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Discover Your Odds of Getting into Medical School
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Well I got an II. Really wasn't expecting that.

I have *zero* research experience and only know about this school from their website. Does anyone have any information about their curriculum and what they are selling as "modular" and "flexible"? With no background in research, I really don't have any science-specific research interest or skills for that matter. What I am interested in is policy/technologies that would help populations I have specific experience with, including veterans, military, Native Americans, and rural populations. Is there any room for this at Stanford?

Thanks for the help.
 
Hey for applicants who have interviewed and sent in a publication update. Did yall just upload a PDF with Title + ORCID link? PM'd responses are fine! Thanks
 
LittleBrother said:
Well I got an II. Really wasn't expecting that.

I have *zero* research experience and only know about this school from their website. Does anyone have any information about their curriculum and what they are selling as "modular" and "flexible"? With no background in research, I really don't have any science-specific research interest or skills for that matter. What I am interested in is policy/technologies that would help populations I have specific experience with, including veterans, military, Native Americans, and rural populations. Is there any room for this at Stanford?

Thanks for the help.
Click to expand...

The program is huge on tech. You'll fit right in, definitely talk about this stuff in your interview!
 
Saw on CBSN news last night that med school applications are up 18% this year. Apparently it has been dubbed the "Fauci Effect" (I don't know Fauci feels about that). Anyway, searched it on the internet and found an article that says Stanford applications are up 50% from last year. 11,000 applicants for 90 seats... While that's crazy, hoping it means there is still reviewing going on and potential for II's still.
www.wgbh.org

Med Schools Are Seeing A Surge Of Applications. It's Called The 'Fauci Effect'

The number of medical school applicants is up an ‘unprecedented’ 18 percent this year.
www.wgbh.org www.wgbh.org
 
WindmillChaser92 said:
Saw on CBSN news last night that med school applications are up 18% this year. Apparently it has been dubbed the "Fauci Effect" (I don't know Fauci feels about that). Anyway, searched it on the internet and found an article that says Stanford applications are up 50% from last year. 11,000 applicants for 90 seats... While that's crazy, hoping it means there is still reviewing going on and potential for II's still.
www.wgbh.org

Med Schools Are Seeing A Surge Of Applications. It's Called The 'Fauci Effect'

The number of medical school applicants is up an ‘unprecedented’ 18 percent this year.
www.wgbh.org www.wgbh.org
Click to expand...

Very tangential but I’m annoyed with this narrative/it makes no sense to me! It takes years and years of hard work, saving money, and planning to apply but stories like this reduce our effort to “I rolled out of bed one morning and decided I want to be a doctor!” It’s not accounting for the immense privilege these people must have to decide to apply last minute during a pandemic. Or it’s just completely false because I have no idea how you can fit the MCAT, a dozen premed prereqs and compiling all of your LORs/app into 10 months. Someone plz explain lol
 
lopsidedegg said:
Very tangential but I’m annoyed with this narrative/it makes no sense to me! It takes years and years of hard work, saving money, and planning to apply but stories like this reduce our effort to “I rolled out of bed one morning and decided I want to be a doctor!” It’s not accounting for the immense privilege these people must have to decide to apply last minute during a pandemic. Or it’s just completely false because I have no idea how you can fit the MCAT, a dozen premed prereqs and compiling all of your LORs/app into 10 months. Someone plz explain lol
Click to expand...
This whole post right here! 👏🏽 So freaking true, and I feel the same way! Many applicants, myself included, have had to get over a lot of hurdles to even manage to get to the point of applying to medical school, let alone during a pandemic, and as OP said, this narrative does not account "for the immense privilege these people must have to decide to apply last minute during a pandemic."
 
lopsidedegg said:
Very tangential but I’m annoyed with this narrative/it makes no sense to me! It takes years and years of hard work, saving money, and planning to apply but stories like this reduce our effort to “I rolled out of bed one morning and decided I want to be a doctor!” It’s not accounting for the immense privilege these people must have to decide to apply last minute during a pandemic. Or it’s just completely false because I have no idea how you can fit the MCAT, a dozen premed prereqs and compiling all of your LORs/app into 10 months. Someone plz explain lol
Click to expand...
Some of it could be from people who originally wanted to apply next year thinking this year would be easier.
 
lopsidedegg said:
Very tangential but I’m annoyed with this narrative/it makes no sense to me! It takes years and years of hard work, saving money, and planning to apply but stories like this reduce our effort to “I rolled out of bed one morning and decided I want to be a doctor!” It’s not accounting for the immense privilege these people must have to decide to apply last minute during a pandemic. Or it’s just completely false because I have no idea how you can fit the MCAT, a dozen premed prereqs and compiling all of your LORs/app into 10 months. Someone plz explain lol
Click to expand...
I had a conversation about this with my (knowledgeable) premed advisor. She said that it looks like a lot of the last minute applicants aren’t necessarily competitive against well-prepared applicants, but are still really slowing down the process at some schools. It’s frustrating nonetheless.
 
