u/Mediocre-Solid2359

I just had my first interview! I'm kind of left with this weird feeling because my guy literally came in with a piece of paper that had a bunch of questions on it and proceeded to just start asking me questions from it. He would even give me his thoughts on the questions, being like "this is kinda dumb". He was also just taking notes the whole time. I feel like I answered them well, but I also got no feedback from him whatsoever. After I answered, he would just move onto the next or very few times ask followups about what I said (mostly research). Is this a bad sign? I just don't know how i could have made that more conversational than what it was. Also maybe how i can do better in the future?

I volunteered at a rehabilitation hospital for patients who were recovering from injury. I came in the afternoons and basically just knocked on patient doors and made friendly conversation with patients that were feeling lonely or wanted to chat. If there were more volunteers, we organized activities for patients like bingo and game night. Would this count as clinical or non-clinical volunteering? Technically its in a clinical setting (rehab hospital), but I'm not really involved in the medical care aspect of the patients.

Do you guys still think that there will be Covid secondary essays in this upcoming application cycle? Like I was a sophomore/junior in high school when I was most affected, and it didn't really influence my path towards medicine. If they are included, do you think they will all be optional or some will be mandatory. Currently prewriting secondaries and need to figure out what I would even say if I had to answer a covid prompt.

Basically what the title says. What should I do? Right now I have it shortened in a way that I think best represents the course. Ex: Course I took is called and listed on my transcript as "Soccer Beyond the Field: Sport and Politics in Italian Culture", but that was all too long to fit so I just left it as "Sport and Politics in Italian Culture". Will this give me trouble when verifying?

Hi guys, I'm prewriting secondaries rn, and I'm a little unsure what to do for the secondaries asking about gap years. I'm graduating from college now in May, and starting a job as a CRC in mid-June. Realistically, I'll only be like 1-2 months into the job by the time I need to submit secondaries. Should I write those essays by explaining why I wanted to take a gap year and what I hope to get from it?

Hi guys! I recently started trying to prewrite my secondaries, and now I'm a little stuck on topics to use for my adversity essay. I've heard conflicting advice online about what topics to use. I'm grateful to say that I've had a pretty comfortable life so far, so no obvious topics come to mind. I've heard some people saying that these essays don't have to be about something bad that's happened to you, that it could also be about a challenge you've overcome, but others have said it looks bad. Here are some ideas I've thought of so far:

1. Being the only girl in my soccer team as a little kid, and getting made fun of/treated unequally because of it. I come from a culture where it's strange for girls to play soccer, and I was originally put in ballet (hated it lol). Learned an important lesson in what you can and can't control, and how you can use that information to improve your situation. Helped me be the confident person I am today.

2. In my research lab in college, I majorly fucked up some of the lysates we were using for WBs, which led to a new batch of mice having to be sacrificed. Significantly delayed my mentor's work because of it. It was a huge blow to my confidence and made me feel really ashamed/guilty. Learned the importance of how your work affects others, but also that mistakes happen and it's not the end of the world. Took up more hours in the lab to make up for it, which my mentor appreciated.

3. My childhood dog died 2 weeks before I was taking my MCAT. I was really overcome with grief, as he had meant a lot to me. Made it hard to stay focused and study for a really important exam in my life. I ended up doing fine (although it was significantly below my FL average, but I won't talk about that because it's still a good score).

4. Volunteering at a rehabilitation hospital, I was rounding on patients, and one of the patients I went to talk to was very aggressive with me (yelling, cursing, etc.). He had complaints about the hospital in general and was just taking it out on me. Learned how to deal with this difficult situation, and also not to take the hurtful things he had said to heart. Also, I recognized that you never know what someone else is going through, so you shouldn't judge too harshly.

This is what I have so far, I could do more reflection on each of them but this is just what comes to mind right now. Let me know if I should go back to the drawing board.