2015 Nontrad Applicants' Progress Thread

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Leslie_Knope said:
Wow my employer has the same policy!! So frustrating! I'm not going to mention it unless asked.
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Outside of academia, where your mentors want you to succeed and move on, LORs from employers seem to me very much like asking your ex for a LOR for the next gal/guy you're dating. Bridging the two worlds sucks though. 🙁
 
milski said:
Since we are talking about LORs, here is a question. The company where I was employed for 10+ years has a policy prohibiting writing LORs, so obviously I don't have anything from managers there. Do you think it's worth explaining that in secondaries or should I just let it slide? How strange is not to have a reference from basically my longest and most involved job?
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I am not going to bring it up at all unless specifically asked. My thinking is I don't want to waste time and/or energy (ad coms') on something that's not adding strength to my application. Furthermore, I worked for a large company and it wouldn’t surprise me if someone else out there did get a LOR and applied to medical school. At which point I look like I'm either dishonest or not awesome enough for a LOR.
 
Leslie_Knope said:
I am not going to bring it up at all unless specifically asked. My thinking is I don't want to waste time and/or energy (ad coms') on something that's not adding strength to my application. Furthermore, I worked for a large company and it wouldn’t surprise me if someone else out there did get a LOR and applied to medical school. At which point I look like I'm either dishonest or not awesome enough for a LOR.
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All my thoughts on the subject, validated. Thanks. 🙂
 
canadianinusa said:
Quick question for those who've been through this before: Do invitations for secondaries come by postal mail or email? And if by postal mail, do they go to your "preferred address" if it is different than your permanent address? What about interview invitations?
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crap I didn't think about that, but since I'm overseas I hope it's email...
 
canadianinusa said:
Quick question for those who've been through this before: Do invitations for secondaries come by postal mail or email? And if by postal mail, do they go to your "preferred address" if it is different than your permanent address? What about interview invitations?
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Email for secondaries and interview invitations.
 
Last edited:
Is anyone planning on taking the MCAT next month or am I alone in that nontrad boat??

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk
 
milski said:
Outside of academia, where your mentors want you to succeed and move on, LORs from employers seem to me very much like asking your ex for a LOR for the next gal/guy you're dating. Bridging the two worlds sucks though. 🙁
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I got a LOR from the CEO of the company I've been working at for the last few years and now a month later out in my two weeks because I got offered a job as an MCAT tutor for KAPLAN
Needless to say I feel bad. I've loved working in consumer electronics but being offered more money to better support my family is hard to say no to.
 
Leslie_Knope said:
Wow my employer has the same policy!! So frustrating! I'm not going to mention it unless asked.
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Ditto here. Wouldn't want one from my old boss anyway. I'm using former clients that I worked with for over 2 years. They are also clinical as well. I have 3 out of 7 letters in with a deadline of end of June.
 
ConsultantMD said:
Ditto here. Wouldn't want one from my old boss anyway. I'm using former clients that I worked with for over 2 years. They are also clinical as well. I have 3 out of 7 letters in with a deadline of end of June.
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Nicely done. I have 2/6 in with the same deadline. Meeting with one of my writers tomorrow to hopefully get things moving.
 
OK OK OK

AMCAS is done. I am just going to let it marinate overnight, and then submit in the morning. I am so so so sad that my final transcript hasn't been "received." It should arrive today, but they are six days behind in marking them. 🙁

Many thanks to @ConsultantMD @canadianinusa and @Glycereine ! :kiss::kiss::kiss:

And now to start pre-writing secondaries. :writer: I have no idea what makes me "diverse."
 
Leslie_Knope said:
OK OK OK

AMCAS is done. I am just going to let it marinate overnight, and then submit in the morning. I am so so so sad that my final transcript hasn't been "received." It should arrive today, but they are six days behind in marking them. 🙁

Many thanks to @ConsultantMD @canadianinusa and @Glycereine ! :kiss::kiss::kiss:

And now to start pre-writing secondaries. :writer: I have no idea what makes me "diverse."
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Congrats!!! Almost there- hope it gets marked soon for you!


What makes you diverse. Non trad aka person that's been in the real world for more than 2 months at a time. Knowing how to pay your credit card statement. Knowing what sensitivity to pain is as a mother. Having the maturity to balance a family with school and still rocking the MCATS. Boom- three things right off the top of my head, I'm sure you can go from there :happy:
 
Blah 30 (9 / 10 / 11). AAMC avg of 35. Never below a 12 in VR and not below an 11 in PS for aamc 7-11.

