Nontrad Pre-med/med student conference.

SDN Nontrads,

Now that the April MCAT has passed - best of luck to you all who took it - it is now time to focus on how best to polish your application. All applicants must provide substantiation of their academic prowess through GPAs & MCAT scores; however, as a non-trad applicant, there are many other facets of your application that present opportunities to enhance your chances of acceptance. Some folks perceive these as additional hurdles or stumbling blocks - and, there are certainly a number of we non-trads who have additional baggage that we must drag along, for example: old crappy grades. However, if we are truly dedicated & driven to become physicians, you must overcome these additional elements.

The information that will be presented to you at this 2.5 day conference will prove to be of immense value in empowering you to overcome these barriers, for those of you who have them, and to provide insight in how you can turn your life experiences into feathers in your hat & bolster your application. Applying to medical school is expensive both financially & emotionally - do it right the first time...and increase your odds of doing so by attending this conference.

The conference will be in Washington, DC from the 8th through the 10th of June 2006 at the Crystal City Sheraton. Our room block has been filled - earliest we have ever accomplished this - however, the hotel is still taking reservations on an individual basis at our deeply discounted rate of $119/nt (vs the normal 180~200/nt) and you are welcome to roomshare [we do not need to know the details of your sharing accomodations 😀 ]! You may find detailed information at http://http://www.oldpremeds.org/2006regis/OPM.html or by visiting the OldPreMeds website at www.OldPremeds.org. You do not have to a member to attend nor is it required that you be a non-trad - all are welcome. Also, of the $75 registration fee, which is abyssmally inexpensive for a medical conference, $5 will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

Our keynote speaker is Dr. Ken Iserson, author of two cornerstone texts: Getting into Medical School & Getting Into a Residency. These are two of the most read books of this type. In addition, Dr. Rob Bowman, Univ of Neb FP residency faculty & researcher of rural medicine & how nontrad status affects practice demographics in medical school grads, will be our anchor speaker on the 10th.

Please take a few minutes to peruse the information via the links above. If you have questions or comments - many SDNers have attended our conferences in past years - please feel free to post them in this thread.

I hope to meet each & every one of you in June in DC!

I'm in, finally got my plane tickets and everything. Who says procrastination doesn't pay off- I saved $35 by waiting a week!

So who is going? Let's start the official list- if you're in, add your name.

I'm thinking about going. I'm about as non-traditional as it gets: 35, married, child... I definitely could use some motivation, sometimes I feel like the odds are too great against me.

strontium90 said:

I'm thinking about going. I'm about as non-traditional as it gets: 35, married, child... I definitely could use some motivation, sometimes I feel like the odds are too great against me.

Click to expand...

Be sure to visit the OldPreMeds conference info page at http://www.oldpremeds.org/2006regis/OPM.html. There you will tons of info on the conference, hotel & speaker line up. Our keynote speaker will be none other than Dr. Ken Iserson, author of Getting Into Medical School and Getting Into a Residency - two keystone texts!

OldManDave said:

SDN Nontrads,

Now that the April MCAT has passed - best of luck to you all who took it - it is now time to focus on how best to polish your application. All applicants must provide substantiation of their academic prowess through GPAs & MCAT scores; however, as a non-trad applicant, there are many other facets of your application that present opportunities to enhance your chances of acceptance. Some folks perceive these as additional hurdles or stumbling blocks - and, there are certainly a number of we non-trads who have additional baggage that we must drag along, for example: old crappy grades. However, if we are truly dedicated & driven to become physicians, you must overcome these additional elements.

The information that will be presented to you at this 2.5 day conference will prove to be of immense value in empowering you to overcome these barriers, for those of you who have them, and to provide insight in how you can turn your life experiences into feathers in your hat & bolster your application. Applying to medical school is expensive both financially & emotionally - do it right the first time...and increase your odds of doing so by attending this conference.

The conference will be in Washington, DC from the 8th through the 10th of June 2006 at the Crystal City Sheraton. Our room block has been filled - earliest we have ever accomplished this - however, the hotel is still taking reservations on an individual basis at our deeply discounted rate of $119/nt (vs the normal 180~200/nt) and you are welcome to roomshare [we do not need to know the details of your sharing accomodations 😀 ]! You may find detailed information at http://http://www.oldpremeds.org/2006regis/OPM.html or by visiting the OldPreMeds website at www.OldPremeds.org. You do not have to a member to attend nor is it required that you be a non-trad - all are welcome. Also, of the $75 registration fee, which is abyssmally inexpensive for a medical conference, $5 will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

Our keynote speaker is Dr. Ken Iserson, author of two cornerstone texts: Getting into Medical School & Getting Into a Residency. These are two of the most read books of this type. In addition, Dr. Rob Bowman, Univ of Neb FP residency faculty & researcher of rural medicine & how nontrad status affects practice demographics in medical school grads, will be our anchor speaker on the 10th.

