2018 Nontrad Applicants' Progress Thread

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Medic2MD4me said:
I submitted on 6/20, any idea when I can expect to be verified? By end of July hopefully? Nontrad with great clinical experience and solid gpa but a 508. So much emphasis is on the mcat so that makes me feel a little less confident. Do schools place more emphasis on ECs vs mcat for us nontrads?
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Per SDN's verification thread, they're up to the June 10-11 weekend and moving forward about one submission day for every business day of review, so I'd guess another ten business days or so. I submitted on 6/19, so hoping for mid- or end of July as well. I haven't heard anything about schools shifting their emphasis for nontrads except for cutting us a little slack for not having as much research experience. It would be great if life experience could overcome a more modest MCAT, though!
 
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jazzmetal said:
Hi all! Thought I'd join the party. I submitted 6/19 and hoping I'll be verified in the next couple of weeks. I have an MCAT score that's hopefully competitive for mid/low tier MD, but I had a bad test day so I'm prepping for a July re-take to be able to add higher-tier schools if the score comes back where I think it will. I am *very* non-traditional, so I'm hoping to make it in this cycle because I'm not getting any younger! 🙂

Best wishes to everyone - looking forward to going through this together and starting school next fall!
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There are several of us *very* nontrads here! I'm 36, have kids and a sort of weird life story. Hopefully just weird enough to be 'diverse'.. haha. You're in good company here.

I feel like being older makes me a little less anxious about timing. Like I've already waited this long, so if I have to wait another year it's not the end of the world. But also like I wish I could start classes this fall because I'm just ready! Wish we could get a refund on all the application money if we don't get in anywhere, though - how awesome would that be?
 
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Starting to go crazy with refreshing my inbox

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So far I have secondaries from Rosalind Franklin, SUNY Downstate, and Cornell. I'm so excited! I can't believe this is really happening.
 
ChopinLiszt said:
refund on all the application money
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For sure! Or at least a frequent flier discount. If I were 36, I wouldn't be worried about waiting another year if I had to... I guess I should call myself an ultra-nontrad. 🙂

Only one person from my high school class became a doctor. I had dinner with her last night - she was super skeptical of becoming a doctor at my age, but said I had convinced her by the end of the evening. Her advice was to enjoy the journey. She said med school was a blast. With more and more schools condensing the classroom phase to 18 months and starting clinicals early, seems it will be that much sooner that we'll be doing what we want: connecting with patients.
 
ChopinLiszt said:
Yay! Get writing!!
I'm gonna start prewriting the novel that Duke requires.
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Just got UCF's and it also requires a novel. So far all of mine have been done same day, but I haven't even started on this one yet - still in the 'stare at the prompt in disbelief' phase haha


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ChopinLiszt said:
@jazzmetal - I'm glad there's someone here older than me! 😉 What did you do for your first career(s)? Ultra-nontrad sounds pretty hardcore.
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Mostly lawyering, but I did some fun stuff on the side. How about you? From your screen name, I'm going to guess something musical. 🙂

As soon as I typed "ultra-nontrad" I thought of an acquaintance who runs ultra-marathons. Like, 100+ miles. That is definitely hardcore!
 
jazzmetal said:
Mostly lawyering, but I did some fun stuff on the side. How about you? From your screen name, I'm going to guess something musical. 🙂

As soon as I typed "ultra-nontrad" I thought of an acquaintance who runs ultra-marathons. Like, 100+ miles. That is definitely hardcore!
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That's what I was thinking, too! My sister runs ultra marathons, too - I've only gone up to a marathon so far, but I'm signed up for a 50k next spring in Zion Natl Park. (If my cranky hip will cooperate, anyway..) I love the ultra community - it's much more chill than the general road racing scene, believe it or not - people are very supportive of each other, strangers and newbies included, and there's no focus on speed - everyone has DNFd a race before, etc. It's kind of like a big, scruffy, smelly, oddly fit family.

Both my parents are/were professional musicians, and my dad always kept a pad of shopping list paper on the fridge that said "ChopinLiszt." I play piano and violin, but nowhere near professionally. Chopin is in my top 3 favorite composers, but I don't really enjoy Liszt. 'There are simply.. too many notes!' :whistle:

Unknown.png
<--- cheesy musician humor
 
Got two more secondaries yesterday... and I'm still not verified yet. Up to three secondaries without being verified now. I really hate this part... anything I get before I'm verified just feels like a waste of money to me.

