After 4 years of near full time work on a 911 rig, undergrad, concurrent paramedic school, and shredding gnar I just got into medical school. I’m fucking ecstatic. It’s a do program.

I probably look like last person who would get in but here I fucking am, with a mullet, mustache, and a wetsuit tan. Suck it, dad. You were a total bitch and didn’t help me with shit. I’ve got no family in medicine, used all free resources for the mcat and school, and figured this shit out purely by leaning on my friends who I love.

At this point, I’ve rebuilt the engine (I might cam it not sure yet (probably going with a chopacabra NSR if I can score it for less than 320$)), speed engineering shorty headers, Michigan motorsports rockers, lifters, and push rods), I’ve planned out my motor mounts and transmission crossmembers, and I’m putting a Colorado transfer case on the 4L60e so I can retain my factory differentials. I really just need to put the damn thing together and slap it in and I’ll have a 5.3 vortec trooper. My objective is getting this done by March?

Any tips on HP tuners?

Good luck guys. The cycle is still young. Someone hit me with the pigeon doc gif and I’m gonna go paddle out and get hit by a kook’s wavestorm.

I am not sure what to do as i haven't gotten any interviews yet even though everybody i know has gotten at least one already... ☹️ i applied to schools in late august & early september, similar to those I know. I will say, retrospectively my writing might be the problem since it's kind of bad, but my stats should've been fine? (524/3.8/300 clinical/130 non-clinical). I took this gap year off and decided to not work but it's almost November, should I start looking for jobs or research? Even though I'm not doing anything atm I feel so stressed and shut down.

Someone chad and/or pigeon me!

505 MCAT, 3.67cGPA, 3.34sGPA, 4.0 SMP, 3rd app cycle

If I had listened to everyone on Reddit that told me DO was my only chance I wouldn’t be here. Posting if anyone with low stats needs hope or a sign, don’t give up!!

If anyone has questions I gotchu 😁

I'm so so happy. Between lots of family stuff and being a nontrad-ish applicant (long story) I had a pretty long road. I was accepted to my first MD program today. I am the first of my family in medicine and I've been crying all morning lol. You guys can absolutely do this. <3

Hi Guys! Yesterday I was blessed enough to receive my first MD acceptance and I wanted to share some things I’ve learned throughout the process.

Prior to applying, I’d scroll this thread and see these incredible applications with thousands of hours in multiple activities and truly feel like I wasn’t doing enough. Full closure these people are incredible, but don’t sell yourself short ever! Trust your story and make sure your narrative is cohesive and aligns well with schools you’re applying to. I went to a very small, unknown undergraduate institution yet have found great success landing MD interviews.

You can do the same thing by showing how your experiences give you a diverse perspective on medicine and how people view medicine differently from different backgrounds. A high-prestige school is without a doubt helpful but it will not make or break your application in most scenarios.

When I posted my stats before the cycle, I cannot tell you how many times I was told I needed more clinical hours having around 450. I truly believe there is a point of diminishing returns for clinical hours and what matters is what you can say about your clinical experiences.

In a similar vein, the core experiences of every application will be similar to an extent. I found that schools valued what makes every application unique rather than being the best at the core activities. As such, focus on being what makes you unique and yourself as an applicant!

When you apply, apply early. Make sure you are getting in the first or second waves of primaries and doing secondaries ASAP. Yes, it’s a grind and secondaries suck but pre-writing and tailoring general themes to each school helps a lot. I aimed for a 24-48 hr turnaround on secondaries.

I’d like to finish by saying by no means am
I an expert, but this whole process has taught me so much! Best of luck to you all.

I’m starting to hate my boss, and I genuinely need to vent because this man is starting to get on my last fucking nerve.

He’s incredibly negative and is one of those “I could have gone to medical school, but I ended up having kids and got stuck in research” types. He also has this weird habit of talking down about people who are more successful than him, constantly pointing out how their lives are probably miserable or how they supposedly suck at what they do.

For example, there’s an Ivy-educated sub-investigator at my job, and my boss is always talking about how he sucks at his job because the PI is somehow better than him. The irony is that the PI actually gets bad reviews, whereas the sub-I gets fantastic reviews.

The PI has made it pretty clear that he doesn’t care about customer service. He cares about diagnosing patients and getting them in and out. He’ll do his job, diagnose patients, and move on, but he doesn’t care if you sit in the waiting room for an hour past your scheduled appointment time or about the overall patient experience.

Meanwhile, the sub-I gets reviews saying that he’s not only a great doctor but also someone who genuinely cares about his patients and takes the time to listen to them. Those are qualities I really admire, and I think they matter tremendously in medicine.

Anyways, I digress. My manager just really fucking sucks, and I’m starting to seriously consider looking for another job.

