2015 Nontrad Applicants' Progress Thread

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FINE!

Also, Columbia's admissions website has a bunch of really hilarious typo's in a section talking about how they won't accept grads from international universities due to issues with comparing grades.

They spelled education wrong. It's friggin' hilarious.
 
OK Submitted to Columbia-Bassett and also to USC. Officially just waiting on secondaries now. Nothing in my inbox.

I should pre-write Utah. I have some ideas, but nothing polished.

@juliuspepperwood How was the wedding?

@ridethecliche I like my eggs over medium with some Louisiana hot sauce. Now my mouth is watering.

@Bbroush I love that new profile picture! So adorable. Have you written the Utah secondary yet? When you come down for your interview (you WILL get one), we should meet up! - OK edited to say I have lived in Utah for 4+ years and I still get Orem and Ogden mixed up. Orem is south, right? So when you come UP for your interview ...
 
treschic124 said:
Maybe a little late to the party but I'm currently powering through the secondaries. 🙂 I applied to Brown as well. I live in RI but I'm not sure they actually favor IS students. Hoping my 3.8/32 is good enough. Providence is fun!
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Welcome! Brown looks like a great school. Best of luck!
 
Leslie_Knope said:
OK Submitted to Columbia-Bassett and also to USC. Officially just waiting on secondaries now. Nothing in my inbox.

I should pre-write Utah. I have some ideas, but nothing polished.

@juliuspepperwood How was the wedding?

@ridethecliche I like my eggs over medium with some Louisiana hot sauce. Now my mouth is watering.

@Bbroush I love that new profile picture! So adorable. Have you written the Utah secondary yet? When you come down for your interview (you WILL get one), we should meet up! - OK edited to say I have lived in Utah for 4+ years and I still get Orem and Ogden mixed up. Orem is south, right? So when you come UP for your interview ...
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Thanks! Family pic from the 4th. I have not written my secondary for utah yet. I hope I do get an interview. Being a UT resident I feel like it's such a huge crapshoot. That would be awesome if we interviewed at the same time! I have a few friends that are starting their 3rd year there right now.
 
6 down. 34 to go. Am waiting till I get my primary verified to submit.

I'm going to take a bunch of time off this week to finish off as many as I can before my primary is verified so I can submit next weekend.

Goal is to do 14+ over this next week. I can recycle tons of essays and I hope the hardest ones are done. Some of these were so freaking long. And I bet I'll get no interview at most of the ones I've finished. What a waste of time...
 
ridethecliche said:
6 down. 34 to go. Am waiting till I get my primary verified to submit.

I'm going to take a bunch of time off this week to finish off as many as I can before my primary is verified so I can submit next weekend.

Goal is to do 14+ over this next week. I can recycle tons of essays and I hope the hardest ones are done. Some of these were so freaking long. And I bet I'll get no interview at most of the ones I've finished. What a waste of time...
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Not sure where you are applying but the harder ones for me have been USC, Miami, Loyola, and Duke. Starting there could help you recycle.
 
Just submitted my final secondary last night, 19 in all. Now keeping fingers crossed for a couple IIs in the next few months.

asyouwish said:
Woke up to an II from UC Davis this morning! Woohoo! I'm super excited bc this is one of my top picks!
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Congrats!
 
Leslie_Knope said:
OK Submitted to Columbia-Bassett and also to USC. Officially just waiting on secondaries now. Nothing in my inbox.

I should pre-write Utah. I have some ideas, but nothing polished.

@juliuspepperwood How was the wedding?

@ridethecliche I like my eggs over medium with some Louisiana hot sauce. Now my mouth is watering.

@Bbroush I love that new profile picture! So adorable. Have you written the Utah secondary yet? When you come down for your interview (you WILL get one), we should meet up! - OK edited to say I have lived in Utah for 4+ years and I still get Orem and Ogden mixed up. Orem is south, right? So when you come UP for your interview ...
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It was great, thanks! A nice distraction from sitting around waiting haha
 
Well, first round of interview invites went out for USUHS and I didn't get one. Wish I hadn't read the school specific thread this morning, now I'm just stressing...
 
Glycereine said:
Well, first round of interview invites went out for USUHS and I didn't get one. Wish I hadn't read the school specific thread this morning, now I'm just stressing...
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I'm sorry! I know I would stress out, too. The reality is it doesn't mean anything! Get off SDN and go sniff some tropical flowers. 🙂 Putting the II vibes out for you. . .
 
