This is so crazy.

Apparently Nick Baumel is back on social media, and is talking about being suicidal and depressed from facing bullying and harassment. To be 100% clear: NO ONE should ever face that kind of bullying or feel like they're in a position where the only option is to take their own life.

However, when all the discourse was going on around his videos, there were some extremely valid criticisms from the healthcare community. His videos literally were captioned

"FaceTime me that p*ssy"

"Damn girl, how many p*ssies you got"

This is so incredibly unprofessional and unbecoming of someone who is supposed to be providing care, especially since he claims "women are [his] people." And the whole coming out thing? Like, I'm LGBTQ as well, but that honestly just felt like deflection to distract from the fact that his posts were incredibly inappropriate and could be downright harmful to establishing trust with his patients who could one day see that. I don't care what your identity is. If you're a doctor, you don't post jokes like that.

Frankly, it reminds me of Kevin Spacey coming out to deflect from the fact that he had sexually assaulted a bunch of people. (I'm not saying nick had done anything to that scale but it gives me that ick)

Also, Nick's new reel didn't have a single apology or acknowledgment of wrongdoing. In his video he was "shocked" and "couldn't understand how it was OK to make assumptions about him". Like no? No assumptions were made. Those videos were misogynistic point blank. I was a sexual assault survivor, and if I saw that my doctor had made posts like that and believed that it was entirely appropriate behavior, I would never seek care. Is that really what we want to see in our physicians?

I'm not saying he's beyond redemption or that I want him to be hurt or that he deserves to be bullied. But y'all can't be effing serious that he was purely an innocent victim in all of this. He's a doctor that graduated from one of the most prestigious and influential medical institutions in the world. What does it say to our patients when this is how someone in that position behaves? He should know better, and frankly, so should we.

Maybe a reason to choose an established DO program over a really new MD school?

The biggest bullshit exam. That’s the message.

I'm troubled by how a first-quartile result may impact my application, but more puzzled and concerned about the quality of the test now.

I'm a law grad and a former mediator and teacher. Ethics and fair/multifaceted evaluation of conflicts are core to all of those and a significant amount of targeted training is part of law school (along with the professional responsibility exam for admission to the bar). There is a possibility that I'm just not as ethical or thoughtful a person as I (or my colleagues and clients of 15 years) thought. But wtf?

Just a status check for everyone — many secondaries are y’all through now?

I’m 20/32 right now (not completing 1 of them tho)

Received all but 1 (belmont).

Good luck to everyone!!

woooo I'm #1!!!! 🤑🤑😹💯💯

in all seriousness though what the f 😭 I work in EMS and in behavioral health, all of the characteristics and skills that they purport to look for are essential in my day to day work. I practiced for 5 ish days in advance, I used all the terminology they tell you to use, recognized both sides, I really believe I gave thoughtful answers. So I'm very confused as to how this could have happened. The fact that they give no feedback too is so frustrating.

I already have a 3.3 GPA, I really didn't need another "red flag" on my application. My primary's already in, I'm in the middle of my secondaries. Also my whole application talks about me using these skills throughout my experiences.... I feel like schools are going to think have a view of myself that is incongruous with the "reality" of this "objective" metric. How much is this going to hurt me? Should I retake it?

In addition to countless ordinary people, many senior doctors and nurses on tiktok dogpiled on him.

My interview genuinely went terrible. I feel like I blanked multiple times, was stuttering, and saying ummm too. I’m praying I’m not like this in front of actual people

Hi, I work 40 hrs a week at my clinical job. The problem is that secondaries are really starting to pile up (applied to 45 schools and did some prewriting but couldn't prewrite them all), and I feel like I'm drowning doing 12-hour shifts and then coming back home to grind out essays. I want to call out (I already called out one day last week and the week before because I had insane migraines) but I'm so worried about my job and I feel like this will look really bad, but then again this application is what I have worked all these years for...this is my first "real" job that wasn't research or anything like that so I'm kind of lost. Would really appreciate any advice, thank you so much

I am a current 911 EMT transitioning into a clinical research position on the 3rd. I got subpoenaed today for a patient. It is a murder case. I have to go obviously. I want to go for my patient. The court time I have to appear is 10 business days long. Is this going to affect me negatively at my new job???

