2017 Nontrad Applicants' Progress Thread

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HopefulPilot said:
@gribear I was up until 1am tweaking a few things. I wouldn't worry about waiting a day or two for you. I was just worried there would be a hiccup with the military credit classes and having 9 transcripts.

With a verified GPA, I am a 66.5 LizzyM. Should I leave this thread and head over to the underdogs? 🙂
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You and me both brother 🙂.

All apps are done. 6 MDs and 21 DOs. Leaving to no chance. Good luck to everyone!!! Let's go!! I"m hype 🙂
 
gribear said:
As we move into the secondary-writing phase of application, I thought this might be helpful. I know these are all listed on SDN in the school specific forums, but I had to do a lot of digging to find them, as they're not always posted at the top of the board.

http://www.prospectivedoctor.com/medical-school-secondary-essay-prompts-database/

Has all of the secondary prompts easily accessible and nicely organized. Happy writing!
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I just want to point out that everyone should be careful about using that site. I'm going down my list and pasting the prompts in a Word doc and I already found a mistake (it says BU didn't have a secondary last year, but the SDN thread says they did!). From now on I will be crosschecking there and the SDN threads.

EDIT: That site also had different secondaries for Brown than the SDN forum had. No SDN posters complained and several discussed the questions, so I can only assume they are the correct ones.
 
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Submitted this afternoon. Paid more than $1k, ugh. The only good thing about having to pay so much at once is I signed up for a Southwest credit card last month that had a signup bonus of 50k miles after I spend $2k. Looking forward to the miles but not so much to the bill 🙂

For secondaries, I've barely started (am going to get going tonight on those) but I just checked SDN threads for the prompts - figured t would be the most reliable.

Helpful tip for anyone with loads of secondaries to write - use the tracker tool posted earlier in this thread. Then create a tab for each school with the prompts on top. Easiest way to have everything in one spot. Bonus if you do it in google sheets - I can now access mine from any device anywhere!
 
Originally wanted to submit the first day, but my ECs and PS need some more work and I won't get my MCAT scores until July 6th so I'm going to wait a week or two and really nail these things down.
 
I'm having a hard time pressing submit! All of my essays are in, EC descriptions are finished, and I'm scared. I looked at the HTML version of the application and all of my double line breaks end up as a single paragraph. I guess there's nothing I can do about this thouh?
 
gribear said:
. I looked at the HTML version of the application and all of my double line breaks end up as a single paragraph.
Click to expand...

Use the .pdf form to check it. Mine is fine but in HTML it looks wonky.
 
Labrat07 said:
Come on, Old man!!! 🙂 .
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I'm an old hag 😉 (lurks to see if Blue-eyes is around before plopping down this: )

Hag2.jpg
 
Woo! Verified! Also quick question. My BCMP GPA from sophomore year dipped a decent amount compared to the rest of my college years (3.35 vs 3.68-3.78). My cGPA was consistently solid for all years, even sophomore year because I did well on my non-BCMP classes. Is that dip in my BCMP GPA something that I should discuss in secondaries? I'm guessing it's not worth discussing but you never know!
 
Gibbward said:
Woo! Verified! Also quick question. My BCMP GPA from sophomore year dipped a decent amount compared to the rest of my college years (3.35 vs 3.68-3.78). My cGPA was consistently solid for all years, even sophomore year because I did well on my non-BCMP classes. Is that dip in my BCMP GPA something that I should discuss in secondaries? I'm guessing it's not worth discussing but you never know!
Click to expand...

Some schools have an open-ended "Is there anything else relevant you want us to know?" type question on their secondaries. If you really feel the need to explain it you might do it there, though take care to frame it as "I acknowledge this dip happened but here's how I've improved since" rather than "This happened and here's my excuse".
 
Quick question I'm sure has been asked but I'm a little confused getting my LOR in amcas. Do I have to send the letter request snail mail to the writers individually? Or do I have them send it to my inter folio and send that to the schools I'm applying to? Maybe I'm just reading it wrong.
 
redj said:
Quick question I'm sure has been asked but I'm a little confused getting my LOR in amcas. Do I have to send the letter request snail mail to the writers individually? Or do I have them send it to my inter folio and send that to the schools I'm applying to? Maybe I'm just reading it wrong.
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No, you do not have to send them a letter request if they will be uploading letters to Interfolio. When you set up delivery from Interfolio to AMCAS, make sure you enter the AMCAS letter IDs for each letter that you entered in AMCAS. Also make sure you select your AAMC ID.

This issue has been extensively discussed in: *~*~*~*Official AMCAS Questions Thread 2016-2017*~*~*~*
http://www-forums.studentdoctor.net...AS-Questions-Thread-2016-2017*~*~*~*.1189308/

You letter writers do have to meet other med school LOR requirements like letter being on an official letterhead and signing the letter. Look at the AAMC guidance for LORs. Some med schools may have additional requirements.


