Stevie graduated college with a 2.5 GPA, came close to flunking out freshman year, and had no clear roadmap for getting into medical school. In this episode, he walks through exactly how he turned things around — not in a single dramatic moment, but through a series of smaller, staggered goals that compounded over time.
He talks honestly about the fear that kept him from attending premed advising sessions and from reaching out to physician mentors in his fraternity — fear not of failure, but of finding out just how far behind he really was. He describes how a GPA requirement for joining Alpha Phi Alpha became the first concrete goal that got his grades moving, how six post-graduation courses raised his cumulative GPA only to a 2.8, and why he pivoted to a funded one-year linkage master’s program at SUNY Upstate rather than continuing to chip away at an undergraduate transcript that had too many credits to meaningfully change.
Stepping back from the specifics of his path, Stevie and host Ryan Gray also dig into the psychology of the long premed road — why fixating on a distant goal line creates burnout, how delayed gratification plays out differently when you have already experienced real academic failure, and why gap years and nonlinear paths are increasingly recognized as assets rather than red flags by medical school admissions committees.
What You’ll Learn:
– Why fear of learning the requirements — not lack of motivation — is what keeps many struggling premeds from seeking help
– How staggered, short-term goal setting can rebuild academic momentum when a cumulative GPA feels too damaged to fix
– What a linkage or pathway master’s program actually looks like, how the SUNY Upstate program is structured, and why the MCAT matters more than additional post-bacc coursework at a certain GPA floor
– How a 495 MCAT became a 509 and what Stevie did differently the second time
– Why lived experience during gap years can strengthen a medical school application rather than weaken it
Full show notes coming soon!
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit
I just received my admission to XXXXX! This is unreal and almost feels like I am dreaming. I want to thank you for all of your help with my application. I cannot overstate how influential your guidance and insight have been with this result and I am eternally grateful for your support!
IM SO HAPPY!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALL YOUR HELP, IM INDEBTED TO YOU! Truly, thank you so much for all your help. Thank you doesnt do enough.
I want to take a few moments and thank you for all of your very instructive, kind and consistent feedback and support through my applications and it is your wishes, feedback, and most importantly your blessings that have landed me the acceptance!
I got into XXXXX this morning!!!! It still has not hit me that I will be a doctor now!! Thank you for all your help, your words and motivation have brought me to this point.
I wanted to once again express my heartfelt gratitude for your help in providing feedback during my secondary applications. Your guidance has been instrumental in my journey.
Just wanted to share my wonderful news! I received my first medical school acceptance! Thank you for all that you do for us Application Academy!!!
I am excited to tell you that I just got my third interview invite from XXXXX today! I can’t believe it. I didn’t even know if I was good enough to get one, let alone three – by mid-September. Thank you so much for all of your help and support up to this point; I would not be in this position without it!!
I wanted to thank you for helping me prepare for my XXXXX interview. Even in a 30-minute advising session, I learned so much from you. Thank you for believing in me, and here’s to another potential success story from one of your advisees!
I just received an acceptance with XXXXX! This is so exciting and such a huge relief and so nice to have one of our top choice schools! I also received an interview with XXXXX which brings the total up to 20 interviews! Thank so much, none of this would have been possible without you!
