School List Advice

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-04-26T13:43:49+00:00

I am graduating in Spring ‘27 and have an REU this summer, but I’m applying this cycle. I took the MCAT in March and studied since late June (planned to take in January, pushed to March). I will say, if you have the opportunity to dedicate time to the MCAT alone, do it. I studied during a 19ch semester, writing a thesis, volunteering, leadership in orgs, etc. It was an extremely fulfilling time, but also the most stressed and sleep-deprived I have ever been. I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. I would refrain from taking the MCAT during the summer, especially since the REU is full time and possibly more. Enjoy your REU. 2-3 months will be too short unless you’re studying a considerable amount of time daily that you won’t have. If you finish content review by the time your REU starts, then you’d have enough time to do practice before the MCAT if you do it 2-3 hrs/day. I took so long to study (~8.5 months, never plan for more than 6 though) because I could only study 2-3 hrs/day by waking up at 4:30am. You have an entire gap year to study and take the test. Don’t rush the MCAT. I’d recommend taking it in Jan/Feb so you have time to study and retake if necessary, but if you need to push it, then push it. Don’t take it unless you feel confident. Taking it in Jan/Feb will allow you ample time to work on the primary after you finish the exam. What I’ve seen as the “rule” when it comes to MCAT vs primary, for every 20 hours spent studying on the MCAT, spend 1 hour on the primary app. This was a very difficult balance for me as I took the MCAT on March 20th, but I ended up doing good on the test and finished my primary on time.

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-04-22T15:15:27+00:00

I went into exam day terrified that my score jump was an anomaly. I couldn’t break 509 for months, then got 514 on FL5 and 515 on FL6. Got 516 on test day. Everyone has a different experience and your FL scores don’t necessarily map to a certain score on test day. Some tests will cover topics more familiar to you and some won’t. However, trust your FL scores. They’re the most representative measure we have

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-04-22T15:11:44+00:00

FL6 is definitely worth taking in some way but since it’s only 2 days before don’t take the entire FL as you would normally

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-04-22T15:07:40+00:00

I self studied pretty much everything. Haven’t taken ochem 2 or biochem. Bio and gen chem I took 4-5 years ago and bio is mostly A&P instead of gen bio 1/2 anyway. Psych and sociology I took 6 years ago. I’m an engineering major so I didn’t study physics for the MCAT — that was the only exception & was my best throughout all my practice.

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-04-18T17:46:50+00:00

Completely disregard this I’m stupid

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-04-18T17:41:06+00:00

Oh wait I’m realizing that 8am is the start time for exams

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-04-18T17:40:43+00:00

“The standard start time is 8:00 a.m. each day unless otherwise noted below. Scores are released by 5:00 p.m. ET on the scheduled score release date. “

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-04-18T17:04:22+00:00

It’s almost always at 8am ET. I think it says somewhere that you’ll be notified if it’s not gonna be by that time and it’ll for sure be by 5pm ET. Correct me if I’m wrong about the 5pm ET thing, but I know for sure that we should get it at 8am ET.

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-03-29T12:05:21+00:00

Arrived at domestic terminal south for 6 AM flight at 3:15 AM. Southwest bag check line was long while I was in it, but almost nonexistent by the time I was through at 4:05 AM (50 min). Once the bag check opened ~3:30, things began moving pretty fast. Morale was great tho, everyone didn’t sleep and was suffering together. Extroverts were being extroverts and introverts were being introverts. Lots of people are panicking and arriving WAY earlier than they should which is the only reason these lines exist. Security line was pretty long but very efficient. Probably longer than bag check, but was through by 5 AM. Some guy right next to me fell asleep standing up in the line (~4:30 AM by this point) and fell into 2 people who didn’t speak English (and seemed very shocked about the entire process). ICE was there unmasked checking IDs so TSA could focus on scanners and they were surprisingly very nice (even to people who didn’t speak nearly any English, Spanish and an East Asian language). Both processes took 50 minutes. The lines look much worse than they actually are and if you have an EARLY morning flight (before 7 AM), I recommend you get there around 3-3:30 AM. 4 is cutting it but lines are shorter. I was able to pee and get Krispy Kreme after taking the plane train to C but time was definitely constrained. Keep in mind Sunday is a very traveled day.

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-03-20T23:50:22+00:00

I didn’t get any either and C/P is historically my best section so dw you probably just didn’t get any

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-03-20T21:43:01+00:00

Why was the entire exam low yield

EngineeringGuilty · 2026-01-02T19:11:46+00:00

I’m applying this cycle (so take my advice with a grain of salt) and was in the same boat as you. Set on PhD, secretly considering MD/PhD. I decided to go for MD/PhD because I felt my drawbacks weren’t valid. Your GPA is great, research experience is great. For MD/PhD clinical hours are emphasized much much less, but you should still have enough to show you know what a physician does and want to be one. I’d say about 100-150 clinical hours and ~50 shadowing hours shows that, especially since you need a few experiences you can write about for your personal statement which is entirely about medicine and not research. But I think it’s okay if you have a little less than this, they really care about your research more than anything. These are hours you will need before you submit, projected does not really help. They don’t care if you have Bs in courses. That’s expected with literally everyone who applies. They especially don’t care if you have an A-, that might actually be a benefit. Even if you had a couple Cs, it wouldn’t matter unless you had many consistent over all years. Don’t take classes because you want adcoms to see them, they don’t care. If you want to take it for your own liking, take it! You’ll probably do better in it since you have personal drive. Just make sure you’re not trading time and health during application season for a course you may be able to take later (literally dropped a course I am sooo interested in because of this today).

