523, 132/130/129/132 (first and only attempt)
3. State of residence or country of citizenship (if non-US)
   1. NC
4. Ethnicity and/or race
   1. White
5. Undergraduate institution or category
   1. T25 non-ivy
6. Clinical experience (volunteer and non-volunteer)
   1. Hospital CNA in float pool (300 hours)
   2. Pediatric Inpatient Volunteer (140 hours)
   3. Volunteer Nursing Assistant at Assisted Living Facility (40 hours)
7. Research experience and productivity
   1. Biotech research assistant (800 hours, no pubs but working on various projects)
8. Shadowing experience and specialties represented
   1. Pediatric endocrinology (15 hours)
   2. Geriatric medicine (25 hours)
   3. Cardiology (10 hours)
   4. General surgery (28 hours)
9. Non-clinical volunteering
   1. Habitat for Humanity (84 hours)
10. Other extracurricular activities (including athletics, military service, gap year activities, leadership, teaching, etc)
    1. Head Swim Coach of team of 130+ swimmers (2 years, 1600 hours)
    2. Library Assistant (500 hours)
    3. University Scientific Magazine Designer & Illustrator (50 hours)
    4. Distance Running (2000+ hours, started in high school)

School list:

UVA

Duke (II --> WL)

Boston University

University of Pittsburgh

Vanderbilt

Mayo Clinic

Case Western

Columbia

USF Morsani (II --> WL)

UNC Chapel Hill (II --> PENDING)

Wake Forest

Tufts

Emory

Virginia Commonwealth

Colorado

Cincinnati

UCF

Quinnipiac

New York Medical College

Western Michigan (II --> WL)

Dartmouth

University of Miami

Albert Einstein

UCONN

Ohio State

ECU

Virginia Tech

Eastern Virginia

MCW

USC Greenville

Penn State

Vermont

University of Kansas

West Virginia

University of Illinois

Toledo

Updates for my reapplication:

1. Promotion at biotech company (1720 hours)
   1. 3 presentations (1 first author, 2 second author)
   2. Submitting co-first author manuscript for publication in May to a journal with impact factor 12. If accepted will not be published until after primary submission deadline. This study has taken me 1.5 years to complete as it is heavy wet lab work.
2. More CNA hours (now at 650 hours)
   1. Plus experience training other CNAs and increase in responsibilities
3. More Habitat construction Hours (now at 124 hours, will have 188 hours at time of primary submission)
4. New Food bank volunteering (now at 18 hours, will have 35 by submission)
5. New Free Health clinic volunteering (now at 29 hours, will have 60 by submission)
   1. Also includes a role with outreach at Mexican Consulate to improve screening for hypertension, obesity, and diabetes
6. New Letter of recommendation from CEO and founder of biotech company I work for
7. Ran half-marathon in the fall
8. New hobbies- line-dancing and crochet

Notes and Reflections on this past cycle

1. I don't think I had an interviewing issue. I had several interviewers tell me they loved my answer, enjoyed talking to me, hoped I'd pick their school, etc. I am comfortable interviewing and did a solid amount of practice before each interview.
2. PS was read and edited by 6+ people including current med students, other grad students, and my PI. I feel confident in my why medicine and all my reasons are backed up by real experiences as a CNA. I prewrote secondaries and submitted all an average of 3 days after receipt (latest was 1.5 weeks after.)
3. General feedback I've gotten from med students/friends/etc is that I just got unlucky this cycle. Not sure how to move forward from that.
4. If I had to identify any significant weaknesses in my previous application, it would be low non-clinical volunteering (84 hours at Habitat) or my low GPA (3.59, though strong upward trend.)
5. I would say general theme of my application is teamwork- lots of parallels between coaching a swim team and working together as physician, nurses, PT/OT/, and patient to create best possible treatment plans for patients.
6. I submitted early (May 29).

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I am not sure how to go about reapplying. I still believe my personal statement was strong and my why medicine has not changed- it is simply backed up by even more experiences as a CNA, free clinic volunteer, food bank volunteer, etc.

Any schools I should remove or add? Thoughts on applying to Texas schools this cycle?

I know I could still get off one of my 3 WLs, but I want to prepare for reapplication just in case.

Thank you everyone!

First, thank you for the tremendous amount of support I've gotten from this forum. Thanks to all your help, I will be starting med school this fall.

I'm now thinking about what's next, and for me, it's to get matched into into what I know is a very competitive residency program (cardiothoracic surgery). I came across some advice on different websites, and I would just like to check how true this is.