Not happy at all, but won't retake. Hoping for that D.O. love in SoCal
 
Inygma said:
Blah 30 (9 / 10 / 11). AAMC avg of 35. Never below a 12 in VR and not below an 11 in PS for aamc 7-11.

Not happy at all, but won't retake. Hoping for that D.O. love in SoCal
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Congrats on your score!!!! Don't sell yourself short- 30 is a good score and you're still in good range for MD programs if you apply actively!
 
investmentdoc said:
Congrats on your score!!!! Don't sell yourself short- 30 is a good score and you're still in good range for MD programs if you apply actively!
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Debating where to apply still.. I am locked in southern california, so I am thinking Western, UCR, Loma Linda for sure... UCI/USC for reaches. Prob wont bother UCSD or UCLA.

My GPA is a little low for SoCal MD also (3.7)
 
investmentdoc said:
Congrats!!! Almost there- hope it gets marked soon for you!


What makes you diverse. Non trad aka person that's been in the real world for more than 2 months at a time. Knowing how to pay your credit card statement. Knowing what sensitivity to pain is as a mother. Having the maturity to balance a family with school and still rocking the MCATS. Boom- three things right off the top of my head, I'm sure you can go from there :happy:
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Aww, thanks! I love how I can't think of things like that, but it's so obvious. 😉
 
Inygma said:
Debating where to apply still.. I am locked in southern california, so I am thinking Western, UCR, Loma Linda for sure... UCI/USC for reaches. Prob wont bother UCSD or UCLA.

My GPA is a little low for SoCal MD also (3.7)
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Since your school list is so short, I say go for all of them! You never know. 😉

And 30 is not a bad score! I am sorry it's below your average; that must be disappointing. 🙁
 
Inygma said:
Debating where to apply still.. I am locked in southern california, so I am thinking Western, UCR, Loma Linda for sure... UCI/USC for reaches. Prob wont bother UCSD or UCLA.

My GPA is a little low for SoCal MD also (3.7)
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Give UCSD a shot, their secondary is just a long autobiography. I feel like that may cater to non-trads more than traditional students, as your bio will be more interesting.

And don't be hard on yourself about the MCAT, it's a crazy test. I got a 10 on my verbal on the real one after being 13+ on practice tests.
 
Will the fun never cease?
I wanted to have my primary done this week, but I've spent the last few days making revisions to a paper, writing a different paper, and helping with the analysis for a third and fourth paper.

On top of it all, one of my PI's read my personal statement since I gave it to him for reference to aid in writing a LOR and he basically sat me down and wanted me to edit it. I've workshopped the HECK out of the PS and while I agree with some of his points, reworking the PS now would take me atleast a week.

Sigh...I might have to sleep in the resident call rooms this week....
 
Wow AMCAS is still verifying the applications that were ready to review on the first day...

Not sure when they are going to get to the second day when I had my last transcript in lol
 
Glycereine said:
Wow AMCAS is still verifying the applications that were ready to review on the first day...

Not sure when they are going to get to the second day when I had my last transcript in lol
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It's depressing right? I'm going to submit tomorrow and be verified in March. 🙁
 
Leslie_Knope said:
It's depressing right? I'm going to submit tomorrow and be verified in March. 🙁
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awww not that bad!

You should still be good for the initial send of applications on what the 27th? Still though it's disheartening I agree. I want to see the validation results and what they are deciding my GPA breaks into. Since I had so many schools it's really confusing.
 
I submitted day one, but not until ~11:30pm amcas time, and not yet verified. Trying not to think about it but I am sure I've checked more than once every day.
 
For those of you that keep checking your app to see whether it is verified I would highly recommend just focusing that energy somewhere else. They will send you an email immediately when it is verified. No need to stress!
 
BradyC said:
For those of you that keep checking your app to see whether it is verified I would highly recommend just focusing that energy somewhere else. They will send you an email immediately when it is verified. No need to stress!
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Agreed, you got it within this time frame, it'll take 4-6 weeks, just like most people's will. Secondaries don't come out until later on anyway so absolutely no rush. I'm verified but it's not really doing me any good at this point so don't fret.
 
