2016 Nontrad Applicants' Progress Thread

Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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entresuspiros said:
First rejection of the cycle, courtesy of SUNY Downstate. I kind of expected it given how I imploded during my final question (he asked me to give a two minute "pick me" speech so he could relay it to the committee, I hate those), but I'm surprised since I am really interested in the communities they serve 🙁 Oh well.
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Idk why but I have heard from a LOT of people that SUNY downstate was their toughest interview. It sure was for me. Bummer.
 
Alternate list at Miller yesterday and accepted at Indiana today. Also I had my last interview with my state school and it went suprisingly nice, way better than last years one! Feeling blessed with 3 acceptances this early! Reapplicant and a very long journey ! Chehhooo
 
B-wildered said:
Alternate list at Miller yesterday and accepted at Indiana today. Also I had my last interview with my state school and it went suprisingly nice, way better than last years one! Feeling blessed with 3 acceptances this early! Reapplicant and a very long journey ! Chehhooo
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Yaaaayyyyyyyyyyyy congrats 🙂
 
pageantry said:
Idk why but I have heard from a LOT of people that SUNY downstate was their toughest interview. It sure was for me. Bummer.
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Agreed, its been my toughest interview by far.

I thought about the interview a lot on my way back home and I couldn't understand what they were trying to get at with their questions. What kind of student are they trying to attract? I have a lot of underserved volunteer experience, I love working with immigrant populations and explicitly mentioned it in my statement - didn't talk about it. I really like its emphasis on clinical care - didn't talk about it. But yet I get grilled on why I have a few Ws from a decade ago and why I thought it was a good idea to go back home to finish my BA after being in Florida for a year (easy reason: couldnt afford it). I guess it doesn't pay to be honest.
 
God, yeah, @entresuspiros, they grilled me too. I haven't had another interview that left me feeling so probed and [fighting to not be] defensive.

Maybe they're just like, "We CREATED the Level 1 Trauma Center, so toughen up, buttercup." But I'm with you, it made me wonder what they wanted and whether the atmosphere at the school would be very supportive. I still want that acceptance, but I have the lyrics to my Sour Grapes Polka mostly written.
 
pageantry said:
God, yeah, @entresuspiros, they grilled me too. I haven't had another interview that left me feeling so probed and [fighting to not be] defensive.

Maybe they're just like, "We CREATED the Level 1 Trauma Center, so toughen up, buttercup." But I'm with you, it made me wonder what they wanted and whether the atmosphere at the school would be very supportive. I still want that acceptance, but I have the lyrics to my Sour Grapes Polka mostly written.
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I feel like this years application cycle is soooo out of the norm for DS. In the past it has been really chill and informative....
Similarly, theyre ignoring me and my underserved background/initiatives and it makes me sad 🙁
I guess I'm just salty.

On a plus note, I got into Penn state this afternoon! Needed a pick-me-up as I'm sitting in a hotel room watching DDD on food network 😛
 
Hi everyone,
I came across this thread today and I had a question to ask about how MD school's calculate GPA's? For example I attended a CC for four years to finish my associates degree while working a job in healthcare, and I'll be attending a four year university starting in the fall of 2016. In these four years I have repeated some courses that I did subpar in because of my CC's repeat policy. I know medical school admissions board accounts for past and repeated grades but how will it all be calculated for someone like me who will take 6 years to graduate with a bachelor's degree? I know some school's do weighted calculations whereas the year increases from 1-4 the weight of the GPA increases but how will it work when it is initially screened by the admissions board for allopathic programs?

My current CC GPA is a 3.4 after the repeats but prior to the repeats it's a 3.0. Can anyone also comment on realistically how high I can get my GPA with two years left in school or 90 credits?
 
