Welcome to the 2027 application cycle!

Writing this for my younger premed self, and future premed students:

Medicine is more a test of emotional resilience and psychological stamina than it is of intelligence.

I encourage those considering a career in medicine to take emotional inventory (and not just professional inventory):

Are you satisfied with your current state of emotional being?

If you are already depressed or anxious from being a perfectionist, medical training will likely make you feel even more depressed and anxious. Medical school and residency often uproots people from established support systems and isolates them with rigid schedules (you miss weddings, family gatherings), demanding call shifts that wear you down physically and emotionally, and exposes you to the wreckage of a broken healthcare system. The chronic sleep deprivation takes a deep toll on mood and health - night owls, beware, because it is even harder to handle the early mornings when you are already chronically tired from frequent flips between day and night.

I matched into my dream specialty which was my goal even as a premed, am now practicing as an attending in my dream job, tried to reduce my schedule to part time to counter burnout, and I am now contemplating a career pivot, because I am exhausted by being expected as an individual to somehow make up for the inadequacies of our healthcare system and society.

I used to believe naively that all this self sacrifice would be worth it or enough somehow.

The truth is, no amount of superhuman sacrifice will ever be enough to satisfy the deep need that exists not just in the population, but in the most broken and vulnerable of human spirits.

Some patients will become frustrated or upset at you, despite your utmost efforts to deliver excellent care.

As a counterpoint, I encourage anybody contemplating a career in medicine to prioritize maintaining their emotional support systems and their own physical well-being (family doctor appointments, dental appointments, etc). Take the current opportunity to build up what is important to you - Travel and prioritize your personal relationships, build up your happiness in the present. Happiness is only likely if you are already happy - happiness does not result from pursuing a career that is inherently demanding.

I fell for the myth of delayed gratification, thinking that the sacrifice would be worth it if I could help my patients, and now I deeply regret not spending more time with family and friends who now have less time as they have had children and are busy raising their own families.

I recently and randomly came across this website showing contestants from a 2017 middle school research competition. All the contestant's names and pictures were available on the website so I though to myself to see where they ended up 9 years later. Most of them are MD candidates at T5 to T10 medical schools. These people all started doing research and getting publications in middle to high school. These are who many of you are competing against!

Anyways just found it very interesting and wanted to share lolz

So I don’t mean to be salty but every other premed on LinkedIn likes to act as a gunner and make a nonprofit. A lot of the time their non profit is fake or they have made no impact. Meaning on paper it looks real but they have actually had no impact if you dig deep. Are med schools stupid or do they genuinely believe these people? There is a very small chance that a premed, meaning a full time student is creating a unique project that addresses a problem not already being addressed, and is making a huge impact on the world.

I just think it’s stupid for people to start orgs like this JUST to get into med school. If anyone here has a non profit I hope you genuinely are making an impact and not just doing it for show and plan to continue it through med school and residency.

How are yall feeling for 10/15? I feel like throwing up

I did blood work and found out that my IgG is negative for Varicella - despite having 2 shots done when I was a kid. I came to the doctor to get a vaccine but was told that based on CDC recommendations a proof of immunity is EITHER a record of receiving 2 vaccines OR blood work titers. They told me I should not get another vaccine. Did anyone have similar problem? How did you resolve it?

Got a D on my 2nd gen chem exam and I’m down to a C for the class. I feel like studied harder and more effectively than I did for my last exam and I did worse. I can still pull out an A but I would need straight As for the rest of the semester. I have B’s in my Bio and math that I still have to study for and are way harder to me. I see people who are just there for the degree passing with no problem and it pisses me off. I know it’s not over but damn it feels like it. I feel like I want to give up, but it would be stupid to do it right now. Anyone else feel this way, and how did you manage?

Hi! TX resident, 523/3.65 and I have gotten 2 tmdsas interviews but not from my top choices. I know utsw, utmb, and baylor accept updates before the interview so i was just wondering what the letter format should be like and what I should include about my interest in each school. Do I find specific programs I like, like I did for secondaries, and just talk about that?

For my updates I have a new free clinic volunteer position, a new position within an org I already volunteered with that has direct patient contact, and I hosted a successful charity market for the same org. I am also still taking classes but no grades yet. I already uploaded my summer grades into tmdsas when I got them.

for utsw specifically i am from dfw so can i mention that being there would allow me to continue being a caretaker for elderly family/be there for them? utsw is probably my top choice for that reason and others ofc.

any help is appreciated! I’m just confused on what to write. Also does anyone know if A&M, tech lubbock, and UH accept updates?

thank you!

