Is every application cycle like this?

[Yhorm the Giant]

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In January-ish 2017 - no grade replacement out of nowhere, dropping my GPA by 0.5, after 2 years of grade replacement efforts. Wasn't sure if I could get in anymore, luckily I still tried.

New tax plan has a lot of uncertainty. I don't have great credit and my parents definitely can't cosign, so now I'm not sure how paying for school would go if there was a 250k cap, given 50k in undergrad loans as well. Hopefully I'm misunderstanding some stuff about the tax plan.

Merger of 2020 leaves DO's at a bit of a disadvantage for residencies, or at least uncertainties.

Does stuff like this constantly happen? It just feels like we are in a cycle with a lot of big things happening. Not sure if it's always like this or really is just a period of big changes. I just have zero reference point. I imagine there are always some big changes on the horizon

 

[Yhorm the Giant]

Also just wanted to throw out there the fact that we both likely took the new MCAT during one of the first years it was being administrated, thus we have been guinea pigs for that as well. I'm not sure if any pre-med students will be able to answer your question but I have to say I feel the same way and it's pretty scary. Especially reading about how fast new schools are being opened with no increase in number of residency spots, don't know what the future will look like but I don't think it's all doom and gloom either. I'd say it's a period of big changes, and we have to go into it knowing how important it will be to keep up with these changes for ourselves. Staying informed and up to date vs trusting the administration wholeheartedly. For example I had one school tell me they don't anticipate students needing to take USMLE anymore for any reason due to the merger, vs another school saying they see taking the USMLE now as even more critical to compete with MDs.

Oh exactly. The psych/soc section has been soooo different than the practices that the AAMC puts out, they are still getting the hand of the new MCAT themselves! It is scary, but I'm hoping that things will work out of I'm diligent, pay attention and try to always have a plan and be realistic about things. I agree with the second school, USMLE will be more important than ever.
Also, I went back and looked out of curiosity. The sky was definitely falling in 2009 on SDN. People were pretty sure that after Obamacare went into full effect no doctors would ever make over 200k again regardless of specialty. That wasn't everyone of course, but I saw a few of those comments. I'm sure that in a group like this, something will always be worth being neurotic about. I think this is an especially big time of change, but I'm sure there's always something looming on the horizon.