adcom

I have had my dog (Mini Australian Shepherd) since August, and we have recently started agility training to compete locally. This is something that I like to do in my free time as a stress reliever, but it has now become a huge part of my life. This training has really taught me how to...

Hello! I'm a premed (sophomore) set on being a doctor (not a psychologist). When thinking about specialties, my primary interests would be either IM or psych. In terms of research, I currently do lab work in a basic science/translational psych research lab, and am leaning towards ultimately...

To any ADCOM members, Pre-Med Advisors, Doctors, Med students, etc. who have experience reading personal statements for medical school: think back to specific statements that have stood out to you, either for good or bad reasons. What about those letters made them stand out? What did the writer...

Our guest today, Gina Moses, is the Director of Admissions at New York Institute of Technology’s College of Osteopathic Medicine. Prior to taking this position in 2016, she worked for almost ten years as the Associate Director of Recruitment and Application Services for the American Association...

I've been reading through endless threads on this topic, but would love some advice on my particular situation. Thanks in advance. Situation: I am currently in Calculus 2 and slowly falling behind. We have daily quizzes that I underperform on, and have taken one exam of four that I received a...

Hi everyone! So I am in the process of writing my personal statement. I've been seeing a lot of different information on the internet. Is it better to tell a story that conveys characteristics that show you'd be a good doctor or write about your motivation to be a doctor? What do admissions want...

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I have a question on whether it would be wise or not to mention my struggle with substance abuse on my application/ letter of intent. I believe it may be beneficial, however others have advised me against it (None of which are pre-med students or advisors). There are many factors involved in...

How do adcoms perceive an interviewee that forgets to unbutton his/her jacket when sitting down and/or hasn't cut the stitch holding jacket tails together, or misses any other formality? Don't care? Red flag?

Dear members of the SDN community, I am an internist with over three decades of experience on medical school admissions committees. As I am recently retired from this particular duty I can speak freely here, and give some insight into the workings of affirmative action among those of us who...

Hello sdn, Im planning to go to med school. Currently I work as an IT consultant and I hold a degree in physics. As I mostly read here in sdn, non trad students should get clinical experience regardless. I live in the philippines btw and would like to go to a US or even carribean med school...

So I talked to my advisor today about what her previous students have done that have gotten into Dental School, and she told me that one of her previous students, (A non-urm girl if it matters) had a OGPA of 3.3 and a science even lower than that. However, since her sophomore year, she had been...

I'm struggling to see where I keep telling rather than showing. Aside from family, two readers have told me that my personal statement is not showing enough. I was advised to make my essay warmer and more telling of my character. If anyone wants to read my essay and tell me where I am lacking...

A few weeks ago, I submitted my primary application to medical schools. In this application, I included my first MCAT attempt score (507) but I retook the MCAT a few weeks ago and won't have my updated score until August 1st. I indicated this on my primary app. I have received secondaries to...

Especially on shorter secondaries. Do you guys like them? Or do you often end up rolling your eyes at them? I sort of just want to get straight to the point with my secondaries, but I get that may not be super engaging or enjoyable to read.

The day before my mcat I had an accident and spent the better part of the previous night 4-10:30pm in urgent care/ER waiting to see a physician to get stitches on my face. i ended up leaving before ever seeing a physician because I had to drive 45 minutes to my air b&b next to the testing...

Hi SDN, Here is my predicament. I, being the stupid pre-med, failed to obtain any letters of recommendation from any professors from the first 3.5 years of my undergraduate career. Now, I'm scrambling to find letter writers to fulfill the requirements of the programs I am interested in. I have...

Hello! Currently, I just finished my first year in college, but I am graduating in three years, as a part of a program. I am most likely going to be applying to Medical School next year, when I'm 19. I have a late birthday (September), so I figured I would be much younger than the rest of the...

I failed Gen chem my freshman year, and retook the class the next semester before I transferred schools. While I was trying to calculate my overall aadsas gpa, I noticed that my transcript doesn't show how many credits it was; it shows: D+, attempted credits: 0, recieved credits: 0 The thing...

Here is a quote by @Goro that I have heard here many times, on a post talking about volunteering abroad: How do medical schools square that opinion with the fact that many have a "global health" program? You say, and many other adcomms say, that pre-med students going abroad is...

