Do you know someone that regularly uses SDN?

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youngmo

youngmo

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Just a question for all you crazy pre-meds (including me) out there. I go to a small liberal arts college and the pre-med scene is pretty dead. If I told another pre-med about SDN they would think I'm crazy! Do you guys know people that actively use SDN?? I know I for sure don't. Just curious !!
 
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Psai said:
Some people think it's cool to hate on this site but there's a lot of good information on here. I got much better advice than from my college advisors.
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This is true. I understand the "hate" and its mainly due to the neurotic pre-med stereotype but some of the things on here were invaluable for applying to med school. Personal statement readers and MCAT studying were the biggest things for me. As well as just gathering information on lots of things (schools, residencies, specialties, step, etc), to be informed is always good. Just have to be able to sift through BS info.
 
All the shifty eyed pre-med gunners openly hate on SDN, but are secretly 1k+ posters who lurk and shytpost on preallo/osteo, allo/osteo AND the lounge 🙄
 
My roommates know who I am on SDN so occasionally we talk about something on the site. Usually advice or a really funny thread. Nobody else talks about it but I am 100% sure every premed here has seen the site lol. You can't google search anything about medical school without SDN popping up. Lots of people who have applied already have openly advised me to use SDN to look up secondaries and prewrite them so they are probably posters on here too
 
Lannister said:
Everyone at my school hates it because they say it's discouraging. Honestly, if reading posts from more accomplished people makes you feel that bad about yourself, you need to grow a thicker skin.
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Speaking about thicker skins, the WikiHow explains it quite well

Do you tend to overreact when someone says something hurtful? It's normal to feel a sting when someone criticizes or insults you. However, if you tend to lash out in anger, cry, or feel upset for days, you may want to focus on developing a thicker skin.
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This happens at a surprisingly high frequency among newbies on SDN who viciously attack the experienced members because blunt honesty offended them.
 
I wonder about the college confidential to SDN transition. I was a pretty strong college confidential member back in HS and it certainly helped a lot in terms of everything admissions/application related but it was also similarly filled with neurotic HS (although I was probably one of them as well 😉 ) Any of you guys here previous college confidential users?

And at my school (which is FILLED with premeds), I have never heard SDN mentioned once, but I am sure that over 35-40% of the premeds use it.
 
I have a friend that posts pretty regularly in our MCAT discussion group. It was a little awkward at first to realize we had been corresponding on SDN as well. He and I both go to small schools. I would never out him in public though. My sorority big sis was a frequent poster as well. She is the one that convinced me to try it, but she is too busy at med school to post any longer.
 
im went to a top 15 school and sdn is seen for what it is...good info hidden among arrogance and bias. u must learn to read between lines
 
raiderette said:
I have a friend that posts pretty regularly in our MCAT discussion group. It was a little awkward at first to realize we had been corresponding on SDN as well. He and I both go to small schools. I would never out him in public though. My sorority big sis was a frequent poster as well. She is the one that convinced me to try it, but she is too busy at med school to post any longer.
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Wait what! Who??
 
I actually really enjoy this site.. I find it very informative and a way to stay connected to the pre-med/medical community. The arrogance and bias you see on SDN is unfortunately prevalent in pre-med/medical field.. no way around it!
 
RedStar7 said:
I wonder about the college confidential to SDN transition. I was a pretty strong college confidential member back in HS and it certainly helped a lot in terms of everything admissions/application related but it was also similarly filled with neurotic HS (although I was probably one of them as well 😉 ) Any of you guys here previous college confidential users?

And at my school (which is FILLED with premeds), I have never heard SDN mentioned once, but I am sure that over 35-40% of the premeds use it.
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I used CC to find out the stats of people who were getting into schools I wanted to apply to but other than that I found it to be 100x as toxic as SDN. Parents calling their children "D1 and S2" and stuff and posting about all of the programs they had their kid join to get into Stanford just made my stomach turn so I couldn't bear the place. I've always been a forum user though. In junior high I role-played on the Pendragon (book series) forums, in high school I hung out on the FFXI and WoW boards for my guild / Linkshell. In college I go on SDN. Internet's a fun place
 
I check it regularly. I find it comforting not to feel like I'm not in the application process alone, and oddly satisfying seeing people more neurotic than me panic.
The over-achievers don't bother me, and the toxicity has great entertainment value.
 
