2014-2015 Stanford University Application Thread

BU Medical Sciences
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MSTPhopeful2015 said:
Did you send it today too?
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No; I interviewed earlier. But I emailed a week or so in advance of that date and received a reply acknowledging my confirmation, and then I received information about group status/etc. the next day or so. So I imagine they'd continue to do something similar!
 
differentiating said:
No; I interviewed earlier. But I emailed a week or so in advance of that date and received a reply acknowledging my confirmation, and then I received information about group status/etc. the next day or so. So I imagine they'd continue to do something similar!
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Weird! I already got info about group status and stuff. I didn't send the confirmation early because it says to do it "5 business days in advance" and doesn't say (at least) 5 business days. Lol ugh I'm probably being neurotic.
 
MSTPhopeful2015 said:
Weird! I already got info about group status and stuff. I didn't send the confirmation early because it says to do it "5 business days in advance" and doesn't say (at least) 5 business days. Lol ugh I'm probably being neurotic.
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Yeah, I know what you mean - I sent it a few days earlier because I was worried about not hearing about the group status and figured it was close enough, but I definitely debated for a while whether it should be "at least 5 business days" or just simply "5 business days."

But if you've heard back for that already, then I guess it will be a little different, so disregard me!
 
MSTPhopeful2015 said:
Hopefully I hear back today though otherwise I'm going to be paranoid that they didn't see my email and then take my spot by tomorrow, lol! Hopefully as long as we did indeed try to send it at that 5 day mark...
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Everything related to Stanford makes me a bit paranoid haha. It's such a super reach school, I am like the girl going to prom, not sure about anything being right. Keep us updated please! 🙂
 
Friendly_female_house said:
Everything related to Stanford makes me a bit paranoid haha. It's such a super reach school, I am like the girl going to prom, not sure about anything being right. Keep us updated please! 🙂
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Lol! But yeah, decided to call and leave a message since it's almost 5 there and I haven't gotten a confirmation email... So hopefully I don't get screwed hahaha
 
So update on the no confirmation deal (for the 5 days before interview confirmation). Emailed twice and called and left a message once because I wanted to make sure they received my confirmation. No confirmation of my confirmation lol. HOWEVER received a voice message from the director of admissions calling to welcome me to Stanford tomorrow at 7pm Cali time! Crazy! Haha. I was on the plane when he called but he said my name so I don't believe it's a pre-recorded message. In other words, don't panic (like I did) if you don't get a confirmation.

EDIT: fyi this is for an MD interview. Was rejected from MSTP
 
MSTPhopeful2015 said:
So update on the no confirmation deal (for the 5 days before interview confirmation). Emailed twice and called and left a message once because I wanted to make sure they received my confirmation. No confirmation of my confirmation lol. HOWEVER received a voice message from the director of admissions calling to welcome me to Stanford tomorrow at 7pm Cali time! Crazy! Haha. I was on the plane when he called but he said my name so I don't believe it's a pre-recorded message. In other words, don't panic (like I did) if you don't get a confirmation.
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Thanks for the info. Especially when I'm about to send an email.

I had practice and mock interviews for interviews, but I don't have any experience receiving phone calls from Stanford admission director, my voice would probably shake.

Also I really hope that I am not assigned to Group 3 aka the afternoon interview group. My brain would be as good as fudge by PST afternoon due to jet lag.
 
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MSTPhopeful2015 said:
HOWEVER received a voice message from the director of admissions calling to welcome me to Stanford tomorrow at 7pm Cali time! Crazy! Haha. I was on the plane when he called but he said my name so I don't believe it's a pre-recorded message.
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I'm fairly certain it's not pre-recorded; you meet with Mr. Perez on your interview day, and on mine I remember him saying that he hoped we all got his courtesy call since he'd gotten mostly voicemails.
 
bigred789 said:
Completed here 10/4! I'm an underdog (LizzyM 66)...hope my lateness doesn't hurt me too much! Any ideas of how much being a varsity athlete will help me out in this whole process?
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I hope a lot lol I am too. Best of luck to both of us!
 
bigred789 said:
Completed here 10/4! I'm an underdog (LizzyM 66)...hope my lateness doesn't hurt me too much! Any ideas of how much being a varsity athlete will help me out in this whole process?
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Willy38 said:
I hope a lot lol I am too. Best of luck to both of us!
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D1 athlete here as well. I don't think it's helped at all to be honest (LizzyM 76 for reference). Good luck to both of you though!
 
Reformed_Herbivore said:
D1 athlete here as well. I don't think it's helped at all to be honest (LizzyM 76 for reference). Good luck to both of you though!
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same here, I've been playing professionally for 3 seasons which I thought would make up for lack of research but apparently not. Guess I should have taken a lab job to get some pubs instead... maybe we can all form a support group haha
 
Willy38 said:
same here, I've been playing professionally for 3 seasons which I thought would make up for lack of research but apparently not. Guess I should have taken a lab job to get some pubs instead... maybe we can all form a support group haha
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Are you applying MD or MSTP?
 
