2013-2014 Panic Thread

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msquaredb said:
The worst thing about this process is that is REALLY hurts my work. I do research so its not like I am limited in my computer or phone use. You can imagine how detrimental that is...
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This for sure. I wrote my PS at work, worked on secondaries at work, handled LOR issues from work... It doesn't help that my boss has been gone for the past three months on vacation 😛
 
This process has been just awfully slow for me....
Submitted 6/12
complete 7/25 (over a MONTH to verify!!! Im not sure if that's normal)
sent majority of my secondaries early August.
Only 1 hold and 1 small pool so far. No rejections. Or maybe just a bunch of silent rejections.



ok, my rant is over. thanks for listening.
 
I like this thread 🙂 Surprised it's not being flooded by all the people whose application verification was delayed into September 😛
 
This process is much more costly than I had expected. I work but my month's worth of work is only enough to pay 6-7 secondaries.
 
I'm starting to panic, all secondaries submitted begin to mid August. 1 rejection, 1 hold, 1 small pool :/

I also have somewhat of a red flag and do not know how that will affect me :/
 
glad to see i'm not alone. 🙂 just finished my last secondary last week (yay verification delay...).
 
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Alwayshungry said:
This process has been just awfully slow for me....
Submitted 6/12
complete 7/25 (over a MONTH to verify!!! Im not sure if that's normal)
sent majority of my secondaries early August.
Only 1 hold and 1 small pool so far. No rejections. Or maybe just a bunch of silent rejections.



ok, my rant is over. thanks for listening.
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Just be glad you didn't submit in early July. 7 weeks! Yup, almost 2 whole months.
 
psswrd said:
I miss the days when schools sent me emails day and night requesting secondary fees. I miss the days when I got automated responses from med schools.

Now I visit these forums constantly to fill the void. :owle:

I literally listen to the crickets chirp outside my window at night.

What has become of me?? :shrug:
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THIS.

You just described exactly what goes through my mind when I check my empty inbox and then head directly over to sdn for a big ole cup of void-filling agony.
 
I've stopped caring about whether I get in or not.

It's pretty liberating.
 
I still have a last few secondaries left that I can't make myself finish. this waiting business is so nerve wracking. I'm incapable of being happy and doing stuff and have become this major procrastinator in schoolwork.
 
circulus vitios said:
I've stopped caring about whether I get in or not.

It's pretty liberating.
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Agreed. I'm at the point where I've stopped checking my statuses every day... stopped checking SDN every day... and interview invites would be great (but I'm not expecting them). I'm certainly sleeping better at least! 😛

... Of course there's still a bit of panic in the back of my mind when I realize that I may not be getting in to any medical school.
 
johnamo said:
Agreed. I'm at the point where I've stopped checking my statuses every day... stopped checking SDN every day... and interview invites would be great (but I'm not expecting them). I'm certainly sleeping better at least! 😛

... Of course there's still a bit of panic in the back of my mind when I realize that I may not be getting in to any medical school.
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I've stopped caring about that, too. I've researched my alternative career pathways and I've stopped caring about becoming a doctor. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn't, oh well.
 
Starting to get antsy and freak out... I was complete at almost all schools by 7/23 and have only heard back from 4 of them (2 II and 2 Rejections). Is there anything I can do to make sure I am not being overlooked? Is this typical? Am I just freaking out?

Any advice would be appreciated!
 
psswrd said:
I'm sure it is liberating to not care but I kinda doubt you truly don't,,, given your presence here on sdn. 😉

But shiz man, I've invested too much into this not to care!!
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Just wasting time on my days off. I truly don't care anymore, I've even cancelled a few interviews.
 
circulus vitios said:
Just wasting time on my days off. I truly don't care anymore, I've even cancelled a few interviews.
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Wait...you've cancelled interviews? I am assuming this means you have had multiple interview invitations and are attending some (or at least one).

But...you are posting in the Panic Thread? 😕
 
msquaredb said:
Wait...you've cancelled interviews? I am assuming this means you have had multiple interview invitations and are attending some (or at least one).

