For those who have been accepted....

[Hopkins2010]

Looking back now, what are your impressions of the ease/difficulty of getting into med school?

I know that so many of us have worked our asses off for 4 (or in my case 5 1/2 years) to get to this point. And there are others who took a longer path through other careers, family, etc.

And then theres another group of us (probably a smaller subset) who found getting accepted wasnt too difficult, that they never found themselves worried about what they would do if they werent accepted anywhere.

Thinking about this, I remember an infamous post on the Princeton Review board. I cant remember the exact wording. It wasnt posted in response to anybody in particular but instead seemed to be making a point about all of us:

"You are NOT a unique and beautiful snowflake. The fact is you are ORDINARY and will live an ORDINARY life."

I find this interesting because it is a direct conflict to the quote in my signature. Two opposing world views of humanity it seems. Which one do you think is a better representation of our potential?

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[THE instiGATOR]

It sure wasn't easy. I think frustrating is the ideal word to describe the process. I had a well-rounded application last year, with one exception...the MCAT. Being rejected by 15 schools really hurt my ego. This year, however, the first school to interview me offered an acceptance. I have a feeling of relief.

Perhaps the most difficult part is knowing that others have higher expectations of me than I do of myself. I hold veeeeeeery high standards for myself, and can get offended when others expect more of me.


Unfortunately, I have an Inorganic chem final tomorrow. I will never use this stuff. Ugh, molecular orbital theory...here I come .

 

[EMDrMoe]

Good luck, Swampman! May tomorrow be the last day you see that stuff!!!

 

[alice]

Aah, Baylor, I admire you for your hard work and achievements. BUT: I am a green-eyed monster when I realize that it's Dec 11 and you are already 'looking back'.... While I, too, am lucky enough to have gotten acceptances, the process is FAR from over for me and for many of the other posters.

What are we thinking...March? April? I don't know when the nervous waiting will end, but I'm not ready to vote on whether the whole thing was tough or not right now. I still check my voice mail, email and po box like a fiend. I just wanted to offer a word of restraint on the revelry until some more of us are ready to party.

My thoughts as of now: I think that this process required every bit of diligence and determination that it threatened to. I don't think a normal laid back person could survive it with tremendous success. But I don't think that any terrific feats of intelligence were required. I think that's good news if perhaps some of us aren't having the kind of luck we'd hope for. Working hard and having good numbers, having a diverse file of experience, and a good attitude will get you in. It's encouraging to see how successful people are when they repeat this process.

So, congratulations to those who have cashed in their chips, but for those of you still out there on the floor playing their hand, BEST OF LUCK!

 

[praying4MD]

At the beginning of this process, you start out as the quote Baylor has in his sig. By the end of the harrowing experience, you end up thinking like the one posted on TPR.

The system, for lack of a better word, sucks. It literally sucks everything out of you and sadly, I have found that it rewards the self-absorbed and ruthless people the most. This isn't directed at anyone in particular or even at this smaller process of applying to med school, but rather, it is taking a look at the big picture and seeing how people end up at the end of their medical career that has led me to this jaded conclusion. Sorry to be so negative, but the majority of the people that I have seen go through the entire medical education process feel jaded, and almost forced to alter their conception of the world in order to survive, much like myself.

 

[Katie]

I agree with the above poster; I'm only a first year and have already started to feel that way. I had to wait a long time to get an acceptance and after being on 6 waitlists I had started to lose all my hope and idealism. When I got in in July, I had some of my faith restored. I am currently happy to be in med school and still want to be a doctor of course. But, over the past semester I have come to feel that there is absolutely nothing special about me (well at least nothing positive) as a human being. I didn't exactly come in here with an ego the size of Alaska to say the least, but whatever ego I had has been crushed. I am doing well in school, but feel like I don't "fit" with many of my classmates who are going to be doctors, and feel pressure to conform to expected social mores (even when I go to this board; sometimes I wonder why I visit it (and the remarks about blah blah leave if you don't like it can be inserted here if you choose)). It sort of makes me wonder what kind of doctor I'll be if I am so different from my colleagues. Will my patients suffer? Also makes me wonder why the admissions committee picked me; I am not a mature married or soon-to-be married person who went to an Ivy League school and/or had all kinds of amazing experiences saving people around the world and having babies, etc. In other words, I am pretty g/d ordinary

 

[YBee]

I think we can be ordinary and unique at the same time Most people are ordinary in the sense that they live a fairly routine life and go through the same types of things - elementary school, high school, possibly college, hang out with their friends and shoot the breeze, fall in love, have children (sometimes!) etc. The fact that we all do these things doesn't make us individually any less special and doesn't change the fact that individually each of us can have a profound effect on other people.