Husky45 said:
Hi everyone,
I came across this thread today and I had a question to ask about how MD school's calculate GPA's? For example I attended a CC for four years to finish my associates degree while working a job in healthcare, and I'll be attending a four year university starting in the fall of 2016. In these four years I have repeated some courses that I did subpar in because of my CC's repeat policy. I know medical school admissions board accounts for past and repeated grades but how will it all be calculated for someone like me who will take 6 years to graduate with a bachelor's degree? I know some school's do weighted calculations whereas the year increases from 1-4 the weight of the GPA increases but how will it work when it is initially screened by the admissions board for allopathic programs?

My current CC GPA is a 3.4 after the repeats but prior to the repeats it's a 3.0. Can anyone also comment on realistically how high I can get my GPA with two years left in school or 90 credits?
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Welcome. This thread is for people currently applying. You'll likely get better responses if you make your own thread to ask this question either in nontrad or in WAMC (what are my chances).
 
ohhhh gooddddd... it's fridayyyyyyyy ... chehooooooooo
 
Question. I only applied to 1 DO school, through the TX app (TCOM). My other acceptances are MD. This particular DO school does not have a deposit to hold my spot. I know the trafficking rules for AMCAS and the "drop dead" day April 30. Do DO schools have a similar system? If I forget to withdraw an acceptance is there communication with my MD school?

I want to just decline and let the spot open for someone else - especially because there is limited space for OOS and I feel bad holding it if I don't want to go there. However, my husband keeps saying I should hold onto it li,e a "safety".
 
New_Slang said:
Question. I only applied to 1 DO school, through the TX app (TCOM). My other acceptances are MD. This particular DO school does not have a deposit to hold my spot. I know the trafficking rules for AMCAS and the "drop dead" day April 30. Do DO schools have a similar system? If I forget to withdraw an acceptance is there communication with my MD school?

I want to just decline and let the spot open for someone else - especially because there is limited space for OOS and I feel bad holding it if I don't want to go there. However, my husband keeps saying I should hold onto it li,e a "safety".
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Are you certain you're not attending? You're saying you have a MD acceptance as well, so is there anything that would make you decide to attend the DO school (understanding they don't often give scholarships, so finances are as they are)? I'd drop it if you have a more desirable offer in hand. I think multiple MD offers are commonly held in hopes of aid, which doesn't apply here. I don't know what you gain from holding it if you're certain you won't attend...
 
NonTrad16 said:
Are you certain you're not attending? You're saying you have a MD acceptance as well, so is there anything that would make you decide to attend the DO school (understanding they don't often give scholarships, so finances are as they are)? I'd drop it if you have a more desirable offer in hand. I think multiple MD offers are commonly held in hopes of aid, which doesn't apply here. I don't know what you gain from holding it if you're certain you won't attend...
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Thanks. That's kind of my thought as well (what am I gaining? nothing) but for some reason it was making me think twice.
 
Eyyyyyyyo, it's Monday

mymonkeys.jpg
 
Really surprised to hear back from Stony today; only a week and a half post interview. Waitlisted. Have 0 idea about if they're doing a HPWL or not; if they are I'm not on it...
I really, really clicked with my interviewer (best to date) and they were pretty optimistic with me about my chances.. I'm just really concerned where the interviews I thought I did banging, was it enough? JHU's comes out in two-three weeks and now I'm really afraid; these are the two schools are my dreams atm.. If I wasn't good enough for SBU, whats JHU gonna say?

Sorry guys, just feeling really down in the dumps.
 
breezy16 said:
Really surprised to hear back from Stony today; only a week and a half post interview. Waitlisted. Have 0 idea about if they're doing a HPWL or not; if they are I'm not on it...
I really, really clicked with my interviewer (best to date) and they were pretty optimistic with me about my chances.. I'm just really concerned where the interviews I thought I did banging, was it enough? JHU's comes out in two-three weeks and now I'm really afraid; these are the two schools are my dreams atm.. If I wasn't good enough for SBU, whats JHU gonna say?

Sorry guys, just feeling really down in the dumps.
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🙁

That's rough, I'm sorry.