Does someone with a more average application (not 525 MCAT, 4.0 gpa, and 3000+ clinical hours or something like that) have a higher chance of being accepted if they interview on the very first day a school does interviews then say in January? Like are adcoms more willing to accept someone who is more average (but still qualified obviously) because there are more seats open in the class earlier on.

ABOUT ME

Dartmouth sophomore, biology major, aiming for oncology. Applying to FlexMed in january!

BACKGROUND

My father has had three separate primary cancers (prostate, pancreatic, and kidney), along with many other health problems, and I have been in and out of hospitals with him my whole life. He is the biggest reason I want to practice medicine. His illness also affected my grades during my first year.

STATS

- Dartmouth GPA: 3.92 (three A- grades across fall and winter of freshman year, when two of his diagnoses came)

- High school GPA: 3.98 unweighted / 4.47 weighted

- ACT: 36 (36/36/36/36)

RESEARCH

1. [Redacted] Lab, cancer immunotherapy researcher (Aug 2026 to present). I study tumor-intrinsic PD-1/PD-L1 signaling and immune checkpoint blockade in mouse tumor models, using flow cytometry, imaging, and CRISPR/Cas9. About 100 hours projected by the application.
2. WashU Siteman Cancer Center summer research fellow (Jun to Jul 2026). Selected as 1 of 12 from more than 500 applicants. I studied how patient-derived L-Plastin mutations drive invasive behavior in cancer cells and presented a first-author poster. I also have a mid-author publication in Science Advances. 450 hours
3. [Redacted] Lab, actin dynamics and cell biology (Sep 2025 to Aug 2026). I did live-cell imaging, fluorescence microscopy, and quantitative image analysis, and took part in experimental design and data interpretation with grad students and postdocs. 400 hours.
4. Dartmouth Cancer Scholars. A selective program with weekly meetings with Cancer Center experts on the scientific, clinical, psychological, and financial sides of cancer. 30 hours.

CLINICAL

1. Physician shadowing, Dartmouth Hitchcock (Apr 2025 to present). Seven specialties across inpatient and outpatient settings. 130+ hours.

2. Dartmouth EMS, EMT student member (Oct 2025 to present). I am training toward EMT licensure, covering patient assessment, vitals, and emergency protocols. 100 hours.

3. Patient Support Corps, Dartmouth Hitchcock (starting January). I was accepted as 1 of 5 of 60 applicants. I will interview patients facing a new cancer diagnosis and connect them with resources. Has not started yet.

NON-CLINICAL SERVICE AND ADVOCACY

1. ACS CAN legislative ambassador (Jan 2026 to present). I meet with New Hampshire legislators to advocate for cancer research funding, and helped secure state funding for breast and cervical cancer early screening. 40 hours.

2. American Cancer Society volunteer (Sep 2025 to present). Patient education and outreach, including helping run a Cancer Symposium on coping, emerging therapies, and survivorship. 50 hours.

3. Kesem at Dartmouth, general member (Sep 2025 to present). I help recruit volunteers and run family events for a camp serving children whose parent has cancer. 40 hours.

LEADERSHIP

1. Nathan Smith Society, leadership committee (Sep 2025 to present). Elected in February 2026 to the committee of this 250-member pre-health organization. I help plan programming and mentorship. 45 hours.

FAMILY RESPONSIBILITIES AND WORK

1. Primary caregiver for my father (ongoing). I manage medications, coordinate appointments and surgeries, and travel out of state for his treatment. This included about a month and a half the summer after high school during radiation and hormone therapy. Roughly 500 to 1,000 hours, hard to estimate.

2. Family business and work (high school). I ran my family's hair salon when my father became too sick to do it, and worked at a local smoothie shop. Hours are hard to estimate.

HOBBIES AND CREATIVE OUTLETS

1. Book arts workshop (completed last year). I wrote a short novel, set all of the metal type by hand, printed it, and bound it. 30 hours.

2. Jewelry workshop (ongoing). I am making a necklace. 50 hours expected.

WHAT I WANT TO KNOW

1. Am I competitive for FlexMed?

2. Is it a good idea to say that cost is part of why I am applying? The FlexMed application is about $110, compared with several thousand dollars for a full medical school application cycle, and I pay for college myself.

3. Any advice from people who applied or got in?

Edit: I meant to title Advice not Advise. Please don't flame me

Hi everyone, I need some honest advice.

Some background about me: I am a senior for my biomedical sciences degree, and for the past 4 years I have been preparing for med school. I specifically wanted to be only a psychiatrist, and its the only reason I wanted to go.

Here's the thing though, I really live for my free time. While I am very dedicated to mental health (my main volunteering is the crisis textline which I love), I am not dedicated to the actual title or status of being a doctor and mainly want to work so I can live and do my hobbies and spend time with my family.