Hello everyone, quick question here. I interviewed at one of my top choices last week and it's definitely the school I'd like to attend. I know that their adcom is meeting 2/28 and we are going to be hearing back the same week. Is it appropriate to send a LOI now, before any decisions are made...

Hello. I'm a first year at UCLA. I did well my first quarter; however I do not believe this school is the right place for me. I truly wish to transfer to UCI. I am currently planning on sticking it out the rest of this year and transferring. However, would this be looked down upon by medical...

Hey everyone, so I have a question for you all that I have been thinking about recently. Out of these 3 types of general applicants, which do you think is the one that a dental school would most likely prefer to interview? Keep in mind this is PURELY discussing GPA/DAT stats, and nothing else...

I've been looking at class photos from some schools and I have this growing paranoia that, when all else is near-equal, there's a "beauty pageant" component in the AdCom's decisions; either subconscious bias, or voluntary to maintain the school's appearance. "I have a 3.98 GPA, 524 MCAT with...

My mail-out date was mid-August, and I applied to 12 schools. Since then, I've received 2 interviews (which I'm very excited for!), have 4 application completes, and 4 under reviews (the other 2 schools don't use aadsas). While I know stats aren't everything, I'm a little surprised/worried at...

Looking for opinions: Lets say an applicant has: Good Stats Strong Leadership ECs Good Clinical Experience (volunteer, shadowing & interning) Good LORs Publications/Research Team Activities BUT no classical volunteer work listed on the primary application (food shelter, homeless,community...

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During the MMI, you’ll be evaluated by many different people at several different stations. Having multiple reviews and reviewers provides a more consistent way to evaluate applicants because schools have more data available from the evaluations provided by each person who observes you. They...

Hey everyone, first let me say that I've found this site very useful from afar (thanks, google), but i've only recently decided to join myself. If this goes someplace else, i'm sorry! I'm new here. Anyways, I wanted to get some input about how medical schools value adversity and...

So i know the GPA's that are important are: bcpm, and cGPA (cumulative) However it seems that bcpm are just the med school requirement classes. Intro bio, general + organic chemistry, physics and math. But what about upper division biology courses like Genetics, Biochemistry, Physiology...

I recently took the MCAT and have yet to receive my score. However, this was my third attempt and I have been putting a lot of pressure on myself post exam and I begin to think of questions that I got wrong. My first MCAT was on the old version, which I scored a 22. I did very little prep and...

I recently took the MCAT and have yet to receive my score. However, this was my third attempt and I have been putting a lot of pressure on myself post exam and I begin to think of questions that I got wrong. My first MCAT was on the old version, which I scored a 22. I did very little prep and...

Background: I did a crowdfunding campaign to raise money to purchase an ultrasound machine for a hospital I volunteered at in Tanzania. It took eighteen months, but it worked: $8K and a new ultrasound. I'm thinking of introducing this as the first part of my PS in a...

I just had a professor read my final draft of my personal statement and she raised a potentially alarming issue that I hadn't even thought of. In my personal statement, I lead with a true story about an emergent situation that happened to me while I was on vacation. It does seem kind of crazy...

Hello all! I'm just curious as to how a third W on a transcript looks to med schools. My first W was in a history class and the reason I dropped this one is because our professor (to put it lightly) flat out lied about his midterms. I should have dropped after the first midterm so I could have...

When I was admissions director there were some things applicants would do that were apparently minor, but that I found to be very annoying. Here are my top 5 “hates” that I’m sure are shared by many AdComs: 1. Asking for information that can be easily found on the school’s website. Some...

Hello, I'm interested in applying for MD-PhD programs in the East Coast. I heard that depending on the school, an app would first go to the PhD dept for approval and then the MD dept...or vice versa. Do you know the adcomms procedure of certain middle/upper tier schools in the East Coast for...

Hello, I heard that depending on the medical schools for which an undergrad applies, adcoms focus more or less on the applicant's research experience. Do you know or have you heard about any middle/upper tier medical schools that select MD candidates with a more research-focused repertoire...

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Made this throwaway account because I've written all over the application threads for the school that I attend. I'm currently a second year student at a U.S. allopathic school and member of our adcom - AMA!