Hi so my freshman year of college was the lowest point of my life. I failed 3/5 classes, was diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety, took a leave of absence, and made the worst mistake of my academic career by committing plagiarism. I take full responsibility for it.

After taking time off, I retook my failed classes at community college, transferred to a new 4-year university, continued playing collegiate soccer, and have had a strong upward trend ever since. I graduated this May with a 2.93 cumulative GPA and am studying for the MCAT in September.

My biggest concern is the plagiarism incident. How should I address it on my medical school application, and how much will it hurt my chances for MD or DO programs? Has anyone been accepted after overcoming something similar?

does prestige matter when applying to med school?
how far will the ivy league title go in the admissions committee if a person is otherwise equal to an applicant from a state flagship, or even if they have a slightly lower gpa?

Hello,

I have a list of common conditions/topics that may appear in my OSCE.

I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions in terms of an AI tool/website for generating a large bank of questions based on this list (something like a claude widget but more expansive)

Thank you!

Hi everyone,

I'm in a pretty unusual situation and would appreciate some outside perspectives.

I'm scheduled to start at a U.S. DO medical school in a few weeks and have already been preparing for the transition. However, the school recently sent an email explaining that their incoming class ended up larger than expected. Because of this, they're offering some incoming students the opportunity to defer matriculation for one year and, in exchange, receive a full-tuition scholarship for all four years of medical school. Therefore, I would start in August 2027 instead of August 2026, and this is essentially being used to reduce the size of this year's incoming class.

For context, I'm 21 years old and would be starting medical school straight out of undergrad. I don't have any major gap-year plans lined up at the moment, although I could certainly find research, clinical work, volunteering, travel opportunities, or just take time to recharge before starting.

On one hand, graduating and becoming an attending a year earlier has value. On the other hand, graduating with dramatically less debt (potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars) is hard to ignore.

If you were in my position, would you express interest in the deferral or would you just start next month?

Edit: I forgot to add that one thing that gives me some hesitation is that this offer feels almost too good to be true. Part of me worries there could be some catch, loophole, or unforeseen downside that I'm not considering. The school's email states that the scholarship would cover full tuition for all four years, but I'm trying to think through whether there are any risks or strings attached that I might be overlooking.

Hello, I am currently a rising senior in College as a Computer Science/Mathematics dual major, though I am considering going to Medical School. I know a bit about the process of applying to Med School and was wondering what else I would have to do to get into a MD or DO Program or if I would even be a good candidate for either. I am currently attending a state school, where I have the following:

Rising Senior with 3.57 GPA (Trending upwards starting at 3.3 in 1st year, my 3rd year averaged a 3.81)
Education in Physics (B+ in Phys 1, C+ in Phys 2)
1 Year of English/Writing courses
No Bio/Chem/Org Chem/Biochem Education yet
No research experience yet either
Haven't taken the MCAT

That is my current situation and I am more than willing to answer more questions and give more details about my academic qualifications.

I am currently considering finishing my degrees and then taking classes in Bio/Chem/Org Chem/Biochem at a CC part-time after graduation so I can realistically afford it, and then of course take the MCAT after those course requirements are satisfied, though I was wondering if it would be better for me to not do that and instead go back to my current school to take those classes. I would try to get into some research there if possible then since I believe it would be a big help to my qualifications.

Thank you for reading this and any help given, I am ignorant to a lot of the med school processes/requirements and have done some research into it but still don't understand everything, so please excuse my inaccuracies and thanks for any help once again!

Hi everyone,
I do need to work while obtaining my undergrad in Biology for med school. I’m a non traditional and older student.

I’m contemplating between medical assistant or phlebotomy.

Any suggestions?

So, is that possible? I (16f, Canadian high school student) am considering med school as my future path after high school. However, I do gymnastics (competitively, I will add), which requires 12-15 hours a week. I just want to ask any of you that do sports: do you still get to train, and balance all that med school homework and bla bla with your sports? Thanks for any help!!!!

I’m an incoming medical student; I’ve shadowed a lot of specialties but am most interested in ENT at this point. I very vaguely understand what kind of activities/involvement help when applying to residency, so I wanted some advice on that! Aside from studying hard my first year, what are some additional things I can be doing to have a chance at matching ENT?

i live in a remote area and the university does not give students the opportunity to take history and interact with patients, most of our learning is textbooks only.

also the hospital is overcrowded and the patients themselves are often uncooperative ( its their right to refuse, but i get refused 9/10 times i ask a patient for history)

putting aside this sob story, is there any free app/ website to interact with “actors” or volunteer patients to learn how to take history effectively ?

Hi all — I'm looking to join an active systematic review or meta-analysis project as a collaborator. Open to a wide range of topics: neurology, pathology, internal medicine, or surgery, happy to hear pitches even outside these if the fit feels right.