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When secondaries ask for reasons why you chose to apply to the school, is it appropriate or advisable to mention that you have family in the are to help with childcare or it's a good location for your spouses employment?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
Gibbward said:
Woo! Verified! Also quick question. My BCMP GPA from sophomore year dipped a decent amount compared to the rest of my college years (3.35 vs 3.68-3.78). My cGPA was consistently solid for all years, even sophomore year because I did well on my non-BCMP classes. Is that dip in my BCMP GPA something that I should discuss in secondaries? I'm guessing it's not worth discussing but you never know!
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When did you submit?
 
amber80 said:
When secondaries ask for reasons why you chose to apply to the school, is it appropriate or advisable to mention that you have family in the are to help with childcare or it's a good location for your spouses employment?


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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You can mention it, though I wouldn't make it the core of your answer. "Why our school" questions are looking for evidence that you've really looked into what kinds of programs (community service opportunities, special pathways, research)/curriculum (traditional vs PBL vs hybrid vs whatever new hotness)/etc etc they have makes and that they specifically are a draw for you.
 
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gribear said:
When did you submit?
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I submitted yesterday 9:40 am.

Eccesignum said:
Some schools have an open-ended "Is there anything else relevant you want us to know?" type question on their secondaries. If you really feel the need to explain it you might do it there, though take care to frame it as "I acknowledge this dip happened but here's how I've improved since" rather than "This happened and here's my excuse".
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Eh I really don't feel the need to explain that. It's not like I suddenly a course or something, just a couple more Bs than my other years. I think I can use that space for much more interesting topics.
 
If anyone is stuck on a secondary prompt, or is trying to write the best damn one ever for their top choice(s), I am happy to take a look. I have a bit of spare time this summer, and I know how quickly friends and family can get fed up with editing!
 
amber80 said:
No, you do not have to send them a letter request if they will be uploading letters to Interfolio. When you set up delivery from Interfolio to AMCAS, make sure you enter the AMCAS letter IDs for each letter that you entered in AMCAS. Also make sure you select your AAMC ID.

This issue has been extensively discussed in: *~*~*~*Official AMCAS Questions Thread 2016-2017*~*~*~*
http://www-forums.studentdoctor.net/index.php?threads/*~*~*~*Official-AMCAS-Questions-Thread-2016-2017*~*~*~*.1189308/

You letter writers do have to meet other med school LOR requirements like letter being on an official letterhead and signing the letter. Look at the AAMC guidance for LORs. Some med schools may have additional requirements.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
Click to expand...
OK great that make more sense. Thank you for the response!
 
Congrats to everyone who has submitted. Start working on your secondaries now, especially for the nonscreening schools. I aimed to have my turnaround time be a week or less when I applied.

Fellowship app update: Have first interview next month and second in August. Had to pay for one trip myself, and the program is paying for the other (airfare and hotel), which was an unexpected bonus since airfare is not cheap. Third interview likely to be scheduled for September. Should know where I'm going by Thanksgiving. Definitely heart the compressed app season. The interview day next month is mega long though. I think I must be meeting with every single person in the dept from the chairman to the janitor. Heh.
 
So proud of myself - one prewritten secondary down! 25 left to go, ugh.

Is it just me who's super type A? I went through my calendar tonight and made a schedule for prewriting my secondaries so that they will be pretty much ready to go in July. Kind of pathetic but honestly, that's how I scheduled my MCAT studying and it worked for that so I might as well duplicate success.

Between working, volunteering and trying to get into a good fitness routine, I didn't realize how little time is actually left before schools start sending these out - anyone else similarly surprised?

@QofQuimica - sort of jealous of your compressed season but also am now kind of relieved that our season isn't as compressed!
 
libahli said:
Is it just me who's super type A? I went through my calendar tonight and made a schedule for prewriting my secondaries so that they will be pretty much ready to go in July. Kind of pathetic but honestly, that's how I scheduled my MCAT studying and it worked for that so I might as well duplicate success.

Between working, volunteering and trying to get into a good fitness routine, I didn't realize how little time is actually left before schools start sending these out - anyone else similarly surprised?

@QofQuimica - sort of jealous of your compressed season but also am now kind of relieved that our season isn't as compressed!
Click to expand...

Such a good idea! I think I'm going to schedule secondary writing time. For the MCAT, I bought one of those big desk calendars and scheduled everything out. It worked great. Maybe its Type A, but I'm going to do this too. July 1 is CRAZY SOON! Without a schedule, I'm not sure how ~25 of these bad boys would get written. Thankfully, many prompts overlap, but with different character limits, its going to be challenging.

