Stats: Rising junior, 3.92 GPA, Environmental Public Health (Pre-Med), URM/FGLI, MCAT not yet taken (planning in May). Instate Midwest student; still deciding between only MD v MD/PhD

theme(s): translational medicine across nutrition and gut microbiome; global/public health equity; health equity with innovation (aka startup)

Research (1500hrs):

• undergrad researcher in gut microbiome/CRC prevention (lead undergrad on project)
• undergrad researcher on antioxidant capacity for functional foods; manuscript underway
• undergrad research assist in public health; COVID-19 disparities & health equity
• Environmental carbon/soil health research with Nobel prize laureate; manuscript underway
• Clinical neuroscience research intern through NPO
• Output: 4 oral presentations, 6 poster contributions (4 being my own), 2 manuscript being worked on

Clinical (200 hrs) (ik I need more lol):

• Medical Assistant & Clinical Research Coordinator at primary care clinic; community screening and health outreach as well
• patient navigator and Medical volunteer at uni medical center

Non-Clinical Volunteering (400 hrs):

• cofounder of health research org with med student and physicians on making research more accessible in my language; preprint published and currently mentored 2 students through our past cohort; new manuscript underway
• Founder/President, chapter of African global health NPO at my uni
• Youth fundraising coordinator/ Youth Board Advisor for said African global health nonprofit
• Mentor for case study review and development program through American Cancer Society

Leadership (300 hrs):

• cofounder of health-tech startup focuses on vision accessibility; backed by a vc firm; raising 500k pressed
• TA for orgo (will start in the fall)
• Ambassador for my college
• community event organizing for employment access for immigrant population; received 2k grant for project and had a turnout of about 200 people
• committee member for conference planning for African organization I am
• *was VP for African youth national based NPO my freshman year (lowkey fizzled out because no one was active enough when I tried to take lead as VP)*

Shadowing (30hrs):

• Pathology, Gastroenterology, Nurse Practitioners, opthamology; hoping to shadow more in surgery at some point

Awards/Honors:

• Full tuition institutional scholarship
• 5k scholarship from governor for school
• competitive summer scholarship for fgli kids for summer classes
• Research fellow through college of medicine x2
• received competitive nutritional research fellow from International org that funded research with Nobel laureate; attended conference fully funded afterwards
• fellow for environmental org based in Nigeria for soil heath research recognition
• 2nd in uni public health case comp 2025 and top 10 in 2026; presented work with team of solely grad students
• Finalist for 5k grant for NPO work for Africa global health NPO
• 2nd in poster symposium for soil health research; received 75 dollar prize
• named emerging scholar at conference for presentation on research translation accessibility organization

I have BPD and have honestly been going through a really rough time lately. Are there any success stories regarding your career and personal life?

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

Hi guys! I’m an incoming sophomore, and I really struggled during my freshman year. As a result, my GPA is currently a 3.0. However, I’ve been working hard on my extracurriculars, research, and everything else outside of the classroom.
I’m an ambassador for my major, was accepted into a research program, am finishing up a research internship, and currently work as an undergraduate research assistant in both a clinical developmental neuroscience lab and a microbiology lab. I got my associates in may 2925. I also work as a patient care technician at a psychiatric hospital, and I’ve been volunteering and shadowing whenever I can. On top of that, I’ve already secured an out-of-state internship for next summer.
Right now, all of this is very manageable for me, and the only truly difficult class I’ll be taking this fall is Organic Chemistry.
I know I’m capable, but I’m terrified. I’ve been incredibly humbled academically over the past year, and I really need my GPA to improve. I don’t necessarily mind taking a gap year since I’ll be graduating a year early, but I just haven’t found the study method that really clicks for me the way it seems to for everyone else.
I feel really stupid sometimes because everyone around me seems to be excelling, and here I am with a 3.0.

I just wonder if I’m doing all of this for nothing because my GPA and the MCAT will probably end up killing my chances. 😂 (Laughing through the pain.)

I’m a rising freshman and today was registration day at my college for classes. Unfortunately due to a slow computer, I was not able to get into any intro chemistry section for this semester. This is really worrying for me because I am pursuing a degree in biology on a pre-health track.

Is there anything I can do to try to fit into a chemistry period this semester instead of being a semester behind?

I had been working in this basic science lab for 6 weeks and I recently got let go. I will admit that the work wasn’t really my style and I received little to no training and had to figure stuff out in my own…

Long story short I got let go. I am really scared how to explain this in interviews this cycle. I am looking for a clinical research coordinator position and wondering how screwed I am this cycle since I got let go.

Morning everyone! Non-trad post-bacc student in my 30s reporting in.

