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ascott189

ascott189

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Hey Guys,

I've been a long time lurker and first time poster. I will be a senior this year and am planning on applying next spring with the the intention of doing a gap year. I have a few areas of my application that I think need some improvement and I wanted to take the next year to try and address as many areas as possible. I have not found my pre-med advisor ( at a smaller private university) to be all that helpful as he can't spend too many hours with me.

One of my friends saw this on their Facebook and just e-mailed it to me:
www.studentmentornetwork.com

Does anyone know anything about this service? Is it legit? I'm really tempted to sign up for an hour but I really don't want to waste 20-30 dollars.
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Not worth it. Better to utilize all the great advice on SDN.
 
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What are you expecting them to do? Set you up with a fellowship at the NIH and award you a peace prize? More likely than not you'll get some pretty basic advice that you can probably already figure out on your own.

This site you link isn't something particularly impressive. You do realize how easy it is to build a website nowadays, right? Anyone with half a brain and perhaps several good friends in medical school can set the same thing up in an afternoon or two.

20-30 dollars isn't really much (considering you're gonna be applying to schools) so you could just try it. I'd bet it'll feel like a waste, but that would be up to you.
 
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ascott189 said:
Hey Guys,

I've been a long time lurker and first time poster. I will be a senior this year and am planning on applying next spring with the the intention of doing a gap year. I have a few areas of my application that I think need some improvement and I wanted to take the next year to try and address as many areas as possible. I have not found my pre-med advisor ( at a smaller private university) to be all that helpful as he can't spend too many hours with me.

One of my friends saw this on their Facebook and just e-mailed it to me:
www.studentmentornetwork.com

Does anyone know anything about this service? Is it legit? I'm really tempted to sign up for an hour but I really don't want to waste 20-30 dollars.
Click to expand...
SDN is the best resource you could possibly have. Almost any question you have has been answered here before somewhere, and if not, you can always just ask it yourself.
 
Yeah, I mean I'm not expecting them to hook me up with a peace prize or anything lol. They have a money back guarantee so I figure I'll give a shot. Is there anything that would be particularly important for me to ask to get the most out of it?
 
ascott189 said:
Yeah, I mean I'm not expecting them to hook me up with a peace prize or anything lol. They have a money back guarantee so I figure I'll give a shot. Is there anything that would be particularly important for me to ask to get the most out of it?
Click to expand...

I think the question most people have when applying is "Is my application strong enough?" That question, however, can be answered by adcoms and others on this forum in the What are my Chances thread for free. I don't see what advice they could give you that you won't already find on this website.
 
I don't understand how you can put a price tag on your future just like that.
 
ascott189 said:
Hey Guys,

I've been a long time lurker and first time poster. I will be a senior this year and am planning on applying next spring with the the intention of doing a gap year. I have a few areas of my application that I think need some improvement and I wanted to take the next year to try and address as many areas as possible. I have not found my pre-med advisor ( at a smaller private university) to be all that helpful as he can't spend too many hours with me.

One of my friends saw this on their Facebook and just e-mailed it to me:
www.studentmentornetwork.com

Does anyone know anything about this service? Is it legit? I'm really tempted to sign up for an hour but I really don't want to waste 20-30 dollars.
Click to expand...

I haven't tried it or anything but if you look at those kids they have some seriously impressive Bios. They obviously have done things that helped them get into great schools ... Im guessing they'd have something to offer you that others wouldnt ... that's just my two cents.
 
mednerd1234 said:
I haven't tried it or anything but if you look at those kids they have some seriously impressive Bios. They obviously have done things that helped them get into great schools ... Im guessing they'd have something to offer you that others wouldnt ... that's just my two cents.
Click to expand...

Thats true, but it depends where you are. If you're freshman in college and want to get a head start, maybe an hour or two would give you some good tips to start off on the right foot with volunteering, research, study tips etc. I know stuff like that can easily be found by asking upperclassmen and for free, but I understand some people could have the money and want to learn from these bright individuals.

But if you're about to apply, then idk how this service is useful since the What are my Chances? forum is excellent and free. Plenty of adcom members, recently accepted and medical students will provide great feedback on the best schools to apply to with their stats.
 
darklabel said:
Thats true, but it depends where you are. If you're freshman in college and want to get a head start, maybe an hour or two would give you some good tips to start off on the right foot with volunteering, research, study tips etc. I know stuff like that can easily be found by asking upperclassmen and for free, but I understand some people could have the money and want to learn from these bright individuals.