Also, my top choice, OHSU, has an absolute behemoth of a secondary. Gonna start on that one first, hopefully tonight if the ER is slow!
 
gribear said:
Such a good idea! I think I'm going to schedule secondary writing time. For the MCAT, I bought one of those big desk calendars and scheduled everything out. It worked great. Maybe its Type A, but I'm going to do this too. July 1 is CRAZY SOON! Without a schedule, I'm not sure how ~25 of these bad boys would get written. Thankfully, many prompts overlap, but with different character limits, its going to be challenging.

Also, my top choice, OHSU, has an absolute behemoth of a secondary. Gonna start on that one first, hopefully tonight if the ER is slow!
Click to expand...


Some of the prompts do overlap but not in the character count so I think even those might take some time. I'm doing mine in order of priority (schools I prefer being first in line) and not in order of complexity.

Let the heavens bless the three schools I just realized don't ask for any actual writing on their secondaries!
 
libahli said:
Some of the prompts do overlap but not in the character count so I think even those might take some time. I'm doing mine in order of priority (schools I prefer being first in line) and not in order of complexity.

Let the heavens bless the three schools I just realized don't ask for any actual writing on their secondaries!
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Which schools does not need secondaries? 🙂

My top choice is KCOM. Working on secondaries as we speak.
 
the only school i know that has no secondary is rochester
just a fee
 
Hopepilot got it correct. Mayo
 
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Jefferson I think has just an optional tell me anything essay which I think I'll skip.

Einstein has a bunch of questions but not much actual writing.

Rochester has nothing, as mentioned already.
 
Verified, and brought my cGPA up .17 and my sGPA up .25 since last cycle (which considering I now have over 200 credits - I cannot believe).

Now I just need to get through my last final at UW (department grad on Fri/ walk on Sat!!!!!), and I can start prewriting more secondaries. I should be cramming right now, but - it's so hard to concentrate! I mean who cares what group specific antigen (gag) p24 is in the HIV-1 genome, or what splice variant promotes CD4 receptor degradation to inactive host defense....oh wait, I should
 
Whew. Did a first draft on some diversity prompts, "challenges faced" prompt, and plans during the app cycle prompts. I feel like I finished almost 1/3 of my secondary essays just from doing that haha
 
mavric1298 said:
Verified, and brought my cGPA up .17 and my sGPA up .25 since last cycle (which considering I now have over 200 credits - I cannot believe).

Now I just need to get through my last final at UW (department grad on Fri/ walk on Sat!!!!!), and I can start prewriting more secondaries. I should be cramming right now, but - it's so hard to concentrate! I mean who cares what group specific antigen (gag) p24 is in the HIV-1 genome, or what splice variant promotes CD4 receptor degradation to inactive host defense....oh wait, I should
Click to expand...

Your grad works sounds very interesting to me.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
 
libahli said:
So proud of myself - one prewritten secondary down! 25 left to go, ugh.

Is it just me who's super type A? I went through my calendar tonight and made a schedule for prewriting my secondaries so that they will be pretty much ready to go in July. Kind of pathetic but honestly, that's how I scheduled my MCAT studying and it worked for that so I might as well duplicate success.

Between working, volunteering and trying to get into a good fitness routine, I didn't realize how little time is actually left before schools start sending these out - anyone else similarly surprised?

@QofQuimica - sort of jealous of your compressed season but also am now kind of relieved that our season isn't as compressed!
Click to expand...
I didn't schedule writing mine, but I did prioritize returning secondaries for the rolling schools, since there's no great advantage to interviewing super early at the nonrolling schools. That strategy totally paid off; I had my first three acceptances (to U Mich and my two state schools) right on October 15.

I'm only applying to three fellowship programs and going on three interviews, so it's going to work out beautifully timing-wise. One interview in July, one in August, one in September. Rank and match in the fall. If I don't match, I can also apply/interview afterward for an unmatched fellowship spot at another program. But I am applying in a pretty uncompetitive subspecialty where there are many more fellowship slots than applicants, and I want to stay here in the South, both of which are factors working in my favor. Even in uncompetitive fields, certain programs can be competitive based largely on location. If I was trying to match to a program in New England or NYC or Cali, I'd be applying more broadly.
 
@libahli I highly recommend not skipping the optional essay for Jeff. They are a low yield school with over 12,000 applications per year and < 1,000 interview slots. You need to show them you are interested and aren't just ticking another box on your AMCAS application.

I was a CA applicant and wrote about my family ties to Philadelphia and why I specifically was interested to Jeff. I received an interview within just a few weeks of submitting my secondary. At my interview day, among 32 students I was one of three that lived outside of Philadelphia/Jersey/Delaware. It was clear that they value an interest and connection to Philadelphia and the surrounding area.

Good luck!
 
wagonwheel23 said:
@libahli I highly recommend not skipping the optional essay for Jeff. They are a low yield school with over 12,000 applications per year and < 1,000 interview slots. You need to show them you are interested and aren't just ticking another box on your AMCAS application.

