How to Make the Most of the Rest of the Year
Moderator
🚨
We're past the halfway point of 2026, which means it's a good time to stop and ask: is your premed plan actually on track, or has it just been running on autopilot since the start of the year? The journey is a marathon with no clearly marked mile markers, so it's really easy to drift. Here’s a few tips for making the second half of the year count:
⏰Get honest about your MCAT timeline. If you're planning to test this year, it’s crunch time, with the last test dates in mid-September. We recommend that you be about 5 points from your goal by the one month mark, so take a careful look at the practice tests you’ve been completing to see whether you’re on track. If you're testing next year, this is prime time to start building your content foundation so you're not cramming physics from scratch during the winter break.
✅Audit your extracurriculars. Ask whether your activities actually show something about who you are. It’s okay to cut things that aren’t serving you, like clinical hours that feel like busywork, research you're not learning anything from, a club you joined just for the title. Invest that time into things that are actually meaningful to you. Quality > quantity!
📝Start thinking about letters of recommendation now, not in the fall panic. If there's a professor you've been meaning to build a real relationship with, the next few months are your window. Letters written by someone who barely knows you read very differently than letters from someone who can speak to specifics. Don’t forget to attend those office hours to get to know them.
🧑🎓Take stock of your GPA trajectory. If your spring semester didn't go the way you wanted, there's still time to course-correct before you're staring down the next application season with regrets. Talk to an advisor. Consider what a realistic upward trend looks like from here.
🪧Protect your bandwidth. Burnout doesn't announce itself, it just creeps in until you're grinding through days on fumes. Whatever "rest" looks like for you — actual days off, hobbies unrelated to medicine, sleep — build it into the plan instead of treating it as optional. This isn’t a nice-to-have thing, it’s necessary to maintain your sanity.
Which of these are you already on top of, and which one's been sitting on your to-do list? Drop it in the comments; sometimes just saying it out loud is what gets you moving.