About DocStory
We built the resource we wished we’d had.
DocStory shares interviews with current medical students about what their schools are really like: the curriculum, the culture, the city, and the downsides.
49 interviews 40 medical schools 23 states
How it started
In 2017, a few of us were medical students at UC Irvine, Creighton, and the John A. Burns School of Medicine in Hawaiʻi. We all remembered the same frustration from applying.
Official school materials told us what every school says about itself. Forums and other sites swung between glowing and furious, and it was hard to tell what was typical and what was exaggerated. When an application or an interviewer asked why a school was a good fit for us, it was hard to give an answer that was specific and true.
What actually helped was talking to students: personal connections, friends of friends, phone calls. Not everyone has those connections. So we started asking current students the questions we’d wanted answered, and sharing their answers in their own words. The first interviews went up in 2018.
How DocStory works
- Students answer in their own words. Each interview is a current student answering questions about their school. We edit lightly for length and clarity, and we ask about the downsides as well as the strengths.
- School pages add the facts. Each school page pairs student interviews with figures from the school’s own website and U.S. government data, with the sources listed.
- Quotes are exact. When we quote a student anywhere on the site, the words are theirs, checked against the full interview.
- Contributors are verified. New contributors confirm their school email before anything is published, and we compensate them for their time.
What DocStory isn’t
We’re not admissions consultants, we’re not affiliated with any medical school, and we don’t rank schools. Every interview is one student’s experience at one point in time, and some were written several years ago, so check the date and read more than one perspective when you can.
Get in touch
Questions, corrections, or a story to share? Email us at docstory.contact@gmail.com.