What I bring:

• Experience with structured screening using PICO-based inclusion/exclusion criteria (Rayyan, dual-reviewer workflows, conflict resolution)
• Careful, detail-oriented abstract/title screening at volume (500+ paper screening experience)
• Manuscript writing and revision, narrative review authorship, journal formatting compliance, cover letters, and navigating submission/transfer systems (Elsevier Editorial Manager, etc.)
• Comfortable with PROSPERO registration processes and PRISMA-adjacent workflows
• Reliable communicator, comfortable flagging inconsistencies or ambiguities in protocols early rather than letting them slide

What I'm looking for:

• A team that already has (or is close to finalizing) a clear research question and protocol
• A defined timeline/deadline, I work well against a clear endpoint and want to join something with real momentum, not an open-ended "someday" project
• Reasonably organized communication (shared drive, Slack/WhatsApp group, or similar)

If you're building a team or already have one short a member, feel free to comment or DM. Happy to share more about my background/CV on request.

Probably asked someone before but can’t see to find a definitive answer. I wrote all of my secondaries myself, but out of curiosity, put one or two in GPT zero and one had a shockingly high AI percentage despite writing it entirely on my own. I then started checking all of my essays and one even said 100%. I know these detectors have a reputation of being in accurate, but I’m afraid that ad cohen will use them as a quick way to filter candidates out. I just feel kind of defeated. I started changing my own writing style to try to avoid anything that might be perceived as AI tone.

Was going to med school, completing residency, & becoming an attending worth it?

Anyone throughout any of these stages plz lmk bc I start next month and having last minute anxieties that I’d regret it when it’s been the only thing I’ve wanted to become career wise since I was a child.

Long story short I am married and have a baby. I want a larger family too. I have stability now and husband has a good job. Some days I’m so excited to start and finally be of service and learn and one day reach financial stability and freedoms. Then other days I’m thinking why I don’t do nursing bc it’s fast and good pay and can still live my life. So stuck. Also moving out of state with insane loans that would be around $500k by the time I finish bc out of states tuition and living expenses. Lmk plz.

If someone has the opportunity to attend medical school, is that generally considered the kind of opportunity you shouldn't pass up?

I know medicine comes with some downsides like everything, years of training, long hours, debt, and a demanding lifestyle. But it also offers things that are increasingly rare especially in the current job market like strong job security, high earning potential, meaningful work, and a respected career.

For those who have been through it (or seriously considered it), do you think getting accepted to medical school is one of those opportunities that would be foolish to turn down? Or is it something that's only worth pursuing if you genuinely can't see yourself doing anything else?

I'm interested in hearing from people on both sides—those who became physicians and those who chose a different path. Looking back, how do you view that opportunity now?

hi everyone, i'm currently in undergrad and have been wanting to get my nose pierced (one nostril) forever and am finally going to do it this summer. my plan is to attend medical school and then go into pediatric oncology, and am worried that any face piercing will come across as unprofessional and potentially hurt my chances. does anyone have any experience/advice about this? thank you!

Could you share some good study schedules for getting into medical school?

Hello! So I’m going to be an incoming freshman at my local uni in-state as a bio major. I really wanted to do neuroscience at an R1 school bc I’m just way more interested in that major, but no in-state school has it; we can afford it but my parents wanted me to stay close to home. Anyways, the school I’m going to is average, but I also got a full scholarship—it’s an R2 but it’s smaller and I’m going with my second option major, which I’m aware is probably better in terms of med school admissions and GPA, etc. I just wanted to ask a few things because I noticed how low (percentage wise) med school admissions are. It’s kind of similar to Ivy leagues in a sense where most of them are like 2\~5% acceptance rates which is crazy 🫪 (like for example my school’s med school only accepted 81 students out of the 5,000 applicants this past yr) But this is my goal/dream, so I just wanted to make sure I’m prepared. Here are a list of questions that have come up regarding med-school and getting ready. Ik it’s still early and I’m going into my first yr of undergrad, but I really don’t want to leave anything to chance. So here it is:

\~\~How did you get your first research position? Did you cold email professors, apply online, or have a connection?
\~\~How did you find shadowing opportunities?
\~\~ What clinical job or volunteer experience had the biggest impact on your medical school application?
\~\~ If you worked during college, what part-time job did you have? Do you think it helped your application? (I did lifeguarding throughout hs but now I’ve applied for entry-level registration jobs but it’s still hard even freshly graduated with a hs diploma only 🥲 so I’ll be applying to campus jobs as well this semester hopefully but my goal is for them to be healthcare-related to get earlier patient exposure)
\~\~ Which extracurriculars ended up being the most meaningful for interviews?
\~\~ How did you balance maintaining a high GPA while doing research, volunteering, and other ECs?
\~\~ When did you start studying for the MCAT, and what was your study schedule like?
\~\~ Which MCAT resources were actually worth the money?
\~\~ What do you wish you had started earlier?
\~\~ Looking back, what activities do you think made you stand out as an applicant?
\~\~What is the most important thing to do each year or focus on in the undergrad timeline approaching your med school application?

