Class of 2015!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Elijah05 said:
The difference between submitting june 1st and june 10th or w/e is nothing at all. As long as its in june you are fine. If you fill it out all the first day, id recomend waiting a day or two to stay away from it so you can recheck and make sure its all good. I double checked my app before submitting, as you all should. Then i submitted it on the very 1st day. A week later found a fairly major mistake on it. In the end it didnt hurt me too much but i certianly stressed over it a ton and wish i would have just taken a day or two off from my app before submitting. June 1st or june 4th is all the same to amcas🙂
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Thanks for the advice. The main place to mess up is on the PS right? Isn't the rest just basic info like name, school, transcripts, etc. . . Or is there more to it?
 
rHinO1 said:
Thanks for the advice. The main place to mess up is on the PS right? Isn't the rest just basic info like name, school, transcripts, etc. . . Or is there more to it?
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yah PS or on work activities. For me one of my activities was from jan 2006 - june 2007. I wrote jan 2006 - june 2006. I stressed as i talked about this activity in my PS and how i was involved during my entire time at community college. Now it messed up my timeline and I worried they would think i would be lying or something. Looking back its not huge but still a mistake that I wish i wouldnt have made. Also if you make a mistake dont worry. I know several people who made mistakes in dates or the PS (some way more severe then mine) and they still got accepted.
 
Elijah05 said:
yah PS or on work activities. For me one of my activities was from jan 2006 - june 2007. I wrote jan 2006 - june 2006. I stressed as i talked about this activity in my PS and how i was involved during my entire time at community college. Now it messed up my timeline and I worried they would think i would be lying or something. Looking back its not huge but still a mistake that I wish i wouldnt have made. Also if you make a mistake dont worry. I know several people who made mistakes in dates or the PS (some way more severe then mine) and they still got accepted.
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I will definitely watch out for that. I would have freaked. I only have a few activities, but all are relatively lengthy so a mistake like that would suck. I'm glad you got in despite that little error, Congrats.
 
Elijah05 said:
yah PS or on work activities. For me one of my activities was from jan 2006 - june 2007. I wrote jan 2006 - june 2006. I stressed as i talked about this activity in my PS and how i was involved during my entire time at community college. Now it messed up my timeline and I worried they would think i would be lying or something. Looking back its not huge but still a mistake that I wish i wouldnt have made. Also if you make a mistake dont worry. I know several people who made mistakes in dates or the PS (some way more severe then mine) and they still got accepted.
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This is the kind of thing that would keep me up forever. It's good to know in the long run that it doesn't really matter (probably won't keep me from being neurotic, though).

How many schools do you guys think you'll apply to?
 
FlowRate said:
Been in pchem lab for 5.5 hours now. Waiting for calorimetry to run.
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Ah nice, do you get to use a bomb calorimeter?? lol I always read about it in the review books, but obviously never used one in the gen chem lab.
 
IndianVercetti said:
Ah nice, do you get to use a bomb calorimeter?? lol I always read about it in the review books, but obviously never used one in the gen chem lab.
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Yep, bomb calorimeter. The super sensitive thermometers stopped working so we weaseled our way into using a computer set-up instead. Way more tedious than I thought it would be. Not too awful. Lab once a week for up to 6 hours (usually, this week will be 6.5 hours).
 
whimsical said:
This is the kind of thing that would keep me up forever. It's good to know in the long run that it doesn't really matter (probably won't keep me from being neurotic, though).

How many schools do you guys think you'll apply to?
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I made a list today that had about 20 schools on it. It sucks being from California, I have to seriously look at oos friendly schools.
 
whimsical said:
This is the kind of thing that would keep me up forever. It's good to know in the long run that it doesn't really matter (probably won't keep me from being neurotic, though).

How many schools do you guys think you'll apply to?
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Missed this when I posted earlier. My list is ~20 schools. Actually I have the whole list on my MDApps lol. I think it's my final list, for the most part. Spent a while going through curricula, grading schemes, locales, etc. to come up with it. =)
 
Looking back, I perhaps applied to too many schools.😳
 
BlueElmo said:
Looking back, I perhaps applied to too many schools.😳
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I think we all would apply to less. Knowing what I know now, Id have only applied to cali schools and a few select OOS...but its just too risky when you have no idea how things will work out.

rHinO1 said:
I made a list today that had about 20 schools on it. It sucks being from California, I have to seriously look at oos friendly schools.
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yah dude i feel you on that. During last years cycle I was always wishing i was from another state lol. Depending on your scores, id apply to 20-30 being from cali. I had a fairly substandard mcat so i went crazy and did like 47 lol. I also did this becuase it was all free too with fee waivers and scholarships but still. Cali is way unpredictable. People with 3.8 and 34 mcats get rejected and stonewalled all the time while others with low scores have luck too. The only thing id say about schools is just make sure everyone you apply to you would actually attend...i know that sounds stupid but i see on sdn all the time "Ive been accepted to X low ranking school, i think ill withdraw and reapply next year"...
 
