"Nontrad" Usergroup?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Should the Non-traditional "Nontrads" has their own user/socialgroup and badge?

  • Yes! I think they should!

    Votes: 31 62.0%

  • No! For reasons I post below, they should not have a badge

    Votes: 3 6.0%

  • Meh. I don't care.

    Votes: 16 32.0%
  • Total voters
    50
vc7777

vc7777

Nontrad MD/MS
Moderator Emeritus
Verified Member
10+ Year Member
Physician
Rocket Scientist
Verified Expert
Joined
Jul 1, 2009
Messages
3,585
Reaction score
295
So, I am looking at how active our Non-trad group is. Personally I think we are some of the most helpful and well-behaved on the whole forum.

I was wondering why we don't have our own usergroup (and corresponding badge) to ID ourselves to the greater SDN community?

I mean, comparing our group to, say, the High School SDN (hSDN), I casually see we have accumulated more threads and typically have more active members.

Anyone else like me wish they had a "Non-trad" Badge? I would be nice to set us apart from ye old pre-med (or other pre-X).

I think a fitting symbol would be a stylized "Bent Arrow" - meaning "I am not taking/ will not take a straight path." :)

Good Idea? Bad Idea?

[Show me how civilized you are in your responses! :p ]
Members don't see this ad.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
Assuming we went forward with this, what do you all see as the purpose of badge and/or a private forum for nontrads? For hSDN, a large part of our motivation was that many of these users are minors under the age of 18. We wanted to a create a relatively safe place for them to post. Obviously, this is not a major concern for most of you. ;)
 
Screw the private forum. I was thinking that this was for a little icon like the "rocket scientist" or "phd" and so on. No purpose I suppose.
 
QofQuimica said:
Assuming we went forward with this, what do you all see as the purpose of badge and/or a private forum for nontrads? For hSDN, a large part of our motivation was that many of these users are minors under the age of 18. We wanted to a create a relatively safe place for them to post. Obviously, this is not a major concern for most of you. ;)
Click to expand...

It's hard to put into words exactly how I feel without coming across as pompous, so I'm going to throw caution to the wind and say it.

A non trad identifier could possibly lead people to not instantly dismiss our posts as being "just another premed", 18 years old and wet behind the years. Of course, this badge may just be for the non grads who have matriculated, in which case disregard my rantings.. :)
 
Nontrad means everybody not going straight from college to med school, right? Isn't that the majority?

If the intent is to have a "mature from experience, got into med school" identifier, then please have it be by invite only. Q and Pons get to invite, then invitees get to invite, max of a dozen or so.

My $.02.
 
DrMidlife said:
Nontrad means everybody not going straight from college to med school, right? Isn't that the majority?

If the intent is to have a "mature from experience, got into med school" identifier, then please have it be by invite only. Q and Pons get to invite, then invitees get to invite, max of a dozen or so.

My $.02.
Click to expand...

Yes, but we need a justification for it? Like Q mentioned, there must be utility of function of some sort? Otherwise it is a slipper slope of "vanity flair"

Sent from my Android phone using Tapatalk
 
FiremedicMike said:
It's hard to put into words exactly how I feel without coming across as pompous, so I'm going to throw caution to the wind and say it.

A non trad identifier could possibly lead people to not instantly dismiss our posts as being "just another premed", 18 years old and wet behind the years. Of course, this badge may just be for the non grads who have matriculated, in which case disregard my rantings.. :)
Click to expand...

If a non-trad posts with all the seriousness of a just another pre-med, then a badge would help her not at all, and rather lower the reputations of other badge displayers.
 
EdLongshanks said:
If a non-trad posts with all the seriousness of a just another pre-med, then a badge would help her not at all, and rather lower the reputations of other badge displayers.
Click to expand...

This is very true, and I hope you're not implicating me with that statement.. With that said, there are posters on this forum who immediately dismiss anything written by a pre med, it seems to carry a stigma around here..
 
Members don't see this ad :)
FiremedicMike said:
This is very true, and I hope you're not implicating me with that statement.. With that said, there are posters on this forum who immediately dismiss anything written by a pre med, it seems to carry a stigma around here..
Click to expand...

No implication was intended.
 
vc7777 said:
Yes, but we need a justification for it? Like Q mentioned, there must be utility of function of some sort? Otherwise it is a slipper slope of "vanity flair"
Click to expand...

I do think it has utility for when we venture out of the NT-specific forum, but perhaps really only in the pre-med/pre-health forums, where useful posts derived from our unique backgrounds might get otherwise ignored because it's not obvious that we might be speaking from experience.

But then I think that there isn't really objective criteria for defining a non-trad (to wit: one of the stickies in the forum says "if you consider yourself a non-trad, you are"), so vetting who gets the badge would be tricky. If we really need to display our credentials, maybe we could just use our status or signature.
 