I’m not going to quit without having something else lined up because I need this job for medical school experience, and, more importantly, I need it to pay my bills. This job pays my bills, and I can’t afford to walk away from that.

So, at this point, I think I’m just going to keep my head down, fly under the radar, and pray that I can make it through until next August. I’m hoping to start my SMP then and work part-time for my EMS agency instead.

Oh, and did I mention that I STILL work part-time for my EMS agency on top of this full-time job? I’m working approximately 50-hour weeks while taking classes, and I’m starting to hate my boss.

Please pray for me because I’m genuinely just trying to get through this job without losing my fucking mind. 😭

What difference would it make for UCSD, UCLA, and UCI, for example, to have a 518-519 MCAT score as opposed to a 514? I'm CA ORM and have a 514 with a 3.99 GPA, and decent ECs. Should I retake my MCAT to increase my chances at these schools, or would I be better off focusing on my writing/ECs since 514 already falls into the 25-75th percentile range for all of those schools?

I recently received my first MD acceptance (w/ no prior research hours btw) and will be matriculating next summer. I’m interested in potentially pursuing a competitive surgical specialty, so I’m trying to determine whether continuing my current research is worthwhile.
I joined a basic science research lab in early August. Nearly three months in, I’ve primarily been learning and practicing technical skills. While I’m improving, we still don’t have an established experimental protocol, haven’t started collecting meaningful data, and the PI is now discussing a new proposal that would require learning additional techniques.
He’s mentioned wanting to publish eventually, but there’s no established timeline or discussion of authorship.
I also work substantial hours at my current job, so participating in the lab generally requires sacrificing one of my only days off each week.
I find the scientific questions interesting, but honestly don’t particularly enjoy the technical bench work. My PI also doesn’t have any apparent connections to the medical school I’ll be attending.
My school offers a summer research program between M1 and M2, and current students have encouraged incoming students to focus primarily on academics during M1.

My questions:
Would leaving this lab now negatively affect my chances of matching into a competitive surgical residency?
Is it worth continuing for the possibility of a publication, even without a clear project or timeline?
Would I be better off enjoying my remaining time before medical school and pursuing research during M1/M2?
I’m leaning toward leaving but would appreciate perspectives from current medical students, residents, or anyone who’s been in a similar situation.

?

Basically, the title. I'm a first-year biology major right now. I'm taking Gen Chem 1 right now, and it's a struggle right now man (premed struggling with gen chem shocking i know). I've taken 2 midterms so far, and I didn't do great on the first one and I made quite a few costly silly errors during the second exam, although I do feel like it went better. I have 1 midterm and a final left.

I'm really feeling fucking discouraged right now, especially because I tried to make an active effort to switch up my study habits (attend tutoring sessions, prof office hours), and dedicated even more time to studying chemistry and cutting out extracurricular activities to try to maximize my grades. Especially so because I go to a semi-prestigious college, and so whenever I try to talk to my peers, it is always so fucking demoralizing having to deal with imposter syndrome.

I know this is probably inconsequential, but I'm sort of freaking out about my current situation right now, and I can feel it affecting my mental health.

Any advice on where to go and how to deal with trying to get out of this situation?

I took the mcat two years ago. I’d say the random emails and unsubscribe evasion is worse than CARS. I’m still am spammed by this dude

i’m studying math and stats but interested in applying to med schools/ dental schools. I wanna do research at my uni, but would I be at a disadvantage if I did research in a more quantitative field instead of something in medicine/life science?

Curious if anyone else is in the same boat/knows anyone that has successfully done this, but over the past 3 years I’ve been struggling with cyclic vomiting syndrome and I’m still working with clinicians on getting a medicine cocktail that decreases my episodes, but I’m not there yet.

Everyone from GI, to neurologist to pcp tells me to maintain a low stress lifestyle and it’s making me wonder if it’s possible to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor while having this illness. It’s a path of MCAT, weekly or biweekly exams, boards, applications, residency, etc. When I’m sleep deprived or anxious my episodes increase (every 2 weeks instead of once a month or once every other month), and eps last 2 days which is lost time I can’t get back. so I’m wondering if it’s at all possible/ if anyone has witnessed or experienced medicine while having CVS or any other debilitating chronic illness that gets exasperated by stress?

I don't know, I'm bored, delusional, and sleep-deprived, and want to know if becoming a Victoria's Secret supermodel could hurt someone's chances of getting into med school if the rest of their application was just baller.

I always thought doing a Halloween themed case study event would be cool for a pre-med society during the fall semester. I was wondering what kind of monsters and diagnoses other people would have for something like this?

I have a few ideas, but I wanted to hear what others thought too

Hey everyone,

I’m 27 and recently decided to return to school to pursue medicine after working in a completely unrelated field. I graduated with a 3.3 undergraduate GPA and a 3.6 master’s GPA, both in fields unrelated to STEM.

