(00:00) — Growing Up Around Medicine: Hallie describes having two surgical physician associate parents and knowing from childhood that medical school was her path.
(04:24) — Division I Fencing Meets Premed: How training at 5:45 a.m., attending class, and working overnight ER shifts defined her undergraduate years.
(07:52) — Deciding to Delay, Not Quit: Why Hallie chose two gap years over dropping fencing, and what the full college experience cost her timeline.
(09:03) — The MCAT Sucker Punch: Three attempts, one void, 28 full-length practice exams, and a score that moved less than one point.
(12:17) — What She Got Wrong About MCAT Prep: The difference between checking off practice tests and actually diagnosing your mistakes.
(17:00) — Applying Broadly and Going DO: How she decided to apply to over 40 schools, what happened on the MD side, and why she ultimately found the right fit.
(22:43) — DO vs. MD and Orthopedic Surgery: What she knew early about the match landscape for competitive specialties, and how she processed the disappointment.
(25:29) — Building a Research and Networking Foundation: Starting research at 19, scrubbing into ORs outside her rotation, and why genuine interest beats strategic positioning.
(35:39) — Rewinding to the Application Mindset: Reflecting on what the MD rejections really meant and how her perspective shifted once she was inside medical school.
(38:56) — Final Words for the Premed Who Is Stuck: What Hallie would say to any student on their 27th practice exam who is questioning whether to keep going.
Hallie took the MCAT three times, voided it once, and logged 28 full-length practice exams before applying to medical school — and her score barely moved a single point. In this episode of The Premed Years, she talks honestly about what went wrong in her prep, what she eventually understood about quality versus quantity in studying, and how that same lesson came back around when she hit Step 1 in medical school. A Division I fencer who worked overnight ER shifts between tournaments, Hallie built a strong application in every dimension except the one score that gatekeeps the process. She applied broadly to both MD and DO programs, processed real disappointment on the MD side, and found her footing at a DO school where she is now in her clinical years with orthopedic surgery in her sights. She also gets specific about what she is doing right now — walking into orthopedic ORs on her own time, introducing herself to every member of the surgical team, and building relationships with genuine interest rather than calculated positioning. This episode is for any premed who is putting in the hours and not seeing the results, and who needs an honest conversation about what it actually takes to get to the other side.
What You'll Learn:
- Why taking more practice tests without deep review is one of the most common and costly MCAT prep mistakes
- How to honestly assess whether you understand a concept versus whether you have simply seen it before
- What pursuing a competitive surgical specialty as a DO student actually looks like in terms of preparation and match strategy
- How to build meaningful relationships with attendings and residents before your official surgical rotations begin
- Why the reasons you choose medicine matter as much as the credentials you build to get there