GalaxyBrain said:
I had a conversation about this with my (knowledgeable) premed advisor. She said that it looks like a lot of the last minute applicants aren’t necessarily competitive against well-prepared applicants, but are still really slowing down the process at some schools. It’s frustrating nonetheless.
Click to expand...
Yeah I definitely think this plays a role. The article is definitely romanticized to make the narrative appealing: "I was inspired by Fauci and dropped everything to apply to med school". Like @lopesidedegg said, it's unrealistic. I think there are two distinct phenomena here:

- Rise in total number of applicants by the AAMC: One of the reasons might be that the job market is particularly harsh right now and will probably be the same for some time so anyone who didn't know if they'd be applying this cycle or the next might have chosen this cycle (assuming they were already ready with most of the prereqs, MCAT etc..). Very few people who didn't think of going into medicine before are applicants this cycle, it's just impossible to get everything ready in that time frame, applying to med school is a project that takes years. Those people will be applying in the next 2-4 cycles, which will definitely become more and more competitive. Also, some people do have more time with classes being P/F, or just less commitments due to the pandemic.

- Rise in number of applicants for individual med schools: This is different. It is definitely due to the fact that individual applicants, on average, are applying to more schools, for some of the same reasons as above: increased likelihood of getting in and less likely to be a reapplicant and face the reality of the job market, also more time to fill out secondaries (which definitely entails a lot of privilege because f*** are these expensive...). Remote interviews are also playing a role in this for sure: less money to spend on traveling so if an applicant had a specific predetermined application budget, more of that can go to applying to more schools.

Interested to see what y'all think 🙂
 
CommyØ said:
Some of it could be from people who originally wanted to apply next year thinking this year would be easier.
Click to expand...
I suspect there's also a number of people who had planned to take a year off to bolster their app with EC's/Postbacc, but realized it would be a wasted year with no opportunities since everyone is shuttered at home, so they decided to just go with what they currently had
 
phrasse said:
I suspect there's also a number of people who had planned to take a year off to bolster their app with EC's/Postbacc, but realized it would be a wasted year with no opportunities since everyone is shuttered at home, so they decided to just go with what they currently had
Click to expand...
I had a friend with this exact train of thought. Was going to take a gap year, but had extra time and not a clear gap year opportunity with COVID so he decided to just send out some apps.
 
All of the above posts hit the nail on the head, and reflect my understanding and hypotheses as well. The idea that people suddenly decided to apply to medical schools because they were inspired by what they saw is a false narrative invented by the AAMC and picked up by a few news outlets, which totally discounts the extraordinary amount of time and money that goes into getting to this point.
 
SpreadKindness20 said:
All of the above posts hit the nail on the head, and reflect my understanding and hypotheses as well. The idea that people suddenly decided to apply to medical schools because they were inspired by what they saw is a false narrative invented by the AAMC and picked up by a few news outlets, which totally discounts the extraordinary amount of time and money that goes into getting to this point.
Click to expand...
Preach!
 
I believe MCAT not required played a big role for those who try to take advantage of it...
 
SpreadKindness20 said:
All of the above posts hit the nail on the head, and reflect my understanding and hypotheses as well. The idea that people suddenly decided to apply to medical schools because they were inspired by what they saw is a false narrative invented by the AAMC and picked up by a few news outlets, which totally discounts the extraordinary amount of time and money that goes into getting to this point.
Click to expand...
Def agree. And, with some schools waiving the MCAT people with close to expiring scores that weren't as favorable probably threw their hats in the ring as well since the scores wouldn't be given as much consideration
 
It's also like most major events that cause a drop in employment: kids run to schools. I wouldn't say immediately this is privileged kids being able to do what "we" the collective premed have been prepping for years. If people think they can just hop on amcas and press submit, they're delusional and so are their critics.
 
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Medizlyfe said:
If I received an II, and I did not submit KH although I stated on secondary I had planned to, will this hurt me? I already submitted an update letter in October explaining that I am not applying to KH any longer due to change in goals and interests. I got the II long after I sent this update letter, so did they already consider this and wont ding me for it?
Click to expand...
Can I ask how you sent your update letter? I'm having trouble finding on their website whether or not they accept pre-II updates and if they do where they want them sent (I assume via email, but is there a certain email they want us to use?)
 
fullofbeanz said:
Can I ask how you sent your update letter? I'm having trouble finding on their website whether or not they accept pre-II updates and if they do where they want them sent (I assume via email, but is there a certain email they want us to use?)
Click to expand...
From their application complete email:

"Stanford Medicine MD Admissions does NOT accept application updates unless an applicant is invited to interview."
 
SpreadKindness20 said:
From their application complete email:

"Stanford Medicine MD Admissions does NOT accept application updates unless an applicant is invited to interview."
Click to expand...
Thank you!! I was struggling to find it on their website and the portal, but I didn’t think to check the complete email.
 
I know a handful of people have gotten VITA invites but no II directly from Stanford. But have there been any pre-II Rs sent out? Or will they be sending out mass Rs at the end? Complete early Aug and haven't heard anything.
 
Vita invite and II 12/03! So surprised and excited given my GPA. Even though there was a date open next week I decided to go for one in January so that I wouldn't be completely stressed and under-prepared. I hope it was the right move!
 
I got an invite 12/03 right before midnight. Only two dates available: 12/11, 01/13
Secondary submission: 09/20
 
Does anyone know how many people apply for / get into the PSTP? And is this process different than getting into the regular MD program?
 
On their website (MD Admissions timeline), they mention that Feb 2021 is the last month of interviews. Based on what I am reading here, it seems that Jan 13 is the last date...? Do you think they will have more dates available?

Edit: Nvm, it does seem like they do stagger interview dates. Here's to hoping they have more interview dates! 😛
 
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To individuals who received an II or VITA, how long did you all have to wait after turning in your secondary? I turned mine pretty late and I'm not very hopeful for an invite but I'm curious.
 
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