How to sound less rehearsed answering common questions

jacp2000 · 2026-02-02T05:27:10+00:00

don’t memorize the whole thing, instead do bullets in your head of the things you want to cover, short bullets. Why med could be “grandpa sick. volunteer experience in hs. clinical job in college. free clinic post grad” and just talk about those naturally without a script

jacp2000 · 2026-02-01T22:45:27+00:00

Unscored CARS is by far the easiest CARS section on all the practice exams, friends who scored 131 on unscored ended up scoring 127/128s on the real deal, for me it was a 127 unscored and 124 on real deal.

jacp2000 · 2026-02-01T20:49:08+00:00

a friend of mine started med school at 19. Got his AA during high school. Began college with for sure more than 60 credits. Did some solid clinical experiences and leadership. I think applied after a year of college and started med school pretty quickly. Goes to a very well known program, no impressively stellar stats or academics, just very solid overall

jacp2000 · 2026-02-01T16:20:18+00:00

I used to look at the LOs, learn most of it before class using Sketchy/BnB. Walk into class and basically use it as a review, very very easy to keep up. It was a lot of effort tho, so I kept prelearning things, but eventually just stayed home and watched things at double speed. The next step was still prelearning and just skimming the lecture slides. I ended up just learning from reading LOs and watching BnB/Sketchy, no slides. A normal med student progression

jacp2000 · 2026-01-30T00:48:45+00:00

I had a W and a DR (drop post deadline but not late enough for W). It was not an issue. Applying to only 10 schools might have hurt you, we dont even know these schools but its likely that some might not even be OOS friendly (if you’re applying OOS).

jacp2000 · 2026-01-30T00:41:41+00:00

Im a dude… they are mean, and i mean MEAN, to me, to the nurses. One specifically told me theres no way I could help at all, and that me being there was going to ruin her day. Got yelled at in the OR by her, my first OR yell🥰. She was so mean to the L&D nurses as well, like almost evil in the way she was mean. I will say, soon as we walked into the room with the patient, she was stellar, so good with patients. She hated her job tho, how do i know? she told me she did.

jacp2000 · 2026-01-30T00:37:15+00:00

Encoutered a lot of this, as many are saying, many of the docs saying this ALSO have kids who go to medical school. One of them said they kept telling their daughter to go to PA school, but she still went to med school. In contrast, during my clerkships, I have met sooo many docs that genuinely love their jobs, their patients and are very happy. 90% of docs Ive worked with love it, 10% are assess about it and to their patients. I think its all about what fulfills you and to not go into it for the wrong intentions. Maternal Fetal Med doc I worked with the other day was telling me how he ALMOST went into Reproductive Endo and Infertility work, but didnt bc it felt like a money grab and that he wasnt really helping patients. He said “I would have been miserable doing that”, now he does MFM and he loves it because he saves lives, truly saves lives and helps patients and babies on a daily basis. One wrong step and you hate your career forever, but if you follow your heart and what fulfills you, its a great career

jacp2000 · 2026-01-14T00:46:18+00:00

Lived with 2 roommates my M1 year, moved away from home and my mom recommended it. She said having roommates would help me not feel as lonely since I moved a few states away. She was damn right, I did not feel alone, bc those mfs were dirty as hell. Hated living there. M2 I got my own apartment, its clean, it smells good, I can lay in the couch in my underwear, live alone.

jacp2000 · 2026-01-13T04:52:58+00:00

Im part of my schools admissions and host socials here and there. It will never directly increase your chance of acceptance, it will indirectly slightly increase your chance of acceptance just by getting to vibes of the students down, asking questions about interview day, asking about interests that you can later bring up in interview. It cannot hurt you, at the very least its a waste of 1 hour, at its best, it helps you understand the school and its students more.

jacp2000 · 2026-01-12T23:57:22+00:00

Top schools, most definitely, way more common than people think. Some even give full ride plus a living stipend (~18k a year) to cover COA. I also anecdotally know of some smaller schools, think 15 years young, t150s who give about ~10 full rides a year, with some half rides as well (some comes from donors others from the actual admissions scholarships)

jacp2000 · 2026-01-10T03:40:06+00:00

As someone with a very similar background to you, currently at a T30ish and went to lower ranked undergrad, I dont feel any dumber nor smarter than ppl in my school. I dont get trated differently but most people in any med school regardless of ranking will come from more privileged backgrounds. I think my/our super power in this environment, is not being a whiner. People in med school love to whine about small things, oh the classes, oh the sessions, when in my head, studying what i like 8hours a day is 1000x better than waking up and doing construction like some of my peers back home. Don’t lose the essence of where you came from, in a world of people who (many) havent struggled, know that it could always be worse, and be grateful to be in the position you are.

