With SUNY Downstate ending their WL via email as of today, I post an extremely late Sankey lol

sigh. I definitely learned a lot from this cycle, if you need to find me I will be writing secondaries :'

EDIT: sorry guys for disappearing lol, life:

As requested, what I learned:

- SOME NOTES: 2025 was a crazy stressful year for me. Honestly I have no clue how I submitted my apps, but I do want to note 1) SUNY Downstate is weird and doesn’t reserve school spots for later interview spots. After a certain point, you can only get WL or rejected, and I think there was less WL movement this past year. 2) I was one of the last interview days for all of my IIs so that wasn’t in my favor. 3) I was financially constrained to 20 apps, but because my stats are a bit polarizing I wish I could have applied to more (applying to way more this year because I can actually afford it yay!) 4) I genuinely never expected the UChicago interview, it was my first interview and I did not get any sleep. I ended up nottt doing well 5) What went “wrong”: submitted later and less broad than I would have liked, did not interview as strongly as I wished, honestly didn’t believe in myself/so burnt out/stressed, and end of the day some element of chance 6) other notes: I paid for apps, financially independent, broke up w my ex and immediately had back to back interviews for over a month lol… 6) Never submitted UCSF secondary because I realized I don’t meet some extremely specific prereq guidelines

I could write a lot more and happy to answer any questions, but some main things, none of which i think is new tbh:

- I didn’t know about Casper and Preview until pretty late, didn’t know about every school being different about everything (interview style etc) a this whole cycle was me learning on the fly lol

- Be kind to yourself. Beating yourself isn’t going to help and y’all are all really qualified, this process is so rough<3

- Submit ASAP and forget! I was so stressed about getting IIs and I was convinced I would get 0 …and I ended up getting 4 (UMass MD and PURCH). That stress literally did no favors, if anything it made things worse - go live life.

- If you’re struggling mentally and can, seek support. I’m doing way better this year because I’m medicated lol.

- Submit ASAP but also yes your secondaries matter. Looking at then after IIs was so funny because my II secondaries were so much stronger it’s not even comparable…trash ones didn’t get II, surprise! And similarly, the missions of II schools were all clear matches w my app. Again, surprise! /s

- Prewrite everything you can: update letters, CV, any dual program statements etc. You won’t want to do them later lol

- AdCom has no time - be straight to the point in writing, practice practice practice interview questions, etc. They genuinely read so many freaking apps. You don’t have to share everything relevant to your medical journey in your app or interviews, just have a coherent story and concrete examples.

- this process is so stupid expensive and unnecessarily demanding sometimes lol. I think it’s easy to get negative or bitter (cough AdComs that refuse to answer questions), realistically, but focus on yourself and be kind to yourself and others.

Idk happy to answer any questions! Honestly I think it was better for me personally that I’m getting another year off. I worked all through college, 2025 was really hard for me, and I’m in a better place now and need some more time before I go back. If I had to move last second, alone, cross country, then immediately start school, I’d be so stressed ngl. Yall are amazing wonderful mwah please be kind to yourselves!