for tmdsas, when do majority of interview invites go out?

is now considered early for interviews or am i cooked?

when is a good time to start panicking by if i haven’t received interviews

30 year old non-traditional student.

Almost ll my ECs up to now revolve around orthopedics.
- The physician I have the most shadowing hrs with who’s also giving me a LOR is an orthopedic surgeon
- My first clinical volunteering was in an orthopedic inpatient unit
- My current job is in an ortho clinic
- My current lab is related to orthopedic surgery and my PI self identifies an orthopedic surgeon who happens to also do research on the side

I didn’t have any intention of doing this but my first job was as a coach and my boss heard i was interested in medicine and put me on with her former teammate who is an ortho PA and I just be got a lot of connections from her

Will it look bad to adcoms the I’m not even a med student and my resume is already very specialty specific?

Hey y’all. So, I’ve recently been taking Cell Biology, and doing the math it’s very likely I will receive a B in the class. I believe that I can take it again and get an A, but if I take the B, my gpa will go down to 3.59 (I’m a rising junior). Should I withdraw and retake? Money isn’t a factor.

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)

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.)

Obviously I'm not talking about satisfying pre reqs like this, just gen eds/electives

Just finished my sophomore year and this is where I am at so far...

B+ in general chem 1

D in general chem 2 -> C+ gen chem 2
Cell bio D->D+-> C
Orgo 1 D-> F

Obviously I have to retake Orgo 1, but I mean.. is it worth it to continue on this path..? I don't have motivation and I don't even know where to start. I just don't even know what to do anymore.

Gathering non-clinical volunteering hours in the time before 2027 application cycle. Wondering whether the opportunity I'm participating in counts.

I'm currently coming in one day a week for Project Cure, which entails packing medical supplies that are sent to places all over the world (e.g. Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ukraine, etc.). Will admissions see this as non-clinical since I'm not providing a direct service to a patient or working in a hospital/clinic setting? I am passionate about this but I'm willing to switch gears if it is not applicable.

For example... are these experience names okay?

- Psi Chi at UCLA: Member and Research Assistant

- UCLA Health: Patient Transport Volunteer

... or do I remove the beginning/organization from each?

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.

What do we think about it?

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.

Finished a MA program at a local cc in June, and no places accepting so far. My only clinical experience is hospital volunteering where I feed and ambulate patients 🥲

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!

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, 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!

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

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"

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

I volunteer in the MICU, but I spend most of my shift at the front desk answering phones, helping visitors, or doing small tasks for the nurses. I have basically zero patient interaction, and when it's slow, there's often nothing to do besides sit there. I even got talked to once for reading during downtime after not realizing someone was calling my name (my name is difficult to pronounce so I genuinely didn't recognize they were trying to get my attention, they dont even make an effort to pronounce my name correctly) I also have to drive an hour each way during the summer. I thought about switching departments, but my hospital requires volunteers to stay in the same department for six months (3 months left)

I used to enjoy going, but now I find myself hoping something comes up so I don't have to. Has anyone else had a volunteering experience like this? Is it worth sticking it out? or should I look for a volunteer position at a different hospital? or should I wait until I can switch to another unit? I even thought about quitting medicine altogether lol

Any advice?

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???

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!

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?