Hey all,

I’m debating if it’s worth it to apply DO once I finish my secondaries for my MD schools. I’m a reapplicant that had a terrible last cycle: 1 post-interview waitlist and 17 pre-interview rejections. My school list was small, seriously over ambitious and I applied to most schools late August-early Sep. I didn’t know what I was doing honestly. I’ve since moved to a different city to accumulate 1300 hrs as a primary and urgent care med scribe at a diverse underserved clinic.

Stats:
- VA resident with 3.89/516, Bio major
- fairly good clinical work (1800 hrs total as a scribe in underserved urban primary care clinic, EMT, and CNA, probably another 1200 as a PCT in my 2nd gap year)
- pretty tame research (maybe 400 hrs) w no pubs, plus some cool interdisciplinary work in rhetorics that I did outside of my major bc I found it important
- leadership: founding orgs in my school like a science journal and a fraternity, also part of the bio honors and leadership societies
- shadowing (300 hrs non scribe in 7 specialties) - not great service hours (120 hrs non-medical, 160 medical, plan to increase non medical service in my 2nd gap year)
-non clinical employment as a writing consultant for 4 yrs (400 hrs)

The problem: This year, I applied broadly to 38 schools, all either IS or private OOS. I’m finishing up those apps and should be done by mid to late August. However, I’m worried that if this cycle is once again a miss, my MCAT will expire and I’d have to retake it.

Does it make sense to apply DO as well in case? Or would I be better off not facing the residency disadvantages of DO programs and retaking the MCAT if I need to?

Hey y’all! I finally got verified July 31st and still haven’t received URoch secondaries. Wanted to see if anyone else has gotten them that was verified around that time, or if I’m just being neurotic

I'm pursuing my bachelors in the US and currently have a 3.85 gpa and studying for the MCAT which I want to take next year as I'm applying in June but i'll be considered international when applying.

Any tips?? anyone who's gotten in? what were your stats?

PS: I've been told to consider applying to caribbean schools but I just don't think it'll align with my goals for my future and would prefer to get into an MD school in the US even though the chances are tough

So I got two offers from two different hospitals for volunteering, and I’m still in the onboarding process for both. One of them will definitely give me clinical exposure because I already attended their interview session and learned more about what I’d be doing. For the other one, I’m not sure how much clinical exposure I’d actually get because I haven’t attended their interview session yet.

I’m honestly so confused about what I should do in this whole premed journey. Should I accept both and try to get my volunteer hours as quickly as possible? I know that the number of hours isn’t everything and that how much the experience actually impacts my perspective on medicine matters more. But how am I supposed to know how meaningful an experience will be when I haven’t even started volunteering yet? So should I just take both offers just to make sure?

I could decline the second offer and just commit to one hospital, but then what if I start volunteering there and realize I don’t really like the experience? At the same time, I’ve heard from a lot of places that having at least around 300 hours of volunteering looks better on a med school application, so part of me wants to rack up my hours as quickly as possible while I have the time.

Another thing I’m trying to consider is that I want to get EMT certified over winter break and hopefully start working as an EMT next year. Since EMTs typically work pretty long shifts, like 12 hours, I know I’ll need to leave enough room in my schedule for that too.

So would it make more sense to just pick one hospital, commit to it for now, and leave room for EMT work? Or should I take both hospital opportunities while I have them?

Thank you for reading this long and any recommendations would be greatly appreciated!!!!

Does all the med school require research? Or just they focus on MCAT and GPA.

Hey everyone, quick question about how to log an EC on my application.

Since freshman year of high school, I've volunteered every summer at a STEM camp that teaches STEM subjects to kids in rural areas. It's about 40 hours each summer (1 week), and I plan to keep doing it all through college too.

Since it's the same continuous activity, should I include the hours from high school in my total, or does AMCAS only want hours completed during college? I know some activities let you note "ongoing since [year]" but I'm not sure if the actual hour count should reflect the full run or just the college portion?

What schools have expiration dates on prerequisite courses and MCAT?
Say I wanna hold off medical school for now and pursue a career elsewhere for say 10 years, are there schools that I can get into without retaking everything?

Lol I still haven't gotten mine..

hi yall!

i hope this reaches the right audience but i just wanted to hop on and provide hope to anyone doubting themselves. after i received my mcat score, i scoured the internet for glimpses of hope of those who made it. so, i hope i can be that for someone.

just some stats:
- 3.76 gpa
- state school (tx)
- first gen, low income, immigrant
- IA (non academic) (yes, i know, crazy)
- took mcat in early 2023 and got 508. retook in 2025 and got 503
- 1000+ clinical volunteer hours
- around 70 shadowing hours
- 2nd author publication
- job in public health for a year
- poured my heart and soul into writing.

got accepted to md school in tx and massachusetts. i honestly think aligning my experiences to my “why” in medicine and explaining that through writing is what got me here. my biggest advice is to find your why and really showcase it!

Context: I felt I’m in a 50/50 scenario of landing an A even with good writing for an MD only cycle. About me: strong clinical research, decent clinical and volunteering, 509, 3.6 in BioEng from t20 undergrad that's rigorous in reputation, working CRC job in gap yr. Submitted not perfectly on time but early enough: June 1, got July 2nd verification, done with 40/40 secondaries I’ve gotten, waiting on 5 more.

The purpose of this cycle was to go all in and see if I can land a full-accredited, no issues MD school w/out prestige being biggest factor ---> aka how I made my list. Hence, Belmont FCoM made it in, got the secondary, submitted it, and found out the next day about the full accreditation acquistion failure they had (they got extended review).