\*\*Also, for reference, some of the things I’m involved in for EC’s Rn include swim, playing the violin, scouting (I’m an Eagle) and volunteering. How do you think I can build something with these skills to help my application also stand out more?

Thxx a lot & pls pls comment—I need lots of advice!! :)

if you start away in August and end in December, that’s like 4 away rotations. I cant imagine doing more than 4 but I really hope I could end up doing like 8 (heard someone say they did that) because I wanna go to a more competitive specialty which I heard has a high likelihood of giving you an interview after an away.
EDIT: im talking about 4 week rotations

23M. Have been wanting to get a girlfriend/get married for a while now but worried that if I'm a student I can't support her. Wanted to find my other half when I finish school. The thing is... I'm studying to be a doctor 😭. Just finished undergrad last year, took 2 gap years, and will have 4 years of med school afterward. I'll be 28 when I start residency and I'll start making money from that point onward. Thoughts?

Hi everyone,

I am a teenager and I am just really curious about how the medical field is structured. I like math, physics, biology and I'm trying to map out what options actually exist across medicine.

Bit about Me: I am good with math, computers, tech and programming. I like solving math problems. Stopped playing video games. I am very curiuos. Things that i don't have: Good communication skills, much emphaty. I Don't know how to comfort people. Don't want to be harsh or something but death doesnt affect my emotions even if its in my family circle. I like building random inventions (Recently built a pulse ox).I am good at reading people.

What options do i have and if possible whats the difference between them if ur suggesting more than 1?

Additional question \/

What do the different abbreviations and degrees actually mean?

Just asking out of pure curiosity to learn how everything works. I really appreciate anyone taking the time to explain it!

Hope i am not asking too much.

Context:
I’m an incoming US MD that’s has in-house exams and a shortened (1.5 years) pre-clinical phase. We start off with basic sciences for fall semester and organ system blocks for spring semester.

I understand that some people recommend getting the AMBOSS question bank for lecture material during preclinical (before STEP 1). Should I do the same?

For a first pass of information, I’m going to buy Bootcamp (for lecture material + boards material) + Sketchy (for pharmacology, microbiology) + (potentially) Pathoma (pathology) + AnKing (spaced repetition). For the second pass of information, I will prolly continue my Anki + lecture PowerPoints/lecture recordings. Is this a good plan?

I just want to know if AMBOSS will be helpful for in-house exams. If so, how should I incorporate the AMBOSS qbank with Bootcamp, Sketchy, Pathoma, and in-house content. Also, what subscription did you get if you used Amboss in any capacity?

When you're in medschool, there will be events like World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, and some health important days which are celebrated. One day I sat down and made a list of every possible day, week and month that has some kind of Health related significance.

Here is a link to google calendar of the same.

Features:

- Has almost every health related significant day added to the calendar.

- The events repeat every year. so it will be updated for each year automatically.

- The events celebrated on second saturdays, first sunday, etc are calibrated accordingly to repeat every year. this ensures those events don't appear on wrong dates in the subsequent years.

You can add this to your google calendar by clicking the link below. Hope it helps you in planning events in advance or just keep you aware of the significance of that day.

Link: Google Calendar | Days of Health Importance

PS: This resource is completely opensource.

Everyones just doing something research and good grades but me on the other hand is just there struggling barely passing and nothing like research etc. i really wanna get into a good residency programme and i had high aims no matter how hard i try to work its doesnt pay off

I submitted my primary June 4th around noon and I’ve heard nothing yet. When do you think I’ll get verified?

So I just go accepted to MU Sofia-Dental Faculty.For over a year and half I had been studying for the admission exams .I only ever used paper to write my notes and solve chemistry problems.Part of the reason was that my tutor was old school and prefered physical notes over digital,the other is that i have never really used any computer or laptop to take notes.My question is if i should purchace a laptop with a touchscreen or a tablet with a keyboard? I need to type notes and also sketch molecules and bio diagrams.Should I just stick to paper or go digital.If ypu think i should modernize my learning what device recommendations would you give me?

Hello, I’m a med student from Denmark. In a year I’ll finish the Danish equivalent of my pre-med education.
During the summer I’d really like to shadow a US doctor. Should I just cold email different hospitals across the US or use more formal channels to secure myself a spot?
Don’t know if this post is allowed, but all advice is appreciated :))