SDN Standards

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What do you guys think about SDN's standards? Would you rather they be lower? I personally like that they're high. It's good encouragement for me.

Originally Posted by jd989898

What do you guys think about SDN's standards? Would you rather they be lower? I personally like that they're high. It's good encouragement, it's like the asian parents that I never had.

I agree. Low standards is the death of ambition.

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too low for me

SDN's high standards are a myth. Just look at the daily postings of "Poor grades, should I abandon pre-med?" with responses typically saying, "Do better next semester and you'll get in somewhere!"

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the underdog succeeding. But these grade threads are pretty predictable.

Originally Posted by ShenanigansMD

SDN's high standards are a myth. Just look at the daily postings of "Poor grades, should I abandon pre-med?" with responses typically saying, "Do better next semester and you'll get in somewhere!"

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the underdog succeeding. But these grade threads are pretty predictable.

I would have to agree with you on this.. It's a strange mix. It seems that only the elite applicants and those who struggle to pass their prereqs congregate here.

Some people find it suffocating and others find it encouraging. Personally, I think I would have scored lower on my MCAT if it wasn't for SDN brainwashing me that a 32+ is the only acceptable score.

The ones who hate the high standards of SDN congregate on /r/premed who proceed to circlejerk about how wrong SDN is because of a few anomalies.

Originally Posted by jd989898

I would have to agree with you on this.. It's a strange mix. It seems that only the elite applicants and those who struggle to pass their prereqs congregate here.

The observation has indeed been made before. SDN is said to have a bimodal distribution of premeds, heavily representing those who are ambitious and excel, looking for knowledge to propel them further, and those who are struggling and strive to recover, looking for knowledge to help them get back in the running.

Originally Posted by TheShaker

Some people find it suffocating and others find it encouraging. Personally, I think I would have scored lower on my MCAT if it wasn't for SDN brainwashing me that a 32+ is the only acceptable score.

The ones who hate the high standards of SDN congregate on /r/premed who proceed to circlejerk about how wrong SDN is because of a few anomalies.

But... 32+ is the only acceptable score...

And pshh, nobody who's done their research even bothers with r/premed. SDN beats all.

Originally Posted by gettheleadout

But... 32+ is the only acceptable score...

And pshh, nobody who's done their research even bothers with r/premed. SDN beats all.

A 32 is sooooooo 2009. Without a 38, you are doomed to carribean now....hope you need a tan

Originally Posted by ShenanigansMD

SDN's high standards are a myth. Just look at the daily postings of "Poor grades, should I abandon pre-med?" with responses typically saying, "Do better next semester and you'll get in somewhere!"

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the underdog succeeding. But these grade threads are pretty predictable.

Originally Posted by gettheleadout

The observation has indeed been made before. SDN is said to have a bimodal distribution of premeds, heavily representing those who are ambitious and excel, looking for knowledge to propel them further, and those who are struggling and strive to recover, looking for knowledge to help them get back in the running.

I would agree. SDN actually has pretty reasonable standards. Where people go wrong is confusing advice for getting into top schools with general advice for getting into any medical school. It's only the neurotic ones who make threads about not making a 38 instead of a 36 or whether a single C on their transcript is death.

I really wish people would understand that distinction better. When someone says "a 34 is a decent score", you have to figure out which camp they're addressing. Is this the "any school is a medical school" camp or the "I want scholarships and top 10 acceptances" camp.

Originally Posted by ShenanigansMD

SDN's high standards are a myth. Just look at the daily postings of "Poor grades, should I abandon pre-med?" with responses typically saying, "Do better next semester and you'll get in somewhere!"

Don't get me wrong, I'm all about the underdog succeeding. But these grade threads are pretty predictable.

Seriously wish there was a one time sticky for panicking, neurotic individuals who can consult that, realize one B, A-, C, whatever wont keep them from med school...and there won't be hundreds of new threads on the topic.

Originally Posted by Twinnering

Seriously wish there was a one time sticky for panicking, neurotic individuals who can consult that, realize one B, A-, C, whatever wont keep them from med school...and there won't be hundreds of new threads on the topic.

Seriously wish that there was a rule that new members with less than say 50 posts aren't allowed to start a new thread. That way they have to post on existing threads, use the search function, and actually find what they are looking for. Dear Santa....

Originally Posted by Narmerguy

I really wish people would understand that distinction better. When someone says "a 34 is a decent score", you have to figure out which camp they're addressing. Is this the "any school is a medical school" camp or the "I want scholarships and top 10 acceptances" camp.

I think this is really the difference. Most people seem to take the approach that everyone is trying to get into Harvard. That's useful for people that have yet to apply or relatively early on in the process since they still have the ability to change the course of their app, but it's absolutely useless for people that are getting ready to apply or have already applied. It also isn't useful for people that aren't interested in getting into those schools and just want to get into any school. It's easy to see how people see this as neurotic when in reality it's more of a problem of not knowing your audience.

Getting into a medical school is not that difficult as long as you work hard and kind of have a plan. Getting into a TOP school is a bit more arduous.

Originally Posted by jd989898

What do you guys think about SDN's standards? Would you rather they be lower? I personally like that they're high. It's good encouragement for me.

I like where they are. I came here as a sophomore as a lurker and used it to answer my questions. When I saw how much other people had done, it got me to me more involved in school. I had more ideas of what could be important and what wasn't that great.

The great thing here is that a high percentage of the contributors are either medical students, students that have gotten in and even the people that failed to get in. We all bring some different knowledge about the process to the table to make a huge knowledge base. I guess we are kinda like Voltron.

