I applied to med school a few years ago and now work with pre-med students, and honestly… I still see people making the same mistakes I made back then.
When I applied, I was obsessed with checking boxes. More hours, more activities, more everything. I remember stressing about whether 300 clinical hours vs 400 would make or break me. Looking back, that was probably the least important thing.
What actually hurt me was my story just didn’t really connect. Like, everything was “good” on paper, but it didn’t feel like me. I wrote what I thought they wanted to hear. Super polished, super safe. Kinda boring tbh.
Funny thing is, one of the interviews I did well in was the one where I stopped trying so hard and just talked normally. I even mentioned a moment where I wasn’t sure about medicine, which I thought would hurt me—but it actually led to a real conversation instead of the usual scripted answers.
Now working with students, I see the same pattern:
people over-optimizing the wrong things and underthinking the actual story.
idk, if I could redo it, I’d spend way less time adding “more” and way more time figuring out what actually mattered to me and how to say it like a normal human.
curious if anyone else felt like this during their app cycle or if its just me lol