Have high-ish stats (4.0/518) and was complete mostly in August. Just started receiving IIs two weeks ago, so don't worry! You still have time
hopefully you will have a great October!Maybe this is an exceedingly stupid question, but I have to ask -- if you applied late in a prior cycle with high stats and it didn't work out, why are you putting yourself through it again, rather than waiting until you can submit early?
Stats are part of the process, but not the whole thing. Your experience and how you present that experience count too. Nonetheless, II's are going out. Don't give up hope.
I would recommend On Writing Well by Zinsser. This greatly improved my writing and I think that everybody can learn something from it.
I really sorry to hear that. It totally sucks. I had a boss whose favorite expression was "perfection is the enemy of the good," and it applies perfectly here. Pun intended!
I've found that paid consultants can be immensely helpful when used as a final check, rather than the much more costly approach of using them throughout the entire process. Some of my friends paid 10k-ish for consultants throughout the entire application process. I finished everything for my primary (and later secondaries), then used them for final check. Total cost was under 1k.
Hopefully this is a better source than the writings of Plato, Socrates, etc. that you suggested in an earlier thread, haha!
Okay, but I'm not sure it's worth getting bent out of shape over. After all, there is an entire industry that caters to nervous people with money. This shouldn't be news to anyone, since we are all constantly bombarded with their ads.
Yea, it sucks. I'm a huge advocate for increase SES-awareness in medical school admissions. That said, I think your whole sentiment about "faith in premeds and their ability to empathize or be in touch with reality" is sorely off the mark. It's hardly completely unrealistic or unreasonable to pay an extra 1k in an application cycle for many applicants.
I don't think adcoms do enough to account for low-SES unless they also happen to be URM. Low-SES ORMs whose parents attended college in a foreign country (so they can't even claim to be first gen, and foreign colleges don't have the same income potential in the USA) tend to be in an especially unfortunate situations.Okay, but I'm not sure it's worth getting bent out of shape over. After all, there is an entire industry that caters to nervous people with money. This shouldn't be news to anyone, since we are all constantly bombarded with their ads.
The good news is that adcoms are well aware of the resource disparity, and it is certainly taken into account during application reviews. How else do you explain average stats for URM matriculants being below those of other groups? I'm sure their personal statements and essays are less polished than those with thousands of dollars to spend on consultants. So what? They end up being accepted right alongside those who spent thousands of dollars to get to the same place.
Just being on SDN and knowing enough to have a decent application means that you have beaten the odds. No use whining about the fact that those with resources use them. With any luck, your kids will do the same, and it will do as little to boost their applications as it does now for those with money.
If you say so. Do you REALLY think adcoms can't tell by a quick glance whose application was prepared with the help of a paid service and whose wasn't? If that's true, then what are you really getting for your money?
LOL. My question is a bit different -- in general, can you tell which ones are bought and paid for and which ones aren't? I'd imagine the work product of the consultants is so polished, and so similar to each other, that you can spot it from a mile away. Am I dreaming, or is this true?
Without a previous sample of writing it may be hard to tell.
Then I guess I'm more than a little naive. I figured the consultants worked off templates, or otherwise used the same script to modify whatever is given to them to review, and that the resulting final product would look similar enough that you'd recognize it without reference to what the applicant's writing would look like without it. Plus, I figured all the consultants are selling basically the same thing, so you'd then have a multiplier effect across all the different services.
There was a cycle when I saw the same Thanksgiving theme repeated a handful of times...
Consultants absolutely do not work off templates and they don't 'write' your essays. The 'good ones' just know how to point a student with an otherwise extremely boring and fortunate upbringing into an essay that is mildly interesting and will at the bare minimum not be negative.
17 IIs - I'm sure you are just being modest, or else are mega hyper critical.
Eh, not really...it sucks. I just think other aspects of my application made my PS trivial; my secondaries were also exponentially better. For some reason I decided to write my PS in some sort of weird prose and borderline stream of consciousness with only 2 sentences relating to a brief encounter during medicine (scribing).17 IIs - I'm sure you are just being modest, or else are mega hyper critical.
Not going to pretend like it was good; URM+strong research+x factor probably made my PS a nonfactor as long as it was not literally a red flag.
The first question I ask people with this type of problem is "How many times did you proofread your PS?" Did you have other people look at it, etc. The steps to medical school admissions screening (in order) are:
Try utilizing your university's writing center/academic counseling center for help with this type of problemdoglova said:
Building off of this--be sure that your interview answers match your voice in your secondaries/PSgyngyn said:
