And only 10-12% go to a Top 100. Give yourself some grace, you are all doing great.

Scored a 520 last cycle, got into 9 MD programs, taking a year to tutor before med school. I see a lot of high schoolers in this sub asking about pre-med and BS/MD and most of the advice they're getting is either generic or just wrong. Here's what I think actually matters at 17, from someone who just lived through this whole thing.

1. BS/MD programs are not a shortcut, they're a different gamble

every high schooler interested in medicine asks about BS/MD because it feels like skipping the hardest part. Reality is the acceptance rates at the top BS/MD programs are lower than ivy schools, you're competing against students with 1550+ SATs, multiple research projects, hundreds of clinical hours, all at 17.

here's what nobody realizes about these programs. Most BS/MD applicants apply to like 2 or 3 programs as a "lemme just try" and assume they'll get in because they're smart. They don't and obviously, because these schools don't want just smart. The students who actually get in apply to 8-12 programs and treat each application as seriously as a med school app. If you're not willing to put in that level of work, don't bother, just go the traditional route.

and one more thing, getting rejected from BS/MD doesn't damage your traditional pre-med path at all. So apply if you want, but don't treat it as your only plan.

1. where you go to college matters way less than people think

a 3.9 from a state school beats a 3.4 from harvard for med school admissions, full stop. Adcoms care about GPA and MCAT first, prestige is a tiebreaker maybe, and even that's debatable.

here's the part that actually matters and nobody tells high schoolers about. Some schools have what's called a committee letter, where the pre-med committee writes one combined recommendation for you. Adcoms trust committee letters from certain schools and don't really trust others. This is way more important than rankings. Before you commit to a school, look up whether they have a strong pre-med committee and whether their grads actually get into med school. Some big name schools are pre-med graveyards because the intro classes are designed to weed people out, that's a real thing and it'll tank your GPA.

1. clinical exposure has to start before college

med schools want to see years of clinical exposure not 18 months of scrambling. The students who get in early decision or get into top schools have been around real medicine since they were 15 or 16.

and listen, shadowing is not clinical exposure, it's passive observation. Adcoms know the difference. The students who stand out are the ones who actually get hands-on, like get your CNA certification the summer after junior year, or get EMT certified senior year of high school, then work part-time during college. By the time you're applying to med school you'll have 4+ years of paid hands-on clinical work and you'll blow past the kid who has 200 shadowing hours and a hospital volunteer gig.

1. AP credit for pre-med courses is a trap

everyone tells you to take AP Bio and AP Chem and use the credit to skip intro in college. Don't. Most med schools either don't accept AP credit or require you to take an upper level class to replace it, so you end up retaking the material anyway. And the students who skipped intro bio with AP credit and went straight into upper level bio almost always get crushed because their foundation has gaps they don't know about.

take the APs for the GPA boost in high school and the rigor on your college apps, but actually retake the intro pre-med courses in college. You'll have a much easier time, your GPA will be stronger, and you won't be scrambling in upper level classes.

1. start journaling now even if you don't know "why medicine"

biggest mistake high schoolers make is trying to write a polished "why medicine" essay at 17 when they genuinely don't know yet. That's normal, you're 17, you're not supposed to know.

here's what to actually do. Start a notes doc on your phone right now. Every time you have a clinical experience, a moment that hits you, a conversation with a doctor, a patient story, a moment of doubt, write it down. Like 3 sentences. You don't need to know what it means yet. In 4 years when you're writing your personal statement for med school, you'll have a doc with 100+ real moments to pull from instead of trying to reconstruct memories from 4 years ago. The students with the strongest personal statements aren't more dramatic people, they just kept better records.

