Red Flags

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Mute98

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For some reason I am constantly worrying about accidentally conveying a more subtle red flag. Does anyone know some examples so I can try to avoid them? I do not mean things such as retaking the MCAT 5 times or felony conviction, but ones that are less apparent

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Shifty eyes :shifty:. Or crazy eyes. But you really can't hide crazy eyes.
 
haha i like that answer-- but any serious ones? :D
 
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Parents are docs, having no knowledge about the day to day workings of a hospital and private practice, not knowing about the BS side of medicine as well as the good stuff, inconsistent stances on "ethical questions", already being dead set on a specialty without having any clinical experience with it
 
Parents are docs, having no knowledge about the day to day workings of a hospital and private practice, not knowing about the BS side of medicine as well as the good stuff, inconsistent stances on "ethical questions", already being dead set on a specialty without having any clinical experience with it


I disagree. Unless it is obvious you are being pressured by them to apply. You can get some really unique insight and perspective from the non-clinical portions of medicine have a parent that is a doc.
 
I took red flags to mean things that will raise additional questions. You don't think your interviewer will have additional questions to ask about your parents being doctors?
 
Parents are docs, having no knowledge about the day to day workings of a hospital and private practice, not knowing about the BS side of medicine as well as the good stuff, inconsistent stances on "ethical questions", already being dead set on a specialty without having any clinical experience with it

Big one. Pick your position and stick with it even if they try to convince you otherwise. If you are pro life stick to that stance even if they try to drill you the other way. Good advice above
 
I took red flags to mean things that will raise additional questions. You don't think your interviewer will have additional questions to ask about your parents being doctors?

No I agree it will - I took red flags as bad marks..
 
Big one. Pick your position and stick with it even if they try to convince you otherwise. If you are pro life stick to that stance even if they try to drill you the other way. Good advice above

Be careful not to appear inflexible. Be able to articulate more than one point of view while sticking to your principles and being able to justify or explain them.
 
I agree you can definitely turn it into a positive if you've had the right experiences and convey the kind of insight it's given you, but for some people that's a big IF haha
 
Already being dead set on a specialty without having any clinical experience with it

This is a big one. "I'm interested in specialty X" must be accompanied by shadowing or research in X specialty. Gotta walk the walk too.
 
This is a big one. "I'm interested in specialty X" must be accompanied by shadowing or research in X specialty. Gotta walk the walk too.

However, having decided to specialize before starting medical school can also be a red flag. It can appear that you are uninterested in any area of medicine except the one you have chosen and that can be a problem.
 
Some of the simplest ones are if you have a low grade sitting among higher grades. They'll want to know what happened there. Any time off that isn't really accounted for. A trend of lower grades in a specific science subject might raise an eyebrow. Lack of clinical exposure. A lot of dedication and ability in something not medically related, like a business degree and strong work experience in business (not a red flag as in bad to have this kind of experience, but they'll ask why you aren't sticking with it so you should have an answer). A trend of not finishing what you start.

Basically imagine you are looking back at your own record. If there's something you look at and think "Hm, I wonder what that's all about?" or worse "Well that's not good" it MAY be a red flag. Either way be prepared to be asked about it (and anything else, really) in an interview
 
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For some reason I am constantly worrying about accidentally conveying a more subtle red flag. Does anyone know some examples so I can try to avoid them? I do not mean things such as retaking the MCAT 5 times or felony conviction, but ones that are less apparent

the fact that you are hiding your non-existent red flags will make you nervous on your interviews which itself is a red flag that the keen eyes of the adcom will find and all your other invisible red flags will be exposed in a giant explosion of redness that will be seen from the sky
 
the fact that you are hiding your non-existent red flags will make you nervous on your interviews which itself is a red flag that the keen eyes of the adcom will find and all your other invisible red flags will be exposed in a giant explosion of redness that will be seen from the sky

thats a really good point-- I dont really know why I am being so paranoid. I think once I get some secondaries from my state school I should be fine. According to last year's app thread for those schools (UCs, USC) it was not until early to mid july until people got them so I just need to be patient haha
 
the fact that you are hiding your non-existent red flags will make you nervous on your interviews which itself is a red flag that the keen eyes of the adcom will find and all your other invisible red flags will be exposed in a giant explosion of redness that will be seen from the sky
Best. Post. Ever. :love:

Seriously though, while I think there are universal red flags that look bad to any med school (e.g. felony) I think a lot of the subtler things that you might be calling "red flags" aren't necessarily good vs. bad or right vs. wrong. They're indicative of how well you fit a school's culture and mission. A red flag for one school may be a significant point in your favor at another school.

Don't go on a campaign to eliminate all possible "red flags" (i.e. "anything any medschool might dislike about you") because you'll end up making yourself completely neutral and uninteresting. Do, however, endeavor to understand what your qualities are and try to select schools that will appreciate those qualities and consider you a good fit.

Understand that you can be the best premed ever and this whole thing is still a crapshoot.
 
this past spring semester i got a disciplinary warning for "alcohol". im so nervous about writing about it in my application but there is the section where it asks for the explanation and i dont know what to put! it is the only disciplinary action that has ever been taken against me in my ENTIRE life!! im seriously that goody-two-shoes that never gets in trouble and now i feel like this is going to stick out a a BIG RED FLAG even though it was a stupid misunderstanding, and the school would not believe my side of the story (obviously, they never do). any one think this could really hurt my chances?? any advice on how to approach the situation? disciplinary warning is literally the lowest level disciplinary action there is so i guess its not thaaat bad..not like i have a felony :scared:

So you need to report the "institutional action" on your AMCAS. Based on my experience with one school, this will slow your application's progress through the system (it will get an extra layer of review) but it shouldn't kill your chances. We know that this sort of thing happens and we know that it is not entirely just because some schools handle it discretely, as a medical condition, and others write it up.
 
