2018 Nontrad Applicants' Progress Thread

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DBC03 said:
I got my first acceptance - So I guess I'm going to medical school! I also found a volunteer position I feel really passionate about this year, so I will continue to be "resume" building, but I don't know if I"ll be pushing the coursework as much next semester...
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AAAHHHH Congrats!!! Dr. DBC - it has a nice ring to it, no? I'm so happy for you! :soexcited::soexcited::soexcited:
 
willow84 said:
Just got a second acceptance!!! Ahhhh this feels unreal.
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:yawn: Your SECOND acceptance? 2XDr!! Huge congrats! You guys are killing it. Meanwhile I've got a loooooong wait until March over here. Why didn't I apply to more rolling schools? :laugh:

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This particular thread keeps my spirit up throughout the week; the memes and support are perfect.
 
DSM_302.0 said:
Hey team! 31 and applying this cycle. Four interviews, two completed. Has been great reading everyone’s stories throughout this thread, so I thought I’d chime in and say hello.

Good luck to everyone!
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Good luck to you, too! Several of us here are in our mid-late 30s, and plenty are older than that. You're like a spring chicken around here! (And using that phrase just aged me like ten years.) :hilarious:

So what's your story? Time for a career change? Any idea what you want to specialize in?
 
Lol @ you gaining ten years in age for using the term "spring chicken"! Too funny

In just thinking through my story, a lot of it was coming out in the buzzwords you'd read on these forums. While I guess it's good we have a shared language of sorts, it feels weird having my personal narrative so influenced by the narrow focus of how candidates present themselves to adcoms. For example, I'm a first-gen college student and kinda URM (lgbt-identified), non-trad with a strong upward grade trend. Have been working in med-tech for a year and a half, tech philanthropy before that, with a first job at a management consulting firm.

I was born and raised in blue-collar rustbelt Illinois. School always came easy and I wanted to get the hell out, so I aimed big and went out west to Stanford for school. Though I had grown up imagining I wanted to be a doctor, my parents discouraged it because they thought it would be too expensive and too much school.

After a degree in underwater basket weaving, I did a Fulbright fellowship working with Iraqi refugees in the Middle East. Then worked in Dubai as a management consultant for a stint before moving back to California to start my post-bac. Started with my first class in 2013, and I'll finish with hopefully my last early in 2018. I took them slowly but surely nights and weekends while working at a marketing tech startup full time for a few years, where I started a foundation for the growing co. I spend my free time taking yoga classes (and even got certified to teach it myself!), riding around on my Vespa, traveling when I can, volunteering at a hospice.

Not sure what I want to go into! I feel like Emergency would be a good fit, but I'm definitely intrigued by the breadth of practice afforded by Family Medicine, or by the surgical and procedural elements in OBGYN. I'm interested in too many things, I think, including policy / politics, bioinformatics, personalized medicine and the robot-tech future of medicine.

My cycle has been great so far! With a lower undergrad GPA and a windy non-trad path, coming into this cycle I felt it could go either way: I could get a full ride to my top pick or I could interview nowhere. I feel very lucky to have interviewed at Michigan and Brown already (loved both those programs!), upcoming interview with Mayo AZ (I was invited to these 3 about 6 weeks ago), and just this week was invited to UCSF's Joint Medical Program at Berkeley and to UNC. I'll be at UCSF early November and UNC closer to Thanksgiving. Crossing my fingers for any of these great programs!

Got rejected from Stanford today and Dartmouth this week. I've got 15 left to hear from.

Good luck to everyone!
 
Hey all! Just wanted to share the good news that I got accepted! *mind blown*

Never thought this would happen but here I am! I've been given the chance to become a doctor! Wow!

If you're in the midst of applying or haven't applied yet, don't give up! Just keep going!!!! You got this!

(For reference: mid30s, studied music as an undergrad, DIY postbacc)
 
nerd-a1ert said:
Hey all! Just wanted to share the good news that I got accepted! *mind blown*

Never thought this would happen but here I am! I've been given the chance to become a doctor! Wow!

If you're in the midst of applying or haven't applied yet, don't give up! Just keep going!!!! You got this!

(For reference: mid30s, studied music as an undergrad, DIY postbacc)
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Congrats, fellow music background applicant!
 
nerd-a1ert said:
Hey all! Just wanted to share the good news that I got accepted! *mind blown*

Never thought this would happen but here I am! I've been given the chance to become a doctor! Wow!

If you're in the midst of applying or haven't applied yet, don't give up! Just keep going!!!! You got this!