But...you are posting in the Panic Thread? 😕
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My stats are slightly above average at most DO schools and below average at MD schools but my ECs are far below average. I have interviews (mostly at DO schools) but it means nothing. Schools are more than happy to have an applicant drop a thousand bucks on flight/hotel/transportation/time off work for an incredibly small chance of gaining an acceptance. I've been hilariously outclassed at all of my interviews -- ECs, academics, background, etc. -- and I'm not expecting to get into medical school.
 
circulus vitios said:
My stats are slightly above average at most DO schools and below average at MD schools but my ECs are far below average. I have interviews (mostly at DO schools) but it means nothing. Schools are more than happy to have an applicant drop a thousand bucks on flight/hotel/transportation/time off work for an incredibly small chance of gaining an acceptance. I've been hilariously outclassed at all of my interviews -- ECs, academics, background, etc. -- and I'm not expecting to get into medical school.
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dude thats a pretty nihilist view, schools arent gaining any money off of having you travel... you just have to travel if you want to interview

i dont know about DO schools, but i know with MD getting an interview is great news, anywhere from 15-40% of interviewees get accepted (depends on the school, and IS vs OOS)

maybe you would get in.... if you attended the interviews
 
jk1006 said:
dude thats a pretty nihilist view, schools arent gaining any money off of having you travel... you just have to travel if you want to interview

i dont know about DO schools, but i know with MD getting an interview is great news, anywhere from 15-40% of interviewees get accepted (depends on the school, and IS vs OOS)

maybe you would get in.... if you attended the interviews
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LECOM and GWU, for example, accept only 30% of the people they interview. That includes acceptances off the waitlist. They don't gain anything by wasting interviewees' time, but they don't lose anything, either.
 
circulus vitios said:
My stats are slightly above average at most DO schools and below average at MD schools but my ECs are far below average. I have interviews (mostly at DO schools) but it means nothing. Schools are more than happy to have an applicant drop a thousand bucks on flight/hotel/transportation/time off work for an incredibly small chance of gaining an acceptance. I've been hilariously outclassed at all of my interviews -- ECs, academics, background, etc. -- and I'm not expecting to get into medical school.
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This is what I just read "My chances of getting into a med school aren't great so I am going to drastically decrease them by not attending my interviews".

If you can afford it/find time off of work please attend every interview you get.
 
circulus vitios said:
LECOM and GWU, for example, accept only 30% of the people they interview. That includes acceptances off the waitlist. They don't gain anything by wasting interviewees' time, but they don't lose anything, either.
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Are you saying I am silly for having just attended my DC area school interview (~30% acceptance after interview)?
 
msquaredb said:
Are you saying I am silly for having just attended my DC area school interview (~30% acceptance after interview)?
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If your stats are borderline, you aren't rich, and you value your time.
 
circulus vitios said:
LECOM and GWU, for example, accept only 30% of the people they interview. That includes acceptances off the waitlist. They don't gain anything by wasting interviewees' time, but they don't lose anything, either.
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i dont get why you think 30% is bad? i think 30% is good, would you rather med schools have 50% acceptance? 75%? 100%? Then why would they even bother to interview.

roughly 1/3 are not bad odds considering these schools get thousands of applicants

also, interviews give you a chance to stand out (so especially if you have borderline stats) but if you really lack that much self confidence.... i guess you probably wouldnt have interviewed well

PS - to be fair GWU does not accept 30%, according to MSAR they accept 167/1093 which is a little over 15%, but i went ahead with OPs analogy for logics sake
(Nevermind, these are matriculated/interviewed numbers, not accepted/interviewed numbers) ill leave the comment for sake of continuity
 
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jk1006 said:
i dont get why you think 30% is bad? i think 30% is good, would you rather med schools have 50% acceptance? 75%? 100%? Then why would they even bother to interview.

roughly 1/3 are not bad odds considering these schools get thousands of applicants

also, interviews give you a chance to stand out (so especially if you have borderline stats) but if you really lack that much self confidence.... i guess you probably wouldnt have interviewed well

PS - to be fair GWU does not accept 30%, according to MSAR they accept 167/1093 which is a little over 15%, but i went ahead with OPs analogy for logics sake
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You sure that isn't matriculated/interviewed? MSAR does not report accepted data.
 
true, that is matriculated/interviewed

yea the 30% is more correct then, oh and also my previous post the % acceptances goes up because i was used matriculated/interviewed numbers

if anything even more reason to interview
 
circulus vitios said:
If your stats are borderline, you aren't rich, and you value your time.
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...then you would never risk having to reapply next year by sabotaging your chances of getting into a program by blowing off interviews.....I say this as someone who has had to space out sending secondaries (still waiting to send one) because I can't afford to send them all around the same time...