Leslie_Knope said:
I'm sorry! I know I would stress out, too. The reality is it doesn't mean anything! Get off SDN and go sniff some tropical flowers. 🙂 Putting the II vibes out for you. . .
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thanks 🙂

I emailed my admissions counselor, and the called the Dean of admissions to talk about my application. Got an out-of-office reply from her, so maybe she just isn't in this week so none of my group got invites yet?... maybe...

Talking to the Dean though I realized I did imply something I didn't mean to and that is that I was trying to have my online organic chemistry class count as a prerequisite, which isn't true, I'm taking it in a classroom again this fall and spring. So I am sending in an addendum to my application this morning to clarify that in case they were eliminating me based on that.

At least it's something to do and makes me feel less helpless haha!
 
Inygma said:
My cousin attends UCD medical, let me know if you have any questions and I'll pass them on!
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Thanks for the kind offer, I will let you know if I have any. This thread has the best people!
 
I hope my committee letter timing doesn't throw my cycle off. If I knew my committee was going to release stuff earlier I would have started earlier. Mid august date for LOR's :/
 
ridethecliche said:
I hope my committee letter timing doesn't throw my cycle off. If I knew my committee was going to release stuff earlier I would have started earlier. Mid august date for LOR's :/
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That sucks so bad. Really glad my school doesn't do a committee letter
 
Bbroush said:
That sucks so bad. Really glad my school doesn't do a committee letter
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Yeah. I don't see the point of submitting all these applications if my committee letter isn't in...

Then again, I was told that schools will often push you to the front of the list if you have everything in when the letter gets in. My primary should be verified this week, so I suppose I'll start submitting all my finished applications. Up to 8 secondaries that are done. Hope to be in the 20-30 range by sunday and will submit a ton of them. I can fly through them now that I have a lot of material.

I'll first submit all the ones I auto-received after I submitted my primary and then submit everything I will receive the moment I get my primary verified. That should give me a good way to triage them into an order of completion. No point doing a secondary early if they prescreen heavily before sending it in.
 
Well, what do you know. Just got verified today. Amcas gpa hurts though...

I definitely need to talk about my blip from jr year in my secondaries. I didn't do a good job of mentioning it and casually mentioned it in my primary.
 
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Not sure you want to post this on here for I don't know, being anonymous, but that trend might be worth talking about in the 'anything else?' part of the secondary.

Side note: Seeing the total credit hours you have, I realize how insane mine looks. My last year I took over 60 credit hours apparently. This is something I talk about when asked 'is there anything else?' in secondaries.
 
Thanks. Edited out the info.

And yeah, I definitely need to start mentioning a bit more.
 
Question -

What do you make of letters 'encouraging you to apply' based on scores and whatnot?
I've gotten a few that I've just ignored, but then I got one from a dream school (WashU) that I didn't even consider applying to because it's sooooo up there.
Is this just spammy spam or worth considering?

I can't find anything on their willingness to accept non-trads, though I've only done a quick search.

My boss says I've got nothing to lose except $$. Not sure that's the truth of it.

Thoughts? Worth getting my soul crushed?
 
ConsultantMD said:
Not sure you want to post this on here for I don't know, being anonymous, but that trend might be worth talking about in the 'anything else?' part of the secondary.

Side note: Seeing the total credit hours you have, I realize how insane mine looks. My last year I took over 60 credit hours apparently. This is something I talk about when asked 'is there anything else?' in secondaries.
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My last "year" is over 120 hours lol. But hey this is the nontrad thread right?
 
Is it actually a calendar year though? I was a double major in school and could probably have taken less if I wasn't.
 
ridethecliche said:
Is it actually a calendar year though? I was a double major in school and could probably have taken less if I wasn't.
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I mean that said it's not about making excuses. You can't assume that if that hadn't happened you'd be sitting here with a 4.0 because you don't know that for sure. Even though I know I disagree for my own personal situation, from their perspective that's not a for sure thing. This was a reality check I got from a premed counselor.

Mine was two semesters. My school didn't charge for overloads with credits... So I took advantage.
 