I was a CA applicant and wrote about my family ties to Philadelphia and why I specifically was interested to Jeff. I received an interview within just a few weeks of submitting my secondary. At my interview day, among 32 students I was one of three that lived outside of Philadelphia/Jersey/Delaware. It was clear that they value an interest and connection to Philadelphia and the surrounding area.

Good luck!
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I appreciate your advice, thank you! I too have a valid reason for wanting to live in Philadelphia, I just hadn't thought of writing about that as the optional essay. Jefferson is a safety but also a school I would love to attend, so I absolutely need to make them see that I really am interested.

Can I just say that I love our nontrad forum?! Such helpful advice here with none of the snark that's present "elsewhere" (cough:;: preallo).
 
holdthemayo said:
Well it's official. After all these years I have applied to med school. Commence freak out...
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Eeek 🙂

Good luck! We are all in this cycle together, for better or for better.
 
QofQuimica said:
I didn't schedule writing mine, but I did prioritize returning secondaries for the rolling schools, since there's no great advantage to interviewing super early at the nonrolling schools. That strategy totally paid off; I had my first three acceptances (to U Mich and my two state schools) right on October 15.

I'm only applying to three fellowship programs and going on three interviews, so it's going to work out beautifully timing-wise. One interview in July, one in August, one in September. Rank and match in the fall. If I don't match, I can also apply/interview afterward for an unmatched fellowship spot at another program. But I am applying in a pretty uncompetitive subspecialty where there are many more fellowship slots than applicants, and I want to stay here in the South, both of which are factors working in my favor. Even in uncompetitive fields, certain programs can be competitive based largely on location. If I was trying to match to a program in New England or NYC or Cali, I'd be applying more broadly.
Click to expand...


Genius, hadn't thought of prioritizing writing rolling schools' secondaries before nonrolling. I'm telling you, this forum is full of such smart people!

The South is awesome - and so much cheaper than the NE/CA, I don't blame you for wanting to stay here.
 
libahli said:
Genius, hadn't thought of prioritizing writing rolling schools' secondaries before nonrolling. I'm telling you, this forum is full of such smart people!

The South is awesome - and so much cheaper than the NE/CA, I don't blame you for wanting to stay here.
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Glad to know all those years of SDN and adcom experience haven't gone completely to waste. 😉

Besides the lower COL, all of my family is here in FL, and I figure eight years north of the Mason Dixon line for med school/residency was enough snow to last me a lifetime. I distinctly remember going to work one day in the middle of a blizzard during residency, asking myself, "WTF am I doing here???" Granted that our summers are pretty brutal too. But preparing for the heat doesn't require any shoveling, salting, plowing, scraping, chaining, or dressing in layers. 😛
 
I'm in a pickle with two job offers

One is a lab position with a very respectable (top 2 in it's field) institution doing clinical research
and
One is as an associate for one of the most influential medicine distribution non profit (mix of advocacy/fieldwork)

same pay, same benefits, both really great opportunities

idk what to do.
 
tetley said:
I'm in a pickle with two job offers

One is a lab position with a very respectable (top 2 in it's field) institution doing clinical research
and
One is as an associate for one of the most influential medicine distribution non profit (mix of advocacy/fieldwork)

same pay, same benefits, both really great opportunities

idk what to do.
Click to expand...

I think it's time for you to construct a handy dandy Pros and Cons list! Which job has a work day/schedule that you would rather have? How about the kinds of people you would be interact with, both with your clients and co-workers? Will commuting be an issue? Also, what exactly does being an "associate" mean?

Personally, I've been doing research for three years, and I'm aching for a change in scenery so I'd go for the advocacy work. But that's just me.
 
Great questions!
I've been a clinical research scientist for years. I have something like 3+ years and over 3,000 hours of lab time. I was kind of itching for a change of pace

Both have flexible schedules, with the lab job easier on taking time off. I also like my lab team, but a lot of them are leaving this summer, so it might be all new faces come August. I know nobody at the NGO, but maybe that's a good thing? Commuting isn't an issue with either because I live close to the lab, and the other job would relocate me to the same distance from their office.

Being an associate, I would do the clinical research on the medicines we are using, and help design things like intervention programs and medical education for providers in our target countries AND do the field work to implement them
On the other hand, the lab offers a big degree of creative freedom for me because I have already done so well there

It really just comes down to the known vs. the unknown


Gibbward said:
I think it's time for you to construct a handy dandy Pros and Cons list! Which job has a work day/schedule that you would rather have? How about the kinds of people you would be interact with, both with your clients and co-workers? Will commuting be an issue? Also, what exactly does being an "associate" mean?

Personally, I've been doing research for three years, and I'm aching for a change in scenery so I'd go for the advocacy work. But that's just me.
Click to expand...
 
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