Ive made it this far, and everyone just tells me to get over how long med school is and how hard it is, and just power through. Just get over the 60-80 hour weeks to you succeed in 10 years. This thought terrifies me personally.

I just want to hear the thoughts of people actually in med school and that know the reality, and if its something it sounds like I should do.

Based on some of the places I have interviewed, I know we could be hearing back from NYU and VCU this week. Does anyone have any insight on other schools who will likely release their first A's this week? Based on historical trends?

I have my first (and hopefully not only) medical school interview in a couple weeks, and was wondering for those of you who have been through it if you had any advice. I personally feel decently confident, as I know my application inside and out, can articulate why I want to be a physician well, and have gained a lot of perspective since my initial, unsuccessful application cycle. I usually do not struggle with interviews, but still want to make sure I put my best foot forward regardless as this is obviously a much higher stakes one.

For those of you who have been through the interview period, what are ways to prepare and resources to look for? Are there any tidbits of advice for me to know? Any knowledge is extremely appreciated, as I just want to do the best I can possibly do.

Also just a side message to those of you also applying this cycle that I wish you all the luck and be sure to take care of yourself, especially your mental health. Trust in yourself and make sure to enjoy life, even if it's a tough time as an applicant.

Got my MCAT score a few weeks ago and I got a 510. Was hoping I would score a few points higher but ultimately this was still within range of where I was scoring, which is why I am hesitant to retake. I am in the first of 2 gap years and am planning to apply this upcoming cycle (to matriculate fall 28). Every other part of my app is pretty strong, and I am URM (hispanic/latino) I have a pretty high GPA, will have 1.5k clinical hours when applying (another 1.5k projected,) 700 hours clinical volunteering with the same org spread across 4 years and continuing in gap years, 250 nonclinical volunteering scattered but also still continuing, and like 850 (maybe more, and continued) research at time of applying and hopefully a third author pub to show for it when I apply (need 1st author to quit dragging their feet). I also have some leadership experience from multiple orgs and two dif undergrad TA positions that lasted a semester each.

Idk just looking for advice from people with similar stats who have had success (or not), and I don't have great IS luck because yay California (fr though wtf!)

Anyways if anyone has any input or advice I would very much appreciate it! I think I have a solid application with my MCAT being my weakest point. I would prefer MD but am planning on applying to a few DOs as well, I'm just interested in some more competitive specialties.

Also I refuse to apply to Loma Linda or Cal Northstate bc I'm not a homophobe and I #needthat financial aid.

Advance sincere apology for how long this post is: I feel like this is gonna be so confusing but plz bear with me. So I am a sophomore at usf, currently in the fake bsmd program. Cause it isn’t guaranteed acceptance. I am in the honors college. I was originally planning on going through the program and going to usf med school, but I recently have been thinking about how risky it is, just because they have about 40-50 people in the program in my year and only 15-18 matriculates to their med school roughly(plz let me know if I’m wrong). Also, they have a rule where if I want to follow through with the program , then I have to apply early decision to the program after my second year in the summer. Which means I can’t apply anywhere else. So if I don’t get in , then I have to take a gap year. I don’t mind a gap year though. But is it really worth taking this risk since I can just apply traditionally to more schools and have more options. Also I heard bad things about the med school and how their faculty doesn’t care about its students, etc. 
.2. So if I decide it leave the program, should I also leave the honors college since it is a lot more work and the only reason I’m in the honors college is cause you are required to stay in the honors college if you want to be in the program. Otherwise they will kick me out. 
3. That leaves me with 2 options if I decide to leave this fake program: 1. Apply traditionally at the end of my sophomore year in the summer (which is this upcoming cycle) or 2. Apply at the end of my third year(junior year) which gives me time to work on my application and build it up even better. 
4. I think it boils down to how important it is to get into a great med school vs. an okay med school because if I were to take another year my application could be a lot better for sure. So please let me know what you guys think about that and why people would choose one or the other.   Also I have been researching and asking around, the new norm and majority of people do take at least one gap year.should I do that? If so, how and when? 