1. Is it true that school prestige matters a lot for residency? If so, is a school like Vanderbilt "prestigious" enough?
   
2. I understand that Step scores, clinical grades, and research publications are the most important factors for residency match. Does that mean other ECs like volunteering are not as important as they were for med school apps?
   
3. What kind of research should I do? From my understanding, it is important to get as many publications as possible. This makes me hesitant to go into wet-lab basic science research, which is often very time-consuming (I did wet-lab research for 3 years of undergrad, and I don't have a publication). What other type of research can I get involved in?
   

Thanks so much again for your help. It's been an amazing few years being in such a supportive community, and I'm so grateful for all the help that I've received from you during this journey.

Hi there! Getting ready to apply for the 2025-2026 cycle and wanting some input for my school list (any I should add or remove). Used admit and then made some changes based on geographical location but haven’t done too much research beyond that.

MCAT: 514 (129/127/130/128) GPA: 3.98 (3.96 sGPA) Clinical: 470 hrs paid Research: 150 hrs lab 1 (one poster), 90 hours lab 2 Teaching/tutoring: 430 hrs Non clinical volunteering: 200 hrs 4 dif random experiences Shadowing: 55 hrs X factor: D1 athlete at T20 university, have started in every game, various conference and school student- athlete awards (2250 hrs) MI resident

Reach: Duke Vanderbilt USF Case Western Virginia Northwestern

Target: Michigan Emory Miami VCU Jefferson Pittsburgh Iowa Cincinnati Boston Tufts Florida Atlantic TCU

Baseline: Wayne State Michigan State (DO and MD) Wake Forest Eastern Virginia Temple Western Michigan Drexel Oakland WB Rosalind Franklin Penn State Vermont

I am so glad that I get to stay in my home state near my family. The acceptances were 1 MD (Committed) and 2 DO. I never really thought I would get into MD schools so I applied DO heavy. I chose the MD school because it is in my hometown and my boyfriend of many years is studying for his MA in Dietetics at this Health Science University. My state DO school is actually one of the best DO schools and is affiliated with a large hospital..so I would have gotten a great education there..just would have had to move by myself. I will answer any questions people may have!

My Info:

MCAT- 505

cGPA- 3.68

sGPA- 3.4-3.5 depending how you calculate it.

Major: Health and Exercise Science. Minor: History

Residency: OK

Clinical Hours: around 3000, ~300 were direct-patient care hours.

No research

Undergraduate TA for Human Physiology for a year.

60 hrs of volunteering in a NICU and university-wide volunteering event.

Treasurer for a school club

I know there are many warnings already against paying for med school consulting businesses, but I wanted to warn about Nitish Thareja who runs this business because he uses fake Reddit posts (now deleted) to lure vulnerable premeds.

I’ve had first-hand experience with the course he sells that costs around $50,000. Nitish markets it as a boutique consulting service with the promise of a standout application, but he failed to deliver for me and for a couple of his other applicants I was able to get in touch with. He’s just a med school dropout who realized he could make a ton of money preying on vulnerable (and often wealthy) premed students.

At the start, Nitish assures you that this is a small, family-run business and that he and his team are committed to ensuring your 100% success. But the “team” is just him. His wife, a current student, may hop on an early call or two to help sell the pitch, but she quickly dips (understandably so, she’s probably busy with her own career). After that, it's mostly just him. Thareja signs on as many students as he can. Last year, he had a whopping 40 students. No one person can realistically supervise or mentor even five, let alone 40, applicants. He basically bailed on me during the most critical parts of the application cycle.

He breaks the course into smaller modules that each cost between $5,000–$10,000, which gives the illusion of structure like you’re building toward something meaningful. He asks that you trust the process and that all the work you’re putting into writing for his course will eventually pay off for your AMCAS app. But before you know it, you’ve sunk $20K+ into the program, written a bunch of stuff for his course, and still have nothing substantial ready for your AMCAS.

He claims to have a “writing team,” but it’s just one overworked English grad. Most of the content he churns out is just plumbing whatever you wrote through ChatGPT or some other AI tool.

Please do not sign with him.

I have two activities I plan to include on my application this cycle that keep me wondering about categories. Both are volunteer positions - but they seem to be better described under Social Justice (2,000+ hrs) and Teaching/Tutoring (~100 hrs). Is it a good idea to label them as SJ/Teaching instead of explicitly “volunteering”, or could that the hurt view my volunteer hours if it isn’t explicitly mentioned? Both are likely to be including as MME

Sitting on the waitlist is tough. Please use this thread to vent, discuss, and support your fellow applicants through this anxiety-inducing process.

It's time for our Weekly Good News Thread! Feel free to share any and all good news from the past week, from getting an A in a class to getting that II to getting an acceptance.