What happens when your first med school application cycle doesn’t go as planned? In this inspiring episode of Admissions Straight Talk, host Dr. Valerie Wherley sits down with Mory Gould, now an M1 at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, to share his candid journey from reapplicant to successful medical student.

Mory opens up about the setbacks of his first application cycle, the hard truths he learned from feedback, and the steps he took to strengthen his candidacy—like building direct patient care experience as a medical assistant and reshaping his personal statement. He also discusses the importance of resilience, filtering advice, and how vulnerability and openness to feedback can transform an application.

Whether you’re in the middle of your first application cycle or regrouping for another try, Mory’s story is packed with practical strategies, encouragement, and wisdom to help you keep moving forward on your path to medicine.

Show Notes

Mory, thank you for joining me today.

Yeah, thank you for having me.

Let’s begin by having the viewers learn a little bit about you. So let’s start with almost the first question you would get at a med school interview. Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where did you grow up? Where did you go to undergrad? How did you know you wanted to pursue pre-med?

Yeah, so I grew up in Maryland outside of DC and I went to Indiana University. I graduated there in 2021. And then I went back to Maryland and did research at NIH. At Indiana, my major was biology, but I also had minors in chemistry and psychology. And I always knew that I was interested in math and science. And so after graduating, I didn’t know if I wanted to do research or medicine. I had a feeling because I took all the pre-med classes.

But it was through shadowing and getting to know a little bit about medicine as well as doing research that I feel medicine was the right path for me.

Excellent. So the title of today’s podcast is “From Med School Reapplicant to Current M1.” Let’s talk about the reapplicant piece as it relates to you. Can we talk about your first application cycle? When was that? Meaning what year was your first application cycle? And then I have a couple of follow-up questions for you.

Yeah, so my first application cycle was in 20 for the 2023 cycle. So I was planning on just taking two gap years after medical school.

Okay, in that first application cycle, did you only apply to MD programs or did you apply to MD and DO programs

So I applied to, I think it was 14 MD schools, maybe 13, because I think one of the secondaries was a little long for me to finish, so 13 MD schools.

And did you get any interviews? Did you get any waitlist spots? How did it all unfold?

Yeah, so I had a late interview to Drexel, I think it was in January. And after that, I got put on the waitlist. And I was actually on the waitlist till school started that next year in 2023. So I think that’s very common for a lot of waitlist applicants, that they don’t know that they’re not going to get in until the cycle, the next cycle has begun.

When your first application cycle was not successful, can you talk about some of the things you did at that time?

Yeah, so I think the first thing that I did was seek out advice from other people. Finding out, what is medicine all about? Do I want to reapply or not? As well as get feedback on my first application, what are the strengths that I had in my application, as well as the weaknesses and kind of filter those out and then have a plan in place to kind of enact those advice or guidance that I got.

Following up on that, did you ever consider not reapplying?

I think there was a month or two where I was looking into other things, know, medical device sales or anything else  of that nature. But  when I really thought about it, you know, I wanted to give medicine another go and I really couldn’t see myself doing anything else.

And this is a good time for us to disclose that we worked together, here at Accepted. And I was your consultant and we had a really great working relationship. You did come to me after your first application cycle and I reviewed your first application. I did give you some feedback on what I thought were your strengths and weaknesses. You also got feedback from some other people, some mentors and maybe your PI. 

So this is a very vulnerable question and I think people tuning in would appreciate your honest answer on this. What were some weaknesses identified on your first application and how did you strengthen them for your next application?

Yeah, I think there were two major weaknesses that I had. And the first one was kind of a lack of clinical experiences. I had a lot of research, but I didn’t have a lot of time either in a hospital setting or in a clinic, direct patient interactions. And, you know, even the time that I had in the hospital was kind of a lot of projected hours that weren’t on my initial primary application, especially on the first cycle. And the second one had to do with my writing. My personal statement talked a lot about me and not necessarily my experiences and how they geared towards why I wanted to go into medicine.

Absolutely. What did you do to accumulate direct patient care hours?

So I started part-time as a medical assistant in a pediatric practice, and then I also was a part-time medical assistant in an orthopedic practice. And so I think being a medical assistant is a great way to get those one-on-one patient-facing hours where you’re the only one in the room with the patient and learning how to talk with patients.

I also tried to explore different communities and different populations other than kind of what I grew up with. I volunteer in the short-term detox facility and there it was lot of learning about other people’s experiences. It wasn’t so much clinically focused, but yeah, I just tried to talk to and learn from their experiences, especially their experiences with healthcare.

And I remember reading your first application, which had some really great stuff, including a lot of research. You had done some really great research projects. And the concern was, and we had some good conversations about this, are you coming off too research heavy? And would an adcom potentially look at your application and say, are you sure you want medicine?

How do you know you don’t want a PhD program? And how can you substantiate your choice of medicine versus research? And so that’s why you and I talked and said this direct patient care would be so very important to become a competitive applicant when you hopped into your next application.