Please take a few minutes to peruse the information via the links above. If you have questions or comments - many SDNers have attended our conferences in past years - please feel free to post them in this thread.

I hope to meet each & every one of you in June in DC!

Click to expand...

I am looking forward to it. I went last year and really enjoyed myself. Not only was it extremely interesting and relevant, it was great to be surrounding by people who understood exactly what I was going through. AND I won some free text books! See you there!

I'm going and looking forward to seeing you all there. If you are a non-traditional student, you should definately go to the OPM conference. You will gain so much valuable advice, and it's a great networking opportunity! There will also be a number of medical school admissions representatives there during a vendor fair.

For those who haven't taken the MCAT yet, Kaplan and Princeton Review, the two major test prep companies, will be doing a presentation on Thurs. June 8th. Current medical students (and future ones) will also be interested in the keynote speaker, Dr. Ken Iserson, who wrote "the book" on how to get into an appropriate residency. These are just a few hilights of the 2006 conference, which will be held June 8-11, 2006 in Washington, D.C. at the Crystal City Sheraton.

You can learn more about the conference and register for it at www.oldpremeds.org and then follow the links for the 2006 Conference. I look forward to seeing fellow SDNers there!

There are just under 4 weeks until the 6th annual Conference & Workshops start. Trust me, it will be worth every single penny you invest to attend.

I hope to see you in DC!

jlw9698 said:

I'm in, finally got my plane tickets and everything. Who says procrastination doesn't pay off- I saved $35 by waiting a week!

So who is going? Let's start the official list- if you're in, add your name.

Click to expand...

I'm there too!

Yay, TypeA!!! I was starting to get a little concerned I was going to be hanging out in DC all by my lonesome!

Who's with us?

ONLY 18 days until the conference begins! Time to register! Please follow the link in my signature to learn more about the conference & register. Also, be aware that $5 of your registration fee will be donated to the American Cancer Society.

As of 5/23/06, the following schools and commerical vendors are exhibiting at the conference.

Schools - CONFIRMED
1 - West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine (WVSOM)- both days
2 - Georgetown Special Masters Program & post-bac premed program - both days
3 - Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine (PCOM) - both days
4 - Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM) - both days
5 - St. Matthews University, Grand Cayman Island, British West Indies - both days
6 - Ohio State University College of Medicine and Public Health - Sat. only
7 - George Washington University School of Medicine - Fri. only
8 - Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) - FL campus - Fri. only
9 - Universidad Autonoma de Guadalajara (AUG), Guadalajara, Mexico - both days

Commercial Vendors - CONFIRMED
1 - NowLoans - both days
2 - The Princeton Review - both days
3 - Kaplan - Fri. only
4 - Association for Non-Traditional Students in Higher Education (ANTSHE) - both days

Hi there,
Why should a non-traditional pre-med student attend the Washington, DC convention of the National Society of Non-Traditional Pre-Medical and Medical Students (OPM)?

1. You will get actual experience performing the duties of an admissions committee. You will evaluate applications material from applicants and match your thinking with what the admissions committee actually did. This experience can make the difference between you actually getting into medical school or not getting accepted.

2. You will hear a nationally-known and hugely successful premedical admissions counselor give thousands of tips and strategies for you (the non-traditional) applicant. Again, for a nominal cost, you will get hundreds of dollars of counseling essentially for the cost of admission to the convention.

3. Is it worth if for you, the nontraditional applicant, to give up that hugely paying job, to pursue medicine? You will hear from non-traditional applicants who did give up that job and are now practicing physicians. How did they make ends meet? How did their spouses feel? How are they holding their families together?

4. You have struggled with MCAT and do not seem to be getting that score any higher. You can come to this convention and get some strategies for changing your thinking about MCAT and other professional admissions tests. You will hear from one of the nation's top strategiests for ensuring professional student success at every stage of the process.

5. You meet other non-traditional students at every stage of the process. You hear their stories and you see what is possible.

6. You will hear from and meet representatives of the one most sucessful post-bacc programs in the country. You will learn what it takes to get into these programs and how to use them to your advantage.

7. You will meet representative from local medical and pre-medical programs in Washington, DC. (Georgetown, GW and Howard) If you are thinking about attending one of these schools, you will have an opportunity to speak with their admissions representatives one on one throughout the conference.

