catch me if you can...

[it.]

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lately, there has been a lot of trolling by the person known by these names: ChemistryMike, OrganicMLover, SelfObssesedMike. thing is, no matter how many times he changes his name, we can always see right through his posts. this got me thinkin about the personal statements. adcoms read tons of these personal statements, so they must be able to see right thru liars and bs rather easily. have you known of anybody that has lied on the application and gotten away with it?

 

[it.]

.

 

[willthatsall]

I don't know about that. I think it depends on how good of a BSer you are. That guy, for example, uses the same writing style and asks the same type of idiot inflammatory questions everytime he makes a new name. And his names always look kind of similar. So it's not really hard to figure out that it's him over and over. But I would guess that many BS PS's look very similar to genuine PS's written by other applicants. I mean, there is only so much you can say to convince ADCOM's of your passion for medicine. Maybe ADCOM's can tell, but it has to be way harder than recognizing when that guy is trolling again.

 

[DrBuro]

Someone I know was only a slightly-above-average applicant as an english major. She BSed almost half of her PS, because she was trying to write an interesting story. She got into a whole bunch of low-tier schools and somehow got accepted to Harvard because of the BS story. If you don't think you will get nervous on the interviews when they ask about the lie, I guess there's no way they will know. I'm sure plenty of people add tons of crap to try and sound impressive. Just remember though, if they ever find out, you are the most screwed person on earth. It is against federal law to lie on the AMCAS.

My Harvard acquaintance has a file on MDApplicants. I could not find it myself at the moment, but try and search for it.

 

[nicholonious]

lately, there has been a lot of trolling by the person known by these names: ChemistryMike, OrganicMLover, SelfObssesedMike. thing is, no matter how many times he changes his name, we can always see right through his posts. this got me thinkin about the personal statements. adcoms read tons of these personal statements, so they must be able to see right thru liars and bs rather easily. have you known of anybody that has lied on the application and gotten away with it?

There has been many stories of people getting caught. Some would reach MS-4 and then be discovered that he or she covered up for a previous misdemeanor/felony that wasn't listed in AMCAS. They got what was coming to them.

 

[cher25]

There has been many stories of people getting caught. Some would reach MS-4 and then be discovered that he or she covered up for a previous misdemeanor/felony that wasn't listed in AMCAS. They got what was coming to them.

Where I used to work there was an MS-3 expelled at the end of his 3rd year because they found out that he lied about something on his med school app.

 

[it.]

Where I used to work, Baylor College of Medicine, there was an MS-3 expelled at the end of his 3rd year because they found out that he lied about something on his med school app.

that sucks. do you know what he lied about?

 

[Law2Doc]

There has been many stories of people getting caught. Some would reach MS-4 and then be discovered that he or she covered up for a previous misdemeanor/felony that wasn't listed in AMCAS. They got what was coming to them.

The people who get caught or expelled for lying tend to get nabbed based on the more objective things in their application -- failing to mention a school they went to and/or where they failed, cheated, committed crimes. Either someone turns them in, or things pop up during subsequent paperwork follow-up. If someone lies about eg. a very personal, life shaping experience in a PS it is hard to check. But from my experience, I can assure you that only a very small percentage of the population can lie convincingly in person without seeming deceptive or slipping up (and those people are older and more practiced or pathalogical -- someone right out of college will not be as pollished) - so I suspect most who try to lie in an interview don't come off too well.

 

[LizzyM]

If someone lies about eg. a very personal, life shaping experience in a PS it is hard to check.

I recall an applicant, a humanities major, IIRC, who was doing well in a post-bac and wrote an essay stating that two tragic events, one personal and one affecting a close family member, turned him around in his senior year of college and gave him the idea of pursuing a career in medicine.

Hmmm, I said. Why did this humanities major take Biology, Calculus, Chem and Organic Chem (and do poorly) during his first two years of college? why did he take the MCAT in his junior year if he didn't even have the idea of going to medical school until the following year? If he hadn't given me the b.s. about not being interested in medicine until that fateful summer, I might have interviewed him.

Another wrote a sob story about her chronically ill grandmother's influence on her and grandma's last wish: that this applicant become a doctor. Unfortunately, she mentioned that her family immigrated after grandma died and elsewhere she mentioned the year she immigrated. A quick glance at her birthday and she was caught. She was <2 years old when grandma died.

