2008 Non-Trad Applicants' Progress Thread

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Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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I included only post college work and left out minimum wage jobs in high school/college that will annoy adcoms and make them throw my application in the garbage (or recycling bin).
 
Quix said:
Being 30, I love you.



I've been in college since 1994 (BSLA, MA, Ph.D., BS post-bacc). How the hell did that happen? 😉
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30? oh you're just a baby!!!!! :laugh:

So I haven't had my bday yet this year, and I made a comment to a friend my age about us being 32. And she said "Uh, hate to tell you this, but I'm thirty-THREE, and you will be in a few months, too. Get used to it." *cringe*
 
From the irony bin:

I checked my AMCAS primary, and apparently my county of residence (Allegheny) is classified as Underserved. This is the home of UPMC, which is right behind Microsoft and Kaiser Permanente in line to take over the world. We have had three hospital closings (that I'm aware of) since 1998, but there is no way in hell that this county is lacking medical coverage.
 
Playmakur42 said:
I included only post college work and left out minimum wage jobs in high school/college that will annoy adcoms and make them throw my application in the garbage (or recycling bin).
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I wasn't going to include it but it sort of is important in some aspect of what I've did and when. Such as I was a student athletic trainer my freshman year when I was pre-med (before I switched to business). I also had a competitive internship (in business) as well. So even though my grades weren't the best, I always had a job. If I include only after graduation, I only had 2 (well technically 3 if you count my part-time position with the same company I worked seasonally during college starting senior year of high school). So I was torn on whether or not to include my college experience. I've been told that everything after high school is game from some, others like penguin already had it filled with jobs. What's a girl to do?
 
Mush - I would put what looks the most impressive, whether it's right after high school or last year for you.

Pingouin and I are sorta unique in having private practices and such and moving around in our clinical realms for experience after grad school. But do what you need to make your application sizzle!
 
mshheaddoc said:
So I was torn on whether or not to include my college experience. What's a girl to do?
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Definitely include the stuff you mentioned. It's both pertinent and healthcare related. My college work included sweeping the arena up after hockey games, so you can see why I didn't really want to include that. In retrospect, I should have included my college internship where I was a personal trainer, but oh well. good luck!


Actually, I have a question for anyone who can answer. I'm getting a DO letter of rec whenever the guy gets around to writing it for me. I heard you don't need to have your rec letters in until you send in secondaries. Is this the truth, or do I need to have all my letters in now to even be considered for secondaries? Thanks for the help.
 
Hi!

I'm applying this year too! AMCAS and AACOMAS submitted - waiting on one transcript for AACOMAS yet.

Let the games begin!
 
Letters get sent in with secondaries.

Thanks for your opinion guys. I think I'm going to include my jobs just so they can see that I worked during college. I usually kept the job for a year and ended up moving "up" in the world.
 
So I wrote an email to one of my LOR writers, thanking him for sending it (somewhat) promptly and asking if I could buy him dinner as a thank-you gift.

His response? "Well you don't really need to do that, but I'm not one to pass up a free meal."

🙄 men
 
pingouin said:
So I wrote an email to one of my LOR writers, thanking him for sending it (somewhat) promptly and asking if I could buy him dinner as a thank-you gift.

His response? "Well you don't really need to do that, but I'm not one to pass up a free meal."

🙄 men
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Yeah - they never know when to just say "Thanks!"
 
pingouin said:
So I wrote an email to one of my LOR writers, thanking him for sending it (somewhat) promptly and asking if I could buy him dinner as a thank-you gift.

His response? "Well you don't really need to do that, but I'm not one to pass up a free meal."

🙄 men
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Hell, I'll write you a letter for a free meal. I've got the right initials after my name.

"pingouin is really neat. She is made of turtle meat. Let her be a doctor."

There. I like Thai food. FEDEX it so it won't get cold. 😀
 
Quix said:
Hell, I'll write you a letter for a free meal. I've got the right initials after my name.

"pingouin is really neat. She is made of turtle meat. Let her be a doctor."

There. I like Thai food. FEDEX it so it won't get cold. 😀
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oh punkin, if I'm sending you food, it's something I baked for you. you haven't been in the Random non-MCAT thread, so we'll forgive you for not knowing.

and if- by some miracle- I get an interview at Pitt, I *promise* I'll let you buy me dinner. 😀

oh. and that poem's going in my sig. 😍
 
pingouin said:
oh punkin, if I'm sending you food, it's something I baked for you. you haven't been in the Random non-MCAT thread, so we'll forgive you for not knowing.

and if- by some miracle- I get an interview at Pitt, I *promise* I'll let you buy me dinner. 😀

oh. and that poem's going in my sig. 😍
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:laugh:

Hey, if you get to Pittsburgh, I'll be happy to give you the tour and some greasy food.
 
