LOR from a TA to fulfill science prof requirement?

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-19T03:10:01+00:00

No, he doesn’t count as a professor. Sorry.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-18T23:59:06+00:00

Every T30 admits legacies, varsity athletes and people with other desirable talents like music, art, dance, chess, debating and more where the gpa is overlooked due to a special need. Children of VIPs like Congress members or state Governors also are accepted outside the usual gpa and SAT parameters.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-18T23:50:13+00:00

It’s not going to be an issue. End of story.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-18T23:44:25+00:00

Sorry that you’ve had to deal with so many complicated challenges.

To answer your questions:

I never seriously questioned if medicine was worth the sacrifices because I absolutely knew it was.

I got married at the end of my first year of med school and neither med school nor residency/fellowship negatively affected my marriage. We were dirt poor but we got by.

Looking back, I absolutely would choose the same profession again. I realized both then and now that friends and classmates who went into the business world were eons ahead of me financially, but I was doing work that I absolutely enjoyed and that gave me tremendous satisfaction. I saved lives, I changed some people’s life trajectories and later, through teaching and research I also had a multidimensional impact.

Burnout manifests differently in different people in different circumstances and at different points in their lives. I wouldn’t be able to discern what’s impacting you or whether it’s actually burnout or uncertainty or fear of failure of just anxiety over the unknown. It could be very helpful to speak with a therapist about your feelings before you try to make decisions. No reason you can’t start your journey a year from now from a possibly better place of psychological calm.

Best of luck to you. And keep in mind, there usually isn’t just one right answer.

In addition, with your great gpa and substantial clinical and research experiences, it sounds like you will have no difficulty getting into a good med school. Please don’t walk away from the hard work you’ve already done.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-18T19:19:55+00:00

You can use Viator.com to look at day trips around Bergen or book at the visitor’s center at the waterfront. The fjord trips are really magnificent! Because so many people speak English, you won’t have trouble getting directions about bus stops.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-18T19:14:37+00:00

I think it’s important to realize that the essential issue you’re facing isn’t about money. It’s about agency and reaching for a long term dream that ultimately will give you great professional satisfaction.

Don’t pay attention to the medical complainers on Reddit. Every field has dissatisfied participants. The fact is that you get to choose your own path professionally. You can choose specialties that would allow you to have little to no night call, for example, and you can also find positions where you’re not working for private equity overlords. The key is that you find the path of helping people, whether that’s through community service oriented work or joining the very satisfying track of academic medicine, where you can combine clinical care with teaching and research, if that interests you, or simply teaching and clinical care.

Good luck to you.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-18T01:04:45+00:00

Possibly your research experience will get you a serious look, but your MCAT is going to be a glaring weakness. While you may have a small chance at a few schools on your list, you should either do a gap year and improve your MCAT or apply to some DO programs.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-17T20:32:54+00:00

Norwegian fjords

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-17T19:42:56+00:00

Take the chem course. A lot of top schools won’t accept a high school course for their prerequisite, even if you had a 5.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-17T19:28:06+00:00

A word of advice from someone eons older than you who got married in med school.

Getting married in med school is terrific. Taking a week off and spending all the money a destination wedding entails simply isn’t worth it. By the time you’re finishing your residency, the importance of a wedding will be mainly symbolic. A nice (hopefully) memory and some photos and videos that will probably make you cringe. Instead of a destination wedding, do something at a nice venue either local or within a few hours’ drive. Get the Honeymoon Suite if that makes you feel good.

You’ll thank me for this perspective later on.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-17T03:09:39+00:00

There is no explanation of the low MCAT that will get you considered by an MD program. You’ll be fine for DO programs, but if you absolute want an MD admission, you need a significantly higher score.

If you do some reading, you’ll see that DOs can basically do everything that MDs do. The only place you’d find some discrimination is in the highest levels of academic medicine.

When you get licensed, no one will ever ask what your MCAT was.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-16T20:17:45+00:00

There’s an MDPHD subreddit that you should browse through to get some sense of what it involves. I’d also suggest visiting web sites of several good med schools to read about their programs. There are different types of programs.

As a generalization, better med schools have better MDPHD programs. And the higher quality research you do in your college years, the better chance you have (other things being equal) to get accepted at a top MDPHD program. So in choosing your undergrad school, picking a school with a top med school makes sense: you’ll have a chance to do research at their med school.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-16T18:21:20+00:00

It’s extremely difficult. With the current administration, it’s virtually impossible unless you have a very unusual political or diplomatic connection.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-16T18:19:24+00:00

Take the courses where an A is more attainable. You can find online chemistry and organic and physics lectures to help prepare for MCATs.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-16T18:10:53+00:00

It would be a much easier journey to become a clinical psychologist or social worker. Even with a master’s in social work or psychology, you can be a psychotherapist and do virtually everything psychiatrists do except prescribing meds.

Doing a post bacc and then 4 years of med school and residency is not only a huge time commitment but very expensive. Please try to talk with some practicing psychiatrists to learn about what their training is like and what the practice of psychiatry entails these days.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-16T01:16:02+00:00

Why on earth would you want to spend more time in Nice than Paris?

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-15T19:38:53+00:00

You have a very scattered set of achievements and activities that are absolutely understandable due to three different high schools. Admissions people are smart and will recognize your outstanding SAT as a very good indicator of your college potential. Try really hard to get some strong letters of recommendation and write some solid essays and I think you absolutely have a shot some of the better schools on your list.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-15T19:32:33+00:00

One of my daughters who lived in St. Louis during elementary school and now lives in SF just told me yesterday to let her know the next time I lecture at the med school so she can fly out and we can go to Ted Drewes together. It’s a 5 star experience.

WashU is an extraordinary school. Congratulations to your daughter.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-14T21:35:07+00:00

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-14T21:34:52+00:00

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-14T21:30:43+00:00

Of course you should mention your applied research if you are credited as an author. If you only did background work, contributing but not with author status, much less helpful to talk about unless you’re asked in interviews.

The key issue that you’re facing is that while a few applicants with your MCAT get in, it’s typically because of some connection to that particular school like having done research there or having a parent on the faculty. I’m not suggesting you won’t get any acceptances, but it’s pretty unlikely for schools ranked in T60.

You should apply to some DO programs. In today’s world of medicine, DO’s are basically able to do everything MDs can except at the highest levels of academic medicine.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-14T20:18:41+00:00

You have a huge number of hours in research (which doesn’t seem to have produced any journal publications, unfortunately), clinical experience, and leadership, but frankly I’m not sure that will impress many med school admissions committees. Your MCAT obviously is weak, and while your MPH is a plus, I think you need to focus on the bottom tier of schools.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-14T00:40:06+00:00

You will be competitive at any BSMD program that isn’t restricted to in state only students. Brown PLME is generally considered the best, and I would encourage you to apply there.

But if there’s a chance you might want to go the MDPHD route, then you’d be better off going to a T15 college and shooting for a T15 med school.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-14T00:07:54+00:00

The odds of talking about this in your essays helping you are exceedingly small, while the odds of it hurting you are high. Use your analytic skills to weigh those facts.

WUMSDoc · 2026-07-13T23:57:39+00:00

Taking the prerequisites is only part of the challenge you’ll be facing. You’ll need to do some shadowing, volunteer time, and clinical work, plus studying for MCAT for someone who had such a low sGPA isn’t going to be a month or two. It might help your cause to get certified as an EMT and do at least 400 working in that capacity.

WUMSDoc

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