 

[gujuDoc]

I recall reading a story right here on SDN about a person that knew of someone that had lied about volunteering and got blacklisted for their deed. The person that was blacklisted ended up having to go to the foreign med schools.

it is quite stupid of a person to lie on an application this important. More importantly, it is quite unethical. There are some things a person shouldn't do.

My friend did not get into 1 of his 2 top choice med schools because he tried to BS one of his interviews by over exaggerating his activities.

The best thing that a person ever said to me is to be yourself during the application process. Don't try to be someone you are not. You don't need some super fancy tale about saving the world to get into med school. You just need to do well and do some decent ECs to show your interest in medicine. While you should stand out, it doesn't mean you need to picture yourself to be superman or wonderwoman.

 

[2009doc]

i don't know the specifics of the ps, but i do know someone whose entire personal statement was written by his/her spouse! and that spouse also wrote another friends personal statement as well. pathetic.

 

[gujuDoc]

i don't know the specifics of the ps, but i do know someone whose entire personal statement was written by his/her spouse! and that spouse also wrote another friends personal statement as well. pathetic.

That's pathetic, but not as pathetic if the stories in there were true, as writing a lie.

 

[jbm44]

lately, there has been a lot of trolling by the person known by these names: ChemistryMike, OrganicMLover, SelfObssesedMike. thing is, no matter how many times he changes his name, we can always see right through his posts. this got me thinkin about the personal statements. adcoms read tons of these personal statements, so they must be able to see right thru liars and bs rather easily. have you known of anybody that has lied on the application and gotten away with it?

What is up with you guys and your paranoia with anyone that you say is "trolling"? I admit, its fricken lame for guys to pose idioic questions just to evoke people's response, but the way you guys feed it by doing threads like this eggs it on and it becomes funny. The ultimate example of this is ultimate troll himself on the radio: Phil Hendrie. That guy is comedy because people feed the machine just like you do. I guess the last line in your post can actually double as a pun too, because ChemistrydorkMike has gotten away with IT (you know, your name....)

 

[gujuDoc]

What is up with you guys and your paranoia with anyone that you say is "trolling"? I admit, its fricken lame for guys to pose idioic questions just to evoke people's response, but the way you guys feed it by doing threads like this eggs it on and it becomes funny. The ultimate example of this is ultimate troll himself on the radio: Phil Hendrie. That guy is comedy because people feed the machine just like you do. I guess the last line in your post can actually double as a pun too, because ChemistrydorkMike has gotten away with IT (you know, your name....)

Granted that he mentioned trolling, that's not what he was asking about. If you reread the post, you'll see that it has more to do with wanting to know what sort of horror stories people have heard of people who lied on their med school apps and got caught.

 

[xSTALLiONx]

i don't know the specifics of the ps, but i do know someone whose entire personal statement was written by his/her spouse! and that spouse also wrote another friends personal statement as well. pathetic.

ghost writing is ok if the writing is based on the person's own experiences.. 👍

i've written a couple of PS's for a nice profit.. the president doesn't write his own speeches

 

[Medikit]

Someone I know was only a slightly-above-average applicant as an english major. She BSed almost half of her PS, because she was trying to write an interesting story. She got into a whole bunch of low-tier schools and somehow got accepted to Harvard because of the BS story. If you don't think you will get nervous on the interviews when they ask about the lie, I guess there's no way they will know. I'm sure plenty of people add tons of crap to try and sound impressive. Just remember though, if they ever find out, you are the most screwed person on earth. It is against federal law to lie on the AMCAS.

My Harvard acquaintance has a file on MDApplicants. I could not find it myself at the moment, but try and search for it.

This one http://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=3226 ?

I don't think of a 34/3.35 as a slightly above average applicant, usually a GPA below a 3.4 makes it so you need a 33/34 just to be competitive.

 

[cher25]

that sucks. do you know what he lied about?

I don't know.. all I know is that he was a well known student. President of some med school organization and when it happened, a mass e-mail was sent out to all of the tenured professors, one of which I worked in his lab. And I remember thinking to myself... there has to be some other way to punish him than to kick him out of med school. But they never revealed what exactly he lied about. They kept that fact to themselves. All they said to us regular employees was that someone that he knew anonymously went to the dean about it. So all of those people willing to lie their way to the top.. make sure that you convince yourself that the lie is the truth because you're bound to slip up somewhere. In other words... don't lie.

 

[Law2Doc]

ghost writing is ok if the writing is based on the person's own experiences.. 👍

i've written a couple of PS's for a nice profit.. the president doesn't write his own speeches

Well, for the person who turns in others work as his own (PS or otherwise), it technically constitutes plagiarism (notwithstanding that the writing is biographical). Ghost writing in publishing and political speech writing is not held to the same academic standards.

