AAMC says to avoid SDN and r/premed, how much credence should I grant them?

[fxryker]

I've always had trouble finding middle ground. Does "the buck stop here", with AAMC, or are there some cases in which these forums are arguably better equipped?

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[Crayola227]

Can you link where AAMC says this?

What awful advice. You have to have enough brain cells to rub together to figure out what is unreasonable crappy advice and neurosis on SDN, but I used both SDN and my school's pre-med advisor.

The advisor was wrong, awful, knew nothing. Most are NOT successful med school grads or people involved in med school admissions.

SDN has been giving me excellent, specific, detailed advice on every aspect of my career trajectory for the last 15 years plus, and even unusual circumstances.

SDN is where I would go first for real deal advice.

I think the AAMC must have some self interest here, or they just don't like the doctor realness you'll find on this site.

To be fair, sometimes the doom and gloom here is a bit thick. It's medicine. The culture is how to avoid catastrophe that only occurs 1 in 100,000. But the point is that in general if you skew to most advice here, you will have the best odds successfully navigate the path.

Not everyone has the intelligence and judgment however to make the most of free advice, and they may not be successful. It's hard for me to be too tore up for these individuals. If you can make SDN work for you in being helpful for med school, maybe it just wasn't for you anyway.

I'm not saying that SDN never gets it wrong, but it's always worth reading and considering what there is here before coming to your own conclusions and decisions, even if you go against advice here. Which sometimes you need to. No one source is a crystal ball for what will happen in your career. You have to do your homework and hope for the best in all circumstances.

SDN isn't perfect but it is a veritable wealth of info straight from the horse's mouth on so many things. I can't think of anywhere else you have so much access to physicians, admin, faculty, anonymously.

 

[Kardio]

The anonymity on SDN means more people keep it real (albeit a bit dramatic sometimes).

Official orgs can, like the AAMC, also offer good advise but tend to dilute the truth with corporate lingo and buzzwords designed to make the organization look a certain way.

 

[fxryker]

Can you link where AAMC says this?

It was an AAMC representative when I called in yesterday.

 

[FluffyCat1212]

The advice the AAMC gave you seems somewhat naive.

The reality of the situation is that not all premeds have access to advising offices, and for those who do, not all advising offices are created equal. The application process is so confusing that having resources like this or reddit can be indispensible. In a way, they try to level the playing field by making reasonably high-quality, personalized application advice easily available to anyone who needs it.

Sure, there's neuroticism bc most premeds are inherently neurotic, but you build up a filter pretty quickly. When used as intended, it can be a great resource, particularly for those who do not have access to advising services through their schools.

 

[KnightDoc]

I've always had trouble finding middle ground. Does "the buck stop here", with AAMC, or are there some cases in which these forums are arguably better equipped?

The "buck stops" with you!!!! You need to learn how to figure things out for yourself in order to be successful in anything, including but not limited to med school admissions.

SDN is a resource, like anything else. YOU need to learn how to separate good information from bad, because you will find both, everywhere, including with AMCAS phone reps. That said, yes, to the extent an AMCAS phone rep took exception to anything you were told on SDN, the best place to get an answer to an AMCAS question is from AMCAS, not from an anonymous online forum.

I learned an incredible amount about the process from this site, but there is also plenty of bad information here. You will only learn how to separate good from bad with experience, but that is not limited to SDN. Most of us have received at least some bad advice from the advising offices at our schools, and the same can be said about pretty much any place that provides information.

The advice you receive from places like SDN is free to you (you don't need to donate to either lurk or post), and is provided by people who are not paid to post. It is worth far more than what you pay. YOU need to decide which questions are better asked and answered elsewhere.

 

[fxryker]

The "buck stops" with you!!!! You need to learn how to figure things out for yourself in order to be successful in anything, including but not limited to med school admissions.

SDN is a resource, like anything else. YOU need to learn how to separate good information from bad, because you will find both, everywhere, including with AMCAS phone reps. That said, yes, to the extent an AMCAS phone rep took exception to anything you were told on SDN, the best place to get an answer to an AMCAS question is from AMCAS, not from an anonymous online forum.

I learned an incredible amount about the process from this site, but there is also plenty of bad information here. You will only learn how to separate good from bad with experience, but that is not limited to SDN. Most of us have received at least some bad advice from the advising offices at our schools, and the same can be said about pretty much any place that provides information.

The advice you receive from places like SDN is free to you (you don't need to donate to either lurk or post), and is provided by people who are not paid to post. It is worth far more than what you pay. YOU need to decide which questions are better asked and answered elsewhere.

That makes sense, thanks man.

 

[Moko]

Both Reddit and SDN has its flaws, but the positives of these sites far outweigh the negatives, particularly for students without the means or access to those in the know about this process. Much like @Crayola227 , I received great advice from here when I was an applicant: guidance from the old-timers, and personalized feedback from generous strangers who volunteered to go through my personal statement, etc. I have not encountered another situation where I got so much more value than what I paid for.

Also, there is a diversity of opinions among admissions officers, even within a school. So, having free and unfiltered access to student and faculty adcom members from every geographic region and medical school tier cannot be understated. This is one area where SDN truly shines. I say all of this as a participant on this site and not as a moderator 🙂 . And now, back to prepping my turkey.

