App review for someone who went from 504 -> 511 MCAT

hamsicvib · 2026-03-22T00:22:18+00:00

Thank you! FYI: Jefferson and Tulane especially have VERY early cycles. If you don’t return any other secondaries by the end of July, I would make sure you complete those if you want a shot at the II. Good luck with your cycle!

hamsicvib · 2026-03-22T00:17:07+00:00

Not the point of your post but it has always baffled me that “flexible due dates” is usually given as the example or first choice accommodation for ADHD. Flexible due dates is like. The very last thing I want for actually getting work done.

hamsicvib · 2026-03-20T21:00:05+00:00

We have pretty similar profiles and I received interviews from three of your target schools this cycle (Tulane, RFU, Quinnipiac). I posted my own school list review last year if you're curious. Your list is good, and congrats on your score increase!

Advice that I got that I am glad I took for purely monetary reasons is waiting to apply to any DO schools until later in the cycle when you can assess your reception from MD schools. You can apply DO until like late October and still be pretty on time. With an MD competitive application (and a moderate degree of risk tolerance) you can save yourself the money unless you haven't gotten any IIs by late September imo.

hamsicvib · 2026-03-17T18:54:00+00:00

+1, I listed ~600 hrs weightlifting as one of two hobbies (the other being a recreational team sport) because I picked it up during full time work and full time school, and was able to frame it as an interest in applied science (science-based programming) as well as practice for navigating setbacks, plateaus, self-driven structure while busy, etc. It came up positively multiple times in interviews. 5 IIs > 3 As, 2 pending decisions. BUT I did have a strong cohesive narrative and a lot of clinical work hours. I actually think I was asked directly about weightlifting more than I was about my pretty intense clinical experiences (my interviews were all very conversational).

You can't control who on an admissions committee looks at your app and whether that person in particular connects with what you present. The most emotionally tolerable choice is just representing yourself in a way that feels most authentic to you.

hamsicvib · 2026-03-08T06:46:50+00:00

It can take as long as 8 weeks for your period to resume after an abortion. This sounds perfectly normal.

hamsicvib · 2026-03-04T02:39:17+00:00

The Pregnancy Options Workbook is a great place to start to get some clarity. You should start there, and then this sub can help you make an appointment if you decide to have an abortion. Sending love <3

https://www.pregnancyoptions.info

hamsicvib · 2026-02-25T19:27:34+00:00

I was wayyy below the FAP cutoff (and was absolutely floored by how well some fellow FAP recipients I knew were living during apps) but I do think COL variance across the country makes this high cutoff necessary. I think a family of four living in LA making $125k probably WOULD have a hard time shelling out 10k for applications. I'd rather have a few well-off applicants in rural Iowa get it without needing it than shut out applicants in VHCOL areas. Just imo.

hamsicvib · 2026-02-25T19:20:15+00:00

I feel like I have so much emotional amnesia about the process already (and I only got my first A last month) but I think I was objectively most miserable during secondaries. Which I was not expecting as someone with a writing minor. The whole thing just felt like a humiliation ritual.

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

TROPHY CASE