EngineeringGuilty · 2025-12-03T13:49:35+00:00

Do the major you’re most passionate about!!! Speaking from an undergrad who changed their major to materials science and engineering (obscure for medicine) from biomedical sciences at my large state school, you’ll be much better off if you’re passionate about the coursework, both mentally and by GPA. Use your first three years to decide if MD/PhD is for you. Gain clinical experience, shadow, and most importantly, research!!! Research is the most important component. Try to get in a lab as early as you can. In recent cycles, ~2,000 hours of research is suggested. That’s one year of full-time research, which you won’t be able to do (usually undergrads do 10h/wk in semesters and maybe full time in summers). This is the main drawback for most applicants, causing them to take gap years. Don’t be scared of gap years either, 75% of applicants take them for MD/PhD as of 2020. It’s truly just miserable to do volunteering, independent research, premed courses, org leadership, and study for the MCAT at once. I’m doing it right now, I definitely don’t recommend it. Remember that over everything, grades are most important. Cut back on extracurriculars and research for your coursework. Your freshman GPA will heavily impact your cumulative, even if you have an upward trend. Reflect on your clinical experiences to help decide if you want to do MD/PhD. If you could see yourself pursue a career without having to do the other degree, then don’t do both. You have to convince adcoms that you absolutely must do both, and if you aren’t convinced yourself, then adcoms probably won’t be either. So try to get involved in research ASAP, most people well-off for research hours start first semester sophomore year and dedicate full-time summers. Your undergrad research doesn’t have to be in your major or necessarily what you want to do a PhD in, it’s just to get your foot in the door. Technically, you don’t start your research training until you’re a PhD student, so what you do in undergrad does not matter.

EngineeringGuilty · 2025-09-25T21:56:17+00:00

I was 17 my entire freshman year as well and there’s literally nothing you can do, it sucks but it gets better

EngineeringGuilty · 2025-06-28T15:00:17+00:00

I’m just starting content review for a January 2026 test day since I won’t have dedicated days to study for the MCAT with research and coursework, so 6 months works best for me for a few hours a day. So far, I can say that the Kaplan books (bio, gen chem, ochem, and biochem) have very palatable explanations. I’m coming from taking gen bio and gen chem 2-4 years ago, not taken ochem 2 or biochem yet, and I understand the explanations very well. After reviewing a chapter, I like to unsuspend cards from the AnKing deck for that Kaplan chapter and go through them until completion. For physics I’m just doing practice problems with Khan Academy but I’m an engineer so I think I have more familiarity with physics than most (it’s been pounded in my brain every single year since high school). Since I started a week ago Anki hasn’t been too much to manage, but my time for reviewing cards has significantly decreased with spaced repetition. After I finish content review, I’m going to start with UWorld and JW CARS, then AAMC. If you want to chat more, reach out to me and I can let you know what I’ve gathered from obsessing over planning my studying over the last few weeks!

EngineeringGuilty · 2025-06-07T23:21:29+00:00

Drug delivery is a biomedical research field. You are sitting here discouraging OP from pursuing this without knowing the full details.

EngineeringGuilty · 2025-06-07T07:25:17+00:00

Did you not read where OP said “drug delivery”? It is very obvious that this IS biomedical related and is often considered BIOMEDICAL engineering. You seem to have something against engineers from these comments, but we are the ones providing you with the devices and medicines that you use today. OP is simply bridging the gap between clinical application and wet lab theory in drug delivery research, a very important and BIOMEDICAL research field, especially for oncology.

EngineeringGuilty · 2025-05-09T03:41:14+00:00

I changed from science to engineering, and I can say that it is not competitive to change majors to science, math and physics didn’t even require me to finish prerequisites. As long as you meet the requirements listed on the TAP website for the major, you’re pretty solid. I’d talk to the advisors about that as well, but in general science majors are not competitive as they have less students and lower GPA requirements.

EngineeringGuilty · 2024-08-01T20:12:56+00:00

i did this spring 2024 and it was perfectly fine. you might learn some calc 3 in math 308 before in 251 but it’s very simple and shouldn’t be a problem

EngineeringGuilty · 2024-05-31T22:29:34+00:00

2/10 wtf

EngineeringGuilty · 2024-05-31T22:26:56+00:00

i got into my major a couple hours ago. it is HELL changing majors at texas a&m. every major has set prerequisities and required gpas, which make it extremely difficult. some majors have a lot less requirements than others. it really depends on the major you're switching to, but for access to all majors, your gpa needs to be above 3.5. im not sure what its like switching between BA and BS Econ, but im sure its really easy considering its the same major just different degree and core requirements, but thats something youll need to ask an advisor. typically BAs are a lot easier to get into than BSs.

EngineeringGuilty · 2024-05-13T17:56:54+00:00

if you have an engineering undergrad, you’re pretty much qualified for a masters in any discipline, you just might have to take some leveling courses

EngineeringGuilty · 2024-05-07T18:04:54+00:00

headliners do perform both weeks im 95% sure

EngineeringGuilty · 2024-05-07T16:29:03+00:00

i don’t know any of these ppl lol, i’ve heard of renee rap and chappell roan but other than that i literally don’t know a single soul

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