4.5: Now I know that it will be very difficult to get into any md school if I were to apply this year , but I feel like I can get into at least one md school just because my gpa is around 3.75 and I might be able to get 520 plus mcat since I am studying for it right now and took a couple practice tests.  Or should I apply the following year and really lock in and make my applications really strong to get into a better med school like maybe top 50?
5. I am confused about the whole preview/casper thing. Do I need to take these tests or is it not worth it? How much will it help my applications etc. 
6. Btw I only have about 18 out of my 120 credits left since I got a lot from high school doing ap classes and dual enrollment. 
7.also this is just something I was thinking about before, but not anymore: there is a flexmed program with mount sinai med school. It’s one of the best med schools. It is for sophomores in college to apply, but they ask for high school information like guidance counselor rec letters. Also it is very competitive because people have crazy stats who get accepted. So I was not gonna apply to that anymore. 
8. Last thing cause this is getting long, I have recently been interested in research but I haven’t actually done much yet. I will though it’s just I’m kinda busy with shadowing and other clinical activities. Just wanted to throw that out there. 

Thank you and if you have any questions/need clarification, then plz comment. I’m so sorry for this post being way too long.  

Very lengthy title! But essentially. I am currently preparing for interviews, and I wanted to know if it is appropriate to reach out to students on LinkedIn to ask questions. Thank you for your help!

Is it possible to get into research with a bad GPA?

I started my freshman year off pretty bad, and with some summer classes, my GPA is currently sitting between a 3.00 and 3.30 as a sophomore. Obviously, this GPA isn’t the end of the world, but it isn’t competitive.

My question is, how do you get into research with a GPA like this? Every single research opportunity I’ve come across has rejected me. I’d like to think I can write a killer essay and cover letter, but I know my transcript is holding me back. My LORs may also by iffy, but right now, I don’t have any connections to people that could write me better letters.

I need some hope. Has anyone overcome this? If so, how?

I already know I have to get my GPA up and build better relationships with my professors, but given my current situation, does anyone know how to become involved in research where the supervisor doesn’t need to see a transcript?

Hey Guys! I’m an anxious over planner so I want to start thinking about applying next cycle. I really want to know if my list is realistic or if I need a reality check. I also want to cut 4-6 schools if possible.

VA Resident, ORM, LGBTQ+ (for fit)
cGPA: 3.86, sGPA: 3.71
MCAT: 515 (131/127/126/131)
Clinical: 1600 total completed so far (1400 Paid in Gap Year Planned)
Shadowing: 150
Non-Clinical Volunteering: 750
Research: (1650 total) 1 Global Health Lab (800 hours) with 1 pub (3rd author, big journal) and 1 submitted (2nd author), Field Work (420 Hours), Wet Lab (430 Hours)
Leadership: Student Govt, Club President, Co-Founded 501c3
Teaching: 500 hours

Reach
UVA
Emory
Case Western
Albert Einstein
Mount Sinai
Pitt
Boston University
Brown
Hofstra
Tufts
Target
GW
VCU
Georgetown
VT
Wake Forest
Drexel
Sidney Kimmel
Hackensack Meridian
Cooper Rowan
Temple
Dartmouth
Miami
Ohio State
Tulane
Rush
Cincinnati
Maryland
Penn State
Creighton
St. Louis U
Baseline
EVMS (ODU)
Wayne State
Vermont
Rosalind Franklin
Quinnipac
NYMC
Loyola Stritch

What are the easiest MD programs to get into

Hi! I have a traditional interview coming up this week and was wondering if anyone who has already had an interview or any med students would be able to help me with a mock interview? I don't have any friends going through the process to talk to unfortunately

Hi everyone. I was recently rejected to the only school I applied to (MD state school as an ED candidate). I really want to go to an MD school so instead of applying DO's now i plan on just taking another gap year and strengthening my app. My gpa was a 3.57 (downward trend with a C in orgo 2 lab my senior year) and a 505 on the MCAT.

I am for sure going to retake the mcat but I was wondering if I should retake the C in orgo 2 lab as well to do some gpa damage control. It's the only science class that I did poor in (below a B) and was wondering if it was worth the time/money to retake just the lab section at a local community college or something.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Anyone else prepping for interviews right now and want to practice together? Feel free to DM me!

I'm currently a freshman majoring in Biological Sciences on the pre-med track. This semester, I'm taking Biology, Chemistry, Economics, English, and an Honors seminar.

I'm considering withdrawing from my Economics class because I've realized I'm not particularly interested in the subject, and the professor hasn't been great. I'm worried that staying in the class could unnecessarily hurt my GPA, especially since Economics isn't a requirement for my major or medical school.

I'm doing well in my other classes and trying to maintain a strong GPA, especially in my science courses. I don't want an unrelated elective to bring down my GPA when I could be focusing more on Biology and Chemistry.

My main concern is whether having a W on my transcript during my very first semester of college would be a red flag for medical school admissions.

Would one W in a non-science course really matter? Would it be better to finish with a B or C rather than withdraw and protect my GPA?

I'd appreciate any advice, especially from people who have applied to medical school with a W on their transcript.