What was the hardest part of applying?
MCAT? Personal Statement? Secondaries? LORs? Interviews? Etc? Pls make your cases.
Posted Nov 11, 2019, 2:58 AM UTC
1431
Constantly comparing yourself to others
51
This is a really important thing to avoid. Comparison is the thief of happiness.
1
The money... Pay for review books. Pay for online materials from AAMC. Pay for third party practice tests. Pay for UWORLD. Pay for the actual exam. Pay to gather transcripts. Pay for submitting primaries. Pay for submitting secondaries. Pay for suit, shirts and ties. Pay for hotels. Pay for plane rides. Pay for Ubers. Pay for food.
If you're a re-applicant or someone doing a postbac, it gets even more ridiculous.
And in the end, you might not even get accepted...
34
The waiting, the overthinking before the interview, the overthinking that happens after the interview, and to be quite honest the secondaries and all those essays were the hardest thing to get through.
Also, friends and family asking about the whole shebang every time they see you lol.
29
Writing and waiting
21
MCAT. The time it took to study + uncertainty of score during the month after you take was hell. Nothing else compares
14
Money
13
Getting started on each new step
9
Trick question, a lot of it is equally hard/stressful, just in different ways
8
Waiting followed closely by compiling all of the right resources to know what the hell I am doing followed closely by accepting lots of credit card debt
6
Waiting is the worst out of all you listed. I know I sound like a baby but it’s true! The waiting kind of makes you feel like your life is in a limbo state.
5
I think the mcat and the waiting across the board. You send yourself neurotic refreshing your email waiting for an interview or an acceptance
3
The next part
3
Easily the MCAT. Waiting for secondaries and interviews sucks, but it's manageable if you can control your stress. Everything else, like grades and ECs is a "slow burn" of stress, but completely doable. MCAT was intense 2-3 months of studying, costs a lot, and then a long 1 month wait after that.
3
Mental (he)a(ll)th
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I asked this last year: https://www.reddit.com/r/premed/comments/9ha27o/which_phase_has_caused_you_the_most_stress/
2
:o great minds think alike? 😂
2
Lol - hope you’re doing ok!!
2
You too <3
2
Always feeling like you could have done better.
2
The waiting, overthinking, second-guessing yourself, suspense, etc. lol
2
[deleted]
1
Money and waiting.
1
Waiting
I underestimated this part. Definitely the hardest
This
I wouldn’t have believed this had I not experienced it firsthand. Waiting sucks the most yo.
The waiting is the hardest part