What are seriously my chances at medical school
I am currently an undergrad pre-med bio major with a computer science minor entering her 4th year and I am planning on applying to medical school in spring/summer 2026. Here are my stats by that point:
Clinical: ~200hrs of a patient contact hospital volunteer program, I interact with delirious patients to help prevent their delirium, I deliver them food, encourage them to eat their meals or walk, engage their family in conversations, engage the patients in 5-10 minute conversations and I learn about their lives through this or how much their condition is affecting them. I even chart my experience with the patient and it feeds into hospital records that other workers bounce off from
Nonclinical Volunteering: ~120 hours, (90ish-100 in a hospital and 20 at a pantry), I stocked shelves, gave patients a questionnaire, fetched mail, ran labs with specimens to the lab, the usual hospital "non-engaging" volunteer tasks, and in the pantry I packed food boxes for the local schools, I have had little success landing a job with a more concrete source of clinical experience
Research: 1000-2000+++ hours, a bunch, its hard to keep track, I did an NIH research internship the summer entering undergrad, it was a 9-5 for 8 weeks. The next summer I did two NIH internships, the first was the same as the previous summer, it was a 9-5 for 10 weeks and I received a publication (5th author), the second was a 9-5 for 8 weeks with the NCI, presented at both symposiums, wrote abstracts for the programs, attended their journal clubs, got a year extension program from the first program and did that throughout my sophmore year for about 5-10 hours a week. The next summer (before junior year) I did no internship and tried (and failed) to study for the mcat, volunteered (nonclinical), and shadowed but I figured it was fine since I did the extension program and during Junior year I continued the NIH year extention program and did 5-10 hours a week along with credit hours (1 credit a semester). This year the program is canceled but I plan to continue in the lab for 5-10 hours a week for credit
Shadowing: 60-70 hours, 20 with trauma, 20 with cardio, hoping for 20 more with another specialty and maybe spinning back to cardio to get ~70 total
MCAT/GPA: going to take it Aug 1st (this friday), hoping for a 511, but will probably realistically get a 506 or <510, most recent/highest practice was a 509. Gpa is currently a 3.64, should be able to stay >3.6 by the end of the year, 1 C in orgo 1 and a few Bs and little As
ECs: Previous president/started the NSBWM chapter at my school, current president of MAPs, african student org marketing, a cs org member, I sing/draw on the side (not often), and I am working on a passion CS project, I attend church sometimes (just some examples to show I'm not a robot lol)
Recommenders: I have the closest relationship with a teacher I TA'd but I got an A in bio 1 and a B+ in their evolution class so idk if I should ask, I will ask my NCI PI, I will ask my university lab PI, I hope to TA for my human phys teacher (A-) and ask her although if not I will still ask her and my future cell bio or neuro teachers for senior year (who I hope I get an A in), although the only ties I have with these people is being in their class, I will ask my club advisor for NSBWM (she is a med-student advisor), and I will ask my club advisor for MAPs (she is a bio professor and organizes some med school/masters student things), I will also ask the manager who I volunteered under at the nonclinical hospital volunteer experience and my clincial volunteering coordinator, lastly I'll ask my NIH internship coordinators from the extension program where I got the pub
Negatives:
- I withdrew from a philosophy course (crazy ik) because the teacher had exams that were structured such that I saw a greater potential for my failure and gpa wreckage than success, unfortunately that also stopped me from getting the honors degree so I have both a W on my transcript and no honors
- This past summer I have only full time studied the mcat, no internship, no clinical, nothing, and the mcat score may not be the best
- I plan on taking a gap year and doing either a post bacc smp with enhancing gpa programs or doing the NIH post bacc program. I only plan on doing hospice volunteering in between on the weekends or evenings for more clinical but this will all take place after applications in june 2026.
Big questions:
Please feel free to comment on any part of this, I need as much insight as I can find, although here are some of my main questions:
- Is having only the hospital volunteering valid as clinical? Additionally, are my number of hours enough? Will it look bad not getting a clinical job in my gap year but still doing volunteering instead?
- Does my entering undergrad internship experience count? Can I put it on apps?
- Will my recs be strong enough? I honestly don't have many avenues to fix this
- Is having two summers essentially "empty" bad? Or does my year extension programs and doubling up on internships that one year compensate? Or is the MCAT a good enough excuse?
- Are my shadowing hours/distribution good?
- I've been rejected from many clinical job apps so I'm going the volunteering route, will this look bad? Or is this a bad excuse and I should keep trying for a hospital job? They also don't work well with me being in school
- Can I get away with doing another year of research with a side of clinical at the NIH? (I really like the nih lmaoo) Even tho my research stats are essentially maxed out?
- Do I need the post bacc? I heard some offer med school classes in their programs which I thought would be helpful, is this worth it?
-What do I need to change or make sure I do to ensure acceptance? Am I even a good candidate?
Posted Jul 28, 2025, 6:09 PM UTC