Did I underachieve this cycle?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
M

maniacmath13

Full Member
10+ Year Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2010
Messages
224
Reaction score
109
Members don't see this ad.
My stats and cycle results are listed on my mdapps page.

With a 37 and 3.9 from a top 20 school I was kind of expecting better results. Of the 4 top tier schools that I interviewed at, I had connections to two, being a Hopkins undergrad and having my Dad as a doctor at Yale. The rest of the 12 top schools I got rejections from...

Could it be that I had below average ECs/LORs or is this about as much as I should have expected?
 
maniacmath13 said:
My stats and cycle results are listed on my mdapps page.

With a 37 and 3.9 from a top 20 school I was kind of expecting better results. Of the 4 top tier schools that I interviewed at, I had connections to two, being a Hopkins undergrad and having my Dad as a doctor at Yale. The rest of the 12 top schools I got rejections from...

Could it be that I had below average ECs/LORs or is this about as much as I should have expected?
Click to expand...

What are your ECs? Your MDapps doesn't show them. Your stats are excellent, especially at such a tough school. Those top schools are a total craps shoot though. Someone with a 3.5/34 might have gotten in over you based on other parts of their app. I would be very content with the interviews you did receive though.

You also left out a lot of quality mid-tier schools. Miami is the only one I see.
 
arnold-schwarzenegger-2009-6-29-15-51-10.jpg


Staaaahp whining!
 
Soo... you only want to be a doctor if you can graduate from a top med school? You know how many people don't even get in at all, even after MULTIPLE attempts? People always love to whine and bitch at the stuff they didn't get and they never think to compare themselves with the majority of people that don't get as lucky as them. If that's your attitude, give up your acceptance to FIU and let someone else who'd be more excited about that seat in.
 
Vandy Premed said:
What are your ECs? Your MDapps doesn't show them. Your stats are excellent, especially at such a tough school. Those top schools are a total craps shoot though. Someone with a 3.5/34 might have gotten in over you based on other parts of their app. I would be very content with the interviews you did receive though.

You also left out a lot of quality mid-tier schools. Miami is the only one I see.
Click to expand...
Volunteer: Health Occupations Students of America, Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity (Service Coordinator), Kansas City Free Health Clinic ~ 400 hours

Clinical: Shadowed at Yale and Hopkins ~ 200 hours.

2 semesters of research at Hopkins Med.

Deans list every semester

Golf Club, Chess Team member (competed in national tournaments), Certified Personal Trainer (worked at Hopkins Rec Center).

As for the other replies, thanks. I usually set my expectations way higher than they need to be, so I needed to hear that. Looking forward to being a doc.
 
Last edited:
getdown said:
Soo... you only want to be a doctor if you can graduate from a top med school? You know how many people don't even get in at all, even after MULTIPLE attempts? People always love to whine and bitch at the stuff they didn't get and they never think to compare themselves with the majority of people that don't get as lucky as them. If that's your attitude, give up your acceptance to FIU and let someone else who'd be more excited about that seat in.
Click to expand...

Little harsh but I agree. Maybe you should retake your MCAT and get a 27 so you're happier with your acceptance thus far. Be happy with the school you're in, and the fact that you have a shot at some other great schools.
 
has anyone mentioned the M on your Mcat?
 
Has there been a rash of "I'm awesome on paper but I've been rejected from the best programs" threads or is it just me? There's more to an application than a GPA and MCAT. Good LORs, essay and ECs play a major role too.

As for the cycle, not being over, I HIGHLY doubt that you'll be receiving more invites by now if you haven't already. And it's unlikely your M made any sort of dent on how you are viewed.

Congrats, you've already gotten into medical school. If you want to improve (for the sake of residency applications later), seriously reflect on your LOR writers and your essay because those are probably what brought you down.
 
getdown said:
Soo... you only want to be a doctor if you can graduate from a top med school? You know how many people don't even get in at all, even after MULTIPLE attempts? People always love to whine and bitch at the stuff they didn't get and they never think to compare themselves with the majority of people that don't get as lucky as them. If that's your attitude, give up your acceptance to FIU and let someone else who'd be more excited about that seat in.
Click to expand...