But don't let yourself fall into thinking, "OMG if I sucked at that interview I sucked at JHU! Am I good enough?", because they're different situations. And your outcome at Stony wasn't solely based on your interview -- it's not even based on whether you're "good" or "bad", just where you happened to fall in the rank once the dust all settled.

I don't know if you've ever seen LizzyM's staircase analogy. The thread where it was originally is closed so I can't directquote, but I copy pasted:

"You are new here so you may not have seen my analogy of the staircase. Your grades and scores (combined, if you will, with the formula GPA(10)+MCAT) along with your ECs, essays and LORs place you in one of many broad ranked categories. You can think of them as stairs on a wide staircase. (In other words, many of you can be on the same stair.) If a school selects you for interview, in all likelihood you are high enough on the stairs to be admitted or there is the potential that a good interview could boost you up enough to garner admission. That said, someone with a 4.0/40 and an amazing dossier of activities will start out on a higher stair and be more likely to be admitted if your interviews are about the same. Or, the other applicant could bomb the interview and move far down the staircase while you, with a great interview, move up. If a school looks at an applicant and says, "Even with a great interview, we couldn't possibly admit someone with an undergrad gpa of x.xx", then the school is doing you a disservice by inviting you to interview. If you get an interview, it should be a signal that you are "good enough" on paper and the next step is to determine if you are as good (or even better) in person." -- @LizzyM

So at Stony, post-interview, you ended up at a place on the staircase that put you on the waitlist. It may not be that you bombed anything, it's just that enough people ended up on higher stairs that you were unfortunately waitlisted.

At JHU, though, you don't know where your starting point on their staircase was, or how far up or down you went. You could have been several steps higher initially on JHU's staircase than Stony's for all you know, and still come out ahead of someone who started low and whose interview didn't push them up enough. Point is, don't freak out over JHU because of Stony. They have different staircases. Hang in there, we're rooting for you 🙂
 
Eccesignum said:
🙁

That's rough, I'm sorry.

But don't let yourself fall into thinking, "OMG if I sucked at that interview I sucked at JHU! Am I good enough?", because they're different situations. And your outcome at Stony wasn't solely based on your interview -- it's not even based on whether you're "good" or "bad", just where you happened to fall in the rank once the dust all settled.

I don't know if you've ever seen LizzyM's staircase analogy. The thread where it was originally is closed so I can't directquote, but I copy pasted:

"You are new here so you may not have seen my analogy of the staircase. Your grades and scores (combined, if you will, with the formula GPA(10)+MCAT) along with your ECs, essays and LORs place you in one of many broad ranked categories. You can think of them as stairs on a wide staircase. (In other words, many of you can be on the same stair.) If a school selects you for interview, in all likelihood you are high enough on the stairs to be admitted or there is the potential that a good interview could boost you up enough to garner admission. That said, someone with a 4.0/40 and an amazing dossier of activities will start out on a higher stair and be more likely to be admitted if your interviews are about the same. Or, the other applicant could bomb the interview and move far down the staircase while you, with a great interview, move up. If a school looks at an applicant and says, "Even with a great interview, we couldn't possibly admit someone with an undergrad gpa of x.xx", then the school is doing you a disservice by inviting you to interview. If you get an interview, it should be a signal that you are "good enough" on paper and the next step is to determine if you are as good (or even better) in person." -- @LizzyM

So at Stony, post-interview, you ended up at a place on the staircase that put you on the waitlist. It may not be that you bombed anything, it's just that enough people ended up on higher stairs that you were unfortunately waitlisted.

At JHU, though, you don't know where your starting point on their staircase was, or how far up or down you went. You could have been several steps higher initially on JHU's staircase than Stony's for all you know, and still come out ahead of someone who started low and whose interview didn't push them up enough. Point is, don't freak out over JHU because of Stony. They have different staircases. Hang in there, we're rooting for you 🙂
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Thanks Ecc, I teared up a bit reading that. You basically read my mind on how I felt 🙂 and I feel a lot better after reading it. You're absolutely right
I'll hold my head up and stop and grab some of my friend JD for COD gaming tonight 😀
 
breezy16 said:
Thanks Ecc, I teared up a bit reading that. You basically read my mind on how I felt 🙂 and I feel a lot better after reading it. You're absolutely right
I'll hold my head up and stop and grab some of my friend JD for COD gaming tonight 😀
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😀 Game night tonight at my place too (some Borderlands 2 co-play though, not COD). Have fun!
 