BlueElmo said:
Looking back, I perhaps applied to too many schools.😳
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I applied to 10 total.
I am happy with my number now but earlier in the season, I had some doubts. How many did everyone else apply to?

I know someone who applied to only one (a couple of cycles ago)-she had better stats than me and probably should have gotten in. But didn't. That was terrifying to hear.
 
You guys are right, it's too risky. Better apply to a comfortable number of schools and be safe than sorry.
 
BlueElmo said:
You guys are right, it's too risky. Better apply to a comfortable number of schools and be safe than sorry.
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Yep. I figure that since I'm applying to so many schools that are likely to reject me but that'd I'd be happy to go to, it's not the worst idea ever. Hopefully I get an early acceptance so I can drop some of the safeties and less desired schools. :xf::xf::xf: (would be so nice... and so unlikely)
 
Hard to know beforehand how many schools to apply to.

I sent the primary to 32. Then I started getting interviews, so I only finished the secondaries at 24.

At some point, you will burn out from the secondaries.

In hindsight, I played this a little too conservative and applied to too many places.
 
IndianVercetti said:
40+ schools baby. I'm throwing my cards on the table.
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guyski79 said:
Hard to know beforehand how many schools to apply to.

I sent the primary to 32. Then I started getting interviews, so I only finished the secondaries at 24.

At some point, you will burn out from the secondaries.

In hindsight, I played this a little too conservative and applied to too many places.
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Wow, I don't think I'd have the stamina to apply to all those schools. Even 24 secondaries would be rough for me.

FlowRate said:
Yep. I figure that since I'm applying to so many schools that are likely to reject me but that'd I'd be happy to go to, it's not the worst idea ever. Hopefully I get an early acceptance so I can drop some of the safeties and less desired schools. :xf::xf::xf: (would be so nice... and so unlikely)
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I'm lucky in that I have a guaranteed acceptance, so the only places I'm applying are the ones I think I would attend over that school. I'm having a hard time figuring out where I have a shot, though..
 
IndianVercetti said:
40+ schools baby. I'm throwing my cards on the table.
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I'd highly suggest you talk with people who applied to that many schools. Lots of people really lose steam and don't end up finishing all their secondaries or going to all their interviews, and it's really a waste of money. So I'd say when you get your MCAT score trim that list down to a healthy mix of "maybes" and "reaches", depending on where you want to eventually end up. You may surprise yourself and get into a lovely school super early, which is awesome! Then, what do you do with all those extra interview invites you have at these schools you basically shotgunned?

Just some advice 🙂

On the flipside, I made the mistake of applying to only 10 schools. I don't know why I did it. I wish I applied more broadly to more top schools. I underestimated my chances.
 
Does it really take a lot of time to do a secondary? I thought most of the essays are the same for most medical schools?
 
RokKidA said:
Does it really take a lot of time to do a secondary? I thought most of the essays are the same for most medical schools?
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It depends on the school. Yes, there is some overlap, and yes, there are some general themes. But there are a lot of differences in questions, length of essays, quantity of essays, etc. It does take a lot of time, but you can stay ahead of the game by looking at the secondary essay questions in the school specific threads.
 
I applied to 24 and wish I did a few more including a few DOs (such as PCOM).
 
RokKidA said:
Does it really take a lot of time to do a secondary? I thought most of the essays are the same for most medical schools?
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No it doesn't people exagerate IMO. I applied an did 47 secondaries. I'd say 20 of them had no essays and were simple. Of the rest I did a lot of copy n paste as you will find many ask the same questions over and over. You will be asked about diversity on at least 75 percent of them. If you are determined it's not soo hard. Though I will say u less u have a fee waiver no one should apply to as many as I did. In the end I withdrw from about 20 of these schools before an interview due to other acceptances. Also I realized about 12 of these schools I'd be very sad if I had to attend as I had no desire to go tere. If you have no fee waiver you really should nottake the shotgun approach
 
RokKidA said:
Does it really take a lot of time to do a secondary? I thought most of the essays are the same for most medical schools?
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The first few I did took me a few days (that consisted mostly of thinking). By the end I was knocking them out in 2-3 hours.

IndianVercetti said:
40+ schools baby. I'm throwing my cards on the table.
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I wouldn't do that if I were you, unless your numbers are on the low side. I ended up applying to like 31 and completing secondaries at ~27-28. It was way too many, even considering the fact that I'm a CA applicant. If you're not from CA there's no reason to apply to more than 20-25.
 
Tatastrophy said:
How many did everyone else apply to?
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14
RokKidA said:
Does it really take a lot of time to do a secondary? I thought most of the essays are the same for most medical schools?
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They aren't usually to bad. Some schools don't even have a real secondary, they just basically have you pay them. There's a few noteable exceptions (the legendary Duke secondary) that are time consuming but most aren't. And you are correct, at least in my experience, there is alot of overlap between different schools' secondaries.
 
depending on how this smp works out i'm probably looking at 6-20
 
alright, thanks for the input rockaction and jjmrk,

I'm going to wait till my MCAT score, then see how I stand.
 
