Absolutely ridiculous premed adviser stories?

[Veni vidi vicii]

If you started them within 18 months of applying, I might question their sincerity. Likewise, if you stopped them 3 months after applying and I found out, I would question your sincerity. Common sense, people. This advisor had it all backwards.

Not every1 starts off as a pre-med as a freshmen. What are you expecting 36 months?

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[LoveBeingHuman:)]

It was a tongue-in-cheek response. I don't necessarily think you need 18 months to be sincere. This advisor merely stated you need exactly the opposite of what I would want to see when reviewing a file: recently-begun extracurricular experiences or things having occurred very recently. I want to see a story and if your story seems to start abruptly 12 months before you make this lifelong commitment, I am going to wonder how well you considered it. That is, frankly, what looking at applicants holistically means. Your 4.0 GPA and 45 on the MCAT, or whatever it is now, was meaningless to me without the rest of your application. As premedical students, you see things very differently from how you will see them on the other end.

I think there's some miscommunication. A single activity need not be the entire story, it could just be a part of it.

 

[Deleted member 737595]

Not every1 starts off as a pre-med as a freshmen. What are you expecting 36 months?

I have the same question

 

[DBV]

I remember mine told me to go to the Caribbean with a 3.9 how and a 33 mcat. I ignored her and went to a us MD school and just interviewed at Hopkins Penn duke vandy yale for residency this year. Big grain of salt with advice from these glorified secretaries.

 

[RTC19]

Verbatim quote from the chair of the pre-health committee when she was giving a little synopysis on the med school application process "There are also DO schools, which is kind of like a chiropractor....".

Not as bad, but she also still thought you could expect to receive plenty of MD school acceptances with anything at or above a 3.3.

Same person who told me I had no chance because I am a little older (mid-20s), didn't go to 4-year college right after high school and was an awful student in high school. All things that in reality they really don't mind. Thank God for SDN!

 

[DokterMom]

Not every1 starts off as a pre-med as a freshmen. What are you expecting 36 months?

I have the same question

If your personal statement says something to the effect of "I've wanted to become a doctor since I was 5 years old" then your volunteering shouldn't start halfway through college. But if you state that you only recently decided on a medical career, a shorter duration of medical volunteering would be expected and a long-term non-medical volunteering activity could look even better.

If I were evaluating your application, I would consider six months of wanting to become a physician to be insufficiently long and would suggest a gap year to investigate the field more thoroughly. 18 to 24 months of interest and substantiating demonstrated commitment would pass my personal standard.

It's the whole narrative.

 

[mwsapphire]

If your personal statement says something to the effect of "I've wanted to become a doctor since I was 5 years old." then your volunteering shouldn't start halfway through college. But if you state that you only recently decided on a medical career, a shorter duration of medical volunteering would be expected and a long-term non-medical volunteering activity could look even better.

If I were evaluating your application, I would consider six months of wanting to become a physician to be insufficiently long and would suggest a gap year to investigate the field more thoroughly. 18 to 24 months of interest and substantiating demonstrated commitment would pass my personal standard.

It's the whole narrative.

How about experiences in the same category?
Let's say an applicant volunteers at a hospital for a yea and a half before applying, but then also volunteers at a hospice six months before applying, so clinical experience is a year and half before hand, but the hospice activity is recent.
Would they both be meet your personal standard?

 

[DokterMom]

It would

 

[itsmcv2015]

Not every1 starts off as a pre-med as a freshmen. What are you expecting 36 months?

Nope, just a story. I don't "expect" anything. You have had at least 20ish years of life to develop interests, hobbies, passions, job experience, etc. Those things should, on some level, point toward you want to do. Even if you're a nontraditional applicant, your previous career can be used to explain why you're interested in being a physician. I don't care whether your volunteering was to make you a better doctor or whether you took AP Anatomy in HS to prepare to be a doctor. I don't care if you were a server to make money instead of an EMT or CNA to get clinical experience. All I care about is that you can tie your background to why you want to be a physician and can communicate how that background prepares you for all of the challenges we face. Literally almost any activity can be part of preparing you to be a physician. So, yes, I expect 36 months (or however long) of something.