 

[Indryd]

How's this for the ultimate stats irony?

http://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=3266

So much for black and white cutoff points for numbers, eh?

Who would think to even apply to Harvard with numbers like that?

Crazy

 

[LizzyM]

How's this for the ultimate stats irony?

http://www.mdapplicants.com/viewprofile.php?id=3266

Has it every occurred to anyone that there may be trolls on mdapplicants?? That one ^ really made my b.s. detector go off!

 

[DrBuro]

I agree.

 

[gujuDoc]

Has it every occurred to anyone that there may be trolls on mdapplicants?? That one ^ really made my b.s. detector go off!

This is the very reason we always tell people not to put too much stock into mdapplicants. There were some BS ones about people who claimed they got a 44 and 45 MCAT score, when the AAMC officially told my friend that the highest was the 43 she received and one other person received in that particular year those 44 aznd 45 MCAT score md app profiles were created.

I think the BS detector has been set off many times by reading mdapps.

 

[Centinel]

Someone I know was only a slightly-above-average applicant as an english major. She BSed almost half of her PS, because she was trying to write an interesting story. She got into a whole bunch of low-tier schools and somehow got accepted to Harvard because of the BS story. If you don't think you will get nervous on the interviews when they ask about the lie, I guess there's no way they will know. I'm sure plenty of people add tons of crap to try and sound impressive. Just remember though, if they ever find out, you are the most screwed person on earth. It is against federal law to lie on the AMCAS.

My Harvard acquaintance has a file on MDApplicants. I could not find it myself at the moment, but try and search for it.

Oh my god - is she the one who somewhere on her mdapplicants profile says "In the future I would recommend being completely truthful and honest"??? That was simply AMAZING, and I forwarded it to some friends from Harvard's rival in CT.

 

[Psycho Doctor]

I recall an applicant, a humanities major, IIRC, who was doing well in a post-bac and wrote an essay stating that two tragic events, one personal and one affecting a close family member, turned him around in his senior year of college and gave him the idea of pursuing a career in medicine.

Hmmm, I said. Why did this humanities major take Biology, Calculus, Chem and Organic Chem (and do poorly) during his first two years of college? why did he take the MCAT in his junior year if he didn't even have the idea of going to medical school until the following year? If he hadn't given me the b.s. about not being interested in medicine until that fateful summer, I might have interviewed him.

Another wrote a sob story about her chronically ill grandmother's influence on her and grandma's last wish: that this applicant become a doctor. Unfortunately, she mentioned that her family immigrated after grandma died and elsewhere she mentioned the year she immigrated. A quick glance at her birthday and she was caught. She was <2 years old when grandma died.

it's amazing people can be so stupid to lie and secondly if they are going to lie that they do such a poor job of it. Hopefully they got what they deserve. 👎

 

[liverotcod]

Everything I say is a lie.

😉

 

[RayhanS1282]

This is the very reason we always tell people not to put too much stock into mdapplicants.
I think the BS detector has been set off many times by reading mdapps.

I agree. I was watching a mdapplicant profile whose MCAT score magically changed from a 34 to a 35 in the duration of a month (January to February). I guess, what's the harm in adding another extra point to round out a nice whole MCAT score?

 

[nebrfan]

Greased-Up Deaf Guy...

"You're never gonna catch me! you're wasting your time! Go do something else!"

 

[Flopotomist]

I recall an applicant, a humanities major, IIRC, who was doing well in a post-bac and wrote an essay stating that two tragic events, one personal and one affecting a close family member, turned him around in his senior year of college and gave him the idea of pursuing a career in medicine.

Hmmm, I said. Why did this humanities major take Biology, Calculus, Chem and Organic Chem (and do poorly) during his first two years of college? why did he take the MCAT in his junior year if he didn't even have the idea of going to medical school until the following year? If he hadn't given me the b.s. about not being interested in medicine until that fateful summer, I might have interviewed him.

Another wrote a sob story about her chronically ill grandmother's influence on her and grandma's last wish: that this applicant become a doctor. Unfortunately, she mentioned that her family immigrated after grandma died and elsewhere she mentioned the year she immigrated. A quick glance at her birthday and she was caught. She was <2 years old when grandma died.

Don't people have two grandmothers?

 

[crazy_cavalier]

Everything I say is a lie.

😉

except that! and that. and that. and that. and that and that and that and that and that...