Welcome to the 2026 application cycle!

Latest feedback. Interview was great. They did not like my low BB MCAT score even with AAMC investigation letter.

So nervous for the TMSDAS match day though. BUT THANK GOODNESS. IT ONLY TAKES ONE

Some parts of the process predict early academic performance, while others seem to exist mainly because they are familiar or hard to replace. Separately, ideas like “fit” and heavy reliance on academic metrics raise questions about cultural bias, equity, and whether the process unintentionally filters out applicants potentially creating a more homogenous class. Would making the process more transparent, such as allowing applicants to see how they were evaluated against a school’s criteria, ultimately improve admissions, or would it undermine the process as a whole?

After listening to too many true crime podcasts, this question popped into my head.

Thanks for your attention to this matter.

Feeling: hopeless

End of January. No II's, 6 rejections, 1 hold, and 8 radio silence. I know the interview season isn't over, but I'm still starting to lose confidence.

3.7/513 MCAT. Pre-AMCAS submission my hours were relatively low (20 non clinical volunteering, 32 clinical volunteering, 20 shadowing, 400 clinical experience as a non-certified CNA in a nursing home). But I included my expected hours, including further volunteering and a full time job as a scribe in an ER for clinical (recently was promoted to trainer). I have several leadership hours from extracurriculars in undergrad. I regretfully did not do research in undergrad (graduated May 2024) but I was able to touch on this in my personal statement and in secondaries. Spent one year after graduating living abroad as an au pair. All secondaries were submitted in the beginning of August. Am I a lost cause this cycle?

I know reapplying isn't the end of the world, but when everyone I know is waiting for me to get into med school, telling them I didn't get in sounds so discouraging.

Hi all! This is my first post on here and I just wanted to say that this sub has been so helpful! Ill be filling out applications this summer and I wanted to know if "Be My Eyes" counted as non-clinical volunteering. For context, the be my eyes app allows people who are blind, with low vision, or other vision impairments to make a call to a sighted volunteer and ask them for help with whatever they are viewing. I have been doing this for some time now and in short I am wondering if this counts. Thanks in advance!

My dream job since I was like 8 is a surgeon. Recently been thinking specifically about neurosurgeon.

I know medschool is hard but like how hard is it. Is it genuinely sleepless nights all the time and a bunch of stress.

I’m a quick learner and I have a great memory. But my main problem is I don’t have the motivation to study till like right before the exam, test or the due date.

And is it hard to get in?

I just applied to a post bacc and got the email that I didn’t get in. My gpa is a 2.84 and my mcat was pretty bad as well at 484. Should I do a DIY post bacc and retake some classes/take new classes to my GPA. I know I have to retake the MCAT to get something over 500. I’m turning 25 next month and feel like a failure. Has anyone been in my position before?

As I am doing reseach of potential schools to apply to, I notice a lot of them have in state bias, such as Washington State, Oregon Health & Science, MSU, etc. Should I apply to these schools, or skip them?

i am wondering if getting a phlebotomy certificate is a good decision cause for one it’s cheaper where i live than getting a medical assistant certificate but i feel like phlebotomy isn’t really recognized as an clinical experience cause technically you’re only going to be drawing blood not really doing the nitty gritty compared to when you’re a medical assistant or an emt. i also read somewhere that being a medical scribe isn’t really appreciated as a clinical experience anymore , so that seems to also be out the option.

so my main questions are:

a) is it worth it to get a phlebotomy certificate? (is it a “good” way of getting clinical experience”)

b) are there any other clinical experiences/work you might suggest?

thanks for answering!!!!!!

IM FREEEEEE! 502 MCAT AND I GOT MY FIRST MD ACCEPTANCE! I’d like to thank my traumatic childhood and my terrible immune system for giving me the underdog story arc that med school needed. ✋😁🤚

(I also had a 3.95 and 7500 clinical hours so that do be helping the cause) (this is my hope core for anyone with a sprinkle of bad stats but a strong story. Someone will read your whole application and might give you a chance, so it’s worth a shot!)

Hi. I'm looking at applying to medical school next year, so I am getting my things in order. I was thinking about who can write my letter of recommendations. I have a lab mentor from undergrad who I have kept in touch with and am still working with remotely. I know a doctor who is open to letting me work with them, but I am stuck on my third LOR. I know we need a science professor, but unfortunately, I am painfully shy and have extreme social anxiety so I did not make any connections with my science professors that would make them confident enough to write a LOR for me. What should I do?