However, having decided to specialize before starting medical school can also be a red flag. It can appear that you are uninterested in any area of medicine except the one you have chosen and that can be a problem.

I agree. Going into an interview and being like "I WANT TO BE A CARDIOTHORACIC SURGEON" is not going to impress anyone. Say that you want to become a doctor, that you've seen "x, y, and z" and that these fields fascinated you, and most of all the medicine fascinated you, etc. Don't be vague, but don't be specific about specialty either. Otherwise it just comes off as cocky and/or they don't want people specializing too much anyway
 
This is a big one. "I'm interested in specialty X" must be accompanied by shadowing or research in X specialty. Gotta walk the walk too.

I think it's good to have an idea of what fields interest you the most, I think it gives a little direction. In an interview, just qualify it with "...but I'm looking forward to seeing what other fields have to off as well....." which is really the best way to approach clinical rotations anyway.
 
I do think that it is OK to say that a particular type of clinical care is attractive to you.... you could say "I like the longitudial physician patient relationships in primary care specialties so I'm thinking about pediatrics or another type of primary care" or "I like to work with my hands and I like to fix things so I think that one of the specialties that involves interventions would be a good fit for me... " The key is to know something about yourself and something about the specialties that would satisfy what it is that you think you would like about being a doc. No one ever went into interventional radiology looking for long term relationships with patients.

The bogus thing is to have shadowed only one doc and to want to be that kind of doc because of some sort of hero worship thing....
 
What I've always heard about red flags in an interview is if the interviewer thinks you're lying or hiding something. If you're telling them what they want to hear, that's an example of lying, and it's automatically going to make you look terrible. For example, saying that you want to serve an underserved community will make you look like an idiot if you've never worked specifically with poor communities. Everyone knows they want to hear this in an interview, but to say it without having an example will make you look terrible.
 
This is a big one. "I'm interested in specialty X" must be accompanied by shadowing or research in X specialty. Gotta walk the walk too.

I think this actually hurt me, based on the responses in a few of my interviews. I would emphasize this strongly. I mentioned an interest in pediatrics in my application, because I am most interested in working with kids. I have no idea if I would like actual day to day pediatrics. I do know I am interested in working with kids, and the main areas I'm interested in (developmental pediatrics/pediatric neuro/child psych) I do have experience in. But interviewers at two schools (especially at one of my two top choices) both grilled me about lack of shadowing, etc, for pediatrics. I tried to explain that I was more interested in children in general as a population and shift to my experiences in working with them in the areas I do have experience, but I think I only did that well one of the two times (and not the important one).

I think this was partly bad luck with interviewers, as it didn't come up anywhere else I interviewed (and quite a few asked me about psych and working with kids and areas of interest for practice), but it was something I could have avoided and protected against.

I wouldn't mention a specialty even indirectly unless you have some strong backing or are rather prepared for the interview. Just save yourself the stress :D
 
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So, LizzyM I read in another thread you saying you were an undergrad institution admissions person but I got the impression you're a med school admissions person. So what is it that you do again? Sorry if this has been asked somewhere else, I'm just curious.

I agree with most of what has been said above. Also, coming off has having a cocky attitude is really bad. There's a line between confidence in yourself and cockiness and you can definitely come off as being too good for the school during the interview if youd on't know where this line is.
 
I received a WF in a class, and of course I have an explanation that I could offer in the interview but should I mention this explanation in the secondaries as well when they ask for additional information? Are students with a F on their transcript typically filtered out of the application pool at medical schools?
 
I received a WF in a class, and of course I have an explanation that I could offer in the interview but should I mention this explanation in the secondaries as well when they ask for additional information? Are students with a F on their transcript typically filtered out of the application pool at medical schools?

Haha, I hope not! I have two Fs several B-s and a handful of grades in between from 2001/2002. Then starting in 2008 my transcript is basically several pages of As. I think I can explain that year away as mostly due to immaturity/lack of purpose and direction, but if schools automatically filter out students with Fs I might be in trouble :(
 
One common red flag is blaming others for things that are your responsibility. For example, blaming a TA's accent for your bad grade.
 
So, LizzyM I read in another thread you saying you were an undergrad institution admissions person but I got the impression you're a med school admissions person. So what is it that you do again? Sorry if this has been asked somewhere else, I'm just curious.

I agree with most of what has been said above. Also, coming off has having a cocky attitude is really bad. There's a line between confidence in yourself and cockiness and you can definitely come off as being too good for the school during the interview if youd on't know where this line is.

I'm a med school adcom member. The kids in my life have recently applied to undergrad colleges and so I've been doing a lot of reading about that lately.... maybe you saw my post about EDP as it applies to undergrad....
 
Hey, thanks for clarifying that up.
 
Lizzy M, could you please reply to my above post regarding whether or not most schools would filter out students who had received a WF or F in a class, and whether or not students with an F in a class mention this somewhere in their application or just wait and discuss the issue if it were to come up in the interview. Thanks a lot
 
I received a WF in a class, and of course I have an explanation that I could offer in the interview but should I mention this explanation in the secondaries as well when they ask for additional information? Are students with a F on their transcript typically filtered out of the application pool at medical schools?

I have no idea which if any schools filter out anyone with an F or WF on their record.

I would consider an F or WF on the transcript to be a "zit". We see it, we know it's there, we wonder if there was something going on that caused you to get that zit. If you are going to talk about it and point it out and tell us about it, we are going to fixate on it and it is all we will notice about you. If, on the other hand, you distract us and point out the good things you want us to remember about you, we may forget about the zit or decide that you are an attractive candidate despite that ugly zit.
 
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