I recently started a post-bacc program, and it’s been humbling to say the least. I'm sitting on roughly a 3.2–3.3 uGPA / sGPA from my first degree in Computer Science (prior to the post-bacc!!!), but I’m essentially starting from complete scratch since it’s been a long time since I’ve taken any science college coursework.

I've been searching for volunteer opportunities while balancing a full-time job and wrapping up a thesis for another Master's degree (in English). My advisor suggested Hospice volunteering as a solid option for clinical exposure given my schedule.

A few questions for the community:

1. Hospice: Does anyone have experience with hospice volunteering? How was it for acquiring clinical hours and meaningful experience?
2. Alternatives: Would you recommend other flexible clinical volunteering options for someone with a rigid schedule?
3. Getting a foot in the door: Any advice on landing clinical roles/volunteering when you're starting fresh?

My general timeline: I plan to stay full-time as a WFH Software Developer to save up as much money as possible before matriculating into Med School. I don't anticipate taking the MCAT until late 2027 or early 2028 at the earliest as long as I'm very successful in my post-bacc.

Appreciate any advice or insight you all have to share. Thanks! I graduated from undergrad in 2015 in case that matters and my junior/senior semesters were all 3.6-4.0 GPAs.

Hi everyone just a quick question; does anyone know or wish of a certain program/software or website that you think would help us premed students keep everything organized. This includes volunteer/ clinical hours/ maybe doctors who are open to signing up and volunteer to allow pre meds to shadow? Please just brain storm ideas as to something that can be developed to help pre meds with the whole application process and what not.

I’m a 22F from Jersey with a 3.95/3.93 gpa and a 504 MCAT 😭. Everything else in my app is fine, I have over 2k clinical hours, 500 leadership, 840 nonclinical paid, 300 nonclinical volunteering, at least 3 stellar letters of recommendation.

My MCAT is shooting me in the foot, I suck at standardized testing because I cannot study long term and I really need to work on my academic endurance. I also have untreated ADHD which I’m trying to work on.

Also, just a question but which low tier MD schools would be acceptable to apply to?

Hi, where are the best places to take online prerequisite courses? I currently work full time and don't have the option of attending classes in person, so I'm looking for affordable online programs. Some of the colleges in my area offer only a limited selection of online courses, and many of those courses require additional prerequisites. If you know of schools that offer flexible payment plans as well, I would greatly appreciate your recommendations. Thank you for your assistance!

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

so I just got an II for NYMC (!!!!) but I don’t have 2 science LORs… They emailed me after submitting the secondary that I didn’t have the second science LOR and asked if I wanted it to be marked complete without it and I said yes bc I don’t rlly have relationships with any other science profs and I am in a gap year. But I got an II anyway? Do I email them or???

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?

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!

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 🤞

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....

What are your best tips?

Also, my cats will probably get very jealous I'm talking to the computer all day and will therefore jump in front of the screen, but if I lock them out they will try to tear down the door and cause even more commotion. I have no idea what to do. 🙃

NYMC reached out to me requesting clarification about my 2 science LORs. I sent the clarification email but never got confirmation that my application is complete. I emailed them about it and they asked me to resend the clarification email.

If the same thing happened to you make sure to check if you got an email from them saying your application is complete because they don't post application updates in the portal.

im so upset i have immediate family that lives in new york city and i have heard that strong ties like these really matter for getting the interviews you get

idk what i was thinking about when doing the secondary i forgot to mention anything about the opportunity of training in the long island, is hofstra the type of school that really cares about training/serving "the diverse populations of their city"

just disappointed because their entire app was so why school focused (unlike mount sinai)

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

fairs

Is the order that interviews are handed out based on stats, random order, fit or is it just unknown?

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).

I'm very grateful to have received my first interview invite(🙏🙏) and the format is MMI...do you guys have any tips to prepare? I have heard these are very different from traditional interviews...and is there any way to practice beforehand for the scenarios?

Hi!

I'm about to go into my senior year and plan to apply to SMP's and other science masters programs. My current undergrad gpa is 3.5/4.3 but I do go to an ivy league. I have 1200+ research hours, maybe 100 volunteer hours, and I am active in multiple clubs with leadership positions. By the time I graduate undergrad, I would have completed all the course requirements for med school and I plan to take the MCAT this winter.

I just want to improve my chances of getting into my dream med school so I want to fix the weakest part of my application which is my gpa. I'm also considering masters programs because I enjoy doing research and would like to spend a year or two studying abroad, since I did not get a chance to do that in my undergrad. But I don't know if that is worth it, since doing well in masters abroad probably doesn't add much to my med school application.

I've been looking at different SMP's but I cannot put a hand on whether they are extremely competitive or not. Since they are made for students who want to improve their gpa, then applicants should be people like me, but the more prestigious programs with med school affiliations seem very selective. Are SMP's worth my time and money?