I wish only schools that were actually interested sent out secondaries, but that's apparently too much to ask for.
 
calivianya said:
Got two more secondaries yesterday... and I'm still not verified yet. Up to three secondaries without being verified now. I really hate this part... anything I get before I'm verified just feels like a waste of money to me.

I wish only schools that were actually interested sent out secondaries, but that's apparently too much to ask for.
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How are you getting secondaries without being verified? 😵
 
ChopinLiszt said:
How are you getting secondaries without being verified? 😵
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I think I've read that some schools have AMCAS send them the bare-bones contact info for every student that selects them on the primary, even before verification and (I think) before AMCAS begins transmission of the full applications. These would, of course, be schools that don't screen for secondaries. So, theoretically, some applicants could have gotten all of their secondaries for those schools during June.


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Man, these "tell us what makes you different, aside from what's in your primary" prompts are giving me the blues. Like, if I had wanted to talk to you about it, I would have put it in my dang primary! Just send me a stupid II already!

Seriously, though, for the ones that are asking for "unique experiences" or "special factors" or whatever, I'm thinking about talking about my family. They really are a big part of what makes me different from the average Med student (aside from my previous career, which I discussed as nauseum in my primary). I wasn't initially planning to talk about my personal life in my applications, but I feel a little railroaded by these prompts.


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I feel like I'm drowning in secondaries now! I'm having a hard time focusing at the moment given the complete disaster happening in my personal life. I've turned in four so far, with four more waiting to be read by my proofreader. I wish schools were a bit more selective in sending them out, too! The only ones I applied to on my primary that haven't sent a secondary are UCSF, UCLA, and Wake Forest. Just waiting to see if I make the cut at those schools.... my MCAT score was not what I wanted 🙁 I'm still top 10th percentile of all test takers, but my score is the lower end of a lot of my dream schools (Columbia, NYU, Mt. Sinai, etc). I'm going to submit my secondaries anyway because I won't know if I don't try.
 
willow84 said:
I feel like I'm drowning in secondaries now! I'm having a hard time focusing at the moment given the complete disaster happening in my personal life. I've turned in four so far, with four more waiting to be read by my proofreader. I wish schools were a bit more selective in sending them out, too! The only ones I applied to on my primary that haven't sent a secondary are UCSF, UCLA, and Wake Forest. Just waiting to see if I make the cut at those schools.... my MCAT score was not what I wanted 🙁 I'm still top 10th percentile of all test takers, but my score is the lower end of a lot of my dream schools (Columbia, NYU, Mt. Sinai, etc). I'm going to submit my secondaries anyway because I won't know if I don't try.
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I did like eight secondaries the first week I started getting them and now I just can't stomach the hemorrhage of fees so I'm sitting on the rest of them. I am SO grateful to UCLA, the only school I applied to that screens before sending a secondary. What a hoax from some of these schools just collecting $$ and then immediately rejecting people...

Have you seen Nursery University? This process is a gut wrenching cross between that and The Bachelor for anyone with average scores.

@willow84 , anything 90% or better is amazing and admirable, congrats! (but sorry it isn't what you wanted). Keep your head up! I think this is the hardest part about medical school---getting in!
 
SOO jealous of all of you with early IIs. Going absolutely mental from checking my status on every app 12 times per day :dead: please smile upon me II gods.
 
Hey nontrads applying expensive places to live - how are you guys planning on handling living expenses? As someone who's paid out of pocket for every degree I've ever had, plus always paid rent/my mortgage with a job, the thought of taking out ANY student loans is horrendous, though I know I'll have no other choice when it comes to med school tuition. I really would rather not take out any loans for living expenses on top of that.

My top choice is within a 20 minute drive of my house, so if I get in there, I'll only have to worry about my $650 mortgage payment, but there are no guarantees.

I know my fiance can help some, plus assuming I work at least part time, I should be able to contribute $500+/week, but, that's nowhere near enough to pay for some of the places I'm looking at. For example, the area of NYC that NYU is in, looks like the apartments are all well over $2000/month... and those are tiny studios.

Doubtful I'll get in there, but it's just something I started thinking about while working on my secondary for Columbia, which asked about the challenges of living in a "complex urban environment." 🙄
 
calivianya said:
Hey nontrads applying expensive places to live - how are you guys planning on handling living expenses? As someone who's paid out of pocket for every degree I've ever had, plus always paid rent/my mortgage with a job, the thought of taking out ANY student loans is horrendous, though I know I'll have no other choice when it comes to med school tuition. I really would rather not take out any loans for living expenses on top of that.

My top choice is within a 20 minute drive of my house, so if I get in there, I'll only have to worry about my $650 mortgage payment, but there are no guarantees.

