Some of the worst advice you received as a pre-med

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genericpremedstudent said:
Not necessarily. As someone who did an apprenticeship in that field: you work during the apprenticeship, so from age 18 I was already making $40,000. When completed I was making over $100,000 at the age of 21. Do that for 40 years and retire with a full pension, plus the fact the education is free, in the long run his dad is probably right. But the work sucks and I rather work at McDonalds than do that again.
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I'm always surprised when I learn how much people who learn basic trades make. I have a friend who works for the power company who climbs electric poles and fixes them who makes about 120k a year. Took about one year of (paid) training to be qualified for it
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My earlier post was totally off topic so I'll throw in some bad advice too.

My last semester of UG my adviser told me it would take 21 credits to graduate on time. Naturally I was freaking out, because not only would the large amount of work suck, but I would need approval from the dean to take above the max credits and I would have to pay more for those classes as well. Ended up doing the work myself and figuring out a schedule where I could graduate by only taking 13 credits. I don't know how those people get their jobs
 
You're My Boy Blue said:
I'm always surprised when I learn how much people who learn basic trades make. I have a friend who works for the power company who climbs electric poles and fixes them who makes about 120k a year. Took about one year of (paid) training to be qualified for it
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I'd want to be paid solid money for being a lineman myself. Idk if you've ever had to climb a telephone/electric pole before, but the tall ones are much less sturdy than you'd think at the top haha. My dad did this years ago when he started at his company and made little more than the minimum wage doing it. Whatever your friend is doing he must be doing it right haha.
 
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Med school admissions is purely a numbers driven process. Extracurriculars are just ways to check the box and are not used by adcoms. Prestige and rigor of undergrad means nothing whatsoever so your best bet is to go to the easiest undergrad possible simply to get that 3.9 because that's all any med school cares about. Ask the "adcoms" who post on here and they'll agree.
 
Worst advice I received?
Don't apply, you won't get in. You don't have enough shadowing.
I'm starting in 3 weeks. ;)
 
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goatcheese said:
Med school admissions is purely a numbers driven process. Extracurriculars are just ways to check the box and are not used by adcoms. Prestige and rigor of undergrad means nothing whatsoever so your best bet is to go to the easiest undergrad possible simply to get that 3.9 because that's all any med school cares about. Ask the "adcoms" who post on here and they'll agree.
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Not sure if you're telling us the worst advice you received or are serious ... just in case it's the latter:

Med school admissions is largely a numbers driven process. However, the extracurriculars are very important and are most definitely used by adcoms. Just for example, if a med school had only one space left to fill, and two applicants with equal/comparable numbers, how would they decide who gets the spot? It's the extracurriculars that set applicants apart and make the "good" ones into the "great" ones.

Prestige and rigor of undergrad is more complicated.
 
goatcheese said:
Med school admissions is purely a numbers driven process. Extracurriculars are just ways to check the box and are not used by adcoms. Prestige and rigor of undergrad means nothing whatsoever so your best bet is to go to the easiest undergrad possible simply to get that 3.9 because that's all any med school cares about. Ask the "adcoms" who post on here and they'll agree.
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:troll:
 
efle said:
You can show that schools without fame can have rigor - UCSD for example. That is not the same as showing schools with fame that lack rigor.

I think there is a set of rigorous schools, that many of them are unrecognized for it, but that the set of highly prestigious schools are a subset entirely contained. At every Ivy you will have a rigorous set of science classes
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Do you have data to back that up? That isn't a snarky challenge, I genuinely would like to see it if it's available. I would also like to know if you think the Ivy schools have the most rigorous science curriculum in the country, by and large.

If you want to take this to pm, I can give you more specifics about the classes I took at multiple UCs and my experiences with them. If you couldn't care less, that's cool too.
 
ZedsDed said:
:troll:
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Based on the content and tone of your posts you represent the stereotype of the typical uninformed SDN passive aggressive, resentful, narcissistic, friendless premed. In a lot of ways I feel sorry for you though. You should probably just come to terms with the fact that some people went to better schools than you and their gpa means something different from yours. I hope the best for you moving forward.
 
goatcheese said:
Based on the content and tone of your posts you represent the stereotype of the typical uninformed SDN passive aggressive, resentful, narcissistic, friendless premed. In a lot of ways I feel sorry for you though. You should probably just come to terms with the fact that some people went to better schools than you and their gpa means something different from yours. I hope the best for you moving forward.
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:troll:

This crowd is more your type http://www.reddit.com/r/premed/

Strange how the SDN haters still use the forums as a resource no?
 