ConsultantMD said:
I mean that said it's not about making excuses. You can't assume that if that hadn't happened you'd be sitting here with a 4.0 because you don't know that for sure. Even though I know I disagree for my own personal situation, from their perspective that's not a for sure thing. This was a reality check I got from a premed counselor.

Mine was two semesters. My school didn't charge for overloads with credits... So I took advantage.
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Ahh. I mean. I had a strong upward trend from my frosh year and that would have kept up if I hadn't been injured. It would still have been a bit of hit with math class and biochemistry, but my jr year grade is like a 3.33. The fall semester was probably about a 3 or lower and the spring was back on track. I almost wish they did it by semester for that reason, but it is what it is.
 
ridethecliche said:
Ahh. I mean. I had a strong upward trend from my frosh year and that would have kept up if I hadn't been injured. It would still have been a bit of hit with math class and biochemistry, but my jr year grade is like a 3.33. The fall semester was probably about a 3 or lower and the spring was back on track. I almost wish they did it by semester for that reason, but it is what it is.
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By semester would be awesome, since their years are limited to 4 which doesn't match up to a lot of nontrads, I was definitely in college for a lot longer than that.
 
peanutsss said:
loving this thread. its nice to know Im not the only one at work, dreading working on secondaries when I get off.
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+1. I'm pretty eager for August 1, when I hope to be caught up and have most of the secondaries behind me. This month has been work, secondaries, rinse, recycle, repeat. No exercise is not a good thing. And I can't believe how much of this month's paycheck will be going to pay for secondaries.
 
kraskadva said:
12 applications complete🙂
12 secondaries in my inbox to do 😱 + 4 more I'm expecting to come down the pipe within the week :dead:
:brb::writer:
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I just got out of the gym. Have been working out again for about about 8 months after a hiatus of about 2-3 years due to multiple back surgeries.

Feels good mang.

But now I've outgrown all my suits. On that note, if anyone here is a 38R jacket and about 32x32 pants (with some waist to let out) let me know. I have a staple grey suit that doesn't fit me and I'd let it go for peanuts.

peanutsss said:
loving this thread. its nice to know Im not the only one at work, dreading working on secondaries when I get off.
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Talking about peanuts...

I have been worshiping at the church of CTRL+V quite a bit lately.
 
ridethecliche said:
I just got out of the gym. Have been working out again for about about 8 months after a hiatus of about 2-3 years due to multiple back surgeries.
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I had a 2-level ACDF (C5-C7) on 5/9...the day after my MCAT. You?
Geriatric pre-meds, FTW! :highfive:
 
I have 21 secondaries in my inbox right now with none submitted. I got some on july 5th when I submitted my primary.

Hoping to finish ALL of these by sunday night. Taking a half day weds/fri and taking all of thurs off to do it. Will take 2-3 days off next week for the same reason.

GameOfBones said:
I had a 2-level ACDF (C5-C7) on 5/9...the day after my MCAT. You?
Geriatric pre-meds, FTW! :highfive:
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Lumbar disc herniation with a recurrence at the same level. That sucked more than the pre-op...

I see ACDF's in the OR all the time (I do research in spine surgery). Pretty cool procedure. I should stay for a full case sometime, though I usually watch spine tumor cases more.

Check this out if you're interested in spine stuff. Some cool pictures, some like yours!

http://orthodoc.aaos.org/hebela/gallery.cfm
 
juliuspepperwood said:
It's kind of weird not having a ton of secondaries to do right now...
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I'm not exactly complaining. I still have a couple to do here and there, waiting on a few more if they decide it's going to happen. My poor poor credit card. I have mint.com and it's screaming at me that I've been spending so much on Education. Oh man, this is just the beginning!
 
ConsultantMD said:
I'm not exactly complaining. I still have a couple to do here and there, waiting on a few more if they decide it's going to happen. My poor poor credit card. I have mint.com and it's screaming at me that I've been spending so much on Education. Oh man, this is just the beginning!
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Just wait for interviews... It's awesome to get them but rough on the bank account
 
juliuspepperwood said:
Just wait for interviews... It's awesome to get them but rough on the bank account
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I cannot wait for that to happen! My former career as a frequent flyer and hotel stayer (think "Up in the Air") left me with a lot of points and miles that I'm hoping to use well to take these trips. I counted and I applied to schools in 26 states :laugh:.

Edit: 1 more secondary to go!
 
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