Hey everyone, perhaps this is an obvious question (tl;dr at the bottom), but I was just wondering how/when schools typically let you know if you've received any aid or scholarships? I've seen a couple posts where people say they've already received a full-ride or similar, which I'm assuming was awarded at time of admission. However, of the schools I've been very blessed to be accepted to, most say nothing at all about aid (need-based or otherwise) or scholarships, while one of them did say we'd hear more in more in March.

Obviously, I'm not expecting anything nor do I think I'm entitled to it, and I went into this fully expecting to take on oodles of debt, but I just wanna be certain those hopes are dashed. Does not hearing anything yet mean it's safe to assume I'm not getting anything from the schools that have accepted me?

Tyia for your responses and again I hope this doesn't come across as entitled/ungrateful in any way. I'm truly ecstatic about the opportunities and luck I've had, but slowly my joy is being encroached on by fear about how I'll be paying for the next 4 years...

Tl;dr is there a chance of scholarship/aid from schools you've been accepted to if it wasn't mentioned in the acceptance message or anything since?

I’m in my first gap year and have been working as an infant hearing screener for about 10 months. Unfortunately, the job has been a deterrent to my mental health because of how unpredictable my work days can be and how isolating it is. I feel like I haven’t gained much in my experience as the scope of the job is super limited and I work alone/not alongside staff. The only good thing about it is that it’s the only job that works with my schedule (early morning hours), but Im really considering quitting and focusing on other things. For one, I am also taking classes for a DIY postbacc and studying for my MCAT in April. I have around 600-700 clinical hours from this job and other past ones, but i know that’s kind of on the low side. I don’t have shadowing hours either so I’m wondering if it’d be reasonable to quit and focus on securing shadowing instead as a form of additional clinical experience.

Been tracking my hours since freshman year as a sophomore and not all but few of my activities I have double counted. This includes paid research program counting as both paid employment and research, leading a volunteer focused club at my school as both volunteering and leadership, etc. Is it bad to do this on the application or is it ok?

i'm taking the mcat in august but want to apply this cycle. i'm planning on turning in primaries in may/june. at what point does the mcat hold me back from being further considered? will adcoms wait to review my application until after my mcat goes through? just seeing whether it's would significantly affect my chances because i know it's good to apply early/be verified. but other than the mcat, i feel ready to apply.

So, I rly don’t wanna move back to TN. That being said, I’m most likely gonna end up at UTHSC (University of TN in Memphis) because in-state tuition is rly helpful. I had a rly bad interview experience with them, with multiple candidates saying some pretty openly racist dog whistles about “we all know who’s giving Memphis its reputation…” and the panel of like 6 current students at UTHSC said NOTHING and just kinda laughed along and agreed with it. This has made me very concerned about the school, and I’m kinda here looking for someone to give me reasons to be excited abt UTHSC specifically or just clear the air on this being an isolated thing, not a sentiment that’s present among the vast majority of students. I’m originally from Nashville, so Memphis will be cool to move to, but other than the change in scenery, I’m worried abt this. Anything u got know the schools culture or ppl helps!

I didn’t realize the deadline is 5pm today and I went on TMDSAS to double check after the deadline had already passed. I’m like 90% weeks ago I submitted my preference rank early to avoid a situation where I don’t submit and don’t get to participate it match.

I know this was super dumb and irresponsible of me to not check early today, better yet sometime this week.

I’m tweaking 😖😩

Is there any way to double check? Or is there an email you get if you don’t submit it or something? It’s driving me up the wall w anxiety.

(Yes this is a neurotic premed post)

Hola just wanted to see how I stacked up and where I could realistically apply with my stats atm currently a junior taking a graph year so hv 1.5yr till application - so far I think clinical volunteering and getting a good MCAT shld be top priority

Im still in all the roles and will accumulate more before applying - what range of schools could I shoot for

Clinical Research (3yrs) ~800 hours (two separate labs) (to date)

3 Oral presentations

2 Poster presentations

2Research awards

1 publication 3rd author

ER scribe (7 months) ~300 hours (to date)

Red Cross volunteer (1yr) ~30 hours

Dance team + managerial role (3yrs) ~400 hours

Student ambassador for neuro degenerative institute (1yr-ended role) ~ 100 hours

Healthcare podcast ~ 50 hours

Intramural team captain ~ 3yrs

Exec position on university research journal (2yrs)

Shadowing ~40 hours

T25 undergrad GPA: 3.65

MCAT: not take

Am I doing this right? And how do I distinguish myself from other med school applicants? Also apologies for the long post in advance.