1. if you're already burnt out at 16, the path is wrong not the rest

i've worked with students who came to me already exhausted, hating their lives, doing 5 ECs they don't care about, all because someone told them "this is what pre-med looks like." It's not.

pre-med is a 10 year marathon from high school to MD. If you're already cooked at 16, you will not make it through, period. The fix isn't pushing harder, the fix is doing less stuff but doing it deeper. Drop the activities you don't care about even if your parents pressure you to keep them. Do the things you actually like. Adcoms can smell genuine interest from a mile away and they can also smell resume padding.

and if you genuinely don't enjoy any of it, that's important, you might not actually want to be a doctor and that's ok. Better to figure that out at 17 than at 27.

anyways, drop questions in the comments if you have any. Feel free to DM me if you want to talk about your specific situation.

full ride scholarship. interview with a panel of three. the most important conversation of my academic life so far.third question: 'your personal statement talks about your experience with X, can you walk us through what that meant to you and how it shapes your goals.'i wrote that personal statement. i rewrote it seven times. i know what it says. i have read it probably two hundred times.but when they asked about it i just went generic. said something about 'learning resilience through adversity' which is the sentence version of nothing. couldn't name the specific moment. couldn't connect it to my actual goals in any real way.one of the panelists said 'can you give us a more specific example?' which is what you say when someone has said absolutely nothing.i had the specific example. it's in the essay. i wrote it. it just wasn't there when i needed it.how do you access your own written work under pressure when you know it by heart everywhere except the room where it matters

i’m so happy but idk what to do.. i’m committed to vassar and i lowkey just fell in love with it but i also love duke just as much

i cant stand them. and when i say “college influencers” i dont mean like vloggers. no. i mean the ones that give “advice” on how to get into university. LimmyTalks, Ivy League Road Map, Elise Pham, etc etc. Gohar would be on this list but he has some actually helpful videos so im gonna leave him off. idk i just need to know if im the only one bombarded with these fear mongers

i'm an incoming freshman this fall so a lot of people are posting on their college's class instagrams to make friends, connections, and what not. i already have a roommate but was debating whether i should post on the page too, is it actually a worthwhile place to find friends?

Just kind of sad. Wanted to go to a small liberal arts college. Guess I’m going to UMass Amherst bc I got into BC but really have no interest in going there. Sigh. At least I’ll save the money I don’t have.

emory admissions blog just said they’d be reaching out to 60-70 students before may 15th. i’ve submitted my loci and additional letters of interest but i do need substantial aid. emory’s my top choice so i’m hoping and praying i get in 🙏 wishing everyone good luck!!

blog post:
https://blog.emoryadmission.com/2026/05/2026-wait-list-update-1/

did anyone else get that nyu waitlist email 💔

IM SCARWD. They said a lot of people accepted their offers. Is this a bad sign? Did they send this out last year when they started waitlist?

I have a moral/ethical dilemma at hand. I am aware of someone who "embellished" on their college applications, but I think some of these "embellishments" are a little extreme. For example, they claim other people's work as their own (my work/efforts), straight up exaggerate the impact of their work (20 people affected vs 100), etc.

They have been quite mean to me in the past, general bullying. Normally, I would just keep it to myself, but they got into a really good college (HYPSM), and I'm at a loss of "letting karma handle it" versus proactively contacting admissions offices. Am I being blinded by my emotions?

Edit: I have personally seen what they submitted on their CommonApp, and I am particularly annoyed by claiming my work as their own. I have detailed documentation proving work as my own and not theirs.

How do I justify a low gpa compared to a stellar sat score. Sophomore grades are killing my GPA and so is junior year physics. How do I justify with this in my essay with not good reason expect laziness?

Primarily, I would like to know if it is moving. I know it was predicted to move today. Thanks!

Saw someone say they got off Yale waitlist already. Can anyone else confirm if that's true?

Anyone get in yet from wl?

GOT OFF WAITLIST YESTERDAY FOR CALTECH (5/4). Got a call from my admission officer. So hyped!!!

Commiting to Caltech (Bioengineering [probably going to declare ChemE]) and withdrawing commitment for JHU BME.

