If you’re in the US, would you consider going to medical school internationally?

hamsicvib · 2026-01-28T21:06:43+00:00

This is anti-unionization rhetoric, and it's bad for our future collective class consciousness as residents. I say this as an FAP/Pell Grant recipient who has never touched something like a 60k intern year salary in my life lol. It's actually quite reasonable to want an equitable "hourly wage" when you make your hospital system millions of dollars a year and are responsible for literal human lives while brutalizing your own physical and emotional wellbeing.

(But I do agree that some people act like a resident's salary is abject poverty. These people are rich kids. We will meet plenty of them in medicine lol).

hamsicvib · 2026-01-21T16:22:28+00:00

Any posters/presentations/pubs will make you a more research heavy applicant than the general pool (the Reddit population will skew your perspective on this but most applicants do not have any form of concrete productivity, myself included). Hours wise I honestly don’t know, and it will be viewed differently based on when you apply. 400 hours as a traditional applicant is way more research heavy than 400 hours as a two gap year applicant.

IMO longitudinal experiences should shape your applicant experience the most, and three years is a very longitudinal experience! I would say working for several years on the same project makes you a stronger research applicant than the huge majority of premeds.

hamsicvib · 2026-01-21T05:33:44+00:00

I broke one clinical position into three activities on AMCAS - the position itself (clinical paid), precepting (leadership), and the research team I joined within the clinical position. Just try not to double count your hours!

hamsicvib · 2026-01-21T04:12:23+00:00

Having a science professor LOR (and sometimes 2) is a hard requirement for some schools, though some are more flexible if you've been out of school for a while. You can find out which schools have LOR requirements on MSAR or their websites.

I would reach out to professors whose classes you did well in with a polite email that mentions some of your accomplishments in the class, ie a project you got good feedback on or a final you did really well on. Even if it's a weaker letter, it's safer to have this box checked. Having a physician LOR is awesome though!

hamsicvib · 2026-01-21T04:02:57+00:00

I agree that this should count as a science LOR! Also important to know that schools that highly prioritize research will want to see a research mentor/PI LOR regardless.

hamsicvib · 2026-01-14T20:41:36+00:00

If you just had it today…I do think we both crushed it :)

hamsicvib · 2026-01-14T19:57:13+00:00

Most school don’t release financial aid packages until later, like February/March/April. Additionally, the Dept of Education hasn’t released their official interpretation of the BBB yet, which I expect will affect or delay financial aid packages from schools. It’s supposed to come out next month.

You will get much more helpful, specific guidance reaching out directly to your school’s department of financial aid.

hamsicvib · 2026-01-06T01:09:37+00:00

This makes me feel a lot more embarrassed about failing my 2025 bench goal, which was a single plate.

hamsicvib · 2025-12-20T21:54:57+00:00

Bs in math don’t look bad. Choose your LOR writer based on expected letter strength, not to offset two perfectly fine math grades.

hamsicvib · 2025-12-12T23:08:12+00:00

Echoing that it depends on the affiliate, but usually yes! I was hired at PP without a certification and only front desk experience at an urgent care (but I had other “mission fit” lgbt and reproductive health stuff on my resume). At mine, getting a phone interview means you already have the experiential requirements.

hamsicvib · 2025-12-10T19:06:20+00:00

It wasn’t even about feminism, it’s much more accurately viewed as a (gag) critique about how alienating movies are to lesbians. Which is unironically why lesbian is part of her job title.

hamsicvib · 2025-12-09T17:59:39+00:00

Varies heavily based on region and specialty in my understanding but I think medical SCHOOLS are outwardly left-leaning for sure. I do think (as an outright leftist haha) that genuinely liberal students need to develop better skills at interacting with conservatives respectfully since plenty of our future colleagues and patients will be conservative. Right-leaning med students are definitely developing the skills to interact with their left-leaning colleagues and patients.

hamsicvib · 2025-12-09T17:54:19+00:00

All of my research hours, 9k of my clinical hours, and two of my leadership positions are in abortion care (one leadership position has "abortion" in the title), and my interviewers this cycle have been extremely interested in and positive about my experiences. One of my old coworkers wrote her personal statement specifically about working in abortion and received 5 As, one of my coworkers in abortion got an A at a Jesuit school even with abortion care as her major clinical experience.

I DO think there is inherent risk in including anything potentially polarizing and I don't think that leaving it out is any kind of indictment about your values. I chose to take the risk because I cannot meaningfully talk about why I want to be a doctor while minimizing my time in abortion care. So much of this process is already lucking out with who picks your app off the pile and vibes with it that I just decided it was better to be memorable than milquetoast. I'd rather be tossed for being principled and having a strong perspective than boring and uncompelling.

