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.

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. 😭

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.

?

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 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.

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?

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

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 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 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.

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.

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?

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?

Currently building my school list for the upcoming cycle, and thinking about what the cost will look like in the future. As a poor ahh homie with strong stats, I'm obviously adding the schools that have free tuition, my state schools with lower resident costs, etc.

But even if I get into a free school, cost of living will be close to 200k for the 4 years of medschool. Between rent in HCOL areas, food, car, insurances, and the host of incidental expenses that crop up, I'm gonna stare down the barrel of immense debt regardless of the cost of tuition. Genuinely wtf why is it so expensive.

Hey all, I need some help making a decision. I have been working as a PCT for about 1 year (1500 hrs) and I hate this position. I dread going into work every time because I don't like the environment/the unit I work on. However, my only worry is that I am still a sophomore, and I am unsure whether quitting after only a year would look bad. I do have another clinical job that I have been at for a year too that I would continue at, but I wont quit the PCT job if it might hurt my application in a year.

Trad students listen up.

Credit is king when it comes to private loans. Start building it early.

Coming from somebody starting in 2027 and is currently private loan shopping, getting a credit card in college was the best thing I ever did. 4 years of using my card for everything and never missing a payment resulted in a FICO 9 score of 794. This is getting me private loan interest rates ranging from 2-5% fixed and 48-month deferment without a cosigner.

I got my first card at the beginning of my 4th year of college, did a research MS (not post-bacc) and worked per diem, then got a full time phlebotomist job while applying.

I'd recommend doing this way earlier, like during your first year.

I got the first card I applied for. Go to NerdWallet and look at their college student cards. I started with the plain old quicksilver 1.5% cash back card with a $500 limit. There are a ton of options: Discover it Student Cash, Chase Freedom Rise, & Bank of America travel rewards for students to name a few.

Final note: Do not close your first credit card no matter how "bad" it is. Average age of credit accounts and oldest line of credit both factor to your credit score. After 1 year get a line increase. After 2 years get another card with a higher limit. Increase the limits on both cards the following year etc.

TLDR: High credit scores get you low private loan rates. This is important, considering most students will need private loans to get through school. Getting a credit card early and being a good spender will give you a high score, and thus low rates. There are many available.

Thank you for your time.

I wanted to ask anyone that have an experience of applying to flexmed about declining SAT scores. I scored a 1510 then a 1440 (I should have stopped) but took it three more times for a 1480, 1450 and a 1490.
Does anyone know how flexmed will view this and if its even worth applying at this point since it feels like this would classify as a red flag.

What the title says, I don't care much about money and I just want to be a doctor and love kids. Senior planning on taking a gap year; I haven't started studying for the MCAT yet so no idea what my score will be, but 3.7 GPA/3.6sGPA, CNA job in a neuro ICU 300hrs (and will continue through gap year, hopefully transferring to peds), cancer wet lab research 1500hrs with several abstracts (second author) and one projected journal pub, club leadership (political interest) for several years, lots of childcare experience and volunteering with kids at a DV shelter. I only have a few hours of shadowing so far. No X factor, I'm a white woman at a good state school who just really loves working with kids. As I see it, I could take multiple gap years to get a great MCAT score (I probably would, I test well) and more shadowing and clinical hours, or take one gap year and basically just have a shot at DO. I want to start med school ASAP because I want kids pretty young and would prefer to be through residency by the time that happens.

Should I just take one gap year, take it easier, and apply DO and get my life started? Or am I a solid enough candidate that it would be a waste, and an extra year of effort would be worth it in the long run? Thank you in advance

Edit: Thank you for all the responses! To be clear, an extra gap year wouldn't just be to study for the MCAT, moreso to avoid needing to study for the MCAT while balancing being a full time student with multiple jobs, and it would give me more time to get clinical, volunteer, and shadowing hours. The many arguments in favor of MD are well taken though.

Got my first acceptance email while at work. It’s been a hell of a journey. Feel very blessed. 3 years ago I was questioning whether this was for me. In my first attempt I did not receive a single interview invite. Despite it all I kept going. Improving what I could. Wish you all the very best.

For people wondering:

GPA: 3.4 (I had a 3.7 up until my third year where a lot of personal stuff got in the way of my academic life, plummeting it. However, I was able to get my shit together and graduate with a 3.4)

MCAT: 506 (I took the MCAT 2 times. My first time I didn’t prepare effectively and scored in the 50th percentile. I knew I could get better and so studied while working a full time job)

Volunteering hours: 100 hours

Clinical hours: ~6k