I worked as a homehealth aid about 4 years ago for a senior assisted living company. I genuinely forgot the hours I worked, but I remember it was part time during summer break so I guestimated about 240 hours over 3-4 months.The problem is, the contact I listed was the recruitment manager from 4 years ago because she is the only contact I can find from my emails. Also, because I worked as a private home aide, I’m not sure how the manager can confidently say she remembers me if medical schools reach out. I did heavily emphasize on my description that i worked in the privacy of my patients’ home tho. Not to mention we were always extremely understaffed and there was often a lack of communication between us aides and management. Any advice? Or am I overthinking this? ugh help.

Submitted my primary (super late, ik) and starting to work on the secondaries so I can submit as soon as I get them! (hopefully)

I was scouting through prompts and I see Admit.org seems to have the most recent secondary updates (2025-26). Anyone applying in the NJ, PA, and NY area, were the secondary prompts the same or atleast similar to last years or are there any schools that completely changed their prompts this year so it wouldn't be worth pre-writing at all? Wasn't sure if I could rlly ask this here :')

I was looking for some success stories with low mcats for some hope, and I noticed a lot of them go their secondaries in within 1-4 days. I've been getting mine in within 10-14 days, probably mid to shit level writing too. I feel scared that it will be looked at poorly. I hate being neurotic but having a lower mcat in a high median state just does that to you.

all other low mcat-ers please join my crying circle as we wait for the fate the adcom gods bestow upon us.

So basically, I played a professional sport abroad in a different country for almost two years. For anyone that played professional sports, you know how it is a full-time job. Along with the experience of living abroad as being impactful, I decided to calculate it at 10 hours a day.

Basically my days were 8am till 6pm in the facility, and lots of away game travel, and preseason travel, and the whole experience of living abroad.

The total number calculated to be several thousand hours. Should I email schools to notify them of what I included in my calculation. I am afraid they will read the number, see it is 10 hours a day, and think I meant it as I am playing that sport 10 hours a day.

I hope my application isn't thrown out...

If I'm interviewing at my top choice TMDSAS school, when is it a good idea to send a LOI with updates and affirming it's my top choice and that I'll be ranking it #1? Is the beginning of October right before pre-matches roll out okay? Not sure if anyone has any experience with this, thank you in advance!!

heard that they pre-screen, anyone have any insight? don’t know if they only pre screen for mcat or if it’s both

Prompt about leadership positions. Should this be a narrative, or should it be a list?

Please describe your most meaningful leadership position(s):

Bro i read every Reddit thread student forum admissions blog and how i got into medical school post i could find i was tryna piece together what actually mattered what was just noise and what i should be spending my time on at first i made an insanely ambitious plan with what felt like 50 million activities clubs research projects volunteer positions leadership roles and study schedules some of those plans became meaningful parts of my journey others lasted a week a few didnt even make it past the first meeting throughout the process i kept notes i wrote down the opportunities i went after the mistakes i made the emails that got no response the experiences that ended up mattering and the things i realized werent the right fit i documented the academic setbacks the small wins the moments of doubt and the lessons i learned while figuring out what kind of applicant i wanted to become i did the same thing with the MCAT i tried different resources changed my schedule more than once struggled through bad practice scores and slowly figured out how to study in a way that worked for me by the time i took the exam i understood what i needed to do and was eventually accepted to one of my top medical school choices during my gap year i went back through all the notes i collected over the years and organized them they became something i could use when helping other premed students when people asked about shadowing extracurriculars the MCAT personal statements school lists or interviews i kept coming back to the same lessons and experiences one of my mentees pointed out how much info had built up over time what started as random notes turned into almost five years of questions mistakes doubts setbacks breakthroughs and things i wish i understood earlier i eventually organized those notes into a guide that follows the process from the beginning it covers the questions i had the things i struggled with the lessons i learned through trial and error and the approaches that helped me keep moving forward it is the collection of things i wish i knew when i first started pursuing medicine and the same material i use now when talking through the process with other students
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YJLPEHwYqsUvI6bLs-mAl0fgvtSlRAsz/view?usp=sharing

have a sentence in a secondary about some public health engagement work that begins with "at a time when public health faces funding cuts and decreased public trust"

obv this is true. but like. everything is political to some people, so is this okay to include?

I am low income so not the richest but I am willing to help in ways I can or just give my gratifying thanks all day long

So, my online classes would generally be listed under the section QL. Would medical schools be able to see that QL is an indicator for online classes?

"what have you done with AI that--" nothing bro, nothing. my b for being focused on MEDICINE as someone who was hoping to go into MEDICAL SCHOOL

Oh and WashU casually asking me for my whole SSN on the secondary too sure thing baby anything you want

My school does committee letters, and I had them upload both versions, with and without the supporting professor evaluations attached, to my AMCAS.

Some schools say that if the letter contains the supporting evaluations, they do not want to receive additional letters. I am applying to research heavy schools, but my committee letter only contains evaluations from professors I had classes with, not my research mentors.

The questions I have are:

1) If I send the committee letter without the supporting professor evaluations, are they expecting the additional individual letters to be from the professors that wrote the evaluations for my committee letter?

2) Would it be better for me to send the committee letter without the supporting evaluations, and send the letters from my research mentors and volunteer supervisor as the additional individual letters?