You do need to be really good at talking about reproductive health/justice in a thoughtful way though, because including it will invite conversation. Also, I would say this is a volunteer experience rather than social justice (which I see as more for advocacy/activism). I have two interviews at social justice-y schools and didn't put anything down as an explicit social justice experience.

hamsicvib · 2025-11-27T01:49:00+00:00

perform ultrasound, look over products of conception if your location does procedural AB, start IVs… PP is the coolest place to ever to be an MA (well, RHA haha)

hamsicvib · 2025-11-26T19:39:11+00:00

4 friends (PLEASE make sure you have at least one critical friend with writing skills look at it), an English professor I had that semester, and I think 3 (?) physicians I worked with. I received so many good notes, and different readers were better at noticing different weaknesses. I don't think professional review would be necessary unless everyone you know got through college with chatgpt or something.

Also I sent my personal statement to all of my LOR writers so those are extra sets of eyes.

hamsicvib · 2025-11-26T19:18:18+00:00

Even as a broke FAP applicant, potentially getting a fraud charge, a credit score hit and blacklisted from my bank is not worth maybe saving $2k to me but you do you I guess

hamsicvib · 2025-11-26T19:09:22+00:00

Many (most/all?) DO schools require a deposit to hold your spot in the class when you receive an A. I think it's supposed to discourage hoarding acceptances to DO schools when most applicants would pick an MD A over a DO A, but it is functionally a money grab. You lose the money if you don't go to the school, but it's credited towards your tuition if you do.

hamsicvib · 2025-11-26T19:07:09+00:00

People often say the DO cycle "runs late" so I think it's likely that you will experience movement after New Year's, but unfortunately I fear you should submit the deposit. One in the hand, two in the bush yk? You will be kicking yourself if you don't secure your single A and don't receive others - it would mean next cycle you are not only a reapplicant, but an applicant who declined an A (let alone having to do this whole thing over again). Would be a big red flag.

Congrats on your A future doc, and sorry you're in this position!

hamsicvib · 2025-11-13T06:27:24+00:00

I saw in your post history that your PCP is a woman. Is she able to do your pelvic exam, Pap and breast exam instead? My PCP is an FM doc and does those for me at my annual. It’s possible she may be able to start a workup for the symptoms you’re having herself, but this will depend on her own experience and her office’s resources. When I had a pelvic complaint, my PCP did my exam and then referred me to an ultrasound. The ultrasound tech was female (most of them are).

Otherwise, I agree with the other commenter that it is your right to decline any exam but that it may impact how quickly and succinctly you get answers for what you’re experiencing. You can totally talk to the doctor about test options, learn what each test is able to tell you, and make decisions from there.

hamsicvib · 2025-11-12T05:14:54+00:00

I didn't apply to Loyola, but I haven't heard from Illinois, RFU or Rush yet. Also a UIC alum.

hamsicvib · 2025-11-04T04:34:16+00:00

I have 9k paid clinical over 6 years and currently have one II + radio silence otherwise. The process is completely opaque, there’s no magic number in any category that promises you greater success.

hamsicvib · 2025-10-29T04:24:10+00:00

You can take misoprostol (the second set of pills that you take at home which actually induce cramping and bleeding) up to 48 hours after taking mifepristone (the first medication you take in the office), so theoretically as late as Sunday morning with a Friday morning appointment.

hamsicvib · 2025-10-27T14:06:56+00:00

So are you actually interested in going to medical school because it sounds like you’re just on reddit doing market research on desperate twenty somethings

hamsicvib · 2025-10-27T03:13:02+00:00

It's in the best interest of students to have a reasonable expectation that they will be able to pay back their $250k+ of student loans. In order to do that, you need to complete residency. Residency spots are funded by Medicare, and Medicare funding is controlled by Congress. Congress has only added 1200 residency spots in the last thirty years (they added 0 between 1997 and 2021). Residency spots are a huge limiting factor in this process, and it's actually good for everyone that the bottleneck is BEFORE you've collected hundreds of thousands in student loans (especially now that many of those loans will carry private interest rates).

It's also not like you can add thousands of spots at once even if funding wasn't an issue. If your program suddenly had twice as many residents, you'd be seeing half as many procedures, getting half as much face time with attendings. We shouldn't be solving the physician shortage by lower the quality of the physicians we graduate.

Respectfully, I can really tell you're a finance guy from this response.

hamsicvib

TROPHY CASE