I know my fiance can help some, plus assuming I work at least part time, I should be able to contribute $500+/week, but, that's nowhere near enough to pay for some of the places I'm looking at. For example, the area of NYC that NYU is in, looks like the apartments are all well over $2000/month... and those are tiny studios.

Doubtful I'll get in there, but it's just something I started thinking about while working on my secondary for Columbia, which asked about the challenges of living in a "complex urban environment." 🙄
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Student housing tends to be available many places, often described at the end of the msar listing. Shared housing is another option, as is living farther out and commuting. But if you look at the "Help me decide" forum, you'll see that many people choose schools in affordable places for the same reasons you're mentioning. If you only get into NYU, I'm sure you'll figure it out!

I'm also worried about that, but I'm even more worried right now that I won't even get in anywhere... If you're thrifty you can figure out things like being a dorm leader and getting free housing or house sitting or house sharing or renting your place in Airbnb during time off. Working to make $500/week is probably not going to be feasible for me. Most rn's I've heard from have found that they couldn't work much while in school... so I wouldn't count on that, but only you know what you're capable of. 🙂
 
@Hazel-rah said:
Student housing tends to be available many places, often described at the end of the msar listing. Shared housing is another option, as is living farther out and commuting. But if you look at the "Help me decide" forum, you'll see that many people choose schools in affordable places for the same reasons you're mentioning. If you only get into NYU, I'm sure you'll figure it out!

I'm also worried about that, but I'm even more worried right now that I won't even get in anywhere... If you're thrifty you can figure out things like being a dorm leader and getting free housing or house sitting or house sharing or renting your place in Airbnb during time off. Working to make $500/week is probably not going to be feasible for me. Most rn's I've heard from have found that they couldn't work much while in school... so I wouldn't count on that, but only you know what you're capable of. 🙂
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I'm hoping I can work. Last fall I took two graduate level biologies with my undergrad stuff in an 18 credit hour course load, and made As in everything. I have no way of determining if med school's graduate level classes are worse than the graduate level courses I took in neurophysiology and the endocrine system, which felt pretty bad, but who knows? I'm hoping if I could work full time through those I could at least work two shifts a week during med school.

I realize I'm also worrying about things that I don't need to worry about yet, but worrying is what I do best. I like NYU's program a lot because they have a three year option, which would save a whole years' worth of tuition and fees, but the increased cost of living will likely eat any savings from shaving a year off of school. All of these decisions are complicated.
 
@Hazel-rah said:
Guys, an actual American medical school wants to interview me. In the words of Quincy from Little Einsteins, "I. Can. Not. Belieeeeeeve it." After so, so, so many hoops and rigamarole, I was starting to get really discouraged. It's at WVU, where I'm technically oos, but lived there til age 18....
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I haven't been on this thread for a long time, so I'm just seeing this! Congrats!!! So exciting!
 
Just discovered that a girl from my high school class is now a neurosurgeon. Meanwhile, here I am applying to medical school. I know, I know, we nontrads shouldn't be comparing ourselves to people who went the traditional route ... but damn, it made me feel like I wasted a lot of years!


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Sometimes I feel the same way when I'm with friends and everyone around my age is finally finishing a residency/fellowship or has been an attending for years, but I'm happy I had the experiences I did. I enjoyed my 20s, traveled, and really had time to learn about myself. I don't think I would go back and do this path any differently in the future.
 
ADSigMel said:
Just discovered that a girl from my high school class is now a neurosurgeon. Meanwhile, here I am applying to medical school. I know, I know, we nontrads shouldn't be comparing ourselves to people who went the traditional route ... but damn, it made me feel like I wasted a lot of years!
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It's hard not to compare ourselves to others. One of my former classmates is a physician as well, no idea what kind because I hated her with a fiery passion for bullying me in middle school, so I didn't exactly keep in touch. It sucks extra when it's not just a classmate, but somebody you really believe is a horrible person and got every advantage on the planet anyway (rich, partially minority, never worked a day in her life, etc). Talk about karma taking way too long to catch up with someone!

On a different note, I asked all my letter writers MONTHS ago to write my letters... and none of them are in yet. I've completed eight secondaries so far on my end, but knowing they won't be complete until my letter writers have my letters in is making me crazy. One promised to get it done this week, I just emailed another yesterday to give a little nudge. This process is so anxiety producing.
 