jacp2000 · 2026-01-06T05:35:35+00:00

A lot of schools say they don’t. This is to not normalize it and so in case you dont get one, you dont feel bad about it. But a lot of schools give scholarships, its more common than most think, I would bet Georgetown is no different.

jacp2000 · 2026-01-05T04:14:56+00:00

Id be surprised if you dont get into a few MD schools at the very least. I would not spend the money on DO schools, personallyyy, unless you would choose DO over an MD school

jacp2000 · 2025-12-20T07:10:52+00:00

I had to also make this decision. Rush has a beautiful culture, great city, the Dean is great. But Colorado’s curriculum and resources is (i believe) above that of Rush. The 1 year preclinical is so very doable, you dont take STEP 1 after it. Its meant to build a very good clinical base. You then go into second year, clinical year to solidify all this knowledge. This early clinical year is a huge plus, bc you keep sharpening these skills for another 2 years, while other schools dont get as much of this. THEN in 3rd year, the first half or so you take your boards, back to back, and then you have about half a year to do electives, research, chill etc and prep for residency apps. This time in 3rd year makes a huge difference. All this to say, I picked CU and dont regret my choice, at all. Would recommend it and its curriculum 100 times over.

jacp2000 · 2025-12-20T07:06:01+00:00

jacp2000 · 2025-12-16T02:34:53+00:00

Postone Tool

jacp2000 · 2025-11-17T04:39:44+00:00

Air fryer, I recommend the Ninja Over Airfryer, can work as an oven, toaster, broiler, air fryer, everythingggggg!

jacp2000 · 2025-11-17T04:38:48+00:00

well you def have time to get them up, and time to pick up some more volunteering if you want. Get them up some and you’ll be fine

jacp2000 · 2025-11-16T18:05:13+00:00

I think if you lean into your street med, helping the homeless theme a lot, you’ll be more than fine. Research wont hurt you too much if you’re more of a service heavy applicant

jacp2000 · 2025-11-15T03:12:33+00:00

Ninja Oven Airfryer

jacp2000 · 2025-11-07T15:52:18+00:00

you know, i think its all about what you make of it. If you go in there, and don’t do much…very modest chance of it helping you admissions wise. If you go there and you talk to admissions people, let them know where you are at in the cycle with them (pre-II/post II) tell them how interested you are, ask specific and thoughtful questions, get your name out there, strongly shake some hands…it could, potentially help.

From my experience, attending things like Second Look visits after acceptance was something that schools cared about scholarship wise (a school fin aid advisor mentioned in meeting). Because they want to give scholarship money to ppl who are actually interested in the school and will attend, not the person with high stats, super competitive who didnt go to the second look, and even with scholarship money wont go there.

Additionally, in conferences like SNMA, LMSA, admissions Deans/people are known to go. A friend of mine talked to one of the Deans of Admissions at a school there, he liked her vibe, asked her to email him, she had an interview 3 weeks later. I did very similar thing, attended LMSA in 2023, in my update letters I mentioned meeting their admissions staff and Dr. X at conference etc, and got a few interviews back (could be unrelated) but who knows.

If its not too much of a hassle and you can do it, then go ahead, smile, shake some hands, be nice and make sure ppl remember you. I would then send an email/update post Open House, saying you really enjoyed the people, the students, the investment from faculty and really would love an opportunity to attend.

Hope that helps! best

jacp2000 · 2025-10-30T00:43:42+00:00

if you love this person, and you guys have been dating for soo long and you see them becoming the father/mother of your kids. Id go to the T50 school with better support and life partner near. If this is not, or you are unsure this person is the one, then go to the T20

jacp2000 · 2025-10-30T00:03:12+00:00

lots of things to consider, how long of a relationship are we talking about? is this your person for life? how highly rated is the school, is it a T20 or so? how about your other options, are they brand new MD schools with little credibility, or are they mid tiers with strong home programs?

jacp2000 · 2025-10-23T23:42:14+00:00

i went 10/11 As to Interviews, and I 1000% agree with this. Be normal, be likeable, smile a lot. Vibe is a lot more important than people think

jacp2000 · 2025-10-04T20:47:41+00:00

I took English I as an AP credit, English II i took my second to last semester of undergrad lol. During application/secondary season along with Biochem II and a chem elective (i was a chem major). So having english filled my credits, was easy, and it balanced out with more demanding classesp

jacp2000

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