Do you ever feel bad for the premeds that don't know about SDN?

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Referring to those premeds who take the advice of their premed advisors (which can be good or bad).
I'm assuming the others either have friends/family who have been through the process, but may not have had access to the wide range of advice and opinions, as opposed to the premeds who know about SDN
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Sometimes I feel that being on here stresses me out more than it helps, but that's just my opinion. I tend to lurk and find the information I find useful, such as when a school is getting to apps around the date I was complete, and ignore the faction that feels that you need a 3.99 and 38+/$500 suit/anything hyper neurotic. Hence, at times I find myself wishing I was a little more naive.
 
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Not really. Pretty much any Google search related to premed/med topics links to here. If they haven't searched anything related to med or had the curiosity to click on the link that keeps showing up, then it's their own fault. I'll admit I started coming here before I was officially premed and while in the process of deciding, and I think as a result I have been much more neurotic and perfectionistic about my grades than I otherwise would have been.
 
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I enjoy being on here. It's nice to have a community of like-minded people, given pre-med advising at my school is fairly atrocious. Between SDN and faculty members I highly respect (and know they are knowledgeable about the process) I feel I have a fairly solid foothold in what is expected of me.
 
I found useful information here on SDN that was not provided to me by my prehealth advisor, whom I have no doubt did everything to support my application. Now, I will be starting medical school next year. Knowledge is power.
 
Not at all. The more informed they are, the more competitive applicants there will be :p
 
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midwstudent said:
Sometimes I feel that being on here stresses me out more than it helps, but that's just my opinion. I tend to lurk and find the information I find useful, such as when a school is getting to apps around the date I was complete, and ignore the faction that feels that you need a 3.99 and 38+/$500 suit/anything hyper neurotic. Hence, at times I find myself wishing I was a little more naive.
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I oft hear of this faction yet never actually encounter it...
 
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I'm actually glad some people don't know about it, they'd spend an hour on here and decide to give up on medicine because of their lowly 3.6/32
 
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I always wondered why prehealth advisors don't use the information on SDN. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's been spoon fed some pretty bad advice.
 
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aegistitan said:
I always wondered why prehealth advisors don't use the information on SDN. I'm sure I'm not the only one that's been spoon fed some pretty bad advice.
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I've found a lot of the pre-med advising staff has been there for a number of years and unfortunately do not keep up to date with the happenings in medical school applications. While their information is mostly factual, it is fairly outdated.
 
efle said:
Oh that's awkward, he didn't make the requisite numbers to get into The Club
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Nbd. I've got my own exclusive club at the other end of the normal distribution
 
I am envious of their naïveté.


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efle said:
look at your avatar man, you're definitely center of the weird distribution




I am envious of your ability to type naïveté on an iphone.
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Autocorrect brah.


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efle said:
Get an avatar, brah.
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The avatar is coming soon. Just wait on it.
594aeb0b6b31281e8d4e083399eff97e.jpg



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lol.
I didn't know about SDN until after I submitted my applications. Not knowing about SDN doesn't necessarily indicate anything about someone's application or knowledge about the process.

Spread the word if you really feel that bad for people.
 
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terp720 said:
lol.
I didn't know about SDN until after I submitted my applications. Not knowing about SDN doesn't necessarily indicate anything about someone's application or knowledge about the process.

Spread the word if you really feel that bad for people.
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+1
 
I think that a lot of the main points about applying are (or should be) common sense, e.g. strive for a high GPA/MCAT score, get some clinical experience, and volunteer. SDN is great for finding out about nuances like interview attire, common interview questions, school selection strategies (LizzyM score and the likes), etc. Therefore I don't think that being ignorant of SDN's existence is a significant handicap to an applicant, but I'm certainly glad that I knew about it!
 
Actually quite a few people whom I met on my interview trail ( all top 15 schools but one) have not heard of SDN or MDApp. None of them seemed to me to need any sympathy. :joyful:
 
FriendlyFH said:
Actually quite a few people whom I met on my interview trail ( all top 15 schools but one) have not heard of SDN or MDApp. None of them seemed to me to need any sympathy. :joyful:
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Very few people own up to being active on SDN in real life.
 
I didn't start going on SDN until a couple weeks before submitting my primary application. Things still turned out fine for me. :penguin:
 
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Not at all. 2yrs ago, I didn't know about SDN. Then I spent a lot of time Googling and searching out as much information as I could find about my intended career and the paths to get there, so I naturally encountered it. If you haven't stumbled onto SDN, you have been investing literally zero energy into researching medical school applications, and so I don't feel that badly if you are uninformed.