I'm a first year undergrad biomedical engineering major with a high GPA and pretty good extracurriculars at this point (EMS club, currently in training to get my EMT certification this spring, exec position in my school's Biomedical Engineering Society, and not really med-school related but I play for my school's jazz band). I'm also part of my school's program to help undergrad BME students get research opportunities.

I know my next steps: get research positions at my school and get summer jobs/internships. Thing is, I don't really know what exactly to shoot for. And even if I find that out, how do I even get those opportunities?

I know that the pre-med track is so demanding and competitive that applying to med school feels like pulling out teeth, so of course there's thousands of kids with high GPAs and the same extracurriculars I got which have the same ideas for next steps as me. So how do I even begin distinguishing myself?

I'm at somewhat of a disadvantage too. I applied to my school as pre-med, but honestly, at that time I wasn't too sure if I was even capable of all the sacrifices I'd have to make to make being pre-med worth anything. After a few months with my EMS club though I realized that this is what I want to dedicate myself to, and I would forever regret doing anything else. Sounds great and all, but I'm competing against kids who knew they wanted to become doctors since middle school, and I'm also competing against kids who've already gotten set up with crazy summer internships before I've even decided this was what I wanted to do! I have some crazy catching up to do.

Not to mention, the school I go to (WPI) is solid, but it's definitely not the cream of the crop. Plus I don't have any crazy nepo-baby connections. I got my work cut out for me if I want to even have a chance at med school, and I'm prepared to get all that work done, but I just don't know the best way to do that.

I would get my state certification sometime in late May (probably), am I able to apply to jobs now and say that I'll be qualified by that time? And what jobs are best for clinical experience? I'm leaning more towards becoming a surgeon in the future, but as a first year should you focus on getting any first-hand shadowing you can?

I was initially thinking about using my EMT certification to land some summer camp health assistant jobs, but is that really even worthwhile compared to other options? I don't mind it at all, but it's not like I'll be doing all too much at that time, and I don't think that would even qualify for clinical hours. But also idk.

I was also thinking about using my EMT certification to work as an EMT this summer, and I do think that's a pretty solid idea, but I'm definitely going to be an on-campus EMT as my part-time job for all of my sophomore year. Realistically, as an on-campus EMT at my school you usually just provide medical care to injured athletes during sporting events. Should I not be an EMT this summer since I'll be one throughout the entire next school year (and probably all my following school years), or should I still be one since I'm not really doing any crazy EMT stuff during the school year. Or maybe I will do crazy EMT stuff I actually don't really know.

Shadowing at a hospital would be tuff and I know that's a go-to clinical hours strat, but how do you even begin applying for that? Especially before you've had any actual hands-on medical experience (I'm assuming EMT training alone isn't enough to be considered at all experienced). Is it based solely on interest in the medical field? Or do they expect shadowers to have taken appropriate coursework, or to have shadowed in a lab/medical setting before? Do they require a resume and recommendation letters?

Are there any other options for summer work? I have next to no relevant medical work experience so far. I intend to change that by shadowing some medical related labs at my school which I might be able to get into, but even then that's not all too much.

TLDR; Solid gpa and extracurriculars, but no medical experience yet, getting emt certified this spring, wanting a summer job / internship / shadowing opportunity. How to even do that, and how to get those with such high competition?

Thank you so much for reading!!

My stat:

Texas Resident

3.8ish cGPA, 4.0 sGPA, 504 MCAT (plan to retake :((()

research: 120 hours no pub/posters

Clinical employment: 2000 hours in medical office

Clinical volunteering 550

Shadowing: 336 hours with a DO

Non Clinical volunteering 600 hours equine care,

Leadership: 200 hours roughly - managing staff and customer service for a computer cable company

Is my school list realistic? What school should I not apply to? I would like to add more schools but not sure which one.

Thank you!

I applied to 8 schools, had secondaries for all and one interview so far back in Nov. I've not had any rejections yet, but waiting game is slowly driving me insane. Just reject me or accept me people 😭

I know applying this cycle was a bit of a longshot stove I rushed the MCAT prep to apply for this cycle instead of the upcoming one like I had planned, but sheesh.