I know comparison is the devil

[fishieFDR]

but jeez does everyone on here have a 3.8+? Where all my low GPA homies at, after all lots of average GPAs for medical schools are 3.6. Don't mind me, just feeling inadequate and inferior as hell.

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[justAstudent]

There are plenty of people with low GPA and low MCAT scores. Check out the underdog threads. Tons of people who don't have 3.8+ and 35+ MCATs. They do, however, make up for these stats in other areas.

 

[jm192]

SDN tends to represent the extremes. You've got all the rock stars that post because they're wondering if they can get into their choice of top medical school

And all of the borderline applicants worried if they'll get in anywhere.

 

[OrgasmicChemistry]

2 things:

(a) people lie on the internet

(b) focus on you, your application, and the things you can control

 

[Cyberdyne 101]

Even at the "top schools" you'll find ppl that had less than 3.7's and 35 MCAT's.

 

[Mad Jack]

2 things:

(a) people lie on the internet

(b) focus on you, your application, and the things you can control

I doubt there are all that many liars on SDN. It's just an odd self-selected sample. Lying doesn't help you get good advice or build good school lists, so it would mostly only serve to screw over the person doing the lying.

 

[Goro]

Depression is poorly managed on anonymous internet message boards. Go get some help, stat.

The only person you should be comparing yourself to, and competing with, is yourself.

but jeez does everyone on here have a 3.8+? Where all my low GPA homies at, after all lots of average GPAs for medical schools are 3.6. Don't mind me, just feeling inadequate and inferior as hell.

 

[MadRadLad]

Because everyone has an 8" penis on the internet.

 

[OrgasmicChemistry]

I doubt there are all that many liars on SDN. It's just an odd self-selected sample. Lying doesn't help you get good advice or build good school lists, so it would mostly only serve to screw over the person doing the lying.

.

e: nvm, not worth it to get into this.

 

[Narmerguy]

As far as trusting numbers, ignore the posters on SDN. Buy the MSAR or look at the free data spreadsheet flowing around and compare yourself to that. Look at this wonderful thread here by Sector9. These are legit numbers.

For the record, I imagine very few SDNers that post regularly lie. Instead, it's likely the case that people who do well are most likely to report their stats, so you'll see their profiles more often.

 

[Australopithekus]

Selection bias. Two primary groups post here:

1. 3.9/39 MCAT applicants who enjoy the affirmation of hearing how great their scores are. These also tend to be the most grade-obsessed, borderline neurotic types, so they seek out encouragement and reassurance.

2. 3.4/27 applicants who realize they need help and try to find it online.

 

[theseeker4]

I doubt there are all that many liars on SDN. It's just an odd self-selected sample. Lying doesn't help you get good advice or build good school lists, so it would mostly only serve to screw over the person doing the lying.

Plenty of people come on the internet and lie for various reasons; to troll, to make themselves feel better, to make others worry, because they are not being honest with themselves, because they want people to think they are something they are not, etc. This is true for just about every anonymous or semi-anonymous forum you can name. Why, exactly, would SDN be different? Your last point is assuming the liar wants good advice and is here for a constructive purpose, which is often an invalid assumption to make. Yes, there is a lot of self-selection that happens on here, but there are an awful lot of people who have nothing better to do than troll or build fake online personae.....

 

[Narmerguy]

Plenty of people come on the internet and lie for various reasons; to troll, to make themselves feel better, to make others worry, because they are not being honest with themselves, because they want people to think they are something they are not, etc. This is true for just about every anonymous or semi-anonymous forum you can name. Why, exactly, would SDN be different? Your last point is assuming the liar wants good advice and is here for a constructive purpose, which is often an invalid assumption to make. Yes, there is a lot of self-selection that happens on here, but there are an awful lot of people who have nothing better to do than troll or build fake online personae.....

These people can exist, but seldom are they active or convincing. The troll is strong within them, and it usually ends up revealing itself. There's a hell of a lot of people here with legit stats and profiles such that the proportion of people with troll stats vs with legit stats is likely pretty small. For example if you go onto the MCAT forum you'll see people post detailed stories about how they built their scores up from high 20s to mid/high 30s, including detailed advice on what they studied, what books they used, how long, probably even what they ate for breakfast.

One argument is that a troll with nothing better to do could come up with this, but more likely it's just a bunch of neurotic people who are really worried/interested/bored and post in detail about their academics. Usually when people come here to troll, it's either not convincing or not academically detailed. Rarely in my 7 years have I seen a troll get away with both, and if they did, that likely meant what they were saying was similar enough to other legit posters that it makes no difference anyway.

 

[Mad Jack]

Plenty of people come on the internet and lie for various reasons; to troll, to make themselves feel better, to make others worry, because they are not being honest with themselves, because they want people to think they are something they are not, etc. This is true for just about every anonymous or semi-anonymous forum you can name. Why, exactly, would SDN be different? Your last point is assuming the liar wants good advice and is here for a constructive purpose, which is often an invalid assumption to make. Yes, there is a lot of self-selection that happens on here, but there are an awful lot of people who have nothing better to do than troll or build fake online personae.....

True. I mostly mean aside from obvious trolls though- the average SDNer is pretty legit, especially in the school specific/acceptance threads. If you look in one of the accepted stats and schools threads, they probably are 99% real, as I doubt there's many people that post in those threads claiming they got into XYZ school with ABC stats.