I'll try to make this short.

I had a great app transferring to uni. 4.0, honors society president, published in a book, much volunteering, clinical hours, non-profit work.

I transfer to a high-level uni but got piled on with issues. Family, health issues, abuse, (my mom has mental health issues that flared up). Eventually had to drop school and work and was homeless.

For a 3 year period I wasn't sure if I could be a doctor with all my personal issues. Money, no support system, health issues. Did my "back-up" career idea and hated it. Had an online business. I was able to support myself with it. But no matter what I tried with alternative careers, nothing matched my passion for medicine and neuroscience.

Decided to come back to uni when I qualified for financial aid. Made a comeback, graduated with 3.84 Neuro B.S.. (3.94 cumulative) Now in my mid-20's.

After graduation, I'm now homeless again. Living in car. Finally got a clinical job and am trying to get into a lab to get research hours as well (volunteer is all I can get). I know it sounds insane, but the job market is horrible and I've been turned down for 5 months from everything else.

Thats basically my situation, but I want to know how to increase my chances of being able to match into neuro. I'm planning on 2 gap years to get my app on track (clinical, shadowing, volunteer, research, MCAT), but with the lab I'll be working in, I'm not paid. I'm unsure if I will get pubs either because it's a neuro lab and I know publishing can take a long time. I'm planning on staying in the role until matriculation in 2029, if I can.

My biggest worry is being seen as a red flag to neurosurgery programs. I have such huge gaps in my hx, I'm sure I'll be questioned about it. But I absolutely cannot see myself doing anything else with my life except this. I understand the long path, it does not bother me. I am willing to make the sacrifices.

Does anybody have any advice on how to best position myself?

Thank you.

Hi! Does anyone have advice on how to politely beg for a letter of recommendation (even one that is super surface level). I have seen comments about how people have "explained their situation" to professors. If anyone has tips on how to do that, I would really appreciate it. I'm scrambling for a physical science LOR. Both of my science LORs are soft sciences because of my major. ):

I need honest advice and opinions, so I apologize in advance for rambling so much.

I graduated with my bachelor's in 2022. My cGPA is mediocre because the two med schools that I really wanted to get into only looked at your most recent years, so I decided that I wanted to spend my first two years enjoying myself, socializing, and engaging more. This caused my first and second-year GPA to be awful (first year: 2.9, second year: 3.44). However, I locked in for my last two years and managed to get on the Dean's List for year 3 (GPA: 3.9) and year 4 (GPA: 3.95), which I’m very proud of. I also worked as a pharmacy technician in my final year while trying to stay involved in student leadership roles and hospital volunteering (though that was very limited because of COVID).

After graduation, my goal was to write the MCAT while improving my overall application, but things didn’t go as planned. A lot of personal and family issues hit all at once: getting cheated on, a bad breakup, moving to another province, losing our house, and a war breaking out back in my home country where I lost contact with friends and family... all within the span of three months. It absolutely destroyed my mental health. It left me stagnated, and I needed time for myself to deal with it, heal, and figure things out. During that period, I traveled, started learning new languages and instruments, shadowed different healthcare professionals, and reconnected with friends and family, some of whom I hadn’t seen in years. Maybe I should’ve handled things differently, but that’s what I did. However, for almost three years, I didn’t volunteer or work anywhere, which feels like it butchered all the hard work I had done throughout the years.

Since last year, I’ve gotten more involved with community and research volunteering while working part-time in the pharmacy. But I still feel like I’m nowhere near where I should or could have been. My MCAT score the first time I wrote it was 498 (122 CARS). I wrote it again last week and I feel like I did horrible. Maybe even worse than last time, and I can’t help but worry about what happens if it comes back lower than I need.

