Is it acceptable/common practice to seek advice from admitted acquaintances on applying to their school?

[blinkblink2]

Background: I went to a mid-sized high school of ~1000 which is just small enough for me consider virtually everyone within two grades of me there an acquaintance. It is one of the top public high schools in CA and, as I am getting into my late 20s, my cohort and those preceding/following it is beginning to produce a number of medical school matriculants, whom I knew very well at one time and would greet on a first name basis if we were to cross paths. Additionally, I went to a UC and know a handful of medical school matriculants from my time there.

Question: Is it acceptable, potentially frowned upon, or even risky to reach out to one of these acquaintances regarding what they believe to have put their application and that of other matriculants whom they know over the top and/or if they might put in a good word for me with adcoms or other parties relevant to the admissions process?

Reflecting on potential risks (or is this just paranoia?): The potential downsides would necessarily require one of these acquaintances to inform adcoms of my appeal to them, cast in a negative light as an attempt at the "inside track" to admission or effort for their recruitment in my "campaign." Their motivations for behaving this way in this hypothetical may be that they have soured on me without apparent cause, developed a vindictive streak in the intervening years, or that they just enjoy being placed in gatekeeper position....ultimately it does not matter, I am just acknowledging that I would be placing some degree of trust in this person with which they could opt to do as they please. Worth noting that I am a well-qualified applicant apart from absence of a scored MCAT as of now, so not exactly asking them to move mountains on my behalf in this hypothetical.

Thanks for any input.

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[Moko]

Background: I went to a mid-sized high school of ~1000 which is just small enough for me consider virtually everyone within two grades of me there an acquaintance. It is one of the top public high schools in CA and, as I am getting into my late 20s, my cohort and those preceding/following it is beginning to produce a number of medical school matriculants, whom I knew very well at one time and would greet on a first name basis if we were to cross paths. Additionally, I went to a UC and know a handful of medical school matriculants from my time there.

Question: Is it acceptable, potentially frowned upon, or even risky to reach out to one of these acquaintances regarding what they believe to have put their application and that of other matriculants whom they know over the top and/or if they might put in a good word for me with adcoms or other parties relevant to the admissions process? I am a well-qualified applicant apart from absence of a scored MCAT as of now, so not exactly asking them to move mountains on my behalf in this hypothetical.

Thanks for any input.

My thoughts:
- okay to ask for general advice, though unless they know you well, don't expect many specifics. A lot of applications contain deeply sensitive and personal information, and a single activity is rarely the deciding factor for admissions.
- No to asking med student acquaintances/associates to reach out to their adcoms on your behalf. I would find such an ask from a past associate distasteful and off-putting. Med student input is also rarely given much weight unless they are on the admissions committee.

 

[paradoxic_toxic]

Doing something unethical to get into a field that's all about ethics... hmmm

 

[blinkblink2]

Doing something unethical to get into a field that's all about ethics... hmmm

Actually, asking whether something is ethical prior to proceeding with it is very much consistent with pursuing entry into such a field.

 

[Isoval]

Sure.

In cases of MMIs, do not ask for specific cases as most of these are behind non-disclosure.

 

[Goro]

Background: I went to a mid-sized high school of ~1000 which is just small enough for me consider virtually everyone within two grades of me there an acquaintance. It is one of the top public high schools in CA and, as I am getting into my late 20s, my cohort and those preceding/following it is beginning to produce a number of medical school matriculants, whom I knew very well at one time and would greet on a first name basis if we were to cross paths. Additionally, I went to a UC and know a handful of medical school matriculants from my time there.

Question: Is it acceptable, potentially frowned upon, or even risky to reach out to one of these acquaintances regarding what they believe to have put their application and that of other matriculants whom they know over the top and/or if they might put in a good word for me with adcoms or other parties relevant to the admissions process?

Reflecting on potential risks (or is this just paranoia?): The potential downsides would necessarily require one of these acquaintances to inform adcoms of my appeal to them, cast in a negative light as an attempt at the "inside track" to admission or effort for their recruitment in my "campaign." Their motivations for behaving this way in this hypothetical may be that they have soured on me without apparent cause, developed a vindictive streak in the intervening years, or that they just enjoy being placed in gatekeeper position....ultimately it does not matter, I am just acknowledging that I would be placing some degree of trust in this person with which they could opt to do as they please. Worth noting that I am a well-qualified applicant apart from absence of a scored MCAT as of now, so not exactly asking them to move mountains on my behalf in this hypothetical.

Thanks for any input.

. You are being overly neurotic about this.

 

[82Scout]

I hit up a guy I went to high school with that I never really talked to all that much about a school he currently attends and I got an interview at. I just gathered info on the program and his thoughts on the school and what they look for in an applicant. This is called networking and it's the entire reason alumni networks and things like LinkedIn exist. I've hit up people on LinkedIn that I've never met before, but worked at a company/field I was interested in and attended the same UG.

Use your networks to your advantage, but don't be hitting up some random guy saying "hey tell them to let me in".

 

[DNAJB6]

Doing something unethical to get into a field that's all about ethics... hmmm

With all of the insurance fraud, up coding, and billing chicanery that takes place, your characterization sounds naive. For 90% of practitioners it is all about milking everyone for the maximum amount of money. It is amusing to watch clinicians agonizingly reach for 99214/99204 or 99215/99205 billing status in cases that are borderline at best.

 

[blinkblink2]

With all of the insurance fraud, up coding, and billing chicanery that takes place, your characterization sounds naive. For 90% of practitioners it is all about milking everyone for the maximum amount of money. It is amusing to watch clinicians agonizingly reach for 99214/99204 or 99215/99205 billing status in cases that are borderline at best.

Off topic, but, having spent some time working as a scribe, that is largely the outsourcing of that upstream from what you have mentioned.

While I am only an applicant at this stage, I have been around a number of physicians for many years, and having heard their retrospectives on the applications process and medical school, would characterize their broad outlook as being that medicine, in its practice, is but another job. In other words, they would say that the reasons people excel in medicine do not differ from those in other professions - drive and motivation, perhaps by a sense of mission on behalf or others, or by their narcissism and competitive nature. The moralizing, where applicable, is seen as "common sense" in clinical practice, and only emphasized gatekeeping institutions to maintain their legitimacy and unimpeachability. In practice, I've seen physicians with great bedside manner and empathy displays who are seriously inattentive as well as ones with a foul bedside manner, who are on the ball in all other areas.

 

[narla_hotep]

I'd say it's totally ok to hit them up and ask for advice on the application or interview process, but pls don't ask them to "put in a good word for you with admissions"