As I mentioned in another thread, the officers of our premed club actively told people to avoid this site because it "sets the bar unrealistically high." Well, it seems that most of my fellow premeds listened because whenever I would try to give them insightful advice that I found on this site, they would be like "OMG where did you hear that?! No fair man your advisor is way better than mine." 😵

EDIT: To answer the question, I have not actually met anyone in person that admits to using SDN.
 
I find that its very easy to get addicted to SDN, especially during off-times like breaks, etc.
 
At one of the interviews I attended, a tour leader at some point divided the students into two "teams" for part of the tour. She asked the teams to name themselves and on my team, one guy immediately said, "Team SDN" and got roundly booed. I don't know if that counts as "knowing" someone on SDN IRL.

And on a school specific thread I posted about getting rejected after interview ... someone asked me why I thought that happened, and I revealed a few more details about myself than I usually do. I then got PM'd by another student from that interview day who "recognized" me. Another "sort of" knowing someone who uses SDN?
 
bumblebee611 said:
At one of the interviews I attended, a tour leader at some point divided the students into two "teams" for part of the tour. She asked the teams to name themselves and on my team, one guy immediately said, "Team SDN" and got roundly booed. I don't know if that counts as "knowing" someone on SDN IRL.

And on a school specific thread I posted about getting rejected after interview ... someone asked me why I thought that happened, and I revealed a few more details about myself than I usually do. I then got PM'd by another student from that interview day who "recognized" me. Another "sort of" knowing someone who uses SDN?
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Yeah on school specific threads you'll occasionally see a post from someone who was the same interview day as you and think to yourself I wonder which of the other applicants that could be...
 
What negativity, arrogance, and toxicity are people constantly referring to? People practically flinched when I brought up SDN on my interviews...
I don't need to 'read between the lines', I just ignore sh*tposts by random accounts.

Is it simply babby's first internet discussion forum?
 
I recognized the EC of @flyer04 in a WAMC thread. I had never talked to him before but he was in my immunology class. It was pretty funny
 
I have a friend who is working to get to med school as well and we've both acknowledged that we lurk on the site. Not that we have accounts though.

I've used forums in the past- I used to shamelessly self promote myself (anonymously) to college basketball scouts on high school sports forums and it actually got me a couple extra looks.
 
I visit almost daily. Burnt out, I started coming here to regain a new perspective on my medical career and to check out on my alma mater. Since I started donating to them with monthly payments over a year ago there's been a certain degree of pride that I seem to suddenly have.
 
At least 3-4 people in my smallish MD/PhD program use SDN, although we don't generally talk about it. I've met 5-6 people on the residency trail that I can also connect to SDN usernames - many are now either texting buddies or Facebook friends.
 
At one of my interviews, I asked some people if they'd heard (insert crap about this school) and I said I'd heard it on SDN. They all looked mortified and denied ever getting on the site. After a few minutes, it became clear we were all on it.

As far as the ridiculous arrogance and crazy over competitiveness, it's not nearly as bad as the premeds from undergrad. I have no idea to this day why so many people kept trying to prove to me how innately superior they are to me in every way despite it being very obvious that I didn't care at all. I don't even think any of them made it into med school...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
hahaha

Reckoner said:
I use this site to try and pick up women. So no I've never met anyone else who uses sdn
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I dont think having an account on SDN will make you weird or crazy. People uses this site for guidance. This site is regulated on a daily basis and will filter out any unnecessary material.
 
Lannister said:
Depends where you look Haha. Sometimes it's hard to see people posting about having 10+ interviews when you only have one or two.
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Agreed, every school thread seems to have people turning down interviews due to multiple acceptances and here I am with 2 interviews and a couple small pools lol.
 
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