I don't actually think that those two posts are mutually exclusive. I think they appear that way b/c TPR post is written in a sarcastic and nasty sort of tone. Take the tone away and the message is not really so horrible. My opinion anyway

Katie, I think you are being way too hard on yourself. The fact that you are already concerned about whether your patients will be well-served by you, tells me that you are going to be a marvelous clinician.

 

[nerfornothin]

The first rule of fight club is... You don't talk about fight club.

The second rule of fight club is... You don't talk about fight club.

 

[SMW]

Perhaps it is most often the ordinary man/woman who has nothing to lose.

 

[The Falconer]

I have to agree with praying4md. I thought the whole process was really disgraceful. AMCAS was really the primer. Part of my problems were self imposed with an MCAT that is sub-par in comparison to my GPA, but I did screen through several "difficult to obtain a secondary" schools. Several schools here in CA have been seemingly hard hit by the AMCAS delays and they themselves are now dragging their posteriors. The whole process just blew!

 

[DNALadder2002]

Let's just hope the next year applicants don't have to go through what we went through this summer/fall. AMCAS sucks!

 

[Jamier2]

Originally posted by DNALadder2002:
•Let's just hope the next year applicants don't have to go through what we went through this summer/fall. AMCAS sucks!•••

I hope they go through the same as us. I don't want to be the only one to get screwed. If next year's applicants don't see for themselves they will never realize the true pain we went through.

 

[rikkitikki]

I think its been worse for those of you who are applying this year because of the AMcas debacle. Last year for those with generally atrong stats, references, etc. there were enough schools that had their acts together and had rolling admissions that more people knew they were at least going somewhere early in the process(for me I bless GWU for anxiety reduction) Later in the process it was more intense when many of the schools with fixed notification started announcing and the "crap shoot" issues emerged. Excitement when the wait lists started clearing and then just deciding. It does seem like it goes on forever- but for those who aren't doing well so far THERE IS A LOT OF WAITLIST MOVEMENT!

 

[elle]

The med school application process is much more random that I expected. Then again, considering 10,000 people apply to some schools, how on earth do they manage to schedule interviews?!

I think that choosing the schools you apply to very carefully (like schools that take a lot of out of staters if you're out of state) can help quite a bit sometimes, but there's a certain amount of luck involved as well. So I wish all of you the best of luck

Also, Katie, I agree with the poster who said you seem awfully tough on yourself. I am curious about something... I remember you posted that you went to undergrad at maryland, is social life in med school a lot different from College Park? I realize that all schools will be different and everyone's experience will be different -- I'm just wondering if the first year of med schools is like starting college all over again

 

[EMDrMoe]

You know, I think we all have very valid points. This experience is different for everyone. In my case, my husband and I applied together after working for 5 years as athletic trainers. Our educational background was different, but we both have bachelor's and master's degrees. The master's degrees are from the same school, though (where we met). Not only did I have the stress of my application process, but I had the stress of my husband's process. The same went for him. What if one of us gets in and the other doesn't? What if we get into different schools?

I can tell you that determination and making yourself known is a necessity throughout this ordeal. The process will knock you down repeatedly, so make your chances soar - call the school, get to know them a bit. Depending on your dream school, this may make a huge difference. It did for us. The staff knew exactly how much we wanted to go there - no games. As of this week, we both are accepted.

There has to be something to set you apart - the people who back down easily will not meet with much success. I definitely agree with that.

Good luck to all who are waiting and congrats to those who are in. I hope to meet you all someday

 

[kutastha]

This year - piece of cake.

Take all years put together - a pain in the ass.

Andrew

 

[elle]

Hey folks,

Something else I thought of is that timing can have a lot to do with how easy or hard you find this process... for example: I didn't take the August MCAT, but I imagine if I did I would have been pretty stressed out this summer, between trying to fill out the AMCAS application, get letters of recommendation, do secondaries, and studying for the MCAT (not to mention work!). Congratulations to those of you who did this, you have my respect But anyway, factors like taking the August MCAT or not being able to get recommendations in early and stuff like that can lead to months of waiting for interviews... So my long-winded point is that your personal timeline can have an effect on how you feel about the difficulty of the application process.

sorry about the rambling,
elle