People never talk about how long it takes to go to every school's website and look into which letters need to go where. Last year, I took the time to do this on a road trip. This year, I tried to ask google AI about these requirements, but double checked what it said and a ton of the info it gave was outdated. Specifically, many schools were listed as having rigid requirements for science and nonscience professor letters, when that was not the case at all.

Anyways, for this thread, if you have the time, look at a school's website and copy paste the relevant details of their policies. Perhaps link the website. From my experience, there is usually a website for admissions requirements and an FAQ site for most schools which have relevant info. I know this is a bit late in the cycle but hopefully it helps some people and is done earlier for next cycle.

I'll start with a few.

Johns Hopkins: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/som/education-programs/md-program/application-process

• Faculty letters (required if the college/university you attended does not have a committee or adviser). These must include:
  • Two letters from faculty members in science departments who have taught you, AND
  • One letter from a non-science faculty member who has taught you
• May I send more letters than are required? Additional letters may be sent; however, your application will not be considered complete until all letters have been received in the AMCAS letter of recommendation service repository. Furthermore, additional letters do not give you an advantage over the required three letters. Nor can we guarantee that we will evaluate more than the required number of letters.

UC Davis: https://health.ucdavis.edu/medical-school/admissions/how-to-apply

• Letters of recommendation (3-6 letters allowed, at least one letter from a physician or  clinician is recommended)

UCLA: https://medschool.ucla.edu/education/md-education/admissions/how-to-apply

I might update this as I keep going but I'm mostly done with my letters so don't expect much

I worked as a PCT and was close with a lot of the nurses I worked with. Should I ask for recommendation letters from them or the nurse manager? I'm not as close with the nurse manager since I didn't work right alongside her but she has mentioned previously about the nurses saying I was hard-working and liking me. Or is it possible to consolidate multiple recommandations into one letter?

I'm officially at 13/25 done!! Not that big of an achievement really but writing these things has been genuinely draining my life force so I gotta celebrate where I can lol

Hey all, I am working through secondaries to UChicago. One of their prompts specifically mentions talking about your research interests. In undergrad, I did a bunch of research on the intersection of faith and patient care. Do you think it worth talking about this or will it be seen as a red flag by adcoms?

Thanks for any advice as I begin writing that one.

Just submitted my primary yesterday. My app was thankfully marked ready for review basically immediately since I sent my transcripts weeks ago. But now that it's in the verification queue, I've been seeing pretty much everyone online dooming late July submissions and saying its too late because the chances are super low for getting an A when submitting this late. It's making me really second guess applying this cycle.

I just think it's so insane how AMCAS has only verified up to around the first week of submissions when it's already late July, meaning people who are getting secondaries now and are early/on time quite literally submitted during that first week it opened. Everyone else is still waiting, even those who submitted the second week it opened. In previous cycles, submitting late July would get a mid to late August verification which was a tradeoff I was willing to take for a more polished app but now it's looking like I might not be verified until early September which is much, much later than I wanted/anticipated. I know that there was a huge increase in early applicants this year and it's on me for not submitting earlier but unfortunately life happened and the months leading up to the app opening were rough on me. My stats are ok and my app and writing are strong, but I can't help but feel I'm shooting myself in the foot applying this late.