Willy38 said:
same here, I've been playing professionally for 3 seasons which I thought would make up for lack of research but apparently not. Guess I should have taken a lab job to get some pubs instead... maybe we can all form a support group haha
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lol well I have some research and two pubs so maybe all is not lost!
 
bigred789 said:
lol well I have some research and two pubs so maybe all is not lost!
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get it big red! I'm jealous. I'm sure that combined with your athlete status should at least result in some interview invites. Best of luck the rest of the way. Let me know how it turns out.
 
Willy38 said:
get it big red! I'm jealous. I'm sure that combined with your athlete status should at least result in some interview invites. Best of luck the rest of the way. Let me know how it turns out.
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Hoping for some fellow D1 athlete love here too.

As for playing pro I am sure that it looks good Willy. You only get one chance to play professionally so I think it is huge positive to show that you followed, what I would bet was a childhood dream, and did what you loved for three years post grad. At the very least it surely makes your applicationstand out a little😉
 
Do any of you know how Stanford medical school views significantly improved re-applicants? Like getting a 1st author Nature paper out, etc. I have heard some mixed answers from people on SDN regarding how reapplicants are viewed by top 20's and I am wondering if Stanford discriminates against reapplicants. If anywone knows the answer or knows anyone at Stanford who is a re-applicant, please let me know!! I can't email admissions, because they will think that I don't perceive my application to be as strong as it can be.


Thanks,

Coco
 
coconut monkee said:
Do any of you know how Stanford medical school views significantly improved re-applicants? Like getting a 1st author Nature paper out, etc. I have heard some mixed answers from people on SDN regarding how reapplicants are viewed by top 20's and I am wondering if Stanford discriminates against reapplicants. If anywone knows the answer or knows anyone at Stanford who is a re-applicant, please let me know!! I can't email admissions, because they will think that I don't perceive my application to be as strong as it can be.


Thanks,

Coco
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First author Nature, impressed! Nice work! I guess my thoughts on this are twofold.

First, would be yes they would look favorably on your application! Putting in the work to be first author on a pub, especially in Nature, is really really great. Why wouldn't Stanford like that?

Second thought- I guess it depends on what they didn't like about your application in the first place. If you already had significant research when you applied (as may be the case due to the Nature pub) maybe the pub won't matter as much because you already had a lot of research in the first place. They might like to see improvement in other areas that maybe you hand't spent time on in the past.

That said, it's just my 2 cents. I've heard Stanford does like "pointy" (as opposed to well-rounded) applicants more than other schools, and your Nature pub definitely shows that. Good luck!
 
coconut monkee said:
Do any of you know how Stanford medical school views significantly improved re-applicants? Like getting a 1st author Nature paper out, etc. I have heard some mixed answers from people on SDN regarding how reapplicants are viewed by top 20's and I am wondering if Stanford discriminates against reapplicants. If anywone knows the answer or knows anyone at Stanford who is a re-applicant, please let me know!! I can't email admissions, because they will think that I don't perceive my application to be as strong as it can be.


Thanks,

Coco
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I am an reapplicant who applied 3 years ago to the MSTP program. I still have the snail mailed rejection letter. I now have an interview invite letter to balance it. 😛 Ironically, second time around, I mostly haven only heard from schools that I've applied before. So I say you'll be just fine.
1st author nature paper? hell yeah. I don't have first author paper, but I do have enough publications that I can't properly fit them all in the space provided by stanford on the secondary. I don't know if that's why Stanford had decided to offer me me such a delicious bone. At least what we know that merely being a reapplicant isn't something would kill your application.
I agree with @:)) that it depends on why you failed last time and on what you have done in between. Probably in additional to being late, I got rejected last time might have a lot to do with missing convincing educational background in the US. I fixed it and had better LORs this time for sure.
 
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Maybe this is just a trend on MDapplicants, but it seems that nearly everyone who gets an interview and/or is accepted at Stanford either plays an instrument or some sort of sport. Is this something Stanford is known to select for?

Edit: add art to that list.
 
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Noctámbulo said:
Maybe this is just a trend on MDapplicants, but it seems that nearly everyone who gets an interview and/or is accepted at Stanford either plays an instrument or some sort of sport. Is this something Stanford is known to select for?
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Definitely not. If anything, Stanford looks for research, especially those resulting in publications.
 
