any current applicants want us upcoming applicants to be wary of any hurdles you had?

[J.Pearlman]

I was wondering if the current applicants have any advice for those applying come june. Anything that you learned from your experience, that we might look out for. (I, for one, want to know what some problems with the amcas are that we should know early on)

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[NineSixteen]

Hi Pearlman, welcome to SDN. Pretty much ALL of this message board is about the hurdles we are going through. The bset advice is apply early. Even before the June 1st start date of AMCAS, have everything ready: transcripts, write your personal statement, etc. For now, though, just hit the books and study hard for that MCAT!

 

[DesiMD]

Well, I put down that I was doubling major in Economics and Spanish, when in reality I was only an Econ major and didn't know a lick of espanol. (I thought the whole Spanish thing would go off well ya know, make me a more competitive applicant) Anyway, I get to my second interview and it just so happens that my interviewer was Hispanic (Dr. Fuentes). <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> She proceeds to grill me with questions in Spanish. I ain't even know what the hell she was asking, I just nodded yes and no to every question. Rejected a week later.

Let this be a lesson for all you applicants out there.

 

[J.Pearlman]

cool, thanks. thas exactly what im busy doing -studying for mcats. when is it time to hit the other stuff - is it too late if you wait until mcat is over, after april 20. I hope not, cuz doing too many things at once - im sure to mess one of them up.

 

[J.Pearlman]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by DesiMD:
•Well, I put down that I was doubling major in Economics and Spanish, when in reality I was only an Econ major and didn't know a lick of espanol. (I thought the whole Spanish thing would go off well ya know, make me a more competitive applicant) Anyway, I get to my second interview and it just so happens that my interviewer was Hispanic (Dr. Fuentes). <img border="0" title="" alt="[Eek!]" src="eek.gif" /> She proceeds to grill me with questions in Spanish. I ain't even know what the hell she was asking, I just nodded yes and no to every question. Rejected a week later.

Let this be a lesson for all you applicants out there.•••••wow - thas an amazing story, I was gonna try that too but just didn't have the guts to follow through with the plan.

 

[mma]

I think the point of DesiMD's post was to tell an applicant not to lie.

...which was going to be my point as well, JPearlman.

Good luck with the application process and please, please do not lie to make yourself look better. It won't in the end.

mma

 

[DesiMD]

Actually, I was just poking fun at J. Pearlman's other post where he pondered deceiving adcoms with his major of study (Adcoms prefer Spanish Majors). Ah, but I don't think he got it. Live and learn. Live and learn.

 

[Socceroo4ever]

Didn't we already hash out why it's a bad idea to falsify anything on your applications? Dude, you *can't* win by falsifying anything especially in a situation like medical school admissions. Do you honestly think ADCOMS are going to be interested in accepting someone who can't even be honest on their applications? What sort of future doctor does that make you out to be? I can't accept "Oh, I don't ever lie, just this one time so I'd have a better chance at getting into medical school."

I realized I'm just ranting. It's the headache talking. <img border="0" alt="[Laughy]" title="" src="graemlins/laughy.gif" /> In a nutshell, lying isn't going anywhere and the best thing you can do for yourself is do honest things to make your application look better (such as more EC's or research) instead of using dishonesty to try for an extra edge (such as indicating a bogus second major).

 

[mma]

(The following message should be read in a whisper...

Desi, I know--I was just trying to explain your post very nicely to J.Pearlman. I don't think he/she realizes we will all remember his/her previous post...

mma)

 

[none]

You should know that pre-med advisors almost always err on the side of caution with advice. They'll have you applyint to far too many schools so that you're not a risk of lowering the undergrad's med school admission rate.

 

[wolferman]

Here's a good post started by Jalbrekt. Good luck.

<a href="http://www.studentdoctor.net/cgi-bin/ubbcgi/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=008219" target="_blank">Topic: Everyone applying next year, read this</a>

 

[panda01]

Research, research, and more research. (The schools, that is, although bio research can only help.) My pre-med adviser gave me a list of schools compatible with my mcat's and gpa and I just blindly applied, believing in Fate as I do. Point is there were some state schools in there that have accepted, say, 2 applicants from out of state (which I was) in the last 5 years. Don't even bother with them, it's a waste of money. That said, admissions to medical school is a crapshoot unless you have ridiculous numbers, and if you don't have ridiculous numbers, apply to a bunch of schools and see how the cards land. Also make sure your rec's are good--they're more important than a lot of the rest of your application. Not that you get to see them, but be honest with your recommender in that you need a positive rec. And be honest in your personal statement--usually committee's just skim when they're deciding on an interview, and if you have a catchy first line (basically a good essay) that draws them in.

Hope this is helpful!

 

[Diogenes]

One thing I'd be wary of is applying to a million schools, which some people advise doing. Besides the expense, it will be a drain on your time and sanity. Only apply to schools that you would be happy to go to. This means research them ahead of time, considering things like location, student body, curriculum, etc. And since you apply to 10-15 schools instead of 30 or 40, you need to make sure that you really sell yourself in the application process. Think about it: if your application is poor, applying to 10 extra schools will not help. And if your application is really good, the extra 10 schools, that you don't REALLY want to go to anyway, will just be wasting your time. People say that it is a numbers game or a crapshoot. Maybe, but in numbers games and crapshoots there are ways of working the odds to your advantage. Make the effort today of making yourself a better applicant, and then you won't have to make the effort tomorrow of applying to an unnecessarily large number of schools.

 

[SMW]

for this year's application cycle, biggest hurdle = AMCAS!!!

Hope it will be better for next year's applicants!

 

[Logan]

I'd say the biggest thing I learned was how huge ecs were. I was a varsity athlete for 2 1/2 years of college so I didnt have any time to do anything pre med related (my sport is year round and I took classes in the summer for my majors). I quit swimming to do some more pre med stuff that I had wanted to do and I expected ad coms to realize why I didn;t have as many ecs as other students. I have pretty decent numbers and I have gotten a number of interviews, but I have also not recieved interviews from a few schools I was expecting to, and I found out the major reason was a lack of ec's. Some adcoms realized my situation and others didn't really care. So the main jist is, it isn't all about numbers, ec's go a long way.

 

[pj02007]

logan, i thought being on a varsity team was a better EC than some research? since it's more competitive to get on the team.

 

[Logan]

It is to some schools, but some still expect you to do other things at the same time. Its really hard to swim 25 hours a week with classes and have much time for other things. Some schools realize this and others dont.

 

[racergirl]

•••quote:•••Originally posted by J.Pearlman:
•cool, thanks. thas exactly what im busy doing -studying for mcats. when is it time to hit the other stuff - is it too late if you wait until mcat is over, after april 20. I hope not, cuz doing too many things at once - im sure to mess one of them up.•••••No, it's not too late at all. Concentrate on that MCAT for now. After the big day, take the weekend off and relax. THEN jump right in on getting your application together.

 

[Mutterkuchen]

As an older student, I would be much prouder to be a varsity athlete like Logan than to do a bunch of crappy ECs just to get into med school. Life is a journey. If you have to take a year off to do the extra premed EC crap, so be it. Do what you like in college. Just make sure that what you like is not just getting drunk and sleeping in on weekends. . . at least not all of the time, since that might be an embarassing EC.