Its not luck, he worked hard to earn his GPA and his studying, intelect and test taking skill (plus maybe a bit of luck) got him his high MCAT score. He doesn't need to compare himself to butthurt people like you just so you feel better - man up and appreciate that some people are just in their higher expectations or work harder to be at level with them. The only person whining and bitching here is you, OP just asked a question.
 
BaronVonZ said:
man up and appreciate that some people are just in their unreasonable expectations or feel they deserve something because of who they know. The only person whining and bitching here is you, OP just feels entitled.
Click to expand...

fixed.
 
Meh, I see where OP is coming from. With those stats, activities, etc you'd bet on seeing more than FIU.
 
BaronVonZ said:
Its not luck, he worked hard to earn his GPA and his studying, intelect and test taking skill (plus maybe a bit of luck) got him his high MCAT score. He doesn't need to compare himself to butthurt people like you just so you feel better - man up and appreciate that some people are just in their higher expectations or work harder to be at level with them. The only person whining and bitching here is you, OP just asked a question.
Click to expand...

This.

People here get hated on for having higher expectations than anyone else 👎
 
Hammergin said:
Little harsh but I agree. Maybe you should retake your MCAT and get a 27 so you're happier with your acceptance thus far. Be happy with the school you're in, and the fact that you have a shot at some other great schools.
Click to expand...

Not harsh at all, actually....really the previous poster was TOO easy on the OP.
 
Wermz said:
This.

People here get hated on for having higher expectations than anyone else 👎
Click to expand...

"my dad went to yale. shouldn't i get in there?"

that's not high expectations; that's a disgusting attitude.
 
^ what a loser. everyone knows connections help. the op is just introducing it as one part of his case...all he wants to know is the stage of the process where he messed up.
 
WeAreNotRobots said:
"my dad went to yale. shouldn't i get in there?"

that's not high expectations; that's a disgusting attitude.
Click to expand...

I don't think OP thought much of his comment about his father. It was just somethin to mention. Certainly not a big issue lol, but there's always some anxious SDNer ready to hate on some triviality
 
Wermz said:
I don't think OP thought much of his comment about his father. It was just somethin to mention. Certainly not a big issue lol, but there's always some anxious SDNer ready to hate on some triviality
Click to expand...

he thought enough of it to put it in the initial post, and half of the top interviews he got were connections... just sayin.
 
Last edited:
WeAreNotRobots said:
he thought enough of it to put it in the initial post, and half of the top interviews he got were connections... just sayin.
Click to expand...

Then it was a pretty relevant detail to include, wasn't it? Chill.
 
I mentioned the Yale thing to make the point that 2 out of my 4 top tier interviews were probably influenced by connections. Out of the 14 top tier schools that i didn't have connections towards, I got 2 interviews. My question is should this be expected given my stats or does this suggest that other areas of my app were weaker than fellow applicants.

Never did I say that I was upset at being accepted at FIU... thanks to those who didn't flame me for what I thought was a fairly straight forward question.
 
Wermz said:
Then it was a pretty relevant detail to include, wasn't it? Chill.
Click to expand...

yeah, relevant in the sense that maybe he needed the two connections to get those interviews, so without the connections he was only really "good enough" to interview at 2/16 rather than 4/16 of the top schools. this might say something about the true overall strength of his app (non-numbers, non-connections portion), and maybe that the OP is not as "elite" as he thinks he is.

the god complex starts pretty early this generation...and not to worry, i'm already on ice.
 
maniacmath13 said:
With a 37 and 3.9 from a top 20 school I was kind of expecting better results. Of the 4 top tier schools that I interviewed at
Click to expand...
Your repeated reference to school rankings makes me think that you don't understand the so-called rankings, but may be fixated on them all the same. The list of schools you applied to is curious, it gives me a "what was he thinking" reaction.