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goatcheese said:
Based on the content and tone of your posts you represent the stereotype of the typical uninformed SDN passive aggressive, resentful, narcissistic, friendless premed. In a lot of ways I feel sorry for you though. You should probably just come to terms with the fact that some people went to better schools than you and their gpa means something different from yours. I hope the best for you moving forward.
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b34.jpg
 
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goatcheese said:
I'm actually pretty sorry I made an account here. One has to sift through so many sewage personalities to find the small nuggets of wisdom on here that it's probably not even worth it.
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No you're the sewage nugget
 
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goatcheese said:
I'm actually pretty sorry I made an account here. One has to sift through so many sewage personalities to find the small nuggets of wisdom on here that it's probably not even worth it.
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You are free to leave.
 
lol calm down everyone
 
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genericpremedstudent said:
Not necessarily. As someone who did an apprenticeship in that field: you work during the apprenticeship, so from age 18 I was already making $40,000. When completed I was making over $100,000 at the age of 21. Do that for 40 years and retire with a full pension, plus the fact the education is free, in the long run his dad is probably right. But the work sucks and I rather work at McDonalds than do that again.
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Yeah, I'm sure it's possible, I just thought it was funny/trollish given the situation.
 
I'm getting a whiff of...
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Med school admissions is purely a numbers driven process. Extracurriculars are just ways to check the box and are not used by adcoms. Prestige and rigor of undergrad means nothing whatsoever so your best bet is to go to the easiest undergrad possible simply to get that 3.9 because that's all any med school cares about. Ask the "adcoms" who post on here and they'll agree.
 
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^don't worry you will never see my app because I took your school off my list, also what'd you get your phd in?
 
You're My Boy Blue said:
I'm always surprised when I learn how much people who learn basic trades make. I have a friend who works for the power company who climbs electric poles and fixes them who makes about 120k a year. Took about one year of (paid) training to be qualified for it
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Yeah, it all depends on where you work, what you do, and if you are union or not. I made $47/hr where I lived, but in the bay area they make around $58/hr now I believe. The hours were long and the work sucked so it wasn't worth it for me.
 
goatcheese said:
Med school admissions is purely a numbers driven process. Extracurriculars are just ways to check the box and are not used by adcoms. Prestige and rigor of undergrad means nothing whatsoever so your best bet is to go to the easiest undergrad possible simply to get that 3.9 because that's all any med school cares about. Ask the "adcoms" who post on here and they'll agree.
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I can hit you with one of my all time most unpopular SDN fun facts here: undergrad means something big to private med schools, rated "highest importance" above things like URM status and research experience

Obviously don't have a way to prove that ECs can matter to adcoms....well I guess you could make some arguments from the MSAR, which shows things like clinical experience, research, volunteerism to be found on 80-90+% of accepted apps. I'd agree it is a box-checking hoop-jumping process though
 
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efle said:
I can hit you with one of my all time most unpopular SDN fun facts here: undergrad means something big to private med schools, rated "highest importance" above things like URM status and research experience

Obviously don't have a way to prove that ECs can matter to adcoms....well I guess you could make some arguments from the MSAR, which shows things like clinical experience, research, volunteerism to be found on 80-90+% of accepted apps. I'd agree it is a box-checking hoop-jumping process though
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Good thing I'm applying to a lot of private med schools! My alma mater deflates like the Patriots.
 
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efle said:
I can hit you with one of my all time most unpopular SDN fun facts here: undergrad means something big to private med schools, rated "highest importance" above things like URM status and research experience

Obviously don't have a way to prove that ECs can matter to adcoms....well I guess you could make some arguments from the MSAR, which shows things like clinical experience, research, volunteerism to be found on 80-90+% of accepted apps. I'd agree it is a box-checking hoop-jumping process though
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1) My comment wasn't serious
2) You replied to me with that same table yesterday
3) When they say "selectivity of undergrad institution" as a factor does that mean the applicant would get a bump from going to a competitive school because getting into a place like Harvard or Princeton is an accomplishment in an of itself, or does that mean that adcoms would view certain gpa's differently given the context of where they are from?
4) This is a table of general trends and doesn't mean all adcoms at private schools think one thing and all adcoms at public schools think another, it could be that certain public schools who heavily favor in state so much that they are pretty much seeing kids from the same group of schools and don't really care about selectivity within the group of schools they are seeing, then as a consequence when you average all the data together selectivity gets rated lower on average by public schools but many adcoms at public schools still might consider it as an important factor, my point is that when you are trying to deduce a black and white generalization about the entire application process at every school from a 4 point likert scale survey you are probably not seeing all the nuance that goes into what that data actually means
 
goatcheese said:
4) This is a table of general trends and doesn't mean all adcoms at private schools think one thing and all adcoms at public schools think another, it could be that certain public schools who heavily favor in state so much that they are pretty much seeing kids from the same group of schools and don't really care about selectivity within the group of schools they are seeing, then as a consequence when you average all the data together selectivity gets rated lower on average by public schools but many adcoms at public schools still might consider it as an important factor, my point is that when you are trying to deduce a black and white generalization about the entire application process at every school from a 4 point likert scale survey you are probably not seeing all the nuance that goes into what that data actually means
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I haven't seen a run-on like this since... Is that you mrh?
 