(For reference: mid30s, studied music as an undergrad, DIY postbacc)
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Congrats!! Don't forget to post in the accepted thread.
 
nerd-a1ert said:
Hey all! Just wanted to share the good news that I got accepted! *mind blown*

Never thought this would happen but here I am! I've been given the chance to become a doctor! Wow!

If you're in the midst of applying or haven't applied yet, don't give up! Just keep going!!!! You got this!

(For reference: mid30s, studied music as an undergrad, DIY postbacc)
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That’s fabulous! I’m encouraged to hear that you did a DIY postbac, as I did as well. I’m happy to hear that was acceptable.

Again, huge Congrats!
 
Congrats to all you nontrads getting acceptances! I've been fortunate enough to get 1 interview (on top of several rejections), but mainly just silence. You would think that writing my dissertation that I have to present by early January would be keeping me occupied, but no. Still F5ing my email 40 times per hour
 
I should add that at my most recent interview (yesterday - I can’t believe it was just yesterday), I stayed with a med student (who was awesome). When I went for a jog in the morning, her roommate left and didn’t know I was gone, so she locked the deadbolt. When I returned, i was stuck outside for a while trying to get back in (15 minutes or more) and quietly freaking out about being late to the interview. I did make it - 15 minutes early. But the adrenaline was definitely going at that point!


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DBC03 said:
I should add that at my most recent interview (yesterday - I can’t believe it was just yesterday), I stayed with a med student (who was awesome). When I went for a jog in the morning, her roommate left and didn’t know I was gone, so she locked the deadbolt. When I returned, i was stuck outside for a while trying to get back in (15 minutes or more) and quietly freaking out about being late to the interview. I did make it - 15 minutes early. But the adrenaline was definitely going at that point!


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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OMG I would have lost it. Or broken into a window. Or cried. Hahaha - I hope it went well for you!

I feel the time warp for sure. After a full day at work today, my interview yesterday feels like forever ago.
 
28 yo Non-trad here! Got accepted to my top choice (RowanSOM) despite graduating bottom of my class in undergrad with a 2.7 and a 497 MCAT. I did massive grade repair never took a science course until after undergrad and completed a 4 year graduate program and did well. Dont let anyone tell you you cant do something because i had plenty of people tell me to keep dreaming and that medicine wasnt for me
 
@willow84 @DBC03 @nerd-a1ert @tiramisucheese and any other nontrad lukers, HUGE HEARTY CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!! :claps::highfive::clap::bow:

And congrats to everyone else on their recent II's!
I'm so happy for ya'll; it's so exciting every time someone shares their news 🙂 It's like a birth announcement, except the birth of a new physician 🙂

I've gone to 3/4 of the interviews I was invited to... headed to the west coast later this month.
 
@Hazel-rah said:
I'm so happy for ya'll; it's so exciting every time someone shares their news 🙂 It's like a birth announcement, except the birth of a new physician
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I totally agree with this! Also, it feels like I'll be 'pregnant' forever - why didn't I apply to more rolling admissions schools?? :laugh:

I only applied to 11 schools (all MD), and I've heard from 4 of those (3 II, 1 rejection from Cleveland Clinic). So really I probably should have just applied to more schools overall, but it only takes one, right? (insert nail-biting gif here)

Congrats @Deecee2DO on your Rowan acceptance and overcoming some impressive obstacles!! Go party! :horns:
 
physgal said:
Well folks. Anything can happen. Was contacted today by a school that rejected me in July. They now want to interview me. IM DYING.
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Wow!!! That's incredible! Was it a simple oversight on their part?
 
physgal said:
Well folks. Anything can happen. Was contacted today by a school that rejected me in July. They now want to interview me. IM DYING.
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This is amazing. I feel like I’d be torn - I’d be thinking, “well, you just rejected me a few months ago and I’m not really feeling the love.” Are you going? Good luck! Shows that anything could happen.


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tiramisucheese said:
Wow!!! That's incredible! Was it a simple oversight on their part?
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DBC03 said:
This is amazing. I feel like I’d be torn - I’d be thinking, “well, you just rejected me a few months ago and I’m not really feeling the love.” Are you going? Good luck! Shows that anything could happen.


Sent from my iPhone using SDN mobile
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From what I can tell, its not an oversight. My thought is that they have done a rereview of our applications and pulled interviews from that. I definitely have mixed feelings about it. I am sitting on two acceptances already and interviewed for the second year in a row at my state school. The chance of me choosing this school over my other acceptances is slim. Ironically, I had posted on that school's application thread last year with my stats to see if it was worth applying. Several traditional applicants indicated to me it was a waste of my money even to apply. That I would "never get an interview there with my MCAT." This is my sixth interview with a 502 MCAT this cycle. I am still under review at 10 schools.
 
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