(was gonna post on reddit but looks like mods didn't approve the post, not sure why?)

(for people uninterested in the spiel, posted my stats/info below it lol)

For as long as I've been lurking on this site, I've always dreamed about posting one of these, feels surreal and honestly a bit emotional to finally be able to so. I owe a great deal of my success to this reddit and the kind, knowledgeable folks who weighed in on my clueless posts (yall know who you are ily) and offered me advice before and during the cycle. Fr big s/o to everyone here, I would not have been able to do it w/o yall. As someone with no family to rely on for support or help in any way, and certainly no mentors in medicine, your wisdom has been invaluable.

A year ago, I was working 3 jobs to save up for the application cycle. I already had to delay a year extra (after 2.5 gap years already) bc I realized that, among other factors, I was gonna be too poor to apply to as many schools as I wanted to for that cycle. On this topic btw, I just wanna give a MASSIVE fuck you to the AAMC for denying my FAP, my b ig for becoming overemployed and working enough OT so that I could both afford rent in my shoebox apt with roommates along with the extortionate price of med school fees. I didn't think about this at the time, but I think this also cost me low SES/consideration from schools? But maybe my writing about some of these experiences balanced it out idk. Anyway rambling a bit. All this to say I hope someone out there who sees is in similar shoes that I was in a year ago gets some hope from this post.

Yes this process is classist. Yes it will take a lot from you. I was literally giving up meals and taking out loans from friends halfway through the cycle to pay for some of my secondaries (s/o GWU for it's whopping $142 secondary on $0 interface) bc my savings had largely dried up. Also fuck ca$per and fuck preview can't believe this shit costs money not just to take but to SEND (made a whole nother post crashing out?? But as someone who made it from an impoverished upbringing, it's all so worth it. Just keep saving, take an extra gap year, adjust your school list, but if this is your destination, PLEASE don't let your starting position stop you from reaching the finish line.

Anyway, I'm about to clock out of work here, gotta wrap this up, but pls feel free reach out to me/DM if you're reading this and feel like you need encouragement or guidance from a money-challenged fella who survived the gauntlet and wants others to do the same!

---Stats below---

Low 3.6x cGPA, mid 3.5x sGPA, 521 MCAT (131/131/130/129 iirc)

White ORM, will likely be 26 at matriculation, depending where I end up (start date dependent)

VA resident at time of app, strong PA ties (now a resident here), weak/trivial CA ties

4 Casper, ~50%ile PREview I forget what band this was I think 4 maybe?(again, and I cannot emphasize this enough, fuck these two cashgrabs)

Heavy clinical volunteering (>2k hours), weak (<200 hrs at time of submission) but somewhat niche/unique nonclinical volunteering

Boatloads of paid clinical experience (think 5-10k hours) from some cool clinical roles that I think opened some doors for me

Another solid handful (high hundreds-low thousands, can't recall what I estimated though) of paid nonclinical from paying to survive/exist throughout undergrad and beyond

Meager research (couple hundred lab hours, but absolutely no productivity)

Did not write OIE essay or incorporate hardships into PS or anything on the primary really bc I felt weird about it and sorta felt like I'd be detracting from people who had it a lot worse than; talked about some of my circumstances on some secondaries though, with mixed-decent results

Think my writing was overall okay, but perhaps a bit polarizing in some secondaries. I will say I had a LOT of eyes and editors and think this helped tremendously in editing, especially for W&A and PS, and I HIGHLY recommend everyone ask as many people as possible, both in and out of medicine, to review these as possible. I also did do some light editing/rewriting with AI, and personally give Claude the best reviews for this lol, but honestly don't think it's all thaaaaat useful tbh + my human reviewers gave more "human" suggestions and edits imo (whoaaaa shocker)

Not shown in the above sanky is like 8-10 programs I submitted primaries to but never got around to finishing due to financial/mental burnout

Best of luck to anyone applying this upcoming cycle, and thank you again to those who helped me through!