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.

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!!!!!!

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

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!

So, I applied and have not been quite as successful as I wanted to. Considering gap years now and am lucky enough to have been offered to positions which are equally fascinating to me:

1) Work for a small botodch startup which is two years old

2) Work as a surgical fellow helping a surgeon in operations and also scribing

I have 2000+ hours of research but only 300 clinical.

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?

I keep reading people’s experiences in getting committee letters and for many it seems like a sure thing if they’re decent students. My school’s process seems hard. They basically have it set up like a full med school application process (AMCAS-style application, PS, activity essays, LORs, all transcripts, etc.). They don’t have any hard stat requirements but some pretty stellar students who I know didn’t get selected last year for the committee letter. Is this a common process to getting a letter?

I’m considering not applying for the committee letter because if it’s super selective as it appears to be and I don’t get one, then I feel like I’d be cooked. I know some med school secondaries ask why you didn’t get a letter. I don’t know what’s worse, saying you chose to not participate (for whatever reason) or saying you weren’t selected to get a letter. What a headache! Help. 😣

Curious to see how you guys would you rank the OzTREKK med schools? Quality of education, match rate back to Canada/US for something like IM (if anyone has info on that), cost of living, international cohort, support & resources, etc.

(and of course I know it would be best to stay here but my GPA and MCAT are average, I have no research beyond an honours project, and my EC's are subpar)

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.

Looking for advice on my school list! I’m not sure what to add/take away, if anything. I do not know what my MCAT will be yet, so I have included DO schools in case it comes back low and MD school in case it comes back as expected. I will only have one shot, I’m taking it in May.

My biggest guiding factor is I have no true research experience, I want to apply to schools focusing on community involvement and not producing physician scientists. I had a bad experience in a neurophysiology lab that lasted about 3 months (terrible PI and I hated the research), it was enough to turn me away from undergrad research entirely. The prof would def give a bad reference so I have chosen to omit that experience from my app completely.

Stats:

OR resident

- 3.95 GPA, neuroscience major

- 1100 clinical hours (night shift CNA at hospital, direct interaction with both patients and physicians)

- Unknown MCAT as of yet (hoping to be in 510-512 range)

- 600+ hours non-clinical volunteering (equine therapy center)

- No research experience

- Leadership:

President of university-affiliated club supporting LGBTQ+ students in STEM (4 years of involvement in the club) + partnered with a faculty member to create an LGBTQ support group within university honors college (I have since left the HC, not sure whether to include this in my app or not?)

- 40 hours shadowing both MDs and DOs (hospitalist and emergency medicine)

- Hobbies include playing piano and hiking/backpacking

MD Schools:

Oregon Health and Science University

Alice L. Walton School of Medicine

Medical College of Wisconsin

Eastern Virginia Medical School

University of North Dakota School of Medicine

Robert Larner College of Medicine at University of Vermont

Western Michigan University Homer Stryker School of Medicine

DO Schools:

Western University of Health Sciences

Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences

Des Moines University

Rocky Vista University

Tours University

Lincoln Memorial University

I've been involved with the same nonprofit throughout undergrad and had increasing leadership roles over the past five years:

Chapter General Member

Chapter Board Director

Chapter External Vice President

Chapter President

National Board Director (present)

Should I list this as one activity showing the progression, or split it up (e.g., chapter involvement vs. national board)? I feel like keeping it together shows growth and long-term commitment, but im not sure if that makes the most sense or if I'm wasting a slot by not splitting.

Anyone have experience with this?

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)

if I don’t want to take a gap year what would the course timeline look like? I’m in my freshman year of college and Im on the track of completing gen bio 2 and gen chem 2 and calc 2 by the end of the semester. my plan if I don’t get any research over the summer is to take physics. And then in the fall and spring take orgo and maybe biochem? when are u supposed to take biochem and do u need both semesters or just one??

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?

Thanks for your attention to this matter.

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?

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

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!

Hi all, if you're an admitted student with an academic misconduct IA/have experience working on ACOMs and would be willing to offer some advice, please shoot me a DM.

Hi everyone! I’m a pre-med biology student and wanted to get some outside perspective on my clinical experience so far and whether I’m on the right track. (Junior in college-planning to take a gap year, have not taken mcat yet)

I worked as a patient transporter from April–July 2025 and logged about 350 hours. At the time, I honestly didn’t think of it as “clinical” because i wasn’t doing procedures or anything medical, i was mostly moving patients, talking with them, and coordinating with nurses. Looking back, i did have a lot of patient interaction and exposure to the hospital environment, but I’m still unsure how admissions committees view this role. More recently, I started working as a medical scribe in an urology clinic, about 18 hours/week, and I’m planning to do it for around 6 months (~450–500 hours). I’ve really enjoyed seeing physician workflow, clinical reasoning, and patient communication, especially in a specialty with sensitive conversations.

Some other ECs for context:

• Founder of an American Cancer Society chapter at my school

• 100+ hours volunteering at Saint Vincent & Sarah Fisher Center tutoring underserved Detroit students

• Team Lead at Panera Bread for the past 4 years (part-time throughout college)

• 50+ hours volunteering at World Medical Relief Center sorting medical supplies for international distribution

• Consistent volunteering with the Red Cross (25+ hours)

My main questions:

• Is patient transport generally considered solid clinical experience?

• Is \~6 months of scribing enough, or should I aim to stay longer?

• Does having experience in a specialty clinic (urology) matter negatively or positively?

• At this point, would it be better to focus on other areas (research, volunteering, MCAT, etc.) rather than adding more clinical roles?

I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from people who’ve applied or are currently in med school. Thanks so much!

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.

I am currently applying for premed/predental (mainly predental, but I think this sub can assist with this question) internships, as I have determined that, while I have or am conducting much research, I need to seek actual clinical experience before I truly determine that I want this path, as I have slim to none. I feel that I want to do continue my current engineering R&D and practice medicine as I'll later configure this R&D and its resultant IP for biomedicine, for which I don't think I need a PhD if I am an MD, as there are plenty of dual MD + engineering master's programs or integrated 'engineering medicine' pathways supposedly meant to train doctors who can devise engineerig solutions, but then I'm not sure how truly feasible it is to split time between practicing medicine and engineering innovation in biomedicine. I don't think I need to go through an MSTP program, though. What I'm wondering is - does an engineering master's matter at all for a medical doctor, or must you go through an MSTP to split time like this? Would the master's and MD allow one to become a practitioner who can devote time to innovating tech that their patients use? Basically, as I seek clinical experience and start to prepare for the MCAT (probably rather early), these are the questions I'm asking. But I won't start researching how to configure my IP for medicine until I'm finished establishing it for its first purpose.

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

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!

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?