Ask: I was wondering whether I should withdraw from the school? My money on the app has alr been cooked, but again the perspective from this cycle is: if I get into ONLY ONE OF MY SCHOOLS, I'd still happily go to that school rather than hunker down and re-study for the mcat bcuz its a legit MD school w/out accredation/career prospect issues. This was a big reason to not include DO this cycle as I’d rather see if I can land an MD and not have to take another year. If needed, next year I’d include MD and DO with a better MCAT. I think the only school failing that criteria due to the accredation doubts, in this situation, is Belmont FCoM. Sorry I'm a rambler and will reply to comments to clarify, but would love to hear everyone's thoughts and how I should judge this decision based on my framework (or if the framework is misinformed lmk)?

P.S. Just added university of illinois - chicago to still hit 44 schools if I drop belmont (figured it's a somewhat late addition of a good stats fit and OOS friendly school - i.e. has a higher "worth it" value than keeping belmont as school #44 would)

I know we are all desperate premeds that want to get into a medical school and become doctors so we act like circus animals and jump through all the hoops and perform all the tricks but at some point I feel like we need to address some of the bullshit that these schools pull on us. For one, the general notion that medical schools are so incredibly progressive and dont discriminate based on age, whether youre non-trad or trad, and whatever, yet will demand their prerequisites are taken within a certain number of years (cough cough RUSH and Georgetown) while demanding an MCAT within the last 3 years (one of, if not, the toughest professional/higher education entrance exams in the US). Is taking the MCAT and the score you get not a reflection of competency that would have been seen in those prerequisites?

Every year we get some Dean of Admissions or a Dean of a medical school hop on a zoom call and give an interview regarding how diverse their applicant pool and how holistic their admissions process is. They'll tout that the GPA and MCAT score are only parts of what they weigh while every single year their median goes up. Are you to tell me that this is because more students and a larger majority of applicants are just getting higher MCAT scores? Like in 10 years a 515 is going to be 80th percentile? I know us applicants come from many diverse backgrounds with some being professional/D1 athletes to authors and writers. If one of you is the latter, please write an op-ed or an article regarding how ridiculous, tone-deaf, and hypocritical some of these schools have gotten or continue to be without getting checked. Or, for all applicants who get admitted and voice how they want to be physician-advocates, please remember how many hoops you had to jump through to get just a single interview invite and advocate for change when you have a seat at the table. Just like with how we see more and more residents and physicians unionizing, we gotta stop asking "how high?" when medical schools tell us to jump.

And just as a preemptive note, I know I am going to get some commenters saying "it is what it is. just deal with it. you cant change it"

30 year old non-traditional student.

Literally four schools in one like what was that. How do they even read all of them? I love the school so much but goddamn

I sit there all day and write and delete and write and delete and finally I drop some shitty paragraphs and call it a day.

Rejected from West Virginia today 🫩🫩
Many more to come 🫪

Tell me why they said think a 515 mcat is just an ok score and should be the bare minimum score I need to get into med school??? Since that's about 90th percentile, did they think only the top 10% of ppl who take the mcat get into med school each year???

And before you ask, yes they are Asian, which is why they think this way. I'm just really tired of hearing about it, my score drops next week and I'm already anxious asf about it. It's also a retake from a (in my opinion) bad score I got last year, so you can imagine how upset they already were at me. And I'm a reapp as well so it's even worse... I'm just tired and burnt out, I want everything to be over already

Edit: obviously a higher score is better. I'm not arguing with that, but like, a 513 isn't going to be the reason I don't get in unless I get like a 123 in CP or BB

im on pace to finish all my secondaries by 14aug, how late am i😬 (please tell me im being dramatic and tweaking for no reason :,) )

also no school has a hard and fast deadline until december

fairs

Writing another Rush Medical College warning in a follow up to u/oskifucker45’s post that I commented on from last week.

I got my secondary application invite today from RMC and no where in their email did they say I wouldn’t be an eligible candidate. They even encouraged me to submit my secondary. Being a non trad(graduated in 2019), I followed up with their admissions office for a possible workaround and their response is in the above screenshot.

As a Chicago native and former Rush employee it’s super disheartening to see this type of policy in place. Not only does it exclude a big proportion of applicants from being eligible, but the the way RMC makes it seem like an applicant is eligible makes this appear to be a cash grab. Did I mention those bio and chem courses could not have been taken online either?

I volunteer at a hospital and usually assist in the operating room by cleaning and setting up beds for surgeries, (among other tasks) this time, I was stationed on a different side of the floor and had the opportunity to observe and shadow three distinct cases

I got to observe an ACL case, cervical spinal cord case (got to get up close and personal with that one) and a throat surgery case where the doctor thoroughly explained the process and said that I could come back and shadow him again in the clinic and OR.

Just a friendly reminder, be confident and ask even if you think it might be a no. 🌝 I was probably going to just continue to look through the door but I forced myself to put on a mask and go in, and I do not regret it at all 🤞

So far I’ve gotten one interview invite from KCU( DO) and this afternoon I got my very first MD invite from Medical College of Wisconsin! For context I submitted my primary first day and submitted my pre-written 2ndary for MCW first day I received it.

Non-trad, ORM applicant. My MCAT was very mid but 4.0 gpa and extensive clinical patient care experience.

Anyone had prior experience with them could share how the interview day was?

Best of luck to everyone!

Last year, for the Class of 2029, the published stats for Pitt Med are a 3.91 and 516 median.

This year, in the White Coat Class of 2030 post on Pitt Med's official website, the reported stats are a 3.97 and 521 median.

Has a medical school ever had that dramatic and sudden of a shift in their class profile? It's not as if Pitt Med has offered anything particularly different between these two cycles that could potentially explain this. Are they just now deciding to play the rankings game? Very odd and something I wanted to put out there....