Updated October 21, 2021.
When most people think of the Student Doctor Network, they think of the SDN Forums, where pre-health and health professional students discuss all aspects of the admission and training processes to become a doctor. However, you may not realize that SDN has extensive resources beyond the forums to help you on your healthcare education journey. We have created this guide to SDN resources to help you learn about all the other tools available.
These resources are available to you for free in support of SDN’s non-profit mission to make healthcare admissions accessible to all students.
We welcome your feedback. Please let us know how we can improve these resources to better serve as a guide to SDN resources.
All Professions
- Articles: Published on a weekly basis, SDN articles cover topics ranging from application and study tips to specialty profiles, healthcare policy, and more. A wide variety of students and experts write articles for SDN. Articles are reviewed by an Editorial Board of volunteer members for relevancy and accuracy. The Editorial Board welcomes submissions for consideration.
- Confidential Consult forums: In these forums, vetted experts including admissions committee members, pre-health advisors, and current health professional students answer your questions. Anonymous versions of questions are published, based on the discretion of the Confidential Consult team.
- Doctor Q & As: Interviews with doctors across multiple healthcare disciplines so you can gain an understanding of what daily life is like for different types of doctors.
- Essay Workshop 101: A six-lesson course with supplemental articles. This course will teach you about the different parts of the essay-writing process and help you to develop a strong, unique application essay.
- Glossary of Pre-Medical and Pre-Pharmacy Terms: Common terms, acronyms, and abbreviations pre-health students should know.
- Interview Feedback and School Reviews: You can read details about interviews and student experiences from hundreds of health professional schools reported by students after their interviews or matriculation.
- Review2: Search for reviews on thousands of testing centers to ensure your test experience is nothing but uneventful.
- SDN Wiki: The SDN Wiki collects useful links, tools, articles, and resources for a range of healthcare professions.
- YouTube Channel: Review our collection of videos about the admissions process and how to succeed.
MCAT Study Tools
- MCAT 3 Month Study Schedule: A popular study schedule created by an SDN member who was able to increase their score from the 30th to 90th percentile.
- StudySchedule.org: Using your test date, study availability, and test prep materials, StudySchedule uses computer AI to create a customized and adaptive study plan to help you succeed on the MCAT.
Pre-Med and Medical Students
- AMCAS Tracker: How long is it taking for AMCAS applications to be verified once submitted? This crowdsourced tracker will help you judge when you can anticipate when your application will be verified based on public data and user submissions.
- How to Choose a Medical Specialty: You can learn about different medical specialties and take an assessment quiz to find out which specialties best match their values and personality. This tool is based on the official residency selection resource by author Anita D. Taylor.
- LizzyM Application Assistant: You can enter your MCAT score, GPA, and race to view your medical school admission likelihood based on historic AAMC data. You can also generate a list of schools where your qualifications are competitive.
- MDApplicants: You can view profiles of past medical school applicants to provide a guide of what to expect from your medical school application experience.
- Medical School Application Cost Calculator: Applying to medical school is expensive! Answer some quick questions about your plans and get an estimated total of the complete cost of the application process.
- Scutwork.com: Residents and rotating medical students can leave anonymous reviews about residency programs to help future students.
Pre-Dental and Dental Students
- DDSApplicants: You can view profiles of past dental school applicants to provide a guide of what to expect from your dental school application experience.
- How to Get Into Dental School: This step-by-step guide will help you strengthen your application. With some hard work, you can be competitive at any dental school.
Pre-Optometry and Optometry Students
- How to Get Into Optometry School: Plan your path to optometry school and strengthen your application with this step-by-step guide.
Pre-Rehab Sci and Rehab Sci Students
- How to Get Into Occupational Therapy School: A step-by-step guide to help you plan your path into occupational therapy school.
- How to Get Into Physical Therapy School: This detailed guide will help you strengthen your application to physical therapy school.
We hope you have found this guide to SDN resources helpful. If you would like to support SDN’s non-profit mission, please donate.
We’ve been on the Internet for over 20 years doing just one thing: providing health career information for free or at cost. We do this because we believe that the health education process is too expensive and too competitive. Many people and organizations have built their businesses making money on students who are desperate for any opportunity to become a doctor.
We believe that all students deserve the same access to high-quality information. We believe that providing high-quality career advice and information ensures that everyone, regardless of income or privilege, has a chance to achieve their dream of being a doctor.
SDN is published by the Health Professional Student Association, a nonprofit educational organization.