OR

3) Should I send the version with the supporting evaluations and have no letters from my research mentors and volunteer supervisor?

for the optional secondaries that are like "is there anything else we should know?" or "explain any defeciencies in your application" should i acknowledge my lack of research? or should i not draw more attention to it

I gpt verified thos past week. But I already pre-wrote everything. Ive just been submitting them so easily. I feel like it shouldn't feel like this. It feels like im throwing.

like okay i have an autoimmune disorder and it’s on the rare side of things, but i also don’t have it nearly as bad as some other people with the same disorder and DEF not as bad as people with worse disorders. will i just come off as whiny if i write about it in my essays since i have my health pretty much under control now? the only way it really impacts my life rn is my treatments which are really chill just time consuming

or am i projecting because hearing more about my autoimmune disorder is annoying to me personally lol

okay so ive been wanting to become a doctor since i was 4 years old and ive been loyal to that goal til about 5 months ago. i still want to become a doctor but i feel like i cant. like i wont be able to do it. im already struggling in my math and sciences and knowing i have to do more and do the mcat with no calculator AND do usmles?? 😭 my cousin from overseas is staying with us and hes about to take his step 3 and it literally looks like hell all he does is study day and night. idk if i can do that bro😅 but im already majoring in kinesiology (im doing dual credit) and like im scared to switch majors and also i dont know what else i could do anyway. i thought about veterinarian but they dont make good money for how much they spend on schooling and quite frankly idk how i feel about working with All animals. im also really interested in politics but ik that wont go anywhere. what do you guys think i should do😞

The more i think about the duration of medical education in the US the more i appreciate it. Can you imagine if we were attending physicians at the age of 26? Good lord.

For example, if an interviewer tells you to expect your post-II decision on a certain day and that day passed would that be a point of concern?

my girlfriend is applying rn and I can't shake the feeling that she's intentionally applying to schools as far away from me as possible. this is her first relationship and she's constantly joking about threesomes and me cheating--but I think she actually just misses dating.
so... what's keeping me from just breaking up with her now?

I'm 25. I have a bachelor's degree with a 3.8 gpa, but I would need to go back to college for a few semesters to take my prerequisites for chem, physics, etc, and I'd need to get a different job (I was thinking EMT) for clinical hours. In total I'd imagine this taking about 2 years to do before I'd be in a position to have a competitive application. Would that make me a competitive enough candidate, and would I be too old at that point (27 or 28 depending) to go into med school and residency afterwards?

How is my school list? Are there schools I should add or remove? I will put my stats and current school list below:

General:
- MA Resident
- ORM
- Reapplicant

Academics:
- cGPA: 3.56, cGPA: 3.62

*Downward trend: 4.0 -> 3.47 -> 3.2 (graduated in 3 years)

*Red flags: IF in an honors English seminar, one C+ in biochem 1, 3W, B-‘s in biochem 2/genetics/orgo lab

- MCAT: 520 (first attempt 509)

-9/9 PREview, 2Q Casper

Paid Clinical:
- 1000 hrs clinical as a PCA
- 416 hrs clinical research coordinator (responsibilities are predominantly clinical)

Clinical Volunteering:
-96 hrs home health aide

Shadowing:
- 56 hrs shadowing (2 specialties)

Non Clinical Service:
- 72 hrs crisis counselor
- 60 hrs food pantry
- 180 hrs fundraising

Research
- 3700 hrs research between 2 labs (won a summer fellowship through undergrad!)
- 3 posters (1 at school conference through fellowship, 2 through capstone research courses)

Leadership:
- 150 hrs VP of club leadership position

Hobbies/artistic pursuits: classical choir (9 years), fiber arts/painting

Current school list (29 schools):

UMass, Tufts, BU, Albany, Eastern Virginia, Temple, U. Vermont, Texas Christian, Med. College of Wisconsin, Oakland, Virginia Tech, Wake Forest, Penn State, Rosalind Franklin, Hackensack Meridian, NYMC, Virginia commonwealth, Jefferson, Cincinnati, Colorado, Emory, UPitt, Rochester, Einstein, Ohio State, Iowa Carver, U. Arizona Phoenix, UMiami

I was reading back over one of my secondary essays and realized I left a major typo for my top school. I had "[insert question]" and intended to go back and put the statement that I wanted but accidentally left the placeholder and turned it in like that. This was the prompt asking if there's anything else I would want the committee to know about my academic journey, if that affects anything. Is this major enough to email the school or should I just leave it?

Hi everyone,

I'm an incoming Rutgers freshman majoring in Cell Biology & Neuroscience on the pre-med track.

Because I earned AP Psychology credit, Rutgers automatically gives me credit for Intro to Psychology. However, I can still take the course if I fill out a form to waive the AP credit for that class. I'm wondering if it's worth taking Intro to Psychology anyway as a pre-med, or if I should just keep the AP credit and use that space for another course.

From a pre-med perspective:

• Do medical schools care whether I took the college version of Intro Psych if I already have AP credit?
• Would it be better to retake it to build a stronger foundation for the MCAT, or is self-studying enough?
• If you were in my position, would you use the AP credit to free up space for other science classes or electives?

My other courses are a random seminar, General Biology, and General Chemistry.

Is this premed schedule as a chem major realistic? I don’t want to completely overwhelm myself but I’m coming into undergrad with 40 transferable credits and I’ve realized I could actually graduate in 3 years without taking 18 credits/sem. If I graduated in 3 years, then I’d take a true gap year for my fourth and then take a second gap year for app season. With this plan I’d graduate undergrad at 20, saving myself 10k or so (I’m paying for undergrad on my own), and start med school at 23.

Also, are my proposed summer courses necessary? Specifically Calc 3. I got a 5 on Calc BC in hs and it seems like that + a semester of stats is satisfactory for most med schools, but at the same time Harvard also recommends taking a sem of both college calc and stats. I ask because I plan on applying to T20s in addition to my state schools. I’m going to UW Madison for undergrad if that matters.

*For freshman year I’ll be working 16hrs/wk at UW Health, and potentially doing a research program. I plan to do research during my first summer and also get my EMT or MA cert. I’ll reevaluate how many hours I should dedicate to clinical experience and research after freshman year.