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Once in a blue moon I wish I was a mod to throw down the ban hammer on severely annoying people. This is one of those times.
 
after a quick google search i have deduced that "mrh" is an SDN member who got banned
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while i can assure you that is not me, i'm not all that concerned with what you choose to believe
 

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goatcheese said:
1) My comment wasn't serious
2) You replied to me with that same table yesterday
3) When they say "selectivity of undergrad institution" as a factor does that mean the applicant would get a bump from going to a competitive school because getting into a place like Harvard or Princeton is an accomplishment in an of itself, or does that mean that adcoms would view certain gpa's differently given the context of where they are from?
4) This is a table of general trends and doesn't mean all adcoms at private schools think one thing and all adcoms at public schools think another, it could be that certain public schools who heavily favor in state so much that they are pretty much seeing kids from the same group of schools and don't really care about selectivity within the group of schools they are seeing, then as a consequence when you average all the data together selectivity gets rated lower on average by public schools but many adcoms at public schools still might consider it as an important factor, my point is that when you are trying to deduce a black and white generalization about the entire application process at every school from a 4 point likert scale survey you are probably not seeing all the nuance that goes into what that data actually means
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1) people on SDN get so jaded that your statement isn't apparent sarcasm!
2) I reply to a TON of people with that table. It's a good table
3) I doubt they are rewarding you for your high school achievement of getting into a good college. I'd guess more like they're recognizing that being an above-average student is a much bigger feat in certain student bodies.
4) Sure, it may be that U Mich rates undergrads as their #1 factor but is drowned out by all the other state schools not caring at all. I'd bet a lot of the most selective public schools behave a lot like private ones. Emphasis on research is another way this appears true. It is still very useful info that on average/as a group, private schools see undergrad selectivity as highly important.
 
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" You're too old to be going to medical school. Try a nursing or PA program. No one wants an old DR. - Some Janky Nurse
 
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I've read all 18 posts by @goatcheese and am wondering why is this user not banned yet? You troll, be gone.
 
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My friend was told this by his UG adviser:
"You need a 32+ to go to a carrib school"

FYI. The adviser was only 23 years old, just graduated/did her masters at his university. She was a failed pre-med who legit had no idea what she was doing in ugrad and yet is hired as the pre-med assistant adviser.
 
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Dr. Stalker said:
My friend was told this by his UG adviser:
"You need a 32+ to go to a carrib school"

FYI. The adviser was only 23 years old, just graduated/did her masters at his university. She was a failed pre-med who legit had no idea what she was doing in ugrad and yet is hired as the pre-med assistant adviser.
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Yeah my friend who got into SGU said they said they had a 32 MCAT avg and that they normally don't accept below that…

Fortunately she got into MD+DO here in the states.
 
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samac said:
Once in a blue moon I wish I was a mod to throw down the ban hammer on severely annoying people. This is one of those times.
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I know exactly what you mean. There's someone on another thread on here who is being excessively annoying but not doing anything banworthy . . . but that's none of my business . . .

goatcheese said:
notice no period at the end, it was never intended to be a sentence because this is the internet
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wot? That's a thing?
 
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Gandy741 said:
This is a good one. I've heard this one quite a bit. No, all it does it destroy your gpa or at least tries really hard to.

lol as if the MCAT is a content based knowledge test.
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What do you mean by this? If the MCAT isn't content based what is it? (no sarcasm implied I've seriously never taken or even looked at the MCAT just wondering what you meant)
 
Just a bit of a derailing question. I saw someone saying not sure if it's on this thread -- that they have other forums like this one. (I dislike the @Goro hate) I just wanna be nosy.
 
aegistitan said:
What do you mean by this? If the MCAT isn't content based what is it? (no sarcasm implied I've seriously never taken or even looked at the MCAT just wondering what you meant)
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Oh you havent taken or looked at it.


The MCAT is a test that will make you feel stupid unless you are a top 5 percent in USA student.

It gives the student an illusion as to being a content based test. You DO have to study and memorize 3 years of pre-med science coursework for this one test.

But that is not enough. The test requires you to have a massive knowledgebase, but the majority of the test is a critical thinking assessment.

This is why the MCAT destroys medical careers. Its a "necessary evil." You are also on SDN so you will hear talk of many people doing very well because there is a giant reporting bias on this website

and the people on this website are not even close to representing the average MD applicant or even matriculant for that matter.
 
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