My guess is that there are a number of soft spots. Others have sensed a bit of an attitude going on (I did too), I wonder if that was apparent to schools from your essays or LORs?
 
Unlike some in this thread, OP, I can appreciate your sentiment as well. 3.9's/37's from tough undergrads just don't magically appear out of thin air - it takes years of toil, and because of that I can relate to you.

You did score some very nice interview opportunities that you apparently haven't heard back from yet, so maybe this cycle has more acceptances waiting for you.

I did notice on your MDApps that it says AMCAS submitted 8/23. Does that mean you didn't send the primary in until then and thus weren't verified until sometime in September? If you would've submitted in June, I would've expected you to have multiple acceptances from at least your state schools at this point. However, if you were sending in your secondaries in Sept/Oct/Nov, I think you were behind the curve by quite a bit. Applying earlier may have made a significant difference.

I mean, really, with your application, you should've had at least 1 or 2 acceptances the week after Oct. 15th if you had submitted your primary in June.
 
Something probably did go wrong with the other 12 schools. It's hard to say what part of your application they didn't like. Unfortunately, that's the application process. Plenty of very competitive students, but not enough space to accept them all.
 
bucks2010 said:
Unlike some in this thread, OP, I can appreciate your sentiment as well. 3.9's/37's from tough undergrads just don't magically appear out of thin air - it takes years of toil, and because of that I can relate to you.

You did score some very nice interview opportunities that you apparently haven't heard back from yet, so maybe this cycle has more acceptances waiting for you.

I did notice on your MDApps that it says AMCAS submitted 8/23. Does that mean you didn't send the primary in until then and thus weren't verified until sometime in September? If you would've submitted in June, I would've expected you to have multiple acceptances from at least your state schools at this point. However, if you were sending in your secondaries in Sept/Oct/Nov, I think you were behind the curve by quite a bit. Applying earlier may have made a significant difference.

I mean, really, with your application, you should've had at least 1 or 2 acceptances the week after Oct. 15th if you had submitted your primary in June.
Click to expand...

nailed it. the nerds in the thread destroyed this thread. op you applied way too late...finishing secondaries in september?
 
BaronVonZ said:
Its not luck, he worked hard to earn his GPA and his studying, intelect and test taking skill (plus maybe a bit of luck) got him his high MCAT score. He doesn't need to compare himself to butthurt people like you just so you feel better - man up and appreciate that some people are just in their higher expectations or work harder to be at level with them. The only person whining and bitching here is you, OP just asked a question.
Click to expand...

By golly, you really enlightened me young premed. My bad, I always thought that med school admissions was more of a privilege rather than an entitlement. Thank you for clarifying that up for me. I guess all those people that didn't get in shoulda just studied more or something. Maybe you can tell the several thousand people with >3.5/>35 scores and are NOT accepted that brilliant idea of yours. Really, to assume that just because you put in the work and effort you somehow "deserve" a spot? How ridiculous. Yes a high GPA and MCAT will get you looked at but if that's all you're bringing to the table, sorry pal, you ain't good enough. Most schools can fill their classes twice over with high GPA/MCAT kids, but fortunately they don't. And considering the OP's luck and unfortunate selection of schools, he is lucky to be holding an acceptance somewhere. Otherwise, he may be sitting pretty with his high GPA and MCAT but with a bunch of waitlists/interviews but NOTHING ELSE.

Really though, I'm not butthurt at all, my butt's enjoying a comfy seat as an M2. I'm just stating a well known fact that it takes more than just a high GPA and MCAT to stand out as an applicant and even more so when it come to applying to these highly competitive schools. Maybe you're the one that's butthurt because you realized all that "work" you've put in and believed to be the end all be all of admissions may be for naught?
 
