u/ChocolateGoblinn

There’s a chance I might apply this year depending on what my mcat score ends up being, so I was gonna email my writers to ask if they could just update the date to 2026 since the letters are from last year. BUT.. I realized I’d have to ask them to update it again next year if I don’t do well on the mcat and I’m gonna be so embarrassed 😭

Should I ask them to update it now and apply next year with year old letters (if mcat is bad) and save myself some embarrassment, or should I ask for the update now and then ask again next year if needed? I’m also hesitant to wait until next year because two of them are kind of old, so I’m worried they’ll retire and I’ll have no way to contact them.

3.56 sGPA, 3.65 cGPA, URM, 450 research hrs, 500 paid clinical hrs, 300 non-clinical volunteer hrs, 35 shadowing hrs, 0 clinical volunteer hrs, no mcat yet and I am on my second gap year 🤡

The mcat is the bane of my existence. I have been studying for this goddamn test on and off since like 2024 and cannot manage to break 500 on fls. Highest score I’ve gotten is 498. I was planning on testing 6/13 and submitting primaries immediately after if my score was good. C/P is killing me though, so now I’m pushing it back to either 6/27 or 7/11 but then I’d be applying late July- mid August. With my stats I doubt I’ll have any success with MD if I apply that late.

Obviously what I’ve been doing as far as mcat studying goes isn’t working. I tried starting practice questions sooner this time around, but that didn’t help. So I’m gonna go back and do some more content review now that I’m pushing back my test date.

The thought of having to take a third gap year is absolutely devastating, but I know I’d have better chances if I were to lock in and get my hours up (plus mcat). The reason my clinical hours are so low is because I had to start taking care of a disabled family member at home, but I will be able to get a job in the next month or so. I don’t have any issues being DO, but I’m SICK just thinking about the higher cost of DO school, less research opportunities, taking (and paying for) double the exams if I want to go into anything competitive, and MD bias from residency programs on top of that. I know I should worry about getting in first, but as a first gen broke girl I can’t help but worry about all these things.

I’m premed and was thinking of taking some emt classes to get clinical hours, but I have pretty bad driving anxiety. From what I’ve been reading online it seems like I’d be expected to drive quite a bit, but I honestly don’t think I’d be capable of driving when I’m already in a high pressure situation to begin with. Whenever I have to drive my personal car to a new destination I get physically sick and sometimes my legs start to shake or my body will get extremely tense. I literally have to prepare myself mentally hours in advance.

I bought a book from Praxis Academic called Break Units Open that was supposed to teach me how to do this, but it was a waste of money tbh bc the explanations are a bit lackluster for someone who doesn’t understand the derivation/ unit dimensional analysis method at all. I’m tempted to just brute memorize all the equations but I’m tired af already. What do I dooo??