But if you're about to apply, then idk how this service is useful since the What are my Chances? forum is excellent and free. Plenty of adcom members, recently accepted and medical students will provide great feedback on the best schools to apply to with their stats.
Click to expand...

Ya, I agree it would have been helpful earlier on in undergrad to figure out what type of activities exist and would be interesting for myself, etc. I mean at this point I have already submitted my primary so I don't really care about choosing schools or what my chances of getting in are. I think all I can really focus on at this point is my secondaries and interviews, which maybe it would be helpful for? I think my friends are getting annoyed with editing all my secondaries though...
 
mednerd1234 said:
Ya, I agree it would have been helpful earlier on in undergrad to figure out what type of activities exist and would be interesting for myself, etc. I mean at this point I have already submitted my primary so I don't really care about choosing schools or what my chances of getting in are. I think all I can really focus on at this point is my secondaries and interviews, which maybe it would be helpful for? I think my friends are getting annoyed with editing all my secondaries though...
Click to expand...

Your school should offer some sort of interview help session in their career center. Maybe its best to check there.
 
mednerd1234 said:
Ya, I agree it would have been helpful earlier on in undergrad to figure out what type of activities exist and would be interesting for myself, etc. I mean at this point I have already submitted my primary so I don't really care about choosing schools or what my chances of getting in are. I think all I can really focus on at this point is my secondaries and interviews, which maybe it would be helpful for? I think my friends are getting annoyed with editing all my secondaries though...
Click to expand...

Ya I agree, I feel like it would help for secondaries. I'm no English major and my friends aren't the best with editing essays either, and it would be nice to have a med student look over those I'm sure. That's a year away for me tho. I scheduled a 15 min free session for this week, so I can let you know what I think of the advice.
 
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ascott189 said:
Hey Guys,

I've been a long time lurker and first time poster. I will be a senior this year and am planning on applying next spring with the the intention of doing a gap year. I have a few areas of my application that I think need some improvement and I wanted to take the next year to try and address as many areas as possible. I have not found my pre-med advisor ( at a smaller private university) to be all that helpful as he can't spend too many hours with me.

One of my friends saw this on their Facebook and just e-mailed it to me:
www.studentmentornetwork.com

Does anyone know anything about this service? Is it legit? I'm really tempted to sign up for an hour but I really don't want to waste 20-30 dollars.
Click to expand...

So I decided to sign up for the free consultation and thought I'd follow up to let you all know how it went. I met with one of the med students from Hopkins and he was full of great advice about what I should do in the next year to strengthen my resume and make sure everything was lined up for applying next year, I feel way more comfortable now and not as lost as I felt a few weeks ago. I actually signed up for another session after because I thought it was very useful.

I told one of my friends about it who is working on her secondary apps right now and she worked with one of the mentors, for free since she qualified, and she said they really helped her strengthen her secondary essays and she is still working with a student I believe. Just thought I'd let you'll know how it went incase any others were interested .
 
I agree with everyone else. SDN is the best resource out there for professional school
 
Ya, SDN has great resources (although sometimes it causes me to think I'll never get in since I don't have a 45 and 4.0, haha).

I am curious though, looking at the mentors on that site, they are from big name and no name schools and still got into Hopkins and Harvard med. Do you think its better to stand out at a top school or be average at an Ivy league school???
 
Is this something that a bunch of second year jhu students decided to set up? So many of them on there
 
Go with the advice you've received thus far--SDN is plenty for being well informed before and during your application cycle. Btw take the advice about pre-writing your secondaries with a pound of salt. You will be better off come July/August and be happy you did so.
 
claduva94 said:
Find the prompts from previous years and write the essays before they are officially released.
Click to expand...

Thanks @claduva94 . That seems crazy to me tho. Why would anyone do that?? What if the prompts change from year to year. Why not just wait for them to be sent??? I think I've received all but two of my secondaries by now anyway.
 
RWynd123 said:
Thanks @claduva94 . That seems crazy to me tho. Why would anyone do that?? What if the prompts change from year to year. Why not just wait for them to be sent??? I think I've received all but two of my secondaries by now anyway.
Click to expand...
I prewrote and I don't think a single one changed. It's so that you don't get overwhelmed. I ended up getting four secondaries within an hour and if I hadn't prewrote it would be difficult to stay on top of all of them. It is also much easier to get burnt out if all of them are concentrated in one month. I'd say its really worthwhile if you are applying to quite a few schools. If you are only applying to 10-15, I'd say it isn't as important.
 
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