 

[Goro]

I've always had trouble finding middle ground. Does "the buck stop here", with AAMC, or are there some cases in which these forums are arguably better equipped?

Well, you have on SDN Adcom members and even some Admissions Deans representing about 10% of US med schools.

That has to count for something.

 

[Shunsui]

I got into med school solely through SDN, r/mcat, and speaking w current students/residents/attendings. Have never spoken with a “premed advisor” in my life.

SDN is singlehandedly the best resource for premeds and I will always recommend students use it

 

[deleted1114112]

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[effectedtag]

IDK sometimes you come on this forumn and the first 10 threads with activity are just people whining about prestige and rankings or other irrelevant things like if they are competitive with a 529/4.5 or if going to a public undergrad will end your chances at a good medical school.

Also some of the WAMC and school list threads are overly negative towards not applying 'high' and I think people forget that a lot of luck is involved and a good essay or vibe can sway your app positively. Of course it's important to have an appropriate school list on the low-mid end, but people always say 'donation to top schools' way too often and if I and many of my friends had listened to such advice here we would have zero A's right now and half the II's (this does not mean I'm endorsing applying to WashU with a 503 MCAT, be realistic).

I agree with this somewhat. 3 of the 4 schools I have interviews at, I was recommended to not apply so people really do need to know their applications, school missions, and make some of their own decisions.

 

[Princeton Medical Student]

The AAMC, AACOM, medical schools, NAAHP, and premed advisors have a historical dislike to SDN forum from its past reputation as the "wild west." Indeed a decade (actually closer to two about 2003) when I was first with both OPM (Old Pre Meds) and SDN, the latter was by filled with obnoxious, rude, vitriolic along with a large fraction of wholly ridiculous misinformation. This was at a time when the number of medical school applicants was quickly growing and the amplification of misinformation at that time was due in a great part to the influence of SDN. Just for comparison, while OPM was 1/10th or 1/20th the size of SDN, we had no moderators and only once in about 10 years did I ever had to ban anyone.

I actually left SDN and deleted my account in 2007 I believe. It was @Lee a few years later at an OPM conference asked me to come back because he wanted to get accurate information on the site. This also made me essentially an informal liaison to the AAMC, medical schools, etc which I often passed on questions and information . With the maturity of the first generation of SDNers coming back to the site and a robust moderation system, the wild west it once was is no more. However, some of the past reputation incorrectly remains across the spectrum of premedical and medical schools.

It’s actually wild how old SDN was. Once out of curiosity I was wondering how 9/11 affected med school apps, and after some searching found a lot of interesting discussion on the subject.

 

[Talldoctor96]

SDN and Reddit know the secrets of being a successful applicant but just like anything in life: too much of anything is bad for you.

People come for what they need, and stay for the neuroticism.

If people came to sdn and reddit, got what they needed and left they’d have no problem.

Instead, they read a post about someone with a 3.99 and 520 that hasn’t gotten in anywhere and freakout. Without realizing they had 0 clinical, no shadowing and a school list of 5 T10 schools.

 

[Proudfather94]

I've always had trouble finding middle ground. Does "the buck stop here", with AAMC, or are there some cases in which these forums are arguably better equipped?

People on SDN gave me advice on my primary and secondary essays and I went from 0 IIs last cycle to getting numerous DO's and 3 MD IIs this cycle and am going to a DO school that's close to home. The help from here is what pushed me over to getting IIs as the only difference on my app was less than 20 more hours of volunteering between cycles.

Use SDN for what it is it's a tool to help you get into medical school and to communicate with other doctors for advice on how to be a better one yourself. There are neurotic people in here just ignore them. People on here can be a little rough around the edges but you're going to get that in healthcare so you may as well get exposure to that here. Those types of people tend to have the best advice if you can develop a thicker skin and take their advice and criticism to heart.

 

[Konigstiger]

I truly believe that if I had known about SDN/Reddit before I applied, I would be at a much better medical school right now. Knowledge and research about the process are paramount, and unfortunately premed advisors and the AAMC do a subpar job of it.

 

[voxveritatisetlucis]

I think forums like this are good in general because it levels the playing field for all applicants. Some people don’t have parents, relatives etc. to guide them through the process of applying to schools. For example, my parents didn’t go to college so if weren’t for college confidential back in the day, I doubt I would have been able to get into the school that I ended up going to. SDN provides this for medical school applicants.

 

[deleted895369]

I am convinced that my heavy consumption of all things SDN/pre-med Reddit is responsible for 95% of my med school application success. I personally benefitted from the neuroticism that SDN caused me, as it put the pressure on me to build a stronger application. I think its better to think that you won't get in but receive acceptances anyway vs think that it will be smooth sailing and end up empty-handed.

 

[Lawpy]

I've always had trouble finding middle ground. Does "the buck stop here", with AAMC, or are there some cases in which these forums are arguably better equipped?

There's a lot of garbage on preallo (and reddit is much worse than SDN on that regard because that site is a toxic echo chamber that hides downvoted posts). But what makes SDN powerful is the absolute golden advice and recommendations from adcoms and faculty. I try to save their wisdom in directories that are stickied in the forums, but even then, not all advice is indexed. My best suggestion is to strictly follow the recommendations from adcoms, faculty, attendings and even med students on here (especially in school-specific threads) and ignore all other crap.