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Ugh, waiting on letters is the worst! My last one just went in yesterday, and it's such a relief. hope they get yours in soon! Then once you're complete you can start stalking your status pages day and night.. 😉
 
Five of my six letter writers were totally on the ball - their letters were waiting at AMCAS on 6/1 when I submitted my primary! The sixth one, on the other hand... Radio silence since May, right after I sent him the AMCAS letter request. I've emailed and left messages for both him and his secretary, with no response. I finally gave up and let AMCAS know yesterday that his letter won't be coming after all. He's a boss from my old career, so not exactly vital to my application, but I feel like his flakiness reflects poorly on me as an applicant.
 
AnotherLawyer said:
Got my second II from Dell this week. Good luck to everyone else this week!
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Congrats! Me too from VCU! 🙂
Now I've scheduled a mock interview at the local career center, but does anyone have any other good tips for interview prep? I was glad to get to participate in a mock MMI that the health advising center put on in the spring, too...

Any books, blogs, YouTube channels, etc?
 
@Hazel-rah said:
Congrats! Me too from VCU! 🙂
Now I've scheduled a mock interview at the local career center, but does anyone have any other good tips for interview prep? I was glad to get to participate in a mock MMI that the health advising center put on in the spring, too...

Any books, blogs, YouTube channels, etc?
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Congrats. As the old saying goes, interviews three, doctor you'll be. If it's to be believed we just need one more. 🙂
 
I've been super busy and haven't been checking this thread or posting as much as I would have liked, but just a little friendly note; I'm a 2016 and 2017 reapplicant, who applied MD/DO my second cycle. After receiving II's on the first two available dates at top 15 MD schools, I also had a Feb MD II. Fast forward to this week; I had finished all my matriculation documents, etc, and was driving to sign a lease on a new place and start at a DO school on the 7th as my MD interviews all resulted in WL's. As I was pulling into the new city, I received a call, and was pulled off an MD waitlist, and the one I interviewed at in march.

Moral of the story - the cycle is going to be long. Don't give up, and it's never over till it's over. Here we are, a year and 2 months after turning in my application, and I'm headed to a school I'm in love with (was my 3rd choice). Remain calm, and don't stress about things you can't control. What will happen will happen, and find a way to relax as best you can. This will be a long process, but it will pay off.


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mavric1298 said:
I've been super busy and haven't been checking this thread or posting as much as I would have liked, but just a little friendly note; I'm a 2016 and 2017 reapplicant, who applied MD/DO my second cycle. After receiving II's on the first two available dates at top 15 MD schools, I also had a Feb MD II. Fast forward to this week; I had finished all my matriculation documents, etc, and was driving to sign a lease on a new place and start at a DO school on the 7th as my MD interviews all resulted in WL's. As I was pulling into the new city, I received a call, and was pulled off an MD waitlist, and the one I interviewed at in march.

Moral of the story - the cycle is going to be long. Don't give up, and it's never over till it's over. Here we are, a year and 2 months after turning in my application, and I'm headed to a school I'm in love with (was my 3rd choice). Remain calm, and don't stress about things you can't control. What will happen will happen, and find a way to relax as best you can. This will be a long process, but it will pay off.


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Amazing!! Congratulations!


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@Hazel-rah said:
Congrats! Me too from VCU! 🙂
Now I've scheduled a mock interview at the local career center, but does anyone have any other good tips for interview prep? I was glad to get to participate in a mock MMI that the health advising center put on in the spring, too...

Any books, blogs, YouTube channels, etc?
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I'm looking for the same type of interview resources, so if you come across any let me know! I'll do the same


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AFD1927 said:
I'm looking for the same type of interview resources, so if you come across any let me know! I'll do the same


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My local school has this thing called interview stream and it asks you questions, records you and then plays it back. My mock interview was helpful in making me realize the stamina I will need to be on my toes for long amounts of time, good posture, good answers, maybe sweating inside my suit but staying cool on the outside.......

I'm really planning to print and read over my amcas and essays over and over because both I think are going to be open file one on one. I really hope my local school does another mock MMI but if not, there are some good YouTube videos I haven't watched yet.

I'm going to try to use my network to find a local physician who maybe interviews for the local medical school (didn't apply to it) and do another mock interview....
 
I'm going on vacation next week and will have limited to no internet and I'm thinking I'll just take a whole week mental break from portal-checking, thread-stalking, and email checking.....
There are a few schools I didn't get secondaries from, but otherwise I've done all the ones I'm going to, I think....
(There were several schools I decided not to fill out the secondary for... Vermont, Dartmouth.... It makes me mad when the fee is >$100 when other schools' fees are like 85 or 90.)

Anyways how are everyones' secondaries going and apps/LOR's?
 
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