😕
 
Has anyone else unsubscribed from a ton of useless email lists? My heart skips a beat everytime I see "Inbox (1)", but then it all goes away when bodybuilding.com is sending me a newsletter about supplements. Ain't nobody got time fa dat. Interview invites only plz.
 
GJDM said:
Has anyone else unsubscribed from a ton of useless email lists? My heart skips a beat everytime I see "Inbox (1)", but then it all goes away when bodybuilding.com is sending me a newsletter about supplements. Ain't nobody got time fa dat. Interview invites only plz.
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YES. ****ing monster.com **** off
 
Ignore this post. The iPhone app sucks. It keeps posting my replies in different threads than the one that I selected...
 
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circulus vitios said:
My stats are slightly above average at most DO schools and below average at MD schools but my ECs are far below average. I have interviews (mostly at DO schools) but it means nothing. Schools are more than happy to have an applicant drop a thousand bucks on flight/hotel/transportation/time off work for an incredibly small chance of gaining an acceptance. I've been hilariously outclassed at all of my interviews -- ECs, academics, background, etc. -- and I'm not expecting to get into medical school.
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I believe most schools accept around 40-50% of interviewed applicants, unless we're talking about in-state friendly schools or those that interview 1000+ applicants--cough, Albany--cough. Still, I'd rather take a 30% chance of acceptance over a 0% chance of acceptance. Unless you no longer want to go to med school, you should attend every interview until accepted somewhere.

It sounds more like you've lost confidence. Number one--people at interviews grossly exaggerate their accomplishments--it's part of the game; you start judging yourself against them and you'll feel pretty small. If they outclassed you so much, you would not have been invited for an interview--it takes time and resources of the school to host students, and there are many other people who could have been invited. Thus, they are not just inviting you for kicks and giggles. Moreover, you have multiple interviews--this indicates a strong application. Finally, you do not need to be a stellar candidate to be accepted--this is coming from a person who only had about 50 hours of clinical volunteering and extremely sub-par ECs.

So, the tl;dr version--hang with it, man.
 
psswrd said:
I miss the days when schools sent me emails day and night requesting secondary fees. I miss the days when I got automated responses from med schools.

Now I visit these forums constantly to fill the void. :owle:

I literally listen to the crickets chirp outside my window at night.

What has become of me?? :shrug:
Click to expand...

I added another school to my AMCAS just to feel alive again.
 
i no longer need an alarm clock anymore, because i get so excited to check my email in the morning. unfortunately, 99% of the time, it's spam from my college that i cant figure out how to unsubscribe from 🙁
 
calgirl1234 said:
i no longer need an alarm clock anymore, because i get so excited to check my email in the morning. unfortunately, 99% of the time, it's spam from my college that i cant figure out how to unsubscribe from 🙁
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Even if I wake up at 4am my first sleepy thought is to grab my phone and check for emails.
 
3:00 am emails saying that my application is complete. Why God, why?
 
anteater08 said:
Even if I wake up at 4am my first sleepy thought is to grab my phone and check for emails.
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me too!

but i've been limiting myself to checking my inbox just once at noon and then once after work. 🙁 i figure no one is going to send out invites after 7 PM PST.
 
Weekends are the worst, because I know I'll have to wait till Monday until the possibility of hearing from a school
 
After a few months of failing to get a paid research position, I finally got an II for a volunteer one

I've never been so happy to work as a slave
 
chillaxbro said:
After a few months of failing to get a paid research position, I finally got an II for a volunteer one

I've never been so happy to work as a slave
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It's surprisingly hard to get a position with so much turnover. The job market is seriously terrible. It took me months to get my position. 😡
 
Took me over a year to find one and I get paid next to nothing.
 
Even if you're on east coast time, that means some weirdo at UCSF is there at 8pm rejecting people. At least we're not that guy.
 
TheShaker said:
It's surprisingly hard to get a position with so much turnover. The job market is seriously terrible. It took me months to get my position. 😡
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Seriously! I applied to dozens of positions (literally--over five dozen), had good previous research experience, and it still took me luck and five months (and very specific microscopy skills) to get my current job. :/

The lab tech/research assistant market is awful right now...
 
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