Yeah, and I think during this time, a lot of people talk about kind of checking off the boxes. And that’s such like a term that’s thrown out there. But I think  sometimes checking off the boxes is important because the reason why these activities are so sought after or looked in favor by medical schools is because they do offer insightful insights into why you want to become a physician. So checking off the boxes, while it may seem or not be the right term to best describe it, I think they do have a lot of value.

Absolutely, because in helping you through this process, I know that not only were you able to talk about your direct patient care on your primary application, you also could use some of the stories and skills and interpersonal interactions on those secondary essays. And so that became very valuable for you as well.

Yeah, 100%.

So let’s talk about your second application cycle. What year did you apply? How many schools did you apply to? And how many interviews did you get?

Yeah, so I applied for this past cycle, I guess it was 2025, and I applied to, think it was 27 or 28 schools. And from those schools, I got three interviews and eventually two acceptances and a wait list.

Excellent. So again, the comparison was the first cycle you applied to 13 schools and the second cycle you applied to 27. Okay, great. And would you like to announce where you are currently an M1?

Yeah, I’m at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. Thank you, thank you.

Excellent. Congratulations.

If you had any words of wisdom for med school applicants who have recently had an unsuccessful application cycle, what would you say?

I would say don’t be discouraged. I think this is a really great opportunity to reflect on your experiences, what made you interested in medicine as well as how those individual experiences will help you in medical school and beyond. I would say be confident, you know, once you reflect and you come up with a plan, be confident and kind of follow through, you know, whether it’s you need more patient facing hours or you need to retake the MCAT, be confident in that decision and don’t second guess it.  

Get a lot of feedback, as much feedback as possible. I remember talking to so many different people that had so many different perspectives. So be receptive to their feedback, but also filter it. I had some people that told me that, don’t need so much clinical experience. You have all this research that’s, just try to reapply right away, do it again. But really try to filter it out and find what resonates with you. 

And then lastly, the resilience is admired. And by that, I think I really enjoyed having questions on the secondary application or in the interview process asking about being a reapplicant or what would happen if I didn’t get into medical school this year, because it was so easy for me to say how I’ve reflected on my experiences and how much I’ve grown from them. And so I think that that is really admired in medicine as in medical school and beyond. I know, in medicine, there will be so many opportunities, so many failures per se, but also so many opportunities to grow.

Right. And I think those are excellent pieces. I think to be a reapplicant is one of the most  fearful and vulnerable places to be in because to go through an application cycle and to think that it wasn’t successful, it’s expensive, it’s time consuming and you think you put your best foot forward and to think that those schools in essence didn’t find anything you said appealing and to try to do it again can be quite frightening. So I think what you said is spot on. 

And if I could say about you, Mory, in working with you, the two things that I admired about you, in your second application cycle is number one, you are very, very vulnerable, which I think is admired by medical schools. To talk about pieces of your story between your cumulative GPA and your MCAT score and how you specifically learn are all very interesting to an adcom. And you are willing to talk about it and talk about it in detail. Number two, you are also very wonderful at taking feedback. 

So when I first read your personal statement and said, are you willing to totally rewrite this? Go at it from a different direction. And you said, yes, any whatever you think and however, let’s work on this together. So your ability to take feedback is exceptional and will work wonders for you while you are a medical student and beyond. And so if you are listening to this and you are in the position of being a reapplicant, that ability to take feedback and apply it will serve you well in your reapplication. And do you have any thoughts about that?

No, I think you said it beautifully, being able to take in feedback and learn from it and grow, especially, like I said, I’ve said the word failures a lot in this session, but I don’t want to think that being a reapplicant is a failure by any means. And I don’t think there really is such a thing as a failure. There’s just opportunities to grow. And so I think if you go through all of your activities and experiences with that mindset that everything is an opportunity to grow. Everything kind of will work out in your favor in the end. You know, hard work does pay off. So keep on working hard.

Absolutely. Well, Mory, thank you for sharing your story with us and your words of wisdom to re-applicants out there. We wish you continued success out there at UCLA.

Thank you, yeah, and if any of the listeners want to contact me maybe we can put my email or something like that in the comment section below and any questions you can send my way. 

Related Resources

• Mory Gould contact information: morygould@gmail.com
• Dr. Valerie Wherley bio and contact information
• Healthcare Experience vs. Patient Care Experience… What’s the Difference?, Accepted YouTube video
• UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine Secondary Application Essay Tips and Timeline [2025–2026], Class Profile
• The Importance of Extracurricular Activities for Medical School Applications

Related Episodes

• The Fastest Way to Medical School Is Slowly: Avoiding Early Premed Mistakes [Episode 608]
• How Many Med Schools Should You Apply To? [Episode 607]
• How to Overcome the Biggest Weaknesses in Med School Applications [Episode 605]
• Rejection and Reapplication: How to Respond [Episode 523] 

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