8. The Sheraton Crystal City is offerning special room rates for the convention and after (if you wanted to explore Washington, DC). This hotel is beautiful and located a short METRO ride from all of the sites of Washington, DC. Normally hotel rooms in DC are in the $250/night range. The Sheraton is offering a huge savings for those who attend this convention and want to stay later and see the sights.

9.For the cost of a plane ticket or train ticket or bus ticket, your hotel room at the Sheraton, and the convention cost, you can potentially receive thousands of dollars in admissions counselling, standardized test-taking strategies, admissions committee processing (how to avoid making huge mistakes on your application) and becoming a successful medical student and successful residency applicant. There will even be a presentation on strategies to improve your re-application should you not gain admission to medical school on the first try.

10. There will be a presentation on Strategies to beef up your application to medical school should you not get into medical school on the first try. This presentation will be done by a medical school admissions committee member. This informaiton can potentially save you from making mistakes that will cause you not to get in on your second try.

You can potentially invest thousands of dollars and hours in tuition and end up not admitted to medical school because you just didn't know the ins and outs of the process. This convention will put you miles ahead of your peers and answer those lingering questions.

I am a very, very non-traditional graduate of medical school and a very non-traditional General Surgery resident. If it had not been for the National Society of Non-traditional Pre-medical and Medical students, I would not have had the success that I did. At every step of the process, I had access to information and the wisdom of this group. I was accepted by six out of six medical schools that I applied to. I attended the conventions and got lots of great information that was key to my strategy to get into and through medical school.

This year Kenneth Iserson is the key note speaker. He is the author of two well known books for getting into medical school and getting into residency after medical school. Besides Iserson, Judith Colwell will be presenting her nuts and bolts of applying to medical school. She is a former member of the admissions committee at Stanford University and has help hundreds of applicants both traditional and non-traditional achieve their goal of getting into medical school. You will also have an opportunity to serve on an admissions committee reviewing actual applications (anomymous of course) of people who were successful and unsuccessful in getting into medical school. You will have an opportunity to learn how to write an effective personal statement and how to get through medical school and residency without losing your soul or your loved ones. This and more for cost of attending the conference. At no other location will there be as many resources for this price and available one-on-one to you.

Since Old Man Dave has placed information here with Lee Burnett's permission, I wanted to place a little of my personal experience with this group as a help to others out there who wish to take the plunge and get more information.

Just as SDN has made the commitment to provide a category for the Non-Traditional Student, Old Premeds (OPM) has been providing information, conventions and fellowship for the Non-traditional student whose numbers and representation in medical schools across the country have increased exponentially. SND and OPM have been linked through the efforts of Old Man Dave and Lee Burnett for years. This is just another opportunity to take advantage of the wisdom of both groups and achieve your goals.

You can go to the OPM Website OPM and register for the convention. (Just click on the "Read More Here" link from the blue page. While the forums may be down, the convention registration site is not down. We promise four days chocked full of solid information for people at every step of the medical school process and fun activities too.

njbmd 😀

I have been to multiple OPM conferences and they have been worth every penny! The information the speakers provide, the networking opportunities, and just simply being around other non traditional folks is worth ten times the registration fee!

jlw9698
TypeA
MaryWrathers and spouse (Fri. and Sat.)

I finally get to attend! I'll be there Thursday evening, Friday afternoon and Saturday.

lpressley130

Ho Folks,
Just one more day until the OPM convention starts in Washington, DC. It looks like we are going to have a great time. Last night I put the finishing touches on my PowerPoint presentation that gives some strategies for buffing that application should you not get into medical school on your first try.

At least 45% of my medical school class had to re-apply and about 25% had re-applied twice before getting in. Sure, it was an expensive proposition but everyone is a physician today and none of the re-applicants failed to graduate.

If you decide at the last minute that you want to come to DC to our convention, you can register at the door for one, two or all of the days. Our keynote speaker, Ken Iserson, author of How to Get into Medical School and How to Get Into Residency is not to be missed. On Thursday night, Kaplan and The Princeton Review will go head to head and debate the merits of their MCAT prep courses. They will also offer scholarships to take their courses.

See you there!
njbmd 🙂

Hi there,
We just completed one of the most successful conventions in the history of OPM. It was such a positive experience. Meeting some of the folks from here was awesome and the weather in DC was perfect!

Next year, on to Chicago!!!

njbmd 👍

Just want to say thanks for alll those who made this conference a reality. For me it was a last minute decision, well worth the effort. 👍
Thanks to the organizers and special thanks to Denise, who made sure I had a place to sleep 😴 🙂
As a result of this conference I have started to set a serious path to get to where I want to go....your encouragement was tremendous, Thanks!