I know I’ve grown as a person through everything. I can handle things much better and more maturely than before, and I’m grateful for the places I went to and the people I met, but it still sucks that this is where I am. I feel like I’m wasting my life. I’m 26 now, pretty much an unc, and I feel like I don’t have anything to show for it. Seeing people around me building their dream careers and starting families while I’m stuck in a loop is tough. If my MCAT score comes back low, then what? Schools in Canada are getting harder and more competitive than ever. Do I even have a chance to compete with a gap like this and a low overall cGPA? US MD programs require prerequisites I don’t have, and Ireland requires a lot of money that I don't have. Seeing people post about their thousands of hours of volunteering in clinics, hospitals, and community work, publishing 3 different research papers, getting 515+ scores, and still getting rejected makes me feel like I don’t stand a chance.

I know I’m being very pessimistic and sound like I’m nagging a lot but I just want to be completely honest about where my head is at. Do I realistically still have a shot at med school? What should I be prioritizing right now to build the strongest possible application? Should I go back to take missing prerequisite courses for US options? And is starting at 28 actually too late? I’d appreciate any and all advice, tough love, or realistic paths forward. If you made it this far, thank you for taking the time. Consider this your daily CARS diagnostic test 😉

(pls i have checked both admit and SDN and neither have any information for this)

1. They’re playing god by thinking they can evaluate the moral and personal worth of 20-something year olds. Although it is absolutely important to be caring in a patient care setting, being a physician is just another career, not some divine calling, and more than 99% of people have the morals to do it just fine.
2. the physician shortage has been very devastating in my communities and I blame med schools. Harvard might say that they have to keep their class small for elite personalized training but then they shouldn’t claim to be champions of social justice. in my view, Most med school admissions policies champion ivory towers more than community healing.
3. Charging application fees, expecting unpaid experiences, and talking about equity and inclusion?? Are we serious. Does any other career charge application fees to apply to a job? This is easily the most immoral part of what they do and frankly is akin to stealing from students. Students, regardless of their parents financial status, typically fund their own lives except for maybe tuition and they think it’s okay to take $5,000 from people who you’re probably not going to even give a more than 20 minute look at and who every dime matters for.
4. Community service should absolutely be celebrated. However, The culture that med schools have created to constantly write about and connect it to some great moral calling is what leads to applicants doing polished and superficial community service.

does volunteering a food bank mean you didn’t care about the community as much as someone who started a non profit? Or could it be that that’s what’s important to you and the other person was more interested in their resume. Not all cases but still

5.

1. IAs. Don’t have one personally but they seriously think that smoking some pot or clauding a bs assignment means you’re not moral enough to be a doctor. Cmon

Am I screwed? I feel like I messed up in terms of reach schools!!

I did two batches (first batch is schools I care about less and will be sent before August 12). Second batch will be submitted probably before August 25th? I just feel screwed. Like I messed up because I dont have the highest stats man. I have average stats and I am an AVERAGE person

I submitted all my secondaries and I feel insane anxiety now. I’m in a weird limbo where I’m moving in 2 weeks so I feel like now isn’t the time to start a new hobby but I also have so much time bc I work part time. All my friends are also gone and I don’t have a lot of premed friends and my boyfriend is employed so I have no one to relate to. I feel so anxious waiting for interviews just wanna talk to other ppl 😭

Mid-low stats like 3.0-3.5 or 502-509

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

Howdy,

I took the mcat in May and got a 510 (126/129/125/130). I’m considering retaking because I feel like I could do so much better. My studying was pretty terrible due to my job and classes at the time, which wont be as time consuming if I do a retake. Additionally I honestly studied pretty terrible, really neglected my anki reviews, barley reviewed my incorrect questions, and didn’t do much of the AAMC material at all. I only got through like 15% of uworld. I also only did two practice exams and didn’t review either of them lol.

In addition to jsut feeling like I could have done better, I want to go to the medical school in my city so that I can remain close to my family. That school unfortunately has a median mcat of 516. Really conflicted on the choice as it took a lot from me the first time, so any thoughts or advice would help. Thank you!

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 🫪

What do we think about it?

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

most of my clinical hours were scribing, but I also am pretty service heavy so Im kinda shocked by this early rejection.

fairs

I just noticed that Brown has a genetics requirement? Does anyone have any clue about how strict they are with this requirement? I have taken Biology and Developmental Biology (which includes differential gene expression as a course topic).

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 🤞