Last edited:
To the OP: my feeling is that you didn't underachieve, at least not in terms of the number of interviews you recieved. If you look at applicants to tops schools on this board you'll see that a 25% interview rate at top schools is actuallly pretty good. If you underacheived in anything, it was probably at your interviews: you have a pretty high interview to acceptance ratio. So I guess the lesson to take from this is, before you interview for residency, make sure you've done a ton of mock interviews and that you've gotten positive feedback on your approach.

To everyone else: I'm surprised at the amount of anger in this thread. It's like people are genuinely offended by the idea that someone could get into medical school just by being smart and working really hard in college.

BTW I do especially like the medical students 'pulling rank' on the premeds in this thread who disagree with them, because we all know that 'secrets of medical school admissions' is a required course for first years.
 
Last edited:
I don't understand why every thread started by someone ends up turning into an argument. If you don't agree with the OP and/or you don't like the OP, then simply don't post in the thread. No one is asking you to come in to the thread and make a post that is completely unhelpful and mean.

I'm tired of looking through every single thread on these forums to find them flooded with spiteful/hateful comments; I view threads to find helpful information, but so often there are no posts of value in a thread because it is filled with ridiculous comments that add nothing.

On that note, OP, I wouldn't look at the fact that you have only one acceptance in hand as an under-achievement. You have an acceptance, which is awesome!! Ultimately, isn't becoming a doctor your primary goal? No one can take that away from you at this point.

You have interviewed at quite a few places, and still haven't heard final decisions from most of them. Thus, it seems likely you should collect, at a minimum, one or two more acceptances.

At the very least, you should view this process as a learning experience. At the end of the cycle, contact the schools at which you interviewed and gather feedback. Use this feedback to help yourself in the future.

Best of luck to you!!




....waiting for "Welcome to the internet" picture or response and/or some ridiculous reply to my post
 
maniacmath13 said:
My stats and cycle results are listed on my mdapps page.

With a 37 and 3.9 from a top 20 school I was kind of expecting better results. Of the 4 top tier schools that I interviewed at, I had connections to two, being a Hopkins undergrad and having my Dad as a doctor at Yale. The rest of the 12 top schools I got rejections from...

Could it be that I had below average ECs/LORs or is this about as much as I should have expected?
Click to expand...

You underachieved.

Some overachieved.

Be grateful of what you have. I know people who didn't get in which is much more difficult of a situation than a "non-ideal" choice.

Look. Your life isn't going to be win after win. Your character is revealed in how you deal with situations that weren't ideal. Your attitude and effort from here on out will be a test of the type of man or woman you are.
 
maniacmath13 said:
My stats and cycle results are listed on my mdapps page.

With a 37 and 3.9 from a top 20 school I was kind of expecting better results. Of the 4 top tier schools that I interviewed at, I had connections to two, being a Hopkins undergrad and having my Dad as a doctor at Yale. The rest of the 12 top schools I got rejections from...

Could it be that I had below average ECs/LORs or is this about as much as I should have expected?
Click to expand...

I really think its because you're South Asian. That's pretty much like putting yourself in a pool of sharks and piranhas, because we all know that South Asians are way overrepresented at allopathic medical schools in the U.S. Be glad you got in somewhere, because being brown sure doesn't pay when it comes to medical school.

The last South Asian (that I know) that got into Hopkins won a National Scholarship and achieved an almost perfect MCAT score. He also went to WashU for undergrad.
 
let's not get ahead of ourselves OP, you need to see how the final results shake out.
 
OP's MDApps said he submitted his application in end of August. Maybe, that's why he was able to get some interviews but only one acceptance? I'm somewhat surprised that OP only scored 10 on MCAT Bio despite being a Bio major at Hopkins.
 
You got a few months left for hope, and you've got one acceptance. However, I think you did underachieve with the number of interviews you got. I'm pretty sure you messed that up.