Quix said:
Hell, I'll write you a letter for a free meal. I've got the right initials after my name.

"pingouin is really neat. She is made of turtle meat. Let her be a doctor."

There. I like Thai food. FEDEX it so it won't get cold. 😀
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You forgot "Amen. Pass the chicken."
 
Quix said:
Hell, I'll write you a letter for a free meal. I've got the right initials after my name.
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by the way, just a side note on this since I feel the need to vent... as I said several pages ago, a few schools I spoke with were fairly insistent on having a non-sci LOR. now, I haven't had a non-sci class since '98, but I was able to dredge one up from undergrad (c/o '96).

OTOH, I am employed in a clinical position at each of my city's two medical campuses, and have a private clinical practice in my field. so from one of the hospitals and my private practice, I have letters from 2 different MDs with whom I work very closely. (uh, including the one who's open to me paying for a meal 🙄 ) they know my clinical work, they refer patients to me as an independently-practicing clinician, they seek out my opinions as part of case coordination....... and both are faculty at one of the local schools. these are not by any stretch physician "shadowing" letters.

clearly the idea of "who pingouin is now and why you should let her in" is better described by these physicians than by someone who has not (literally) seen nor spoken with me in 10+ years. and YET- the above-unnamed schools still informed me that they would not accept the MD letters, but will take the PhD letter from waybackwhen.

/rant
 
That's asinine. Of all of the professors I had as an undergraduate, I've kept in regular contact with *one*, and he's in the German department. I went back to D.C. in January and got reacquainted with two other professors (one in philosophy, one in biology), just because I thought it would be fun to get back in touch. They barely remembered me (but it came back the longer we talked); clearly they are in a good position to evaluate my current abilities versus those of my 20 year-old self. 🙄

Gotta love academic hoops. Meh.

pingouin said:
by the way, just a side note on this since I feel the need to vent... as I said several pages ago, a few schools I spoke with were fairly insistent on having a non-sci LOR. now, I haven't had a non-sci class since '98, but I was able to dredge one up from undergrad (c/o '96).

OTOH, I am employed in a clinical position at each of my city's two medical campuses, and have a private clinical practice in my field. so from one of the hospitals and my private practice, I have letters from 2 different MDs with whom I work very closely. (uh, including the one who's open to me paying for a meal 🙄 ) they know my clinical work, they refer patients to me as an independently-practicing clinician, they seek out my opinions as part of case coordination....... and both are faculty at one of the local schools. these are not by any stretch physician "shadowing" letters.

clearly the idea of "who pingouin is now and why you should let her in" is better described by these physicians than by someone who has not (literally) seen nor spoken with me in 10+ years. and YET- the above-unnamed schools still informed me that they would not accept the MD letters, but will take the PhD letter from waybackwhen.

/rant
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Quix said:
Gotta love academic hoops. Meh.
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exactly. so I jump through them... because I want to stand out and be remembered, but not as "the woman who threw a hissy fit about whether she had appropriate LORs". there are tens of thousands of us and what- 150-ish of them including MD/DO schools?

sit down, don't rock the boat. 😎
 
pingouin said:
exactly. so I jump through them... because I want to stand out and be remembered, but not as "the woman who threw a hissy fit about whether she had appropriate LORs". there are tens of thousands of us and what- 150-ish of them including MD/DO schools?

sit down, don't rock the boat. 😎
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Yeah, gotta love it. I like hitting that obstacle, as well as the "We're going to hold you to grades you earned 10+ years ago" obstacle.
 
Holy crap! I don't know how some of you do this. Like Quix, with all your degrees and inputing in each course. my 300 credits are taking me forever. And I'm only submiting to AACOMAS! I can't imagine doing BOTH! Some of your are really dedicated!!!
 
mshheaddoc said:
Holy crap! I don't know how some of you do this. Like Quix, with all your degrees and inputing in each course. my 300 credits are taking me forever. And I'm only submiting to AACOMAS! I can't imagine doing BOTH! Some of your are really dedicated!!!
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Ah, the fun of AACOMAS. I put in all of my classes three weeks ago.