Leslie_Knope said:
It's depressing right? I'm going to submit tomorrow and be verified in March. 🙁
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As an idea of the time frame, my app was ready for review June 20th last year, verified July 27th. So you should be good to go a good chunk before then, still early as far as secondaries go!
 
Leslie_Knope said:
Just knocked out most of the Emory secondary. I was going to pre-write RFU, but saw how they changed it up last year. I will save them for last.

@juliuspepperwood Thanks for the encouragement. 🙂
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Way to go! It feels good to start getting some secondaries out of the way, and you'll be ahead of the game once you start receiving them 🙂.
 
Checking in and wishing everyone good luck this app season, especially you @milski 😀

Inygma said:
Blah 30 (9 / 10 / 11). AAMC avg of 35. Never below a 12 in VR and not below an 11 in PS for aamc 7-11.

Not happy at all, but won't retake. Hoping for that D.O. love in SoCal
Click to expand...
Good luck on the DO love in SoCal 😀 Several of us got in with lower MCAT scores than you, so you may have more than a few choices to make anyways 😀
 
I just got the "verified" e-mail. Only corrections were my pass-fail science classes (workshops mostly) that I stupidly marked as BCPM, and my third term of O-chem got changed from Jr => Sr. Year

As for the checking of the app, I knew that me checking wouldn't change it's status and that they would notify via e-mail but it became a bit of a touch-stone there for a while. More of a heart > head issue.
 
Inygma said:
Just sent all my letters via Interfolio!
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Do you like interfolio? I was just looking at it, and how to sign up, and I was confused. Is it more explanatory once you open an account with them?
 
MedicalMomma81 said:
Do you like interfolio? I was just looking at it, and how to sign up, and I was confused. Is it more explanatory once you open an account with them?
Click to expand...

Furthermore, are you two opting against a premed committee letter? I am assuming so since you're using I interfolio rather than having the letters sent from a premed office.

Just curious! I have been at a crossroads with the whole committee letter ordeal as a nontrad.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk
 
Fork909 said:
Furthermore, are you two opting against a premed committee letter? I am assuming so since you're using I interfolio rather than having the letters sent from a premed office.

Just curious! I have been at a crossroads with the whole committee letter ordeal as a nontrad.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I use Interfolio and find it much easier to access and use than other options. It allows for safe storage of your letters if any issues occur (ie: a LoR is lost). I was luckily able to go through my pre-med committee and they actually provide you with an Interfolio account for a year. You just need to send the letter to AMCAS yourself once it's completed and uploaded to the system. If you have any other questions or specific problems with setting up an account fork and medicalmomma, I can try to help sort them out 🙂.
 
MedicalMomma81 said:
Do you like interfolio? I was just looking at it, and how to sign up, and I was confused. Is it more explanatory once you open an account with them?
Click to expand...

I liked them a lot. I think it was like $20 to sign up, and you just hit "request letter" and type in some basic info and it emails your letter writers. This allows them to upload directly to the site or mail the letter to them. They almost instantly process the letters. After, you can click "make a delivery" and they will send your letters where needed. It was $6 to e-mail them directly to AMCAS, and AMCAS marked them as received/processed the same day.

Also, if you are applying D.O., Interfolio is the suggested carrier when sending letters directly to schools.

Fork909 said:
Furthermore, are you two opting against a premed committee letter? I am assuming so since you're using I interfolio rather than having the letters sent from a premed office.

Just curious! I have been at a crossroads with the whole committee letter ordeal as a nontrad.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Ya, I did all individual letters. I took all my pre-reqs at multiple schools because it was hard to get my classes. Also all of my letters are from different entities... Work/School/Research/Volunteer/Shadowing
 
Fork909 said:
Furthermore, are you two opting against a premed committee letter? I am assuming so since you're using I interfolio rather than having the letters sent from a premed office.

Just curious! I have been at a crossroads with the whole committee letter ordeal as a nontrad.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I'm applying without my pre-med committee. I transferred schools and the pre-med committee here is a joke.

If I was still at my old school I would have definitely gone with the committee letter, so I guess it depends on what you think of your schools competency.
 
I'm so close to submitting my application, I wasn't rushing since MCAT score won't be in until August. And, in the extra week I really nailed down my PS.

What do you guys think about putting my main hobby (showing horses) and then doing a spereate one for my other more minor (but still important) hobbies under another heading?

Or, should I focus on the main hobby and then list the others at the bottom?
 
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