To the others, seriously, any top stat student has to wonder why. It's a legit question.
 
maniacmath13 said:
I mentioned the Yale thing to make the point that 2 out of my 4 top tier interviews were probably influenced by connections. Out of the 14 top tier schools that i didn't have connections towards, I got 2 interviews. My question is should this be expected given my stats or does this suggest that other areas of my app were weaker than fellow applicants.

Never did I say that I was upset at being accepted at FIU... thanks to those who didn't flame me for what I thought was a fairly straight forward question.
Click to expand...

I think you're doing fine. You haven't heard back from most of your top interview places, of which you're likely to get into 1 (just based on number of interviews). I had a 3.7/39 from a top 5 undergrad, and was holding a few acceptances at mid-tiers at this point in the cycle. By the end of the cycle (after waitlists had moved) I got into 2 top-notch schools, one of which I'm attending.

Give it some time, and write those update letters and LOIs.
 
Have you not gone to the Penn State and Drexel interviews yet?

I think I can add another reason to why you were straight up rejected at so many schools:
Volunteer: Health Occupations Students of America, Alpha Phi Omega Service Fraternity (Service Coordinator), Kansas City Free Health Clinic ~ 400 hours
Clinical: Shadowed at Yale and Hopkins ~ 200 hours.
2 semesters of research at Hopkins Med.
Deans list every semester
Golf Club, Chess Team member (competed in national tournaments), Certified Personal Trainer (worked at Hopkins Rec Center).
Click to expand...

Your ECs are nothing to write home about. You shadowed and did a couple semesters of research...woohoo just like every other premed. Also, doing a couple of semesters of research (1 year) doesn't necessarily look that great cause you're basically showing you just did research to boost your med school app. You'd want 2-3 years (including summers) if you wanted to show some commitment.

Nobody cares about your membership in Health Occupations Students of America, did you actually do anything significant as part of that? Its like saying you were part of the premed club at school, doesn't matter unless you have something to say about it.

Deans list every semester...right you and 5000 other people.

Golf Club, Chess Team...cooool but those are just basically hobbies you're throwing in there AND notice neither of those are team/leadership sports.

Certified Personal Trainer...again cool but not particularly medically/service relevant.

Kansas City Free Health clinic...what? Did you do this during a summer or something? Hopkins is nowhere near Kansas.

Especially since you're South Asian you need some unique ECs or a demonstrated commitment to research/service. Without seeing lengths of time for any of these, I'm not really seeing that here. Also, like everyone else said your PS may not have been awesome. Hopefully it wasn't along the lines of "my dad is a doctor and so I know what being a doctor is like and I want to be one too"

Oh and I wanted to add that I'm really NOT trying to be mean at all. I wouldn't be happy either if I had a 3.9 at Hopkins and a 37 and didn't even get looked at at WashU, NYU, UPenn, etc. I'm just trying to be realistic though in the mindset you need to take when approaching your ECs and PS. When you do an EC you should be focusing on showing your commitment to certain things, not just checking off the shadowing, research, hospital volunteer, etc.
Questions you should be thinking about to address are:
What did I learn at the free clinic?
What types of doctors did I shadow and how did this help inform my decision/interest me in different areas?
What was my research project on and what types of skills did I learn from doing research? Did you help form your own project or run gels for a grad student?
Did you get LORs from people who knew you well and could attest to your leadership skills/interest in medicine/interest in research/etc. or did you get a few of your LOR from some professor who didn't know you outside of class?
Did your PS make sense in the context of the activities you have done and the people you got your LORs from? This could be especially important if your PS had nothing to do with anything else in your application.
 
Last edited:
I think there's a lot of jealousy in this thread that permeates a lot of other SDN threads as well :laugh:

OP, I think everyone understands you're disappointment. One thing to keep in mind is that these schools could fill their class with students that have high GPA/high MCAT/ and the standard volunteer hours+1 year of research. You have to focus on what separates you from the hundreds of other students with that same combination, and perhaps that's why you didn't net as strong as a performance as you hoped for.