Friendly_female_house said:
I am an reapplicant who applied 3 years ago to the MSTP program. I still have the snail mailed rejection letter, the good news, I now have an interview invite letter to balance it. 😛 Ironically, this second time around, I mostly heard from schools that I've applied before, which are mostly top 15s. So I say you'll be just fine.
1st author nature paper? hell yeah. I don't have first author paper, but I do have enough publications that I can't properly fit them all in the space provided by stanford on the secondary. I don't know if that's why Stanford throw me such a delicious bone, but at least we know that merely being a reapplicant isn't something that hurt you.
I agree with 🙂) that it depends on why you failed last time and what you have done in between. I believe one of the reason that I got rejected was because of lacking convincing educational background in the US and my recommendation letter was also not as well last time. I fixed both very effectively.
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Thanks so much for the encouragement and congratulations on your MSTP interview! I am glad to hear that my top choice school isn't one that looks harshly down on re-applicants! I actually googled "Stanford Med School Re-applicants" and they never mentioned this on their webpage, but I did come across the business school, which explicitly says that they do not look negatively on reapplicants and many people who are admitted are second timers who have compelling applications. I thought their tone was positive overall and that perhaps it translates to MD admissions too. Good to know it does! 🙂
 
Noctámbulo said:
Maybe this is just a trend on MDapplicants, but it seems that nearly everyone who gets an interview and/or is accepted at Stanford either plays an instrument or some sort of sport. Is this something Stanford is known to select for?
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So it wasn't just me who noticed this. I don't know about med school admissions, but I do know that Stanford likes nationally-reocognized or recruited athletes, as well talented musicians for college admissions to increase class diversity. I recon med school would be on the same par with the addition of recruiting researchers too.
 
Noctámbulo said:
Maybe this is just a trend on MDapplicants, but it seems that nearly everyone who gets an interview and/or is accepted at Stanford either plays an instrument or some sort of sport. Is this something Stanford is known to select for?
Click to expand...

I've never heard of this before - but while I can't speak to whether they prefer athletes/musicians, it's certainly not a requirement to get an interview!
 
Noctámbulo said:
Maybe this is just a trend on MDapplicants, but it seems that nearly everyone who gets an interview and/or is accepted at Stanford either plays an instrument or some sort of sport. Is this something Stanford is known to select for?
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I don't think this is the case. At least not for me, but n=1.
 
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coconut monkee said:
So it wasn't just me who noticed this. I don't know about med school admissions, but I do know that Stanford likes nationally-reocognized or recruited athletes, as well talented musicians for college admissions to increase class diversity. I recon med school would be on the same par with the addition of recruiting researchers too.
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I was a college champion on a sport but that was more than a decade ago...I also played instruments on national TV but that was pre high school...both were only briefly mentioned in PS in two phrases. I doubt that it was these that got me the II though. And I got only an MD II. Not applying to MSTP this time around.
 
coconut monkee said:
So it wasn't just me who noticed this. I don't know about med school admissions, but I do know that Stanford likes nationally-reocognized or recruited athletes, as well talented musicians for college admissions to increase class diversity. I recon med school would be on the same par with the addition of recruiting researchers too.
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I can assure you the majority of my classmates do not play an instrument to a distinguished level (though we do have a few who are very talented), and there are only a handful of college athletes that come to mind. Most are very fit and play recreationally. Research is something most applicants have at every top school, so I can't say if it's really that much higher here. I will say that a lot of the students here are research focused, which surprised me when I came. But there are others who didn't do research or only lightly participated. In some ways, the density of research-interested students here is a testament to the sort of students that probably chose to come here, and not just Stanford's selection. You can be successful without research (or with minimal research), but you obviously have to shine and show thoughtfulness and excellence in some way.
 
Narmerguy said:
I can assure you the majority of my classmates do not play an instrument to a distinguished level (though we do have a few who are very talented), and there are only a handful of college athletes that come to mind. Most are very fit and play recreationally. Research is something most applicants have at every top school, so I can't say if it's really that much higher here. I will say that a lot of the students here are research focused, which surprised me when I came. But there are others who didn't do research or only lightly participated. In some ways, the density of research-interested students here is a testament to the sort of students that probably chose to come here, and not just Stanford's selection. You can be successful without research (or with minimal research), but you obviously have to shine and show thoughtfulness and excellence in some way.
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You reminds me of this amazing tour guide I had when I interviewed. 😛 it was a beautiful, rainy day....
 
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Narmerguy said:
Haha, a rainy day here? When did you interview?
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It was just about 5s worth of rain. You might have missed it because you guys were inside having your clinical/patient day.
 
I understand that Stanford is heavily researched centered but have also read that the number of med school graduates choosing to become clinicians is increasing. Does anyone have any stats on that? What is the percentage of Stanford grads that choose academic medicine/ clinical medicine?
 
Anyone with a recent II care to share their completion date? I'm getting a little nervous playing the waiting game. :/
 
Does Stanford accept updates pre-interview?
 
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