Very late MD/PhD-only Sankey (2025-2026)
I would like to start this sharing session by emphasizing that I'm a bit of a delinquent. Good news to those who relate, you can still get into a pretty decent MSTP!
Perfunctory stats:
3.84, big public school
524
asian girlie, no gap year
submitted primaries on first day, submitted nearly all secondaries on last day..... aka october-november
research: 5750 when primary submitted (may 2025), 3200 projected
clinical volunteering (all high-touch, in-patient SDU, emergency department): 300
non-clinical volunteering (animal shelter / wildlife care facility): 320
shadowing: 35 hours
TA for class I loved: 300 hours
publications: one co-first preprint, one first-author review and a couple other papers cooking (included as submitted / new pub in secondary apps)
I loved all my letter writers, all were PI / prof. I think I had 6 total?
My takeaways:
Your values will drive you and molding yourself to fit an arbitrary premed standard will hurt your soul and probably your application.
I knew I wanted to apply to MSTPs going into college and did the whole one million premed clubs, get your EMT license, grind clinical hours thing. Huge waste of time. I found a lab with mentors I worked well with and a project with which I had some level of autonomy, and was able to get into it.
If you're interested in applying MD/PhD, research experience and your ability to talk about your project will always be the most important thing. Also, find mentors that are comfortable being brutally honest with you. It always helps.
I do think my application was polarizing to some programs because I explicitly stated an interest in becoming a surgeon-scientist. If this is not something you are sure you're interested in, I would recommend leaving it off. There are programs / people out there who do not believe in the concept.