I do feel badly for those who have tried SDN and couldn't deal with the crowd here, or who dislike forums and so have missed out on the other aspects of SDN (such as interview feedback). They did at least put in effort.
 
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No - it's their own fault for not being proactive and researching information for themselves. You only need to type premed into Google and it is one of the top links. It's not about more competitive. It's kind of a survival of the fittest mentality - those who are proactive and able to educate themselves are the ones who excel since they are more prepared. Medicine is a proactive field. When you graduate and become a baby attending no-one else is going to spoon feed you new and relevant information. You have to read it for yourself. Nah mean, brah? ;)
 
I certainly have a love-hate relationship with SDN. In the end, I realized being neurotic better prepared me than being blissfully ignorant.


So yeah, I feel every pre-med should get acquainted with SDN.
 
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Nah, I actually don't feel that the advice on here is all that great. Some useful tidbits, definitely, but also quite a few people being overly particular. One thread had everyone convinced that wearing a black suit to an interview would be an absolutely egregious mistake. Just silly nonsense.

I also get the feeling sometimes that people here think you need an absurd GPA/MCAT to get accepted, when that's not the case. The full package of what you bring to the table is what matters. Just my impression though, I obviously still like SDN regardless.
 
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Yeah. I feel like SDN has helped me in that it encouraged me to avoid doing gunner type things to try to impress adcoms, like double majoring, medical missions, honors courses, obsessing over keeping a solid 4.0 etc.

I wish other people had it, especially my friend who wants to retake a 35 so he can apply OOS to UCLA... :/
 
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altblue said:
Yeah. I feel like SDN has helped me in that it encouraged me to avoid doing gunner type things to try to impress adcoms, like double majoring, medical missions, honors courses, obsessing over keeping a solid 4.0 etc.

I wish other people had it, especially my friend who wants to retake a 35 so he can apply OOS to UCLA... :/
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Um, doing a double major or taking an honors course is in no way a ****ty gunner type thing. It probably won't impress adcoms, which I guess is what you're going for, but being interested in academics beyond the grade and taking more/more challenging courses (at the risk of your GPA) is kind of the opposite of a gunner type thing.

Now, if you'd said "convincing my friends to all take the difficult honors course and get Cs while I waltzed through the easiest version in our school with an A++", that'd be more gunner :laugh:
 
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mehc012 said:
Um, doing a double major or taking an honors course is in no way a ****ty gunner type thing. It probably won't impress adcoms, which I guess is what you're going for, but being interested in academics beyond the grade and taking more/more challenging courses (at the risk of your GPA) is kind of the opposite of a gunner type thing.

Now, if you'd said "convincing my friends to all take the difficult honors course and get Cs while I waltzed through the easiest version in our school with an A++", that'd be more gunner :laugh:
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My bad, I know people do these things for legit reasons. but I had been considering some of these things because I thought they would give me a huge advantage. :oops:
 
altblue said:
My bad, I know people do these things for legit reasons. but I had been considering some of these things because I thought they would give me a huge advantage. :oops:
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I'm glad you didn't have to put in the extra effort for little gain - it's no fun taking those classes for the wrong reasons - but I still don't think you were an @$$hole gunner back then, just super motivated with less info as to the most effective application of that motivation! Glad you found SDN!
 
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I didn't really know about SDN until a few months ago after I received my first interview, and was searching for interview questions asked by specific schools. I don't feel bad for other premeds who don't know about SDN, although I think SDN is quite useful for connecting people with med students who can give more insight into schools and statistics.
 
Not really since I got into medical school before I actually read through SDN forums in earnest.
 
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In a way I'm glad I didn't know about this place until like a couple months before applying. I probably would have ended up taking like 4 gap years convinced that I couldn't get in if I didn't have incredible ECs and 4-5 first author papers. Instead since I was already ready to apply I just went for it and had good results. The site helped a lot for interview advice though.
 
Glad I didn't know about SDN until I graduated. Would not have helped me one bit. Doesn't matter though because my cycle turned out great despite not following all the advice on sdn.
 
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I feel bad for people that apply to 4 or 5 schools with a primary app that was submitted in October. If SDN is good for anything, it should beat into peoples' heads the need to apply reasonably early in the cycle
 
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