The high standards helped me. If we could get rid of the trolls, then we would be better. How about it? Ban people more frequently?

Originally Posted by red doctober

Seriously wish that there was a rule that new members with less than say 50 posts aren't allowed to start a new thread.

Originally Posted by Narmerguy

I would agree. SDN actually has pretty reasonable standards. Where people go wrong is confusing advice for getting into top schools with general advice for getting into any medical school. It's only the neurotic ones who make threads about not making a 38 instead of a 36 or whether a single C on their transcript is death.

I really wish people would understand that distinction better. When someone says "a 34 is a decent score", you have to figure out which camp they're addressing. Is this the "any school is a medical school" camp or the "I want scholarships and top 10 acceptances" camp.

I could not have said this better.

Also, I was actually referring to you about the bimodal observation being made before haha.


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Originally Posted by gettheleadout

I could not have said this better.

Also, I was actually referring to you about the bimodal observation being made before haha.


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Haha, I actually wondered who else had used that terminology

Originally Posted by red doctober

Seriously wish that there was a rule that new members with less than say 50 posts aren't allowed to start a new thread. That way they have to post on existing threads, use the search function, and actually find what they are looking for. Dear Santa....

Ermm, that wasn't exactly what I meant =\. That would probably discourage a lot of people from joining the SDN community.

Originally Posted by jd989898

I would have to agree with you on this.. It's a strange mix. It seems that only the elite applicants and those who struggle to pass their prereqs congregate here.

Sure, many people fall into the bimodal distribution, but not all. I was EXACTLY average for the state school where I was accepted.

I was on the statistical high side for all of the DO schools where I applied, but within 1 or 2 LizzyM points +/- for all the MD schools. That puts me in the minority around here it seems.

Ok, back to hiding under my rock...

dsoz

Originally Posted by dsoz

Sure, many people fall into the bimodal distribution, but not all. I was EXACTLY average for the state school where I was accepted.

I was on the statistical high side for all of the DO schools where I applied, but within 1 or 2 LizzyM points +/- for all the MD schools. That puts me in the minority around here it seems.

Ok, back to hiding under my rock...

dsoz

I think your age puts you in the minority.

I like the rather bimodal distribution of premeds. It gives me both something to strive for and something to make me feel better about my situation at the same time.

There is no such thing as a bimodal user distribution but rather it tends to be those groups of premeds that post/talk more about their stats. I'm a fairly average applicant (3.5-3.6 range for ambiguity) and I hardly ever talk about my stats on here because of all the gunners.

Pretty much sums it up.

Love that meme...

Originally Posted by Hemorrage

There is no such thing as a bimodal user distribution but rather it tends to be those groups of premeds that post/talk more about their stats. I'm a fairly average applicant (3.5-3.6 range for ambiguity) and I hardly ever talk about my stats on here because of all the gunners.

I think this is spot on. I don't picture many people posting a 3.6 GPA/31 MCAT and saying how accomplished they feel.

While I personally find those to be strong stats, I myself have fallen into a gunner mentality; I was unimpressed by a 37 MCAT score because I believed 40+ was the way to go for a strong chance at top schools. In reality, I pray to God I can get a 37 on my MCAT when the time comes.

In a way, it keeps me going and it keeps me searching for new ways to improve and become a stronger applicant. Although I'm not very competitive, it shows me that there are superstar applicants out there and that I can at least TRY to reach their level of accomplishments.

Originally Posted by TheShaker

Some people find it suffocating and others find it encouraging. Personally, I think I would have scored lower on my MCAT if it wasn't for SDN brainwashing me that a 32+ is the only acceptable score.

The ones who hate the high standards of SDN congregate on /r/premed who proceed to circlejerk about how wrong SDN is because of a few anomalies.

Lol I've read r/premed before and it really is a circlejerk of hate against Sdn. It feels like everyone there just got a reality check here on Sdn so they're trying to get some validation elsewhere.

Originally Posted by Hemorrage

There is no such thing as a bimodal user distribution but rather it tends to be those groups of premeds that post/talk more about their stats. I'm a fairly average applicant (3.5-3.6 range for ambiguity) and I hardly ever talk about my stats on here because of all the gunners.

ONLY a 3.6?
Dude...do you even school?
/s

I've been on SDN so much since I was in high school that I honestly don't even know what the average is anymore. I'm always shocked when I see people getting acceptances with GPAs of less than 3.7 and MCATs less than 34's..............

Originally Posted by Hemorrage

There is no such thing as a bimodal user distribution but rather it tends to be those groups of premeds that post/talk more about their stats. I'm a fairly average applicant (3.5-3.6 range for ambiguity) and I hardly ever talk about my stats on here because of all the gunners.

Regardless of what the distribution of people who access SDN is, there is a bimodal distribution of those posting. Knowing that in reality, the real world is likely a unimodal distribution somewhere between the two SDN extremes, it's not surprising that there are people who don't feel to fit either "bunch" of SDN users. However, that does not change that for people reading this forum, the advice/concerns being posted about are that representative of a bimodal distribution. That so many individuals, like yourself, remain slightly withdrawn only reinforces this further.

I don't think this is really a problem so long as we are cognizant of it. Most people getting accepted to medical schools and even top medical schools do not use SDN. The vast majority of matriculants have probably never even looked at SDN. But the more that our userbase fills out and we accumulate a critical mass of individuals comfortable posting about all application scenarios, the more we'll see content ratio on SDN flatten out to be more evenly distributed across low, medium, and high "stats."

I actually rather like the bimodal distribution because it gives those who are really struggling a lot of hope and gives the rest of us something challenging to strive for.