This morning I arrived home after traveling for my very first interview. I was cautiously confident going into my visit to the school... The entire experience was amazing and I fell for the school harder than I expected.

The morning of the interview, I made sure to get to the interview plenty early and waited outside the building until an appropriately early time to walk into the Admissions Office. Looking up and seeing a building that said "School of Medicine" across the side and knowing that they had invited me to come was a pretty overwhelming feeling.

Being my first interview, I hung on every word the Admissions Dean said as they ran through their deck of slides and stats. I thought back to three years ago and my decision to try to become a doctor and not really having any idea how to do it or if I could convince any school to accept me. Listening to the Admissions Dean trying to convince me to come to their school was very emotional for me. For the first time, someone was making a pitch to me from the position that thinking I am (probably) good enough for their school. I worked hard to keep it together to not draw attention to myself as I stopped that not-quite-tear from forming in my eye.

I already liked the program before I visited. Talking to faculty and students made me want an acceptance even more than I expected.

The interview itself seemed fine enough, although I wish I was more confident about how it went. From reading forums here, though, I get the impression that applicants can often be inaccurate in guessing how well their interview went.

The school accepts a very high percentage of people they interview, so I feel like I have a very real chance.

The entire experience was really special.

And that evening, I received a special bonus. As I got of the train after leaving the medical school, my phone buzzed with my second interview invitation. It was a special day.
 
TravelingPanda said:
This morning I arrived home after traveling for my very first interview. I was cautiously confident going into my visit to the school... The entire experience was amazing and I fell for the school harder than I expected.

The morning of the interview, I made sure to get to the interview plenty early and waited outside the building until an appropriately early time to walk into the Admissions Office. Looking up and seeing a building that said "School of Medicine" across the side and knowing that they had invited me to come was a pretty overwhelming feeling.

Being my first interview, I hung on every word the Admissions Dean said as they ran through their deck of slides and stats. I thought back to three years ago and my decision to try to become a doctor and not really having any idea how to do it or if I could convince any school to accept me. Listening to the Admissions Dean trying to convince me to come to their school was very emotional for me. For the first time, someone was making a pitch to me from the position that thinking I am (probably) good enough for their school. I worked hard to keep it together to not draw attention to myself as I stopped that not-quite-tear from forming in my eye.

I already liked the program before I visited. Talking to faculty and students made me want an acceptance even more than I expected.

The interview itself seemed fine enough, although I wish I was more confident about how it went. From reading forums here, though, I get the impression that applicants can often be inaccurate in guessing how well their interview went.

The school accepts a very high percentage of people they interview, so I feel like I have a very real chance.

The entire experience was really special.

And that evening, I received a special bonus. As I got of the train after leaving the medical school, my phone buzzed with my second interview invitation. It was a special day.
Click to expand...

Ridin' that II train now, TOOT TOOOOOOOOT!
 
breezy16 said:
Yus Unity sucked and ruined my undying faith in the game franchise. Played it on a whim with someone and was hooked! Thank goodness for black Friday deals 😀
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😀 AC was dead to me after Unity too. I'll have to sniff around for deals on Syndicate on Cyber Monday, thanks for the tip!
 
Found out SBUs final decision metric is purely numerical.. aka not holistic / take into account past experiences / diversity. Basically if you don't hit a certain number waitlisted. Don't hit the lower limit of that and outright rejected. Makes me feel a little bit better considering they averaged my mcat. Kinda bummed my experiences basically mean nothing.

The more ya know
 
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