MT Headed said:
I was thinking a walker or a cane :laugh:
Click to expand...


Is it bad that I thought this too? :laugh: :smuggrin: :laugh:

If we were going to do this, then I second DrMidlife's suggestions. There are people in pre-allo that are traditional and actually provide quality pre-med advice and there are people posting in this subforum that need to be taught how the Internet™ works.
 
No big deal either way. It would be easier to spot other non-trads in other forums but I can just come here for that lol.
 
DrMidlife said:
Nontrad means everybody not going straight from college to med school, right?
Click to expand...


I will :)xf:) be going straight from college to med school, but it took me 11 years to go from high school to college. I read through some of the other forums, but I more closely identify with people in here.
 
Last edited:
Ellipsis1104 said:
I will :)xf:) be going straight from college to med school, but it took me 11 years to go from high school to college. I read through some of the pre-allo forum, but I more closely identify with people in here.
Click to expand...

I went straight from high school to college to med school so I guess I'm not technically "non-trad" but I definitely didn't do it in a traditional fashion. :cool:
 
I want it because I want to celebrate our awesomeness...
 
I love snoopy! I was thinking the vultures from little dog lost, which is also a comic strip
 
or Beaky Buzzard from the Bugs Bunny cartoons...
 
SBB2016 said:
Make it so... Number 1... Q however is omnipotent on Star Trek, so if it's analogous she should be able to make it so.... ;)
Click to expand...
Q is also completely capricious, so there are no guarantees that I will use my powers for good. :p

All kidding aside, it seems like there are several of you interested in possibly having a nontrad community. I will suggest it to the rest of the staff and see what we can do.
 
You're just shy of 15k posts... I think you need a posting spree.... hehe :D What does one get when one has 15,000 posts... Which is like 10/day... Are you sure you're a busy resident? ;)
 
SBB2016 said:
You're just shy of 15k posts... I think you need a posting spree.... hehe :D What does one get when one has 15,000 posts... Which is like 10/day... Are you sure you're a busy resident? ;)
Click to expand...
It's 6.1 posts per day, to be exact, a number that was significantly bulked up by my premed posting days in 2004-2006. As for how I can still post now, SDN Mobile is a beautiful thing. :)

And alas, there is no prize for having 15,000 posts.

Edit: Out of curiosity, I checked the post rankings and found that I currently rank #25 for number of posts on SDN. However, Caesar is gaining on me fast and will probably overtake me within the next month or two. This is in terms of gross number of posts, not posts/day of membership--I'd be nowhere near the top for that.
 
Last edited:
That's crazy, I don't think the rest of us will ever have a chance ;)
 
vc7777 said:
Anyone else like me wish they had a "Non-trad" Badge? I would be nice to set us apart from ye old pre-med (or other pre-X).
Click to expand...

I think a non-trad badge would be pretty sweet. I'm not big on SDN statuses but I'd be willing to include a lil icon near my name to let people know I strayed from the "traditional" path and still made it in if it helps encourage other applicants lurking on the site. It's not immediately obvious who the non-trads are especially when they're posting more in PA than around these parts.


My first thought for an icon was a bulldog for some reason. Kind of a grumpy "hector the bulldog" type; He may be rough around the edges but he's always lookin' out for the little guy :).

Bulldog%20Tof%201.Gif


Edit: Hmmm...new av in the meantime
 
Torr said:
I think a non-trad badge would be pretty sweet. I'm not big on SDN statuses but I'd be willing to include a lil icon near my name to let people know I strayed from the "traditional" path and still made it in if it helps encourage other applicants lurking on the site. It's not immediately obvious who the non-trads are especially when they're posting more in PA than around these parts.


My first thought for an icon was a bulldog for some reason. Kind of a grumpy "hector the bulldog" type; He may be rough around the edges but he's always lookin' out for the little guy :).

Bulldog%20Tof%201.Gif


Edit: Hmmm...new av in the meantime
Click to expand...

Torr! :hello:
 
That is SOOOO not as fun as here... Sheesh... I'm not OLD
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Next unread thread

Similar threads

N
NonTrad advice needed
Replies
1
Views
344
wysdoc
wysdoc
T
School List - Nontrad Veteran 3.2 cGPA, 3.4 sGPA, MCAT 5/10
Replies
4
Views
341
chssoccer7
C
H
Nontrad trans URM, not enrolled in pre-med yet, interested in plastics
Replies
26
Views
1K
AW125
A
A
25 y/o nontrad seeking advice
Replies
4
Views
967
Goro
Goro
M
Disabled nontrad premed seeking advice
Replies
5
Views
992
melcs13
M
Top