I’m currently taking the science prerequisites for medical school and generally earning As and B+s. Unfortunately, because of my previous undergraduate credits, my cumulative GPA is barely moving from a 3.3.
Before returning to school, I served as a combat medic in the Army. I’ve also recently started doing research in a lab and working as a CNA at a hospital to gain more clinical experience. I haven’t taken the MCAT yet.

I have a few questions for anyone who has been in a similar position:
● Is a 3.3 cumulative GPA too low to realistically pursue an MD program, assuming I maintain strong grades in my science courses?
● How many clinical and research hours should I aim for to be competitive?
● Does military medical experience carry much weight in admissions?
● Do admissions committees actually value being an older, nontraditional applicant with professional and military experience?
● Would a strong MCAT and upward academic trend be enough to overcome my previous GPA?

I genuinely enjoy being back in school and pursuing medicine, but it’s discouraging knowing how difficult it is to raise my GPA after completing so many credits.

I’m trying to figure out whether an MD is a realistic goal or if I’m fighting an uphill battle that I realistically can’t overcome.

I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from nontraditional applicants or people who have served in the military and successfully gotten into medical school.

Hey guys, I’m a current sophomore Studnet who decided to shoot way to close to the sun and take Anatomy and Physics the same year. While Physics is an issue it’s my second time taking it (withdrawal from last time) and I think I am going to better compared to last time. However, with Anatomy, I am genuinely struggling, i was fortunate to get dual enrollment credits for bio 1&2 from a good private college but was honestly doing bad in my current Anatomy class to the point i think i may fail. I think right now, I want to retake the class at a later date like physics and just take another W for now. I was wondering do you think this is a bad idea?

I am so nervous especially cuz I had another interview a month ago and it did not go very well 😭 got a big ol rejection. But I learned a lot from it and have been working on what went wrong so I hope all goes well tomorrow!!

Any last minute advice? Any weird questions yall have been asked at interviews?

note: there’s most likely a post that has the answers I’m looking for, and if what I’m about to say sounds similar to said post(s), please redirect me 🙏

I am unsure about the entirety of medicine. I am planning to major in Biology, which isn’t a great idea with my previous statement. I could do Biochemistry, but I’m unsure if I could realistically maintain a competitive GPA (top 10/520 of my class / took 18 ap/duals if that helps).

I enjoy making people happy. My only professional experience is me as a host, interacting with ppl and helping them. However, I “suck” at interacting with people as my interactions are premeditated, and I don’t have that wit to truly engage with them (albeit, it’s unnecessary for this job). That’s not my true issue though, it’s the fact that I don’t think I have that initial ambition/reason that I keep hearing about. There’s a chance I find it in college, possibly gaining the opportunity to see the work first-hand, but people say that “if you’re on the fence, then don’t do it.” One of my friend’s brothers got depressed (apparently) majoring Biochemistry (i believe he’s *relatively* smart, but he got a 504 MCAT) My other friend’s cousins state that “med school is not worth it.” I’m absorbing this seriously because my peers are of similar intelligence to me, so basing my experience off of theirs is (what i believe) a good outlook to my future.

I think engineering sounds promising, but I’m unsure of the job security. My father, a psychiatrist, keeps telling me how bad the job security of engineering is. (through his patients). Obviously, he wants to go to med school (*slight* pressure) but I’m unsure how accurately he’s portraying the market (don’t have any peers w/ any relatives w/ a engineering background, so I’m lowkey basing it off him). With the lifestyle I plan to have, I don’t need an “excessive” amount from being a MD ($200k+).

Because of my indecisiveness, I took a “job quiz” and it leaned towards artistic things (which makes sense), but those jobs might be the least secure jobs in the world. There’s probably med jobs that fit this, but I have yet to do any substantial research.

And one more thing, the key point of me not wanting to do medical school is how much time it takes from your day-to-day. I know how it sounds (“obviously!”) but I want to dedicate my time in college to make passive income or a business (not necessarily related to medicine) so I could potentially drop out. If I go to pre-med, I’m sure I wouldn’t have ample time to focus on that.

I would want any feedback to any of this. Thank you.

I have an interview for a very competitive premed club at my school tomorrow, and they asked me to bring a printed copy of my resume. Are they expecting it to be laminated or printed on a special paper? I’ve never been asked of something like this before and I’m wondering if it will affect my outcome in the interview.

i hear a lot of people talk about “x factor” anyone mind explaining that to me please?

This might be a silly question but I'm struggling to figure out what my science GPA is. In my high school we had a couple of classes that were NOT dual enrollment but still counted as college courses, one of them was engineering, so does that count? Furthermore, I went to community college first before transferring to a university, and my community college doesn't use +/- even on transcripts while my university does use +/- So in that case how do I calculate my GPA?

is there something you did that you think distinguished you from other applicants?