Are all MD schools strictly about #'s?

[QofQuimica]

But as to pre-allo forum. And to some ascribed duty to endure the conversations. I cannot abide nor agree good sir!

Likewise. A year or two ago, I helped mod in the PA forum briefly when they were short-staffed. But you reach a point eventually where you just can't go back, and I'm well past that point.

People tend to gravitate here on their own if they think of themselves as being nontraditional, and that's the self-selected audience we serve. Not everyone would find the discussions here relevant or interesting. That's ok. If this forum served everyone, there would be no need to have it as a separate forum, right?

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[vc7777]

But as to pre-allo forum. And to some ascribed duty to endure the conversations. I cannot abide nor agree good sir!

Aw come on Nas! They'd love you over there! It's like a magical website that delivers content explicitly to aggravate you. Personalized Irritation.

I would be willing to bet 10 bucks, you wouldn't last 10 posts in a single PA thread before being called a "troll".

 

[Nasrudin]

Likewise. A year or two ago, I helped mod in the PA forum briefly when they were short-staffed. But you reach a point eventually where you just can't go back, and I'm well past that point.

People tend to gravitate here on their own if they think of themselves as being nontraditional, and that's the self-selected audience we serve. Not everyone would find the discussions here relevant or interesting. That's ok. If this forum served everyone, there would be no need to have it as a separate forum, right?

Indeed. And I do not think any forum on this islands would tolerate my conversation as well these good folks.

Besides this usually what happens to me in pre-allo:

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3njjD41f48[/YOUTUBE]

 

[mauberley]

But as to pre-allo forum. And to some ascribed duty to endure the conversations. I cannot abide nor agree good sir!

I can absolutely respect that.

Likewise. A year or two ago, I helped mod in the PA forum briefly when they were short-staffed. But you reach a point eventually where you just can't go back, and I'm well past that point.

People tend to gravitate here on their own if they think of themselves as being nontraditional, and that's the self-selected audience we serve. Not everyone would find the discussions here relevant or interesting. That's ok. If this forum served everyone, there would be no need to have it as a separate forum, right?

I think what I was more referring to is the policy on SDN that questions go into the forum whose audience the answer would be most relevant for and not into the forum whose targeted readership is more qualified to answer. A pre-med might have questions about med school, or residency, or beyond, and post in those forums, but the threads inevitably get kicked back to pre-allo. (So many questions receive little attention because of this.) Similarly, if a traditional pre-med came to the nontraditional forum hoping to learn from the wisdom of the nontrads who inhabited it, wouldn't those threads suffer a similar fate if the posts contained nothing of particular relevance to nontrads?

I wouldn't obligate anyone to participate in pre-allo, of course (though I do think pre-allo is rather useful once you learn to filter out the derp). I only wanted to point out to the poster I quoted that there are policies in play that tend to shape the inter-forum dynamic -- and that a forum is only as useful as the people that read it. There's no reason for a traditional pre-med to suspect that there's a wealth of knowledge that's applicable to them as well in the non-trad forum (and I suspect a lot of people wouldn't mind keeping it that way ). If you leave pre-allo to just the undergrad pre-meds, then of course it's going to suck; hence my plug.

 

[vc7777]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecological_fallacy

This...is the topic today in Epidemiology. It is exactly what the pre-meds on Pre-Allo are committing.

 

[Isoprop]

If med schools were strictly about numbers, then the average GPA and MCAT would be higher... much higher.

 

[n3xa]

But I disagree with the above that someone like n3xa for example shouldn't apply.

As do I. Every class for the past four years that I was on the adcom has people in it with MCAT scores in the mid-twenties, as well as people with overall GPAs below 3.0. Again, often the first group are disadvantaged students, and often the second group are nontrads who have done postbacs but still have low overall GPAs.

Awe well it was more tongue-in-cheek than anything. Stressing out to the point of obsession / flipping out is not going expedite this year-long-ish process.

Having lengthy, continuous experiences that spanned a few years (or ten) made a lot of these secondaries easy and even fun to answer, especially the ones that asked, "Why our school?" It would be difficult for me personally to say that I am interested in research in medical school when I don't have any exposure to it, for example. The things I do fit my personality and it comes out when I describe them for better or for worse. It is what it is. And I have seen a couple of my friends make it through with less than stellar numbers and a "WOW" factor that isn't as extreme, if at all. So YMMV.

Whether or not someone will look past my verbal score remains in the air for now, but something something prepare for the worst and hope for the best something.

vc7777 - It's great that you pointed that out and I completely agree. I've actually been staying away from PA because of it. As much as I love some of my PA cohorts, I need to take care of myself first.

 

[Nasrudin]

Awe well it was more tongue-in-cheek than anything. Stressing out to the point of obsession / flipping out is not going expedite this year-long-ish process.

Having lengthy, continuous experiences that spanned a few years (or ten) made a lot of these secondaries easy and even fun to answer, especially the ones that asked, "Why our school?" It would be difficult for me personally to say that I am interested in research in medical school when I don't have any exposure to it, for example. The things I do fit my personality and it comes out when I describe them for better or for worse. It is what it is. And I have seen a couple of my friends make it through with less than stellar numbers and a "WOW" factor that isn't as extreme, if at all. So YMMV.

Whether or not someone will look past my verbal score remains in the air for now, but something something prepare for the worst and hope for the best something.

vc7777 - It's great that you pointed that out and I completely agree. I've actually been staying away from PA because of it. As much as I love some of my PA cohorts, I need to take care of myself first.

I think you'll do just fine.

And I'm nobody of any importance with regards to assesing others. But there's a whole lot of things I think "wow" at. Sure, if you're an experienced combat medic, who wouldn't be impressed. But a lot of achievers in life are down right unimpressive people to me. Med school is full of wowish people. But you can make a different type of case for yourself. One that to me, cuts to the heart of things. And not the pomp and circumstance of them.

 

[qwertyytrewq]

This is hands down one of the most informative, well written threads I've ever seen on SDN. If there were a "best of SDN anthology", this thread would be a chapter.

 

[Simplify]

It definitely isn't only about numbers. I applied last year to ~15 schools and while I was on interview hold at several, I didn't actually get any interviews. If numbers were all that mattered, my experience would likely have been quite different. This year, I've applied to 15 schools but I rebooted my entire application. I already have 1 interview at a school I was flat out rejected at last year and, hopefully, will get more in the coming weeks. Obviously numbers matter, but only to a point. Demonstrating a motivation for medicine and being able to adequately explain one's reasoning in the personal statement is, I believe, just as important. I agree that there is too much focus on numbers alone in Pre-Allo as if numbers were the end-all be-all. There are countless examples of applicants with great numbers who don't get any hits on their application.