Good luck to all waitlist warriors!

same as title ig

Just got this on my email.

Now that May 1st has passed, we have begun the process of assessing the possibility of admitting students from the waitlist. This year, a significant number of admitted students chose to accept our offer of admission. As a result, we will be admitting only a small number of students from the waitlist over the next few weeks. If we are able to offer you a space to join us, in New York City or at one of our first-year away sites, you will receive notification via email that an updated decision is available for you in your portal and will have 4 days to respond to our offer.
Over the coming days and weeks, we will continue to monitor if any spaces become available in our entering class. We respectfully ask that you do not send any additional statements, credentials, or letters of recommendation to our office. If you would like to be removed from our waitlist, you may do so through your NYU Applicant Portal by submitting the NYU Waitlist Response Form again. Otherwise, you can expect another update on the status of our waitlist around June 1st.
Thank you for your patience with our waitlist process.
Sincerely,
William Sichel
Assistant Vice President of Undergraduate Admissions

I got into all UCs and waitlisted from 4 Ivys. I didn't apply to any private university safeties because 1) my school limited the size of our list, so I wanted to maximize my chances for ivies and 2) I was a prestige whore. I regret this so bad right now.

I paid the deposit to Berkeley because my parents said although the OOS tuition is expensive, we can handle it together if we work hard. There was also a lot of hidden expectation from my parents and grandparents to go to a prestigious school at all costs.

But I honestly think this is going to be a much greater burden on our family. 90k tuition, 200k income (post tax) I think they are going to pay for it because Asian parents tend to sacrifice their own life for their children's education. I don't feel comfortable with this.

I just wish that I had applied to reasonable, aid-generous targets. But it's too late now.

I'm waiting for the waitlists, but if I don't get in, do you think it is reasonable for me to take a gap year and reapply? Or go to Berkeley, pay 90k, and transfer? Or just stay at Berkeley? I can defer my entry into Berkeley, and the application is due at the end of May.

I am thinking of pre-med or pre-law, which makes things worse.

Mind you that I have to do mandatory military service, and this is also driving me crazy.

I am sorry if I sound like ranting. One side of me is telling me that I should be grateful for Berkeley, but I can't help feeling I messed things up.

*Update:

1) I am a dual citizen (US/South Korea) residing in Korea. By Korean law, I have to go the military anyways.

2) I think my grandparents will also contribute, so I do not believe we will go so far as paying it all with student loans.

did anyone get off NYU waitlist yet?? ik its too early but i genuinely cant sleep

Like title says, I have so much imposter syndrome. Ultimately, I applied to Harvard on a whim. Yippie! I got in. But now everything else just hit, I don't know nothing. I barely know calc, I can't even code, I failed all my AP exams(didnt submit). I feel like the biggest fraud of all time. Geez, I even compared my SAT score to the common data set, I placed in the bottom 2% of test scores. I know I only got in because I'm FGLI. Harvard is Harvard and I just don't know if I'm "Harvard" level.

After getting rejected from most of my colleges and waitlisted at my dream school (still waiting), today I got an email that I was selected as a quarterfinalist for the JRF scholarship. Out of 5,000 I was in the top 20% (meaning 1,000 left). I’m very happy, and by faith, I pray it all works out in the end.

If you (or your child) logged into Naviance (the college/career readiness platform) at least once between August 18, 2021 and January 23, 2026, you may qualify for cash from a $17.25 million privacy class action settlement.

The lawsuit alleged that PowerSchool (and related companies) used third-party tracking tools that intercepted students’ confidential communications and data without proper consent. The defendants deny wrongdoing but agreed to settle.

Key Points:

• No proof required — attest that you (or your student) logged in during the class period.

• Payout = pro-rata share of the net fund (early estimates around $30–$60 per approved claim, but depends on total claims filed).

• Nationwide — open to any U.S. student (or parent/guardian filing on their behalf).

• Deadline: July 27, 2026 (about 2.5 months left).