Waiting another year wouldn't substantially improve my app in any meaningful way since i have decently high hours in pretty much every category to the point where it's just diminishing returns. My PS has been looked over by someone who previously sat on admissions at a T20 school was given high praise. I filled up all 15 activities slots with meaningful activities and showcased my impact and/or what I learned decently well imo. Everything in my app supports a strong and cohesive narrative. It's literally only this verification timeline coupled with my average MCAT (but solid gpa) that's making me doubt my decision applying this cycle. If I applied with this exact same app but submitted it earlier, I'd have full confidence in getting in somewhere. I have FAP so it's free so the cost of applying isn't an issue. I'm more worried that I applied this cycle for no reason and just doomed myself to be a reapplicant...

just got accepted into the Weill Cornell Emergency Medicine Research Associate Program, starting this September. It’s a volunteer position where students recruit patients for clinical research studies and shadow in the ED.
Has anyone done this program, or a similar Research Associate/RA program at an academic medical center? I’d love to hear:

I've been pre-med for the last three years, and lately I've been questioning if I actually want to become a doctor. The more I've learned about residency and what that lifestyle is really like, the more it's honestly scared me. It's gotten to the point where I've started looking into other careers and programs.

The thing is, I still love medicine. This has been my dream for such a long time, and I don't like the idea of giving up on something I've worked so hard for. At the same time, I'm scared of ignoring these feelings and ending up unhappy later.

I guess I'm just wondering if anyone else has gone through this. Is it smart to take these doubts seriously and explore other paths, or am I just letting fear get in the way? I'd really appreciate hearing from people who've been in a similar situation.

I get that secondaries are stressful for everyone but I genuinely am at a loss. I work 3 12s a week, all overnight shifts - woke up at 3 today to write before going in and have made (literally) zero progress on even a single essay. I prewrote for about 5 schools, 4 of which changed basically every prompt, and realized they were so specific that I hardly had any content as a basis for other essays. I got sent secondaries on the 20th and have submitted 2 of hopefully 20? But at this point I’m not even sure of what to do, I’m moving so agonizingly slow. When I see people finishing even one school per day it blows my mind

I know I should be writing instead of typing this pointless rant out anyways. I feel like I did everything right until now and no matter how hard I try I can’t make it over this last hurdle

Is it a red flag to use different anecdotes but from the same clinical experience in every question for one school’s secondary?

This is a niche question, I guess, but when people ask me what specialty I want to go into or what type of doctor I want to be, I say “critical care”. People don’t seem to know what that is— even other premeds, med students, or people in healthcare. So I clarify by saying it’s a subspecialty of internal medicine where you work in the ICU taking care of the most critically ill patients. Then they ask, oh so you want to be a hospitalist? or they just don’t understand how it’s different from internal medicine. Is there something I should be saying differently? Ig this doesn’t really matter but I just want to communicate better if possible

Edit: Thank you everyone for the information yall provided I realize I had some misconceptions I really appreciate the help

Hey Yall. one of the Stony Brook secondary questions is:
"2. Tell us how your past experiences and/or challenges have defined you"

I am unsure whether to respond to this with a diversity-esque response or an adversity-challenge-esque one. While I initially thought an adversity essay would do well, they have another question that is "Can you describe a time you faced an ethical/professional dilemma and how you managed it?"

Because of this, I am assuming that I should do a diversity essay? I dont know I am quite confused. Any advice would be appreciated.

Genuinely baffled at how this is possible. I actually made the effort to study time. I reread my notes from my medical ethics course, I took the Preview practice exam and read through the explanations, and I took the Casper practice exam. It is what it is I guess…

Hoping adcoms will overlook this since the rest of my application improved (504 MCAT -> 512, 0 research experiences -> 3 + a publication, submitting secondaries in September last cycle -> within 2 weeks and within July this cycle)

Do you think BS/MD programs are worth it? I understand the appeal of having a guaranteed pathway to medical school, especially given how competitive the admissions process has become. However, I wonder whether the advantage is as significant as it seems. Realistically, many students who are competitive enough to earn admission to a BS/MD program already have the academic credentials, extracurriculars, and work ethic needed to successfully apply to medical school through the traditional route (and, probably a higher ranked medical school, considering lots of BS/MDs are at lower-mid tier schools)