Yea, I'll probably apply about 20-25 schools including a few DO. I can't do anymore than that (money wise) but I don't know if the rest would even be places I'd want to go, and in that case the spots should stay open for people who actually want to go to the other schools.

As a side note, my class just got their groups and community service assignments and I get to help teach kids how to do science experiments (part of a program to keep kids in school and doing well because they come from struggling families)! So excited 😀 One of the experiments we're going to do is extracting DNA out of strawberries (did it for kids in another class and they loved it!) Does anyone else know of a kid-friendly experiment to do that doesn't cost much to conduct?
 
Elijah05 said:
I think we all would apply to less. Knowing what I know now, Id have only applied to cali schools and a few select OOS...but its just too risky when you have no idea how things will work out.


yah dude i feel you on that. During last years cycle I was always wishing i was from another state lol. Depending on your scores, id apply to 20-30 being from cali. I had a fairly substandard mcat so i went crazy and did like 47 lol. I also did this becuase it was all free too with fee waivers and scholarships but still. Cali is way unpredictable. People with 3.8 and 34 mcats get rejected and stonewalled all the time while others with low scores have luck too. The only thing id say about schools is just make sure everyone you apply to you would actually attend...i know that sounds stupid but i see on sdn all the time "Ive been accepted to X low ranking school, i think ill withdraw and reapply next year"...
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I am hopeful for a CA acceptance, but as you said it is unpredictable. I feel like all of my oos schools should be mid tier since I'm applying there to ensure I get in somewhere. Luckily there are a lot of mid tier schools I have interest in attending. Its hard to know if you would for sure attend a school unless you've been there. It would suck to get to a school you're interviewing at and be like "damn this would suck for 4 years. What was I thinking applying here."
 
rHinO1 said:
I am hopeful for a CA acceptance, but as you said it is unpredictable. I feel like all of my oos schools should be mid tier since I'm applying there to ensure I get in somewhere. Luckily there are a lot of mid tier schools I have interest in attending. Its hard to know if you would for sure attend a school unless you've been there. It would suck to get to a school you're interviewing at and be like "damn this would suck for 4 years. What was I thinking applying here."
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I felt this way at 2 of the schools i interviewed at. After I was accepted at one of them I was praying to god anywhere else let me in lol. For cali this is somewhat anectodal so dont take my word for it, but unless you are one of those 3.8+ 35+ mcat people, I really think cali looks for the im interesting card. People who have odd backgrounds, non-trad students, or just overall people with an interesting story to tell.
 
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BlueElmo said:
Now that's a lot of schools right there.
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I couldn't do it (as much as I would want to), I'd just have too many "I'm too tired to do that tonight, I'll do it later" moments 🙁
 
California is especially tough. I mean I lived in CA for my entire life, and not a single interview invitation from a CA school, goes to show you it's the worst state in terms of med school admissions.
 
whimsical said:
Wow, I don't think I'd have the stamina to apply to all those schools. Even 24 secondaries would be rough for me.

I'm lucky in that I have a guaranteed acceptance, so the only places I'm applying are the ones I think I would attend over that school. I'm having a hard time figuring out where I have a shot, though..
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Yes, I didn't get through all of mine either...once you have your first acceptance, and you know you have some 'market value', your perspective changes dramatically -- beyond the mental fatigue.

Congrats on the guarantee! Keeping that in mind, I think you could whittle your school selection down even further than what you have on your MDapps, IMHO. But having said that, it isn't outrageous. Good luck!
 
The hospital I work at just had At&t come out and install antenna's in the ceiling so we have 3G service in the surgery department. I guess the doctors here have a corporate account and threatened to cancel unless we got better service in the hopital. Now I've got SDN at work, stoked!

I'm on call tonight here so I drank a giant Rockstar. I wonder if I could get away with that as a physician. If I saw my surgeon downing a triple size rockstar at 9 pm before surgery I'd be nervous. haha
 
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lol the Class of 2013 thread currently on Page 2 now only has three exclamation marks. :laugh:
 
rHinO1 said:
The hospital I work at just had At&t come out and install antenna's in the ceiling so we have 3G service in the surgery department. I guess the doctors here have a corporate account and threatened to cancel unless we got better service in the hopital. Now I've got SDN at work, stoked!

I'm on call tonight here so I drank a giant Rockstar. I wonder if I could get away with that as a physician. If I saw my surgeon downing a triple size rockstar at 9 pm before surgery I'd be nervous. haha
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What is your job?
 
Artimacia said:
What is your job?
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Similar job duties as an ER tech but I work in the OR. I basically help set up equipment for surgeries, help get patients into position, help out by doing whatever the nurses ask, and get to watch different types of surgery all day.
 
rHinO1 said:
Similar job duties as an ER tech but I work in the OR. I basically help set up equipment for surgeries, help get patients into position, help out by doing whatever the nurses ask, and get to watch different types of surgery all day.
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That's pretty cool.

I wish my volunteer job was little more upbeat. I help transport patients wherever they need to go, like xray, ultrasound, mri, from ER to rooms, and such
 
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