And then they switched to the 2008 cycle, and everything was lost, including the fact that I already registered with them. Which means I have a sneaking suspicion that they may have tossed my transcripts when they arrived. w00t.

I can't believe how expensive they are. I have two DO programs, and that's going to cost me $190 + secondaries. Fortunately they are both in-state, so my travel expenses will only be gas on the trip up (assuming they want to interview me), but still...
 
Quix said:
Because greasy food is sunshine dipped in love. Mere mortals like us are powerless against it. 😉
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What's the name of the place that is in the warehouse area that puts a pound of coleslaw on their sandwiches (there's charicatures all over the walls)? I ate there twice when I was at a conference in Pittsburgh and it was great!
 
That sounds like Primanti Bros. Fries and coleslaw inside the sandwiches - there are at least three at which I've eaten (Downtown, the Strip District (warehouse area), and Oakland). They are minty num-nums.
 
pingouin said:
ok, Quix, you cannot take me there. for me, coleslaw = :barf:
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Primanti Bros. sandwich:

primantis1.jpg


But there are far greasier places we can go. The Original Hot Dog shop, for instance, has heart-busting greasy pizza, and serves fries with Cheese Whiz by the trough.

the_original_hotdog_shop.jpg


This is a small order of fries:

theO-food.jpg


Original-Fries.jpg
 
Submitted at 8:00 this morning.






And my status is now "Waiting for Transcripts" - despite the fact that they've received all four of them (the fifth is "Not Required" as it is a junior year abroad and contained in my original undergraduate transcript); they're going to get a call today to make sure that that is clear.

"Za uspiekh nashevo beznadiozhnovo diela!"
 
Congrats!!!!!!! :clap:

Refresh your application page- I think it takes a little bit to update to "Ready for Review". I remember seeing "Waiting for Transcripts", but it flipped over pretty quickly.
 
i'm mailing out request for transcripts today. I'm hoping to finish most of the app this week. I forgot when I took 2 classes so I had to request an unofficial transcript. I also need to work on my PS but everything else is done.

My honors and awards section is so small though 🙁
 
pingouin said:
Congrats!!!!!!! :clap:

Refresh your application page- I think it takes a little bit to update to "Ready for Review". I remember seeing "Waiting for Transcripts", but it flipped over pretty quickly.
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Good call - I was on hold for an AMCAS rep when I tried this and discovered that my status had changed. 🙂
 
mshheaddoc said:
i'm mailing out request for transcripts today. I'm hoping to finish most of the app this week. I forgot when I took 2 classes so I had to request an unofficial transcript. I also need to work on my PS but everything else is done.

My honors and awards section is so small though 🙁
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if it helps, I had 0 "honors and awards" and only 1 thing I listed as "leadership"
 
I didn't have anything for honors/awards, but I loaded it up with publications, research, presentations, and professional experience.
 
Quix said:
"NEVER! Give me instant gratification or give me death!" - Patrick Henry
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methinks you're taking a few liberties with that quote there...

*rimshot*

mshheaddoc said:
Does honor roll count? :meanie:
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lol

imagine my surprise when I looked at my transcript this year and saw that I made Dean's List for ONE WHOLE SEMESTER in undergrad. :laugh: truly- I didn't ever know that had happened.. quite the shock.

(btw, to differentiate between undergrad and postbacc, I usually refer to undergrad as "college v.1.0" or "college... the first time.." )
 
I made presidents list last summer and this fall, I'm sure it counts. :meanie: I only made dean's list this spring, damn ochem and missing an A by 11 pt 😡 I should have fought for it. Esp since he lost one of my exams, but we were so busy with graduation, MCAT and moving.

Seriously, though, that doesn't count does it? 🙁
 
What I can't wait to see is if they make changes to my primary - I entered everything as it appeared on my final, reviewed, and verified primary application from last cycle.
 
I have a question about the AAMC score release. I released my scores on the evening of Friday June 15th. How long does it normally take for the scores to be received and entered by AACOMAS? I'm guessing it was mailed Monday afternoon and will get there tomorrow sometime.

After everything is updated, how long until secondary requests start rolling in?

.............................................................
Hey Quix, Primanti Bros. was the name of the place and that picture of a sandwich filled w/ french fries was what I had. FYI, loved the pic of the hotdog place mostly because of the '86 Caddy and Trans-Am parked out front!
 
My scores were released on the Friday the 15th, I started AACOMAS on 16th and they were uploaded on the 18th (Monday). I don't know if that is normal or not.
 
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