Nonetheless, you still have made great progress at some great schools and at this point there's nothing much more you can do about it but wait and see what continues to develop.
 
calvnandhobbs68 said:
Have you not gone to the Penn State and Drexel interviews yet?

Especially since you're South Asian you need some unique ECs or a demonstrated commitment to research/service. Without seeing lengths of time for any of these, I'm not really seeing that here. Also, like everyone else said your PS may not have been awesome. Hopefully it wasn't along the lines of "my dad is a doctor and so I know what being a doctor is like and I want to be one too"....
Click to expand...

I'll be going to those in March.

My PS was about how I failed my practical exam the first time before getting hired as a personal trainer. I didn't show I had the "soft" skills necessary for the job during the first try, so I worked on that.

Then I talked about how I witnessed the importance of these skills while shadowing doctors: making the patient feel comfortable, explaining results in a tactful way... etc, and how working as a PT has helped me learn those things.

👍/👎 ?
 
Quick response...now I'm gonna look like a loser cause I responded so fast too.

So your PS is interesting but here's the problem with it (from what I can see). Instead of talking about why you chose to be a doctor/what made you want to be a doctor/who has inspired you to be a doctor, you seem to be talking about why you would be a good doctor.

This may very well have not flown with the people who read your PS because they're not seeing the correlation between you helping people work out and a doctor figuring out the right way to tell someone that they are dying. In fact, if a doctor read your PS he/she may have thought you were kind of arrogant to even compare the two things. Although working as a PT may have helped you learn good customer service, it is a bit of a stretch to say its helped you learn how to deliver a diagnosis. I could definitely see this rubbing someone the wrong way.

To put it another way, its kind of like me saying I learned the same soft skills doctors use while I was working in Target and helping people find stuff...you can see why it doesn't make very much sense.
 
Last edited:
maniacmath13 said:
I'll be going to those in March.

My PS was about how I failed my practical exam the first time before getting hired as a personal trainer. I didn't show I had the "soft" skills necessary for the job during the first try, so I worked on that.

Then I talked about how I witnessed the importance of these skills while shadowing doctors: making the patient feel comfortable, explaining results in a tactful way... etc, and how working as a PT has helped me learn those things.

👍/👎 ?
Click to expand...

The PS prompt is explain why you want to go to medical school. You answered with that?
 
Yeah I see what you're saying. I thought it'd be okay because I talked to doctors who agreed it was a valid comparison before I wrote it. I tried to make it clear in the PS that I wasn't saying PT was the same as being a doctor, but there's some similar skills needed like building trust and using the interview time to learn valuable information about the person to better help them.

As for not directly addressing the "why" question, I guess I was trying to make the PS more interesting. The true "why" essay would be:

"I noticed the satisfactions and rewards of being a doctor at a young age with parents as doctors. Through volunteering at hospitals and shadowing doctors, I knew for sure that this was what I wanted to do."

But isn't that like every PS? Maybe I just shouldn't have tried to stand out...
 
?I Don't see how you tried to stand out. You became a PT. There's millions of them. I think you don't need to stand out because if you are honest, you most of the time are unique.

but my best guess is that you also didn't present yourself clearly, concisely during your interviews + personal statement in reference to your MCAT score + your ethnic background. it'll just take some work, but you got 1 in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

A
  • Locked
should I apply this cycle?
Replies
7
Views
627
Faha
F
D
Should I apply this cycle or wait?????
Replies
6
Views
690
dextrosedaddy
D
A
Physician offering help for this cycle
Replies
1
Views
444
stew_md
S
N
Accidentally doubled my activity hours in this cycle vs. last
Replies
4
Views
319
nontrad1001
N
C
What to do if I don’t get in this cycle
Replies
18
Views
2K
chilly_md
chilly_md
Top